Chapter Text
“So, I will tell you how this game works and you just join in! Promise it is fun fun fun!!”
Remus bounced on his spot, slightly jumping off the floor as he did so. His body was wiggling in his excitement and the whole imagination seemed to wobble with him. Like some Jell-o (TM), the walls were shaking as if having been poked before by a hungry, curious child and their fork which has a high level of stabbyness.
Casper looked at him, his heart-shaped freckles slightly glowing. It was dull yet still present. His eyes with irises just like his freckles, stared at his best friend with a quizzical look in his loving orbs.
Attachment did not always understand the other sides but usually, he would understand Remus a bit better compared to especially Logan or Deceit.
“Is it a new game? I thought we wanted to go adventuring!”
He pointed at the pink little sword he had with him. His heart swelled in pride when he looked at the precious little stabbing machine Remus had gifted him. It was baby pink like the broken heart on his shirt.
“The imagination does not look like a dragon cave and we wanted to ride dragons today!”, he argued, his voice dipping into a little pout, “Why would you want to play something different? Dragons are cool.”
He lowered his voice, mouth sealing itself at once as Remus’ excitement dropped off his mustache for just a moment.
Casper was Attachment, a rather complex side. He did not deal well with any sort of deception. Remus, more than any other side, knew about this. The pink side brushed over his wrist, his fingers gliding over the numerous friendship bracelets adorning it, They all corresponded to certain sides Casper had befriended. He pressed his lips together as if to absorb the offensive words he had just pronounced. With a deep breath, he felt the anxiety rising within him slowly being smothered the more he rubbed over the different bracelets.
The Duke was already by his side, popping up at once and snuggling up to his side.
“You will love it, I promise! I know you really want to ride dragons but I can be your dragon and you can ride me during the game!”
Remus leaped into the floor, suddenly disappearing into a green cloud of smoke which quickly faded into a transparent fog brushing over the ground. It gave way to the tall set of scales coming from Remus, the dragon.
He was dressed in charcoal and grass scales, his wings spreading as he crawled over the floor to his friend, his nose getting into his face and nudging Casper’s human nose.
“Play with me?~”
The soft, playful wink in his intonation let a smile appear on Casper’s face, turning the unhappy lips into a content curve.
“I can ride you?”
Remus giggled, a bit of anthracite smoke escaping his large muzzle. He has always had a bit of a big mouth but as a dragon, it was even more evident just how big it was. Like the loyal friend he was, he flexed his back and lowered onto his crooked legs.
His whole form was barely bigger than his usual human form which made it easier for Casper to swing himself onto his back and snuggle up, his cheeks soon lit up in excitement and warmth.
Remus responding to him and accepting him and his boundaries was a nice thing. The “dark side” of Creativity was never too superior or good to play with Casper. He would never degrade his friends or judge him for his personality.
“Remus! Remus! I am tall!”, he giggled.
The taller friend joined in, giggling himself as the younger side held onto him by wrapping his arms around his neck for stability.
“Listen, Casper, we will fly and you fuel my flight with your bad words!”
Before Casper could react, maybe even object, Remus roared like a lion, his sudden outburst deafening and silencing at the same time. He hopped up a bit before falling into the floor which was suddenly gone in favour of a huge blackness that swallowed the two friends up.
The pink side tightened his grasp around the dragon’s gargantuan neck, carefully sliding closer to even let his legs wrap around the dragon.
“REEEEE!”
They were free falling, the loud sound of the whistling air swooshing past them accompanying their sudden journey.
Below them, a kingdom of greens and white stretched out. Cloud-like mountains towered over the valley while green plants wrapped around the landscape greedily, readily. A river, turquoise like the gem and sparkling like Casper’s heart-freckles.
Back to the two sides, Casper was till screeching the life out of his throat while Remus was giggling, cheering and howling in happiness.
“CAS, THIS IS AMAZING!”
Attachment hugged his neck closer, his grip tighter than chains.
“THIS IS SCARY! THIS IS SCARY!!”, he screeched, although he could not deny the rush of adrenaline tickling his imaginary veins.
He was basically glued to the dragon, still screeching at the still ongoing fall while the queer laughter from Remus filled the air.
It was then that he remembered what his best friend had told him when they had started their fun time together.
..cursing?
“Ree,... Ree, this is really dumb of you...?”
His swearing sounded like a question, unsteady and subtle like his long lashes compared to the curly mess of hair on his head.
