(love)birds of a feather

chapter fourteen

forever trying
to reconcile this hopelessly
romantic heart, and this fiercely
independent soul

I'm such a soft lover,
and a wild wanderer

but I think you're where
all of me finds home.

—butterflies rising

♡ ♡ ♡

They're standing face to face, Brett raising an eyebrow at him expectantly.

Eddy takes a deep breath. Months, ages have led to this moment. This one moment will determine the whole future. This one moment will either realign the stars into something better than before, or derange them even worse.

Eddy turns his head away, closing his eyes. "I might never get another chance to say this."

A silence from Brett's end. Then, "you're trembling."

Screw his carefully collected composure if Brett's reaching a hand out as of now.

"Do you remember those romantic—innuendos, I guess?—that I always used to say to you? From about a year or two back?"

Brett inhales, taking his hand off Eddy's shoulder. To Eddy, his breath in is barely audible under the loud thrumming of Eddy's own heartbeat in his own ears.

"You've thought about this recently, haven't you?"

Eddy can discern hints of—something, uncertainty and hesitation, perhaps, here and there in his tone.

Eddy chooses to ignore the question. "Just hear me out, okay?" He finally finds the courage to turn back and look Brett directly in his eyes. "I just wanted to say, those—they weren't just one-offs from me. It was me hoping you'd see the connection."

Looking at Brett's eyes, he's blatantly perplexed, and Eddy can't blame him; he's just babbling at this point, all for trying to steer this to a conclusion of "I love you." Though he doesn't stop at Brett's expression, rather, he keeps going.

"You know... I've always said I'll never risk losing you without you fully understanding how much you mean to me. I've always said I can't function without you. And just know that every time I do say those things, I mean every word."

Don't stop now, Eddy. Surge onwards. "You really had me worried when you fell sick. Not only because of what it could've meant for us as Twoset, but also what it could've meant for me, as your best friend. You with me so far?"

He pauses again to take a glimpse at Brett's expression, which is currently unreadable under the weight of his words. He's clearly caused the gears in his head to turn. He waits for his nod, then continues.

"Call me a drama queen, an overthinker, whatever—but I'm saying these next words now, in case something else happens to you, but unlike your recent recovery, I... I don't get another chance to tell you. So—" Breathe in, breathe out. This is it.

"These past few months, maybe even before that... I've thought about our friendship, us, you, a lot. What we could or could never be." His voice breaks a little. "But I couldn't help but want a bit more..."

Upon that, dawning and realization widens Brett's eyes, and Eddy fights the urge to snap his eyes shut again. There's no going back now.

"So what I'm saying is..." Eddy hesitates, and for a moment he thinks his feet are going to sprint him out of the room on their own accord. But then—

"I think I'm in love with you, Brett."

(He thinks he's in love with him? He knows he's in love with him, correction.)