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Honestly, Luca couldn’t see why he shouldn’t.
For as long as he could remember, he’d been friends with Hugo. And he’d seen other people doing this before, so why couldn’t he try it?
Well, he thought as the elevator came to a stop and he stepped into the residence floor, he needed an opportunity to try. If he just demanded Hugo sit down so he could cuddle with him and see if that really was as comfortable as people said it would probably freak everyone out, embarrass him, and give Phym even more weird ideas. He’d already been yelled at once when he agreed with her (in the bridge, within earshot of everyone) that Ricardo smelled.
Speaking of Phym…
He glanced down at his side forlornly. He was used to having her follow him around everywhere, but at the moment she was with Claire doing… something. Girl things, Claire had hurriedly said when he’d asked, so apparently he wasn’t allowed to know.
That was pretty strange considering he grew up in a cage with girls, boys, men and women alike and knew enough about their ‘stuff’ to be able to write a book about it. Well, if he were better at writing, that is. He was okay at drawing but he had decided very early on in his life that if he ever wanted to learn to be an author he needed both books by other authors to learn from and writing materials. Considering everything but the bare necessities for survival had been seized as contraband back in Pennywort, having those things had always seemed a far-off dream.
But he’s off topic.
He’s been close with Hugo a lot. They share a bunk since there’s not enough on the sand crawler (they intend to fix that, but it hasn’t happened yet) and Luca finds that if only the bunks weren’t so small he’d enjoy it much more than he already did. His bed in the cage was made of sheet metal , after all. This was heaven in comparison, and more often than not they’d shared a bed there too.
And so it was decided. When the opportunity arose, he was just going to casually try it.
He opened the door of the boys residence, and boom: one opportunity acquired.
Hugo looked up from their card game. “Oh, Luca! You done helping Amy?”
Luca responds with a brief nod. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, just a card tournament.” Zeke shrugged. “Winner slaps the loser with one of the spoiled fish.”
“Um, what?”
Keith shrugged. “Well, so far it looks like Ricardo is going to get slapped.”
The man growls uncharacteristically, glaring at the cards in his hand. “I’m not done yet!”
“There’s no recovering from that, man.” Zeke says flippantly. “Just give it up.”
Hugo just sits there calmly with a slight confident smirk on his face, examining his own cards and clearly about to do something to upset the entire flow of the game, and…
“Lulu?” He asks. “I thought you were with Phym and Claire?”
“Claire kicked me out for trying to use that strange ‘makeup’ stuff to show Phym how to draw.” Lulu replied. Ricardo froze, put his head in his palm, and groaned.
“Makeup? What’s that?” Zeke asked.
“Who knows.” Hugo shrugs.
“It’s a form of cosmetic.” Keith replies. “Very valuable amongst women, used to make their faces look pretty.”
“But doesn’t my face look fine as it is?” Lulu asked, seeming both confused and slightly self-conscious. She reaches up to poke at her face, as though trying to judge the quality.
“Look,” Ricardo says, “You might not know this because of the environment you grew up in, but to the average woman makeup is a necessity. They won’t go out in public without wearing it, and since it’s only made in a few ports it’s expensive. They will kill over makeup, I swear.”
“...I don’t get it.” Lulu finally decides, dropping her hands.
“Neither do I.” Zeke comments, and Hugo shrugs.
“So, who’s winning?” Luca asks.
“At the moment we have a three-way tie between Hugo, Lulu and Keith.” Zeke replied. “Ricardo’s gotten the worst possible hands since the beginning so he’s pretty much in an inescapable hole.”
“Is it too late to deal me in?” He asks.
“You can play the winner.” Hugo shrugs. He scoots to the side in his chair a bit and pats the space beside him. “Come on, you can watch.”
And so Luca casually walks over to Hugo’s side, sits down, and scoots closer until he is cuddled comfortably into his side.
“...Um, Luca, what are you…”
People are right. “It’s comfortable.” He replied.
“W-well, I guess it is…” Hugo says, flustered.
“Is this an act of sabotage?” Keith gasps, aghast. “Is Luca rooting for us?”
Luca peeks at Hugo’s cards, then looks back up at Keith. “No.”
“Is it that bad for us?!” Keith cries.
Luca doesn’t respond. He doesn’t move either. It’s warm and comfortable and smells like Hugo, so he’s staying.
Hugo, seeming to get that he’s content and has no intention of going anywhere, shifts an arm over his shoulders to properly sort through his cards, having the unintended side-effect of pulling Luca closer. The white-haired boy wasn’t complaining, though, not by a longshot. Instead he adjusts to the new position and decides that cuddling is now a must. He wonders why he never thought of this before.
“Alright, time to show our cards,” Lulu announces in dread, eyes flickering to Hugo.
