FIC: And So It Began.... Part Six (Kyle/Oliver, PG-13)
Fandom: One Life to Live
Rating: PG-13; will be going to R by Part Ten.
Pairing: Kyle and Oliver, the college years
Summary: Oliver Fish met Kyle Lewis in college. It will change his life forever.
A/N:Still PG-13 for language mostly. For now....
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Ocean of Noise
The Arcade Fire
“Lewis, Fish - shift’s over!”
Wade Addington and Darrell Thomas barreled up to the two pledges. They were there to relieve them from their shift of watching the house’s Christmas tree. The entire Greek system, as well as the other clubs at LU, participated in the huge, campus-wide holiday celebration. The pledges were all required to partner up and watch the tree for a couple of hours in the evening, both to finish decorating it and to prevent possible vandalism.
Despite the incident in the dorm room a few days ago, Oliver signed up to do his shift with Kyle. Neither said anything about the kiss; instead, all talk veered from classes to plans for the holiday to the last game of the season with their biggest rivals, the Pine Valley Raiders.
Oliver was busy rubbing his hands together, breathing into to them to stay warm. Kyle had reclined fully in his small chair, his arms around himself trying to generate some body heat. He saw the officers approach and he jumped up first. “Cool. Thanks a lot,” he replied in mid-shiver. He tapped his forehead and gave the older guys a small salute. “Have fun. Fish, are you heading back?”
“Yeah.” Oliver waved at Addington and Thomas and jogged to meet up with Kyle.
They walked back in silence, mostly. Kyle kept humming something under his breath, a song that sounded vaguely familiar to Oliver. Oliver, however, was barely paying attention. With each step and every note, he found himself preoccupied with the memory of that kiss. This wasn’t unusual for Oliver. Of all his thoughts throughout the day, he estimated that about eighty to ninety percent of them concerned that kiss.
They stood side by side in the notoriously slow dormitory elevator, quiet for the first five floors. When they reached the sixth floor, Oliver turned to Kyle.
“I’m really sorry about what happened.”
Kyle didn’t reply immediately. After a beat, he scratched his nose, keeping his eyes locked on the elevator's doors. “Don’t worry about it, Fish.”
“I don’t know why I did what I did. I was drunk, and I wanted to talk to you about…. that,” he said, waving his hands to emphasize his point, “and I just got, I don’t know. Confused.”
Kyle chortled. “Apparently.”
“But, since it’s just the two of us in here, all I want to say is I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
Kyle turned and smiled at Oliver; it was a gentle, warm smile. “It’s okay. Seriously. No hard feelings.”
The elevator door slid open. Oliver stayed back, allowing Kyle to enter his dorm first. He stopped just short of coming in.
“You’ve got something else to say, Fish?”
“Y-yeah,” he said, coughing to clear his throat. He looked around the room; Kyle’s roommate was not there. Chances were he wasn’t going to be in for the rest of the evening. That thought made Oliver suddenly, and intensely, nervous.
He peered down the hallway. The hall was filled with the sounds of voices and music blasting, but there were no other students nearby. Oliver shut the door, feeling the necessity for discretion. Turning back to his friend, he collected his thoughts.
“Did I tell you about my parents?”
Kyle creased his brow. “Only that your mom’s a schoolteacher, your dad’s a cop, and you wanted to be a cop too, just like him.”
Oliver chuckled, but it felt forced and sad. He undid his coat and took off his scarf, laying both at the foot of Kyle’s bed. Gingerly, he sat down beside his things, watching as Kyle opened his small refrigerator. There was a tinny clink of glass as Oliver thought about what he wanted to say.
“Well, they’ve got very strict ideas about your lifestyle.”
Kyle nodded. “I see. But I need to make a correction.” He handed Oliver an open beer bottle.
“Go on.” Oliver said in mid-sip.
“It’s not a lifestyle. I was born gay.” Kyle drank from his own bottle and sat in the chair at his desk. “You have to understand and accept that.”
