a voice answers him. kyle tenses. his hands grab a hold of the tub's rims to hoist himself up. only his torso is exposed above the water when noah enters, failing to get up to rush and lock the door.

he opens his mouth to react, but the sight gets him flustered and dumbfounded. he freezes, red all over, as he helplessly watches noah get in the tub with him. the water overflows with the addition of noah, but it was the least of his worries.

he's still not sure how noah gets the confidence to go for these plays, but kyle won't deny that it wasn't ineffective.

"o-o-okay," he mindlessly answers before snapping back to reality. "i-i mean, no! this was supposed to be my alone time."

he settles back to the water, submerging himself while his legs stretch towards noah's side. more skin touches underneath the surface, and he gets the opposite of what he has drawn the bath for.

"it's supposed to be your day off from watching the dogs today. why're you here?" his voice turns meek, still shaken up from the intrusion.

shoudln't it be the other way around for the second one?" he mumbles, fondly remembering noah's near death experience by food poisoning by eating something he picked from the ground.

he tries to get as composed as possible, attempting to make use of the bath to relax as best as he can despite the distractions. noah's presence makes him uncomfortable, fidgety, restless... he thinks he's making progress, until he reacts toe the sudden change in expression.

"wai-"

he already was getting skeptical with how he said it. noah volunteering to leave wasn't possible, especially since he just complimented him. kyle is aware of his patterns and mannerisms now, but noah still manages to catch him off-guard more often than not.

"y-y-y-n-n-n..." he stumbles on his words.

kyle gets red. his eyes wander from noah's eyes, and then down, before forcing them up once more. he gets flustered, and irritated, and elated. multiple feelings drown him. he doesn't like the feeling of helplessness, but at the same time, he has no choice but to experience it.

"argh! fine! you win." he withdraws his feet closer to him, hugging his knees. "where'd you learn those tricks anyways?" maybe they weren't tricks at all. maybe kyle's just weak.

"that twelve wasn't a joke?" he asks.

he jerks his head straight up as noah's legs move in a more comfortable position. it gets kyle hot and nervous, but he stands his ground, trying to act as normal as possible. testing people for their reactions was his thing and he feels defeated being teased himself. he accepts the splash on his face like the defeatist that he is.

"w-when did you even start doing this dating thing?" kyle suddenly felt like he missed a lot out of his childhood for not giving romance a chance when he still had his teenager hormones acting up. "like did you-" he forms a ring out of his fingers and pierces through it with another from his other hand. "-when you were..."

he starts to do maths in his head, taking into account that he probably wouldn't have gone through all twelve in a single year or so. despite noah's aggressive approach on things relating to dating, he gives him an allowance of a few per year.

"...like fifteen, sixteen or something?"

he grabs a hold of his head as he starts to imagine things. he has witnessed worse crimes, but the image of noah being too experienced in this field just boggles his mind.

"is that even legal?" he utters subconsciously. "like, uh..." maybe he wasted his youth if all he did was play video games.

he feels fire on his face, flushed as ever when noah shifts about the tub. their current positions were precarious for the both of them, but noah manages to anchor kyle with reality his words.

"y-y-yeah! right!" he answers, panicked.

still, he gets nervous. the fact that noah switches partners more times than he can even imagine scares him. he never went in a relationship before, and he wonders if there was going to be another opportunity after this one. pessimistic thoughts cloud his mind, but the sight of noah's face on his knee clears it.

"yeah, you and me..."

noah looks too appealing. the temptation cannot be stopped as emotions run high. his heart races for no reason other than noah sharing the tub with him. the feeling was foreign, but he welcomes it nonetheless.

kyle closes in, touching his lips with noah's.