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“Hello, staff! New year, new plans for the kindergarten and for our kids,” Ashlyn said excitedly. She was the proud co-owner of the little international kindergarten in town with her husband Big Red. “Speaking of new,” She said looking over at their new co-worker.
Seb was already looking at him from before. He seemed oddly familiar, but he was handsome. Really handsome . Seb felt his heart close to beating out of his chest every time he looked over at him. He was such a nice distraction.
“Carlos Rodriguez here will be working in the Rainbow department with Seb!” Carlos smiled at them, and Seb felt the zoo in his stomach go wild. He would be working with him?
“So, Carlos, tell us about yourself!”
“Okay! Hi, I’m Carlos, and I’m 20 years old. I’m Mexican-American so I speak Spanish as well as English and Italian. I was born and raised here in Salt Lake, and originally I had a dream of becoming a star on Broadway, but that was until my niece Rosalie was born and she made me realize that I wanted to work with kids and prepare them for the future at a young age. I’m gay-”
‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, I have a shot,’ Seb thought to himself.
“-and single,” Carlos said a little jokingly at the end. ‘This is my lucky day, I swear,’
“And yeah, I think that’s about it,” He chuckled.
“He also choreographed close to every musical we put up in High School from Sophomore year and forward,” Ashlyn pointed out. Carlos blushed.
“That too,”
“Okay, we’ll go around so you can get to know people before we get into today’s business and prepare for Monday! Ricky, would like to start?”
“Sure! I’m Ricky and I’m 21! I’ve known Big Red all of my life, that’s part of the reason I ended up here. My grandad is Swiss, so I know German and French because he’s been teaching me over the years. I play guitar so the kids love when I bring that out, and I write songs every once in a while.” Ricky told him. Carlos smiled and nodded.
After they had gone down the line, Seb realized it was his turn. Nervously he looked at him as he started.
“Hi Carlos, I’m Seb, the guy you’ll mainly be working with. I’m 20 as well, and I started to work here because I’ve always loved working with kids. I’m the middle child of 7 siblings so I’ve gotten used to babysitting. Especially after my nephew, Antonio was born. My grandmother is Norwegian so I speak Norwegian, but because they are similar I learned Danish and Swedish as well. I play the piano, so if you’re up for it, I wouldn’t mind having a duet partner. I also grew up on a farm, and yeah, I’m bisexual!”
Carlos’ eyes widened as his smile brightened. “I’m excited to work with you,” The brunette said softly, a soft blush forming on his cheeks. Seb smiled at him.
“I’m excited to work with you too,”
Ashlyn and Big Red looked at each other smirking before looking back.
“Alright, so let’s take a look at how things are going before we look at future plans! Ricky, Parvati, how are things at the Sunshine department with the oldest?”
“Things are good, but the kids want more time to talk in their languages” Parvati started.
“Yeah, we’d suggest that when the other kids have nap time that possibly they could get an extra hour to practice.” Ricky continued. Ashlyn and Big Red nodded.
“But someone needs to be there to watch over the younger kids during nap time,” Big Red said thoughtfully.
“If I may, none of the kids in Sunshine are Scandinavian, so I could look after the rest,” Seb said.
“That would be great Seb! And they only need one teacher in Hebrew as they are fewer, so I could be your backup if you need it,” Ashlyn stated.
“Great! The kids will be thrilled!” Ricky told them as he wrote it down in his notebook. “Other than that, we’re good! There isn’t anything else from us at the moment!”
“Perfect! Kamili, Amir, how about the Cloudy department?” Big Red turned to the next pair.
“Things are great, the kids wish for more music, but that is something we can easily fix,” Kamili told them with a smile.
“Okay, sounds good! Seb, how is the Rainbow department doing?” Ashlyn asked the blonde.
“Well, it’s doing pretty good, and I think you fixed the only problem we had already!” He winked at Carlos, feeling bold.
“Great! Okay, let’s take a look into other future plans!”
After the meeting, Seb caught up with Carlos quickly.
“Hey! I was wondering, you know, since we’re gonna be working together, maybe we could get to know each other a bit better and plan a little bit for Monday,” The blonde suggested with a nervous smile. Carlos smiled back at him.
