Chapter Text
Whizzer wasn’t afraid of planes, by any means. He’d hate for anyone to think he was, especially because he absolutely was not.
He just… didn’t like them all that much. There was a difference.
At least, that was what he tried to tell everyone else.
Kevin had only shook his head, giving a sarcastic “sure you aren’t,” in response.
in the end, it had been Nabulungi who had smiled and nodded, and he could see in her eyes that she didn’t completely believe him.
“you can sit with us, if you want to,” she gestured to herself and arnold. He appreciated the offer, he really did, even if he tried to decline at first. She only nodded and made sure he knew that if he needed to, he could sit with the two of them.
“Thank you,” he had smiled at her. And then the topic was changed--Kevin had said something about dinner, suggesting they watch a movie while they ate.
“Alright, so I was thinking… we could watch Alice In Wonderland while we had dinner?” he was hopeful when he asked the question, no one had the heart to tell him no.
So that night, they watched Alice In Wonderland while eating dinner, Kevin and Connor both awkwardly avoiding sitting next to each other (something Whizzer was sure he’d be able to put an end to, but for the time being… if they wanted to sit on opposite ends of the couch, then he couldn’t stop them, could he?), Nabulungi and Arnold sharing the loveseat, Whizzer sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table.
Overall, it wasn’t unenjoyable.
Whizzer and Kevin’s parents had joined them a little after the movie had started, pulling their own chairs into the living room while they ate. There were only a couple more days left until they’d be returning to Uganda, and the feeling was already beginning to permeate the house.
And then--
“Oh, yeah. When Kevin was younger, after he watched the Little Mermaid, he taught himself how to swim like a mermaid,”
“I duct-taped my legs together,” Kevin muttered. It was a fact he wasn’t too terribly proud of, but it was something that had definitely happened.
“Wait, you actually did?” Whizzer perked up hearing that. He hadn’t been there for that particular adventure--it had been at Kevin’s Dad’s house, before Whizzer left, so he had heard about it, but the details had started to escape him. Kevin only nodded in response.
Connor smiled. He seemed to be enjoying hearing these “Embarrassing Kevin Price Childhood Stories”, which… was good, Whizzer thought. Some of the stories you could find where definitely things that had happened.
“I haven’t heard of this,” was all he said.
“Yeah, I remember every time we used to go swimming, he’d gotten into the habit, so…” their mom trailed off.
“You didn’t go swimming in Florida?” it was their dad that spoke that time, vaguely concerned. “I’m surprised. You should go tomorrow, there’s a pool not too far away,”
“No, it’s--” Kevin started, but Arnold cut him off. Whizzer was definitely considering adding him to his own list of friends.
“Yeah! That’d be fun, Mr. Price,”
Kevin was glaring at his food, but said nothing. Connor smiled softly, almost reaching a hand out to touch him, but seemed to decide against it, causing Whizzer to raise his eyebrows at him in question. Instead, Whizzer decided to throw something into the conversation.
“Let’s do it, maybe I can use my gay sunglasses while we’re there,” he pointed to the sunglasses he had hooked on his shirt, the lenses a rainbow when you looked at them from the outside. They seemed to work decently, from what he could tell thus far. His parents nodded.
It still felt a little weird, being around them and them being okay with his sexuality, but it was also… nice. He appreciated their support, even if there were times when he would stop before doing something and would wait to get yelled at.
When he thought about it, it seemed pretty sad.
After dinner, they all made plans for the next day (Connor and Nabulungi had reminded them that there was packing they still needed to finish, Kevin was trying to avoid… many things, it had seemed, and Arnold was, in general, excited to be there. He was still hoping for the promised swimming to happen the next day, and when he was told it was happening, may have cheered a little), then went back to their separate rooms to sleep in for the night.
It was around midnight when Whizzer found that he most definitely wasn’t going to be getting much sleep that night, and looking into Kevin’s room showed that his younger brother wasn’t, either, but was instead choosing to read for a while. Whizzer shrugged and went to the kitchen to make himself some tea before sitting on the couch, almost jumping when he found Nabulungi and Connor both already there, whispering to each other. He almost felt… bad about disturbing them, but…
“Whizzer, hi,” Nabulungi looked up at the right time and beckoned him over to sit by the two of them. He did, trying to be careful so he didn’t spill his tea, and smiled awkwardly.
