to the grave, a bossnoeul story

finally

"This is cute." Noeul heard Peat gush, catching him in his peripheral vision bent over the display of gifts from CKM sitting on his desk.

"Hm?" He hummed, acting nonchalantly while a blush rose on his cheeks. He fought to keep his eyes trained on his funeral management homework that was due at midnight, making the mistake of waiting until the last minute to finish it and he kinda sorta didn't need any distractions right now.

That didn't mean anything to a bored Peat, seeing as he was now holding the poem James had delivered to him a few hours ago, reading the words with his mouth hung open in awe.

"You really have a whipped goth boy lamenting over your nonexistent relationship. Like—'I cry to the heavens for a thousand painful deaths, for that is more bearable than to live another sunset without you in my arms.' That's so—this man is practically in love with you."

"Don't say that..." His blushed deepened, butterflies swarming. Noeul had shed a few tears when he read it and poor James had tried to comfort him.

"A whole romantic," Peat mused as he put the poem back. "And you still don't know anything about him?"

"No," Noeul pouted and began picking at his pink nail polish, no longer focused on his work. "I think he might be studying liberal arts, but who knows. And his friends don't tell me much."

Peat stroked the whisper of hair on his chin, humming to himself as he walked over and sat down beside Noeul, doing his best to not disrupt the neat order of his books and papers. Noeul made a noise when his book accidentally closed, losing the page he needed to be on. Peat gave him an apologetic look.

"What if he's ugly?"

Noeul grabbed the book and slammed it into Peat's shoulder.

"Ow!"

"Deserved."

"I'm just saying!"

"Then don't say anything."

"What? Are you too good for an ugly guy?"

"I don't care what he looks like!"

"Hmm," Peat hummed, pursing his lips before pushing Noeul's things away to make room for himself to lay down, resting his head on top of Noeul's crossed legs.

Noeul instinctively began carding his fingers through Peat's dark locks. He needed a break from his homework anyway. It was Peat time now. "Oh yeah? Do you happen to know anything?"

Peat made a face. "Do you think I'd even be able to keep such a big secret away from you?"

True. Peat was an honest person who would never betray someone's trust unless it maliciously involved Noeul or Santa. He wasn't one to withhold secrets and would have told Noeul if he knew who CKM was.

Instead of responding, Noeul pressed his lips together and scrunched his nose. Peat snickered.

"So," Peat started after a few moments of silence. "What about your other goth boy?"

"Love the inclination that I have two goth boys."

"I mean, you could if you stopped being a coward."

Noeul scowled at him. Peat nudged his hand as a reminder to keep petting his head.

"He's out of my league," Noeul reasoned, though the words came out unsure.

"Ah, ah. You're out of his league. You're out of everybody's league. Next."

"What if we don't click? My pastels don't really match his... dark. We all can't live like Marceline and Princess Bubblegum."