A/N: It is 3:07 AM but I really wanted to finish up writing so take this, it's the only productive thing I've done all day other than biking to the park and petting my cat. Also, in case you didn't know, beach bunny is the same band that wrote the song Prom Queen. They're a really good band and I swear to god, every song they write is a bop, every single one, and it perfectly blends that upbeat tune and depressing lyrics type shit that I live for. Anyways, have a good night or day and I hope you like this chapter.

That morning Logan and his dads had hung out and had coffee before sitting in the living room opening presents. Logan had gotten a new sketchbook, the newest laptop, a new phone, a digital art tablet, a calendar with cool designs for each month and a mug with bob ross on the front. He'd come to expect Christmas to be filled with expensive, extravagant gifts, but he'd be no less happy if one year they decided to just have breakfast and hang out around the fire talking. He'd felt kind of bad about only getting Allen a Queen t-shirt and painting Matthew a picture, but they both seemed content with their presents.

Sy picked him up around 2:00 pm and drove them to the mall. Sy preferred to be the one driving them places, Logan wasn't sure why, but he was fine with it if that's what Sy wanted. When they parked, the parking lot wasn't as full as usual, but there were still a decent amount of cars there, and some shops were closed, but there were a few that were open. It was nice to not have a huge crowd anyways.

"How was your Christmas morning? Did you get anything cool?" Sy asked and Logan shrugged with a little smile.

"The normal stuff: tech updates, a calendar, a mug, I did get a digital art tablet though, I've been meaning to try out digital art and I mentioned it a few weeks ago, so I'm excited to try that out." Logan said and Sy nodded. "What'd you get?"

"Tech updates, a new watch, a couple shirts, and some other stuff, but it was pretty typical." He said. "It's just like, I don't even know what I want anymore."

"Yeah, I like gifts, but I'd be okay with just hanging out with my dads even if I didn't get presents, that's what I really like about Christmas, just getting to hang out with them because usually, I don't have both of them home except once in a while or over the holidays." Logan said with a little shrug and Sy nodded. "What's Tyler up to?"

"I think he's working on some hacking thing, they got him a computer programming book as part of his present and he goes nuts for that shit, so he's been holed away in his room all morning reading and downloading programming software onto his new computer." Sy said with a small smile.

"I bet he'll be some kind of multi-million dollar website designer someday." Logan said with a soft giggle and Sy chuckled.

"If he doesn't turn into a mad scientist and actually figure out how to make some kind of monster first."

"Or discover how to talk to animals."

"If he does, I swear he'll never hang out with humans again." Sy said jokingly and Logan nodded.

"What about you?"

"Hm?"

"I mean, what do you plan to do other than acting?" Logan asked and Sy shrugged.

"I've thought about going into comedy or theatre or something, but realistically, I'll probably just take on the family business, I'm the better salesman and I guess I'm the better leader out of the two of us? Ty doesn't really like people so my parents don't have much hope of him being the next CEO." Sy said and Logan nodded a little.

"Yeah, that's understandable. I don't really have a problem being next in line for the company, it's just..I wanna go to college for art and that'd make any degree kind of pointless."

"You could always get a business degree to prepare you and have your minor in art."

"That's true, I haven't thought about that before." Logan said and Sy smiled.

"Alright, how about we go get food and then we can go shopping." Sy said and Logan nodded.

"That sounds good, I'm not really hungry though."

"You could get something small." Sy suggested.

"I might just get water." Logan said, thinking it through. He'd already had breakfast: A slice of toast (90) and apple slices (91) There wasn't room for lunch.

"That's seriously not enough for lunch."

"I had a big breakfast."

"Just have a couple of bites of my pretzel or something." Pretezl? soft pretzel (384). A couple bites meaning maybe an 8th of that (48). no.

"I don't like greasy food. I'll probably just eat later." Logan said and Syrus sighed.

"Alright." Logan didn't like how agitated he sounded about it, but he didn't push it.

---

"Okay, where to first? Clothes shopping?" Sy asked.

"I don't really need clothes." Logan said with a little shrug.

"The point is not needing clothes, it's wanting clothes because clothes are cool."

"I don't wear a lot of different clothes, I mean, I've got a few sweaters and hoodies and jeans and I'm good." Logan said with a little shrug.

"Alright, well, we can compromise, where do you want to go?" Sy asked.

"Maybe the art store..oh! and could we stop by the book store?"

"Yeah, we've got.." Sy checked his watch. "Three hours, so we can go to the book store, then we can go to a clothing store so you can read while I'm trying stuff on, then we can go to the crafts store and stop by another outlet and then drop by the geek shop before we head home." He said and Logan nodded.

"Okay, that sounds good." Logan said with a small smile.

"Also, I'm paying." Sy said and Logan sighed quietly.

"You know I can pay for my own stuff."

"I know, but I want to pay for it."

"Fine, but I'm buying my art supplies."

"Deal."

---

At the book store, Logan tried not to pick out too many things because he knew Sy would want to pay for everything, so he just picked two books, both psychological horrors.

"Do you just like scaring yourself?" Sy asked and Logan shrugged.

"I'm a fan of horror, and it's much less scary reading than watching, at least for me. I'm not really one that gets scared by books."

"Have you ever read anything written by Stephen King?" Sy asked..

"Sy, I don't think you can even call yourself a fan of horror if you've never read a King book."

"Alright, good point. But come on, how were you not scared of his books?"

"I didn't say I wasn't scared, I just said I was less scared than if it'd been on screen, but yeah, his books are terrifying. You know he said he gets story ideas from his dreams." Logan said and Syrus rose his eyebrows.

