Chapter Text
Kevin Price was the definition of perfect.
Or at least, that's what Arnold Cunningham thought. But that's okay, it's not like Elder Price himself thought much differently. Kevin was practically the poster child for Mormonism; an upstanding, law-abiding citizen who could probably convert anyone, from an atheist to a Satanist.
Which is why in this moment, the night before their mission assignments, Arnold kneels with his arms crossed before his Star Wars sheet draped bed, praying to Heavenly Father to be paired with Elder Price on his mission, wherever he may be sent.
Arnold was often told that he was a follower — not a leader — and what better leader to follow than the perfect mormon himself?
If he was going to be sent away to spread the word of Jesus Christ for 2 years, he was sure as heck gonna come back as a son his father was proud to have — or at least, a lot prouder to have — and if that was the goal, then he only really had the one option of a mission brother, considering how often his father compared the two of them. He couldn't count the amount of times he'd heard his father ask him why he couldn't be more like that boy, the one who didn't interrupt when others spoke, the one who always laughed at an appropriate and not an oh-my-god-why-are-you-so-embarassing volume.
It's not like he could exactly blame him, however. Kevin was everything Arnold wanted to be; He was so kind and charming and helpful. And, not only did he laugh at the appropriate volume, but his laugh was so nice too, like soft music to really anyone's ears, always with that polite smile that lights up a whole room. And he was that really easy on the eyes kind of handsome, the kind where you could stare at him for hours and still find new things to compliment. As much as Arnold envied him, he has to admit, he’d much rather be looking at him than actually be him.
Man, admiration was a weird emotion. At least, the admiration Arnold had for Kevin, the type that makes your face warm and your stomach all fluttery.
Anyway, he was getting off topic. He shook his head and finished his prayer to Heavenly Father, hoping he’d made his case convincing enough for Him to grant his wish — if that’s how these things worked. He wasn’t quite sure, considering he’d never read the book, but he wasn’t about to ask and admit that. He climbed under his Star Wars covers and attempted, with little success, to sleep. He was so excited for his mission, to finally prove himself under (what he hoped would be) the guidance of the best of the best.
But for now all he could do was wait and hoped his prayer worked.
***
It was the night before mission assignment day, and Kevin was reviewing his scripture like he’d have to recite the whole book from memory, which he probably could do at this point.
He found himself rereading the same paragraph though, his mind wandering with curiosity for tomorrow. Who would be his mission brother? He could definitely think of a few Elders at his church he would not particularly mind being paired with. It wasn't like he had many close friends, but there were a handful who were quite nice to him, and some with even nicer faces, he thought to himself.
What? It wasn’t inherently gay to appreciate the bright eyes and cute dimples of some guys at his church. Especially not when all he was doing was hoping to be sent to a different place with them for 2 years to spread the word of Jesus Christ. And, even if it was, which it isn’t, it wasn’t a sin to simply have gay thoughts, but to act on them, and he was definitely not planning on doing that.
Either way, who he was paired with really couldn’t matter less to him, as long as he was sent where he hoped, no, knew he’d be sent. His favourite place in the entire world: the magical land of Orlando, Florida. He’d basically been the perfect Mormon for 19 years, excluding that little donut mishap from when he was 5, and what better reward was there than being sent on a mission to a wonderful paradise for his impeccable service and dedication to the church.
Though he felt almost entirely sure that there was no possibility that he would be done wrong by Heavenly Father, he decided it couldn’t really hurt his chances to pray one last time before his mission assignment tomorrow.
Kevin closed his Book of Mormon copy, pristine and precious as ever, and shut off his desk lamp as he rose from his chair. As he knelt before his bed, he recited the same prayer as he’d been reciting for the past month, arms crossed over his chest. He must’ve at least been on the list of God’s favorites at this point, he really couldn’t see anything going wrong with this mission. He wrapped up his prayer, with an amen and got settled into bed. He knew he was going to have trouble sleeping, so instead of fighting it, he gave into his excitement and thought about the following day.
