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Their celebration of Valentine's day was supposed to go by spending quality time together, by themselves but when Jimmy, Joel’s best friend, suggested a doggy date between the three pets, he just couldn’t pass by. He and Etho would get the evening to themselves, the afternoon though, it was going to be so much fun.
“Etho, Etho, Ethooooo!!” he exclaimed in a melodic tone, sliding down the stairs, brushing the wide light yellow sleeves of his Pompompurin hoodie against the wooden rail. The tall man turned to face Joel, a gentle smile spread across his cheeks.
“What’s up, Boat Boy?” asking, he lowered his head at the man before him, admiring his morning excitement.
Grinning, Joel marched on over to his partner “Jim invited us for a doggy playdate with Revenge!” he explained, thrill running in his veins. “Oh, Goober and Gerie are gonna have so much fun” Joel was close to jumping up and down, Etho imagined that if the man would have a tail, it would be wagging a thousand times per second.
Etho chuckled lightly in response, yet the smile seemed to fade for a moment. “I’m sure” he agreed, eyebrows knitting as he heard the pan sizzle behind, spinning to find that the eggs he’d set to fry were ready to be put on the plates. The man got right back to his job, grabbing a spatula to put the food off the stove.
Joel knew his partner well enough that even a simple change of tone for sure meant something. So with a hum, he stepped closer to Etho, inspecting as his pale hand put crispy pieces of toast on white porcelain plates, small red hearts engraved at the striped borders. When suspicion crossed his mind, he decided to discuss it verbally.
“You want us to spend Valentine’s just by ourselves, eh?” he raised his eyebrow at Etho, earning a scoff and smirk from the cook.
“Since when are you a mind-reading witch?”
The brunette laughed, joining in to the breakfast making process, grabbing a tomato from the vegetable basket to wash it just for his hand to be swapped away by Etho’s. “I’m making breakfast today” he raised his finger, grabbing the vegetable from his hand before putting it onto the cutting board.
“You’ll pay for this” muttered Joel, staring as his boyfriend began the process of cutting up the tomato. After a moment of awkward silence, he spoke up once more. “But anyways,” his hand gently touched Etho’s arm, caressing the cold skin. “We can hang out with the ranchers in the afternoon and have the evening to us alone” smirking, he wiggled his eyebrows at Etho when seeing him blush.
“I…that’s fine yeah” nodding, the man put the juicy vegetable onto their plates, continuing by putting a salad mix onto them along with a few slices of some stinky cheese and olives on his (as Joel hated those foods and would kill him if he would put them on his plate).
The sound of paws trotting over the floors caught both their attention, making their heads turn towards the source of it. Two dogs, one a dark furred finnish lapphund with its iconic strike of brown fur crossing its muzzle, ears twitching, the other a snowy white samoyed with a huge, fluffy tail wagging like a turning fan, strands of its coat falling out onto the floor.
“Hello, boys” Joel’s tone pitched up after he’d knelt down in front of his pets, chuckling as they sped up, running towards him like two big balls of fluff. As they got closer, the animals jumped onto him licking his face despite his protests of giggles and laughs. Goober eventually managed to push him down to his back, climbing onto him and pawing at his face, something he would usually do when happy. “Goob, get off!” Etho ordered, the creature following right away with a whine as it slowly got off with a depressed look in its big bead eyes. “Good dog” Joel praised Goober, petting his head before turning to Gerald who had been sitting patiently beside the energetic one. “Awh, you’re good too, Gerrie” the man scratched it behind the ear, leaning in so it could nuzzle its nose against his. He knew it was unsanitary but he would always wash his face afterwards anyway.
Etho shook his head in amusement while listening to the chaos, grabbing the plates full of food and sliding over to the table to put them beside each other. He then walked over to prepare their dog’s meal of the day, opening a cabinet to get all the ingredients he would need. Etho really cared for their dog’s nutrition, providing them with high quality food and a ton of variety. Joel often acted jealous as he didn’t get such michelin star meals as their pets did but he knew that his boyfriend’s trauma with losing a childhood pet because of its bad health affected him deeply so he didn’t mind all that much.
“Alright..” he muttered, staring at the meat in the slow feeders, setting them down onto the floor as the dogs surrounded him with barks and weeps of hungriness. The moment he stepped back, they ran to their bowls and started devouring what had been given to them. Etho smiled at the sight, glancing up at Joel who was sitting in the chair, swirling tea in his mug with a thin silver spoon.
Approaching, the taller sat next to Joel, adjusting himself in the seat before grabbing his fork. “So when are we meeting Tango and Jimmy?” he asked, starting to eat his breakfast in peace.
