Chapter Text
The next morning, Huey and her brothers had been woken up bright and early by their mom, who was cheering about some grand adventure that Scrooge had found, and how they needed to get dressed right now! Huey, however, not feeling up to an adventure after the previous day, had said she would stay behind. Dewey and Louie had offered to keep her company, but she had insisted they go—after all, Dewey hadn’t been very good at hiding his excitement.
Now, left all to her lonesome, her thoughts had quickly drifted back towards Violet, despite her best efforts. She was staring to spiral again, oscillating between feeling stupid, embarrassed, lovesick, and depressed. She’d even hastily reconstructed the pillow fort from the previous day, and was trying to distract herself with the games on her phone, but nothing was working. Weren’t crushes supposed to fade after you got rejected? How long did that take? She was getting tired of feeling sorry for herself.
And then the shadows in the corner of her room warbled, and a figure stepped out. “Hey. Red.”
“Lena?” Huey asked, setting down her phone. She was surprised at first, but it quickly drained out of her with a sigh. “Oh. Vi told you what happened, didn’t she?”
“Not directly,” Lena said. “But I have a pretty good idea.”
“Great. Now you know how much of an idiot I am, too.” Huey groaned, dragging her hands down her face.
Lena rolled her eyes. “Save me your sob stories.”
“Wh-what?” Huey muttered.
“You’re not an idiot. You’re one of the smartest people I know, along with Violet.”
“Oh.” Huey didn’t quite know what to make of Lena complimenting her so openly; normally, she just teased her mercilessly. “Thanks, Lena, I—”
“Which makes it so weird that the two of you are being so unbelievably stupid about this,” Lena finished.
Aaand, there it is, Huey thought, frowning. “Why are you here, exactly?”
“Okay, look,” Lena said. “You don’t live with Violet, so you don’t know what she’s like when she’s sad.”
“She’s sad?” Huey asked, raising an eyebrow.
“She’s a freaking mess,” Lena said, leaning forward and clapping her palms together. “M-E-S-S mess! I woke up this morning and she was, god, she had turned the whole house into some mad science lab. Like, she’s got a ton of chemistry shit set up in the kitchen, she’s gathered up all the houseplants and is doing some sort of growth serum experiment with them so she can easily get potion ingredients because, guess what, she’s into alchemy now! Also I think she’s doing an archeological dig in the backyard, I keep hearing really concerning noises coming from her room, and she drew a summoning circle in the living room and tried to convince me to use my magic to activate it.”
“That’s… a lot,” Huey said. “Why is she doing all that?”
“You!” Lena exclaimed. “You is why! My fathers said she gets like this when she’s upset, but even they’ve never seen it this bad. And, look, there’s really only one thing she could be upset about.”
“Wh—but— she’s the one who turned me down!” Huey protested, throwing a hand over her chest. “She even brought it up! If anyone should be upset here, it’s me!”
“Right?! That’s what I said!” Lena huffed, flopping down into Louie’s desk chair. “But she kept insisting it was fine and that everything was normal when it really very clearly isn’t.”
“But… I don’t understand,” Huey said, brow furrowed. “Why is she taking it so hard? Does she feel guilty?”
“No, it’s…” Lena glanced up at her. “She told you why she doesn’t want to date you, right?”
“Because she’s aromantic.”
Lena nodded. “Yeah. But just because she’s not romantically interested doesn’t mean she isn’t interested.”
“What?” Huey was getting very confused. How else would… oh! “Are you saying she’s platonically attracted to me?”
“Mmhmm. But she didn’t want to say anything because—” Lena cut herself off with a frown. “Well, I don’t really know, actually. Something about not wanting to make you compromise, or wanting to wait for your crush to fade, or not wanting to rock the boat, or something. It doesn’t really matter, anyway, they’re all just excuses she’s using to talk herself out of it.”
“I… wow.” Huey gulped. “I read a lot about queerplatonic relationships when Louie came out, and I remember thinking that it would be nice to have one. I’ve never really had many friends outside of my brothers, so those relationships are really special to me already, and… well, if I were to pick someone…” He shook his head. “B-but, well, I really do like Violet romantically. Won’t that be awkward? I don’t want to force her into anything she’s uncomfortable with…”
“Then don’t force her,” Lena said with a shrug. “Tell her what you want, and let her tell you what she wants.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Huey said. “But there are so many variables. What if I want to kiss her? I—I think I do, maybe, you know, um, but—but would she be okay with that? Would she be willing to do it for me, even if she doesn’t want to? How do we balance my emotional wants with her potential discomfort? And that’s just one example!”