“Are you two okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just…” it was Connor who had answered his question. Whizzer nodded--he understood.
“Do you want me to make you any…” he gestured to the cup. Connor hesitated, giving Nabulungi time to answer.
“I think that might be good, if you need any help I can,”
Whizzer smiled at her, nodding. “One of you can take this one, if you want, I’ll be right back,”
He set it on the table before going to get two more cups of tea, returning once they were made and handing one to Nabulungi before sitting on the couch again.
“So… what’s going on tonight?”
“Sleeping’s hard sometimes,” the three of them let Nabulungi’s words be an answer for the question, Whizzer nodding in agreement.
“Is Arnold awake? I saw Kevin reading something,”
“No, he was asleep when I left him,”
Whizzer nodded again.
“Wait, Kevin’s still awake?” Connor seemed… vaguely upset. “He’s supposed--”
“It’s okay, he’ll go to sleep when he’s ready to,” Nabulungi smiled softly, resting a hand on Connor’s arm. “It’s okay,”
Connor nodded, barely satisfied.
The three sat in relative silence, not quite sure what to talk about, while they finished their tea.
“I think I’m going to go check on Kevin, see if he’s asleep,” Connor said once he was finished. Whizzer nodded.
“You can leave your cup, I’ll get it when I go to bed,”
Connor nodded in thanks, getting up and going off in the direction of Kevin’s room again. Whizzer smiled a little--he was glad that his brother had a good group of friends, and that there were people that cared for him.
“How are you?” Whizzer almost jumped when Nabulungi spoke, but instead he turned to her, attempting a friendly smile.
“Well, I’ve been worse, I’d say I’m doing pretty decently. How’re you?”
“I’m good. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Whizzer thought Nabulungi was a nice person, a great person, but he wasn’t ready for someone to try to do some therapy, or whatever she was trying to do, even though he logically knew she wasn’t trying to be Mendel.
“I am, really. Thank you,” he gave her a somewhat pained smile. “What’s it like in Uganda?”
“Oh, it’s never boring,” she laughed a little, and his smile became a bit more natural and significantly less pained.
“It sounds like it,”
“Oh, yeah. Has Kevin told you about some of the stuff they’ve done?”
“He has not, no,”
“Oh my god, okay, so…”
And with that, the two traded stories until they deemed it was too late to be awake anymore, Whizzer telling her about Jason and Trina and what life had been like, her telling him about some of the things the elders in Uganda had been up to and what her own life was like.
Once they decided it was time to finally go to bed, Whizzer hugged Nabulungi (after she said it was okay) and the two went to their separate rooms.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin wasn’t a fan of “early mornings”, especially not when they were something that he had to partake in because someone wanted to poke fun at him.
Yet here he was. Awake at eight in the morning because some people decided it was a good time to make him go swimming.
He glared at everyone from over his coffee, specifically aiming his death-look at Arnold and Whizzer.
It was Connor that brought up the great subject again and earned Kevin’s worst death glare of the morning.
“So… the pool?”
“We’ll get everything together soon, I think there might be some stuff we can take, unless they did something with it,”
“They didn’t. Nabulungi, you’re officially my favorite person,” he gave her a small smile, which was easily returned.
Once everyone had finished their breakfast, Kevin still glaring at everyone while he drank his coffee, they all gathered together in the living room to make plans.
Kevin was still very obviously unhappy with the situation but was fighting it less, letting Arnold sling an arm around his shoulder while they walked, Arnold talking about something that was somehow vaguely pool related. Maybe he was talking about one of those games people would play in the pool--Marco Polo, was it?
No, that didn’t sound right, not based on what descriptions of it Kevin had caught. It sounded more like--
“Sharks and minnows? Is that the one you’re talking about?”
And Arnold lit up, nodding and pulling his arm off of Kevin to gesticulate.
It was Whizzer, with Nabulungi’s help, that managed to get the group on topic and actually talking about what they would do for the day.
It was eventually decided that they’d spend some time at the pool, first, and then take something to eat home.
Kevin sighed. He wasn’t really looking forward to the rest of the day.