"Hi…" Paris dipped his head a bit as a greeting and headed inside, painfully aware of how small he felt beside Kris. He shook his head slightly to clear the thoughts and looked around instead. "Your house is nice." He said quietly, although he had very little idea of what made a house 'nice'. His own house was a mess, and hadn't been properly cleaned in ages. Most of the walls and floors had little splatters of his own blood on them. "Where do you want to work on the project?" He asked.
Kris shut the door behind them. "Uh, thanks. My parents are never around so its kinda messy, but its alright." The cat peeked out from around the corner, curiously meowing at the new visitor, before walking up to them and rubbing on Paris's leg. Kris chuckled a bit. "Lets work on it in my room. Its up here, follow me." He gave the cat a little stroke on the head before leading Paris upstairs and into his room.
Paris looked down at the cat curiously and hesitated before petting him. Seems friendly enough… I've never had a pet. He hummed softly to himself and followed Kris upstairs, still limping a little with every step. He'd had a bit of a run-in with his father before he left. At least he'd managed to convince London to go to a friend's house while he was gone. He held his book close to his chest as he walked, his gaze a bit distant.
Kris's room was still a bit messy, but definitely better than it was before. Various posters were pinned on the walls, mostly of bands or other things he took interest in. His bed was made, for the first time in a long time, with a dark navy blue comforter and a lighter blue pillow. His bedside table was littered with various energy drink cans, as well as an alarm clock. And if you looked close enough, you could see a small rainbow sticker on the wall beside his bed. His parents would kill him if they found out he was gay, but they barely came in his room, and even when they did, the small sticker was easy to hide. Kris grabbed the posterboard as well as his textbook, notes, and some markers, and set everything down on the floor. There wasn't really anywhere else to do it, and for some reason it seemed too intimate to Kris to have them both sit on his bed. As the shorter boy came in, Kris couldn't help but notice his limp. "Hey, you're limping, what happened?" He asked, expressing genuine concern.
Paris looked around the room for a few seconds until Kris questioned his limp. Despite already having an excuse prepared, he couldn't keep himself from paling a bit. "Hm? Oh, uh… I walked here, and I twisted my ankle a bit… it's nothing, really. I'm just a klutz." He laughed humorlessly and carefully lowered himself onto the floor where the project was. "Now, we should try and get this thing over with, yeah?"
Kris mentally questioned if this was the truth, but he just shrugged and went along with it, chuckling a little along with Paris. He sat down and pulled out their rough draft. "Yeah, lets get this shit done with. We just gotta copy what we got on the rough draft and just…make it look pretty. Shouldn't be too hard." He began to gently sketch out what they were to write in pencil, then went over it in marker, alternating the colors to make it look nice.
Thank god… he bought it. Paris nodded a bit and started writing as well, going a bit slower than usual to make sure that his handwriting was extra neat. He worked without bothering to take any breaks, even though he hadn't had breakfast or dinner and he was starving. He yawned after a while, starting to get pretty drowsy. "Do you think it's almost done…?"
Kris worked pretty hard too, making sure that everything he did was neat and legible. As he worked, he couldn't help but glance over at Paris a couple of times. He really enjoyed the boy's company, even if they didnt really talk much, other than about the project. "There…and…done! It looks good to me!" Glancing over at Paris, he smiled a little as the small boy yawned. "Yaknow, its getting kinda late, and your place isn't super close, so uh, you can stay the night if you want. Or at least for dinner, or something. I-if you want to, of course." Kris didn't want to make the boy uncomfortable so he didnt push the idea on him too much.
"Mmm…?" Paris glanced up when Kris finally spoke, having gotten used to the comfortable silence. God, it would be nice to sleep somewhere other than home, but… "Oh, uh… my dad would probably be mad if I didn't come home. I guess I could try texting him, but he probably won't see it until morning…" He muttered a few more things to himself, rambling a bit as he tried to find a way to not have to sleep at home, but also not face hell when he went back the next day.
"Aw, damn. At least stay for some food, then. I can probably find us something to eat. And then I can walk you home afterwards, if you want." Kris smiled and got to his feet, offering a hand to help Paris up.
Paris hesitated, considering a bit before he accepted Kris' hand. He didn't weigh much, so it wasn't difficult to help him to his feet. "Alright…" He replied quietly. "You really don't have to, though. I usually don't run into too much trouble in this part of town." He shrugged and headed downstairs with Kris, still limping.
Kris shrugged as they walked. "Eh, you never know what could happen. Plus I would feel like an ass if I made you walk home alone." He chuckled softly as they made it downstairs. Kris went into the kitchen and started looking through the cabinets and such, trying to find something to eat. They hadn't been shopping in a while, so there really wasn't much. After finding a couple of packages of ramen noodles, he showed them to Paris. "Is this ok? Do you like these?" He asked, wanting to make sure it was cool with him before instantly assuming that he liked it.
