Work Text:
Sally Face remembered easily when he first met Larry. He remembered having no idea how important this boy would become to him either. Looking back on it, it was almost funny. How could someone who meant so much now, have meant nothing when they first met? If they had never spoken, only seen each other through glances on the street or in a store, neither would care about the others life. Maybe Larry would give Sal odd looks for his prosthetic but never ask and go on living. Sally knew he himself surely would have thought nothing of just another face amongst a sea full of people.
Neither would care if the other's life was going well. Neither would care if they were having problems. Neither would care if the other died one day.
Strange how the world worked that way.
Sal could openly admit it became quite the opposite. The two were so close they were nearly inseparable, with lives so intertwined it was quite shocking to all who'd known the pair when they lost touch after high school. Sally Face would admit that it hurt. He never wanted to lose touch with Larry, but after graduation it was like he'd dropped off the face of the earth.
Like with anything one loses, Sal moved on. He never forgot Larry. God, he didn't think he could forget him. Not when everything that happened between them had been so wild and wonderful and terrifying. It was far from perfect. Sal knew nothing ever could be perfect in this wicked world, he knew that extremely well at this point in his life.
Sitting behind bars waiting for a trial where he'd surely be sent to be executed did tend to hammer it home exactly how not perfect life was.
Oh but things could be wonderful, even if sad to reflect upon. The memories were things he would hold for the last days of his life. Memories he'd spew out as quickly as he could to the man whose job it was to listen to him. To try and help his case. He knew nothing he said could help him, but a part of him wanted to tell his stories. Wanted to tell anyone about the wild life he led back at those apartments with someone so important to him… Even if he would never get the chance to fully finish his stories, the sessions always seeming to cut too short, he still took what time he could get. Even so, he continued to reminisce when alone in his cell. Remember happier times… Crazier times.
And remember a hug and two kisses.
-------------------------------------------
Perhaps it wasn't the only time the two had hugged, but it surely was the most memorable. They'd halted in the hall, Larry staring down at his feet with a soft “oh…”
Sal had asked what was wrong, hating the expression he saw on his friends face. Larry hadn't looked at him, trying to remain positive as he said everything they'd discovered about the ghosts and the demon in their apartments was great, but he knew he wasn't cursed now. “And that means my dad… He just…” That's when Larry did lift his gaze, expression something miserable. Sal saw the tears forming and felt a pain in his chest for his friend.
He knew how hard it was to lose a parent… He had long since accepted his mother was gone. And to imagine how Larry felt, having held onto the hope he was only cursed for so long, believing that maybe if he could break it his dad would return… Sal didn't know what else to do but step forward and hug his taller friend. He hugged him tightly, pressing his masked face into his chest and refusing to let go. He'd never gotten to speak much of the incident to the investigator, but he remembered clearly how his friend shook… It took him a bit, but he'd wrapped his arms around Sal in return, slowly lowering his face to press it against the top of his head and sobbed softly.
They hadn't talked much about that day with each other, let it be because it was too sensitive a topic or Larry's embarrassment at breaking down before Sal. Larry constantly reassured him that he trusted him, wanting it to be known how much trust he truly did confide in him, but that didn't change being embarrassed for crying.
Sal did choose to spend the night with Larry after that day though. They tried to forget all that'd happened just for the night, lazing around Larry's room, doing dramatic sing alongs to music, having an entire section dedicated to air guitar and headbanging. Larry even got Sal to take his pigtails out and do a “proper headbang” as he put it. They ended up falling into a pile on Larry's beanbag, laughing their asses off at themselves. He ended up painting a picture of Sal that night as well. It was far from serious, a Sal with tangled, messy hair from their previous shenanigans draped dramatically over the beanbag and declaring “paint me like one of your french girls!”
Larry laughed but went with it, grabbing his stool and paintbrushes, along with a blank easel. He made jokes about the titanic, which made Sal sit up, about to throw off his shirt for the sake of “being a proper Rose”, which led to Larry nearly crying from laughter while also yelling at Sal to lay back down cause he wasn't done yet.
