#I did watch some parts of stranger things today expect a gifset soon

[hourglass-full-of-stars]

I actually don’t think scooby doos should have any adult remakes, it’s a show about 5 kids solving mysteries and sometimes there can be an evil entity, I don’t want one that makes sense, was scooby doo mystery incorporated not insane enough for you people. stop remaking things and make your OWN things. coward.

[azozzoni]

VDS Week: Friends to Lovers Accompanies This gifset

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Jens doesn’t know why Lucas has a Grindr. It’s not as if he ever goes out with any of the people who DM him, and Jens knows for sure because Lucas told him as much last time it came up. Still, Lucas still scrolls through the pictures of guys he’s never going to meet.

Lucas says it’s because the idea of hooking up with a stranger he meets on the internet is just too weird, too unsafe in this day and age, but Jens knows that’s not really the reason.

The real reason is Lucas’ unrequited crush on his best friend.

Not that Lucas has told Jens about this, even though they are friends as well, have been for almost two years. It didn’t take Jens long to figure it out after moving to Utrecht, the clear bond Lucas and Kes share, the way Lucas gazes at him sometimes when he thinks no one is watching.

If it was anyone else, Jens wouldn’t care. He doesn’t care that Jayden has a thing for Janna even though she doesn’t give him the time of day, or that Kes is still secretly pining after Isa. He doesn’t care about any of those relationship dramas. It’s Lucas’ desperation for Kes that gets on his nerves in a way he can’t brush away.

Kes, for his part, has no idea about Lucas’ feelings, even though Jens thinks it’s pretty fucking obvious.

Jens isn’t going to tell him, though. He just hopes Lucas might get over it some day, actually go on a date with a guy who’s not Kes, see that there are more fish in the sea.

Jens is not one of those fish, he thinks as he watches Lucas curled up on the arm chair with Ralph, scrolling through Grindr together. They’re at Jayden’s apartment, although Jens doesn’t know where Jayden disappeared to. He’d left once the phone came out, complaining that they never paid attention to him.

Curled up on the couch, Jens keeps his mouth shut as Ralph comments occasionally on the guys passing by on the screen and Lucas peers over his shoulder.

Jens has been in this exact situation before, with Lucas squished in next to him in his living room, showing Jens the guys on Grindr. It was fine at first, when Lucas had first learned that Jens was bi, had someone to share things with. It had been two friends commenting on the ridiculous photos, the bios that were clearly just bids for sex.

But lately, it’s gotten distracting, how Lucas curls up next to Jens, their shoulders pressed together, Lucas’ curls tickling his neck when he moves to look at the screen, the soft huffs of laughter at Jens’ comments. Jens barely remembers what he even says anymore, too focused on the weight of Lucas against him, his arm brushing against Jens’ when he reaches over to swipe through the profiles.

He’s kind of glad it’s not him today as Lucas leans in over Ralph’s shoulder to look at the phone.

“He’s cute, right?” Ralph asks, and Jens can’t see who they’re talking about, but he does see the way Lucas gestures, vaguely.

“If you’re into that.”

Looking away, Jens barely refrains from rolling his eyes. No one on that app is going to compare to Kes. No one is going to come close to whatever fantasy Lucas has concocted in his head about him and Kes. Maybe he thinks one day Kes will wake up and realize he’s not straight, that he’s into his best friend, and they’ll ride off into the sunset.

It annoys Jens, a prickle at the back of his neck as he slumps onto the couch. There’s crushes and then there’s whatever Lucas has with Kes.

Jens doesn’t totally blame Lucas—after all, he has eyes. He’s seen Kes, and who wouldn’t be attracted to his charming smile, his goofy nature? But is Kes really more special than anyone else? Jens doesn’t think so.

Ralph glances up from the phone, to Lucas. “Then what are you into?”

Lucas hesitates a second, looking surprised at the question as he laughs, slight.

“What? I don’t know,” he says, like it’s a weird question to ask. But it’s not, and Jens knows the exact answer.

It’s Lucas’ response, as though he doesn’t know exactly who he’s into, that makes Jens open his mouth and say what he does next.

“He’s into straight guys who don’t like him back.”

He feels both Lucas and Ralph’s gaze swivel to him as soon as he says it, can see the frown wrinkling Lucas’ forehead as Ralph glances between them.

