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Randy sat in class, not really paying attention to the lecture as he was busy observing his boyfriend’s hand as he held it. It’s true that Howard’s hands were very dainty, and Randy found this adorable. His short fingers intertwined perfectly with his own, and on cold November days like this when Randy’s hands were always freezing, he could count on Howard’s heaters for hands to warm him up. As he stared at his boyfriend’s not very well kept fingernails, a brilliant idea washed over him.
“You should let me paint your nails.” Randy spoke in a quiet enough voice so as to not draw attention from the teacher.
“What, no, why would you want to do that?” Howard blinked away from his zoning out to face Randy.
“Come on pleeeease.” Randy pleaded, busting out his puppy dog eyes, which admittedly weren’t as cute or effective as Howard’s were.
Nonetheless it seemed to work on Howard, he blushed, averting his eyes for a second and grumbled out a small “fine.”
***
That afternoon after school, Howard sat on his bed propped up against his pillow as Randy sat cross-legged, gently holding Howard’s left hand in his as he painted.
“Aaaand done!” Randy said as he finished up Howard’s pinky finger. The nail polish was far from perfect, sometimes going outside the nail, or clumping up in some spots, but it was Randy’s first time painting nails and he was quite proud of his work. Plus it looked absolutely adorable on Howard.
Howard reached out his hand in front of him to observe his nails, Randy had chosen a purple color from his mom’s nail polish drawer.
“Hey, from a distance, and if you squint really hard it almost looks not terrible.” Howard noted, Randy huffed a little at this. “Can we play Grave Puncher now?”
“No, you gotta be careful to let it dry or you might mess it up.”
“Like it’s not already messed up enough…” Howard mumbled. “Then what can we do? Just wait? Booore-iiing.” He whined.
“Weeeell...” Randy laid himself on his stomach, holding his head in his hands with his elbows on the bed and kicked his legs in the air in a classic girl-at-a-sleepover pose. “We could talk about boys.” He grinned, trying to keep in his laughter.
“Are you serious right now.” Howard deadpanned, looking at Randy with an unamused expression.
“Ok I’ll go first!” Randy clapped his hands excitedly, keeping up the character. “So there’s this really cute guy I always see around, he’s got this red hair and he has the cutest dainty hands.” At ‘hands’ Randy limped his wrist and wiggled his fingers at Howard, still grinning up at him. “He’s so dreamy, I just wish I had the nerves to confess my feelings.” He stifled a laugh.
“Oh really?” Howard gave in and decided to play along. Despite how stupid this was, he couldn’t keep the heat from rising to his face. “And who is this guy?”
Randy scooted closer to him, pushing himself up with his arms to Howard’s face level. “Howard Weinerman.” At this, Randy took Howard’s face in his hands and planted kisses all over his cheek, Howard couldn’t help the giggles bubbling up from inside him, he was thoroughly charmed.
“Okay stop, stop!” Howard laughed and playfully swatted Randy’s face away from his. “I think it’s your turn to get your nails painted now.”
***
“Didn’t do too bad if I say so myself.” Howard dusted off imaginary dust from his hands after screwing the lid back on the red container of nail polish he stole from Heidi’s room.
“I think the point of nail polish, Howard, is that it’s supposed to be on the nails . My hands look like a war zone.” It was true, the red polish practically covered the tips of Randy’s fingers. “How did you manage to get it everywhere but the nail on this one?!” He pointed to his right index finger.
“Oh shut it Cunningham, I did my best.” Howard said defensively.
“You’re right, you’re right. I love it anyways.” His voice turned sweet like honey, and he smiled warmly at Howard, planting a kiss on the side of his head. “So, you haven’t told me anything about your crush yet hmm? Care to share with the class?”
“Pfff like I’ll ever tell.” Howard crossed his arms in fake stubbornness.
“Come oooooooon.” Randy whined. “I told you about mine, you have to tell me about yours, it’s the rules!”
Howard gave a false sight of defeat. “Okay fine, ya got me. Let’s see…” Randy waited in anticipation to hear about himself.
“Don’t tell anyone else this but, he’s the Norrisville Ninja…”
Randy smiled at him, conjuring up a hushed shocked “no way!”
“Yup, and if you ask me, he’s totally wonk at it sometimes. Almost every battle, he manages to shoob it up somehow, but in the end he always figures it out. I mean, he’s saved my ass more times than I can count.”
“Really?” Randy commented, amused.
“But when he’s not the ninja, he’s got this stupid anime haircut,”
“Hey!”
“Hush! you wanna hear about him or not?” Randy stayed quiet.
“He’s also got kind eyes that tell me everything’s gonna be okay, and whenever he smiles at me it’s like fireworks are going off. Sometimes I just want to kiss him till I can’t breathe anymore.” After Howard said this it was like someone released a thousand butterflies inside Randy’s rib cage, he was speechless.
“Sometimes though,” Howard continued. “I’m not really a great friend to him. I can be… selfish, and put my needs before his, but I hope he knows how much I care about him. I really love him a lot.”
When Randy was silent for too long, Howard finally looked at him to find that he was being stared at with the goofiest most love struck expression he’s ever seen on his boyfriend's face. He could even swear he saw his pupils turn into little hearts.
Finally, Randy wiped an invisible tear from his eye and spoke. “That was…. The most… beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.” Randy threw his arms around Howard. “Oh Howie I love you too!”
“Hey, who said I was talking about you?” Randy pulled back to look at Howard with shock, until they both couldn’t hold it in anymore and erupted with laughter.
The laughter eventually died down, till Randy was wiping away real tears and breathing in some much needed air before he spoke. “Ahhh.. you're too much Howard… But seriously, you really mean all that stuff you said?”
Howard blushed, slightly embarrassed. “Of course I do,” he took Randy’s partly red hands into his own. “You mean the world to me, Cunningham. Eugh that sounded super la-“ before he could finish saying ‘lame’ Howard found himself being kissed but Randy Cunningham, it took him a moment to realize before he kissed back. He wrapped his arms around Randy’s neck and inched slightly closer.
When they parted, they both took a moment to breathe and smile at each other before Randy once again took Howard’s face in his hands and peppered him with small kisses.
“Aww you sap.” Howard grinned, and Randy finally let go of his face to wrap his arms around Howard’s torso and rest his head on his shoulder.
“You wanna play Grave Puncher now? I think our nails are dry enough.”
Howard had completely forgotten about the nails, and Grave Puncher. “Sure, if you don’t get too cuddly like last time and distract me from beating you.”
“No promises.”