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sisididis · 8 months

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Day 2 of @hetaberia-week

Prompt: Summer

Antonio and João’s friendship is in danger.

Or at least Antonio thinks it is.

After their accidental kiss on the football field, which João had shrugged off as Antonio being Antonio, the Spaniard knew that he had to make it up to his childhood best friend. How? By kissing him a second time in the pitch-black parking lot of a drive-in theater.

Inspired by this adorable animation.

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“What movie did you say that they were rolling tonight,” João asked ten minutes into their uncharacteristically quiet drive to the neighborhood theater, which was a shy distance from Antonio’s childhood home.

July 1st was a summer night like any other in that it made the young restless and the old reminiscent of their olden days. Everything felt suspended in time, and as far as Antonio was concerned, summer break was nothing but an infinite stretch of heat and cricket song.

Except for the humming of the convertible’s wheels and the wind whipping wildly at their hair, the boys sat in stilled silence – João, bored in the passenger seat, and Antonio, lost in thoughts that seemed to evaporate at the older boy’s question.

“Casablanca,” Antonio chirped cheerfully, and chanced a glance at João to gauge his reaction.

It was an old crowd pleaser that habitually attracted dozens of couples after sunset. Under the cover of darkness, boys and girls became braver, and their hands and mouths more curious. Sure, there was always a slight chance that the warden would shine a flashlight into your car and tap on your window to leave, but right now there were worse scenarios tugging at Antonio’s mind. Like him losing his best friend over an accidental kiss.

“Hm,” João hummed, content with Antonio’s answer, as if he had picked the movie himself.

Antonio exhaled softly.

He took that as a good omen for the rest of the night and began to slow down as the entrance to the drive-in theater came into view. A split second later, they spotted the queue to the ticket booth and gulped, taking in its length.

“You’d think that they were giving out free tickets,” João whistled, and Antonio nodded in agreement, clutching the wheel tighter.

It took all his strength not to hit his head against it.

In the week that followed their kiss on the football field, Antonio sensed that something profound had shifted between them. Unlike before, he found himself torn between craving and dreading João’s company. His chest felt tight with nerves, and something else that he did not dare voice.

He’d decided that it would be best if he kept his distance from João until he made sense of the war waging within, but the older boy was quick to catch onto that. He’d wasted no time in assuring Antonio that the kiss had meant nothing to him, and that he’d shrugged it off as Antonio being Antonio. But knowing João as he did, Antonio could tell that he didn’t believe that. Neither of them did.

In a desperate bid to save their friendship, Antonio suggested that they paid the old drive-in theater a visit.

“Finally!” João sighed. “We’re getting close.”

And a visit they paid.

After moving up the queue with a slowness that put their Iberian patience to the test, Antonio stationed in front of the ticket booth just long enough to pay for two (he had rolled his window shut just in time to avoid João’s insistent bills) then drove to the refreshment stand, where he ordered a bag of popcorn twice the size of his head and two cans of soda.

As they made their way to their parking space, the Spaniard silently pitied the person who had to pick up all the empty popcorn bags strewn around the parking lot.

“The movie is about to start,” the warden announced, and darkness fell all around them. From the corner of his eye, Antonio noticed how the projector’s beam illuminated the top of João’s dark hair.

I want to kiss him, he thought, then promptly tucked his hands under him, horrified at how easily the thought crossed his mind.

He’s your friend, he scolded.

Your friend.

He continued to fidget in his seat while João remained seemingly oblivious to his discomfort, pouring all his attention elsewhere.

“Where were you last night, Rick?”

“That was so long ago, I don’t remember,” drawled the protagonist.

“What a fool I was to fall for a man like you!” Annia cried, and Antonio realized that João and him were almost shoulder to shoulder now. He did not remember his convertible to be so cramped before. His heart hammered in his chest and he wet his lips for the tenth consecutive time. Loudly.

That tore João’s attention away from the movie, and as he turned to him, there was a touch of a smile in his eyes.

“Just drink already if you’re that thirsty,” he said and handed Antonio his drink.

The drink was cold and tasty, but fizzy. Antonio’s nerves were fizzy, too, bubbling and surging up, up, up, before he forced them back down. He tried to swallow, but the lump lodged in his throat was more stubborn than him. And that said something.

From above, the voices of the characters rang out again, dripping with sarcasm.

“Rick is completely neutral about everything, and that takes in the field of women, too!”

The crowd laughed.

Perhaps a bit of butter could make his throat work again, he thought. A heartbeat later, Antonio reached blindly inside the popcorn bag propped up next to João, and inhaled sharply when he felt something warm against his fingers.

He froze.

Oh my god.

That’s his hand, he thought.

Despite himself, goosebumps sprang on his skin. He was torn. If he drew his hand back suddenly, then that would arouse João’s suspicion, but if he pretended to be absorbed in the movie long enough to let his hand linger on João’s, then…

What to do, what to do?

Sweat began to bead at his temples.

“Is that cannon fire,” Ilsa whispered against Rick’s embrace, “or is it my heart pounding?”

Seemingly confused at Antonio’s immobile hand, João turned to look at him.

And green met green.

Although it was dark, Antonio recognized the startled look on his friend’s face, the blush dusting his cheeks. An unspoken question flickered in João’s eyes. And an unspoken answer flickered in Antonio’s.

