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June, before freshman year
Robert’s face was really starting to hurt.
His parents, who had never really cared much for any of his other life milestones, had not only surprised him just by showing up to his eighth grade graduation, but were taking photos of him and his sister like their lives depended on it.
“Okay, one more,” his mom said. Robert knew this was a lie - she had said ‘one more’ about fifty photos ago. “Milena, fix your hair, it’s all-”
“Robert!”
Robert turned his head to see that he was being very excitedly approached by Thomas, his close friend and - in Robert’s opinion - the cutest boy in the eighth grade. Even if Robert’s friends thought him crazy for holding such an opinion.
“Hi, Thomas!” Robert exclaimed eagerly as he stepped away from his sister, who had had an arm around his shoulders for the pictures. He usually wasn’t so loud, so openly excited, but Thomas was a little fireball who brought that out in people, even Robert.
“Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?” Thomas asked once they were closer to each other. Like everyone else graduating, he was in a suit, and looked incredibly out of place in it, as no fourteen-year-old looked natural in a suit. He even had some semblance of styling done to his normally mousy curls.
Robert looked back at his family, figuring they’d want him for yet another photo, but his mom was busy tending to his older sister’s hair, and Robert saw the opportunity for a long-awaited out.
“Yes, please,” he replied, and he and Thomas walked a little further on the grassy schoolyard, so that if Robert’s parents needed him again, they would have to look for him.
“So, uh, congrats on graduating,” Robert said when they found a nice spot under a large oak tree. He immediately felt a little stupid for congratulating Thomas on something that he too had just achieved. Looking down, he started to fidget with the collar of his shirt, both out of nervousness from talking to the boy he’d liked for the better part of the school year, and because the June heat in this suit was merciless.
“Well, thanks, you too,” Thomas said, cheery as always. He had a smile that made the corners of his eyes crinkle, and like most students at their international school, had himself a little accent. Though, Robert found Thomas’ to be the most endearing out of everyone’s.
Thomas took a rather large breath before he spoke again, and Robert had learned over the course of their friendship that that meant he was going to go on one of his infamous spiels - and as always, Robert was more than ready to listen.
“So, uhm, I know this is outta nowhere, and honestly maybe a little crazy, and I couldn’t have chosen a worse possible time to tell you this, seeing as it’s summer now and we’re not gonna see each other regularly - I mean we totally will hang out and stuff, we just won’t see each other every day. Plus I don’t know your summer plans, you might be going back to Poland or something, like Manu is. Well, he’s going to Germany, obviously, I mean, you knew that - ‘cause why would he be going to Poland? That wouldn’t make sense. Anyway. Uhm. So, not to like, throw this at you outta nowhere, but I really don’t know any other way to say it, so… Well, Robert, I- you and I are friends, good friends, I’d like to think. And I really like being your friend and I think you’re really awesome and I think you deserve to know that someone really likes you. Uh, namely me! I really like you. Like, like like, in a… romantic context - gosh, that sounded stupid, anyway! So, yeah, I really like you and I wanna, uh, go out with you. Like on a date. Somewhere. I haven’t really figured out the logistics yet. If you want to, of course! I mean, it’s fine if you don’t - well I wouldn’t say fine, I’d be a little devastated - but I know you and I know you’re nice enough that we’d still be friends even if you don’t feel the same way and were to reject me right now. But, uh, I really hope you don’t! So, uh, yeah.”
Poor Thomas had been digging the toe of his shoe into the dirt while he rambled, leaving his shiny dress shoe essentially ruined by the end of it.
Robert needed a moment to collect himself. His first thought was how genuinely impressive it was that Thomas got… all that out in one single breath. His second thought…
“You… like me?”
Thomas, despite just baring his soul, had the nerve to get quippy - bless him. “I’m sorry, was that somehow unclear, or-”
“No, no - I mean - you like me back?”
Thomas just blinked at him, the sunlight peeking through the leaves and tree branches illuminating his green-blue eyes. They probably looked like idiots, just standing there staring at each other.
“Like you back?”
“Back!’
“Ba- when were you gonna tell me?!”
“Uh, never.” Robert meant it. His crush on Thomas was something he fully intended on taking to the grave.
“Wha-” Thomas stepped back and put his hands on his hips disbelievingly. He looked miffed, but in a cute way. “I realize I like you, and I tell you about it the next day, meanwhile you were never gonna-”
“You starting liking me yesterday?!” interjected Robert. Frankly, as grateful as he was, he was a little offended that Thomas had liked him for about the time it took to heat up a hot pocket.
