As Lane shuffled away, he trembled. The circles of sweat under his armpits grew bigger and it was not because of the heat from the kitchen. He sat himself on the counter and let the tap run beside him as he revisited the list in his head for what else he had to complete: there was a pudding to set, biscuits to bake, vegetables to boil and so much more. He splashed some of the water on his face and sighed, afraid he might not be able to get everything ready in time or serve any dinner at all. Kenny being here only made things more complicated as he had to attend to him as well. He could’ve asked Lois for a hand if she wasn’t at her ballet lessons.

“Lane?” Kenny called as he entered, “need a hand?”

He didn’t notice it, but he was staring quite intently, with his head tilted under the weight of a thousand thoughts. Something was…different. A good different, that Lane most certainly enjoyed the feeling of. The feeling of finally reaching home after an endless voyage except the home was…Kenny. He had been shooting down this feeling for ages and yet, it had never left – it had been love at first sight….or first day. He had rolled his luggage out the airport to knock into the most dark, most handsome face he had ever seen and he still agreed that his twelve-year-old self had excellent taste. The first hour had been silent, none of them knew each other, they told each other their name and that was it. Yet as time went by, they had started talking, and Lane realized he was so much more. Nothing like the ‘friends’ he had at school: the students he kept at his side by feeding them useless -  sometimes even vile gossip, even though he knew they never truly cared.  It was like a transaction: they talk to him if he has some dirt to share. On the other hand, Kenny listened. He hadn’t known much English, heck half whatever he had said that day was Slovakian back to back, but Kenny had listened and tried to figure it out. He grasped every word that came out of Lane’s mouth with admiration even if it was nothing to admire.

“Lane?” Kenny said, “everything alright? Should I give you a hand?”

“No! No you shouldn’t” Lane snapped, “Please, go make yourself at home”

He dropped down from his seat and bashfully  bit his lip while Kenny scratched his head, weighing himself from one foot to the other.

“Where’s Lois?” he asked roaming around for a bit, unsure what exactly he was supposed to do.

“Ballet lessons” Lane groaned, “I was supposed to have swimming today, but I stayed home” He thought about it. Even if Lois was home, she might not have been the most useful in the kitchen. Kenny looked back at Lane in confusion.

“I thought you did figure skating”

“I do both” Lane shrugged, “does my form not tell you that?” he asked sarcastically, posing quite well despite the bowl that occupied his hands. Kenny averted his gaze, seemingly shrinking into the pot on the stove that he was supervising.

“Uh…” Kenny thought, “Your form? yeah I guess it does… well, I never really looked all that well.” He replied. “May I please help you? You can’t get this all done on your own” Kenny asked while tiptoeing over the stove to stir the milk and eggs for the pudding, clearly trying to move along the conversation.  Poor thing was too short to see over the top of the stock pot. Lane sighed and nodded. “Don’t we need aprons?”

“We’re not cooking for the queen” Lane chuckled and proceeded with whisking the cookie batter. The slightest aroma of warm milk started wafting through the kitchen as the mixture started to bubble, attracting the cats meowing and purring sweetly towards them.

He noticed Ava and Percy’s dancing tails from and made the most disgusted face at them.

“Ugh” he groaned, “you let them in?”

Kenny looked back at him in confusion, “Well, they escorted me to the door. I felt it was quite rude to leave them outside”

“You?” Lane raised his eyebrow, “I thought you despised pets”

“I despise the idea of the pet being mine” Kenny clarified smirking, “the…responsibility and the chaos of it all. But other’s pets are cute!” Shaking his head and sighing, Lane put the bowl down and started herding Percy and Ava towards the door, sometimes having to push them around physically when they tried heading back. Back when they were a bit younger, he could have got them distracted by a piece of string or a toy of sorts, but with their age getting to them all they did was prowl behind everyone in the house, constantly yowling for food. He finally reached the door, his patience at its limit and the cats feeling the same way. Percy, definitely the more forward one of the two, decided she must express this by locking her teeth around Lane’s bony ankle just as he unlocked the door.

“OW!!” he yelped, “zasraný pekelník*!” he cursed opening the door wide enough for him to push them out but narrow enough for him to quickly close it in case they try run back in.

“Oh!” coincidentally Timothy had been reaching for the bell when Lane had opened it, “el gato!” he exclaimed picking up Ava gently and entered the house with his duffel bag in his other hand. Lane could only gape helplessly with his mouth wide open as the pets he had worked so hard to kick out found their way back in.

“TIMOTHY…..”Lane whined to himself pointlessly. He dragged his feet behind Timothy who enthusiastically invited himself and the cats that followed him to plop down on the couch. Lane could do nothing but look up at the invisible forces in the sky and wonder if they really existed.

