Work Text:
Ink wasn’t exactly sure how they had ended up in this predicament.
Well, that wasn’t true, he did know how they ended up here, the middle bits were just hazy.
It was a mutually beneficial decision, to all live together in the same house he meant. Ink, and a younger boy in his digital art class named Template, were offered, as the top students in the class, a chance to go finish their degree overseas.
Ink loved to travel, and so did Template, but for both of them the thought of leaving their boyfriends behind was unbearable. Even if it was only for another year or two. That problem was dashed to the wind, however, when Error told him that he was eligible for a similar program at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Ink, who was also given the option to continue his degree there, jumped on the opportunity. With him followed Template, and Pale followed close after that. Pale wasn’t in school anyway, so he would only have to find a new job for the year.
For Ink and Template, it was incredibly flattering that their significant others were willing to drop everything and go if it made them happy. This impromptu move, however, gave raise to a much more pressing problem for a group of University age students.
Where the fuck were they supposed to live?
Error, ever the wiz with his computer, had lucked out and managed to find a small house in the area, still about thirty minutes from the campus, that was decently priced…
If they had two other roommates.
Ink, barely even thinking about the possible outcomes of inviting two, basically children, to live with them, had extended the offer to Template and Pale. Template had accepted almost immediately, and Pale promised they would do what was expected and help pay rent.
So…yeah.
That was exactly how they ended up in this predicament; in a different country, going to a different school, and all having to share a house. A relatively small one at that.
“It’s quaint.” Template had pointed out. “Small rustic houses are cute.”
Ink had to agree. He’d always wanted a porch, and the drive to the house had been beautifully scenic. He made a mental note to get Error to promise to take him back out into the countryside once they were all settled in so he could paint some of the landscape.
They unloaded the few things they had brought with them, the house was bought furnished, and wandered into what would be their home for the next two years.
The house had an open floor plan, which both Ink and Error appreciated greatly, with the living room to their immediate right giving way to the kitchen. It was a cosy space, with a bay window looking out over the front lawn and one looking out over the small backyard. Ink had a vivid image of a dozen or so plants scattered over the windowsill by the kitchen and softly coloured flowers blooming in the backyard behind that. There was, however, something very wrong with the space.
“Eyugh!” Template made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat, glancing around the living room and kitchen. “Who does that?!”
Ink was painfully aware of exactly what Template was talking about. The living room was painted a sickly shade of yellow, almost brown, which would have been bad enough on its own, but the kitchen portion of the open space was painted a green that Ink could only compare to vomit.
“We’ll fix it.” Ink whispered to Template, trying to not catch the attention of the other two. “We just…have to buy paint first.”
“Eh, could be worse.” Pale said.
“How?!” Template asked him. “It literally looks like someone ate a bad burrito an-“
“It’s just paint.” Error grouched. “Drama queen.”
Ink, more often than not during the trip, had to play mediator between his unofficial child and the love of his life.
“He has a point, Ruru…” Ink said. “But! You did a lovely job finding a house for us~.” He slid his hand into Error’s and gave it a squeeze, leaning over to peck a kiss to his cheek.
“Yeah, yeah.” Error said. “Let’s just get our stuff unpacked.”
~
The house, because it was on the small side, only had two bedrooms, but since they were split into two couples, Ink didn’t see that as a problem. Even as the younger couple flushed adorably and Pale excused himself to go get dinner for them all with Error. The upstairs consisted of only a bedroom, a bathroom, and a linen closet, while the other bedroom and bathroom were downstairs, along with the kitchen, living room, and laundry room. Ink had relinquished the upstairs bedroom to Template and Pale, if only because he and Error had some pretty bad habitual insomnia and he sometimes sleepwalked.
Ink sighed as he unpacked his and Error’s clothes, not letting himself dwell on the unsettling whiteness of his room as he put them away into a dresser to the left of their bed.
