‘Here’s to our first athlete-diet-approved protein shake picnic.’

Bikey and Harry tapped their shakes together and laughed.

Harry took a big gulp of the lumpy texture. 

‘Wow, you make it totally perfect. Aki always…I mean, umm aki..aki..akid always is…bad. Acid. You might have misheard me, like we keep mishearing each other, and thought I was going to say something else, but I said acid. Lactic acid build-up always sucks real bad. Like I know we’re having a relaxing rest day, but we should still think about your training. And maybe we should do another high intensity interval workout above the lactate threshold. Even though it hurts, it’s worth it right? Your body is looking a-may-zzzzing.’

Phew he totally covered that one. 

How was it so hard not to mention Aki’s name? It was making normal talking really difficult. Was Bikey right, that he talked about Aki all the time?

No, it was simply like when someone told you not to do something and it immediately made you think about it all the time. Bikey saying not to talk about him made Aki into a big creamy sugary cake with ‘do not eat’ written above him.

Luckily, Bikey had not noticed Harry stammering at all.

'You think I am looking that good?' Bikey said with a wide smile.

'Yes! Absolutely, your muscle bulk has improved so fast.'

They happily chatted on about whether to increase the intensity of the coming weeks planned workouts. Harry let Bikey do most of the talking as that seemed to be safer. He concentrated on enjoying his protein shake and absorbing all the many many different shades of green that surrounded them. He knew it was beyond his talents to capture this beauty, but when he got home it’d be nice to have a go at sketching all these trees and how it felt looking down at the gentle curve of the valley far below them.

Their conversation paused for a minute as they finished their meal. Harry licked everything his tongue could reach left stuck to the insides of his beaker, (a habit Aki had on his long list of things not to do, though he should know better as he had sat beside Harry mealtime after mealtime suffering starvation portions when the adults pilfered from their already small rations), and Bikey was doing the same.

Harry almost piped up about how cool it was they did the same things, but remembered Aki droning on about how him and Bikey were starting to copy each other’s mannerisms and even saying words in the other’s accent, and Aki somehow had made it sound like it was a very bad thing.

Instead Harry rubbed his stomach in contentment and said, ‘Thanks, Bikey, this has to be the best picnic ever.’

‘There’s more.’

‘More, how can there be more? The car, the scenery, the food, sharing it all with you. This is already beyond the best dream I’ve ever had.’

Bikey laughed. ‘You’ve got to start dreaming bigger, Sunflower.’

Harry rubbed the back of his neck as Bikey went to the car and retrieved another package of food. Something about the way Bikey had said ‘sunflower’ made him feel…something.

‘Dessert.’ Bikey placed a bowl of popcorn in front of Harry with a flourish. ‘I made it myself. It’s not going to be the popcorn you imagined when you were a kid, because it’s high fibre and got a sprinkling of cumin added instead of sugar, salt, butter, toffee, or any of the good stuff. But I wanted to do something to, yaknow, commemorate the first day we met. When, yaknow, you told me all about how much you wanted to eat popcorn. But wouldn’t let me buy you any because of your strict diet.’ He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.

‘How…when…did you make such a delicious feast? Can I really have some?’

‘Tuck in.’

Harry carefully took one piece of popcorn and put it on the edge of his tongue. He chewed carefully.

‘Is it better than cardboard?’ Bikey asked sounding surprisingly nervous.

‘It’s beautificiousique!’

‘That’s your new word? That’s not much better than boootiiifuullll.’

‘It’s booooooootiiiiifulllllll, get it right! But if you don’t like my prettymagzing words, then let me give you a hug to say thanks.’

Bikey nodded. ‘Yeah. That’d be nice. It’s what I want. What I always want. There’s something I need to spill. Got to stop being a coward.’

Harry frowned, Bikey had been mostly speaking slower today so he’d been able to follow most of what his friend said, but now he was confused. He gazed fully into Bikey’s face searching for a clue to his meaning. 

‘You’re looking red, mate, did you put enough of your sunblocker on today?’

Bikey’s reply was pushing his body into Harry’s, wrapping his arms tightly around his back and whispering in his ear, ‘I love you.’