just one date
Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/37049419.
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Video Blogging RPF
Relationship: Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Character: Karl Jacobs, Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream (Video
Blogging RPF)
Additional Tags: Minor Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF),
Valentine's Day, Romance, Fluff, Humor, Karl Jacobs-centric, Soft Karl
Jacobs, Soft Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), not beta read we die like
saint valentine
Series: Part 6 of cupid’s arrow
Collections: TWB Valentine's Event 2022
Stats: Published: 2022-02-12 Words: 1988
just one date
by Larkspursprings
Summary
“I need a date.” Sapnap lifts a hand to grab Karl’s and begins to toy with his fingers. “And
also to be really, really, super in love. Because I bet Dream twenty dollars that I could get
my act together and get a date before Valentine’s Day, and I really want twenty dollars,
man.”
Karl takes a breath. “That’s …” He swallows, throat suddenly dry. “That sounds pretty
complicated, man.”
“Mm-hm.” Sapnap laces his fingers with Karl’s. “Anyway. Date me.”
⸻⸻⸻
Karl and Sapnap are not dating, but twenty dollars is twenty dollars.
Not that Karl wishes they were dating. Totally. For sure.
Notes
for the prompt “Rom-Coms”! ft fake dating, the funniest rom-com trope. had a lot of fun
with this one <3
obligatory disclaimer: I am writing the personas, not the CCs, if their boundaries change
this fic will disappear, don’t be weird or I’ll delete your comment
enjoy!
See the end of the work for more notes
“Karl.” Sapnap flops onto the couch, head promptly landing in Karl’s lap; Karl jolts. “I need a
favor.”
Karl blinks down at him and hopes his blush isn’t quite as noticeable as it feels. “Huh?”
“Dream and George are being gross.”
Karl blinks again. “Mm-hm. Right.”
“I need to be even grosser.”
A beat.
“Sorry, what?”
“I need a date.” Sapnap lifts a hand to grab Karl’s and begins to toy with his fingers. “And also to
be really, really, super in love. Because I bet Dream twenty dollars that I could get my shit together
and get a date before Valentine’s Day, and I really want twenty dollars, man.”
Karl takes a breath. “That’s …” He swallows, throat suddenly dry. “That sounds pretty
complicated, man.”
“Mm-hm.” Sapnap laces his fingers with Karl’s. “Anyway. Date me.”
Karl chokes on his own spit.
“Shit,” Sapnap squeaks. His ears burn red. “I didn’t mean to do that, I mean— No, that’s not what I
meant, I did mean to do that but also I didn’t want to kill you, Jesus—”
Karl laughs as he hacks up a lung. “Oh my god,” he wheezes. “You’re ridiculous.”
Sapnap’s frantic hand-flailing slows. He grips at Karl’s hand stubbornly.
“Okay,” Karl says raspily. “Okay, I’ll go on a date with you.”
“Oh,” Sapnap says. “That was easier than I thought it would be.”
Karl shuts his eyes and leans back against the couch. I would’ve said yes no matter what, he thinks
wryly.
Well … at least he can dream.
⸻⸻⸻
First part of the plan: Convince Dream and George that they’re actually dating.
This is simultaneously harder and easier than Karl expected. Harder because, well, dating Sapnap
kind of hurts. A lot. Like someone has plunged a knife into Karl’s heart and is repeatedly twisting
it.
Easier because Sapnap is reckless as hell. And thus: It’s the fifteen minutes before first period.
Sapnap is leaning against his locker. He leans over to offer Karl his varsity wrestling jacket,
because he’s exactly the kind of person to own a varsity wrestling jacket that smells like bonfire
smoke and pine and the faintest hint of Axe Body Spray. “For the dating thing,” he says. “I guess
boyfriends borrow each other’s jackets?”
Karl blinks. Boyfriend. He tugs on the jacket and buries his nose in the collar, exhaling.
It’s not the first time he’s worn it—sleepovers, pranks, petty thefts flash through his head—and it’s
almost the same as he remembers. Warm with Sapnap’s body heat. Too big, even though Sapnap’s
an inch shorter than him, because Sapnap’s arms are muscley and warm and Karl is, in Sapnap’s
affectionate terms, a beanpole. It feels a little different, now. Soft. This weird emotion remains in
his chest, tugging at his ribs.
And then:
“Hey, Sapnap!” Dream hollers. “Got a date yet?”
Sapnap blinks, glancing up. Karl twists around.
“Yeah, actually,” Sapnap says.
Dream tilts his head. George, at his side as always with his fingers laced through Dream’s (must be
nice to flaunt your happy, loving relationship), raises an eyebrow. “Who?” he says.