But literally, what was the absolute worst that could happen? He’s still being sent to do one of his favourite things for two years with no other immediate priorities. He’s going to be even more of an outstanding Elder once he does his mission, he’ll be so incredible he’ll practically be a prophet. The worst that could happen is — what? — he’s sent somewhere other than Orlando, which he can obviously make work, with someone he doesn’t like, which would not be the end of the world.
At this point, Kevin has such a base level of companionship and friendliness with all the Elders that it wouldn’t really matter who he was paired with.
Well, except for one.
Kevin hadn’t ever really talked to Elder Cunningham before, he didn't even know his first name, and while he hadn’t heard positively glowing reviews, he was sure that he couldn’t be that bad. Those in the church tended to dislike anyone different, even though they’d be the nicest they possibly could about it. Okay well let’s see, what had he heard about him? Well, he’d been told that he was loud, that’s okay, everyone is a little awkward sometimes and it’s hard to lose a reputation in the church.
He’d been told that he was nerdy. That was something that he was absolutely not worried about, as long as he didn’t talk about it literally all the time! Heck, Kevin could be a little nerdy about Disney sometimes.
He really wasn’t seeing any problems here and this was on the off chance that they were even gonna be paired together. And again, he could take anyone with him as long as the destination was paradise!
Elder Price was going to be fine. No, more than fine.
Elder Price was going to be incredible.
***
Staring is rude.
That was something Arnold had been taught all his life, that no matter what someone looks like, no matter what they act like, you shouldn’t stare at them.
But, right now, that rule was completely forgotten as mission assignments were happening any minute now, and Kevin was right across the room from him, talking to the other Elders about the place he wished to be assigned to with such passion that it felt rude not to stare.
It sounded like paradise the way he described it, and he sounded so sure that he was going there, that all Arnold could do right now was pray that he was sent there right with him.
He understood that he probably wasn’t Elder Price’s ideal mission companion, but with the way it sounded, he thought that really wouldn’t matter if they were sent to Florida. He doesn’t think that Elder Price would be upset at anyone ever again if he was sent there.
The Elders got called to stand in a line and started getting paired together for their missions.
Kevin saw his ideal picks for mission brothers get paired off with others, which was a little disappointing, but all in all, not a big deal. He wasn’t really expecting to be paired with them anyways, as it was nothing but wishful thinking. He stopped noticing the pairings and started noticing all the cool places the Elders were being sent. Japan? France? Man, as sure as he was that Heavenly Father would answer his prayer and send him to his favorite place, he didn’t think being sent somewhere else would be all that bad at this point, though it seemed like all the places with Disney theme parks were already getting taken…
His focus turned back to the pairings when he heard his name called. He looked around and realized his options had run out fast, all of the Elders he considered friends were already chattering excitedly with their assigned mission brothers. Even the ones he considered just “friendly” he saw had already gotten their assignment. Who was even left at this point? He looked around the room.
Elder Harris and Elder Brown were already brothers, along with Elder Cross and Elder Green, and Elder Smith and Elder White…
The only person he could even think of at this point was—
“Elder Cunningham!” the loud voice spoke.
Oh!
Okay so it had in fact turned out that he would be paired with Elder Cunningham. No big deal, he’d weighed the pros and cons last night and found that most of the cons were likely exaggerations anyway, and well he hadn’t really ever heard any pros…
“That’s me! That’s me! Hello!” Elder Cunningham yelled at possibly the top of his lungs as he pushed his way through the crowd, getting some not-very-pleasant looks from people around him. Okay maybe they hadn’t exaggerated the “loud” part.
Arnold was beyond ecstatic. Heavenly Father had really listened, He had answered his prayer! He had practically run over to greet a very caught off guard, very nervous Elder Price.
All Kevin could manage was through his shock, and slight second hand embarrassment for his newly assigned companion, was an “Oh, hi!”, clearly trying to still be polite and civil even through his discomfort.
This might be a little harder than he would have previously thought, considering he had gotten all of what he thought were exaggerations radiating off of the clearly awkward, loud, and nerdy man in front of him.
But that didn’t matter right now.
