Thank you for not judging me

Stuffed animals

It was their first day of summer break and Seb was heading over to Carlos house. The two had planned to spend their day together and Seb promised he'd come over in the morning as soon as he was done at the farm. Both of them knew Carlos would probably still be asleep by the time Seb was done so Seb didn't even bother texting his boyfriend that he was on his way and instead agreed that he'd just wait for Carlos' mom to open the door.
When Seb arrived at Carlos' house his mom  opened the door for Seb and greeted him before telling him to just head upstairs.
Seb had already been to the house before so he knew where Carlos room was. He went upstairs and headed over to the last door in the hallway. It was decorated with pastel colored letters covered with some glitter that spelled Carlos name. Seb smiled. He had his name on his door at home like this too except his letters were pink with glitter. He had crafted them together with Carlos a few weekends ago because they were bored.
Seb carefully knocked on Carlos door and was standing there waiting for Carlos to respond.  But of course he didn't get a response. Carlos was still asleep but Seb didn't really expect his boyfriend to be awake anyways.
He quietly opened the door to his boyfriends room and stepped inside. Since the sun was shining outside Carlos room wasn't completely dark anymore so Seb could see everything and wasn't standing in pitch black darkness.
Seb looked around the room and realized how familiar it felt. Nothing had changed since he'd been there the last time: Carlos' pastel yellow curtain and the pastel yellow rug, his white furniture and the silver details. Some of their selfies they took together that Carlos had hung up in several frames all around the room and  pictures of the cast taken after their opening night of Beauty And The Beast and High School Musical were also still there.
But one thing was different.
When Seb looked over to the giant bed where his boyfriend was still peacefully sleeping he gasped. Next to Carlos was a huge pile of stuffed animals and a few other stuffies where strewn around the bed as well nearly covering his boyfriend. Seb smiled and stepped closer to the bed where he realized Carlos was also holding a giant plushie in his arms. A large lion whose mane was completely covering Carlos face. He could see the lion's mane slightly moving with every breath Carlos took. Seb stood there for a second to take in the peaceful sight in front of him. Seb had always thought of his boyfriend as cute but seeing him like this just made him even cuter.
He sat down on the bed next to Carlos carefully and whispered to him to wake up. When Carlos didn't even move he gave his boyfriend a slight kiss on the forehead but Carlos only stirred. So Seb carefully grabbed his shoulder and shook his boyfriend a little until Carlos finally began to turn around and slowly opened his eyes.
"Good morning sleepyhead!" Seb smiled at his boyfriend and leaned down to give him a proper kiss on the lips.
"Good morning Sebby!" Carlos smiled after kissing Seb back. But then his eyes widened and he looked around himself panicked. "OMG! This can't be happening!" He said to himself and tried to hide his stuffed animals as fast as he could. He shoved the lion he'd been cuddling with just a few seconds ago underneath the blanket and then tried to grab the other stuffies too to also hide them underneath his blanket. While being so agitated he didn't even realize Seb had put his hand on his arm to stop him. It took Seb's loud voice telling him: "Carlos! Calm down!" to finally snap him back into reality. Carlos looked down embarrassed and couldn't face his boyfriend.
"What's going on?" Seb asked softly. He had taken his boyfriends hand into his own and was looking over at him but Carlos was still looking down and didn't respond. "Is this about the stuffed animals?" Seb asked carefully because he did realize that while Carlos was panicking all he did was hiding his stuffed animals. 
"Yeah..." Carlos replied without looking up. He was still scared of his boyfriends reaction. He feared Seb might think he was childish or dumb or immature. And he was scarred Seb might make fun of him. But Seb's reaction wasn't negative at all. "You know you don't have to be embarrassed or ashamed, right?!" He asked while gently stroking Carlos hand with his thumb. But Carlos didn't answer and kept looking away.
"I'm being honest, Carlos! They're stuffies. I'm not gonna judge you. I actually think it just makes you even cuter and more human than before. And I don't see you any different just cause you own stuffed animals!" Seb said and Carlos smiled a bit but didn't appear to be fully convinced. So Seb continued: "I own stuffed animals too, you know? It's not like you're the only one who's got them."
That confession made Carlos look at Seb surprised. He had never seen any stuffed animals in his boyfriends room. So he asked: "You do?"
"Yeah, I do. It's mostly just a ton of farm animals as stuffies tho. My favorite one is my sheep!" Seb replied. "Oh okay..." Carlos said while watching his boyfriend grab his backpack from the floor next to his bed and opening the zipper. Seb pulled out a black sheep that was about the size of his head and looked like it had once been really fluffy. "That's Jasper!" Seb smiled and held out the stuffie for Carlos to look at.
Carlos looked at him surprised because he hadn't expected Seb to bring a stuffed animal. He didn't even consider his boyfriend might own one. "He's cute!" Carlos said unsure of how else to respond.
"Well, his fur used to be way fluffier and his stuffing isn't as fluffy anymore too but I guess it just shows how loved he is, right?" Seb said shyly and Carlos nodded. "What about you? What's your favorite stuffed animal? If you wanna share..." Seb asked encouragingly.
Now it was Carlos turn to dig around to find his favorite one. He pushed back his blanket to reveal all his stuffies but carefully grabbed the  lion Seb saw earlier and held it up. "That's my favorite one! His name is Luke. He used to be fluffy too..." Carlos said sounding way more confident than just a few seconds ago.
"He's so cute! Them being not fluffy anymore just shows how loved they are! Did you have him since you were little? I got Jasper as a gift when I started kindergarten." Seb smiled. He was glad Carlos was confident enough toshare something so close to his heart with him.
"No way! Luke was a present for my first day of kindergarten too! And yeah, it does show how much they mean to us!" Carlos replied enthusiastically.
The boys looked at each other and smiled. The moment they just shared felt very special and it felt like they were even closer now that they've shared such personal things.
"Thank you for not judging me." Carlos said and rested his head on Seb's shoulder.
"Of course! I'd never judge you! Thank you for sharing instead of shutting me out! Like I've said before, there's nothing wrong with owning stuffed animals!" Seb replied and gave his boyfriend a kiss on top of his head. Carlos looked up and smiled at Seb before leaning in and kissing his boyfriend. Their kiss wasn't long but they did manage to put in all their feeling to show the other one how much they meant to them.
The two boys got comfortable on Carlos bed afterwards and cuddled up next to each other still stealing short kisses from the other one. Instead of getting up and properly starting their day they just laid there all morning talking about stuffed animals and what they meant to them. Turns out they gave both of them a lot of comfort when they weren't feeling good and helped them calm down when they were nervous and helped them cope when scared.
Seb and Carlos didn't expect for their morning to go like this when they made plans yesterday but they liked that they were learning new things about each other. It felt like this seemingly small moment just made their relationship grow a lot stronger. And after a morning full of talking both boys fell asleep again wrapped up in each others embrace hugging each other tightly and each of them holding their stuffed animal in their arms.