The question hangs in the air.
Dream’s and George’s eyes drift toward Karl, burrowing into Sapnap’s jacket and hoping he’ll
disappear. Dream blinks.
“Holy shit, man!” he crows, striding forward. He claps Sapnap on the shoulder. “You finally got
the courage to ask him? Congrats!” He turns to Karl next, and Karl blinks at his smile, the words
finally got the courage fizzling in his head. “And—right. I know you know me—” He offers Karl a
hand, grinning. “My name is Dream. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for dating Sapnap, he’s
been head over he—”
“Alright, enough of that!” Sapnap says, shoving Dream out of the way. He wraps a protective arm
around Karl’s shoulders and tugs his away down the hallway. “Karl and I have decided to skip
class, actually—”
“Be safe!” George calls, cackling. “Use—”
“Shut up, George!”
⸻⸻⸻
In Sapnap’s car, Karl just … blinks.
“So, uh,” Sapnap says. He groans and scrapes a hand through his hair, which just makes it even
messier; it’s unfair how attractive it makes him look. “Sorry about … that.”
“He was nice about it,” Karl offers.
Sapnap groans. “He was so nice about it, holy shit. I felt so awkward. And now he owes me twenty
dollars— Oh, god, he’s gonna tease me to hell and back.”
Karl really feels that his unrequited feelings are the main problem here, seeing as they threaten to
explode and crumple Sapnap’s hideous old Chevy truck. He reaches over to pat Sapnap’s shoulder
reassuringly nonetheless.
“At least,” Karl offers, “we … are getting marked absent as we speak.”
“I hate everything about today,” Sapnap says without really meaning it. Karl can tell—being best
friends makes you pretty perceptive after a while. Sapnap glances over at Karl. “Except you.
You’re the one good thing about today.”
Karl’s imminent spontaneous combustion is getting more and more likely. “Oh,” Karl says softly.
“Is that so?”
He makes eye contact with Sapnap over the center console, and his breath stutters in his throat.
Sapnap’s throat bobs as he swallows. His eyes glint in the weak, chilly light of the skyshine
through the windshield.
For a second—just one wonderful, heartstopping second—Karl is pretty sure they’re about to kiss.
He even starts to lean forward.
And then Sapnap’s twisting back around to face forward. “Might as well head to the park or
something,” he says. “Or a restaurant. Johnson’s sound good?”
And Karl has overreached. Again.
“Yeah,” he says softly, swallowing. He retreats back into Sapnap’s varsity jacket, burying his nose
in the collar and shutting his eyes. “Sounds good.”
⸻⸻⸻
“So Dream gave me the twenty dollars,” Sapnap says, “but he also decided to reenact our sixth
grade health class.”
Karl snorts before he can stop himself. He flushes, but Sapnap grins, satisfied, and plops down
beside him. “I’m sure that was great,” Karl says.
“Oh, definitely.” Sapnap’s head flops onto Karl’s shoulder. He sighs heavily. “Dumbass made a
Google Slide. I’ve never seen someone put so much intellectual effort into being annoying.”
The corner of Karl’s mouth twitches. “What kind of Google Slides?”
“Oh my god, shut up.” Sapnap groans lightheartedly. “Do you want to get ice cream after school?”
“Oh, is this another of those fake dates?”
A beat.
“Sure,” Sapnap says, as if he’s suddenly lost steam. “That’s … yeah. Fake date.”
It hurts more than Karl likes to admit, the apathy in his voice when he says it.
“Right,” Karl says. Sapnap’s head is still on his shoulder. He sets his hand atop Karl’s and it feels
like Karl is burning alive. Stupid fucking high school crushes. “It’s a date. A fake date.”
⸻⸻⸻
“Ice cream,” Sapnap says.
Karl nods. “It’s still February.”
“Yeah.” Sapnap meets Karl’s eyes, then glances back down. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Yeah.” Karl leans forward, propping his chin on his crossed arms. “Not like you work here or
anything.”
“Yeah. I … forgot I had a shift scheduled.”
Karl laughs. “So you didn’t just forget we had a date here? Be honest. You look like you showed
up here and they kidnapped you and put an apron on you and told you to hand out ice cream
cones.”
“That’s a very elaborate conspiracy theory.” Sapnap’s eyes crinkle with his smile. “You’d be
right.”
Karl just barely muffles a laugh. “Okay, then.”
He’s still wearing Sapnap’s varsity jacket. The pain of inevitable rejection has muffled itself by
now, tucked away behind Karl’s ribs. Now he’s just warm. Now the air smells sweet, and things
are comfortable, and their stupid tiny walk-up-only ice cream store is as packed as anything else on
a Friday after school.