They still had to be assigned their mission location, and, assuming he was safe in prayers, Kevin attempted to win over the sheer luck department by crossing his fingers and shutting his eyes tight as the voice declared,
“Your mission location will be…”
Arnold was barely listening, still in awe that he was paired with the Elder of his literal prayers, hopes, and dreams. He was still beaming up at the boy that had his eyes closed and fingers crossed in what he could only assume was hope when he saw that face completely drop in complete disappointment and horror, only to be replaced with a completely fake and plastic smile mere seconds later.
In search of an explanation, he quickly darted his eyes around the room and then back to Kevin in pure confusion.
“Uganda.” Kevin repeated, through almost gritted teeth.
Arnold, realizing that he had actually not been listening at all to where they’d been assigned and had been too busy staring at the boy he’d been assigned with, understood that this was where they were going to be doing their mission.
In an attempt to make it seem like he was actually paying attention the whole time he quickly followed Kevin’s lead with a loud,
“Uganda? Cool!”
Yeah, okay! Uganda! That wasn’t too bad! …Is what he assumed would’ve been his internal reaction had he had any idea where or what that was.
“Where… is that?”
“Africa!” the loud voice replied.
He looked back at Kevin and saw that this was clearly one of the bottom ten places he’d ever want to be sent for 2 years through his very clearly fake expression of excitement, hiding shock more than anything.
“Oh boy! Like Lion King!” Elder Cunningham exclaimed, remembering how excited Elder Price was talking about Disneyland in Orlando and wanting to cheer him up.
Elder Price kept just staring forward for a few moments in a stupor with the entire realization of where he’d be, who he’d be there with and how long he’d be there completely dawning on him.
He tried to pull himself together and get back to where he actually was at the moment. It’s okay. It was his mission. This was his destiny. For the next two years.
This might be the worst day of his life.
***
Kevin was at home packing after leaving the mission center where a very loud and excited Elder Cunningham gave him a little speech about how stoked he was to be doing his mission with him since, oh yeah, that was his prayer.
Heavenly Father… had answered Elder Cunningham’s prayer. And, of course, intentionally or not, he had to have rubbed it in by telling Elder Price that his mom had said that if Heavenly Father was proud of you, he would always answer your prayer!
So, he was at home packing — really, he was repacking, Uganda had a much different climate than Orlando, Florida — and thinking what he could have possibly done to make Heavenly Father not proud of him.
Or, even more, what Elder Cunningham (man, he really needed to learn his name) could’ve done to make Him proud of him.
Seriously, Kevin has been working so incredibly hard to be the perfect disciple his entire life. He follows the teachings, and that he knows, because he reads his Book of Mormon practically everyday. He prays at least twice a day, like he’s supposed to, and often prays more than that anyway. He even does readings at the church — which, for the record, he has never seen Elder Cunningham do. Not that he would’ve really noticed…
No, scratch that, he would’ve absolutely noticed.
He would’ve noticed because nobody, in fact, had exaggerated about him. He was loud, he was nerdy, and he was definitely awkward, and there was no way in heaven that this was fair.
Maybe he was being mean.
Okay, he was definitely being mean. But he didn’t mean it, he was just upset, because really, it was definitely not fair!
Sure, maybe Elder Cunningham did stuff that Kevin, or for that matter anybody, had never seen that made him like, the super Mormon or something.
But that was in no way an explanation for why Heavenly Father would not answer his own prayer, especially since he did stuff that nobody had ever seen and stuff that everybody had seen to prove himself.
He gripped the shirt he was folding tightly in his hands as he stared down at his suitcase, being actively refilled with more tropical climate appropriate clothing.
The more Kevin thought the less it made sense, and the more the worst thought he could have began to creep up in his mind.
What if God wasn’t even…?
Nonononono
He threw the shirt down into the suitcase hard and brought up his hands to cover his face as he shut his eyes tight. He needed to believe. He did believe. It was all he was, a believer, and on this mission he was going to prove that more than ever. Reinforce whatever weak spots he had in his belief and be the perfect disciple he knew himself to be on the inside.
He brought his hands down to his knees and took a deep, grounding breath, his eyes still shut.
So what if Heavenly Father granted Elder Cunningham’s wish and not his own? This was clearly a test of his faith, a test of his strength, a test that he was absolutely not going to fail.