While he was barely audible, Remus came to a sudden halt, so unexpectedly, that Cas got tossed into the air. His body was twisting and turning in the sudden free... flight? It was not a fall but it was certainly just as terrifying to his poor little heart shrinking in his contracting chest.
“REE! REE!”
Casper squeaked in terror, his fear of survival taking over and making him emit sounds rivalling the squeals of excited mice.
To his relief, the dragon was trustworthy and loyal as always and shot up to catch the little boy on his scaled back.
“Ree!”
Casper hugged his friend who immediately giggled out once more.
“Got’cha, bra!”
The pink side lost all his fear.
“What is a bra?”
Remus contemplated for a moment before simply conjuring a sports bra to show him. The downside of his impulsive action was demonstrated by the physical phenomenon called “gravity” which quickly sucked the piece of clothing down to the ground.
The dragon shrugged his arms. His shoulders were kind of busy, what were you thinking?
“Anyway, you is a bra! Now curse at me or I will not fly any further! Your bad words are my fuel!”
Casper blinked at the comment but nodded softly.
“Okay. Well, then”, he huffed in spite, his lips twitching into a defiant pout, “be prepared for a big workout for your wings because I know a lot of words for meanies!”
Remus flapped his wings at a sharp angle, waiting for his bestest friend of all the times to start whenever he was ready.
He was ready. He was clearing his throat, letting go off the neck at last and leaning back to loosen up a bit. The pink side shook his arms a bit and stretched his legs before he was all straightened up and sitting cross-legged on his friend.
“Alright. Here we go.”
Casper closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his mouth already opened to let the first word slip out. It danced on his tongue before stumbling down his lips and accidentally falling out of his mouth.
“Poophead”
Silence.
A blush started to burn onto his cheeks, leaving him with a pinkish tint to play veil for his freckles.
“Butt!”, he said, a bit more pressure behind his words.
Remus was still silent but his muzzle curves the slightest bit into something akin to a smile.
“Assbutt!, ah, um..”, Attachment continued, his words getting louder and sounding more like an insult, a judgement rather than a question or suggestion, “stuck-up idiot! Prussy!”
A laughter pushed itself out of Remus, immediately shooting out along with a few delicate flames in red and green.
Shweeeeesh!
The fire quickly dispersed, unlike his giggles. Remus started curling up on the air, his back arching and flexing enough to make Casper shift back to his neck and hold onto it for comfort and support.
“Cas- wihihihihi”, Remus started but broke off at soon as the first syllable left his mouth. The dragon wiggled his wings every few flaps, letting them excitedly and rapidly flapflapflap in sync to his happy giggles.
“This is not a word, Casper! I will teach you the real one!”
Remus crooked his neck enough to look back at his friend, his tongue slipping out a bit.
Slowly, he opened it and let his tongue roll out before he let his features twitch in exaggeration. This was him teaching the other just how to pronounce these delicacy of the English language properly.
“Pris-sy.”
Casper nodded, carefully forming his mouth in imitation of whatever the apple Remus had just done to move his. To say he was a bit confused and overwhelmed was an understatement but as promised, he was riding a dragon. Even if he was in a situation he would have never even dreamed of - despite being the closest friend to Remus out of all the other sides.
“Prithy”
He blinked innocently. His mouth went from slightly agape back to closed with a simple and dull “plop”.
The dark side snickered and pushed his head against Casper’s for a moment, softly nudging his friend for encouragement.
“Exczalente!”, he praised softly.
Remus could see the pinkish tint return to his cheeks, he could notice the little hearts glowing. The wide smile on his lips pushed little dimples into his cheeks.
“Now, continue with me: Pus-sy. Piss. Prick.”
Casper continued as instructed while Remus flew them to a nearby mountain to land on.
“Say them again but with anger!”
Doubt brushed over his face but only for a moment before kissing Casper’s sensitive skin goodbye.
Anger? Sounded... sounded like something he did not want to have, sounded like something Patton and Virgil would not like. Not that they really approved of him being around Remus a lot anyway.
His heart seemed to shrink painfully at the realisation.
“I mean it, Cas, you need to go out there and yell a bit and let the frustration out or you will get very bad thoughts like Thomas got when he repressed me!”
Remus nudged him again with his head before flapping his wings one more time and finally returning to his regular and more “human”-looking body.
“If you never let out that sneaky, meanie side of yours, you might end up like a real boogieman instead.”
