unexpected. || SKEPHALO

chapter nine.

S K E P P Y

i didn't know what was going on with me recently. i started getting this warm, fuzzy feeling in my chest every time i was around badboyhalo. it was fucking weird.

and then to top it off, i held his hand during the stream. of course, i did it with no intentions. my friend was anxious, clearly, and i just wanted to help. or at least, thats what i forced myself to believe.

the stream had recently ended, and i was currently chilling alone in my room. bad begged me to leave him alone for a bit so he could get some work done, he said something about not being able to concentrate when i was there. that was quite cute.

i turned on discord and checked if anyone was online and down to chill for a bit. i saw quackity sitting alone in one of the voice channels, so i joined it casually.
"hey bro." i said, and he shouted back at me.
"YOU MET UP WITH BAD?"
"yes..." i said with a giggle, he must've watched the stream. i just realised, we never told any of our friends. oops.

"WHAT? WHY DIDNT I KNOW THIS?"
"well— nobody did. it was a surprise, and you probably would've told him!" i said with a laugh, although i did feel a little bad.
"wow! i'm offended!" he pouted, "but how was it?"

"it was really good. he's so nice, and sweet. he's much more chill than i thought, and he's caring. he's always making such i'm okay first, before he does anything. he's great." i said without realising. why the fuck did i say all of that?

"wow— okay that was a lot." and of course q had to pick up on it.
"anyways—" i coughed, wanting to move on from that awkward encounter. "how was your day?"

"it was okay. i went to visit my mom, and we went out for ice cream and stuff. i don't see her that much recently, so it was nice." he opened up to me, and it was nice to feel trusted.
"oh, i see. well that sounds nice, i hope you see her again soon." i said gently.
"yeah, yeah me too."

we loaded up minecraft and started playing some bedwars. quackity never really played this game, so he was pretty shit. it was funny though, we had a total laugh about it for nearly two whole hours. but soon enough, i heard a knock at the door. quackity must've heard it through my mic, "ooo is that bad?" he teased. "shut up." i rolled my eyes as i put my headset on my desk and strolled over to the door.

"hi." i smiled as i let bad come in. "quackity's on the mic." i said while sitting back at my desk and putting my headset back on, but i moved one of the ears above my own so i could still hear bad.

"oh, hi big q!" bad said loudly so quackity could hear. "hey bad."
"so what's up?" i asked while turning back to my game, but i stayed quiet and listened to quackity talk nonsense in the background while i waited for bad to speak up.

"uhh— can you mute for a sec?" bad asked, causing me to look at him in confusion.
"WOW RUDE!" quackity said, obviously having heard bad. awkward.
i nodded to bad, "okay, one sec q."
"okay, whatever! don't take too long kissing or whatever." he said in response, but i just rolled my eyes and muted my mic. i rested my headset around my neck instead so i could no longer hear quackity blabbering on to himself.

"i just finished my work, so i thought you'd wanna go out somewhere." bad said, fidgeting with his fingers again, and i couldn't help but notice.
"stop doing that." i said while pointing to the bad habit, and he looked up with an awkward grin. he laughed an unsatisfied apology before asking me again.
"where?" i questioned, wondering if bad meant something specific

"i don't know." 
"really helpful, bad." i grinned back at him, and his cheeks instantly turned a bright pink.
"shut up— i just want to do something! i'm bored."
"okay fine, we can go to the park, maybe take rat on a walk?" i said, looking out my window. it wasn't raining, it seemed pretty still out there. we had maybe an hour before sunset, so we had time. bad agreed and headed back to his room to chuck a hoodie on, since he was currently only in a long-sleeved tee.

i said my goodbyes to quackity, and he said something about favouritism, but i wasn't listening. i also changed my shorts to some casual joggers before making my way to the kitchen where rat was chilling.

i found her dog lead and harness, dressing her ready so when bad came downstairs we could go straight away. me and rat got to the door, and i shouted up the stairs to bad "hurry up!"
"coming!" he shouted back, and i giggled at his wording.

bad then came rushing down the stairs with one of my merch hoodies, grey sweatpants and his usual glasses leaning on his nose.
"let's go." i nodded to him while unlocking the door and we both made our way outside.

it wasn't as warm as i expected. yes, i did put joggers on, but i was still in a short sleeved shirt, oops. we started walking towards the local park, side by side with bad holding rat's lead. we easily fell into casual conversation, as usual.
"what were you and quackity doing?"
"some bedwards and talking, just chilling really." i informed him, and bad hummed in response.
"what made you wanna go out?" i asked him.
"just didn't want to stay in the house all day, y'know?" he responded, and i nodded in agreement.

time passed quickly, and the sun was going to start setting soon. by now, me and bad had circled around the whole park multiple times, but we didn't want to go home so we kept saying, "just one more time." but it was never the last time.

"shall we sit for a bit? the sun will be setting soon, it'll be pretty." bad said, "or we could go home." he added on, anxiously.
"i don't know, i'm pretty cold." i noted, noticing the small goosebumps on my thin arms.
"do you want my hoodie? i'm not that cold." bad asked, referring to my merch hoodie. i found it cute he wore my merch, it suited him.

"then you'll be cold." i said with a grin, "but if you insist." and bad chuckled at my tone of cheekiness. he then passed me rat's lead after we sat at a bench, and started pulling off his hoodie. a bit of his tshirt dragged up with it, exposing some bare skin. i looked away, feeling as though it was the right thing to do.

"here." he said, passing me the warm clothing and then taking rat's lead back so i could put the hoodie on. i did as requested, and shoved it over my head, choosing to keep the hood up. it was slightly bigger on me, because bad was a little taller than me. only a little, though.

and then soon enough, the sun started to set. we looked straight ahead, it would've been a perfect view if it wasn't for some stupid trees covering it, but i ignored it and focused on the pretty pink colour the sky was turning.

i discreetly glaced over to bad, he was fidgeting with his bloody fingers again. the skin was starting to bleed, and i sucked in an uncomfortable breath. how could he be anxious right now? this was such a calm atmosphere.

i grabbed his hand, and he let out a yelp of surprise, "skeppy!"
"you need to stop this." i said, bringing his hand up infront of my face and inspecting the skin that was spotting blood. "it's a really bad habit." i turned to him, placing his hand down in my lap, wrapping it in both of my hands.

he just looked down to his other hand, the one he didn't pick as often. "why do you do it?" i asked.
"it distracts me from my anxious thoughts." he shrugs, "gives me something else to think about, you know?"
"but what anxious thoughts could you possibly be having right now? its just you and me." i said, stroking his hand with one of my thumbs slowly.

"i don't know." he muttered, but i knew there was something. letting out a sigh, i decided to leave it. surely bad will tell me when he's ready, i don't want to push him.
"okay, thats fine." i nodded to him and he finally looked me in the eye. "but we need to try find you something else to do when you're anxious, instead of this."
"yeah." he muttered as he looked down at our connected hands which all rested gently on my lap.

"but you can talk to me, you know? about anything, and i'll listen." i said, just to make sure he knew that.
"i know, thank you skeppy." he nodded.

"also, should i still call you skeppy? or is it zak now?"
"you've always called me skeppy, why change it? and you've always been 'bad' to me." i shrugged, and he nodded in agreement.
"then 'skeppy' it is."