“Ink!” Template called from upstairs, immediately followed by the thumping of his footfalls and then the bangs of something much heavier hitting the steps of the staircase. Struck by a moment of concern, Ink left the bedroom and had only just made it out into the hallway when Template almost crashed into him, looking frazzled with his glasses slightly askew. He grabbed Ink by the arm and dragged him towards the staircase, grinning widely. “You have to see this!”
“Did you just fall down the stairs?!” Ink said, concern intensifying.
“Yup.” Template said with a nod. “I’m fine though!”
Ink shook his head in exasperation, beginning to feel like Template falling down the stairs would be a recurring thing, but followed the younger up the stairs anyway. They came to a short hallway and turned into the room on the right. Template’s bedroom was the same shade of white as Ink’s own and in various stages of disarray. The bed had been pulled the slightest bit to the left and away from the wall, and a small door that had been partially hidden behind the bed was exposed. Ink was suddenly thankful he hadn’t picked this room for himself and Error, he had a feeling his boyfriend would feel incredibly uncomfortable.
“So, I was just checking out the room and I found this door thing.” Template explained, already crouching down next to it. “And of course, I decided to check it out and…” He reached into the crawlspace, upper half of his body momentarily disappearing before he reappeared with two large paint cans in his hands. “Look!”
“Paint!” Ink said. Template nodded, passing off the two cans he was currently holding to Ink.
“There’s a lot of them in here, but I’m not sure what colours they are since the labels were torn off.” Template said. “Or if they’ve been in here long enough to be potentially toxic haha…”
Ink, wanting to open the cans and take a look, decided against that when he realised the bedroom floor was carpeted. He didn’t have much of an issue with paint stains, Error on the other hand…
“Let’s take some of these downstairs and crack ‘em open!” Ink suggested.
Collectively, they brought eight cans of paint, three trays, and one slightly rusted roller brush downstairs and spread them out over the hardwood floor. Some of the colours they uncovered were surprisingly beautiful, save for the ones that the living area was currently painted in. A rich chocolate brown, a pale green and a darker green, a vibrant orange, a dark purple, a navy blue, and a pale shade of pink and yellow.
With the paints uncovered, Ink and Template took a step back and examined the room.
“We’ll have to move the furniture…” Template said. Ink nodded, furrowing his brows in concentration as he tried to see the room in colours besides the ones it was painted in. The pale pink was lovely, but something told him that Error wouldn’t like it. Then there was the brown…
“Ah!” Ink said, an idea springing to life inside his head. “I know!”
“Know what?” Template asked.
Ink threw an arm around the younger’s shoulders. “Picture this! Earthy tones in the living room, I’m talking deep brown walls with accenting furniture and curtains, leading into a cream or light-grey coloured kitchen complete with accents of green.”
Template blinked, slowly nodded his head as he caught Ink’s vision. “Are we talking…subtle accents of green in the kitchen? Or like…vines and flowers?”
Ink thought for a moment. The image of their kitchen walls speckled with curling vines and soft shaded flowers entered his mind and took root, and suddenly Ink couldn’t envision their kitchen looking like anything else.
“I like the way you think, Temp!” Ink said. “Lets go with that second option.” Template flushed a little under the praise and shifted on his feet as Ink made his way towards the couch. “Alright. Help me move this stuff so we can get started!”
~
Either they had made surprisingly quick progress, or their boyfriends had gotten lost trying to find a McDonald’s.
The base coats for both the living room and the kitchen were done, the windows open to let the paint fumes out, and Ink and Template had parted momentarily to finish unpacking. When they had returned to the kitchen and living room, the sun had begun to set, and they had to turn on the lights. Error and Pale had been out for a while, and both Ink and Template were starting to grow concerned. Ink distracted himself by beginning the second coat of brown paint in the living room, and Template pulled out his phone to send Pale a text.
Bumbled_bee: Hey are you guys alive out there?
Pale had picked his username and it still made him feel a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance, but his boyfriend had so happily pointed out that it was pretty true. “Cute and harmless,” Pale had said, “but clumsy and all over the place. Just like you.”
watrfeelings: We’re good. Error just got lost like three times
watrfeelings: the roads here are weird
watrfeelings: didn’t mean to scare you
Template felt a surge of warmth go through him at Pale’s texts and folded his legs underneath him to sit cross-legged on the kitchen floor, grinning helplessly all the while.