“Okay, so you might have to work out some details.” Lena rolled her eyes. “So what? You nerds love details.”
Huey thought about that. “Well… I do love details,” she murmured. “If I were to, like, make a list of all the traditionally romantic actions that I want and don’t want out of a relationship—”
Lena smirked. “See? You’re getting excited.”
“—and cross referencing that list with a similar list that Violet makes… Oh, and we should probably differentiate between activities we specifically desire and ones we’re simply comfortable with. A spreadsheet would be great for this, actually, if we set it up so that—”
“Okay, you don’t actually have to, like, walk me through it, though,” Lena said, holding up a hand. “But, yeah. That nerd shit. Give it a whirl.”
“This… This could work!” Huey said, breaking into a smile. “I mean, sure, it’s not exactly what I’ve had in mind, but with the baseline amount of communication we’d need to even get started, it’d be a great foundation for a healthy relationship. And, honestly, spending more time with her is the main thing I was looking forward to anyway; I’m not sure it matters too much how we spend that time. Though I do like cuddling… does Violet like cuddling?”
Lena, who was halfway through a shadow in the wall, turned. “What? Oh, uh, yeah, she loves that shit. But she always claims she doesn’t. Kinda like me before Webby beat that out of me, you know?” She coughed. “But you should probably be asking her this stuff, right?”
“Oh! Right.” Huey let out a nervous laugh. “Is she home? Can I just come over to your house?”
“Oh my god, please,” Lena said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve gotta pull her out of whatever rut she’s in right now before she starts using the garage to split atoms.”
Huey raised an eyebrow. “She’s looking into nuclear fission?”
“I don’t know, probably. Anyway, I’m gonna bounce. Good luck.”
“See you!” Huey called. “And, thank you!”
“No problem,” Lena said, stepping the rest of her body into the shadows and disappearing entirely.
Violet poked her tongue out of her beak in concentration as she tilted the test tube carefully over the beaker. She was standing in the kitchen, which she had hastily turned into a chemistry lab. Currently, she was trying to engineer a solution that would serve as the perfect base for magical potions. She was getting into alchemy as well, you see, as a sort of hobby project; she had a pot on the stove that she was currently using as a cauldron, although thus far all of her attempts had resulting in products that Lena’s keen magical senses had determined to be ‘fucked up and evil and definitely likely to kill you.’
But Violet was determined. If she couldn’t get the potions right the traditional way, then she would just have to compensate with a little intervention from her good friend science. A little specially-engineered serum to bring the recipe together would surely—
“Violet, sweetie!” her Papa called from down the hall.
“I’m busy!” Violet called back, still carefully tilting the test tube. She only needed a couple drops.
“You’ve got someone here to see you!”
“Well, tell them I’m busy!”
“It’s Huey!”
Violet dropped the test tube. It fell straight into the beaker, and went up in a fiery explosion that Violet only just managed to dodge, jumping back.
“Um, is everything okay in there?”
That was Huey’s voice. Violet forced herself not to scowl; what was she doing here? Violet was supposed to be not thinking about her! Honestly, very rude.
Violet, however, wasn’t rude. “Everything's fine!” she shouted. “I’ll be right there!”
She made sure nothing else in the lab was about to imminently explode, and then hurried through the house over to the front door, where Huey was waiting. “Huey! What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Violet, I—” Huey stopped cold, looking at Violet in horror. “Oh my god, is your hair on fire?”
Violet reached up a hand and grabbed the burning tuft of hair in a closed fist, hissing through her teeth as it burned at her palm before it suffocated. “No.”
“Um.” Huey swallowed. “Okay. So, hey, can we talk somewhere more private?”
“Sure,” Violet said. “We can go to my room. Come in.”
She led the way up the stairs and over to her room, Huey constantly looking around at all the various experiments set up around the house. “Wow, you’re… really keeping yourself busy right now, huh?”
“Oh, yes,” Violet said, opening her door. Even her room was filled with charts and documents and notebooks full of plans and equations and observations; they were very well organized, of course, but purely due to the sheer volume of notes, she supposed it qualified as a ‘mess.’ “Every so often I get an insatiable itch to do some science. Though, this is the first time that my studies into the arcane have also played a part. Fascinating, really.”
“Uh, yeah,” Huey said, clearly nervous.
