Arranged Marriage (BoyxBoy)

Date #1

*Micah*

"Where are we going?" Gabriel asked me for perhaps the eleventh time.

"It's a secret," I repeated myself.

"What about the kids?"

"Your mom agreed to pick them up today."

"How long will we be gone?"

He hadn't stopped asking the same questions over and over again ever since he woke up to realise I hadn't taken him home after school. I felt bad by how thrown he was by this interruption in his routine. It threw me a bit to realize my Gabriel may have some slight autistic inclinations. Which made me feel bad to have just randomly kidnapped him this way.

So far, in his question montra, I hadn't been able to edge into the carefully prepared speech Saiben had made me memorize.

So far the whole "I kidnapped you because I really wanted to spend time with you" script wasn't looking like such a great idea.

"Where are we going?"

On to round five thousand.

"On a date."

"Where?"

"Somewhere fun."

"What about my homework?"

"I'll help you when we get home."

He gave me the face. The one that said, 'You mean I'll be helping you when we get home.'

Which was totally unfair. I'd asked him for help with applicable statistics once! And that had been for work-work, not homework!

It wasn't my fault I was out of practice with school. I had to take over two years off, not of my own volition. School is a way of life you have to stay in the hang of or you fall behind. It wasn't my fault!

Excuses. Excuses. I could almost hear my mother's voice tsking at me from beyond the grave.

"W-"

"Gabriel," I cut him off.

"Yeah?" His voice was a bit airy and tight, anxiety leaking through.

"Rel-" No. Telling him to relax might make him feel like I wasn't taking him, or his panic seriously. "Everything is going to be ok."

I took his hand in mine.

"I'm sorry. I know, it's selfish, but I couldn't wait another week to spend time with you."

The silence made me nervous. Had I said it wrong? It wasn't exactly what Saiben had told me to say. Was it too cheesy?

I glanced his way cautiously.

He had on this sweet lopsided smile as he gazed down at our entwined fingers.

Had he even heard my embarrassing little spiel?

Oh well, I'd gotten it out; he was better now. We were together; that was good enough for me.

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*Gabriel*

Spelunking! It was perfect! OK, so it wasn't really spelunking. We were walking, no safety equipment needed. But still, there was that little thrill, in the back of my head, that I could get lost and end up trapped in the natural labyrinth until I died of dehydration or starvation, or broke my neck in a fall. Just enough to make things interesting. Much better than loosing all my self esteem puking my guts out after a roller coaster and going home early to spend the rest of the day with a splitting migraine.