The waitress delivered their first round of drinks along with a few snacks on the house, she placed in the middle of the table. Elliot took a sip from his, while Victor started to drink half of his swimming pool right away. Why was he so eager to drown it? Maybe he just wanted to erase the image of the graveyard from his mind. He decided not to judge them on it.

For a while, their conversation flowed slowly but steady. Victor asked a few things about the flower shop, and they reminisced about their school years together. Elliot felt comfortable listening to him. Even if it was just a few drinks together, they never had a chance to talk so much with each other until now.

His gaze followed his lips, while he listened closely to every detail Victor was willing to share about his life. A part of him was happy that not a single girlfriend was mentioned so far, only a main coon cat Victor adopted a while ago. Well, not that he should get up his hopes too high. 

The only thing that bother him was the sheer number of cocktails Victor drowned over their conversation. Was it just a matter of today, or did he have a little problem with that? He had started to worry about it, as Victor suddenly opened his mouth.

“Pathetic, aren’t I?”, he mumbled. The alcohol clearly had started to get to him. What did he mean by that? But before Elliot had a chance to ask, he continued on his own. “There I have finally managed to gather the last ounce of my courage to invite you to drink together after all these years. And still, I can’t get a single one of the words out I wanted to say for such a long time.” 

“Things you wanted to say to me? Like what?”, he carefully dug deeper. 

“I mean that I like you, Elliot. More than I should, really. I’ve been in love with you for so long, I can’t even remember when it started.” Elliot felt his heart beating in his chest. Was he serious? “I never had the guts to come out. My mom, you know, I loved her dearly, I really did. But she was so stubborn on some subjects, always telling me how it was finally time to forget about this phase and to find a girl to start a family with. It bothered me so much, that I never allowed myself to even think about dating you.”

His mother had been the reason he kept these feelings to himself? It must have been painful to look them up, burying them deep within. Elliot had more luck with his family. They never pressured him to be something he wasn’t, even though his father had some troubles adjusting to the situation. But for Victor, it seemed his whole being had been questioned constantly.

“When I saw you today in the shop, it felt like fate. I finally stopped grieving, accepting it was time to move forward - and then you appeared before me, as if you had waited for the right chance to reappear. Still, I had to muster up all my courage to even ask you to accompany me. And now we are here, and I couldn’t even talk to you honestly without a dozen cocktails.” 

He buried his face in his hand, as Elliot reached for it, gently squeezing it. 

“Stop talking nonsense. You’re not pathetic, Victor. It’s not your fault you had so much trouble to be honest with yourself. Also, I can hardly complain about it”, Elliot insisted.

“So, you aren’t angry about me having the hots for you?”, Victor asked carefully. 

“No, of course not. Why should I? To be true to myself, I am not better than you.” Elliot smiled carefully at him, his heartbeat speeding up. “For all these years since we met in school, I had fallen for you too. But I never thought you’d feel the same, so I never approached you. And now here we are. Can you believe it?” 

Victor gripped his hand firmly, searching for his eyes. “You too?” He focused intensely on Elliot, reaching for his face with the second hand, gently rising his chin. “Are you sure? Really?”

“There isn’t a single thing I was surer about in my whole life”, Elliot insisted. 

“I can’t believe it. Not in my wildest dreams I would have dared to think you’d feel the same for me”, Victor admitted.

“Yeah, I know. Me too.” Elliot leaned over the table. “But now we are here, and you finally broke the silence after all these years. So, what are we waiting for any longer?” 

Victor came closer, studying his features and lost himself in the two-colored eyes.
“I wanted to tell you for so long, how much I loved these eyes of you. I’ve never seen something more beautiful in all my life.” 

Fire up by these compliment, Elliot took the next step, crossing the distance between them, joining their lips. After all the years they yearned for each other in silence, the longing came to an end. He wasn’t sure where their story would lead to or what awaited him, but he didn’t care either. Fate had brought them back together - and it would guide them to a future. A future where he wasn’t just dreaming about being with the one he loved. 

Could he have wished for a better turn of events?