Paris fidgeted awkwardly with his hands as he stood in the kitchen, not really sure what to do with himself. He looked up at the question and nodded. "Yeah, that's fine… I'm not really picky or anything." He shrugged, shifting his weight around a little to try and find a way to stand that was a little less painful.
He smiled. "Alright, cool. Oh, and uh, you can sit down if you want." Kris realized how awkward the boy looked and he sighed softly, wanting to make him feel a little more comfortable. This was the first "friend" (could he even call him a friend yet?) that he had in a long time, he really wanted him to be comfortable around him. He would have made the noodles the normal way, by boiling water on the stove, but there were no clean pots to be found, so he resorted to cooking them in the microwave. After a few minutes they were done, and he added the flavoring packets in and mixed it up before bringing both bowls over to the table. "Here you go, sir, the Kris Maxwell special: microwaved ramen." The taller boy joked as he sat down next to Paris.
Paris decided to sit down while Kris was making the Ramen, figuring there wasn't really much he could do. It was just microwave Ramen, after all. His help wasn't really needed. He glanced up when Kris came over and smiled weakly, accepting the bowl from him. "Thanks… you really didn't have to make me food, though. I could've just had a granola bar or something at home." Yeah, right… as if there's ever any food at my house.
"It's no problem, really. It's easy enough to make. Plus I like, never have company over, so, I thought I'd, you know, be a good 'host' or whatever, if that's what you'd call this." He made air quotes around the word "host" awkwardly. It didn't really seem like it was a formal enough occasion to use such terms. He ate quietly next to Paris, in sort of an awkward silence.
Paris shrugged and ate quietly as well, hoping that suddenly eating so much wouldn't make him sick later or anything. He didn't want to worry about that right now, though, so he just kept eating. "Um…" He began after a while, seeming a little nervous and uncomfortable. This so so stupid… he'll probably say no. "Uh… we can… hang out another time, if you want…" He said stiffly. "Like… you know… when we don't have a project to do…"
"Hm?" He looked over at the blond boy when he finally said this. A soft smile appeared on his face. "Y-yeah, man, of course. I'm cool with it. This was fun, even though it was, you know, kind of awkward." Kris chuckled and scratched the back of his head nervously. "But uh, yeah. Let's hang out again soon."
"Y-Yeah… sorry about that…" Paris laughed awkwardly, ruffling the back of his hair with one hand. "I haven't actually hung out with anyone in a while, you know? I don't think anyone really likes me. I don't really talk much in class, and when I do, I'm… not particularly nice. And I just don't really know what to do with other people at this point… there's not a lot to do at my house."
"Neither have I, honestly. I haven't had, like, an actual friend in forever." He twirled a noodle around his fork as he talked to Paris. "But uh, I like you dude! I think you're pretty cool. You know, like, as a friend and stuff." He said nervously, not wanting it to come off the wrong way.
Paris flushed lightly and looked away, unable to keep from smiling a bit. A friend… he hardly knows me, and he thinks of me as a friend? "Uh… y-yeah. You're pretty cool too. It's getting dark, so… I should probably head back soon. My dad's already gonna be mad I was out so late…" He sighed softly, trying to keep the fear off of his face.
Kris saw the smile on Paris's face and couldn't help but smile wider. It was nice to see him smile. "Oh, uh, yeah, let's go." He got up and put both of their bowls in the sink, making a mental note to wash them later. He then headed to the door and went out, waiting for Paris to follow behind him.
Paris followed Kris closely, holding his things close to his chest as he walked. He fell silent on the way to his house, seeming to grow more and more uneasy the closer they got. "W-Well… thanks for walking me home." He smiled weakly to reassure Kris as he headed inside, waving and not really giving the other boy a chance to respond. Hopefully he gets out of here quickly… this isn't going to be pretty.
"PARIS!" Paris flinched and carefully set his things down.
"Yeah, dad…?"
"You're late!"
"Uh… y-yeah… sorry…"
"Where have you been, huh?! Your curfew was half an hour ago!"
"I-I had to work on a project for school! I… I didn't notice it had gotten so late—" He was silenced as his father grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall.
"Typical! Always making excuses! You need to stop being so ignorant!" They continued arguing for a bit, both of them quickly growing more heated.
(Up to you whether you hear them fighting or not aha, you don't have to ^^)
Kris waved goodbye to Paris with a smile. Just as he went to leave, he heard some of the yelling come from Paris's father and he flinched. Fuck…I shouldn't have kept him so late, now he's in trouble… Feeling guilty, he quickly started walking home, not only because of what he heard, but also because it's rather dangerous out here at night. The moment he made it back to his place, he went up to his room and grabbed his phone, quickly shooting Paris a text.
hey dude, are you okay?
Paris didn't respond for about half an hour, when he finally managed to get to his room and lock the door. He buried himself under the covers, tears stinging his eyes as he looked down at his phone screen. Damn… he must have heard some of that. He sighed softly, rubbing at his throbbing cheek with one hand as he replied with the other.
Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that.