When he did finish, Sal had to admit he was impressed. Then again all of Larry's paintings were impressive to him. Larry offered to let him take it, which Sal gladly accepted. “This masterpiece is going up in my room!” He declared.
Those were better times. Times they could laugh and have fun and try not to worry about curses or ghosts or demons.
Sal sometimes wished it'd stayed that way.
-------------------------------------------
“Sal?” A guard approached the bars of his cell, eyeing the cuffs around his wrists that kept his hands together.
“I go by Sally Face.” His voice sounded dead.
“Whatever.” The man scoffed, before stating, voice grave. “It's time.”
He looked at him, eyes dark and overshadowed by by his mask and mess of hair hanging around his face. He said nothing, simply stood and let the guard lead him out.
-------------------------------------------
The first kiss shared between them wasn't exactly done smoothly, or with any warning. Larry hadn't been thinking much, pressing a quick kiss against Sal's hairline when he was about to head to bed. He and Sal had stared at each other, both surprised by the action, before Larry quickly said goodnight and shut his door. Sal stayed before his bedroom's doorway possibly several minutes before slowly turning to walk to the elevator. The ride up to his floor was spent lightly rubbing his hand over the spot on his head that'd been kissed.
Kissed.
He mumbled a hello to his dad when he walked in, his father seated on the couch with a purring Gizmo in his lap. He marched past, straight to his room before promptly falling onto his bed. He rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling.
Larry kissed his head.
What the hell.
He slowly sat up, hands reaching up to brush the spot again. He glanced to the side, at his walkie talkie on his nightstand. Slowly he reached out to it, picking it up and clicking the button. “Larry Face?”
There was a period of silence, before a crackle and a response. “Sally Face.”
They both went quiet again before Sal pushed the button down to respond. “Uh, why did you…” He trailed off, letting his finger slide off the button so Larry could reply.
“Um.” It sounded like he was clearing his throat, shifting about his room. “I… I honestly have no idea dude.”
“Oh.”
“I think I just was… thinking about it. Then I did it? Yeah.”
Sal let himself be quiet again, setting down the device to unlatch his mask and set it to the side, before setting to work untying his pigtails and getting pajamas on. Once he finished, flopping back in bed, he picked his walkie talkie up again. “So you wanted to kiss me?”
There was nervous laughter in response. “Uh, yeah I guess I did man.”
Again. Silence.
“Would you… do it again?”
Larry was silent so long Sal thought he'd scared him off. Suddenly, he responded, quietly, “I guess if you… wanted me to?”
Sal stared up at the ceiling, unsure what to do with this information. Quietly, he murmured, “goodnight Larry Face.”
“Night Sally Face…”
-------------------------------------------
Sal could say he almost smiled thinking about it.
They were young, awkward teenagers at the time. Dealing with emotions had been something strange and difficult, a mystery at that age. Sal still recalled how flustered he became simply in Ashley's presence, and he hardly even knew her. It was strange, how he managed to become shy around a pretty girl he hardly knew yet was fine around the boy he ended up having several intimate experiences with. Even after the kiss on the head, he was still completely fine in Larry's presence.
In fact, they had really calm discussions about kissing after the awkwardness faded.
Sal laughed softly, making the guard glance at him. “What's so funny?”
“Just remembering something amusing.”
He eyed him suspiciously, mumbling something about him finding something serious like this funny. Sal ignored him.
-------------------------------------------
The next time a kiss happened, they actually discussed beforehand. They were sitting in Larry's treehouse, with their feet dangling out of the entryway down into open air. Sal couldn't recall how the topic came up, but it had and well…
“Do you think you'd be willing to take off your mask…?” Larry had asked, very softly. He knew well how sensitive of a topic this was.
Sal stared down at his hands, answering honestly. “I… I really don't think I can do that.”
“That's chill, it's okay.” Larry replied, glancing down at their dangling feet. “So, are you okay with me just…? On the mask?”
Sal nodded, looking up at him expectantly. It wasn't even that exciting, it was simple really, but he found his heart racing anyways. Larry leaned down, pressing a kiss to the lips of the mask, and Sal let out an undignified squeak. The way his friend sat back and stared at him, he knew he definitely heard the noise.
