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The cool evening breeze gently carded through Shumby’s hair as he breathed in the scent of salt and ocean spray. The sky was stained a beautiful hue of oranges and purples as the sun slowly drifted to sleep, sinking inch by inch behind the rolling waves. Each crest glimmered with scattered flecks of dying sunlight, like the ocean was wearing a thousand tiny gemstones.
A little farther away from his position perched on the rocks, Cobble sat playing in the sand, humming quietly to himself as he packed handful after handful into his lopsided bucket. It was nice. Calm. The kind of stillness that didn’t weigh on the chest but wrapped softly around the edges of the day instead. Just two friends hanging out on a warm evening, letting the world breathe around them.
And yet—why couldn’t he stop looking?
Every time he forced his eyes toward the horizon, toward the fading sun or the gulls swooping overhead, his gaze would always, always be dragged back to Cobble. It was a magnetic force, a type of attraction that transcended mortal bounds and left him hungry and wanting. Every simple movement that Cobble made was divine and full. The soft tilt of his lips as he focused, the shine in those forest-green eyes when he discovered a particularly smooth shell, the gentle sway of his tail as he added another careful scoop of sand to his bucket.
And by the Void did it leave Shumby breathless.
He felt like he was in hell, staring up at heaven. Everything he desired sat but a few feet away—and yet it was impossible to reach. Really, could one ever blame him for wanting just a taste of the forbidden fruit? A brush of fingertips, a laugh shared too close, a moment where their shoulders touched and he didn’t have to pretend it didn’t make his heart clench.
He wished, desperately, that the universe had granted him even half the courage it had given Cobble’s smile.
Cobble shifted, leaning back on his palms as he examined his crooked masterpiece. The breeze ruffled his hair, lifting it gently off his forehead. The light caught in the gold flecks of his eyes, making them shimmer like sunlight filtering through tree leaves. Shumby’s breath hitched.
It was embarrassing, really, how ruined he was by such simple things.
He dragged a hand over his face and forced himself to look away—at a crab scuttling sideways, at the tide pulling foam back into the deep. Anywhere. Anywhere but him.
But even denying himself the view didn’t help. He felt Cobble in the air somehow, like the shape of him bent the world around it. Like gravity had chosen someone else to orbit around.
“Shumby?”
The sudden voice broke him out of his stupor. It sounded like stars made of silk falling upon his ears, soft and shining.
Shumby’s tail gave a traitorous twitch.
“Are you really sleeping right now, bro?”
He cleared his throat and sat up, doing his best impression of someone who absolutely had not been staring like a lovesick idiot.
“Of course I wasn’t, idiot,” he huffed. “Are you done building your castle yet?”
Cobble rolled his eyes—those beautiful, stupidly green eyes—and laughed, a warm sound that tangled around Shumby’s ribs.
“Yeah, I’m all done,” he said, brushing sand from his knees. “The sun’s about to set soon. Do you wanna go, or should we stay and watch?”
Should we stay and watch…?
It was such a simple phrase, tossed out as casually as a seashell, and yet it had heat pooling in Shumby’s gut and racing to his face. Should we stay and watch the sunset together? His chest tightened. His pulse thudded unsteadily.
He swallowed hard.
God, can’t you see how ruined I am by this man…
Cobble was still looking at him, head tilted, soft and patient in a way that made Shumby’s bones feel like warm wax. The ocean roared gently in the background. The sky blazed with color. And for one terrifying, wonderful moment, Shumby wondered if maybe—just maybe—Cobble was waiting for his answer a little too intently.
Maybe he wasn’t the only one feeling something impossible.
“Sure, let’s watch the sun set.”