Rating: G
Author: jen
Spoilers: it's set post-'Out and In' but before 'No Weddings And A Funeral'
*****
It could be straight out of a movie. And there are movies like that now, Kenny knows. Larry’s even watched a couple with him, DVDs he’d borrowed from the library to watch in Larry’s room where they could have a little privacy.
Movies about awkward teenage boys who know they're different, who have crushes on the popular boys at school and get depressed until they find out the popular boy is different too. Or lonely boys who fall in love with their one friend and pine for a while until they realise there's a whole gay world out there beyond that one best friend.
Except he isn't depressed, and he isn't pining. Time spent with Larry is always the best time, even if all they're doing is watching DVDs. And maybe Larry still squirms and gets a bit squeaky when he talks about other boys, but Larry's pretty squirmy and squeaky anyway so that's not so tough. Besides, the talking about other boys is mostly for show, doing it because he can. And maybe sometimes to see Larry get all squeaky, because he is kind of cute when he does that.
He still thinks about it, though. About the way some of those movies end, where the popular boy stops worrying about what the rest of the school thinks and puts his arm around the awkward kid. Not so much around Larry, though, because those kind of thoughts around Larry are dangerous, and Larry's around a lot. So mostly he just thinks about how great Larry is and how much Kenny loves spending time with him.
Lots of time. Really, it's no wonder Mr Gold still gives them funny looks sometimes After all, the awkward pining boys in the movies rarely spend every spare moment with the popular boys - for them it's mostly pining alone. No evenings in front of the TV or hours in chess club, and certainly no sleeping over at each other's houses.
Maybe that's the best time with Larry. When he's sleepy and his eyes are closing, and they're sitting on the floor with their backs against the bed, sometimes his head will droop right on to Kenny's shoulder. Then there's that incredible moment while Kenny just lets him rest there, all warm and heavy, until Larry snorts and wakes up and says it's time to hit the hay.
Maybe one day he'll finish the scene properly. Find the courage to turn his head and drop a kiss on to Larry's forehead. All sweet and tender, because anything else while Larry's asleep would be weird of course.
But Larry's not the popular closeted boy, and there'd be no fade to black/roll credits afterwards. There'd be the whole explaining thing, and quite possibly the 'don't come near me' thing. Life's not like that.