Oliver pulled in his lips. “You know the church that my parents go to, they have a program that reaches out to teenagers and adults who are… are…” He swirled his hand around.
“Uh, gay?” Kyle replied sarcastically. Oliver nodded.
“Well, that’s cool. Accepting us in a church like that is pretty progressive-”
“No. That’s not what the program’s about.” Oliver flashed Kyle a knowing look. Comprehension dawned on the other boy and he took a long drink of his beer.
“Oh.”
Oliver sighed. “Yeah. Oh.”
“Your church wants to 'straighten me out'. So to speak." Oliver nodded wordlessly.
"So that’s why you think it’s a choice?”
“That, and the fact that the Bible says it’s a sin.”
Kyle hopped out of his chair and sat next to Oliver on the bed. “You know, a person chooses to commit a sin.”
“Right. I know.” Oliver stared at him, confused.
“So once you realize that being gay is a part of that person’s biology, then you realize it’s not a sin. There’s nothing wrong with it.” Kyle took another drink, keeping his eyes focused on Oliver the entire time.
Slowly, Oliver met his gaze. “That’s a lot to ask. You’re asking me to change my entire belief system for you.”
Laughing softly, Kyle leaned back in his bed, placed his right hand behind his head, and drank his beer with his left. “Not your entire belief system.” He squinted his right eye and held up two fingers in a pinching gesture. “Just this one tiny part of it.”
It took one moment for the words to sink in, but when they did, Oliver couldn’t help but chuckle; it felt genuine and comfortable. He shuffled down the bed and sat next to Kyle, his back against the wall. He tipped the neck of his bottle toward Kyle, who lifted his and clinked it against Oliver’s.
“I’ll work on it if you can promise to be patient. I am capable of doing really stupid things… as you can see.”
Kyle laughed again. “Deal.”
As the clock ticked away, and Kyle’s roommate didn’t return, the boys passed the time with another beer, and then another. Oliver wasn’t nearly as drunk as he was that other night, but he was right on the tip between tipsy and buzzed. Certain things caught his attention, like the shock of his knuckles accidentally touching Kyle’s, the way Kyle’s voice swooped and changed when he related a story about his childhood and growing up.
At one point, Oliver realized his head was grazing Kyle’s shoulder. Kyle was in the middle of a story about high school when he stopped. Oliver could feel a gentle puff of air graze the top of his head.
“What’re you doing?”
Kyle’s voice was calm and steady. There was none of the disbelief, the anger that had clouded his tone the last time he asked that question. Oliver said nothing in response, but instead found his friend’s hand and threaded his fingers through his.
“Oliver? Wh-what are you doing. Are you trying to tell me something?”
He lifted his chin up, meeting Kyle’s eyes. Slowly a smile emerged on his face. “I think I’m trying to tell you that you’re pretty cool.”
Kyle didn’t reply immediately. After a minute, he flexed his jaw. “I wasn’t trying to put any moves on you, you know.”
“I know, Kyle.”
“Up until that night you saw that IM, I thought you were totally into girls.”
Oliver felt his insides shake, but he did not break his gaze. “I-I have been.”
“And then I thought that, maybe, you were… that there was a possibility you might have been-”
“What?”
Kyle inhaled deeply and shrugged as if he had nothing to lose. “Jealous. Of my online friend.”
A million replies swirled through Oliver’s head, but only one response seemed to be appropriate. Feeling his breathing increase, he drew his hand out from Kyle’s and touched his face. The stubble was still there, making the pads of his fingers, his thumb tingle, sending the sensation through his arm, right into his chest.
Oliver thought about saying, “Yeah, I was a little jealous,” or, “You could do so much better, Kyle.” Instead, he leaned forward and laid a gentle kiss on Kyle’s lips. Where there was shock and anger the first time he kissed Kyle, Oliver felt pressure as the contact was returned.
Mouths open, breaths shaking, Oliver trembled as the contact intensified. He half-expected a bolt of lightning to come and strike them both dead, on this bed, and they’d be found with their faces still attached to each other.