“I’d love that, Seb!” He said happily. Seb sighed relieved.
“Great, great!
“Wait so you never dated anyone because of how busy you got?” Seb asked as he placed the plate down in front of Carlos.
“Thank you, and yeah! I got busy with school, and my sister and her husband were working every Friday and Saturday afternoon, so I told them I could take care of Rosalie! Plus no one really got my interest, so I stayed single. But like any kid, my parents told me about this crush I had in kindergarten so they weren’t surprised when I came out,” The brunette chuckled lightly, before giving Seb a little smile. “What about you?”
“It may sound strange, but same here. Only one person really captured my attention but it was on Instagram and I was like 12 when I saw it,” Seb laughed. “Oh, and there was a guy I liked in kindergarten as well apparently? My mom showed me a picture of him and me when we were around three, but she said he and his family moved to Salt Lake right before school started,”
“Oh? Where are you from?” Carlos asked as he took a bite.
“Wasatch County,” Seb said casually. Carlos' eyes widened.
“That’s where I grew up before my family and I moved to Salt Lake,” He told him. Seb nearly choked on the piece of chicken.
“What?!”
“I think we might’ve gone to kindergarten together,” Carlos chuckled in shock. Seb nodded as he chuckled with him.
“Yeah, I think so too,”
After having spent the evening together by getting to know each other and figuring out what they would do on Monday, Carlos headed home. As soon as he arrived at his apartment though, he called his mother.
“Hey, mijo! How was your first day at work?” She asked as soon as she picked up.
“Hey mami, it was good. I have a question though, it’s about when I was in kindergarten,” He told her.
“Oh? What’s up?”
“Did I go to kindergarten with a boy called Sebastian Matthew-Smith?”
It got quiet for a moment before Luciana responded.
“That was the boy you had a crush on back then,” She chuckled. Carlos blushed.
“Well, now he’s my co-worker,”
“Oooh, have you fallen all over again?” She teased. He turned a darker shade of red.
“I’ll tell you later,”
After he talked for a bit longer with his mother, he hung up and got ready for bed. He felt like he truly had to prepare before he would see Seb again on Monday.
On Monday morning Carlos walked into the department he would work in and was met by Seb pretty quickly.
“Good morning,” He said, taking a sip of his coffee. Seb smiled.
“Good morning! Do you want me to show you a bit around in the department before the kids arrive?”
“That would be great, thanks,”
Seb started the tour in the hallway where the kids hung up their outer clothes and such. They had name signs over them that were clearly decorated by each kid (Written by Seb though, of course), so it was easy to figure out which kid had their things where.
“So you know what I told Ashlyn and Big Red at the meeting?” Seb said.
“About that, the problem was already solved?”
“Yeah, I needed help in the department. At first, I thought I could handle it just fine by myself, but when it came to when we were supposed to go out and such, it got a bit too much for me to help a bunch of kids get dressed alone. So I told Ashlyn that before the break, and she did tell me that she knew someone who could possibly fit for the role. I think she was right,” He smiled at him, making Carlos smile back despite it being early.
“You haven’t seen me work yet though,” He teased lightly and Seb laughed.
“That’s true. Today is the big day,” The blonde teased back.
He showed him everything that their little department had to offer and by the time that the tour was over, the first child arrived.
“Hi Mia, good morning!” Seb said happily.
“Seb!” The little girl said happily, running up to him as quickly as her little legs could run.
“Did you have fun during Christmas?” She nodded excitedly. Meanwhile, her mother walked up to Carlos and introduced herself as he was new and would be taking care of her daughter with Seb.
“Mhm, we went to Switzerland and, and, and, I got a new barbie!” She held it up, showing it to Seb.
“That’s amazing!”
Mia looked over at Carlos before turning back to Seb.
“Who’s he?” She whispered.
“He’s Carlos! He’ll be working in the Rainbow department with me, so you’ll get to see him a lot too, he’s really nice, I promise,” Mia nodded before walking over to Carlos.
“Hi,” She said shyly. Carlos smiled and crouched down making her smile.