“Well, no, I,” Thomas started, running a hand through his styled hair and thus messing it up. Though, Robert thought it looked better messy. “I think I’ve liked you for a while, I just realized it yesterday. Like I didn’t know what it was… if that makes sense.”
“Idiot,” Robert said, with no real bite in it.
“Nuh uh,” replied Thomas, super maturely. “You were the one keeping it secret for, like, ever.”
“Well, maybe it’s a good thing I held onto that secret, seeing as you had this revelation yesterday.”
For the first time since Robert had known him, Thomas had nothing to say. They just looked at each other, each holding back the giddiest, stupidest smiles, wearing an expression that could only be made by a teenager finding out their crush liked them back. They had fallen out of their banter, and were each trying not to be the first one to say it seriously - that they liked each other.
“Robert! Your mother wants another photo of you and your sister!” came a deeper voice from a few yards behind Robert. He didn’t need to turn around to know it came from the ambassador.
“I gotta go,” he told Thomas, disappointment clear in his voice.
“Yeah, yeah, you go,” Thomas replied.
Robert barely took a step back. “But about that date-”
“You’re doing all the planning.”
Robert laughed at this boy’s audacity. Well, at least Thomas would keep him on his toes for the foreseeable future. “Now why do I-?!”
“Well, seeing as I did the actual confessing, I’ve done my part - so you’re doing all the stressful planning stuff, Mr. I-like-you-but-wasn’t-gonna-say-anything-about-it.”
“Well, I’m gonna plan something good.”
“You better-” Thomas started, before Robert’s dad interrupted.
“Robert!”
“Coming!” Robert exclaimed, running back to his family with newfound energy.
* * *
August, before sophomore year
Robert wasn’t a crier.
Sure, he was as emotional as the next guy, and he wasn’t a stranger to getting upset or frustrated or downright sad - especially when those sappy movies Thomas liked were involved - but still, he didn’t often actually cry.
But it wasn’t every day that his father forgot his fifteenth birthday. Robert knew better than to expect to actually see his dad on that day, but he was expecting a phone call. And, as the day went on and no call came, he starting expecting a text. No such text came.
So, when the tears sprung loose late the next morning at his boyfriend’s house, the day after Robert’s birthday, poor Thomas was at a loss for how to respond.
“I mean, a-am I just stupid, is that it?” Robert asked, blinking rapidly in an attempt to dispel more tears, his normally calm blue eyes now red and glassy around the rims. “I knew he’d be at work all day, but am I stupid for expecting a call or a text or something?”
“No, you’re not,” Thomas said indignantly, holding Robert’s hand in his lap. He didn’t know what else to do - he wasn’t really good at the whole comforting thing. “He’s your dad - he should make time for you on your birthday. And if he couldn’t see you, then he should’ve at least called. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Robert replied, decidedly not okay, if the tears that were being wiped off by the sleeve of his hoodie were anything to go by.
It wasn’t the first time Thomas had had a conversation like this, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Thomas had to watch Manu go through the same song and dance every year, only he had gotten to the point where he had stopped expecting anything, and was thus a lot less weepy about it.
Though, that line of thought did give Thomas an idea.
“I got it!” he said suddenly, voice literally echoing off his bedroom walls as he grasped Robert’s shoulders. “I have exactly the thing that’ll make you feel better!”
Robert sniffled pathetically. “My dad’s attention?”
“What, no, let’s not get crazy,” said Thomas. He practically jumped off the unmade bed and made for his desk, which was being used less as a desk and more a unit of storage, as it was so crowded with papers that he couldn’t even see the surface.
“Manu gave this to me when Bayern got knocked out of the Champions League and I was, like, totally gutted,” he explained, stifling through a junk drawer that was so stuffed it couldn’t even close properly. “I, uh, kinda forgot to give it back to him, but I guess that’s a good thing, ‘cause you need it a lot more than I do right- aha!”
Thomas pointed to Robert, as if there was someone else in the room he could be referring to. “Close your eyes,” he demanded, holding something behind his back.
“Uh, okay?” Robert said, and complied. He heard footsteps approaching the edge of the bed where he sat, then another request from Thomas.
“Hold out your hand.”