But no lightning bolt came. Instead, warm breath and hands wrapped around Oliver’s cheeks as Kyle drew him closer. He embraced the other boy, refusing to remove the hand that was cupping Kyle’s face, that was inching to surround the back of his friend’s head.
As Oliver tilted his head to the right, allowing the kiss to deepen, the phone rang. Kyle pulled away, startled as the loud noise interrupted the moment. With a shiver, he shot off the bed and answered it while Oliver rubbed his forehead and worried his bottom lip. What was he doing? Making out with another boy. A friend who had confided to him he was gay. Thinking about it, this made no sense at all to Oliver. But when he let go of that caution, of those mental barriers that he had put up his entire life, he felt deep down that kissing Kyle made a hell of a lot more sense than taking some girl he barely knew to his senior prom.
“That was Rooney. He’s not coming back tonight.” Kyle laughed awkwardly. “He wanted to make sure I didn’t worry.” He gently sat back down on the bed, as if he was worried any extra pressure would shift the atmosphere between them.
“Look, if you want to talk about what just happened-”
Oliver shut his eyes. “M-maybe I should go. Just for now.” He grabbed his coat and scarf and dragged himself off the bed.
“Oliver, you don’t have to. If you want to talk, I’m here.”
“No, I know that,” he said, his hand on the doorknob. He gave Kyle a small smile. “I’m tired and I don’t know if it’d be a good idea to stay here any longer. Can I meet you for breakfast tomorrow?” He winced a little bit. It was lame to ask the boy he had just been making out with if he wanted to eat with him. But Oliver knew he wasn’t ready to talk. Not yet. He couldn’t verbalize who the hell he was, much less what Kyle was to him.
Perhaps if they could maintain their friendship and explore whatever this was between them, they’d be all right. Maybe…. Perhaps…
Jeeze, he was so weak.
Kyle nodded and opened the door. “I’ll be up early. Come by whenever you’re ready.”
Oliver headed toward his room, pretending not to hear the long, heavy sigh from behind him, just before the other door shut.
Rating: PG-13; will be going to R by Part Ten.
Pairing: Kyle and Oliver, the college years
Summary: Oliver Fish met Kyle Lewis in college. It will change his life forever.
A/N:Still PG-13 for language mostly. For now....
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Ocean of Noise
The Arcade Fire
“Lewis, Fish - shift’s over!”
Wade Addington and Darrell Thomas barreled up to the two pledges. They were there to relieve them from their shift of watching the house’s Christmas tree. The entire Greek system, as well as the other clubs at LU, participated in the huge, campus-wide holiday celebration. The pledges were all required to partner up and watch the tree for a couple of hours in the evening, both to finish decorating it and to prevent possible vandalism.
Despite the incident in the dorm room a few days ago, Oliver signed up to do his shift with Kyle. Neither said anything about the kiss; instead, all talk veered from classes to plans for the holiday to the last game of the season with their biggest rivals, the Pine Valley Raiders.
Oliver was busy rubbing his hands together, breathing into to them to stay warm. Kyle had reclined fully in his small chair, his arms around himself trying to generate some body heat. He saw the officers approach and he jumped up first. “Cool. Thanks a lot,” he replied in mid-shiver. He tapped his forehead and gave the older guys a small salute. “Have fun. Fish, are you heading back?”
“Yeah.” Oliver waved at Addington and Thomas and jogged to meet up with Kyle.
They walked back in silence, mostly. Kyle kept humming something under his breath, a song that sounded vaguely familiar to Oliver. Oliver, however, was barely paying attention. With each step and every note, he found himself preoccupied with the memory of that kiss. This wasn’t unusual for Oliver. Of all his thoughts throughout the day, he estimated that about eighty to ninety percent of them concerned that kiss.
They stood side by side in the notoriously slow dormitory elevator, quiet for the first five floors. When they reached the sixth floor, Oliver turned to Kyle.
“I’m really sorry about what happened.”
