Chapter Text
As Giovanni, Molly and Sylvie drove away from the restaurant Giovanni was frantically fiddling with their phone. “I said call mom dangit!” The phone replied in its usual monotone robotic voice. “Calling Molly.” Giovanni shrieked in anger. “No! I said call mom! Ugh, worthless piece of...” They trailed off, quickly remembering Molly and Sylvie where in the passenger and back seats respectively. Calming themself, Giovanni handed the phone to Molly. “Beartrap? Do you think you could call my mom, I kinda have to focus on the road for a sec, just gimme the phone when you’ve got it.” Molly shrugged. “No problem boss, and you don’t have to restrain yourself from swearing in front of me... my dad does it all the time anyway.” She added the last part in a disappointed tone. Giovanni patted her shoulder assuringly. “Nonsense, you need good role models and besides it’s a bad habit to be in.” Sylvie chimed in, having been otherwise quiet since the trio got in the car. “Well if you ask me, it’s pretty undignified to go around swearing anyway.” Giovanni sighed as they merged onto the freeway. “I didn’t really ask, but noted.”
Molly put Giovanni’s phone back into its holder and pressed the speaker phone button since their hands were busy. “Thanks Beartrap.” The phone rang for a few seconds before Giovanni’s mom finally picked up. “Hey mom, I wanted to check in with you before I did anything, but is it okay if I have a few friends over from the villain meeting?” Giovanni’s mom seemed to think about it for a few seconds before responding. “Alright I guess so, but don’t let that Car Crash kid drive the car! His aunt said he is specifically not allowed to drive anything he isn’t heavily insured for.” Giovanni made a face. “Mom! You’re on speaker! if he was in the car right now that would have been very rude!” Molly and Sylvie glanced at each other nervously as Giovanni continued the increasingly loud conversation with their mom. “Anyway though I’m just bringing over Beartrap and Pink Sheep, we were gonna do craft stuff and maybe play some video games” Sylvie almost interjected at his new nickname but Molly shushed him. “Well That sounds good, anyway when you get here I’m gonna take the car and go for my spin class, I’ll be back around six, love you!” Giovanni reached for the button to hang up as they muttered. “Yeah, love you too mom, bye.”
As soon as the call was over Sylvie almost jumped out of his seat, or at least as much as his safety belt would allow. “Since when is my name Pink Sheep!?” Giovanni shrugged and gave a small smile. “Sorry I just needed to think of a name quick and it was fitting, you have pink hair and you summon sheep.” Sylvie sat back down and pouted. “Yeah I guess, I just want something cooler as a villain name if I’m gonna have one, maybe something like The Psychologist!” Molly shook her head and Giovanni removed a hand from the wheel to give a thumbs down to the suggestion. Putting their hand back on the wheel Giovanni explained. “That’s literally your job dude, also psychologists aren’t even really that menacing, except for maybe telling you about your childhood trauma or something.” Molly raised her hand. “Ooh I’ve got a good one! How about Doctor Nightmare!” Giovanni high fived her. “Nice Beartrap!” Sylvie grinned. “Yes! That’s an awesome villain name!” He quickly regained his composure, blushing a bit at his outburst. “I mean, y’know, if I’m gonna lean into doing the whole villain thing with you guys anyway.”
As Giovanni got off the freeway Molly changed the subject. “So where is your house anyway? We’ve been driving for awhile now.” Giovanni pointed in the general direction of a nice looking neighborhood. “Over there somewhere, it’s on La Minestra street, we’ll be there in a sec.” As they pulled up to the house Molly and Sylvie were surprised at how nice it was. Sylvie spoke up. “Wait, if you and your mom are sharing a car how do you have such a nice house?!” The trio got out of the car as Giovanni searched for their keys. “We’re not sharing a car so much as I think my mom thinks I’m not responsible enough to have one yet, but yeah. Also you should see the alimony payments my mom gets.” Molly just shrugged as she and Sylvie waited for Giovanni to unlock the door. As they walked in Giovanni shouted. “Hey mom! We’re back! Cars outside! Have fun at spin class!” A short, thin woman ran down the stairs in workout clothes, clearly eager to get to her spin class. “Okay! Bye Gio! I’m heading out now, have fun with your friends!” She shouted as she ran out the door.
