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The Star Festival was finally here!! It seemed like the whole city was hyped for it for the past few weeks, and Izzy's parents were no exception.

Everything within the shop changed since then, if only temporarily. All their crafts involved stars. Origami stars, macrame stars, Paper Mache stars. Stars stars stars, every where! Even their snacks and their special drinks had star themes, from sprinkles that twinkled like them, to adding edible star glitter to their signature drinks.

Izzy, himself, didn't care too much for the festival. It only seemed to mean more work for him, especially since school was out now. His mother insisted that even the fruit that would go into fruit cups they sold as sides should be cut like stars! Who the heck needed star-shaped pineapples?! And how the heck was he supposed to cut a star into a grape?!

And their uniforms had changed too!

Aprons had been sown into a star shape, and everyone had these obnoxious, hideous, and HUGE star shaped glasses on that had tiny letters across the top that said "Star Festival 2020!" God, it was so bad, he wanted to Vomit.

One little, tiny bit of prize was the fact that Toby looked good in it. Who knew someone could pull off something so obnoxious so naturally? Plus, it was cute watching him try to pronounce all of these punny named snacks his parents called everything these days. Despite the craziness, it was so dang impressive how well his boyfriend adapted to it all.

And equally impressive was how much damned convincing it took to get a day off!

"No, mijo, we got too much work to do! You can't take off yet! Not after the festival!" his mother would claim, night after night after night. Which, yeah, okay, maybe last year he would have given in and just worked, but not this year! THIS year he had a friend! A boyfriend! And not only that, he was right there, within arms reach, but he couldn't do anything because it was work work work, and by the time the day was over they were both exhausted and ready to go home.

NOT TODAY!

No, even before anyone else woke up in his house, he was out the window, down the fire escape, and right on his way down the street! On his back was a bag, filled with snacks, water bottles, and a map of the city, on his feet were his skates that he speeded own the sidewalk on, and in his hands... A list! A scavenger hunt list!

Yes, today, he had plans.

The very first of which was to get to Toby's house and rapidly knock on the door a few times. It wasn't too loud, right? Toby's parents totally knew he was the kinda person to show up out of no where when given the chance... Maybe, just maybe, Toby wasn't awake again this time.

Hehe, if not, well, nothing was more fun than waking up his partner with a few well placed, wet kisses on his face!

"Let me iiiin!! Let me iiiiiin!" He whined, knocking again and again. How dare they take so long to answer the door! Of course, it was all in good fun and jest, and he kept his knocking and whining relatively soft. No need to disturb the neighbors.

"Thanks Mr. Yeets! I'm gonna kidnap Toby for today, okay? It'll be fiiiine, missing one day of work! No one is going to even notice!" That was a lie. A big one. They'd definitely notice that two of their servers was gone at once, but hey! They should have known that was going to happen!

Not giving Izzy a break, not even once! Hmph!

But ignoring that, Izzy just grinned at Toby's dad, before yanking off his skates, setting them near the door, and bolting up the stairs surprisingly silently.

And of course Toby was asleep. He would probably sleep all the way through the day if it weren't for work! Not that he could blame him, but still!

It was only natural then for Izzy to slide in beside him, fully clothed, and wrap him up in his arms.

"Tooooooobyyyyy Tobyyyy Wake up! You're gonna be late for schooool." That too was a lie, but it was fun to try to tease him like this, especially when it was off set with a few wet kisses across his forehead. "Wake up before I leave without you!"

"I never said it was cool. But hey! You're awake now, and that's what matters!" There were few things in life as cute as a half-asleep Toby. One of them was a fully awake Toby, so Izzy gently shook him more awake, juuust to make sure it stuck and that he didn't try to roll over and go back to sleep.

"I think you chose the wrong dude if you wanted a dull moment. Nah, I need you awake and alert! We gotta go on a hunt! And we're playing hookie from work to do it!"

"A scavenger hunt! The prize is.. Nothing really cool, honestly, but as kinda broke high-school students, a coupon book to go to a bunch of really fancy places might not be too bad." As much as he wanted Toby to get up, it was really cute to see him trying so hard to just go back to sleep.

"If you really want to go back to sleep, I guess you can. But I'mma do something to you in your sleep."

“Tooooby...” He whined for a long moment, but nope, Toby was right asleep.

... And he kept his promise, his fingers poked Toby’s sides, his nose, his hips, but still nope, Toby slept.

... Fine! If his boyfriend wanted to sleep so much, Izzy just got comfortable, his arms around Toby’s waist, and just curled up beside him. He would take a nap too!

"Ngh..." Izzy groaned right back at him, refusing to budge and nuzzling closer to Toby's chest.

"You are the one who didn't want to wake up.... So I'm not waking up either..." He yawned, pulling Toby a bit closer to him. "I never sleep in, so I ain't movin... You can't make me."

“Pants are a construct of lies and slander. You.. You are part of the pants Illuminati. Buuut fine.” In an instant, he was in more pajama-appropriate attire, and immediately flopped back on the bed, face down.

“Lemme sleeeeeeeep, or gimme a pizza bagel... Zzzz...”