Kyle didn’t reply immediately. After a beat, he scratched his nose, keeping his eyes locked on the elevator's doors. “Don’t worry about it, Fish.”
“I don’t know why I did what I did. I was drunk, and I wanted to talk to you about…. that,” he said, waving his hands to emphasize his point, “and I just got, I don’t know. Confused.”
Kyle chortled. “Apparently.”
“But, since it’s just the two of us in here, all I want to say is I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
Kyle turned and smiled at Oliver; it was a gentle, warm smile. “It’s okay. Seriously. No hard feelings.”
The elevator door slid open. Oliver stayed back, allowing Kyle to enter his dorm first. He stopped just short of coming in.
“You’ve got something else to say, Fish?”
“Y-yeah,” he said, coughing to clear his throat. He looked around the room; Kyle’s roommate was not there. Chances were he wasn’t going to be in for the rest of the evening. That thought made Oliver suddenly, and intensely, nervous.
He peered down the hallway. The hall was filled with the sounds of voices and music blasting, but there were no other students nearby. Oliver shut the door, feeling the necessity for discretion. Turning back to his friend, he collected his thoughts.
“Did I tell you about my parents?”
Kyle creased his brow. “Only that your mom’s a schoolteacher, your dad’s a cop, and you wanted to be a cop too, just like him.”
Oliver chuckled, but it felt forced and sad. He undid his coat and took off his scarf, laying both at the foot of Kyle’s bed. Gingerly, he sat down beside his things, watching as Kyle opened his small refrigerator. There was a tinny clink of glass as Oliver thought about what he wanted to say.
“Well, they’ve got very strict ideas about your lifestyle.”
Kyle nodded. “I see. But I need to make a correction.” He handed Oliver an open beer bottle.
“Go on.” Oliver said in mid-sip.
“It’s not a lifestyle. I was born gay.” Kyle drank from his own bottle and sat in the chair at his desk. “You have to understand and accept that.”
Oliver pulled in his lips. “You know the church that my parents go to, they have a program that reaches out to teenagers and adults who are… are…” He swirled his hand around.
“Uh, gay?” Kyle replied sarcastically. Oliver nodded.
“Well, that’s cool. Accepting us in a church like that is pretty progressive-”
“No. That’s not what the program’s about.” Oliver flashed Kyle a knowing look. Comprehension dawned on the other boy and he took a long drink of his beer.
“Oh.”
Oliver sighed. “Yeah. Oh.”
“Your church wants to 'straighten me out'. So to speak." Oliver nodded wordlessly.
"So that’s why you think it’s a choice?”
“That, and the fact that the Bible says it’s a sin.”
Kyle hopped out of his chair and sat next to Oliver on the bed. “You know, a person chooses to commit a sin.”
“Right. I know.” Oliver stared at him, confused.
“So once you realize that being gay is a part of that person’s biology, then you realize it’s not a sin. There’s nothing wrong with it.” Kyle took another drink, keeping his eyes focused on Oliver the entire time.
Slowly, Oliver met his gaze. “That’s a lot to ask. You’re asking me to change my entire belief system for you.”
Laughing softly, Kyle leaned back in his bed, placed his right hand behind his head, and drank his beer with his left. “Not your entire belief system.” He squinted his right eye and held up two fingers in a pinching gesture. “Just this one tiny part of it.”
It took one moment for the words to sink in, but when they did, Oliver couldn’t help but chuckle; it felt genuine and comfortable. He shuffled down the bed and sat next to Kyle, his back against the wall. He tipped the neck of his bottle toward Kyle, who lifted his and clinked it against Oliver’s.
“I’ll work on it if you can promise to be patient. I am capable of doing really stupid things… as you can see.”
Kyle laughed again. “Deal.”
As the clock ticked away, and Kyle’s roommate didn’t return, the boys passed the time with another beer, and then another. Oliver wasn’t nearly as drunk as he was that other night, but he was right on the tip between tipsy and buzzed. Certain things caught his attention, like the shock of his knuckles accidentally touching Kyle’s, the way Kyle’s voice swooped and changed when he related a story about his childhood and growing up.