Violet sat down on her bed, and motioned for Huey to sit next to her, which she did. “So, what brings you over?” Violet asked. “I… wasn’t sure you’d want to see me again so soon after… well.”
Huey averted her gaze. “Um… I guess I’m here to ask if you wanted to try a new kind of experiment. With me. The queerplatonic kind.”
Violet’s eyes widened, her beak opening to respond—but, for once, she didn’t quite know what to say.
“I…” Huey wrung out her hands. “Okay, to be honest, Lena kind of came over and told me that you might be interested in a QPR and that got me thinking that, well, I’d be interested in one too, so, like, why not, right?”
Violet nodded slowly. That made sense; Lena very much enjoyed meddling. “I see. Are you sure you’d be satisfied with one, though? I know your feelings for me are romantic as well. I mean, obviously I know that, that’s what that whole thing yesterday was about but—” Violet sighed. “I should stop talking.”
“No no no, you’re fine!” Huey assured. “I mean, I don’t really know, you know? Maybe this won’t work. But we won’t know unless we try.”
“Well.” Violet smiled. “I suppose you have me there.”
Huey beamed back at her. “So you want to do it?”
“Of course I do. I have for a while now. I just… wasn’t sure if you wanted to.” Violet laughed. “I never expected you to be the one asking me, though. I suppose I’m more of a mess than I thought.”
Huey giggled. “You… might have gone a little overboard on the science.”
“Yes, I suppose.” Violet coughed. “If we’re going to start a QPR, though, we’re going to need to establish ground rules. Communication is essential. In fact, it may be prudent to compile a sort of chart—”
“I already made a spreadsheet,” Huey admitted, pulling out her phone. “And I filled in my half. So maybe we can start there?”
Violet’s eyes widened a little, and then she let out a laugh. Huey really was something else. “That sounds great, Huey. I’m excited.”
“I’m excited too,” Huey said. “I’ve gone on so many adventures in the past two years, but… I think this is going to be the best one yet.”
“Before I fill out the spreadsheet,” Violet said, “I think I’m going to have to cheat a little. Are you comfortable with hugs?”
“I’m super comfortable with hugs,” Huey answered.
Violet smiled. “Good. Because what you just said was really sweet.”
She stepped forward, reached her arms around Huey, and squeezed her tight.
When Huey got home, she was surprised to find Webby, Dewey, and Louie waiting for her on the couch.
“Oh, hey guys,” she greeted as she stepped into the door. “How did the adventure go?”
“It was fine,” Webby said.
Louie let out a breath, a look of fear in his eyes. “I almost got eaten by this giant abyssian monster and honestly I’m not sure—”
“Yeah yeah whatever,” Webby said, waving him off. “Huey, how was your day?”
Huey narrowed her eyes at Webby. “…Waaaait a second. Why are you so interested?”
“What? I’m not interested!” Webby said quickly. “Why do you think I’m interested? Did something happen? I bet something happened! Tell us what happened!”
Huey sighed. “Let me guess, Lena was listening in on my conversation with Violet from the shadows and then she texted you telling you what happened but you don’t want to seem nosy so you waited here until I got home to ask me?”
“Haha, whaaaaaaaaat…?” Webby said weakley. “That’s not what happened at all!”
“That’s exactly what happened,” Dewey said.
“Of course,” Huey said. She smiled. “Well, I guess you already know then, but yeah. Violet’s my queerplatonic partner now.”
“Yaaaay!” Webby said, throwing her hands up. “I’m so happy for you!”
“I’m so glad you two nerds could forge an even stronger nerd bond,” Louie said. “It really brings a nerd tear to the eye, you know?”
“What Louie means to say is that we’re all proud of you for figuring this out,” Dewey said.
“No, I meant to say that they’re nerds.”
Dewey frowned. “Louie, stop.”
“Don’t worry, I know what he means,” Huey said. “Thanks, guys. For everything.”
“Of course!” Webby chirped. “You’re our sister! We’re always here to help when you need it.”
“Sibling hug?” Dewey proposed, opening up his arms. “I’m feeling a sibling hug coming!”
“Sibling hug,” Huey agreed, stepping forward to meet up with the others as they all wrapped around each other.
She let out a comfortable, relieved sigh as her family squeezed her half to death; things were still overwhelming, but now it was more of an exciting overwhelming, rather than the soul-crushing overwhelming from before.
And maybe, Huey supposed, overwhelming wasn’t always so bad.