[SFW, Comfort, Implied NTR]

The sun shined in through the window of the Grimwald house, illuminating the room occupied by two young men. It was a very special day, as one might be able to tell from the way that the shorter of the two boys excitedly rocked back and forth in his seat. His companion, who was a little taller, seemed just a slight bit displeased by his overly excited nature.

“I can’t believe she said yes, Hatsu!” The shorter of the two, Albert Grimwald, giggled as he carefully applied a brush to his delicate white-pink hair, making sure to handle it as gently as he possibly could. He didn’t want to risk any knots when the hour of his date with one of his childhood crushes was nearing…

His friend, Hatsuhiko Murata, narrowed his eyes slightly. “How many times have I told you to stop calling me Hatsu, Albert?” He bemoaned as he ran a hand through his own hair, a much deeper and warm brown compared to the lighter shades of his friend’s hair. “Toss me one of your combs, you’re giving me the jitters with how much you’re brushing.”

Albert couldn’t help himself from giggling like a schoolgirl as he lobbed one of the slender combs to his sportier friend, all while still sporting a massive grin on his cute face. “You know how I am, Hatsu! I can’t control myself when I get all excited! You’ve seen how Alice’s had to drag me around to make sure I don’t get into trouble when I’m like this!” He admitted his flaws as he put down his brush, pleased with the way his hair reached down behind his shoulders without a single strand being misaligned...

“Yeah, I know how she is. Running you ragged like a dog.” Hatsuhiko replied with a sigh as he used the comb to settle his hair down in a similar way, ironing out the few knots that had formed. He had never been good at taking care of his appearance, not until he started visiting the near-albino at home. Then, he started picking up on a few parts of how the boy dealt with his appearance, which led up to this casual moment where both of them were styling their looks for an upcoming event.

The younger boy huffed just a little as he turned around to face his friend. “She’s not running, she’s taking care of me just like I’ve taken care of her! She’s my little sister, would you let your little sister down?” He defended her with an earnest look in his eyes, not wanting to let go of the notion that she was the best…

“Tell me, Albert, if she really did take care of you, wouldn’t she be here instead of me?” The brown-haired boy shot back as he walked closer, placing the comb gently on the table where his friend was doing his makeup.

Albert quickly shook his head. “Nope. Alice was never into keeping pretty, it’s just something she does out of instinct. You should see the way Mom and her argue about fashion and keeping appearances, they’re both a hoot!” He giggled, not at all finding it odd that his sister and his mother would be at each others’ throats.

“Your family is weird,” Hatsuhiko concluded with another sigh as he took a seat on the table, getting a good look at the boy in the process. “Why’re you trying to look so pretty for Emilia anyway? You two have been friends for years, what’s so different about a date?” He asked, not having a problem with the boy’s feminine charm as much as the effort he was going through.

He just smiled again. “Because it’s Emilia, Hatsu. She’s the sweetest, nicest girl I’ve ever known, and I want to make sure she knows just how much I love her by doing my best to look pretty for her.” He chimed, only to laugh a little moments later. “I mean, if I was going on a date with you, I’d do my best to look pretty for you too!”

This prompted a blush from the sporty boy. “You don’t need to do that, dummy. You’re fine as is.” He said, both suggesting that the girl would love him regardless of how he looked… and that he thought that the boy didn’t need to dress up to impress him either.

Albert chuckled. “I dunno, Hatsu! You’re blushing, and whenever you’re blushing, you’re lying!” The clever little boy pointed out one of his friend’s habits as he stood up and straightened the cute ribbon he wore in place of a tie. His outfit consisted of a white and black suit that complimented his hair while adding in a cute touch courtesy of a ribbon that his sister had given him. Even if she wasn’t here with him in person, she’d be with him in spirit, and that’d give him the courage to do anything that Emilia might ask him to do while they were on their date.

“I don’t lie when I blush, dummy!” Hatsuhiko shot back as he crossed his arms, wanting to pry his eyes away from his friend’s cute body and terrible sense of fashion. Who in their right mind would wear a ribbon instead of a bowtie or even a tie? He knew the answer very well, but he didn’t want to acknowledge that the boy looked cuter than ever.

The younger boy just smiled as he hugged his sportier friend, giggling a little still. “You totally do, Hatsu. Don’t lie, it makes you look worse. Just say what you really mean, and then everything’ll be alright. That’s what my Mom always said, and she told me never to tell a lie, so I could stay as nice and pretty as ever.” He chimed, relaying old advice to an old friend…

“Sounds like the words of a woman who’s been lying her entire life.” His friend shot back with his blush still wildly visible on his cute face. Despite his words, he knew that she wasn’t wrong, so maybe… Maybe it didn’t hurt, to be honest.