“Holy shit.” He breathed out, before laughing. “Dude that was the cutest shit ever oh my god.”
Sal covered his face, cheeks feeling too hot under the cover of his mask. “Aaaa shut up, shut up, shut up!”
Larry just chuckled again before sliding an arm around his shoulders. “Admit it Sally Face, you're adorable. But,” he held up his other hand pointedly, “even more so, you are cool.”
Sal rolled his eyes, elbowing him lightly in the ribs. “I said
shut up.”
-------------------------------------------
Things got hectic before the trial even began. Megan had appeared, surprisingly enough, and spewed something about Larry needing help. Sal had been shocked to see her but even more shocked to hear what she had to say. He didn't even know how long it'd been since he'd seen any ghosts, but just knowing his friend needed him was enough for him to immediately have the drive to try and escape. Megan assisted as best she could, and somehow, they did it.
Some fucking how, they managed to get him out.
Sure he still had cuffs on his wrists and was still stuck in his bright orange prison suit. But he was out.
Out and running for the broken down apartments he used to call home as fast as he could. He didn't even bother going in them, skipping right past the crumbling building to instead flee to the tree in the back. The tree that belonged to Larry. Their tree.
He skidded to a halt at the bottom, panting, it being difficult to breath under the mask but unable to remove it because of his bound hands. He had no way to climb up to the treehouse. He was pacing towards it, trying to figure out what to do, when he felt something squish under his foot. He looked down to see none other than the investigator on the ground, dead.
“HOLY FUCK-” He stumbled back, before oh so elegantly falling onto his rear in the grass.
“Yeah, he kinda fell outta the tree when he saw me.”
Sal's eyes widened and they looked up, to see none other than… Larry. Except… “You're dead.” He breathed out.
Larry gave a small sad smile. “Yeah, afraid so Sally Face.” He looked older than the last time they'd seen each other, enough that he must have lived at least a year or two past graduation before his death. He was taller, go figure, with scruff lining his jaw, and his eyes looked pale and whited out, but there was no denying it was him. “Dude you look like a mess.” He said, eyeing him over.
Sal glanced down at himself, his cuffed hands, orange suit and the ends of his mangled hair. He was sure he did look like a mess. “Yeah.”
Larry reached down and helped pull him up, Sal was unsure it'd work considering his ghostly state but surprisingly it did. He had to guess some ghosts could manifest more physically than others… Todd would have found that fascinating. “I can't believe they put you in jail dude… for murder of all things.”
Sal shrugged. “I have the mask for it.”
For a moment, there was a grin on Larry's face and it suddenly felt like they were way back when. When they were just teenagers investigating ghost stories they shouldn't have gotten involved in and getting confused over their emotions. For a moment, everything felt fine. But of course it couldn't last. Not when Sal was still cuffed and Larry stood a dead man before him.
Larry frowned, expression turning serious. “Sally, he's back.”
Sal could feel his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. He meant the demon. Which meant… “I have to help fight him…”
Larry pressed his lips together, nodding slowly. “I know we thought we killed him before but… No, he's the reason the ghosts still can't leave.” His frown deepened. “I think he's the one who set you up too. With the murder?”
Sal grimaced, gaze falling to the ground. To think something he thought he'd finished off as a teenager would come back to ruin him as an adult… He shut his eyes tightly, hands shaking in Larry's grasp. “Dammit…”
Larry frowned at his friend, someone he hadn't seen in so many years yet still cared about so deeply. “Sally… Sally Face, hey.” He tried to get his attention, cupping his hands around the two he had in his grasp. “Sal, listen to me.”
That made him look up, eyes a mix of scared and regretful. “Larry…”
Larry frowned, before lifting Sal's fingers to lightly kiss them. “I believe in you, okay? I'm not leaving you through any of this.”
Sal shuddered, but nodded. He shifted forward, unable to actually hug Larry so instead he pressed his face into his shoulder and tried to calm down. He knew he could do this, he'd done it before, he could do it again… He took a deep breath, flexing the fingers that had been kissed.
He just needed to stay calm and remember his hug and three kisses.