"Seriously."

"Yeah."

"Poor guy, how does he even sleep at night?"

"No idea." Logan said, walking up to the counter and letting Sy pay for the books before they walked out. It wasn't that crowded at the mall, but being around so many people still put Logan on edge a bit. Most of the reason why he didn't go to the mall much was due to the anxiety, he just felt like everyone was watching him and he couldn't stand that feeling but he'd deal with it because he didn't want Sy thinking he was some kind of freak that couldn't go out to malls and have fun with friends.

"Ooh, I love this place." Sy said, grabbing Logan's hand and walking toward the small, vintage clothing outlet. It was a small, dimly lit shop with primarily faded t-shirts and ripped jeans. Sy tried on clothes while Logan sat on one of the small benches outside the changing rooms and opened his book, starting it. It was something about a human experiment and honestly sounded pretty cliche, but Logan didn't mind, he just wanted familiarity, it was easier to escape into a book that felt familiar but was still slightly different than the last one he'd read. It wasn't just about reading, it was about escaping, having to worry about completely unrealistic problems so his own would seem more manageable in turn and being able to close those completely unrealistic problems and walk away from them.

Sy finished trying things on after around half an hour and picked out a few things to buy.

"Did you want anything?" He asked and Logan shook his head, pushing up his glasses as he looked up at Sy.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked and Sy nodded.

"Yeah, let me just buy these and we can head to the art store." He said and walked over to check out. Logan thought that maybe even if he really did like Sy, he wasn't sure if it would work out anyways because of all of their disagreements: The places they liked to eat, the places they liked to shop, the things they liked to do, how they viewed their parents and money, what movies they liked. It was all these small things that maybe wouldn't be such a big deal to him if he was in love with Sy..but he wasn't. He played with his sleeves, staring blankly in thought at a display of sneakers.

"Logan, you ready to go?" Sy asked and the boy nodded.

"Yeah, let's head out." He said and took Sy's hand, walking out with him.

They picked up watercolor paints at the art store, Logan spending time just looking around in utter happiness at all the supplies, the sketchbooks, and even the smell of art stores just made him feel calm and at home. His eyes caught a sign by the cash register when they were checking out.

'We're Hiring!

Need a job? Well we need you!

Hiring anyone ages 16+

Apply online'

"Oh hey, they're looking for employees." Logan said, smiling a little and Syrus looked to him, smiling too.

"Are you looking for a job?"

"Not particularly, but I'd like to start working at some point, getting some experience now wouldn't hurt." Logan said, walking out with him.

"Yeah, that's true. I love how self-sufficient you are, it's adorable." Sy said and Logan smile, giggling softly.

They walked on for a bit, conversing about jobs and art and the future as they walked through the mall. With Oliver, conversation topics were unlimited, they talked about anything and everything, but with Syrus, it all felt so boxed in, there were so few topics they could talk about compared to his hours of conversations with Oliver...but he couldn't compare Syrus to Oliver, that was just wrong, to compare two completely different people together, he couldn't be putting Oliver and Syrus on a scale, they were both amazing people, it was just that he was in love with Oliver and his feelings were nowhere near that with-...wait, no. that wasn't right. He wasn't in love with Oliver, he just liked him...like a crush, Oliver was just a crush, a stupid crush that he was going to get over because he'd already settled this and he wasn't about to let himself wreck their friendship over this.

"You know what, why don't we just head over to Wired instead of going to another outlet, I think I have everything I want anyways." Sy said and Logan smiled, nodding. Wired was the geek shop, it sold anything from giant stuffed animals to all nine series of The Office printed on vinyl records. It was one of those shops where it was as fun to look at things as it was to buy them.

"Yeah, that sounds good." Logan said with a small smile.

---

After they were finished at the mall, Sy drove Logan back, parking his car in the boy's driveway, shutting his car off.

"Thanks for taking me out." Logan said with a small smile and Sy grinned softly, Logan's hand in his as he thumbed over the boy's thin fingers.

"I had a lot of fun." Sy said with a soft smile before his eyes flickered down to Logan's lips and the red-headed boy bit his lip softly before Sy chuckled softly, cupping his face with one of his hand, pulling Logan closer to kiss him.

Their kisses were always slow, Logan's arms moving to drape around Sy's neck, tilting his head to the side as Syrus slid his tongue over Logan's bottom lip until he was granted access into his mouth. Logan thought that maybe it made him a terrible person for thinking his favorite thing about Sy was how good he was at kissing but fuck, he was a really good kisser. It probably came from all the one night stands and Logan probably should have been more worried about that aspect, but he wasn't.

When Sy pulled away, they were both breathless and panting softly, Sy grinning and Logan smiling back with a quiet giggle, his face a bright red.

"I'll see you at the New Year's party."

"I'll seeya then." Logan said, though he waited a moment and Sy pulled him back in for another kiss, shorter than the last one.

"Also, I know you guys are friends, but please, just be careful with Oliver, like, don't hang out with him in the middle of the night, and I don't know, it just makes me feel weird that he sleeps over and shit like that." Sy said and Logan sighed softly, looking down, nodding a little. He knew it probably did seem weird, and Sy didn't get that he wouldn't cheat on him with Oliver, but he'd respect it anyways.

"I know, I won't." He said softly and Sy smiled, tilting Logan's chin up and kissing Logan's nose, smiling. Logan smiled and Syrus couldn't tell it wasn't real before he grabbed his bags and hopped out.

"Seeya later."

"Seeya, Loggy."