Heavenly Father was only doing this to him because he knew that he was the strongest missionary he had at the church, that none of the other Elders could withstand the battle he had been given.
And Elder Cunningham? That was purely a test of his leadership, his guidance and courage, in such a difficult setting.
The Lord was purely testing him, pushing him to his limits, but only because He believed in him, just like his parents always told him.
But Kevin Price was not going to break.
***
Six hours.
That’s how far they are into the first flight on their trip to Uganda, Elder Price in the window seat, that Elder Cunningham had willingly given up without Kevin even really asking, and Elder Cunningham, who appears to be fast asleep, in the seat next to him.
The two of them were lucky enough to be sat alone on such a crowded plane, with Elder Cunningham’s Star Wars backpack taking up the third seat.
Okay, Kevin really needed to learn his name.
Wait a minute…
Kevin leans forward to look around his companion at the backpack in the next seat over.
He glances back at Elder Cunningham to make sure he’s asleep, but they’ve turned off the lights in the cabin so that people can sleep and he can’t see too well. However, he hasn’t moved in a while so he assumes he’s safe.
What Elder Price is thinking is that if the other is bringing personal items, even such as his, well, childish backpack, they’d likely have a tag or sticker with his name on it. Elder Cunningham doesn’t exactly seem like the type to keep track of his stuff well, and, the way he talked about her, his mom seemed kinda overprotective.
Before he knows it he’s carefully reaching over him to grab the bag.
If he lost his stuff a lot and had a parent that wouldn’t want him to do that, it’s reasonable to assume that his stuff would be labeled as to not get stolen, right?
Kevin had the bag in his lap, one hand on the zipper. He threw his companion one last guilty glance before slowly unzipping the bag in what he hoped was a quiet manner. This was better than making him feel bad by telling him he didn’t care to learn his name this whole time… right?
He reached into the backpack and pulled out a plushie of a green goblin-looking character in a robe. He assumed this was probably a Star Wars character considering it was on the bag. He placed it down softly on the others’ lap, carefully patting its head.
He can’t help but smile a little. People weren’t wrong about the nerdy thing, but he found it was in more of a dorky, kind of cute way.
Wait, what? Okay he must have been getting pretty tired.
Either way, he was getting sidetracked, back to the bag.
Kevin’s about to reach his hand back in when he sees a water bottle in the side pocket. Jackpot!
He picks up the bottle, rotating it in his hands until he finds the label on the bottom.
It’s been faded by condensation and it’s still very dark in the cabin. He brings it closer to his face and squints.
“Property of Ar—”
“Whatcha’ doin’?”
Elder Price drops the bottle onto the floor. Luckily it’s plastic so it only lands with a thud.
He pushes the bag down on his lap and yelps, “Elder! What are– I thought you– You’re awake?”
Elder Cunningham giggles, and only then does Kevin realize how close their faces are.
“Yeah I am, weirdo. Are you good? Ya look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He says, leaning in closer.
Kevin can basically count the freckles on his face and he looks so concentrated when he’s slightly squinting through his glasses and his smile looks so dorky and cute like when he talks about Lord of the Rings and Kevin can feel his own face getting warmer and—
He jumps back so quickly he hits his head against the window.
He hisses in pain and can see his companion wince at him getting himself hurt.
“Kevin! Jesus, dude you okay? Like actually this time?”
Every time he hears him say his name, he feels the guilt seep in even deeper.
“Y-yes, I’m fine, Elder. I just… you caught me off guard.” He says, rubbing the back of his head.
His companion giggles again. That awful, adorable giggle with the little snort at the end that made his nose wrinkle in the cutest way. Man he must’ve hit his head pretty hard.
“Okay, Elder. Seriously, you’d think you didn’t know my name!” Elder Cunningham replies while reaching down to grab the water bottle Kevin had dropped earlier.
“No, it’s just… you should be calling me Elder too y’know. Mission handbook and all that.”
Elder Price tries to sneak a glance at the bottom of the water bottle as he picks it up until he realizes that his companion’s face is back right in front of his.
He’s confused and a little flustered but he doesn’t want to risk jumping back and hitting his head again when suddenly the pain on the back of his head is replaced by a cold, relieving sensation.
