Catch of the Game

6- Rain

TW- Hangover, mention of pills (just used for headache)

Karl wakes up in the morning and can feel himself smiling. Oddly enough he also can feel someone else lying underneath him. Sapnap.

He sighs, and scattered memories of the night before come back to him. The butterflies in his stomach soar for a moment when he recalls what Sapnap had said, and the sloppy kiss on his cheek. Then he also remembers Sapnap saying that he says dumb things when he's drunk, and Karl's momentary hopefulness crashes.

He stays cuddling Sapnap for a while longer, enjoying the warmth and the comfort, while he overthinks all the events of the party.

Eventually he hears soft noises from under him, followed by slight movement. "K-Karl?"

"Yeah?" Karl replies.

"Oh it is you, ok good. I'm glad it's not some random person that found me blackout drunk."

"Yeah, that would be bad."

After a few minutes of comfortable silence Sapnap speaks up. "Not to break this up or anything, but I'm very hungover and need some advil."

Karl rolls off his friend and stands up, stretching his arms that had fallen asleep. "Where do you keep it?" He asked while yawning.

"Bathroom. Under the sink. Left side."

Karl goes to rummage around the various medicines and bandaids in the bathroom. Until he hears a deep voice behind him. "Hey."

"Oh god Dream, you scared me."

"Haha sorry." Karl notices that his morning voice is significantly deeper than it is during the day. "So you're getting stuff for your hungover friend too?" Dream asks.

Karl nods, pulling out a bottle of pills. He shakes a couple of them on his hand then extends the bottle out to Dream who hands Karl a water bottle in return.

"Thanks."

The two boys go their separate ways to help their friends.

Karl enters the room and Sapnap yawns while slowly sitting up. "Hey, were we cuddling just now bro, or did I imagine that too?" he says.

Karl blushes slightly, "yeah we were, you insisted on it last night haha."

"Sounds like something I would do."

-

"Wow, that party sounds great! Too bad I don't remember any of it." After a few hours of cleaning up while George and Sapnap hid in their room, probably spending more time avoiding cleaning than actually recovering, Karl and Sapnap decided to go on a walk to fill him in on what he missed.

"Yeah it was pretty fun, other than the part where you almost got dragged into a hookup."

"Well yeah that's not so good. Thanks again for saving me."

"Of course." Karl had decided to opt out of telling Sapnap about what he said to Karl and what he did when he was still drunk. Karl was still trying to not be hurt by the fact that his friend only said that out of stupidity, while Karl had been developing real feelings for him.

It had rained in the morning while everyone was still asleep from their late night. There were large puddles covering the roads they walked along.

Karl glanced over at Sapnap. He looked a lot more sturdy now, and actually aware of his surroundings.

They started to walk along a road that was really winding through the trees. Eventually the sidewalk fell away, so they continued to walk on the shoulder of the road.

"Hey Karl, could you move over?" Karl took a few steps to the side, careful not to fall into the soggy ditch beside him. Sapnap walked around to the other side of him.

"What was that for?"

"Oh, just making sure you're safe." Karl beamed at the sweet gesture.

"These puddles are getting really big." Karl noted.

"You know what else is big?" Sapnap smirked. "Sorry, bad joke."

"It was kinda funny- oh Sapnap a truck! It's gonna spla-" a wave of water is kicked up by the truck's wheels, covering Sapnap in the dirty puddle.

"Oh fu..." he looked down, inspecting his soaking hoodie. "It's freezing!" He said, starting to shiver.

"Here, here take this." Karl pulls his own sweatshirt off, which managed to stay miraculously mostly dry somehow. He hands the sweater to Sapnap, and turns around to fix the buttons on his button down so he looks presentable.

Sapnap pulls his own hoodie off. "Thanks so much man, you're the best." He reaches out and hugs the taller boy from behind.

Karl lets out a small "oh" when he realizes that Sapnap had chosen not to wear anything underneath his hoodie. Sapnap continues to hold on to Karl for longer than a normal hug would last. Karl settles into the other boy's chest, raising his hands to rest on Sapnap's forearms. He feels Sapnap's muscles shift as he squeezes Karl before finally letting go.

After Karl is fairly sure that Sapnap is now wearing his sweatshirt, he turns around. "You need to stop saving me from things, idiot." Sapnap laughs.

Karl counters, "You should stop needing to be saved all the time then."

"Fair point."

-

"Hey where'd you get this sweater from? It's so comfy." They had been walking for a while. They started heading back after Sapnap was splashed, but they had already been pretty far away from his house.

"The sweater is from a thrift store in New York, and I embroidered the symbols on it."

"Cool. What are they?"

"It's supposed to be like the album cover from an album The Neighborhood made."

"Sorry, I don't listen to their stuff very much, do you want to show me?"

"Yeah here," Karl pulled out his phone and opened Spotify. "My favourite song from the album is Sweater Weather, but that's really basic."

"Oh wow, you did a really good job with the embroidery, it looks just like that."

"Thank you! I'm not that good at it, but I like to try things."

"Why haven't you embroidered a sweater for me yet, hmm?" Sapnap said sarcastically, nudging Karl with his elbow.

"Haha, maybe I will."