“Tell you what,” Sapnap says, “we’re kind of holding up the line.”
“You’re gonna kick me out?” Karl bites back a smile. “I’m wounded. Really. And here I thought
you loved me.”
Sapnap’s elbow jerks and nearly knocks a stack of cups into their sprinkle jars. He clears his throat.
“I do,” he says hastily. Karl blinks, and then Sapnap is barrelling forward, as usual, and he forgets
it. “My shift ends in three hours. You should come back. And we’ll get ice cream. For real this
time.”
“For real,” Karl echoes. “Alright. Sounds good.”
⸻⸻⸻
Three hours later. Karl feels like he’s been strapped to one of those discuses the Track throwing
team sends flying through the air. He arrives at the ice cream shop—abandoned now, save for a
squirrel milling about in the grassy field beside the building—to find Sapnap leaning against the
corner of the shop. He’s holding an ice cream cone. Chocolate-dipped, rainbow sprinkles.
“My favorite,” Karl says, grinning. “Thanks, Sap.”
“Of course,” Sapnap says. He presents the cone with an infectious grin and a flourish. “For you,
my love—”
Several things happen at once.
Karl attempts to take the cone from Sapnap.
Sapnap straightens up and shoves the cone into Karl’s nose.
The ice cream, having apparently decided that a chocolate shell isn’t nearly enough structure,
promptly topples off the cone and onto the ground.
“Shit,” Sapnap says. His ears are red. “I— Okay, I didn’t mean for that to hap—”
Karl doubles over, laughing so hard that he’s not sure if he can breathe.
“—pen.” Sapnap sighs before laughing too. “Vera!” he shouts, smiling that wide, goofy smile he
only gets around his friends (especially Karl). “Could I get another cone— Oh my god—”
Karl straightens up, still giggling. He presses a hand over his mouth, trying to contain the laughter.
“You’re an idiot,” he says, eyes crinkling. “Such an idiot.”
“But I’m your idiot,” Sapnap says, with such an over-the-top wink that it sends them into another
fit of giggles. “Hang on, you’ve got— Right there—”
He reaches out to cup Karl’s cheek, swiping at the corner of his mouth. His brow furrows with
concentration. He hesitates.
His eyes flick up to meet Karl’s. Flick back down to his mouth.
“I really want to kiss you right now,” Sapnap whispers. “Like, a lot.” His eyes drift up to Karl’s
eyes once more, and Karl swallows at what he sees—warmth, warmth, warmth. “Can I kiss you?”
Karl can’t nod fast enough.
And then they’re kissing. Which—10/10. Would do again. Over and over.
“You’re really pretty,” Sapnap whispers, breathless, “even when you’ve got rainbow sprinkles on
your nose.”
Karl flushes. He leans forward, leans and leans until his face is buried in Sapnap’s shoulder.
“We should probably talk about that,” he says softly. “That—that was nice.”
Sapnap’s arms wrap around his shoulders. His chest rumbles with laughter. “Just nice?” He
exhales. “Maybe I need to step up my game.”
Karl grins. “Maybe you do.”
“I got the new cone!” Vera calls. “Hey, Sap, where’d you— Oh, fucking hell, man. Not in front of
the ice cream.”
Karl laughs, reveling in the fact that he knows Sapnap well enough to know that he sticks his
tongue out at her.
“Anyway,” Sapnap murmurs into the crown of Karl’s head. “I think we should do that dumb thing
that teenagers do and go on a road trip and not tell our parents.”
“Maybe we should tell our parents.”
“That’s … yeah, you’re probably right. Would you settle for driving around the lake?”
“Sure.”
⸻⸻⸻
“Hang on,” Dream says, “you weren’t dating?”
“We are now!” Sapnap says triumphantly. “So it’s my twenty dollars. Suck it.”
Dream turns to Karl, eyes wide. “I can’t believe you’re dating him. You’re so out of his league.”
“Oi,” Sapnap says, wrapping an arm around Karl’s shoulders. “Quit trying to steal my boyfriend.”
“Nah,” Dream says. He lifts his eyes and waves at George, smiling softer than Karl thinks he’s
ever seen him. “I’m good.”
Sapnap snorts. “Sap.”
Karl elbows him. “Hypocrite.”
“Quit bullying me.” Sapnap leans down to smack a kiss on his cheek. “Boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend.”
“You two are gross,” Dream decides. “Congrats.”
End Notes
this was enormously sappy and I’m not used to writing romance so if it’s out of character
just. pretend it’s not. pretend they’re OCs /j
hope you enjoyed!! they are such sappy idiots I love them
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