“Uhmm..” Joel chewed his food, “We may have like thirty minutes ‘till we have to head out into the park” explaining, he had a hand covering his mouth.
“Alright, cool” Etho replied, sipping on the coffee he’d poured himself beforehand.
“...” the brunette looked over at the other. “You’re good with that..right?” it was clear he doubted him. “I promise we’ll do anything you’d like in the evening, my treat if you want to buy disgusting cheese again” his lips curled up.
“You wouldn’t complain if we'd watch My Neighbour Totoro again?” his hands wrapped around the warm cup, eyes crinkling with mischief.
“Not in a million years, I wouldn’t” Joel acknowledged, nodding while cutting up his egg.
“We’ll see about that” Etho stated before moving on to let them finish their breakfast in silence.
____
Heading out of the house, fresh snow staining their boots, they went out for a walk to a familiar park, Gerald and Goober following by their side, occasionally sniffing around a tree or mole hole. Foot and pawprints formed behind them, they made their way towards where Jimmy wanted to meet, soft banter happening between both.
The day wasn’t particularly cold but Etho noticed that a freezing gust of wind would pass by every now and then. He wasn’t worried but it did seem like a snowy day was approaching. That would be later, now he had to focus on Joel talking through the process of when he made his first clay boat, remembering all the details even if it was more than a decade ago.
When the dogs heard a bark coming from the dog park, which still stood a couple meters away, they sped up their pace before their owners started to go into a sprint with them. It all ended up with Etho shouting for Joel to slow down as he was holding the leashes and barely catching up.
“Joel, I’m struggling here!” he yelled in panic to his partner who was being chased by his pets, their leashes tight, making it harder to run for them.
“Keep up, we’re here already!” Joel said, leaning against the metal fence of the dog park, watching Gerald desperately want to reach him, Etho running behind, close to letting go of the material.
With a huff from the other man, the shorter grinned, embracing his pet in a hug as it put its paws on his knees and let him scratch its coat.
The taller of them sighed when he finally got to the park, smiling softly when Joel opened the gate to him, bowing and saying “Hot guys first” as he let the man pass through, giggling as he shuffled behind and closed the gate after everyone went through.
In the closed space between the park and the walkway to it, Joel unleashed Goober and Gerald before opening the second gate, letting the dogs shoot out and run to the nearest one. The victim seemed to be a small english cocker spaniel wearing a purple collar who was digging a hole in the ground before seeing the other dogs. It turned to them when they were near, letting out a happy bark as they ran to it.
“Joel, Etho!” a cheerful voice called the men out, turning to it, they found out it was Jimmy, raising his hand up in the air as he stood next to another person on the dry grass.
Joel happily cheered back “Jimmy!!” Etho awkwardly waving them a hello. While the dogs started chasing each other around, twirling back and forth, the couple approached the others.
“Hey lad,” the tall blonde went in to hug Joel, the gesture being accepted and copied, only better as the brunette lifted his best friend up with it. Practically flexing his strength in front of everybody and getting a strange squeak out of Jimmy.. “Ayup’” he answered, putting Jimmy back onto the ground, turning to give the man’s partner, Tango, a handshake and greeting.
“Hi, Beans!” the man chuckled, shaking his hand with his gloved one. Tango was wearing a woolen orange sweater, swirls of blue knitted onto the sunny colours. The sweater must have been really warm, as he wasn’t wearing a jacket as everybody else did.
“Tango, how are you not freezing without a jacket?” Etho asked, clearly thinking the same thing Joel did. He stuck his hands in the pockets of the green vest he wore, tilting his head in confusion.
“Well,” the man began explaining, running a hand through his dyed hair. Tango changed his hair colour to what felt like every week, today it was a bright teal at his roots fading into a vibrant blue. It reminded Etho of Ramona Flowers, yet when he mentioned that earlier, the man didn’t know the character at all. “Jimmy made some sort of a warmificator of a sweater and now I don’t have to wear a jacket since I’m already warm enough” he beamed, hands behind his back.
“Ah, that’s smart” Etho smiled and nodded and as he turned back to look at Joel, his boyfriend was well in a full blown conversation with Jimmy, laughing and giggling at whatever they were talking about.
Tango also glanced over at them, seeing as they were in their own world, he decided to enter his. “Alright, Etho, can I over explain my new project to you?” he questioned, knowing that he would get to the topic somehow either way.
“What happened to ‘how has your life been?’” the taller joked, a scoff coming out of Tango’s mouth as he realized the fact.
“Who cares about life?” he rolled his eyes, setting one hand to be on his hip.
“Right, go on,” Etho chuckled, prepared to stand in the cold listening to Tango talk about something he had to context of.
