starlightcafe | Testing, testing, I'm just suggesting: You and I might just be the best thing.

Gobo... had been mixed about a hangout day with Wembley. Not because their friendship was in trouble, quite the opposite in fact! It was some comments others had made on seeing them- "Aw you two are cute" here, and "He's like your shadow!" there, and "You two make quite a pair." They did make quite the pair, didn't they? But as he thought about what others had been saying, he realized he'd been unsure about something.

A pair of what.

So here he lay on his back, fingers laced together over his stomach as he stared up at the sky, and thought. Or he tried to anyway, except every couple of minutes Wembley would place another flower creation on him somewhere, and that was making this harder than it had to be.

"Wembleyyy..."

Wembley didn't look over at Gobo when he spoke, just because he was having trouble with a particularly stubborn stem on one of the blooms...

"Yeah, Gobo?"

He paused. SHOOT HE DIDN'T HAVE AN ANSWER FOR THAT.

"The uh, the petals are tickling my nostrils." He moved the ring on his own, placing it elsewhere on his own person.

"Oh, yeah, sometimes they do that!" Wembley replied, sticking his tongue out as he focused intently on getting that... Stubborn ol' stem... Aha! Time for the next flower. "Sorry, I won't put the next one on your nose."

He glanced over with a blink. "There's gonna be more?" A soft laugh that didn't sound a bit forced. "Wembley, you're gonna go through all your flowers at this rate."

"No, I don't think I can!" Wembley assured him. "Ferdinand always has more to share... There we go, that's another one!" This one - mostly made up of blue flowers - was shown to Gobo, then draped on his chest. Before picking a selection of flowers for the next one, though, Wembley paused. Well, if the flowers were going to be there, they should look right! That was the reasoning as he arranged the circle of flowers in a heart shape.

Ohhh no not blue. Of course he'd remember that. He watched Wembley, though he decidedly looked back up at the sky when the shape was changed.

That's just him being his usual silly self right? Of course, it's got to be! Wembley is a very caring person especially with Ferdinand on top of it. That's all there is to it.

The thing was, Wembley was being his usual silly self, but that absolutely came from a place of deep affection and fondness. He'd never wondered about his bond with Gobo much before, but he'd always known it was something special. And when other Aspects had started giving them labels and words for what they were, Wembley couldn't deny those terms all made sense. He might not have known he had feelings for Gobo before, but he could tell he always had, now that he did now.

A second, smaller flower ring was placed alongside the blue one, and arranged as an overlapping heart - this one yellow, Wembley's own favorite color. Aw, yeah, that looked nice.

Gobo's mouth pressed into a thin line and, almost imperceptibly so, his fingers tightened against each other. He had no idea of Wembley's feelings, or at least couldn't get a good enough read on them, and he knew that meant he was wembling about whether or not Wembley might actually have feelings for him, but this was difficult! Navigating romantic stuff wasn't anything he was even remotely good at.

As the mental tension rose his tail started beating against the ground, kicking up grass and flower petals, and jostling any rings that might've been threaded on it from before.

Wembley had started straight-away on a new flower crown, but stopped when the thud thud thud of Gobo's tail reached his ears. He frowned and looked over at him.

"Gobo? Is something wrong?"

He didn't answer at first, caught up in his own tangle of emotions. Tell? Don't tell? Find out? Don't find out? Be honest! No, hide it! Do something-

"I LOVE YOU"

A sudden burst from him when his thoughts reached the boiling point, complete with him shoving his hands up toward the sky. Then he let them drop out to either side, breathing a little deeply for a few beats.

Wembley ducked his head down a bit with a giggle. "Oh, that."

He scooched closer to Gobo, then stretched out beside him and held his near hand.

"I know. I'm glad you do, now, too."

That blink was damn near audible as he sat up, looking at Wembley in surprise.

"You- you know? How? When! I didn't even figure it out until a few days ago!"

Wembley giggled again, sitting up with Gobo and shrugging one shoulder. "I'm not sure when? But... It's us, Gobo. I may not be sure of most things, but- once I figured this out?" He raised their clasped hands. "I haven't wembled over it once."

Edited 2020-01-07 00:59 (UTC)

He stared at Wembley in surprise over- well, a lot of things. He looked at their hands, then toward his lap where the two flower rings had fallen, no longer in heart shapes but still overlapped. Then he lifted his head again. There was only one emotion now.

He all but dove forward, arms wrapping around Wembley in an embrace, momentum carrying them both to the ground. But he didn't care, he was full of love and relief and LOVE and he was kissing him and that's all he wanted.

Wembley giggled into the kiss. He cuddled up against Gobo and just... Took it all in; the strength of their love overwhelming him in a way he welcomed readily. He squeezed his friend - his love - snugly, careful not to make the embrace too tight.

This was exactly where he wanted to be.

Gobo held onto the kiss for several long seconds, and even when he broke it he still nuzzled close, snouts together. Then he moved back onto his knees and pulled Wembley up into a hug, his bubbling over of happiness obvious, and the same contagious from Wembley's side. When he released the hug he held onto his hands by the fingers, settling back onto his heels.

"I don't even know what to say, Wembley. I kinda wish I'd figured it out sooner," he said with a light laugh, "but I'm glad I figured it out now."

Wembley nodded, still smiling; still giggling. So, so unbelievably happy.

"Me, too, Gobo. I love you."

Oh, and actually saying it was a whole 'nother wonderful thing... He wanted to say that to Gobo every day, for the rest of forever. And he was going to be able to, too.

"I love you too."

Oh, he could get used to that. He laughed a bit and pulled him into another tight, happy hug.

