warm winters || (goggles x rider) ||

💚chapter three💙

just as rider was about to emerge from the closet he was trapped in for all his life, goggles had barged in.

as his teammates ran to greet him, having a liking for the squidkid, rider slumped down into his couch, wanting to melt away. he hadn't realized opening up to his teammates would be so hard, probably because he had never tried in the past. he had grown close enough to his teammates that they could talk freely towards him and eachother about their feelings and concerns, but none of them knew him as well as goggles did. opening up to the innocent blue inkling was the easiest thing in the world for rider. he was so kind and understanding, it made rider blush a little.

"what're you blushing about?" goggles flopped down next to rider unexpectedly, snapping the aforementioned out of his small trance. goggles placed rider's coffee on the coffee table infront of the two.

"eh, nothing important."

"have you told your teammates yet? because if not, i could always tell them!" goggles exclaimed, wrapping his smaller arms around riders waist and leaning into his side. the rest of team yellow-green were mingling in the kitchen, so rider took the opportunity to return the intimacy goggles gave him, wrapping his arm around his shoulders and leaning gently on his head. goggles sighed comfortably as rider did so.

"so, do you like, wanna make out or something? sorry for jumping to absolutes, but,"

slightly taken aback by the very random question, rider whispered a quick "later" into goggles' ear. goggles returned his gesture with a smile.

"why are you guys cuddling? stealth had popped up unexpectedly behind the two. rider quickly pulled away from goggles and tried to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why he was so intimate with one of his good friends.

"hey, stealth, so what i'm about to tell you is kinda weird but-"goggles started, but was quickly silenced by rider shoving goggles into a pillow. he didn't bother protesting, because he knew he would lose regardless of what happens. rider quickly looked away from stealth.

"rider, what's going on? you arent acting like yourself. you're usually...grumpier than this." stealth questioned.

"yeah! you high or something?" bamboo had turned up behind stealth. "or maybe there's something you're hiding?"

"its just nunya." rider retorted.

"dont give us that for the billionth time, rider." stealth sighed. rider had used the 'nunya' trick on his teammates so many times that they were practically immune to the shitty pun.

under rider, goggles was squirming and pmuttering into the pillow. he quickly morphed into a squid and gently slid off the couch. rider noticed but chose not to address it.

"i'll tell you later." rider reasurred. "also, didnt school uniform bring a cake? maybe we should, i dont know, eat it?"

at the sound of cake, goggles ran into the kitchen. stealth was unfazed, still glaring intently at rider. bamboo was on her phone. rider rolled his eyes at goggles's immaturity and took the headgear that goggles had left on the coffee table. he held it in his hands and took a deep breath, trying to relax. in the kitchen, goggles and school uniform were talking about how the cake will be eaten when everyone else wanted to and not before and goggles was protesting against it.

"alright, stealth, sit down." rider said, sliding over and hiding his face. he was blushing substantially, and he didnt want anyone else to see.

stealth sat down, satisfied that he finally got a reasonable response from rider, and hopefully an explanation as to why his leader was behaving so unnaturally for his nature.

"so, you gonna tell me whats going on? to be honest, im kinda worried about you. the others havent really noticed, though, i dont think."

"yeah, hope not," rider responded."because they'd kinda go ballistic if they ever found out i was dating goggles."

"woah, wait, what? really?" stealth exclaimed, mouth agape. the volume of his voice rose very quickly, making rider cringe. he hoped to cod that the others didnt hear.

"calm your ass down, stealth! the others dont know and i'd rather them not, or not yet at least." rider retorted. "we should just focus on squidmas right now."

"so, like, what are you?"

"er, what do you mean?"

"like, you know, sexuality wise. what are you?"

knowing that question would pop up eventually, rider sighed. he had dreaded this question for a while, without a fairly solid reason why. he had come to terms with his sexuality a long time ago, and he was totally okay with it. he could easily say 'i'm gay' in his mind, so why did he have so much trouble saying it out loud?

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a//n: happy pri d im so ffuckin tired