He realizes that the reason his face is so close is because he’s reaching around his head with the water bottle in hand as a makeshift ice pack.
“There we go. Is that, like… okay or? Like does it still hurt?” He says, half veiled in an awkward laugh. God, he was not good at this ‘having a best friend’ thing, was he? Kevin looked uncomfortable beyond all hell and Arnold’s just now realizing that he is way too close.
He brings the water bottle down to the other’s hand and shrinks a bit back into his seat, looking down and fiddling with his hands.
“I, uh, sorry. You can hold that yourself. L-like if you want! I can keep holding it too if you want—”
He manages to rush out before Kevin cuts him off, holding up a hand to stop his rambling.
“It’s okay! Seriously, I’ve got it.” Kevin reassures. ‘You’re cute when you ramble’, Kevin thinks. He’s given up repressing, blaming it on the recent head injury and excusing it on the exhaustion of not being able to sleep the whole flight.
“What?” Elder Cunningham says, turning back to Kevin from facing the floor, his hands halting.
Oh boy. Did he say that out loud?
“I— what? Did I… Did I say something?” he manages, trying to act like there’s no possibility he’s said anything, especially not something so stupid, goodness.
“I mean I thought I heard you say, uh, something but I could just be hearing things! Are you a sleep talker? I am! Or well, I’ve been told that I am. But I mean like you weren’t sleeping…” Here he goes again.
“No, no I just um…” He needs to come up with something believable and fast, but that would be lying and that’s against the Book of Mormon and well he can’t do that so—
“What is your name?” He blurts out.
I mean, it wasn’t a lie. It was maybe the worst possible thing he could’ve said, but it wasn’t a lie.
Elder Cunningham seems taken aback.
“Oh! I… what?
“Earlier you, um, you said that it seemed like I didn’t know your name because I kept calling you Elder. That’s because… I don’t. I’m so sorry Elder— or uh..?” Now Kevin’s the one rambling.
“No, that's okay! It’s Arnold! My name, I mean. I’m not like some superstar in the church like you are, it’s no big surprise you don’t know my name.” he pauses and looks down at his backpack, still in Kevin’s lap, and then back up to his face. He chuckles a bit “Is, uh, is that why you were going through my bag?”
Kevin’s face burns practically bright red.
“Oh! Yeah! I, uh… I forgot you were awake for that haha…” he grabs the bag and puts it back in the seat next to Arnold. His elbow brushes the plushie on Arnold’s lap as he reaches over him and he realizes that must’ve also been awake for that. He didn’t think it was possible but he thinks he somehow gets redder.
“Just ask me next time, silly!” Arnold says, punching his companion lightly in the arm. “Plus,” Arnold flips the strap of the backpack around and gestures to the very clear, in all caps ‘ARNOLD CUNNINGHAM’ written on it. “It is kinda just right here.”
Ok, now Kevin just felt stupid.
Arnold laughs again. Boy, was Heavenly Father testing Kevin’s strength.
He couldn’t help but giggle a little. Though sometimes loud, Kevin thought that if Arnold’s laugh was anything, it was contagious.
“Okay so wait,” Kevin said, facing Arnold and bringing the water bottle down to his lap. His head still ached a bit, but he wasn’t focused on that right now. “You saw— or heard or felt or whatever— me grab your bag, and rummage through it, and you didn’t say anything?”
That geeky, awkward smile spread across Arnold’s face again. “Well, I mean, yeah? You’re the Kevin Price dude, I assumed you had a good reason! Plus, it’s not like I'm hiding anything. The most embarrassing thing I had in there was well,” He picks up the plush in his lap. “This Yoda stuffy and you didn’t really seem to care about it. Heck, you even gave it a little head pat.” he says with a giggle.
Kevin cringes.
“Ugh, I keep forgetting how much you saw.” he says, hiding his face in his hands.
“I didn’t mean it like that! I’m not making fun of you, I just thought it was cute is all. I mean a little unexpected, you don’t seem like a stuffed animal kind of guy, but you’re pretty kind so not entirely unexpected.” The other offers, attempting to get Elder Price’s hands off his face by pawing at his forearms. “C’mon don’t be embarrassed.”
