Lander - Before vs. After

Voodoo Dolls

"What's in here?" Zander turned around and saw Luke gesturing to a box on the top shelf of his closet.

    Earlier that day, Shannon had announced that it was time for him to look through all of his stuff and decide what to get rid of. And, Zander's room being full of nostalgic things from his childhood, Luke had offered to help.

    "Oh," Zander answered, "that box is full of my old toys and stuff from when I was a baby." It had been sitting in there for ages, collecting dust because Zander was too short to reach it without help. Luke, being the tall person he was, grabbed it from the shelf with no difficulty.

    "Do you mind if we look through it?" He asked.

    The shorter boy shrugged. "Sure, I guess." At least it'll give us a break from cleaning.

    Luke lifted the lid off of the box, slowly and carefully, as if it was a precious artifact instead of just an old box. He pulled out a baby toy that looked like a keyboard with huge keys and a small panel perpendicular to the keys.

    "My mum got it for me," he mumbled. "She wanted me to learn music from a young age. I guess it just stuck with me."

    Luke let a soft smile cross his face at the thought of his best friend as a baby, determinedly pressing the keys of the toy keyboard. He carefully placed it to his right, on the opposite side of where the purple-haired boy was sitting.

    Zander reached in the box again and gasped as he brought out a purple teddy bear.

    "What is it?" Luke asked.

    "This," the grape responded, "is my voodoo doll."

    "Really?" Luke stared at it curiously. Now that he was looking, he could see its similarity to his friend.

    "Mhm," Zander said. He had lots of memories with his doll: he remembered Hailey poking it to annoy him when he was trying to do homework, Bethany occasionally stealing it from him and giving it hugs, and getting winded when someone accidentally dropped it on the floor face-first.

    "I have one, too." Luke rummaged in the bag he brought and emerged, a brown and orange bear in hand. (Why does he carry his voodoo doll in his bag? I don't know, ask him.)

Before:

    Zander studied the bear his friend was holding. "Can I...do you mind if I hold it?" He asked. Then he flushed. Oh god. Replace 'it' with 'you' and that sentence sounds really weird.

    Luckily, the brunette didn't pay any mind to Zander's wording nor his red face. "Sure!" He answered. "I trust you to be careful with it."

    "O-okay." Zander gently took the bear, placing his own on the floor in between them. He held it by putting one of his hands under the bear's legs where its knees would be, and the other behind its back. Unsure what to do, he hesitated. He wanted to hug the bear, but what if it was too obvious? He didn't want to give away his crush and weird his friend out.

   Then again, this is Luke we're talking about. The drummer was fairly affectionate himself. He wouldn't mind a totally platonic no homo hug from his best friend, right?

    Making up his mind, Zander wrapped his arms around the bear, side-eyeing his friend to study his reaction.

    Luke wore a startled expression, his cheeks tinted a faint pink. He soon melted into the hug, feeling warm and safe in Zander's embrace.

    Seeing that his friend wasn't uncomfortable and seemed to be enjoying the contact, the pianist relaxed, too, and they stayed there for a bit, basking in each other's company.

    After a few moments of comfortable silence, Luke spotted Zander's voodoo doll, which was still laying near him on the floor. Seeing as his friend's eyes were shut, Luke carefully picked up the doll and cradled it, gently pulling it into a hug.

    Zander's eyes shot open at the sudden contact, his expression softening when he saw Luke holding his doll. "Luke! Don't scare me like that," he mumbled, cutting through the silence.

    Luke let out a little laugh in response but didn't say anything, pulling the bear closer. Zander could feel blush rising to his cheeks, nuzzling into the invisible hug.

    After what felt like a hour, Luke said, "We should probably keep cleaning your room now."

    "Oh...yeah," Zander agreed reluctantly. They both swapped dolls again and continued sifting through his old stuff, both of them savouring the feeling of being surrounded by each other's warmth.

After:

    Zander stared at his boyfriend's voodoo doll. "Can I hold it?" He asked.

    The brunette grinned. "Of course! Can I hold yours?"

    Nodding in response to his request, the lavender-eyed boy picked up Luke's doll and cuddled it, bringing it close to his chest. Luke's grin softened as he echoed Zander's actions, bringing his doll up to his heart and gently resting his chin on its head.

    Zander shot him a playful glare. "You don't need a voodoo doll to do that, you already do it all the time."

    The drummer smirked. "I know. But we also don't need them to cuddle. Or," he continued mischievously, "do this." He lifted the bear up and gave it a peck on its nose.

    Zander sent him another glare, his cheeks reddening. "Luke!" He exclaimed.

    Luke just laughed. In his mind, it was worth it to see his boyfriend's flustered reaction.

    The pianist let out a humph and started tracing his fingers on the doll's head, glancing at Luke to see if he reacted.

    Luke cast his gaze upwards incredulously. "I don't think voodoo dolls are very efficient for trying to run your fingers through someone's hair." Zander shook his head in agreement. "So why don't we just cuddle?" He continued, a faint pink on his cheeks.

    "What?" Zander asked.

    "Instead of doing it through these dolls, I mean," Luke clarified. He held his arms open invitingly.

    Zander shook his head affectionately as he went over to his boyfriend. "Dork," he teased.

    The golden-eyed boy only smiled in response and started running his fingers through Zander's dark purple hair. "Isn't this better than trying to do it through bears?" He mumbled.

    Zander let out a content sigh. "Yeah, it is."

Everything is better when I'm with you.