Chapter Text
“You said Seniors are allowed to ask Juniors?”
“I did say that,” Grizz clarifies. “As long as a senior accompanies the Junior in question.”
“But it’s Senior formal.”
“Almost seems like you’re looking for an excuse not to bring Panda,” Grizz teased, nudging Charlie with an elbow. “Nah, but nobody’s fact checking.”
Senior formal was three weeks away; Charlie and Grizz were simultaneously overexcited and nervous as heck about asking their boyfriends. While they both were fairly positive they would receive affirmative reactions, the mere thought of potential rejection was enough to make both of them jittery. However unlikely, it was still in the realm of possibilities.
While Grizz and Charlie were fairly similar in terms of outlook on life and overall morality, the same could not be said for Panda and Nom Nom. In fact, the two couldn’t be more different from one another. Where Nom Nom craved attention in a more outward way through any means he could get his little pizza hands on, Panda wanted attention and then panicked when he got any.
Grizz knew Nom Nom would want something extravagant when it came to this type of proposal-- as he was so used to it at this point and felt as though he deserved it (and to Grizz, he did.)
“What do you think…” Charlie started, clearly shy. “Panda’d, y’know, like?”
“Honestly, he says he loves grand romantic gestures,” Grizz said, “But the embarrassment would probably melt the guy. He loves you, he’d probably die of happiness no matter what you did.”
While Charlie also felt like his boyfriend deserved the world and everything else, he mentally noted to tone it down. Leave the hard stuff to Grizz, he was the one who chose to date a combination Youtuber and Tiktok celebrity.
Charlie went home that day with a mission: ask Panda to senior formal without making it weird. On TV there was always something to interrupt the couple before they had much of a chance to do anything, but that wouldn’t deter Charlie! Nothing mattered more to him than his Panda.
Although he had an easier task to accomplish than Grizz, Charlie was in no way equipped with the necessary planning skills to execute this in a way that didn’t involve dirt. He made it a point to walk home without Panda (horribly painful, trust me, he knew,) as to avoid spilling the secret to him. Although asking was just a formality at this point, the one thing he could keep secret was the way he asked.
Oh, he could plant flowers that spelt out ‘WILL U GO TO FORMAL WITH ME’!
...Nah, not enough time. Or territory. Or cash in which to purchase seeds with.
He liked flowers, though, and he knew Panda liked them too. If he couldn’t think of anything original to do for him, at least he had that.
“Aw, are you asking me to senior formal?”
“N-No! I never said that!”
Pause for dramatic effect, and...
“Wait, so, you aren’t?”
Oh, God. “Ack, that’s not what I meant! I just--”
“Grizz,” Nom Nom laughed through the phone. “You’re so cute. If you’re that concerned with how to ask me, why don’t you look on the internet? They have, like, everything on there. You’re bound to find something that’ll please me.”
“No, it HAS to be original! That’s the whole point! You’ll never see it coming! This’ll be the greatest…” What word was he supposed to use here? “...Senior-formal-posal you’ve ever experienced!”
Living in a rent controlled apartment, you don’t exactly get the thickest, most soundproof walls in the world. Nothing about this was beneficial to anyone. For example, Panda was frequently subjected to these types of phone calls between his brother and his boyfriend. At first he thought they were cute, but they weren’t cute when he was trying to sleep or do homework. If he wanted to call Charlie (which was a rare occurrence thanks to the ocean of anxiety he lived in) he made sure nobody was home, especially not Grizz. Ice Bear minded his own business and thus wasn’t much of a threat to Panda’s sanity, but if Grizz even heard Panda’s fingers dialing Charlie’s phone number he was practically busting down the door to get all the “juicy deets.”
What did Grizz say about senior formal? As a junior, Panda wasn’t privy to the goings-on of seniors or senior-related business. His boyfriend, though, was an actual senior in real life and there’s no way he wasn’t aware of it. Why hadn’t he mentioned it yet? He wasn’t the social type, maybe he had no plans of going at all? That was okay! They could make up for it, couldn’t they? Yeah! Who needs a stupid dance?
