chapter seven - human burrito

chapter seven — human burrito

I DIDN'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, KNOWING THAT BOTH KIERAN AND HIS MOM HAD AN AFFINITY FOR FORGETTING TO LOCK THEIR FRONT DOOR. Thankfully, the neighborhood was pretty safe, and everyone loved Ms. Mogan to pieces. If anyone dared to rob her, even look at her wrong, they'd probably be in jail in less than 24 hours. If Kieran had his way, it would be the morgue.

"Lukas!" Kieran's Mum had an apron wrapped around her, flour in her hair and egg yolk stamped on the cloth-like it was a postcard. Her eyes sparkled when she smiled, crinkling the same way Kieran's did, though the gesture was much easier for her face to make.

"Hi Ms. Mogan," I grinned.

"Oh, you boys...call me Caoimhe dearie. Ms. Mogan makes me feel like I should be in a home!"

Caoimhe.

"Okay, Kee-va...?" I tried it out, failing miserably to pronounce her name. Though it wasn't that bad, I stuck to Ms. Mogan since it was just easier in my head. It wasn't the first time I'd butchered her name, and it definitely wouldn't be the last.

Kieran's Mum ignored my failure, instead cheering at my terrible pronunciation. She'd always been like that, as far as I could remember: Insanely supportive and optimistic. It was enough to make anyone who visited Kieran's house jealous.

"I would hug you, but I've made an awful mess of myself. I don't want to get it on you too!," She laughed lightly, hands playing with the tie of her apron. She'd wound it around her waist twice, an ugly bow sitting at her bellybutton. Kieran's Mom wasn't a short lady by any means, arguably the same height as Kieran (though he vehemently denied it), and she was scarily thin.

Her figure did not do justice to her appetite though since I'd seen her finish an entire pie by herself a few Thanksgivings ago. Kieran got that from her too, along with the majority of his features.

He only resembled his father when he opened his mouth.

"Ay, how you doing Schmitt?" DJ appeared right behind Ms. Mogan, bright smile on his face. He had a bright pink, floral apron on, most of the design clouded with flour. There was a singular chocolate chip stuck to his cheek like an extroverted dimple, arguably a part of an unintentional Marilyn Monroe Cosplay.

"Pretty alright," I laughed, wiping my shoes on the doormat out of habit.

"Doing some baking?"

"You could say that" DJ rolled his eyes, chuckling when Kieran's Mom poked his arm with a fake frown. He held his hands up in surrender and she laughed, thin hands reaching forward to pull on my forearm gently.

I let her guide me to the kitchen, trying and failing not to laugh when I saw the disaster inside. Roger was bent over a baking sheet, nose millimeters away from the parchment. He had a lump of cookie dough in his hand, a ruler in the other, and was measuring out the distance between each ball he put down. He looked up quickly, offered me a half-smile, before looking back down to continue whatever the hell he was doing.

DJ walked over next to him, grabbing chunks of the dough and rolling it into semi-spherical shapes. He held up one of the balls to the light, eyes squinted as he studied it before grabbing some chocolate chips and carefully pushing it into the bald spots of the dough.

And then there was Marco. He was doing absolutely nothing, a plate of burnt-black cookies in front of him and a line of white powder—

"Marco? What the hel—heck are you doing?"

He shot me a droll look, not bothering to answer before proceeding to fake snort a line of the white stuff.

"Marco! Don't inhale the flour honey, it'll make you sneeze" Kieran's Mom pursed her lips with naive worry, hurrying over to clean up Marco's make-believe cocaine. Marco pouted but helped her dust it up. I caught his gaze and frowned when I noticed his red-rimmed eyes. He was definitely high. Of course. I wasn't even surprised at this point.

He broke gaze first, grabbing a burnt cookie and shoving the whole thing into his mouth, a tragic crunch echoing through the kitchen when he bit down. I winced.

"Where's Kieran?"

"Keke? He's downstairs bro, refused to budge"

"Playing some stupid video game with his online friends. Didn't even register that we were here, so we decided to help out Mama Mogan"

I nodded, teeth pulling at the inside of my bottom lip. Kieran normally didn't get too absorbed into video games, so him ignoring us was a relatively new development. DJ groaned when he held up yet another ball to the light, this one significantly larger than the rest.

"I can't get the size right"

"It might be easier to use an ice cream scoop DJ," I pawed through the drawers, pulling one out.

"Oh shi—shoot, you right," DI accepted it greedily, and Roger finally straightened up, rolling his shoulders back.

"I quit. I can't do this anymore," He sighed, untying the apron and flinging it at me.

"I'm going downstairs to wait for Kieran to realize we are here, let me know when the cookies are done"

He shot an apologetic look at Kieran's Mom and she just chuckled and patted his cheek before taking over what he'd been doing. She worked a lot faster than him but was putting the balls of dough way too close together. At this rate, we were baking a cookie cake, not individual cookies. Honestly, that wouldn't be that bad, but I was sure that wasn't exactly what Caoimhe was going for.

"Same. Adios losers. Not you Mama Mogan, you rock" Marco slid his chair back and grabbed the plate of burnt cookies. He awkwardly winked at Caoimhe, almost falling down the basement stairs.