“Hey, you must be Mia,” He said, making her smile a little wider as she nodded.
“Yeah, and Seb said that you are Carlos,” He smiled back and nodded.
“I am,”
“Do you want to play barbies with me?” She asked, holding up her new barbie.
“I’d love to, but first you need to get your jacket off and put on your inside shoes,” He took her hand and led her to her spot before helping her take off her jacket and shoes, and putting on her little slippers. “Okay, now we can play!”
“Yay!”
Carlos and Mia went to the middle of the room and he found some more barbies for them to play with. Seb smiled as he watched them. Mia’s mother had just left, so now it was just the three of them. Carlos looked up and gave Seb a little wink before focusing back on the kid. Seb blushed and looked away for a moment.
He heard the door open again, only minutes later and the next thing they knew, the department was full.
As the kids started to play together, Seb and Carlos pulled a little away from the playing to look over the kids. “We go outside at 10 and at 11, it’s lunch time, right?” Carlos asked quietly. Seb nodded.
“Yeah, and then after lunch they have nap time with the Cloudy department as Sunshine gets extra language time. I know there are kids in Sunshine that will be so happy that they can finally speak their language too, we got quite a bit of Mexican-American kids and also some Italian kids,” Seb told him, making Carlos smile.
“I love that,” Seb smiled at him before he got reminded of another thing.
“Oh and Ashlyn said that the sunshine department will no longer have nap time anyways because of the fact that they start school right after they are done here,” He whispered.
“Okay, great,”
As the clock got closer to 10, Seb and Carlos started helping the kids get ready, and as soon as kid by kid were ready they waited excitedly for Seb or Carlos to open the door. They checked over each kid before they quickly got dressed themselves.
“Everyone ready?” Seb asked the kids a little teasingly. He got a big ‘Yeah’ in response and so he opened the door. The kids ran out and went to play and have fun. Seb and Carlos looked over the kids and made sure that no one got hurt.
As the kids played around, the two adults walked around and noticed a little group of kids whispering and giggling. Carlos raised an eyebrow teasingly at Seb before walking over to them.
“Hey, what’s got you guys all giggly?” He asked, making them giggle more.
“Do you like Sebby?” a little boy, who reminded Carlos of himself when he was a kid, asked. Carlos chuckled.
“In what way of ‘like’ do you mean?”
“Crush,” He giggled. Carlos blushed as he rolled his eyes.
“That is none of your business,”
They brought the kids in for lunch and then nap time. “Are you sure you’ll be fine on your own?” Carlos asked as he looked over the kids from both Rainbow and Cloudy.
“I’m sure, Carlos, they are asleep and if one of them wakes up then I know how to calm them down, especially the Norwegian kids. It’s gonna be fine and I can call on Ashlyn if I need help,” Seb said reassuringly. “Now go talk Spanish and Italian,” He teased. Carlos smiled.
“Okay, see you in an hour,”
The sunshine kids were in fact very thrilled when they first met Carlos. Finally, they could speak in their language too and have an adult understand them.
Meanwhile, Seb looked over the younger kids. Making sure everything was fine, but then he saw one of the kids from Rainbow waking up from a nightmare. Freya tried her best not to wake up the others and Seb quietly walked over to her.
“Hei Freya,” He whispered to her in Norwegian, knowing it calmed her. “Hadde du et mareritt?” Did you have a nightmare? She nodded, and he wrapped his arms around her. “Skal jeg synge en vuggevise for deg?” Shall I sing a lullaby for you? She nodded again and hid her face in his chest. “Har du en favoritt?” Do you have a favourite?”
“Trollmors vuggevise,” She whispered back.
“Okay,” He whispered before he began to sing. “Når trollmor har lagt sine elleve små troll, og bundet dem fast i halen, da synger hun stille for elleve små troll de vakreste ord hun kjenner. Ho aj aj aj aj buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff buff.”
And just as Freya was about to fall asleep again she joined in on the last sentence, “Ho aj aj aj aj buff.” Seb smiled and put her back down.
When the other adults showed up again they woke up the kids.
“So everything went alright?” Carlos asked Seb.