As the shorter began his endless trail of words, he tried to listen in to anything but the back of his mind was way over in his and Joel’s house. He had prepared a gift basket for his boyfriend, hoping to have given it to him in the morning which ended up in them going out to meet the ranchers. Honestly, it made him a little sad as he wanted the day to be all about Joel. No Jimmy, no Tango, just Joel. He wanted them to stay in their house, maybe go on a little walk with their pets while being all silly and goofy. Lay on the couch while watching a movie, cuddled up next to each other and soaking up the other’s warmth.
Etho had spent hours picking up the gifts to put in the basket, carefully arranging them so they fit in nicely. A pillow in the shape of a heart, a handwritten letter telling Joel just how important he is to him, a couple of sweets, a new hoodie as the man loved wearing them and a new drawing tablet. A device Etho was saving up for for a couple of months in secret, keeping a separate bank account to their shared one for it. The idea came to mind as Joel gradually started getting more and more frustrated with his old one malfunctioning. Getting his lines wrong, randomly turning off or its screen cracking when it accidentally fell to the ground. It looked like a complete wreck, Joel still using it anyway.
So yes, he had the gift all prepared and dandy, waiting in their closet to be found by the brunette. Now, his whole plan was set off to a later time as Joel convinced him to head to meet his best friend alongside the friend’s partner and their dog.
“Are ya’ listenin, Etho?” he snapped out of the haze to Tango’s words, looking down to meet the confused gaze of the technician.
“Uh..uhm.. yeah of course!” Etho nervously stuttered, face turning red in embarrassment.
“Then what was I talking about?” a smile crept up his face.
The man looked at him with a deadpan stare. “The new project.” he guessed, based on what he had heard before.
“No, I was talking about Revi’s training, kinda stepped off the path” Tango smirked, catching Etho red handed.
“..That..then” he nodded in response.
“Buddy, I know that Joel’s the best at reading feelings but I can see that something’s clearly wrong here, what’s up?” The blue haired man knitted his eyebrows at Etho, a strike of worry in his fiery brown eyes.
The other chuckled. “Oh, so you’re both mind reading witches” he muttered before sighing, his gaze on the grass.
“I…planned out the whole day for..just me and Joel. Obviously- you guys aren’t the problem-” he cut himself off to think about what he was saying. Deciding to be truthful, he continued ranting. “Okay, maybe you kind of are..but like I have a whole gift basket prepared for him that
I’ve been hiding for so long now, luckily he hasn’t noticed,” Etho he simpered, secretly proud of himself. “A-and I wanted to give it to him after asking him to be my valentine, cheesy and all, but you know.” he found himself fidgeting with his fingers. “And every hour was selected for something like cooking, baking, watching movies, walks and all that..”
“So you’re saying me and Jim ruined it all?” Tango asked, clearly meaning nothing bad by the statement yet it brought slight panic to Etho.
“No, no, of course not, no-!” the taller shook his head. “I could’ve just declined when Joel told me we’d be going but I didn’t”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Valentine’s may be a special day but any other one after can be just as special for you two.”
“Yeah but Valentines is supposed to be special, it’s like double special form normal special days” Etho remarked, peering at Joel and Jimmy who went from talking with each other to racing around Goober, Revenge and Meri who were dashing around playing tag. Sometimes, one of the men would throw a stick for the pets, making them dramatically change directions and speed up after the object.
Tango wondered. “We could wrap it up quickly and let you two get on with it. I mean Jim and I have also got stuff to do but clearly you want some alone time with ya’ boyfriend.” wiggling his eyebrows, he got a breathy scoff in response.
“They look like they’re having fun, I don’t want to ruin it..” Etho pouted as he observed the two, giddy and jumpy between their barking companions.
“How about we go sit down, just talk and all, let them have their bonding time with the doggos, quietly hinting that the more washed up one of us wants to impress his boyfriend with his gifts?” he suggested, getting a little too descriptive, if Etho could say so himself.
“Stop it, Tango” Etho chuckled, non-verbally accepting the offer and prancing over to the wooden bench set by the fence surrounding the park.
They sat down beside each other, starting a discussion about various topics, switching from one to another in a smooth way. From their high school days to graduation, least favorite foods to their favourite childhood trips, loved books to the concept of time and space.
Etho found it interesting, getting to ramble about the book he was reading at the time while letting Tango talk about comics and graphic novels. They talked about both their boyfriends being artistic, with Joel a sculptor and architect and Jimmy an alternative, cross dressing model. The words kept spilling on and on, time passing quicker than it ever has for Etho.
“Oi, Etho” Joel approached them with Jimmy inching behind, hair ruffled and clothes wrinkly on both of them.
“Yeah?” The man in question stopped to face Joel, eyes widening lightly as he realized how exhausted the sculptor looked.