“I’m gonna give you two a minute,” he says, as though the air in the room has not just gone from normal to awkward in the span of five seconds. He pushes himself out of the chair, handing Lucas back his phone, and Lucas watches him go for a second before glancing back at Jens.

“What the fuck was that?” he asks, and Jens wants to sigh, but fuck, he shouldn’t have said that.

“The truth,” he says instead, even if it makes Lucas’ frown deepen, as though he has no idea what Jens is talking about.

“What are you talking about?” Lucas asks, shaking his head, tucking his phone away, and Jens has to roll his eyes. Lucas isn’t that dense.

“You know exactly who I’m talking about.”

Lucas just stares. “What is wrong with you? Why are you being such a dick?”

He is being a dick, Jens realizes as he sits on the couch, leaned forward on his knees. He’s annoyed because Lucas likes someone who doesn’t like him back—who even cares? Does it even matter? It does, his gut tells him with a jerk on his navel. It does matter because it’s not Jens that Lucas likes.

When Jens had moved to Utrecht two years ago, he’d been sure he would hate it. Everyone had a weird accent and there were no canals and all his friends were hours away. But he’d met Lucas halfway through his second day, and Lucas had invited him to lunch with his friends. And from there, things hadn’t been as terrible as he’d predicted.

There have been parties, trips to cabins by a lake, plenty of hours getting high with Lucas in his bedroom, laughing at stupid shit, making life bearable.

It’s Lucas that has made it all bearable, and Jens doesn’t know when it went from Lucas being a guy he hangs out with to a guy he wants to…

Shaking the thought from his head, he brings his gaze back to Lucas in the chair, waiting for an answer to his question.

Fuck.

“I have to get home,” he says finally, abrupt, standing from the couch and heading for the door before Lucas can even open his mouth.

“Jens, wait,” Lucas calls after him, scrambling after him to the door. “What’s going on? Are you okay?” He gets himself between Jens and the door, practically bumping into his chest.

Of course Lucas is concerned, Jens thinks as he gazes into his amazingly blue eyes, the confusion from before replaced with worry.

Jens can’t process this right now, this realization that he likes Lucas, his friend, one of his only friends here. And Lucas likes Kes. Oh, yeah.

“I’m fine,” he lies, the words sour in his mouth, wishing Lucas wasn’t blocking the doorknob so he could just escape into the dreary street and be alone with the million thoughts swirling in his brain. 

He’s so far from fine, he doesn’t even know what fine is. How did he not see it? The new uncomfortable feeling any time Lucas gets too close, the jealousy bubbling up inside him whenever he catches Lucas watching Kes.

“Jens,” Lucas says, reaching for Jens’ shoulder, but Jens ducks out of the way, getting his hand behind Lucas to pull the door open instead.

“I gotta go,” he says. He can’t have this conversation here, with Ralph in the next room, probably with his ear pressed up against the wall, with Jayden hovering around somewhere, ready to interrupt at the worst possible moment.

Darting around Lucas, he makes it into the hall, taking a breath as he hits the stairwell. He needs fresh air, clear air, somewhere he can process this and decide what he’s supposed to do now.

Jens has been in this situation before, with Jana, and it had ended terribly. Of course, they’d been a lot younger and made some stupid mistakes along the way, but he just remembers the bad parts.

Lucas is one of his few friends here, and he knows what happens when friends start dating.

Dating, he scoffs as he jogs down the stairs. He’s just realized he likes Lucas and he’s already thinking about all the ways they could fuck it up.

“Hey!” A voice on the stairs echoes down, and Jens turns at the clatter of footsteps behind him. “Stop.”

Cursing to himself, Jens wishes he didn’t have to, but he does stop on a landing as Lucas comes down, jumping the last few stairs.

“I really don’t want to talk right now, Luc,” he says, all but sighs as Lucas comes to a stop on the landing.

The truth of the matter is that even if he accepts that he likes Lucas, decides it’s not just his teenage hormones suddenly confused between affection of a friend and something more, there’s still the fact that Lucas has a huge, ridiculous crush on Kes that he won’t suddenly get over if Jens tells him about this new revelation.

“What did you mean that I only like straight guys who don’t like me back?” Lucas asks, and it’s not what Jens expects, and it’s not what he wants to talk about.

But Lucas isn’t going to let go of this, so he sighs, annoyed. “Kes,” he says, blunt. “That’s what I meant. Your stupid, obviously unrequited, feelings for Kes.”