“Am I too early?” Timothy asked, looking around as he stroked the cat on his lap. Lane could feel his own eyes flash with annoyance at how comfortable the cat seemed to be, it’s gaze smug and proud.

“Looks like we won, didn’t we sister?” it seemed to say as it peered with the same bullying look to Percy on the floor who shot it back at Lane with twice the superiority. Throwing his hands in the air in exasperation, he decided it wasn’t worth wasting the energy on and walked away. Overwhelmed with his defeat, and all of the cooking left to be done, he walked head on into Kenny who was on his way to the living room with the pudding ready to be refrigerated.

“Actually, I-AH!” he heard Kenny yelp momentarily before everything suddenly slowed down: Lane felt his momentum conduct itself through the unset dessert, sloshing its thick liquefied state to and fro wildly while the tray retreated hard into Kenny’s ribs. He lurched forward, his long arms stretching beneath and cradling the dish - locking it in place against gravity. And then, everything stood still. A small dollop of thick pudding goop escaped over the wall and splattered lightly on the floor to mark the end. Nobody moved, except for their bulging eyes jerking from tray to splatter and back to the tray.

“Thank goodness” Timothy whooped, “Otherwise we would have had banana-split”. Lane exchanged an unamused, tired look with Kenny, giving Timothy the signal that he better shut up.

“Kenny” Lane exhaled, “I’m so sor-“ he trembled with embarrassment, his knees wobbling beneath him and the sweat making it almost impossible to hold the glass properly.

“Nice catch” Kenny huffed, slowly balancing the dish back into his custody (or CUSTARD-Y you could say!). His soft gaze never once moved away from Lane as they searched deep within Lane’s soul, still analyzing how awful Lane felt after the incident. It made Lane smile back in return- a full smile that flashed his set of perfect pearly whites as he murmured Kenny a shy “thanks”.

Everything unfroze when Lois kicked down the door. Lane jumped, letting out a scared high-pitched squeak. Another drop- SPLAT!

“Ah.” she acknowledged, striding proudly across the hall and imprudently sticking her finger in the pudding batter, “pudding!”

“Panebože!” Lane huffed, “ste nechutný! Choď hore a umy sa!” He quietly noted Lois being more sweaty than she usually is after classes and how her ballet slippers seemed dirtier than usual. He kept his suspicions to himself and moved on.

“Tastes great, Kenny!” Lois commented, Lane’s words clearly beyond her attention and continued to march on with as much dignity she can pull off with a flouncy pink tutu bouncing behind her- she pulled it off surprisingly well. She stopped to mess up Tim’s hair, attracting her pets towards her like a magnet.

“Ballet.” Timothy said in disbelief, “Really?”

“Why?” Lois asked, doing a dramatic pirouette, “I am the epitome of grace”. She bowed with poise, despite the boys sarcastically nodding and stretching out a “Su…re” of disbelief and skipped upstairs.

“Tt.” Lane grunted, rolling his eyes.

Lane loved Lois- no, he adored her. Although, she made it very hard to show, with her rowdy behaviour. She was his box of Pandora – his diary. The volumes of tears he had shed onto her, curled up as tightly as he could, his head laying on her shoulder, could have filled a thousand leagues of the Pacific. She was younger but definitely stronger. Each tear was always full of regret and the acceptance of being rejected. Half a litre of tears, maybe even three-fourths, every time his classmates caught him alone in a corner to bully. That’s why he went around searching for Kenny when he was free – otherwise he was alone. His parents tried consoling him, but they didn’t really do a good job – they couldn’t force anyone to like him. They had done quite enough, to be honest, deciding to move from their perfect home in Slovakia to England just so Lane could express himself more freely.

‘You should’ve just stayed a girl. Then we might have actually considered giving you some of our time’

‘It’s not like you’ll ever actually be a man anyway. Freak!’

He never told anyone besides Lois how serious it was – not even Kenny. Luckily for him, it was the weekend. He wouldn’t be facing anyone for another three days. Three days he was excited to spend with people who loved and adored him.

“OW” Lane barked, rubbing the sore spot that Timothy had punched, “Why?!” Kenny was nowhere in the picture. Lane figured he probably left to put the sad pudding in the fridge before any more accidents happened to it.

“Aren’t we going to eat?” Timothy asked.

“I-“ Lane nodded, “Yeah”

“Well, let’s finish that mess in the kitchen” Tim said, pulling his messy hair back with a hairband.

Translations:

SLOVAK -zasraný pekelník: Fucking hellspawn!

              - Panebože! ste nechutný! Choď hore a umy sa!: Oh my God! You're disgusting! Go upstairs and wash yourself!

SPANISH -el gato! : kitty!