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CXXVII

“You know, it’s my first time doing an escape room”, Eddy remarked after they’d gotten instructions from the front desk guy there and had left their precious violins in a locker. 
Brett jolted around. “What? No way!”
“Loner here, remember? Didn’t exaggerate when I said all I did was practice.”
“Hm”, Brett made. He knew Eddy hadn’t really made friends in the past. It just hadn’t occurred to him till now that he’d therefore also hadn’t experienced certain activities.
His shoulder got a clap. “No need to be gloomy. I get to do that with you now, no? And this is more than I’ve ever wished for. Anyway, you ready?”
Brett tried to swallow down the clump in his throat which had suddenly appeared after Eddy’s words. 
“Yeah. Let’s go!”

The theme of the escape room was, like many others, a murder mystery one. They had to find out what happened to a bunch of students who had gone missing and Brett had to say, it was one of the harder ones he’d done for sure.
“Where do I even start looking?”, Eddy groaned in the half-dark room, scratching his scalp.
“It’s usually not too obvious, but also kind of obvious.”
“Not sure if that helps.”
“Normally it’s like clues, numbers and stuff. See the lock there?” 
Brett pointed at a combination lock in front of a chest in which probably something scary was hidden.
“Alright. Numbers”, Eddy mumbled and strode around the room, turning leaflets and cloths. 
“What about this? The wanted posters seem to have random spots.”
“Oh”, Brett exclaimed and picked one up, “Yeah! Definitely! You’re good at this! And look! There’s like a little plate here…”

They quickly figured out that the missing students had blood on their robes and in combination with their missing-posters, the tainted letters and the numbers below, the first combination was detected which opened them a little chest. There was more than one jumpscare till then though, featuring said stupid lockers and a cut off head rolling out of it. Brett found out with a certain amount of delight that Eddy was a little scaredy cat, twitching around because of every little noise and the slightest possibility of not-real-danger threatening him. Who would have thought, the great prodigy Eddy Chen being afraid of skeletons, bloody plastic body parts and the dark in general? Not that Brett was much better but he dared to say his cortisol levels were not quite reaching the heights Eddy’s did.

“I change my mind. I freaking hate escape rooms!”
Brett laughed as he opened another combination lock, revealing hopefully the key for the next room. “Just gotta get used to it. We’ll do it lots and you’ll hug that skull over there I reckon.”
Eddy huffed. “At least it’s not a cockroach.”
“You afraid of cockroaches?”, Brett raised a brow and Eddy inhaled sharply. 
“Oh no.”
Brett laughed again. “You wanna do the honors?”
He held out the key he’d just fished out, leading Eddy to wave his hands in a defensive manner. 
“Nah! You go!”
“Scissors, paper, rock?”

Brett won. To Eddy’s dismay.
“Ah, shit! I don’t wanna!”
“Go on love! You can do it!”
“Argghhh, this is the worst idea in the world!”
“Nothing’s gonna happen! I believe in you!”
“Do I get a kiss afterwards?”
“You can’t be too afraid if you’re still thinking about kissing me under these circumstances”, Brett chuckled. 
“I always want to kiss you. You should know by now”, Eddy mumbled gloomingly, took a step forward and stuck the key into the keyhole. 
“Do it!”, Brett thused, eyes wide open and giddiness bubbling up.
“Aaaarrgghgghh!”, Eddy screamed, out of fear or to give himself courage Brett couldn’t tell and opened the door to, of course, make way for a life-size skeleton swinging into the frame, throwing Eddy backwards into the arms of an uncontrollably laughing Brett, both of them sinking to the floor with Brett in a weird, half-cross-legged position.

“Haahhahaa!”
“Fuck! God! I knew that would happen!”
“Tell me, Eddy mine, why did you choose the scariest escape room this place has to offer?”, Brett brushed through Eddy’s hair in a comforting manner. 
“I just booked the most difficult one. Figured with our brains anything else would be boring. How was I supposed to know it was a real life horror movie experience thing?”, the adorable thing in Brett’s arms pouted and tilted his head upwards, “So, kiss?”
“Anytime”, Brett smiled, bent over a bit and met Eddy’s awaiting lips with his slightly parted ones. 

Was it the adrenaline, them being in the dark or just how their date progressed which made this kiss so incredibly sweet, almost divine? In the midst of fake skulls and bloody cloths, Brett melted. Melted into Eddy, his mouth quick to open and his tongue to tentatively licking over the other’s unbelievably soft lips. Eddy groaned very sexily in the back of his throat and pressed up, intensifying their contact and once again, making Brett’s head spin and his breathing speed up. Their tongues started a dance, adagio first, a slow waltz before it transformed into a fiery tango and soon enough, their hands joined in, pulling the other even closer, as if that was possible, wandering over their arms, their neck, into their hair…

“Hmm…”
“Oh, god, Brett.”
“You reckon this is the first time someone kissed in here?”, Brett mumbled in-between kisses.
“Maybe not, but certainly the first time anyone has ever felt so good”, Eddy whispered and Brett doubled down, his greed taking over and wanting to claim his love, more of him, all of him…

“Hi guys! So half an hour has passed”, a cheery voice over some speakers they hadn’t yet noticed sounded and broke the two boys apart in shock, “You should be in the second room by now like time management wise. Good luck!”
“Fuck!”, Brett cursed with a sigh, “The escape room isn’t the only thing giving me heart attacks, jeez!”
“At least we’ve already opened the second room”, Eddy sniggered and pulled Brett up. “Have to do more dares if that’s what I’m gonna get.”
“Don’t have to do them to get that”, Brett winked and walked past Eddy into an even darker chamber, the fog in his head still dissipating so he could do his part in solving creepy puzzles eventually.