𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚞𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜

swallows up your heart of gold [d.r]

altrinios go brrrrrrrr

dude i just wanted to write something soft for once <3 there are no content warnings on this one, just soft altrinios

for th record dashell is altrive n ryan is krinios :D

fic title from ;; beachwalk - whitewoods

prompt ;; dashell and ryan are is love.

final word count ;; 1.2k

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sunlight peeks through the open blinds, small slivers of golden and orange making dashell's eyes gently blink open, though he quickly screws them shut again, the tendrils of a headache slowly but surely affecting him. he shifts, turns, reaches out for his pillow to bury his face into, only for his fingertips to brush across a warm, soft- human.

human.

oh fuck.

he rubs his eyes and sits up, staring at the arm gently draped across his waist, then to the person of which that arm is attached. ryan's looked better, to be quite honest. his hair is plastered to his forehead in a rather unattractive manner (though it kind of is cute, dashell will admit), face red from sunburn and his mouth is ajar, drool leaking out ever so slightly.

dashell nibbles at his fingertips, a nervous habit in which he'd never gotten over (that usually results in him needing to bandage all of his fingers), all tendrils of sleepiness gone, replaced by what would happen when ryan awakes. he's really got nothing to worry about - they're friends and sometimes friends sleep in the same bed with each other - but he's worried about what ryan will say.

dashell is hardly open with anything. his feelings, his face (he hasn't done a face reveal yet, years after starting youtube), family matters, favourite things to do - small stuff that doesn't even matter to people but it matters to him and he doesn't want that information getting into the hands of someone he doesn't want them to. dashell's never been open with anything and yet, somehow, ryan seems to have pried all of the information he's carefully hidden away out of him. ryan is the key to his heart, gently opening the door and exploring with awe.

dashell's in love.

ryan grunts and lets out a soft whine, digging his face into dashell's hip. "y'forgot to close th' curtains last night," he croaks, and dashell chuckles, dropping his hand from his mouth and gently running his fingers through ryan's chocolate-coloured locks. "too early to be awake."

"then go back to sleep, dumbass,"

"not without you, idiot."

it's not even been five minutes after ryan's awoken and he's already throwing out the insults and demands. dashell shrugs and smooths down his shirt, then slides back down, reclining. ryan instantly finds his refuge within dashell's neck, tossing his leg over the other's hips, pulling himself impossibly closer to the man. dashell can't find it in himself to blush, simply pulling ryan closer and nuzzling into ryan's hair. the other male is warm, comfortable pressed against him, and before he knows it, dashell is drifting off to sleep again, soft snores escaping his parted lips.

what he doesn't see is ryan blinking his eyes open moments after he falls asleep, watching dashell with pure love lingering in his eyes, features soft and lips quirked into a small smile.

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ryan isn't an idiot.

he sees the way dashell looks at him, the way he always seems to be at his happiest with him, the way his face lights up when ryan enters a room. he sees it and he acknowledges it, but he doesn't understand.

ryan isn't an idiot, he's just dense and not well versed in the art of being in love with someone.

he himself doesn't really know where he stands with dashell.

i mean, sure, he's ryan's best friend and ryan's main source of happiness. whenever ryan makes him smile, he feels giddy inside, when dashell needs a shoulder to cry on or someone to angrily rant to, he always goes to ryan. he trusts ryan more than he trusts anyone else, and it's not like he's complaining. dashell is pretty, dark hair framing his face in waves and soft chocolate eyes, how his cheeks flush a gorgeous pink when he's complimented, his patented wheeze-laugh that makes ryan's heart skip a beat whenever it's induced, how his eyes go soft when it's just him and ryan alone in a room.

ryan's only had one other relationship after he became an adult, and it ended rather badly after a year. to be honest, it is his fault; ryan knew he was gay before he started dating her, but he'd figured that maybe being in a relationship with a nice girl would make him normal, make him forget about the sinful thoughts swirling around in his mind about boys kissing boys, holding hands with men, curling up beside them in bed, all that and the works.

normal. he scoffs at the thought and looks back at dashell.

no one is normal. being gay isn't something he should've been ashamed of, even as someone who's fresh out of college (read; dropped out) and insecure about almost everything he does, and there is no "fixing" him - there's nothing to fix.

meeting dashell just helped solidify that fact.

he's helped ryan get through so much, honestly. helped him realise he isn't in love with his girlfriend and helped him break up with her, helped him when he's in the middle of a breakdown, helped him when he was close to giving up, helped him through so fucking much and never expected anything back.

ryan's pretty sure he's in love with dashell, and maybe dashell feels the same.

banishing those thoughts from his eager, yet half-awake mind, he settles back down into dashell's side, eyes fluttering closed. the gentle rise and fall of dashell's chest, combined with the gentle snores that slip out of his mouth, lull ryan back to sleep.

he'll think about it some more when he's more awake and when it isn't seven something in the morning.

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"ryan," dashell shakes the other awake, rubbing his eyes, "we gotta- it's almost noon and we're supposed to be filming with carson today." if he's being honest, he'd forgotten about filming too, wanting to spend the saturday sleeping and relaxing with ryan.

"fu-uck, i forgot," ryan groans, sits up and rolls out of the bed. "do we have to get dressed or can i record without pants?"

"i mean, i always record without pants, so i can't say shit," dashell giggles, carding a hand through his hair and brushing it back, out of his face. "we have like- ten minutes before carson wants us on squadstream and among us, we c'n grab something to eat or doordash."

"jus' doordash," the taller tugs on a different shirt and looks back at dashell, "'nd i'll get it since i'm definitely going to be murdered in the first round anyway."  dashell laughs loudly, head thrown back and shoulders shaking, and ryan's heart skips a beat.

yeah, ryan's most definitely in love.

it's honestly not even that big a deal, not to ryan. he's not afraid or surprised, he simply accepts the fact that he's in love with his best friend who is currently pantsless and grinning widely at him, so wide his dimples show. ryan is half tempted to pull out his phone and snap a picture. he wouldn't care if dashell doesn't like him back (though there's a heavy doubt he doesn't), as long as dashell continues to be his friend, he'll be satisfied.

their relationship doesn't need to change today. they'll confess when they're both ready to let the words flow, and if that's not today, then it's soon.

and if all he can think about during the among us game is dashell, so much he gets killed and doesn't even notice, well, that's for ryan to know.