“You guys can sit down, I’m gonna run upstairs and get my crafting stuff, I just got the coolest shimmery pink fabric the other day and I have plans for it!” Giovanni ran upstairs leaving Molly and Sylvie quietly sitting on the couch. Sylvie was the first to break the silence while they waited. “So uh, did you like the restaurant Molly?” Molly nodded. “Yeah it was fine, it was nice to get out a bit. I still can’t believe you ordered a burger, but yeah.” Sylvie chose to ignore the last part of her comment so as to avoid unfortunate implications. “So what do you and Giovanni usually do during these ‘craft parties’ anyway?” He said finger quoting. Molly pulled out her sewing kit and smiled. “Usually we work on our projects and talk, and also sometimes we play video games, I’m getting pretty good at Splatoon now since that’s Giovanni’s favorite.” Sylvie pouted. “The video games sound fun but I’m not really very crafty or artsy so I’m not sure what I’ll really be doing for this.” Molly reached a hand out to put on his shoulder. “That’s the whole fun of craft stuff! You don’t have to be good at it, you just have to have fun! Me and Giovanni can definitely help you find a craft that suits you.” Sylvie smiled, not because he felt reassured so much as because he appreciated Molly’s attempt at comforting him.
Giovanni could be heard thumping down the stairs, their combat boots loudly clunking against each step. They stumbled into the room and dumped several yards of fabric and balls of yarn onto the coffee table in front of the sofa. Sylvie raised an eyebrow. “How much of this stuff do you even have? This must be like your whole stash.” Giovanni mocked looking around nervously in an exaggerated way before retaking their usual composure. “This isn’t even half my fabric stash, I have a whole closet of the stuff upstairs.” Molly pulled out her sewing kit. “So what are you working on today boss? I’m gonna be reupholstering some teddy bears that my dad made some... unfortunate fabric choices on.” She gestured to some stuffed bears next to her backpack that seemed to have been sewn with car seat upholstery rather than fabric. “That’s cool, Beartrap, I’m gonna be working on a super awesome cosplay! Me and my boys are gonna be cosplaying Tokyo Mew Mew at Sweet Jazz Comic Con next month! Naturally I’ll be Ichigo since she’s the team leader.” Giovanni carefully pulled a not quite finished pink dress out from under their fabric stash to show off to their friends. “Wow, that’s really accurate actually, you even got the red lace edging right.” Giovanni grinned. “Thanks Sylvie, it’s nice to have the opinion of another Mew Mew fan.”
Giovanni set the dress back down on the coffee table before another thought popped into their head. “Hey Sylvie what were you gonna do? Me and Beartrap both have projects we’re working on but you didn’t bring anything.” Molly spoke up before Sylvie could answer. “Actually we were just talking about that, I might have an idea.” Molly pulled out her phone and quickly searched for some tutorials on finger knitting. “You’re good with wool textiles right? Maybe you could try this out?” Molly handed Sylvie her phone which displayed a relatively simple looking tutorial. “Alright, I guess it can’t hurt to try.” Sylvie picked up a ball of mint green yarn from Giovanni’s stash and twirled it around his fingers. Before he knew it he had already managed to do a few rows that were coming along nicely. “Wow, that’s really neat actually, not to mention the relaxation benefits this could have, I should definitely recommend this to some of my patients with anxiety.” Molly smiled. “I knew you’d get the hang of it!”
