Cole's eyes ran over the multiple bags of chips. He kept going back and forth between the Doritos and Lays, occasionally sparing a glance to the Cheetos. Letting out a huff and admitting defeat, he turned to Kyle.

"Kyle," he called, catching the taller boy's attention. Kyle had been scrolling through his phone while he waited for Cole to pick out the chips but looked up when he heard his name being called. "What type of chips do you like? Doritos or Lays?" Kyle looked at Cole and then stared at the multiple bags of chips in front of his friend.

"Honestly . . ." He said, biting his lip in thought. "I'm more of a Cheetos person." Cole moaned in frustration but grabbed a large bag of Cheetos and another large bag of Doritos.

"There, that's it. Let's go before I try to grab the Lays again." Cole told Kyle, urgently grabbing the taller boy's hand and leading them away to the drinks.

Kyle had invited Cole over to his house again so that they could hang out and play on Kyle's PS4. But while Kyle had been changing into his Rugby practice outfit one of his friends had called him.

His friend had invited himself and one of Kyle's other friends over to Kyle's place without telling Kyle. Of course with those two coming Kyle had to invite Neal over as well and just like that the four were together again.

Kyle called his mom from the locker room to tell her and the moment she got wind of the plans she insisted that Kyle go shopping for snacks after he got home.

"I am cooking tonight but you know that we must always have snacks for guests Kyle." She had said, already calculating in her head how much food she would have to cook. "And these are three teenage boys!"

"But they're just friends, mom." Kyle had complained. "It's not that serious."

"Of course it is Kyle, guests are guests." She insisted. "You are buying them snacks after you get home, Kyle. It is your responsibility as host."

Kyle gave in easily and mentally folded it into his plans. He would quickly run into the store, buy the bare minimum, and be back where his friends would be waiting with all the games set up.

But when Kyle had gotten home Cole was not only on time but early. He was going to leave Cole to wait but his mother had said just a few simple words to force him to do otherwise.

"Why don't you take Cole with you?" She had suggested, walking out from the kitchen and innocently smiling at Cole. "It would be so boring for Cole here with us, let him go with you."

Kyle had wanted to object, he would be faster by himself and Cole would just distract him. But he obviously couldn’t actually say that. His mom had already suggested and saying no now would have made him look like a jerk. His mother had played him perfectly and now the two had already picked out the chips.

"Is there a drink that one of your friends is in love with?" Cole asked, bringing Kyle out of his thoughts.

"What? Love?" He asked, his unfocused eyes gradually finding Cole's. Kyle started to blank and struggled to find words. "Uhhh . . ."

"Love," Cole repeated, his expression becoming teasing as he slowed down his words for Kyle. "Are there drinks that are Neal’s or Oscar’s or maybe Oakley's favorite?"

Kyle's face heated up when he finally understood and Cole just laughed at his friend's expression.

"You really make me laugh." Cole sighed, going to pick up a Sprite bottle. "Your mom okay with us bringing soda?"

Kyle nodded, grabbing some no-name watermelon soda as well.

"Yeah, she doesn't care about that stuff anymore since my younger sister is in high school now." Kyle answered, carefully placing the bottle of soda in his basket and turning to head to check out. Cole followed quickly and they finally went to pay.

—————

"Wait, shit wait! No no no no no!" The tiny whoosh sound came on and on the screen, Superman was utterly crushed by Supergirl. In other words, Kyle's friend Oscar just lost against Cole by a big margin. Cole grinned widely, wiggling his short red eyebrows at Oscar, and shrugged his shoulders. 

"I'm sorry Oscar, I didn't want to have to show you your place but you thought that just because Superman should be stronger in the actual comics he would be able to beat me." Cole 'apologized' with a smug smirk on his face the entire time. "That's not how it works man. This is Injustice 2." 

Oakley, Oscar's twin brother and one of Kyle's other good friends, was taking the piss out of Oscar's loss. His brother could be a real cocky dick so he enjoyed when he was put in his place. 

Kyle was seated on the good sofa, popping another chip in his mouth and just shrugging when Oscar tried to look at him for help. Kyle also found Oscar deserving of a loss and he definitely would not help him, especially against Cole. 

Cole tried to hold back but after seeing everyone's reactions started laughing himself. He looked away from Oscar and placed a hand over his mouth but his ears steadily started turning red and other than the muffled chuckling noises you could also see his shoulders moving. Kyle stared, stunned by how cute the entire thing was.

Oscar seemed to find Cole holding back his laughter twenty times more offending, standing up and stomping out of the room with a huff. That seemed to break the rest of the group's will completely and everyone burst out laughing. They were holding stomachs and occasionally wiping tears throughout the laughing fit. 

Kyle's eyes drifted to Cole again and his laughter started to calm as he noticed Cole's carefree expression. Cole's eyes were watering as well and his mouth was open wide as he laughed. His teeth were showing clearly and his laugh itself was so perfect that Kyle's belly laughter turned into a forced chuckle as he watched.