I love you, I love you, I love you, Antonio wanted to yell, but no words passed between them.

He could see João’s pulse quicken just above his Adam’s apple, and he knew that his did the same. As João began to lean closer, Antonio closed his eyes. His heart was rabbiting wildly in his chest, wanting nowhere but out and inside João. He could feel the older boy's warm breath on his face, almost feel his soft lips on his—!

“Booh!”

Then both of them jumped like two cats drenched in cold water, sending the popcorn bag between them flying and landing on João’s lap.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” someone shouted.

Antonio’s face suddenly flushed red, and he swiveled around to face the anger of the movie watchers, who must have surely seen them.

“We want our money back!”

A chorus of approval soon joined the clamor.

As the red faded from Antonio’s face, it dawned on him that the crowd’s anger wasn’t directed at them, but at the newly-blank projection screen. He’d forgotten that the older movies would cut right in the middle sometimes, and by the looks of it, João had forgotten it, too.

After a tense minute of waiting, during which neither João nor Antonio dared to breathe, the projectionist got the movie working again and the whole parking lot exhaled with relief.

“Madre mía,” Antonio whispered and João echoed his sentiment.

For the remainder of the movie, neither of them spoke or looked at each other. Instead, under the protection of darkness, Antonio cradled his hand that burned with João’s touch, while João licked his unkissed lips in consolation.

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After what felt like an eternity, after the crowd had clapped their approval, dried their tears and started their engines, Antonio finally turned to João and searched his face. He’d expected to see a disappointed João in the passenger seat. Instead, the older boy looked relieved.

He puffed out a laugh.

“Thank god that’s over with!”

Antonio frowned. That wasn’t the reaction that he had hoped for. He chewed the inside of his mouth and looked away, but João was quick to notice and touched his shoulder.

“It wasn’t all bad,” he lied. “I liked the movie.”

You didn’t even watch half of it, Antonio would have retorted had his throat worked. They fell into an uneasy silence.

I want to go home, Antonio thought. He didn’t know how so many things could go wrong at the same time. Before he could continue that thought, João’s voice brought him back to the now empty, street-lamp lit parking lot.

“What’s that shining in the back?" he asked.

Antonio followed with his eyes the direction to which João pointed. From a distance, it looked like a man standing behind a ticket booth. As they drew closer and closer, the fortune teller inside the box belted out:

“Come let Zoltar tell you more!”

Antonio wondered if the machine was an old carnival attraction that the warden refused to part with. That’s why he must have hid it in the back, he thought, then broke the silence.

“You like this sort of things?” he asked João.

“Just as much as I liked getting popcorn all over my pants,” João smiled sarcastically.

That’s right. The popcorn. He’d forgotten. Antonio ducked his head and kicked at the dust. He made to apologize, but the older boy interrupted him before he could. “Come on, ask it a question,” he prompted.

Antonio couldn’t tell if João was joking or not. He exhaled and thought about it for a second, his face illuminated by the crystal ball caressed by the animatronic. João watched the blue light dance on Antonio’s face. Knowing Antonio as he did, he was ready to tease Antonio mercilessly. He could almost hear him.

Zoltar, will I become a famous football player some day?

Zoltar, will I own a farm of turtles?

Zoltar, will I ever win a lifetime supply of olive oil?

In reality, Antonio settled on none of those.

“Does João like me, too?” Antonio breathed softly.

And the world stopped.

Whatever it was that João had wanted to say immediately died on his lips. Antonio felt the older boy stiffen up, saw his mouth part in surprise. He certainly had not expected that. Not even Antonio expected his sudden bout of bravery. But he would not deny himself any longer. He would not fool his heart any longer.

He waited and waited and waited. The entire world was left suspended between his question and João’s answer. Time and its passage had ceased to exist altogether. Even the crickets had stopped their song to listen.

When at last João’s eyes flickered to meet Antonio’s, Antonio saw that João’s expression had gentled, and his lips had quirked into one of his smiles that he reserved only for him.

You idiot, it said endearingly.

You idiot.

When João stepped tentatively towards Antonio, Antonio was ready. He could feel João’s warm breath on his lips, feel the air in his lungs escape, rush out and leave him empty, craving for João, only João. João brushed his lips softly over Antonio’s, barely there, but close enough for them to know that it wasn’t nearly close enough. Then, leaning in fully, thumbs pressed against Antonio’s cheeks, João kissed Antonio.

Somewhere inside him, everything was exploding at once.

João, his João, loved him back, every inch of him sang. His heartbeat thrummed in his ears.

Antonio responded eagerly to João’s kiss, gripping his shoulders and twisting his fingers into his long hair. They stayed like that until they grew breathless, and remembered that they needed to breathe just as much as they needed each other.

Soon after they parted, Zoltar spat out a card. It was Antonio who unfolded it as João looked on from behind his shoulder.

Love is right around the corner, it said, and Antonio laughed.

João found the sound light, airy and wonderful.

The Iberians kissed under the moonlight until the crunch of the scattered popcorn under the warden’s boots was but a distant sound, drowned out by their heartbeats.

#hetaberia week 2023 #aph spain #aph portugal #spaport #a special thanks to ceci who accepted to be my last minute beta reader and a special thanks to lunie whose animation inspired this fic

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