Giovanni looked up from the stitching they were doing on their cosplay. “Y’know Sylvie, you don’t have to be thinking about your job all the time, I mean have you had any opportunities to just be a kid since you started your job... college... medical school, come to think of it, did you graduate high school at like five or something?” Sylvie put a hand to his chest and grinned in his usual self assured way. “Actually I was ten, and I was valedictorian of both my high school and college graduating classes!” Giovanni and Molly both blinked in surprise. “Wow, I actually feel a little bad for you now, didn’t you have any time to have fun and be a kid at all?” Molly chimed in. “Yeah at least I had some fun times before everything went to pieces.” Sylvie looked down and bit on his nail, clearly having a difficult time finding any memories like that. “First of all I’m not a kid, but, my parents pushed me into all this stuff when I was little... and I didn’t get much of a say in the matter, now that I have an income and my own place I don’t really talk to them much anymore. I mean I love my studies and my career but sometimes I do kinda wish...” Giovanni walked over and patted Sylvie’s shoulder. “Hey, anytime you wanna get away from your job or whatever I’ll be here for you dude.” Sylvie gave a small smile. “Thanks Giovanni.” Molly came over and pulled them both in for a hug. “Group hug!”
Giovanni broke from the hug and grabbed Sylvie’s phone off the table. Opening the camera app, they rejoined the hug and held out the phone. “Smile!” The trio gave their most earnest smiles as the shutter sound effect went off. Giovanni handed the phone back to Sylvie. “Here, now you’ve got a memory from today to remind you that me and Beartrap are gonna be here for you when you need us!” Sylvie happily accepted his phone. “Thanks guys, I guess I really needed this.” The trio slowly got back to crafting their respective projects. Molly overlaid the fabric on her teddy bears with some lovely rainbow tie dye fabric. Giovanni was able to almost completely finish their cosplay outfit even with its extra accessories. Sylvie, despite being new to crafting was even able to finish a pastel green arm warmer and felt very proud of himself at the accomplishment. The time seemed to fly by and before the trio knew it Giovanni’s mom was back and it was time for them to go home.
Sylvie showed off his arm warmer to Molly as they headed to the car. “It looks cool right?! Only really cool edgy people wear arm warmers!” Molly nodded feeling quite satisfied with herself for introducing Sylvie to this hobby. Molly called out into the house “You ready to head out Giovanni?” They shouted back from upstairs. “Yeah! Just lemme grab my bag and we can head out.” Molly and Sylvie headed for the car and opened the door, she flipped the seat forward so Sylvie could get in the back and then flipped it back so she could sit in the front. Molly turned towards the back after sitting down. “Hey I hope you had a good time today, I’ll call you tomorrow and maybe we can pick out some yarn to put in your office.” Sylvie smiled back at her as he bucked his seat belt. “Thanks I’d like that, you know you should still come in for a session, it sounds like you could really use it.” Molly sighed as she buckled her own belt. “I know but right now I just wanna try to forget everything upsetting and enjoy my time off, you understand right?” Sylvie nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
Giovanni hopped into the car and tossed their bag in the backseat next to Sylvie. “Alright everyone! Get your seatbelts on we have a ways to go before both of you get home!” Giovanni stuck a cassette tape in the player and took off. It wasn’t long before they got off the freeway in the arts district. “Alright Beartrap this is your stop, try to go to bed early tonight! it’s a school night!” Molly unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. “Okay, I’ll try!” She waved as Giovanni’s car drove away, somewhat dreading the fact that her shift was about to start. The ride to Sylvie’s place didn’t take as long as they expected thanks to Giovanni breaking the speed limit at numerous points just to see if they could. “Okay Sylvie, here’s your place, and try to actually relax once in awhile, nerd.” Sylvie rolled his eyes at the last part but appreciated the sentiment nonetheless. “Thanks Giovanni, you’re a good friend, even if I don’t always act like it.” Sylvie got out and watched Giovanni’s car disappear around the corner feeling just a little bit more confident in himself and his friendships as he searched for his keys.