For a second, Lucas just stares, as if he can’t even rebuke it. Jens knows he can’t. 

“How-how did you…” Lucas says, shaking his head as though he doesn’t understand. Jens would feel bad for him if he wasn’t busy trying not to be angry about something he shouldn’t care about.

“It’s obvious to anyone paying attention,” Jens snaps, losing the battle to be nice.

Lucas pauses, a hand wrapped around his wrist, squeezing nervously, and it takes him a minute to raise his gaze to Jens.

“Does he know?”

It’s so pathetic that Jens sighs, some of the annoyance draining from him as they stand in the empty stairwell. “No, he doesn’t know.”

There’s still tension to Lucas’ shoulders as he takes a breath, chews on his bottom lip.

“Why are you so pissed at me?” he asks finally, and it catches Jens off-guard. “Is it about Kes?”

It is and it isn’t. It’s more that Jens has just realized he likes his friend and he doesn’t know what to do about that.

“I just think you could do better,” Jens hears himself say. “You know, maybe like a guy who’s actually into guys.”

Lucas frowns this time, a tiny scoff as he looks away. “You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t know how much easier it would be if I could find someone who was into me the same way?”

“You can,” Jens says, firmly. Because he is. Jens is into him apparently, has been for longer than he even knows at this point.

Lucas shakes his head. “All those guys on Grindr? I’m never gonna meet any of them. I don’t want to meet any of them. They’re all into hook-ups and shirtless selfies, and I’m just not that guy.”

“I know you’re not,” Jens says, feeling bad for snapping at Lucas earlier. It’s not Lucas’ fault that Jens can’t recognize his own feelings before they creep up on him.

For a second, they stand on the landing, and Jens wishes he knew what to say. As Lucas sighs, Jens bites down on his lip. Why has it taken him this long to realize? Why couldn’t he have figured it out two years ago? Before they’d become friends, spent late nights watching shitty porn, listening to Lucas talk about his mom, Lucas letting him complain about his sisters, his mom making them move over here.

That would make all of this so much easier. Because now, they’re friends, and Jens can’t just come out and say he’s changed his mind.

Lucas looks so defeated, though, tugging down the sleeves of his jacket and Jens doesn’t know what moves him to step forward and take Lucas’ face in his hands, pressing an unexpected kiss to his lips.

It lasts all of a second as Jens realizes what he’s doing, pulls back abruptly. He’d meant it to be a friendly thing, maybe, not an actual kiss that leaves his lips tingling, his heart racing as the weight of his action sinks in.

“What was that?” Lucas asks, and Jens shakes his head quickly.

“I don’t know—I—I’m sorry.”

That was stupid, he thinks. Possibly the stupidest thing he could have done right now.

He starts to turn, to head down the last set of stairs and escape outside where he can spend the whole walk home reprimanding himself for such a stupid action, but Lucas catches his arm.

Glancing back, Jens takes a breath as Lucas stares at him. If they could just pretend this never happened, that he never brought up Lucas’ thing with Kes or said anything about Lucas finding someone, that would be perfect.

But Lucas doesn’t suggest either of those things as he steps into Jens’ space, a question on his face that Jens doesn’t think he can answer, a nervous twitch to his fingers as he reaches for Jens’ cheek.

“What are you doing?” Jens asks when Lucas is too close and all he can hear is the rush of blood in his ears as his heart pounds in his chest.

“I don’t know,” Lucas murmurs after a second, and then it’s too late to stop him.

Lucas’ lips are soft, warm, gentle as he leans into Jens. Jens can practically feel the nerves pouring off both of them, even as he tilts his head to the side, lets Lucas in, kisses him back. It’s nothing special as far as kisses go, but Jens’ heart feels like it’s about to explode anyway when Lucas pulls back, much slower than Jens did before.

Jens lets out a breath, shaky, and swallows down the lump in his throat as he and Lucas stand there. What do they do now?

“Now what?” Lucas asks, as if he can read Jens’ mind, and Jens laughs despite himself.

“I don’t know,” he admits, and Lucas nods.

“Me neither.”

Maybe he doesn't know what comes next, but they’ve made it this far. And sometimes it works, doesn’t it? Friends become more and it works out? Maybe that could be them.

Standing on the landing, Jens doesn’t say anything and neither does Lucas, but he does smile slightly when he catches Jens’ eyes, and maybe, maybe they’ll be okay.