Gabe was laying on his bed, playing a game of Tetris on his phone, when Trist entered the room, shut the door behind himself, and leant back against it. Gabe heard the sound of his Tetris game coming to an end as they made eye contact.

What was going on? Trist was just staring at him, frowning. Was he angry about something? 

Gabe was just about to ask what was wrong when Trist finally spoke. “We should go on a date.”

Gabe tried to hold in a snicker, failed, and then he was curled up on the bed, full on laughing.

“Well, okay then,” Trist said as he pushed away from the door and turned to leave.

“No, wait, Trist, I’m sorry!” Gabe said. “You just sounded so serious.”

Trist still looked on the precipice of storming off. “I was serious, but whatever.”

“I know, I just. I thought something was wrong. I thought you were angry. I was just relieved, that’s all. Of course I want to go on a date with you.”

Trist still looked like he wasn’t quite sure he believed that, but he leant back against the door. “Hmm. Okay.”

“Did you have any particular plans, or…?”

“I’m going to take you hiking.”

“Oh! Cool, that sounds fun. Uh, I don’t have any hiking boots, though. Just like… a cheap pair of trainers. Will that be okay?”

“Oh, you didn’t think I actually knew anything about hiking, did you?” Trist shrugged and offered him a tiny hint of a smile. “I figured we’d just go to one of those trails where people take their little kids. Nothing too extreme. I really just wanted to do something away from other people, and I don’t know. Being out in nature together seems to work well for us.”

“I agree. When are we going?”

“Right now. Put your shoes on.”

Gabe just stared at him. He couldn’t tell if he was serious. “Really?”

“You don’t want to?”

“No, I— of course.” Gabe sat up properly and started looking around for his shoes. “I just wasn’t expecting to go straight from planning to go on a date to actually going on a date.”

Trist found Gabe’s shoes and handed them to him. “I kind of end up getting inside my own head and overthinking things sometimes. Not giving myself any time to do that helps. I thought up this whole date idea ten minutes ago when I was in the shower.”

“I’m sorry I laughed at you. Really.”

“It’s okay. I did kind of just walk in here and glare at you. Probably not how you’re supposed to go about asking someone out.”

“I mean, probably not, but nobody’s ever asked me out before so what do I know?”

“I like to set expectations real low so that when I fail to meet them, it’s not by too much.” Trist opened up the closet and found an empty backpack. “I am going to go get us some water and snacks, though. There’s some sunscreen in the bathroom. You should slather that on thick so that your ginger ass doesn’t fry.”

“Hey! My hair is nowhere close to ginger. It’s auburn.”

“You’ve got fair, freckly skin. You’re going to spend five minutes outside, get skin cancer, and die.”

“Oh, no, that part I agree with and I’m going to slather that sunblock on thick and bring the bottle with us in case I need a top up. But my hair is auburn.”

“I’m glad we clarified that important point. Meet me in the living room when you’re ready.”

Gabe went to the bathroom and carefully covered every inch of his exposed skin in sunscreen, messed with his hair a bit, and then headed out into the living room to join Trist.

Sophia was up, laying on the couch in her pyjamas. “Gaaabe, Trist says I can’t go hiking with you guys.”

“Well, it’s a date,” Gabe explained. “Can’t be third wheeling on our date.”

Sophie sat up. “Aw, it’s a date? Trist, why didn’t you just tell me it was a date?”

“Well, I was hoping to avoid having to hear you say ‘aw, it’s a date?’, but here we are,” Trist said as he took the bottle of sunscreen from Gabe and shoved it into his backpack before zipping it up. “Gabe, are you ready?”

“Yup.”

“Cool, let’s go.”

“Have fun on your date!” Sophie called out as they headed for the front door.

Trist lifted his hand up and gave her the finger without turning around. She was laughing as they left the house.

Trist was silent as they got into his car, his expression completely unreadable, but neither of those things were particularly unusual for him. He was hard to read.

“Sorry if I wasn’t supposed to tell Sophie this was a date,” Gabe said.

Trist looked over at him, his eyebrows lifting slightly, then he turned away and shook his head as he shoved his keys in the ignition. “Nah, it’s fine. I don’t actually care. My relationship with Sophie isn’t like… all talking about feelings and shit like it is with Bee. But she’s good at reminding me not to take myself so seriously and sometimes I really need that.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Gabe hesitated, not sure if it would be weird to ask the question that had sprung to his mind. Ah, fuck it. “What am I good for?”

Trist’s eyes flicked to Gabe for half a second before returning to the road. He was silent for a long moment. “Making me excited to wake up in the morning.”

“Aww,” Gabe said in the same way he might when looking at a cute puppy, and he saw Trist’s lips press together. “No, I mean— that’s really sweet. You caught me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting you to be sincere.”

“Yeah, well, there you go. I can be romantic.”

“I’m not arguing.” The smile that had been on Gabe’s face slowly slid off as he thought over what he was going to say in return. “You made me feel like I matter. Like if I’m worth the attention of someone like you, maybe I’m not so worthless after all.”

“Fuck, Gabe. You shouldn’t need me to make you feel that way.”

“Yeah, sorry. I guess that was more of a depressing insight into the state of my mental health than anything romantic. But it’s more than that. You make me happy. You make me feel like there’s more to life than just getting by.”

“Also depressing as fuck, but I’ll take it.”

Gabe smiled. “Sorry. But I am happy right now. Really.”

Trist shot him a grin. “Yeah. I’m happy too.”

#

As soon as they got out of the car, Gabe was greeted by the smell of dirt and trees and the gentle backdrop of birdsong. There was something relaxing about being out there among nature, just the two of them. Even Trist seemed more at ease than usual.

Trist put his backpack on and they headed down the trail. It was much wider than the one that had led to Trist’s duck friend that could really only comfortably be walked single file. There was plenty of space to walk side by side.

The back of Trist’s hand bumped against Gabe’s, once, twice, and then Trist’s fingers intertwined with Gabe’s and they were holding hands.

Gabe shot him a smile. “Smooth.”

Trist immediately let go of Gabe’s hand, though he didn’t look mad. “Well it would have been if you hadn’t drawn attention to it.”

“Aw, no, I want to hold your hand,” Gabe said as he reached out for Trist’s hand again.

“Nope,” Trist said as he dodged away and then held his hands up above his head, out of Gabe’s reach, when Gabe pursued him.

“I swear you’re more shy about holding my hand than you were about holding my dick.”

“Well, I’ve held more dicks than hands.”

“I guess I’m one for one on that scoreboard now.”

Trist shot him an unreadable look. “Oh really?”

“Well, I’m counting my own dick. But then maybe I should count my own hand as well. I’ve definitely clasped my hands together at some point.”

Trist smiled and shook his head.

“Look, a lizard,” Gabe said, pointing out a water dragon sunbathing on a rock on the side of the road.

Trist approached slowly, careful not to make any sudden movements to startle the lizard. While he was distracted, Gabe reached out and gently took his hand. Another step closer and the lizard dashed off into the bush. 

Trist looked down at their linked hands, then up at Gabe, confusion painted on his face.

“Now that was smooth,” Gabe told him.

Trist smiled at him, soft and gentle in a way that Gabe had not only never seen from Trist before, but had never seen from anyone directed towards himself. “Yeah. That was smooth.”