Kevin usually doesn’t like being touched by, well, anyone really. Usually. But Arnold’s touch is making his face even warmer and his stomach feel fluttery and he’s pretty sure he just got called cute? He doesn't know how else to respond than how he usually does so he just swats away his companion’s hands with a smirk.
“Okay, okay! I get it! Stop touching me!” He giggles more than says.
They both laugh, shushing each other, trying not to wake the others on the plane.
The laughing dies down slowly until they’ve both settled into a bit of a comfortable silence, broken only when Kevin asks one last question.
“Why were you pretending to sleep anyway?” he whispers, just loud enough for the other to hear.
Arnold shifts awkwardly in his seat a bit, seeming a bit uncomfortable with the question.
After a moment he finally says “Okay well it’s kind of stupid so you have to promise not to laugh at me.” He says way too quickly. He holds out his pinky to his companion.
Kevin is about to snort at the action but Arnold looks serious and nervous so he chokes it down and wraps his pinky around Arnold’s.
“Promise”
“Okay.” he brings his hands back down to his lap, looking down at and carefully holding the Yoda plush. “Y’know how I told you my friends kind of always end up sort of… leaving me?”
Kevin nods.
“Well it wasn’t always ‘cause I was weird. I mean I’ve always been weird, but that was sort of acceptable as a kid, y’know. Anyways, I had made this one friend, and he was always really cool and nice to me, he was like my best friend. So one day, when we were hanging out, he gave me this plush,” He holds it up to gesture to it, “because he liked Star Wars and he knew I did too, and me, being eternally grateful and also like 7 years old, I told him that one day I wanted to marry him.
“Obviously, at the time, neither of us had any real idea of what that meant because when I asked my parents they just said it’s what 2 people do when they really like each other, but when he went home he told his parents and…” Arnold stares blankly into the plush.
“Well the church isn’t really fond of boys who like other boys, and that’s what his parents thought he was saying, so… We weren’t really allowed to hang out anymore, and when his parents found out we would still talk at school and stuff, well, they moved away.
“I never saw him again after that, and then people at school didn’t want to hang out with me because I was the “gay” kid, even though I didn’t even understand what I was saying. By the time my parents had cleared the air and scrubbed that from my record though, I was at the age where it was no longer cute to be socially inept and nerdy, and since I hadn’t had friends for so many years now, I kinda forgot how to make them.”
Arnold looks up to Kevin on his left, expecting to see him not listening anymore or asleep or even weirded out, but he’s just… listening. Listening with a very sad expression on his face. Arnold would do anything in the world to take that sad expression off his face.
“Ahem, getting off topic here, sorry. Anyways! Long story short, the Yoda plush has been kind of like a comfort stuffed animal over the years and I can’t really sleep without it, but I didn’t want you to think I was like some huge dork or anything so I was trying to fall asleep without it.” he explains, managing a weak smile.
Okay so that was a bit of an overshare, but hopefully Kevin was too tired to care.
“I uh…” Kevin is left sort of speechless but he sees Elder Cunningham’s smile sort of fading at his lack of words so he tries to scramble together a sentence the quickest he possibly can.
“Don’t worry, I already kinda knew you were a dork.” He manages.
He nearly facepalms. What the heck was that, Kevin?
Turns out his brain was not necessarily the best at putting words together quickly. This time however, this manages to pull a small chuckle out of Arnold. He sighs a sigh of relief.
“Thanks, Elder Disneyland.” Arnold teases back.
The other gets so flustered he doesn’t know what to say because he’s never had someone call out his nerdiness before — except for maybe his brother— but as it turns out Arnold isn’t really expecting a reply as he closes his eyes and rests his head on Kevin’s shoulder with a content sigh.
“Goodnight, best friend.” he whispers under his breath.
Kevin, still as a rock, not knowing what to do, eventually cranes his neck so his head is resting on top of Arnold’s, the latter’s curls feeling soft against his face. Maybe he should get some sleep before he starts thinking more things he shouldn’t.
He takes a deep breath, and half yawns a reply;
“Goodnight, pal.”