"It's eleven o'clock, Rex, my mom is gonna be worried sick," Noah protested weakly, the brick wall jabbing into his back and palms sending a shiver down his spine not entirely unrelated to the warm body pressing into his front. When this elicited no response from his busy companion, he added, "We've been shooting hoops for hours, dude, I'm all sweaty and gross and I'm getting bug bites."

Rex's head popped up from where he'd been nestled in the crook of Noah's neck, a fiendish smirk drawn across it. "Don't say you don't love this, because you so do," he said, as if he hadn't heard the other boy at all.

"Bug bites, Rex!" Noah repeated, his voice up an octave by the last word. "Can't we do hug time tomorrow?"

"Bugs n't biting me," Rex's muffled voice could be heard as he took in Noah's scent through the chest of his ill-fitting military jacket.

"Your blood probably tastes like nanite or something." Noah brought up his hands to push at Rex's shoulders, but they didn't budge. Not that he was trying very hard.

"Mmmm," Rex sighed in pure contentment, not moving. Noah could've laughed aloud. He was like a puppy, honestly.

But he didn't raise his voice, even to laugh. Too dark out to see if anyone was around.

"Hey, let's get going, okay," Noah said, shuffling sideways along the wall like a furiously blushing blond crab. Rex straightened up and drew his arm back as he did, eyes still half-asleep. "I really need to head home. Plus, Six will be mad if you're not back soon too."

The mention of Six made Rex blink. "Not important."

"Uh, you mean super important." Now that he had some space to breathe, Noah's sense of setting crawled back in. "What happens if there's an EVO attack? Or something?" Rex just rolled his eyes. Noah frowned.

"Or maybe you get in trouble and we don't get to hang out anymore."

"Come on," Rex said. Noah scratched at a mosquito bite on his ankle. "What's the worst Providence can do? They need me. I don't get in trouble." He wrinkled his nose.

"They don't really need me!" Noah replied.

"Well, I need you, so they can't really do anything about it." His friend shuffled in place. "Plus, they probably don't care what you do with non-paying hours."

"I don't want to risk it," Noah replied, grasping at a ticket home. "Providence isn't exactly known for being nice."

Rex looked vaguely in the direction of the basketball hoop. "Just…don't talk about it, okay? I'm not in the mood. Let's go back to hugging time."

"No, Rex, I seriously-" and the other boy's mouth was suddenly against his and his shoulder blades touched upon ridges of bricks once again and the world went silent. His hands came up automatically to hover by Rex's shoulders uncertainly – his friend took that as an invitation to wrap one hand around the back of his head, fingers sliding through the hair in the nape of his neck in a way that was just enough to make Noah shiver and return the kiss, cloth and goggles strap beneath his hands - and it was still pretty dark out, the streetlight only casting a dim glow across a setting that ceased to be relevant. Rex smelled the same as always, a weird earthy pinecone tang superimposed upon the scent of that soap from hospitals or maybe a disinfectant.

He tasted like pepperoni. A little bit gross. Kind of hot. Sort of like how he was pushing his tongue into another boy's mouth right about now.

Rex pulled back, breathing quietly, face flushed.

Noah put up with the snuggling and the cuddling and bad basketball shots with grudging good humor but it was this side of Rex that he really went crazy for. Not the danger and not angry mobs, those he could do without, but the devil-may-care roadtripping, random makeout session-ing guy who'd say something totally funny (dumb, but funny) and look at him like he was the greatest thing on Earth.

Rex's face was still a little red, his hair tousled too – when had Noah moved his hands? – and Noah realized he must look pretty much the same when the other boy grinned at him.

"Still wanna go home, querido?"

"Dude, shut up," Noah said affectionately, mood improving.

"You are the least sexy boyfriend ever," Rex purred in response.

"Not so loud," Noah laughed, putting a hand on Rex's chest but lingering too long to be an attempt at a push.

"Yeah?" this time it was Rex who paused and a shadow flitted across his face, but he covered it up by sounding as lowbrow as ever. "You worried somebody's gonna be out this late? See you with an EVO? That'd suck."

Noah started, shook his head, said quickly, "I don't care if you're an EVO, dude, you look normal anyway, it's not that, it's that we're-"

Rex's mouth tightened. "You don't want anybody to think you're gay."

"That's-" Noah faltered.

Neither of them said anything.

"Look, it's-" Noah rubbed a bug bite by his ear. "Never mind. It's just tough sometimes."

"I'll bet." Rex rubbed his hair back into place, trying to smooth it back, but it stuck up in parts still. He started walking towards the basketball hoop.

Noah balked. "I'm sorry, dude."

"Yeah."

"No, seriously, Rex, it doesn't matter-" He caught up to his friend, grabbed the collar of Rex's jacket, light and timid. "You can shout it if you want, okay? I was just being dumb."

"It's eleven thirty, Noah," Rex said, pulling his goggles down and looking now to the dark sky. Metal spread across his back, unfolded into a familiar pair of rotors.

"Dr. Holiday's gonna be worried sick."

The worst part of it was, standing there under the hazy glance of a streetlight six blocks from home, watching dust billow in the wake of his friend's flight, Noah couldn't help

that feeling of

relief.