They sat together on the bed as there was nowhere else to sit in the room. A bit of awkwardness had manifested between them after crying together, neither knew how to start the conversation.
Darcy suddenly remembered their intentions to do some shopping and retrieved his phone from the bedside table, leaning past Kand-Lei as he did.
Kand-Lei pretended to act nonchalant, leaning against the headboard as he subtly sniffed the air. He let out a soft sigh of relief when he smelt that Darcy's pheromones had gone back to normal, radiating a tantalising sun-warmed vine-ripened tomato smell. It was a scent he had found pleasant from the moment they met and one he had since become rather familiar with.
Darcy sat back against the headboard as well, unlocking his phone to a tsunami of messages and missed calls.
He winced before scanning the call log, most were from his parents, a few from acquaintances. He skimmed past the bulk of the messages, the ones from his parents were mostly angry but also a bit worried.
He sent a few reassuring messages before opening the shopping app.
"My family can be so dramatic." He mumbled fondly. "Kelpie, did you find anything you wanted?"
Kand-Lei nodded, showing him a few articles of clothing. They were all fashionable but Darcy frowned briefly.
"Your size?"
"Men's small."
Darcy's fingers flew over the keyboard, swiftly bringing up what he was looking for. He showed a range of cozy looking winter jackets.
"Which one do you like?"
Kand-Lei was a little startled, "You don't have to go that far, I already have a jacket." He protested, ducking his head.
"That jacket is threadbare, you were shivering last night." He gave a playful grin, "And I can't have you continuously stealing my jacket."
Kand-Lei pretended to be convinced by the logic, in actuality he had seen a coat that he really liked and he was well aware of his nonexistent funds.
He reached over Darcy, leaning against his side, and swiped up to the one that had caught his eye. He picked black for the colour and then looked up at Darcy, their faces much closer than he had intended.
"So that I don't inconvenience you then."
"You've never inconvenienced me." He murmured in response, gaze trailing over his pale face like he was looking at precious art.
Kand-Lei's breath stuttered for a moment, he got caught in the midnight depths of Darcy's eyes, finding a faint blue tint in the seemingly fathomless black.
He suddenly drew back, letting his hair fall in front of his eyes as he hid his flushed face. Never had merely some eye contact made him react so strongly.
Darcy smirked as he gazed fondly at Kand-Lei's red ears.
He placed the order which would be delivered in the afternoon.
"I think we might have to stay here again for tonight." He held up his phone, "My folks are still pretty mad at me."
Kand-Lei merely nodded. He fiddled with his phone, twisting and turning and picking and pulling. Anything to keep his mind off of the events he had experienced recently, both before and after meeting Darcy.
A sparkle abruptly began dancing in Darcy's eyes, he turned towards Kand-Lei with a grin.
"Wanna play a game?"
Kand-Lei just stared at him for a moment before replying. "Which one?" He looked around, "I don't think they have any board games here."
Darcy waved his phone "We have the entire internet at our disposal." He typed something into his phone, "21 questions, truth or dare, or charades?"
"… I am most familiar with truth or dare." Kand-Lei murmured, fiddling with the edge of his shirt, "There is an app that gives you prompts isn't there?"
He peeked over Darcy's shoulder at his phone.
It took less than three minutes to download the app and set it up for their game.
The app chose Darcy to be its first victim.
Kand-Lei smiled wickedly, "Truth or dare Mr Darcy?"
Darcy groaned, eventually clicking on the dare option.
Darcy let out a great sigh of relief, "I'm so glad it's normal. I've gotten some pretty crazy ones before."
He stood up and moved to a clear space, very awkwardly and with a bit of creative leg wiggling he managed to get into a handstand position. It wasn't pretty or graceful and his form was far from perfect, but he had technically completed the dare.
Kand-Lei, picked dare as well, praying silently to the phone for a good dare.
Kand-Lei sighed in relief, he pulled out his phone and opened the camera app. The photo was a semi blurry selfie with a stray cat.
Darcy smiled, "Cute."
"Yeah, all cats are cute."
"Cats?"
Darcy picked dare again, quickly.
Darcy's adam's apple bobbed when he saw that, his gaze flickered briefly to an equally flustered Kand-Lei.
"I'm guessing we're not doing retries?" He laughed a little nervously.
"A dare's a dare." Kand-Lei shrugged, avoiding eye contact.
Darcy cleared his throat, the sound disproportionately loud in the silent room. "…Kand-Lei." He whispered.
They both became redder and redder in the silence that followed. Kand-Lei, now fully comprehending the dangers of the dare option, tapped on truth hesitantly.
He pondered for a moment, "Does rescuing a guy I barely know from a crazy stalker and then living together temporarily count?"
Darcy laughed, "Unless you've done something crazier, I'd say that's as good an answer as any."
Darcy, not having learnt his lesson, picked dare again.
They both laughed a little at that one.
Darcy, after a small internal debate, decided that the wardrobe doorknob was probably the cleanest, and therefore safest to lick.
Kand-Lei chuckled, amused, when Darcy came back, making weird faces. "How did it taste?"
"Cold and metal-y."
He snorted as he pressed truth.
Kand-Lei let a small smile flicker across his face before he turned to Darcy with a serious expression, appearing to study him intently. He pursed his lips dramatically.
"You're… kind. Impulsive from what I've seen. Stubborn as well. But you're also not afraid to express your emotions, or to comfort strangers. You're a good listener and a terrible chess player. You're very pretty and annoyingly taller than average." He nodded once. "I like your smile and the way your hair sparkles like snow."
Darcy's fingers twitched at every remark, his face steadily getting more and more red. He looked like a flustered strawberry.
"Wow. I feel like I should be half grateful and half offended." He chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck, "Thank you…"
Quickly trying to break the tension he tapped on dare.