Robert did so, albeit wearily. Although he knew it was irrational, he suddenly became worried Thomas was about to place a live bug or something equally as icky in his hand.
Lucky for Robert, he didn’t feel a bug in his hand. Instead, he felt a thin, rectangular card.
He opened his eyes, and when he saw what he was holding, he let out a very cliche, very dramatic gasp. “Ambassador Neuer’s credit card!” he exclaimed, placing a grateful hand on his chest. “Thomas, you shouldn’t have!”
His mind was already running wild with what they could do with this. Sure, Robert’s family had more money than they knew what to do with, but his dad was a strict hard-ass when it came to his children spending it. The Polish ambassador had even made Robert and his sister get their own jobs to pay for their phone bills and other expenses, so money was actually quite tight for Robert.
On the contrary, as genuinely awful as Ambassador Neuer was, his profound carelessness meant that he wasn’t going to question any mysterious payments on his card. In fact, Robert would put what money he did have on the man not even noticing the extra payments.
“Name a better boyfriend than me, I’ll wait,” Thomas said, looking like the proudest, most triumphant person in the world.
“I don’t think I can,” Robert said with a little laugh, the tears long forgotten by now. He flipped the black card around in his hands. It was so shiny, and was he crazy, or did it weigh more than a normal credit card? Like it was physically holding more money inside of it.
“Now c’mon, get your shoes on. We’re gonna go to the mall, and blow as much of that man’s hard earned money as we can on whatever you want! Think of it as my second birthday gift.”
Robert was actually wearing the first birthday gift - a nice, soft red hoodie that had ‘Rzeczpospolita Polska’ and the Polish coat of arms emblazoned on it. Thomas already had his mind set on stealing it later.
“Which mall, Gallery Place?” asked Robert.
“I was thinking City Center.”
“Okay, cool, let’s-” Robert stopped midsentence and went deadpan. “You just wanna go to the pet store, don’t you.”
Thomas scratched the back of his neck. “The, uh, what?” he asked, voice ten octaves higher. “Oh, do they have a pet store? I didn’t even remember…”
That was a lie, and they both knew it. The couple spent most of their first few dates going to the mall, as there wasn’t really much else for a couple of fourteen-year-olds to do. And every time, without fail, Thomas made it a point to drag Robert to the pet store, where he would spend the better part of an hour looking at every bunny and dog and cat and gerbil individually, cooing at them and telling them how cute they were and what he would name them.
“Okay, we can go,” Robert caved, as if it was even up to him in the first place. Wherever Thomas went, he followed. That was fact. “But we better not come back with a bunny or gerbil or something.”
“I wish!” Thomas groaned. “Now c’mon, I wanna get Dunkin. On me.”
“Actually-” Robert stopped and looked at the name engraved on the card, as he didn’t actually know the name of the man they were lowkey about to rob. “It’s on Peter Ne-”
“Shut up.”
As always, Thomas would get his way, and Robert would take him to the pet store. And he would use those big eyes of his to coax his poor boyfriend into using that credit card to purchase the cutest little bunny, one that Thomas insisted looked just like Robert. And who was Robert to deny this boy anything after all he had done to cheer him up?
Not that Robert had any doubts before that, but when they walked out of that store with Thomas cooing at his new, in his words, ‘son,’ that was when Robert knew they were in it for the long haul. There was no backing out - there was a child involved now.
* * *
December, sophomore year
Thomas loved playing football in the cold.
The icy ground served as another obstacle for both teams to overcome, which made matches all the more fun in Thomas’ opinion. Plus, while the cold weather was hard to play in for the first few minutes, he always got used to it, and appreciated not being all sweaty and sticky by the end of the match.
Thomas was always a vocal presence on the pitch, shouting joyously after every goal, and directing his teammates as if he himself was their coach. Today, he was more energized than usual - still shouting ‘Ja!’ after the final whistle just as he always did, but with a little more umph, as this wasn’t just another game his team had won, no, it was the big one, the one that meant that they had won it all. It all being their local league, and Thomas was overjoyed.
Of course, his first instinct upon this victory was to not participate in the massive group hug between his teammates, but rather sprint towards the goal in search of his best friend.
“Manu!” he shouted, as if there was another goalkeeper he would be running towards.
Manuel, just as excited as Thomas, and knowing resistance was futile, opened his arms for his relentless energy ball of a friend to jump into, and promptly found himself getting the wind knocked out of him.