“Yeah! One of the kids woke up from a nightmare but I got her back to sleep with no problem,” He told him.
“Great!”
After the kids had woken up, they joined the older kids for language hour. Seb loved language hour, though it’s a bit tiring to swap between the very similar three languages he knew. Luckily, most of it went in Norwegian which he found to be the easiest.
“Hei Seb, hei Seb, hei Seb,” One of the kids from Rainbow said, coming over to him. He gave him a questioning look.
“Ja?” He asked, confused. The kid giggled, just like the group of kids had done when talking to Carlos.
“Er du forelska i Carlos?” Are you in love with Carlos? His eyes widened.
“Det har ikke du noe med,” That’s none of your business. Seb responded nervously. The three-year-old giggled again.
“Jeg tror Carlos er forelska i deg,” I think Carlos is in love with you. The kid teased again, and Seb turned scarlet red.
“Å…”
When Seb and Carlos closed up the department for the day after all the kids had left, Seb had that sentence on repeat in his head. He didn’t believe it, but he did hope that the kid spoke the truth.
“Hey Seb, you know the video you told me you had seen when you were younger?” Carlos asked. Seb looked up from the final paperwork.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Do you, uh, do you remember what video it was?”
“I do, why are you asking?”
Carlos moved a bit closer before he pulled up his phone. “Well, right before my 13th birthday, I posted a video on Instagram and it sort of became like Utah viral, if that makes sense,” He told him. Seb’s eyes widened.
“Your birthday is soon, right?” Carlos nodded before he showed the old video and that’s when Seb realized why he seemed familiar.
“Holy shit, you’re the guy from the video that inspired me,” He said in shock. Carlos chuckled.
“I am, yeah. I hope I’m not disappointing in real life,” he joked.
“Far from it! You’re even better in real life!” Seb laughed in shock before he hugged Carlos. “Sorry, I just-”
“Don’t apologize,” Carlos whispered as he hugged Seb back.
They pulled away from the hug a few minutes later.
“Hey, if you ever want to learn some dance moves I’m happy to help,” Carlos teased jokingly before doing a little move that Seb recognized from the video. His smile brightened.
“Sure, we’re alone after all,”
Carlos smiled before pulling Seb in for a dance. “Dance is really all about feeling, but it’s also a language of its own. I guess you could count it as my fourth language,” Carlos told him, and Seb hung on to every word.
“I love that a lot,”
This became normal. Every day after the kids had left and they were done with everything, they danced for a bit before they headed home. They even started to drive together to and from work. Seb drove past Carlos’ apartment from his place to work, so he didn’t mind picking him up on the way. And as they got to know each other better, they fell more and more for each other, and everyone caught on.
After seeing the two tiptoeing around each other for months, the kids in their language groups got together during playtime and began to plan with the help of one of the leaders. Ricky.
“Sometimes when we have extra language lessons, Carlos will look through the glass door over at Seb with heart eyes,” 5-year-old Alex said before looking over at his close friend (and kindergarten boyfriend) Henry who was also in the Spanish-Italian group, who nodded. Henry was there for Italian though (but he was just as blonde as Seb with blue eyes and originally came from the UK. His family has just always been a fan of languages and Italian). And Alex was there for Spanish being Mexican-American like Carlos.
“Fair enough, but what can we do about it?” Ricky asked the kids. The kids thought for a moment. Little Mia from Rainbow had heard them however as she was in Ricky’s language group and she said,
“We need the rest of the Rainbow kids and we need to set up a show!” Ricky smiled at her.
“I like that idea, Mia!”
Ricky went to talk to Ashlyn about it, who loved the idea of a little kindergarten show. Music for everyone, fun and the kids could hear the other languages. It would be great! Ricky said he’d gladly take the lead on it before also telling Ashlyn that they should get EJ on it too for pictures for the kids’ future memory books.
When Ashlyn did call EJ, he was hanging out with his wife Gina, and Carlos. He was visiting and telling them about his big crush on Seb that had only gotten worse over time.
“I don’t get it! How can he be literally my dream guy?! I thought I just would find guys attractive-ish and then he walked into my life and made me truly realize how gay I am,” Carlos groaned. EJ laughed.