Kyle realized that his silence paired with the path of his eyes might look weird so he quickly let out a few more chuckles that made it sound as if he were done and turned on his phone. His friends followed him soon after and a minute after that Oscar joined the group again. Of course, he was teased some more for leaving but they quickly laid off because they knew that if they pushed hard enough he would actually get offended.

They moved on from video games and started playing cards because they couldn't come up with anything else to do. With an odd number of people Signal was out of the question and when someone told Cole this as he suggested it, he frowned and unconsciously pouted his lips.

Kyle almost didn't believe his eyes when he saw it but after blinking several times it was still there.

"I mean . . . we don't all have to play. Neal was on his phone a ton earlier, I'm sure he wouldn't mind watching." Cole thought aloud, innocently looking at Neal. Cole’s imploring tone was obvious and to the point where he was practically begging. Oakley and Oscar smirked, turning to Neal to see his reaction. Neal shook his head and gave Cole an unnecessarily hard pat on the back.

"Nice try but I'm playing." Neal told him, chuckling lightly and taking the pack of cards from the middle of the circle that the group created. While Neal shuffled the cards Cole pouted even harder and though it still did not look forced Kyle couldn't help but stare.

How can he be so naturally . . . adorable? Kyle thought in awe, his eyes locked on Cole's pouty little lips. He isn't even trying and he looks like a baby mixed with a model.

Neal glanced over at Kyle and raised a brow at his locked stare but did not make a comment on it and let the twins dominate the conversation that was currently about the Kylie baby drama.

"So, you're telling me that Kylie Jenner's baby daddy is really her bodyguard?" Oscar asked skeptically. "I mean I believe that she might have cheated but how can people be so sure that it was the bodyguard?" Oakley groaned and flapped his hands, exasperated by his brother's reaction.

"Have you seen the pictures? Oscar, the baby looks nothing like Travis Scott and everything like her bodyguard!" Oakley told his twin. While the twins talked about the gossip and Neal and Cole added in their two cents here and there, Kyle would steal several glances at Cole, analyzing his expressions and reactions to the others and giving small smiles those few times that Cole looked back. 

After all of this Kyle came to the conclusion that Cole was actually very cute. Like, extremely cute. The type of cute that you think is extra and unneeded and too much when you hear about it but is actually the most natural and perfect thing ever.

He must have some cuteness technique that he just doesn't know about, Kyle jokes to himself. His friends finally decided to play Egyptian War and he tried to keep his mind off Cole for a second to focus on the game at hand.

That idea didn't work out that well but after Kyle lost all of his cards he was able to slap back in and stay in for a while before he lost all of his cards and gave up. He watched as Neal, Cole, and Oakley continued to play, with Oscar watching closely for opportunities to slap back in himself. Neal was placing down some of his last cards when a slap suddenly appeared. Neal went for it in an attempt to reestablish himself in the game but Cole moved like lightning and was already starting to take the cards when Neal got his hand down, Oakley having not even gone for it.

Neal cursed inaudibly and Cole smirked to himself. Oakley groaned as Cole once again proved his talents at games. Cole chuckled to himself and said a little "yay" in celebration before focusing on trying to get Oakley out.

Kyle thought over it for less than a second before spitting out.

"Why are you so cute?" Kyle asked bluntly, ignoring the shocked and laughing eyes of his other friends and focusing on how Cole's mouth opened and closed but nothing actually came out. He thought about mentioning that that action was really cute as well but decided that his initial question was enough. Cole still hadn't come up with an answer so Neal stepped in to help.

"Kyle, you know that that is a really weird question." Neal told Kyle, making his tone come out light but completely serious. Kyle had the nerve to blush and shrugged vaguely.

"I was just wondering and asked." He said nonchalantly. "I'm sorry if that was weird, Cole." The apology seemed to get Cole to organize himself and Cole shook his head.

"No, it's fine. I was just surprised, that’s all." Cole assured Kyle. Giving Kyle to awkward pats on the shoulder and unaware that the simple gesture sent a flutter to Kyle's chest. "I would answer your question but I really don't know. I guess it runs in the family."

Kyle scrunched up his face as he thought of Cole's tall and lanky father, who he had seen a photo of a few days before.

"I don't know if I would consider your dad 'cute,'" Kyle said in all seriousness, cracking a smile when those around him started to laugh.

Cole was laughing too but his face kept scrunching up in disgust as he did so. The thought of his father trying to look cute or doing the puppy dog face kept flashing in Cole's mind and thus caused him to continually look put off as he laughed. The entire thing hit Kyle in the gut and he thought that his previous notion was completely accurate. He felt the urge to reach out and ruffle the shit out of Cole's red hair but ignored it and carried on as normal.

"Eww! Don't ever say that again Kyle," Cole whined, shaking his head with an unwanted smile still dancing on his lips. "I won't be able to get the image out of my head for weeks."

The whole group laughed some more before continuing their game of cards where, as expected, Cole won. Cole stood up and did a small incredibly uncoordinated jig and Kyle smiled as he watched. 

He also found this cute but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.