"I should follow him to make sure he doesn't break anything," DJ said slowly, pulling the apron off his head.

"Like himself?" I offered with a grin and DJ scowled, lightly punching me in the arm before snickering.

"Yeah"

"Looks like it's just me and you Lukas!" Caoimhe smiled, somehow managing to put one of the dough balls off the tray and onto the countertop. She frowned, hastily grabbing it and dropping it onto the parchment where it collided with other chunks of dough.

"Well, you already did all the heavy lifting Ms. Mog— Caoimhe," I gently slid the tray towards me, grabbing DJ's apron to wear over my clothes.

"If you want to clean yourself up, I can put them in the oven"

"Oh, would you be such a gentleman? Thank you, sweetheart" She patted my cheek.

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"Who wants cookies?"

"Gimme," Marco snatched the plate from my hands, balancing it perfectly on his knees.

"Didn't he literally just finish all the burnt cookies too?" Roger looked up from his phone, eyebrows raised, semi-impressed.

"Munchies," DJ offered simply, pulling gently at the tray. Marco swatted his hand away and DJ sighed, sliding closer to him.

"You can't eat all of those Marco"

"Watch me, bitch"

My gaze landed on Kieran, heart simultaneously dropping and tumbling in my chest. His eyes were glassy but firmly focused on the screen. He briefly glanced over to Marco and DJ; Marco unleashed an inhuman screech when DJ ate one of the cookies. His lips quirked downwards, before opening to yell something at his team.

Kieran looked fucking adorable, wrapped in a blanket on the couch like a human burrito. An angry, raging human burrito albeit. The only thing I could see of his body were the tips of his socks, his hands, and his face. The blanket was pulled over the top of his headset like a hood, and he looked like one of those weird alien things from Star Wars. Or maybe even ET.

"Revive me, please" He snapped, brows forming a hard line on his face. He impatiently jostled the controller, thumbs smashing the button repeatedly as his teammates completely ignored him.

I quietly took a seat next to him, smiling when he glanced at me. He managed a half-grimace half-smile back, attention snapping back to the game like it was a rubber band.

"The fuck you said?" His brows crushed together, deep scowl settling on his face. I saw his shoulders tense up under the blanket. He moved his leg impatiently, pressing up against mine through the blanket.

Fuck.

His heat spread through my leg like fire and I moved away quickly, hand reaching up to comb through my hair and shield my blush from him. I hated how easy it was for him to affect me, and how oblivious he was to all of it. When I had a crush on Kieran, back when I was a sophomore, it had almost consumed my mind. I wanted to spend every waking moment with him, and desperately wanted the same out of him. It was stupid as hell, but here I was now: trying to spend every free moment with him.

I don't like him anymore. We're just friends.

"I'm not gay? The fuck? I just asked for you to fucking do your job you turd" Kieran hissed, suddenly emerging from his burrito. He leaned forward emphatically as if the screen would absorb him and he would be able to whoop xDethSlayer69x's ass. His lips pulled together into an otherwise ugly grimace, but the way his nose crinkled reminded me of the way he laughed.

I jumped out of the couch, sidling up next to Roger instead. He was watching Kieran intently, amusement playing on his features.

"How does that make me gay?" Kieran all but growled, slamming the controller down into his lap.

Marco snorted, stifling a choked laugh and we all followed suit, silently sniggering. Kieran shot me a scratching look and I put my hands up defensively.

"I made cookies?"

His gaze softened.

"I've had plenty of girlfriends, can't say the same for your gay ass" His anger came back, tenfold as he glared back at the screen. I bit my lip, unsure of whether it was funny or not. Kieran got riled up easily, yeah, but the way he was yelling made me uneasy. Roger put a hand on my shoulder, brushing past me to sit next to Kieran.

"Why does that even fucking matter you piece of shit? Just revive me, you assho—"

"Babe, who're you talking to?"

We all froze, head whipping around to find the source of the new voice. It was deep, yet unmistakably feminine. Not a girl's voice, but a woman's. If I'd have been straight and prepubescent, I might have popped an instant boner.

But I was very much a gay adolescent male, so I settled for whipping my head around so fast I looked like a human garden hose.

"Who the hell was that?" Marco whispered, finally roused from his cookie-craze.

DJ and I exchanged confused glances and I looked over at Kieran and Marco to see if they'd heard her too. Kieran was looking at Roger with absolute shock, a face I'd only seen once or twice before.

He's fucking adorable.

Roger patted Kieran's shoulder, turning around to wink at me.

What?

Roger leaned over and slowly pried the headset from Kieran's head. Kieran's hood fell back and his mess of hair sprung forwards and fell over his forehead like an angry little waterfall. Roger firmly put the headset on his head before lounging back into the couch.

"Hey guys, you're all getting my boyfriend really upset. What's going on? We're supposed to go out in an hour, but I don't like him when he's all angry."

It was the woman's voice again, smooth as honey, but the only mouth moving was Roger's. I caught Marco mouthing 'holy shit', as he stared at Roger, entranced. Kieran was looking at him like he was the devil's spawn himself, but the look was mixed with a little bit of confused appreciation.

