Misguided Steps

pillows ☽

The room sat in silence bar the soft static sound of the radio trying to pick up a frequency. Both the  boy's minds were flying around the room. One was full of worries and almost regret for letting his thoughts wander that openly, the other mind beaming with a new feeling; spellbound in place by the overwhelming emotions of bliss and coyness. 

"I think I'll go make tea." Arya perked up, breaking the not quite silence. "Do you want any-" She stopped herself remembering Finely doesn't like tea. "Luca?" He nodded with his eyes still closed, hoping she saw. She either decided to let him be or saw the movement, because he heard her socks pitter patter across the wooden floor towards the kitchen and away from the fort.

They sat in another silence until Finely sat up, his cheeks pink with a slight joy. His fingertips gently brushing his hair out of his face yet again. He shuffled in his borrowed sweatpants before setting the words bouncing around in his mind free. 

"You think my eyes are pretty?" His words were mumbled, almost in a disbelieving kind of way, but they hung in the air like knives to Luca's throat. He eventually opened his eyes, realising he couldn't pretend to hide any longer. A small sigh escaped his lips, but then he pulled them into a slight grin as he began to chuckle.

"Oh, is that what I said?" His smile didn't match the sad eyes above, and Finley could see that. He bit his lip, admiring Luca's way of trying to making even the scariest of conversations into a light and friendly one. 

"Possibly, but I didn't quite hear it." Finley whispered, inching closer under the sheet ceiling. Luca let out a genuine laugh and grabbed the nearest pillow to his left, aiming for Finley's face. 

"You ass! Don't make me say it again." 

Finley gasped at the sudden attack and then laughed along, grabbing a particularly fluffy pillow and shoving it into Luca's chest. 

"Hey!"

"You started it buddy." He challenged back.

Luca sat up from his laying position and playfully glared at his opposition. "Oh it's on." 

Soon they were in a full on pillow fight, attacks came from behind, to the chest and to the face; knocking off Finley's glasses too. His hazel eyes were even prettier without smudged glass distorting the colour, in Luca's opinion.

Panting and out of breath, Luca threw his pillow behind him. Grabbing Finley's glasses, he shuffled closer to the boy, smiling. "Alright, alright you win. I'll say it."

Finley grinned, putting his own weapon to the floor beside him. They sat with their knees touching in a cross-legged position on the floor as Luca gently placed Finley's glasses back onto the bridge of his nose and behind his ears. 

"You have pretty eyes." He whispered yet not looking at the hazel colour pallete, but the soft lips in front of him. Those same lips pulled up into a smile and the cheeks bordering became a light shade of pink as he began to lean in. Luca followed, his heart beating so loud he almost didn't hear the words that caused them to jerk apart, flustered and trying to hide what they'd almost done.

"Tea's ready!"