“Welcome to the world of love, little bro,” the oldest joked. Carlos rolled his eyes.
“Thanks,”
“You know if you want to date him you’ll have to ask him out?” Gina told him with a little wink.
“Yeah I know, but we’re co-workers, and like, what if it doesn’t work out?”
Just as EJ was about to answer, his phone rang.
“It’s my cousin, I have to take this,” He said before walking into a different room and picking it up.
“I think what EJ was about to say is that you’re really good at looking at the bad side, and maybe, for once, you should let yourself dream and hope and be positive. That’s what he ended up telling me after I rejected him and then admitted that I did like him but my life had been a mess up until then,” Gina said softly, reaching a hand out to Carlos. The boy nodded before taking a deep breath and taking her hand.
“I get it and I know… Okay, if I see any hint of him liking me back, I’ll just go for it. Okay?”
She smiled and nodded. “Okay, good.”
The show was that Friday. There would be songs in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, German, French, Hindi, Swahili, Arabic and English. Seb and Carlos had agreed on doing a duet because the kids from the Rainbow department had begged them and Ricky had written a song for them.
They rehearsed often and their dance lessons turned into practice time with Ricky. It was a little bit like being Troy and Gabriella in High School Musical, and Ricky was Kelsi.
All the leaders were biassed when it came to the performances. They loved all of them, but of course, when their language groups were on stage they had a big sense of pride. Seb’s favourite probably went to the Norwegian group singing a song from most Norwegian kids’ childhoods, Kaptein Sabeltann. They did a little medley of some of the songs, but the highlight was when they sang the songs actually meant for kids like Pinkys Sang ( Pinky’s Song) and Hver gang en stjerne faller ( Every time a star falls) .
The adults had asked the kids how they wanted the show to end and they said that they wanted Seb and Carlos to end the show, so when it got closer and closer to the end, they went to get ready. They decided to change it up a little, so Seb would play the piano instead, which Ricky didn’t mind at all. That way the focus could be purely on them.
“Hey kids!” Seb said when they went on stage. He got a big hi back from all the kids. The blonde smiled as he sat down, and Carlos sat down beside him.
“So, Ricky was so nice that he wrote us a song and we’re gonna sing it for you now!” Carlos told them, and the kids cheered and Seb began to play and sing.
“I fell in love with the only boy
Who knows what I'm about”
Carlos followed after,
“I fell in love with a boy
And I can't tell if I fell out”
“After all said and done
I can't just pretend I'm moving on”
Seb felt his heart beating louder as he sang the next part,
“Is it just a part we're playing?
'Cause it don't feel like we're faking”
They began to sing together and all their worries slipped away. The kids looked at them with a pure feeling of glee. They loved everything about this.
When we're underneath the lights
My heart's no longer broken
For a moment
Just for a moment
When we're singing side by side
There's so much left unspoken
For a moment
Just for a moment
A moment in love (Just for a moment)
A moment in love (Just for a moment)
But is a moment enough?
When the show was over, Carlos decided to just do something about everything. They had sung a freaking love song in front of a bunch of kids, and Seb hadn’t complained so it had to mean something.
“Hey, Seb?” Carlos said as the two were cleaning up the last bits from the show.
“Yeah?”
“I… Do…” Carlos groaned, annoyed. He didn’t know he was going to say it. “Okay, I’m just going to say this now, and then you can tell me your thoughts afterward, please,” He said softly, taking deep breaths.
“Okay, is there something wrong?” The blonde asked worriedly.
“No, well yeah, but…” Carlos shook his head. “Okay. I have a crush on you and I’ve had a crush on you ever since we first met.” He finally admitted. Seb’s eyes widened.
“Really?” Carlos, who was looking down at the floor, didn't notice Seb’s reaction as he nodded.
“I get if-”
He was stopped by Seb walking over to him and putting his hand softly under Carlos’ chin, pushing it up so the brunette would look at him. “Can I kiss you?” The blonde whispered. Carlos smiled softly before he nodded.
So this is what people mean in the fairytales when they talk about sparks.