Step Into the Sun

37

Friday.

It had been an uneventful day. After so much socialising and food the previous night, Evan felt like just laying in the still-standing fort and colouring. Connor sat with him, but worked in his sketchbook, secretively drawing Evan as he focused intensely on perfecting the dark purple of his pterodactyl.

"Did you like the Kleinmans?" Evan asked after a while.

"Yeah, they're all really nice. And I'm not terribly fond of children, but Jacob was adorable."

"They're basically my family. Mom is an only child and my dad's family fucking sucks. Joy and my mom have been best friends since college, so I grew up with them as my family."

"So if we get married someday, they'll be my family too," Connor pointed out in a joking tone.

Evan turned to look up at him, eyebrows furrowed. When Connor looked at him with an unreadable expression, he quietly went back to colouring.

Inside, Evan's heart was racing. Was Connor being serious? Did he want to get married someday? Could Evan handle this new emotion that had suddenly bloomed in his chest?

"Hey," Heidi greeted, peeking in through the entrance of the fort. "Do you guys want dinner? Joy had me swing by after work to pick up some leftovers."

"Did you get some potatoes?" Evan asked, twisting around to face her.

"Yup. Enough for all three of us."

"Hell yeah," Connor cheered, closing his sketchbook.

The boys got up and ran to the kitchen to heat up the tasty yumminess that was Bobby's cooking.

After dinner, Evan stood outside the fort, staring at it.

"I think we should take it down," he announced, glancing over at Connor. It was hard to look him in the eyes after the marriage incident without desperately wanting to make out with him against a wall. He had to fight the urge. His promise to himself was still to put Connor's mental and physical health before his own self-interest.

"Why? It looks surprisingly sturdy after multiple days," Connor reasoned.

"I'm just not feeling it anymore."

It's too intimate. I could end up ruining everything.

"Really?" Connor looked at him again, shocked. "You're telling me that you, Evan Hansen, want to take down a blanket fort?"

"Yes. Will you help me?"

"I mean, yeah."

They took the art supplies out first, setting them on the kitchen table to deal with later, then deflated the air mattress and rolled it up to pack it away in a storage closet upstairs. While Connor carried it up, Evan unstrung the fairy lights and wrapped them up neatly, handing them off to Connor to go back upstairs again so he could hang the lights above his bed where they were before.

Then they both took down the blankets and folded them neatly, then brought them upstairs to put into the same closet as the mattress, save for one which Evan kept out for later. The last step was to replace the dining room chairs, which only took a couple minutes.

"Now we can watch movies on the actual TV instead of a laptop," Evan announced, plopping himself on the couch. He patted the space next to himself and once again shoved away the thoughts in his mind telling him that Connor had mentioned marrying him in a somewhat serious tone in a somewhat serious context.

"Which movie do you wanna watch?"

"Moana, to be honest."

"Good choice," Connor admitted, sitting down finally. He wedged himself between Evan and the arm of the couch, wrapping his own arm around Evan's waist to pull him closer as he selected Netflix on the screen.