Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1) Stims (Autistic!Kobra)

2) Meltdowns (Autistic!Party)

3) Going Non-Verbal (Autistic!Jet)

4) Social Difficulties (Autistic!Ghoul)

5) Growing Up with Autism in the City (Autistic!Kobra and Allistic!Party)

Chapter Text

There are a limited number of stim toys in the desert. Show Pony can cobble together a fidget spinner from bits of scrap from engines and the like, but they're stiff to move and quickly fall apart. Long hair is good for twirling around your finger, but it only goes so far to remove the need for something to fiddle with.

Kobra Kid uses neither of these. His favourite stim is the one thing in the Zones that is both abundant and free- sand. The rest of the Fabulous Four often wake up to find Kobra kneeling outside in the dirt, just running the fine powder through his fingers and humming softly. Other times, he puts a handful of sand in a cup, covers it with a piece of fabric and shakes it, shushing his friends so he can hear it rattle around.

When he finally grows tired of the sand, he sometimes plays with Jet Star's hair. Kobra's boyfriend doesn't mind it at all when he suddenly feels fingers running through his tight ringlets as Kobra teases out the curls and gently pulls at the little springs to watch them bounce back when he lets go. Actually, Jet likes it. It makes Kobra happy, so it makes him happy too. Whenever Kobra is overwhelmed and rocking to soothe himself, Jet sits next to him and just turns his face away. Kobra knows what he means without either of them having to speak. It's okay, Jet's saying. I love you. I got you.

Actually, all the boys make an effort to make Kobra comfortable. Party Poison lets his brother take his jacket and lay it on top of his blanket at night to act as a weight stim, not caring that it means that he's left shivering in the winter nights. Fun Ghoul trades anything and everything for marbles to add to Kobra's collection, which he keeps in a tub in the back of the Trans-Am. Whenever the colour and sound of Killjoy life becomes too much for him, he goes and sits on his own in the backseat of the car and rolls the cool spheres slowly across his palms, carefully taking in the sensation of glass on skin. Even the Girl, who is too young to properly understand why Kobra is different in the way that he is, whittles pieces of wood from the palm trees until they're completely smooth to the touch and gives them to him with a hopeful grin on her face. Kobra always stoops to give her a hug before putting the wood on the top of the rapidly growing pile of similar shards, which he carefully keeps in his small bag of personal belongings.

Kobra is different, but nobody minds. As long as he's happy, it doesn't matter if he becomes withdrawn or fixated with particular objects. He's still their Kobra.

Chapter Text

A laser bullet grazed Party Poison's shoulder and they dropped to the ground with a hiss, nursing their arm for a few seconds before leaping back up and twisting around to fire at their assailant. The Drac fell to the floor and the zap from their gun reverberated around Party's skull, making their temples ache. They glanced around for more Dracs and saw Fun Ghoul and Jet Star grappling with a pair of them in the distance. Picking up their mask from where it had fallen next to their feet, they sprinted in their direction, shakily aiming their gun as they did so.

Kobra was shoved by his Drac so that there was a distance of about a foot between them, and that was all the invitation Party needed to fire a bullet into the centre of the Drac's chest. It howled loudly as it went down, and the sound seared into Party, making them screw up their eyes in pain. They were aware of Kobra yelling at them, something about Jet and backup and his gun, but Party couldn't focus on the words he was saying over the noise of his voice and the zaps in the distance from Jet's gun. They were suddenly hyper-aware of the sand running over their skin, catching in their hair and on their clothes, making them itch. They fell to their knees and put their hands to their head, trying desperately to block out everything around them. They were just beginning to catch their breath when Kobra grabbed their arm, forcing them to look up as he shouted at them frantically.

Suddenly, Party was screaming, rolling on the ground and clutching at the sides of their head, trying to squirm out of the grip that Kobra had long since released. They couldn't see, couldn't feel, couldn't hear anything other than their hysterical shrieking and their fingers in their hair. They could feel that they were kicking around, contorting away from some unknown terror, but they couldn't seem to make themself stop.

At that moment, Party would have been very happy to die.

After what could have been a minute or an hour of wailing and squirming, Party began to hear another familiar voice. Concentrating hard, they found themself able to pick up what it was saying.

"It's okay Party, it's okay. We've got you now. This is all going to stop soon, and we'll go somewhere nice and quiet for you to calm down. I'm not going to let anything hurt you, I promise." The voice was quiet and soft, and Party found themself reaching towards its source, forcing their eyes open.

"Ghoulie?" they asked softly, making grabby hands at the other Killjoy's jacket. Ghoul shuffled closer and let Party run their fingertips over his hair, the fabric of his jacket and his shirt, eventually latching on, anchoring Party to the ground.

"Hey, sweetness," Ghoul whispered, leaning closer. "You're doing so well, I'm so proud of you. It's all okay now."

"Ghoul, you were s'posed to wait in the car... y'leg, it could-"

"Don't worry about me, baby," Ghoul smiled softly. "I waited until the fight was over to come check on you, and I didn't run." Kobra raised an eyebrow at Ghoul, who turned a delicate shade of pink. "Okay, maybe that was a lie. But I ran carefully. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"T'ank you, Ghoulie. I love you," Party rasped, their voice spent from screaming.

"I love you too, sweetheart. 'm never gonna let you go."

Kobra and Jet ambled back to the Trans Am while Party and Ghoul clung to each other and Ghoul whispered sweet comforts to Party. Eventually, they walked slowly back to the car, Party holding Ghoul's hand so hard that their knuckles turned white.

Ghoul was right- it would all be okay in the end.