But what if Charlie did want to go, and was just waiting on Panda to ask him? Was he the type to be asked, and not ask?
One thing they don’t tell you about same-gender relationships is that there’s far less of a societal norm as to who asks who to things. Always ending in a never ending cycle of waiting for the other to ask, and the event in question happened years ago. Which one is the fork and which one is the spoon? We’re both sporks, thank you very much.
He could ask Charlie himself to get it over with-- worst case scenario he says no, at least he broke the cycle before it had time to make a full circumference. He’d push his fear of rejection to the side and muster up some confidence to ask his boyfriend to a dance that he had no business asking someone to.
Heart ablaze, Panda ordered the tickets online. He went to bed that night feeling confident, figuring that he could always scalp the tickets if Charlie said no. Ah, the joys of high school.
It was Thursday, that gave him three days before Monday to find the courage to ask Charlie to senior formal. It wouldn’t be so bad, right?
Monday came too quickly. Charlie’s heart pounded as he pushed open the cold metal doors to the school, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked through the still mostly empty halls on account of him arriving to school early in order to beat Panda. He didn’t want to arrive before him and struggle to get things ready.
He splurged, and ended up buying Panda a nice bouquet of lilies; he remembered Panda saying they were pretty.
He felt awful suspicious hanging around Panda’s locker with no one else aside from the occasional teacher that passed by without saying anything; just a tall guy holding a bouquet of lilies; almost like a Wes Anderson film or something.
Panda almost ran to school, and to his locker; he wasn’t super early but hopefully he could catch Charlie before the first bell. He bought Charlie a bouquet of the prettiest flowers he could find in a ten mile radius, which happened to be 12 of these little white flowers called moonflowers; they weren’t super cheap, but after dropping $90 on the tickets he became blind to price tags.
Charlie waited.
Panda kept walking.
Charlie heard footsteps coming around the corner, and immediately recognized them as familiar. He had grown a talent for picking up on particular people’s footstep patterns, and he knew that he knew those footsteps from somewhere-- oh, it’s Panda! Finally!
Charlie was already here? This threw a serious wrench in his plans, what was he supposed to do if he couldn’t ambush Charlie with the question?!
“Charlie?!” Panda asked, as if it weren’t actually Charlie.
“Panda!” If anyone won points for planning, it was Charlie.
“What are you doing here so early?” Panda asked, sounding more defensive than he intended. “You’re usually not here until 7:40.”
“Well, I…” Charlie was acting really weird, and he held something behind his back which was making Panda anxious. “I just wanted to ask ya...”
Panda held his breath.
“Would you be interested in going--” Charlie cleared his throat, “--As my official date to senior formal?” He shyly held the lilies out to Panda, hiding behind his bangs.
WAIT WHAT. Panda blinked, furiously opening his locker to reveal the bouquet he had purchased.
“Charlie, I was--”
“Oh, pumpkin, were you--”
“...Going to ask the same thing?” They both asked in unison, and gasped.
The initial shock of asking each other to the dance at the same time wore off fast, and the two fell into a fit of giggles rather quickly.
“Uh,” Panda smiled bashfully, “Yes! I’ll be your date.”
He accepted the flowers and in turn handed Charlie his, and that was it.
“Hey, did you see that plane outside!?”
“No, what plane?!”
“You just gotta see it, dude!”
Dictating the other conversations Panda overheard in the hall would be a waste of time, because they were all virtually identical. He couldn’t say he wasn’t a little curious as to what this mysterious plane was, so he dragged Charlie outside once school ended.
‘NOM NOM, SENIOR FORMAL?’
This has to be a joke, Panda thought. There had to be about a hundred students outside with their eyes glued to the sky, with a very proud Grizz among them. Near his side was none other than the man himself, the man of the sky, Nom Nom, looking like he just won the lottery. They said something inaudible to each other and Nom Nom practically pounced into Grizz’s arms.
Panda smiled, and let Charlie pull him home.