Bumbled_bee: I wasn’t scared!
Bumbled_bee: Just concerned
watrfeelings: we’re fine. We’ll be back in like 30 mins
watrfeelings: but if you can’t wait that long to see me, I can tell Error to speed up
Bumbled_bee: Stop making fun of me!
watrfeelings: never
Bumbled_bee: whatever. I’ll see you in a bit then
Bumbled_bee: my chicken nuggets better not be cold
watrfeelings: as you wish your highness
Template pocketed his phone and resisted the urge to curl up into a little ball in the middle of the kitchen. Instead, he stood up and portioning out small bits of the dark green paint into small Styrofoam bowls. Combining them with various bits of white and black until he had an array of green shades spread across the counter top.
“I just talked to Pale.” Template announced. “He said they should be home in about half an hour.”
Ink wiped the sweat from his brow, unconsciously smearing a bit of brown paint over his forehead, and smiled. “Good! I was starting to get worried, and hungry.”
Template nodded and picked up his paintbrush. He studied the half-obscured wall to his left for a moment and dipped his paintbrush into the medium green, grabbing the bowl and bringing it along with him to the wall. Slowly, stroke by careful stroke, he began painting an array of twisting green vines across the wall.
~
Error wasn’t really sure what to expect upon returning to the house about three hours later than originally planned, but it wasn’t this.
To be fair, he should have expected it.
He and Pale entered the house to find the living room furniture scattered around and the walls painted a dark brown. The kitchen itself, where the two artists currently were, was painted in an artistic array of green vines and soft coloured flowers. Ink sat on the kitchen floor, back facing him as he painted the wide curling petals of a flower that took up a good portion of the wall, and Template was perched on the counter top, eyes narrowed as he precisely shaded away at a leaf. Error sighed as Ink turned around, clothes and face splattered in different colours of paint, and staggered to his feet.
“Welcome home!” Ink said, rushing over to free Error’s hands of the bags and kiss him lightly on the cheek.
“It’s a welcome alright.” Error groaned and Pale let out an impressed sounding whistle. To be fair to Ink and Template, it was a vast improvement to the previous colours, but still. Ink placed the takeout bags down on the untouched kitchen table, which was a surprise for Error, and began unpacking the food.
“You don’t like it?” Template asked from where he still crouched on the kitchen counter. Pale crossed the room to him.
“He’s fine.” Ink said. “Glitchy just doesn’t like unexpected change, that’s all.” Error, who had followed him over to the table, took the burger from Ink’s outstretched hand and frowned.
“Hey!” Error whined and Ink let out a giggle, pecking his boyfriend on the lips.
“You know I love you.”
Behind them, there came a yelp from the kitchen and Ink whirled around to see Pale holding Template, bridal style, in his arms. Template was blushing brightly, hands clinging tightly to Pale’s shoulders.
“A little warning would be nice next time!” Template said, voice pitching in embarrassment.
“Oh, ‘next time’?” Pale said, leaning in and nuzzling Template’s cheek. “So, you want there to be a ‘next time’?”
Template let out a string of intelligible words and pushed Pale’s face away from him. Ink inwardly ‘aww’d.
“You’re embarrassing me! Cut it out!” Template cried. “And put me down, my food is getting cold!” Pale laughed a little, still a rare sound for Ink, but complied and placed Template gently back on his feet. Ink turned back to Error, smiling.
“They’re so cute.” Ink whispered. “Why don’t you ever do stuff like that?”
Error raised an eyebrow, mouth already stuffed with food. “Did you want me to pick you up?”
Ink snickered and placed a kiss on the tip of Error’s nose. “I’m just teasing, Ruru.”
All together, they sat down around the table and ate their first meal in their new house, and Ink thought, as he watched Error and Template argue if honey mustard was better than barbecue sauce, maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t such a bad choice after all.
That maybe, just maybe, this could be the start of something absolutely wonderful.