Wembley's giggles became a full, joyous laugh in response to that. Hearing it like that was just as nice as saying it. Carefully - horns! - he nuzzled his snout against Gobo's cheek.

"I'm glad we're both here... Really glad."

Gobo leaned against that touch and, adding to his arms, even swung his tail around Wembley just for a little extra hug.

"Yeah. Me too."

Wembley snuggled in closer. "You mean so much to me, Gobo. You just... You make my life even better."

"And you to mine, Wembley." He moved just enough to get into a more seated position, pulling Wembley toward him once he was settled. "Y'always have. I don't know what I'd do without you around."

Wembley blushed a little, cozying right up. "Well, I promise you'll never have to know."

His arms around him were a little looser, and after a moment or two of looking around he picked up both of the rings. His fingers worked behind Wembley's back, thumb brushing here and there accidentally, but he was doing something. Patience.

"Good. And you'll never have to know what it's like without me around, either."

Oh, that tickled... What was Gobo up to?

"I know," he responded, deciding it was okay not to know what Gobo was doing. This moment was so... Sweet. "You've always been there for me."

"And I always will be." He leaned back from the hug, finally revealing what he'd been doing: opening the rings and braiding them into one big loop, which he threaded over Wembley's head and onto his shoulders.

"It's like that song I sang once. You can count on me."

"Aww, you put them together," Wembley giggled. "This looks great."

Then his smile softened and he nodded. "Thank you, Gobo. You can count on me, too."

"See? I knew you'd like that!" He snickered, then it softened into a smile.

"I know, and I'm really glad I know, too."

He kissed Gobo's cheek. "Yeah. ...Hey, Gobo? Is it, uh, is it okay if I keep staying in your house, then?"

He looked at him with a faint doubletake and then laughed lightly.

"Yeah! Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?"

"I have no idea," Wembley admitted with a bit of a laugh, himself. "I guess just 'cause you said I would stay until I got settled in here, and I really feel settled now."

"Yeah well, you can. So that's that."

He smiled, and he couldn't help it, he kissed him again.

Wembley smiled into it, his hands pawing happily at what little space on the ground there was between them. He let the kiss - and the happiness - linger.

"That's that," he repeated once they'd parted.

Even after the kiss he bumped their snouts together, his up under Wembley's, and there he stayed happily. His throat hummed pleasantly, and then in a little sing-song voice, "Well when I'm wemblin' west, I take the one I love best..."

"So we ca-" the start of the response, the next line in the song, was an automatic reaction... But Wembley cut himself off with a soft gasp when he realized how Gobo had changed the words, slightly but significantly. His breath, along with tears of joy, left him quite choked up as he put his arms around Gobo.

He laughed, happily hugging him back. "C'mon Wembley, gimme the next line!" Honestly, he just wanted to see if Wembley would change anything, too.

Wembley grinned and nodded, and once he could speak again, he obliged, "So we can wemble, wemble, wemble like this. And when we're wembling south, we don't got feet in our mouth, 'stead we just wemble, wemble, wemble as we kiss," he giggled - okay, so maybe he wasn't as good at this 'quick thinking' business as Gobo.

He had a feeling it wouldn't be a problem, though.

He laughed again, though it was clearly with and not at. That was absolutely perfect, and he decided to kiss him again, just because he could.

"That was great!"

Wembley had always appreciated Gobo's support, and now it seemed to mean even more... Or he was even more aware of how much he appreciated it. Either way, really - maybe both?

"Thanks, Gobo! I'm glad you liked it."

Edited 2020-01-07 03:15 (UTC)

He chuckled in his throat and nodded, then smiled at him.

"Hey, so now what do you wanna do, eh? We've got the rest of the day in front of us." And that night, and the following week, and on forever.

"Oh, uh-" Wembley was fully expecting to go wemblitonic as many options started coming to mind, but then his stomach growled, and though he smiled sheepishly at that, he was glad for the intervention.

"...We can find something to eat?"

He blinked down at that, then snickered some and nodded. Taking Wembley's hands, he pulled him up to his feet, all without taking his eyes off him a bit.

"Sure! That sounds like a great idea."

Wembley gave Gobo's hands a little squeeze. "Good- Oh! I know we usually go visit Miss Kotori's place to borrow food, but I still have some treasures from the last story we saved, and maybe it'd be nice if we went to one of those little markets in the town and found a place to eat?"

While not fully aware that he was asking Gobo out - more of a clueless Wembley thing than a Fraggle culture thing, there - he did know that going to a place with Gobo and spending time together that way would be really nice.

"Sure! I like that a lot." He and Wembley went to places all the time. Different explorations, different caverns and caves down at the Rock, even to the Great Hall to play. And that hadn't changed here at the Index, they were almost always together- heck that was part of what had gotten this whole thing started, people seeing them be inseperable.

But there was something different about it now. For all the closeness they had before, there was just... more. An extra little glow of warmth to it, that he never imagined could be there with Wembley. That made whatever this now was- hanging out, dating, all of the above -even better.

He let go of Gobo's hands so he could loop his arm through the other Fraggle's, and gave a nod. "Great!"

It was true; they'd already been always together. This was both a minor change and a major difference, the way Wembley saw it. On the surface level, the same best pals they'd always been, but now they could kiss. But deeper than that, there was something else that was different, something he couldn't explain but was so, so happy about.

He smiled and lightly nudged up alongside him in an affectionate gesture. And as they walked, his tail loosely wound around Wembley's once or twice, another point of contact between them he just couldn't quite help.

Wembley beamed, with a quick glance at Gobo, and shifted his own tail so the two were intertwined. Flowers trailed behind him as the two walked into the busier part of the Index - bluebells and buttercups, side-by-side.

Testing, testing, I'm just suggesting: You and I might just be the best thing.

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