At one point, Oliver realized his head was grazing Kyle’s shoulder. Kyle was in the middle of a story about high school when he stopped. Oliver could feel a gentle puff of air graze the top of his head.
“What’re you doing?”
Kyle’s voice was calm and steady. There was none of the disbelief, the anger that had clouded his tone the last time he asked that question. Oliver said nothing in response, but instead found his friend’s hand and threaded his fingers through his.
“Oliver? Wh-what are you doing. Are you trying to tell me something?”
He lifted his chin up, meeting Kyle’s eyes. Slowly a smile emerged on his face. “I think I’m trying to tell you that you’re pretty cool.”
Kyle didn’t reply immediately. After a minute, he flexed his jaw. “I wasn’t trying to put any moves on you, you know.”
“I know, Kyle.”
“Up until that night you saw that IM, I thought you were totally into girls.”
Oliver felt his insides shake, but he did not break his gaze. “I-I have been.”
“And then I thought that, maybe, you were… that there was a possibility you might have been-”
“What?”
Kyle inhaled deeply and shrugged as if he had nothing to lose. “Jealous. Of my online friend.”
A million replies swirled through Oliver’s head, but only one response seemed to be appropriate. Feeling his breathing increase, he drew his hand out from Kyle’s and touched his face. The stubble was still there, making the pads of his fingers, his thumb tingle, sending the sensation through his arm, right into his chest.
Oliver thought about saying, “Yeah, I was a little jealous,” or, “You could do so much better, Kyle.” Instead, he leaned forward and laid a gentle kiss on Kyle’s lips. Where there was shock and anger the first time he kissed Kyle, Oliver felt pressure as the contact was returned.
Mouths open, breaths shaking, Oliver trembled as the contact intensified. He half-expected a bolt of lightning to come and strike them both dead, on this bed, and they’d be found with their faces still attached to each other.
But no lightning bolt came. Instead, warm breath and hands wrapped around Oliver’s cheeks as Kyle drew him closer. He embraced the other boy, refusing to remove the hand that was cupping Kyle’s face, that was inching to surround the back of his friend’s head.
As Oliver tilted his head to the right, allowing the kiss to deepen, the phone rang. Kyle pulled away, startled as the loud noise interrupted the moment. With a shiver, he shot off the bed and answered it while Oliver rubbed his forehead and worried his bottom lip. What was he doing? Making out with another boy. A friend who had confided to him he was gay. Thinking about it, this made no sense at all to Oliver. But when he let go of that caution, of those mental barriers that he had put up his entire life, he felt deep down that kissing Kyle made a hell of a lot more sense than taking some girl he barely knew to his senior prom.
“That was Rooney. He’s not coming back tonight.” Kyle laughed awkwardly. “He wanted to make sure I didn’t worry.” He gently sat back down on the bed, as if he was worried any extra pressure would shift the atmosphere between them.
“Look, if you want to talk about what just happened-”
Oliver shut his eyes. “M-maybe I should go. Just for now.” He grabbed his coat and scarf and dragged himself off the bed.
“Oliver, you don’t have to. If you want to talk, I’m here.”
“No, I know that,” he said, his hand on the doorknob. He gave Kyle a small smile. “I’m tired and I don’t know if it’d be a good idea to stay here any longer. Can I meet you for breakfast tomorrow?” He winced a little bit. It was lame to ask the boy he had just been making out with if he wanted to eat with him. But Oliver knew he wasn’t ready to talk. Not yet. He couldn’t verbalize who the hell he was, much less what Kyle was to him.
Perhaps if they could maintain their friendship and explore whatever this was between them, they’d be all right. Maybe…. Perhaps…
Jeeze, he was so weak.
Kyle nodded and opened the door. “I’ll be up early. Come by whenever you’re ready.”
Oliver headed toward his room, pretending not to hear the long, heavy sigh from behind him, just before the other door shut.