He took another good look at his young friend and took a deep breath, blushing all the while. “I think you look really pretty, Albert. I think you’ve never looked prettier in your whole life, and that’s saying something when you’re constantly looking prettier than most boys around your age. I think you don’t need to pretty yourself up to impress Emilia, much less me if you were going on a date with me.” He paused to take a breath, before concluding with a quieter “And the only boy that could pull off a ribbon in the place of a tie or a bowtie is you. There, you happy?”

Albert’s first response to Hatsu being as concise with his thoughts like that was to kiss the brunette boy on the lips. Not the cheek, not the forehead, straight on the lips. It wasn’t a short kiss either, it was a long and potentially awkward kiss, one that might make somebody think that the two of them were lovers. But no, this was just the way he decided to reward his friend for being earnest and honest.

Normally, Hatsuhiko would be appalled by a sudden kiss like this, but after getting all that off his chest and seeing the light in his friend’s eyes grow as he showed complete approval for everything he wore at the moment and all the other outfits he had previously worn, well, it made sense to let him properly show his appreciation.

Once the boy pulled away, the brunette looked to the side. “You better savor that kiss, Albert. You’re not getting another one once you start going on more dates with Emilia.” He muttered under his breath, feeling… jealousy? Inadequate? He couldn’t articulate it fully, he just knew that he had enjoyed the kiss and felt that he’d be neglected by the end of it all…

Albert’s smile was wide, yet it seemed just a bit more honest than the rest of his sweet smiles up till now. “I’ll savor it until the end, Hatsu. Thank you so much for all the kind words, I didn’t know you thought I looked pretty all this time. I just thought you liked being friends with me!” He chimed ignorantly…

“Dummy, you’ve got a fashion designer for a mom and you can’t tell when people think you look pretty? No wonder I’m one of your best friends…” Hatsuhiko muttered as he patted the boy on his shoulder, sighing deeply one last time. “Go get her, Albert. She’s waiting for you, don’t want to let her wait, right?”

The albino boy nodded as he immediately broke into a sprint, waving goodbye to his friend as he took off and left him behind in the process.

“She better treat you the best she can, otherwise I’m gonna have to tell her she’s not being a good girlfriend…” Hatsuhiko slowly walked out of the Grimwald residence, hoping to hear back from his friend as soon as possible. He just wanted his friend to be happy, and if that meant he wasn’t going to experience moments like these as often, so be it.

What Hatsu didn’t know, was that things were about to take a turn for the worse…

---

A few hours had passed since the two talked together at Albert’s house, and Hatsuhiko found himself in one of the town’s parks, enjoying the sunlight from above as it practically rained down on him. It was a nice reprieve from everything, just soaking in the bright light from above…

He had his eyes closed as he felt the warmth sweep over him, covering him like a blanket as he let out a deep sigh. He knew that he’d get a call later today about how well the date went, and he’d hear his younger friend squeeing and chatting all about how cute and how fun it was to be with Emilia. He just enjoyed the moment of peace and quiet, for the time being, hoping that his friend was having the time of his life...

Right up until he heard his cell ringing loudly enough to break his peace. “Are they already done..?” The sporty boy mumbled to himself as he slipped the small device out of his pocket, accepting the call with a brief “Hatsuhiko here.”

“H-Hatsu… H-Hatsuuuuu…” Were the words that left the phone, uncharacteristically sorrowful given the slight sobbing on the other end…

It didn’t take him more than a second to realize that everything that could’ve gone wrong had done so. “Albert. Listen to me.” He gripped the phone tight, more than a little frustrated on the behalf of his friend. “Meet me in the park. You can tell me everything when we’re face to face. I’ll even buy you ice cream, just get here as fast as you can, okay?”

“O-Okayyyyy…” The sobbing sounds of his friend were drowned out by the phone’s tones as the call dropped, leaving the boy to wonder what exactly happened.

He just hoped that he could cheer the boy up. Otherwise, he was going to see his best friend crying his heart out all day.

---

By the time the boy arrived to meet his friend, he looked like an absolute wreck by his own standards. His ribbon, which he had been so careful with to make sure it didn’t get dirty since it was a present and everything, was untied and hung partially within the collar of his shirt. His hair, which he had been so diligent in keeping well-kept, was now all ruffled to show how much he had been worrying. His pants, his shirt, both looked like they had seen better days just the same. In short, his current mood was reflected in his outfit…

“Just what happened, Albert?” Hatsuhiko asked as he handed a cup’s worth of ice cream over to the pink-white haired boy while licking his own ice cream so it wouldn’t spill off the cone it rested on.