“Everyone’s soooo bloody tired and I need help with catching Goober, cause he’s in a silly mood” he grinned, hoping Etho would just do the job for him.
The taller obviously agreed to do the honours. “Will do, no worries” he grabbed the leashes as Joel handed them to him, standing up to amble to the samoyed who was desperately trying to catch Gerald, who was scrambling away, pushing sand into the other dog’s eyes. “Goober!” he called the dog out, getting no response, clearly the animal was in a headspace of catching prey, his teeth closer and closer to the lapphund’s tail. He grumbled under his breath, groaning before he took off, the snap hook opened with his fingers.
It turned out to be a daunting task, he ran around like an idiot trying to reach Goober, failing miserably and falling as he nearly had the hook of the leash in the clip. Hearing a snicker from Joel and a painful laugh from Tango, determination filled his veins, gaining his needed reflexes. With a soft click, he managed to hook the leash to Goober’s collar, making it stop in its tracks under the strength of Etho pulling the leash.
”Yess..!” he muttered in victory before ordering Gerald to sit, the dark dog obeying right away, letting itself be put on the leash, not causing further ruckus.
The golden cocker spaniel happily trotted around them, being the only leashless pet only to be called by Jimmy, speeding up to his owner when he saw the jealous looks of the other dogs.
Etho let out a much needed breath, stepping to the exit with his shoulders hunched down. He didn’t understand how Joel could have possibly been able to run around like that for..how long? a few hours? The sun was starting to dip to the horizon but it was February so it made sense it would get darker sooner. The man didn’t have enough brain power to check his phone at that moment.
Joel thanked the other couple for the time spent with them, adding that Etho was thankful too, even if they didn’t feel it in the air. The truth was, he really wasn’t. The day was supposed to be for them. For Joel and Etho and for Joel and Etho only. He would be lying if he’d answer no to “Are you mad?” from his boyfriend. Because he was, not at Joel (well, maybe a little) but at himself for getting so frustrated in the first place. Maybe also at Jimmy. The tall blonde was the first reason they all met up.
However, the day wasn’t over yet, Valentines wasn’t over, he still had the chance to make Joel his valentine the day of the celebration.
With both their pets’ leashes in hand, he opened the door for an upcoming Joel, reminding him of what the man had done the first thing they arrived at the park. He giggled goofily at him after passing through the first gate, ready to open the second one just to get interrupted by Etho, who had done it earlier, reaching over Joel just to grab a hold of the gate and push it to make way.
“I’ll take Gerald” Joel said when they were both out, stretching out his hand to take the leash back from when he’d given it to Etho before.
“Here you go” his partner gave him the top of the leash, letting go of his hand to sway from side to side in a lack of subtle touch. The subtle touch Joel would give him.
The sculptor mumbled a thanks, changing the placement of the material from his right hand to the left, letting Gerald go back to sniffing out a trail of a wild animal that might have passed them by.
Now, all Etho had to do is just grab onto Joel’s hand, deal sealed, touch acquired, mission completed. Despite that, it wasn’t possible, his hand wouldn’t move a single inch from its place by his side, even if his brain begged him to just make the move.
The organ clearly thought slow enough that Joel sped before him, placing his palm onto the top side of Etho’s, interwinding their fingers together in a warm embrace. He sighed, his eyes drooping.
“Could we..go to sleep when we arrive?” yawning, the brunette caressed Etho’s hand with his thumb, falling to a routine.
“I- I..” All he wanted to do was just nod and smile but his mind told him to say no. To say “I’ve planned the whole day out and I’m terribly mad that Jim and Tango ruined it for me” but he simply just couldn’t. Unable to create such hateful comments towards the ranchers.
“Hey, we can celebrate Valentine’s tomorrow, no need for it to be today.” Right, another mind reading thing Joel was doing, scared him off.
“Yeah but-” his lips quivered. “I wanted the day to be ours, wanted for us to spend some quality time together, make ramen while watching crappy stuff on the TV..all that” he squeezed Joel’s hand in his, avoiding eye contact with his boyfriend. Oh, their communication skills were out the window.
Joel seemed quiet for a moment, but in good old Joel fashion, it couldn’t have been long. “Look at me Etho.” he stopped walking, turning to the side, making Etho do so too, directly facing themselves.
“Huh?” Etho tilted his head, awaiting for the answer patiently.
“Everyday is Valentine’s when I’m with you, we don’t need a date to prove to the world we love each other, don’t have to prove anything, I’m sure both of us need at least a tad bit of sleep, and a blummin’ date of the 14th of February doesn’t mean we can’t have our “Boat Boys” day on the 15th, eh?”
“..mhm, alright”