And so they do, and…
“Read it and weep.” Hugo lays them down.
...
“STRAIGHT ROYAL FLUSH!?” Keith screams, leaping backwards. “NO! I CALL CHEATING! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!”
“Nooooo…” Ricardo groans watching the last of his chips disappear.
“Haha! Ricardo loses! I’m safe!” Zeke smirks. “Also I just beat Lulu and Keith!”
Ricardo sighs. “Please don’t make it one of the grosser ones.”
“They’re spoiled, they’re all gross.” Keith replies bluntly. Ricardo groans.
“I think we can call Hugo the winner now, right?” Lulu asks from where she’s slumped limply over the table like she’s been stabbed through the chest, a hand gripping the imaginary wound.
“What on earth are you doing?” Claire bursts in, Phym trailing behind her. The girl’s eyes hone in on where Luca is very comfortably fit under Hugo’s arm and light up.
“Daddy!” She runs up to him.
Luca smiles brightly. “Hello, Phym. How was your time with Claire?”
“It was fun, but apparently you’re not supposed to eat make-up.”
Ricardo pales, and Lulu bursts out laughing.
Claire gives a slightly strained smile. “We found other things to do.”
Phym scampers over to Luca and Hugo, plopping herself in Luca’s lap. “What happened?”
“Hugo just destroyed them in poker.” Luca replied. “See that hand?”
“Mhm?”
“That’s the best you can get in this game.” He states. “And Hugo had it.”
“Woah!” She gasps, eyes glittering. Her eyes flicker to Ricardo’s hand. “But that one sucks.”
Ricardo sobs.
“It does, doesn’t it?” Luca agrees, and the man glares at him. Oops, am I going to get yelled at again?
Hugo looks down, raising an eyebrow. “Am I just a heater now or something?”
“Yes. Hold still.” Luca states.
The others burst out in snickers as Hugo looks around helplessly. “So I guess we’ll need to keep going and find the absolute winner.” Keith says. “Let’s reshuffle the cards and divide the chips. Luca, want in?”
He takes a moment to think, and decides against it. “I’m fine with watching.”
“Right. Then it’s a showdown… the battle to see who will slap Ricardo with a rotten fish!”
“The fish?” Claire asked. “Hilda just had those thrown out, though.”
“WHAT!?”
Ricardo slumps against the wall with a sigh of relief. “I’m saved.”
“Then what do we do as a punishment?” Keith cried.
“Um… I could lend you my makeup to draw something embarrassing on his face?” Claire asks.
“I KNEW that’s what it was for!” Lulu leaps to her feet, looking triumphant.
“It’s not though.”
Phym giggles. “They’re funny!”
“Then whoever wins gets to decide what’s drawn, and he can’t wash it off all day. Just nothing obscene.” Claire decides. “And since I’m the only one besides Hilda and Amy who can use makeup here, I’ll do the drawing.”
“Sounds good.” Zeke nods. “Alright, let’s get started!”
Luca only half pays attention to the game. Hugo keeps up his good luck while Lulu struggles to match him, Keith and Zeke falling behind now that Ricardo isn’t here to take all the bad cards.
“Daddy, why didn’t you join?”
“Because then we’d have to move.” He replied. Isn’t it obvious?
“Oh, that’s true. Uncle Hugo, why are you blushing?” Phym asks.
The other three burst out laughing. “It is sabotage!” Lulu cries. “No way that wasn’t intentional.”
“What?” Luca asked, bewildered. “What was intentional?”
They freeze.
“Oh my god you don’t know.” Ricardo says.
“He’s completely oblivious.” Lulu agrees.
“No idea.” Keith agrees.
“Man, even I’m not that dense.” Zeke comments.
“...I kind of feel bad for Hugo, but somehow jealous too…” Claire says quietly.
“ What?” Luca asks, uncomprehending and slightly hurt.
“Nevermind. Never change, Luca.” Zeke says. “You too, Phym.”
“Okay~!” The girl says, snuggling into Luca a bit. “It really is comfy…”
“Um, Luca,” Keith says, “Why did you decide to sit there?”
“I saw other people doing it and thought I’d try.” He replied.
“Well, I guess we didn’t see much of it when we were in the cell at Pennywort and you never really talk to people who aren’t us, so…” Keith sighs. “How do I say this… would you do that with someone other than Hugo? Like me or Zeke or Ricardo?”
“Ricardo smells funny.” Phym pipes up, making the man whither. A single tear strays down his face, and everyone stares at her in shock.
“...Did I just hear something really horrible?” Zeke asked.
“I… I think we did.” Lulu says. “Um, Phym, telling people something like that… it hurts their feelings.”
“Really?” She asks. “Oh.” Her whole tiny body deflates. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ricardo says, flicking the tear away with his index finger. “I’m a grown man. I can take it.”