The boy sobbed and sniffed, wiping his tears with his sleeve as he slowly started digging into the ball of vanilla goodness. “I… I waited for so long at the place we were going to eat at before we were gonna go do all those nice things we had talked about for months, and… And she never showed up!” He bit into his lip before stuffing a big helping of the cold goodness into his mouth…

“Emilia didn’t come by? Did she have a change of heart all of a sudden? Do you know what could’ve caused it?” The sportier boy played the role of a comforting presence as he wrapped his arm around his friend’s back, asking him the questions that could let him piece together everything.

Albert shook his head as he swallowed his gulp of ice cream. “N-Nuh-uh, she just… didn’t show up. A-And I waited! I waited for hours! She didn’t come, and the person at the restaurant was confused too because I had said so many nice things about her… E-Emilia, why…” The tears were running down his cheeks, dropping onto the sweet treat below and melting it in the process…

Hatsuhiko could see the pain on his friend’s face. He knew that the two had been friends for years, with his friendship with the boy lasting about the same amount of time, so the idea that she would just leave him hanging like that just didn’t sit right with him. Something had to have happened. “She didn’t call or anything?”

“Nothing! She didn’t do a thing!” The pale-pink-haired boy’s crying turned uglier as a bit of eyeshadow, which he had applied to look extra cute, slowly pooled into the cream below as it ran off his face. “I don’t understand it! I don’t get it at all!” The tears just kept coming, and he had trouble keeping up with the flow as he tried to wipe them all away…

Until his friend pulled out a handkerchief and wiped them away for him. “She… We’re going to have to talk with her another day, I’m sure there’s a good reason. We’ve seen her so many times, she’s always been happy with you, there’s no way she could’ve just stood you up like that. Maybe something happened with her family and she didn’t have time to tell you anything?” He tried to explain away the issue, but that just made the boy cry more in turn, prompting a sigh from the lips of the older boy…

He had to do something to make him stop crying. It was tugging at his heartstrings, and he’d have trouble keeping his mind on what was important if it just kept on going like that. But what could he do? He wasn’t Emilia or a girl, so how could he…

It then hit him. Albert’s words from earlier. When he teased him about going on a date with him. It was the only idea that could possibly work, he just had to present it in a way that made sense…

“...Albert.” He asked, biting into his lip a little as he waited for an answer.

The boy slowly rubbed away the tears with his friend’s handkerchief as he nodded. “Y-Yeah, Hatsu..?” He replied, as part of his eyeshadow continued to roll down his cheeks…

“I’ll go out with you,” Hatsuhiko said, grabbing his friend’s hand with his free hand. “You said you’d like to look pretty on your date, whether it was with me or with her? Well, if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go on a date with you. It doesn’t have to be Emilia if I’m here, does it?” He tried to stay as supportive as possible, even if he could feel the shivers running down his spine. What was he doing? Was he really asking his life-long friend out on a date, just to make him cheer up? What kind of idiot was he, thinking he could replace the love of the boy’s life?

Albert blinked several times as his mind tried to process what had just been offered, his cheeks flushing red as his lips started quivering. “B-But Hatsu, you… I…” He stammered, his breath growing warm as the tears started running down his cheeks once more. “I-I never thought you’d ask, I… I was just, I mean, you don’t have to do this out of pity, I’m… I-”

His brunette friend leaned in for a kiss, pressing his lips against his friend’s and keeping them firmly locked there to let the moment sink in. Once he thought the young man understood, he pulled his head back and started licking his ice cream again. “Is that proof enough that I want to go out on a date because you’re you, and not because of pity?”

The pale-pink-haired boy nodded slightly as his face turned completely red, his mood heightening and stabilizing as he slowly smiled. “...Thanks, Hatsu.” He said, the words coming straight from his heart as the tears that ran down his cheeks were not born of sorrow any longer, but rather from happiness.

“You’re welcome, Albert. Now, eat your ice cream. We’ll talk to Emilia tomorrow, and then we can plan our date out, okay?” Satisfied with this result, Hatsuhiko tried to get him off the topic so the two of them could just enjoy the rest of their day together.

Albert continued smiling as he wiped the tears away. “Right!” He chimed, digging into the sweet treat on his lap as the sun washed down on the two of them, illuminating the bond that they shared.

What Hatsuhiko didn’t realize at this moment, was that his offer to go on a date with his best friend would spiral out of control and reveal things about himself that he hadn’t quite tried thinking about. Things that he would come to accept and adapt around, things that would strengthen their relationship…

But for now, they were just going to sit there and enjoy their ice cream before it melted, not caring about the future that would come to pass...