Roger giggled into the mic, "Okay, okay. You caught me. I guess I do like it when he's a little riled up, but only for certain purposes"

His voice slowed to a roguish tempo and I could see Kieran's neck start blushing red. He put his face in his hands and I mechanically started to walk over to him, sitting at his feet. Nudging his leg with my shoulder, I got him to peel back his hands from his face. It was a light shade of pink and he shyly ducked his head down to mine, lips ghosting across my ear as he whispered.

"What the fuck is Roger doing?"

I felt my own neck start to warm at our proximity and I hesitantly moved my own lips towards his ear. They curled up into a smile when I caught the faint scent of Axe lingering around his neck.

"He's just trying to help you out"

Kieran bit his lip, nodding and deep in thought. We bought glanced at Roger who was now happily chatting with Kieran's teammates, a bright smile on his face.

"Alright, well, I gotta go. It's date-time. Nice talking to all of you" Roger smiled kindly, reaching for the controller in Kieran's hands. He quickly shut the controller off, turning the Xbox off as well, before pulling the headset off.

"Thank god that's over. Let's go hangout upstairs. Kieran, you're banned from the Xbox for today" His voice was back to normal and the change almost shocked me, deep timbre hitting me square in the stomach.

"Thanks, I guess" Kieran slowly unwrapped himself, throwing the blanket onto my face.

"Shit, Roger. You sure you have a dick? I'd be happy to check for y—"

DJ clapped a hand over Marco's mouth, hauling his ass upstairs with a maternal sigh. Roger just tinged pink, awkwardly laughing before following them up. He met my eyes right before he reached the landing and I grinned, laughing when he shook his head shyly.

"I didn't know Roger could do that" I admitted, starting to fold the blanket by the couch.

Kieran paused by the stairs, turning around and joining me and we tidied up the basement. He dusted the rug off, cookie crumbs tumbling onto the ground.

"Talk like a girl? Yeah, neither did I. It was..."

"He was only trying to help you," I reminded him gently, coming up behind him to help put the blanket on top of the cabinet. He raised himself slightly into his tippy toes and I flattened my instant smile, not mentioning it.

"Yeah, I know. It was just," He paused, teeth gnawing at the inside of his lip, "weird, you know? Like, how the hell does a guy sound like a girl? It's just..."

His eyes bore into mine, and I found myself drowning in their clear depths. The basement's dim light made us both look sickly and yellow, but Kieran could pull it off so well.

"...weird".

I broke eye contact first, coughing into my elbow.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Surprising, right?"

I nudged his shoulder with mine and he looked up, almost shyly, a soft, embarrassed, crooked smile on his face. My words caught in my mouth and I reveled in the feeling. Us. Alone together. Him smiling at me.

He's so beautiful.

"You need to smile more"

It slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it, regret dousing me with cold as the smile slipped away, leaving a frown in its place.

"What?"

"Nothing," I cringed at how strange I sounded, how quickly the comfortably dynamic between us had been shattered.

"Ignore what I said. Ignore it" I stuttered for words, laughing at myself and combing a hand through my hair.

Kieran shocked me by putting his hand on my shoulder, squeezing the muscle underneath comfortingly. Only, instead of calm, it felt like his hand was a brand, lighting me on fire.

Stop. I miserably tried telling my body. Don't make me feel those feels.

"My Mum says that all the time, don't worry about it" Kieran pulled his lips up into one of those rare-smiles again and I finally relaxed, wanting nothing more than to pull him into a hug. I didn't want to like Kieran, but it was damn near impossible to not like him.

Maybe I like him a little tiny bit. Either way, it was a tiny bit too much.

I didn't bother meeting his eyes, looking instead at the part of his sweatshirt than had been pulled down too much by his neck. His collarbones made a sharp angle that made my stomach twist into itself anxiously.

"Cool," I breathed out, squarely meeting his confused gaze, "I like it when you're happy"

Literally, shut up, Lukas, you idiot.

Kieran's eyes widened, mouth parting for a short bark of laughter. He wore an amused smirk while I practiced my flamingo-impression, pink down to my neck, and I hesitantly took a step towards the stairs.

"Lukas?"

Fuck. He knows. He knows that I'm gay. He knows that I like him. And that I lied that one time about—

"Lukas,"

I turned around slowly, one foot on the stairs, the other resting on the hardwood. Kieran shrugged, fist lightly tapping my arm.

"Thanks, bro. I appreciate all of you guys having my back."

"Of course" I laughed nervously, watching him trudge up the stairs with an amused look on his face.

"What are friends for?"

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2844 words

This chapter is a bit mediocre, but it's quite long so that kinda makes up for it. I wanted a little more angst, but ended up writing a super fluffy cute (unrealistic) chapter. After some editing and a few dead ends, here we are: a strange combination of both!

What do you guys think? I'm not quite sure of Lukas' character just yet, but I think I'm starting to lean towards one idea.

(I've been travelling, so I'm really sorry if there are any grammatical errors)

Thank you for reading and have a beautiful week (Happy Holidays too)! <3 :)