“Ouch. This is really pathetic.” Keith says. “Oh, but back on topic, would you?”
Luca thinks about it, and it crosses his mind that he probably wouldn’t. “No. Why?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“I guess I don’t feel like it.” He shrugs. “If you want to try it so badly you have a sibling.”
“What!? No, it’s not like that! This normally carries romantic connotations!”
Strangely, Luca isn’t bothered by that.
“So?”
“Oh god Hugo do we need a fire extinguisher?” Claire asks. “I’ll go get one…”
“Fire extinguisher? Why?” And Luca looks up, and…
Oh.
Hugo’s face is flame-red, and he’s sitting rather stiffly.
“Hugo are you alright?” He asks.
“It’s because you’re doing that!” Zeke says.
“But it’s comfy.” He feels strangely like pouting at the thought of moving. He really doesn’t want to, now that he’s here and he has his two favorite people so close to him.
“And if he moves, I have to.” Phym says, curling her legs up off the ground and shifting so she’s sitting fully in Luca’s lap, cuddling into his own side and hugging him.
“Well, Hugo, you might as well get used to it.” Lulu says. “I’m rooting for you.”
“Rooting f…” Luca watches in amazement as what looks like steam comes out of his ears. “It’s not like that!”
“It certainly looks like it.”
Luca’s lost. “Are you going to play poker or what?”
They pause.
“Oh yeah, that’s what we were doing, isn’t it?” Lulu says. “Claire, want to take a seat?”
“You say that, but…” She looks around, and ultimately winds up seated on the side of Keith that Zeke isn’t in the last possible amount of space.
“Alright, with this, we’re taking Hugo down! ” Zeke roars. “Get him while he’s distracted!”
The Lulu and Keith shout in fired-up agreement, preparing to do just that.
The game drags on, and Luca becomes aware that his cute little duckling has fallen asleep. So cute…
But he understands why. This position is very warm and comfy. And his eyelids feel very heavy, and…
O
Hugo thinks he might die.
The way he feels about Luca hasn’t changed in all of the years he’s known him and Keith, Zeke, and the kids know that. Their new family members, he’s sure have also picked up on it. Luca has not , for better or worse.
Of course, it may just be because he’s very cute, very oblivious, and very shy. But apparently he likes Hugo enough to just walk up and snuggle with him .
And he doesn’t think Luca really knows what prompted that either.
This is kind of like torture.
There’s a weight on his shoulder, and he feels hair tickling his cheek. Don’t look. Don’t look…
“Alright, let’s show our cards.” Lulu says, eyes brimming in determination. “Ready, set…”
Keith has the best hand. He nearly shouts in victory, but abruptly freezes.
“Hugo.” He half-whispers. “Hugo, look.” He gestures to the shoulder Luca is leaning on, and Hugo looks down.
He’s dead. This is it. People shouldn’t be allowed to be that cute.
Phym is asleep, curled up against Luca’s chest, a happy and content smile on his face. And Luca…
Luca has also fallen asleep using Hugo as his body pillow, head resting on his shoulder, breathing steady and smiling in his sleep.
Oh god.
That’s the most adorable thing he’s ever seen. He blushes again. Now that he sees Luca, he’s more aware of it all; the warmth, the slight weight, the way Luca is smiling in complete love and adoration in his sleep without even realizing it.
It takes a moment before Hugo realizes he’s made the same smile back, and everyone is gasping like they did when Phym first talked and making those ‘it’s so cute’ noises.
“I think Hugo lost anyways.” Keith says.
And Hugo did. As soon as Luca decided it was time to try cuddling he knew this was a lost cause. At least he wasn’t in Ricardo’s place, though.
“Alright, so the finalists are Zeke, Keith, and Lulu.” Claire says. “To the winner goes this picture.”
She holds up the tablet, and Hugo is mortified to find that she snuck a picture of him smiling back at the sleeping Luca and Phym.
“Hell. Yes.” Zeke says. “Let’s do this.”
...It’s surprisingly easy, Hugo finds, to fall asleep like this after all.
O
When Luca wakes up, the poker players are gone. He blinks sleepily, ready to apologize to Hugo for making him stay, and then feels a warm breath over his hair.
He thinks he understands why Hugo was blushing now when he realizes that Hugo has laid his head down on top of Luca’s and is sleeping peacefully, but honestly he’s just overwhelmingly happy.
He has Phym and Hugo with him as close as they can get with no one there to separate them anymore, and he feels something warm rising up from a ball in his chest, making his whole body warm.
He’s never been this content in his life.
And with that, he cuddles further into Hugo and lets his eyes drift shut.
O
All is well in the world until Ricardo slams the door open, looking to find a bag to hide his face (newly adorned with clown makeup that he can’t get rid of until the day is over) and startles the trio awake.