“We did it we did it we actually fucking did it!” Thomas said through laughter, ruffling Manu’s blonde hair aggressively, to the point where it kind of hurt.
“Ow, dude, cut it out!” complained Manuel, though he was smiling and laughing just as much as Thomas was, high off the win. “Don’t think I won’t drop you!”
Thomas stopped physically assaulting his best friend, and instead went on a little rant about every intricacy of the game and every play he partook in, as if Manuel hadn’t had a front row ticket to the entire thing.
“Okay, I’m gonna put you down now,” Manuel eventually said, “Partially ‘cause you’re oddly heavy for someone so skinny, and also so you can say hi to your boyfriend.”
Thomas was plopped onto the solid ground cleats first, and immediately started scanning the pitch for Robert. Most of Thomas’ teammate’s families were congratulating them, so there were quite a few people around, but Robert was quite tall for their age, and Thomas quickly spotted him chit chatting with his best friend, and Thomas’ teammate, Marco.
After giving Manu a pat on the back and telling him he’d see him later, Thomas weaved through people to get to Robert.
When Robert saw Thomas, his face lit up mid conversation, mirroring how his heart stopped every time Thomas so much as walked into a room or made eye contact with him.
“There’s my world champion!” he said proudly as he snaked his arms around Thomas’ waist and brought him in for a hug. He was quite warm, probably because - unlike Thomas - he wasn’t walking around in this cold in a football kit consisting of a t-shirt and shorts, instead opting for a nice winter coat and a hat to keep him warm. Plus, he had an extra jacket slung over his shoulder, probably for Thomas.
“I think you mean ‘champion of this part of DC,” Thomas corrected as he broke away from the warm hug, standing beside Robert as Robert’s hand went from Thomas’ waist to his shoulder.
“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re the best in the world,” Robert said, and something in his blue eyes told Thomas he genuinely meant that to the depths of his cold bones.
“Oh, stop it,” Thomas chided playfully, turning his attention to Marco. “Hey, great job out there, man, you were awesome!”
“Thanks, you too!” Marco said pleasantly, running a cold hand through his blonde hair. “I feel a little bad for the guys on the other team, though. Especially Leo - he looks crushed.”
Thomas hummed in agreement, but only out of politeness. He didn’t agree at all. Hell, maybe it made him a horrible person, but he was quite elated to beat the supposed ‘best football player at UEFA.’
“Hey, I’m gonna go catch up with Mario, see you later, okay?” Marco continued, looking moreso at Robert than Thomas.
“See you later, man,” said Robert, with Thomas waving as Marco scampered off to meet Mario.
“Congratulations, again,” Robert said when it was just the two of them, quieter this time.
“I only won ‘cause you were here watching,” Thomas said with certainly, turning so that they were facing each other rather closely as opposed to just next to each other. “But thank you anyway.”
Robert smiled, that one adorable smile that Thomas adored, the one that went up to his eyes.
Gingerly resting his almost numb fingertips on Robert’s cheek, Thomas moved just the tiniest bit closer so that he could properly kiss him, so sweet and light but long enough to matter, to mean something.
“Gosh, your face is freezing,” Robert said once they separated, then held the hand that was resting on Robert’s cheek. “And your hands, here, I brought this for you.”
Robert took the dark colored hoodie that was slung over his shoulder and draped it over Thomas’ shoulders like a cape.
“This is an Attack on Titan reference,” Thomas said, sounding genuinely wooed.
“How romantic,” Robert replied, before reaching a hand in his pocket. “Here, I brought you some gloves, too - your hands are always cold.”
Despite the frigid weather, Thomas melted as Robert helped him put the gloves on, even though Thomas was more than capable of doing it himself. “My hero,” he praised.
“Anything for you, Tommy,” Robert said like it was second nature. “Oh, hey, I think you should go back to your teammates. Looks like they’re getting the trophy.”
Thomas turned to see what Robert was looking at, and saw Coach Nagelsmann handing the team captain, Manu, the trophy - a rather generic one that was probably ordered online. Still, Manu looked ecstatic, and Thomas felt proud, both of himself and of his teammates.
Instead of leaving and rushing to join the team, Thomas looked at Robert, and he knew that what he was about to say was unbearably cheesy, and they would most definitely look back on it and laugh at him later, but damn, he meant it.
“I’ve already got mine.”