His voice turned more shrill and obscene than before and something about the second-to-last word made Casper shiver. There was so much more behind this than Remus directly said but he knew it, he understood it.
Nodding, he carefully climbed off Ree’s back and patted his clothing.
The mostly champagne pink shirt was covered in bits of dirt. Wearing clothings of lighter colours usually equated in being dirty in no time. Casper knew that from experience but also because Patton told him a lot when he came to him, being dirty and soiled like the kid he was.
When he got up, he looked around a bit, looking into the abyss surrounding them. Being on a mountain was really just a really long and lonely hill. You could even call it acute. He knew that word from Logan! It was a fancy one.
Casper looked down, taking in the view of clouds surrounding them not too far away. If Remus had been a bit higher, they could have flown through some of them.
A dash of remorse hit him just to be quickly blown away by the breezy of determination.
Remus had said that his mean words would fuel him... if he said a lot of things, maybe that would be enough to get them to the clouds!
The pink side turned around and ran up to his tall friend-man!
“Ree!!!”, he squeaked softly as he cuddled up to his side. The excitement was quite literally written in his face - not the literal Logan would use but still! - since his pretty hearts started glowing again, making his heart-shaped irises stand out just a bit more, “If I curse really well, can we go and fly through clouds? They look so fluffy and I never touched them! I really really wanna touch one and maybe bite into one? They look delicious..”
He started rambling, a slightly quieter monologue on how soft and comfortable these squishy things would have to be - or were they beings? If they were beings, could they move? COULD HE RID A CLOUD?! Holy, maybe he and Ree could share one and they could cuddle when riding a funny cloud and have a lot of fun and poke other clouds and tell them that they are really pretty and make sad days happy again! Especially on these days when time was like an old, wet gum and he would not know what to feel or do until he would see the happy shapes of all these clouds parading for him. Did clouds actually parade?
Remus caught him mid-thought and -sentence and carefully ruffled his hair. Just a moment after this, Casper could not breathe really well because the mustache monkey got down to his level to squeeze him and hug him a lot and Casper squealed with the last bit of oxygen in his lungs to express his happy feelings.
“Wiii!!! We can? We can!!”
Remus suddenly put his friend up onto his shoulders and patted his back, a happy smile on his face. He was so smiley, the pink side was sure he smiled more and more... more genuinely than Patton did despite being a joke-y man! It was amazing but his bestest friend really was just that great!
“Watch me say scary things! They make you strong, Cas. It can help you stand up against people when they make you feel sad or angry”
Remus carefully patted his legs as if to reassure Attachment. He was not quite sure why until-
“YOU FUCKING BONELESS, SHITFACE OF USELESS HUMAN WASTE!!!”
The Duke yelled. Yelled hard.
Casper quickly hugged his neck with his legs and entangled his fingers in the curly dark and grey hair of his friend.
The mountains were still throwing away more silent versions of whatever the sugar fairy he had said before. It was an amazing “sight” to the ears and Casper could not help but stare at the wide wide canyon of green tints, crystal blues, fiery oranges, sunset purples and milky whites.
Everything before them was spread out to reflect Remus’s loud words back onto them and their ears.
It sounded powerful to still be around and haunt the mountains and howling abysses when moment after moment had passed.
When Casper took a deep breath, it felt as if he was breathing in the mean words. Maybe, in a strange way, it was fueling him and encouraging him to do as his friend demonstrated him.
His grip on the curly mess of his friend’s hair slowly eased up and he sighed.
Somehow, the yelling had even relieved him despite Casper being rather upset whenever people yell.
“M-meanie!”
His fingers found Creativity’s face and he rapidly yet gently patted his cheeks. Even if he tried to hurt someone, Casper’s punches were nothing but the sneeze of a fly.
Remus snickered and playfully tried to bite one of Casper’s rapidly moving fingers, his lips closing around the air just a sheet’s thickness away from his finger tips.
“Ree, staaaa~hp”, Casper whined under his breath. His voice was crowded by the little giggles yapping out of his lungs. The amusement made him curl around Remus’s head as if to hug it with the whole of his being.
“Reeeeeeee, don’t laugh~”
He kicked his feet slightly, a bout of energy bolting through his tiny legs.
“But you are so cyuuute when you are laughing!”
Casper blew his cheeks up in a big pout, turning his face a bit rounder than it already was. It was soft with childhood and his young innocence.
“P-PUSSY!”
Attachment drew in another deep breath.
“PRISSY!”, he shouted freely. His heart growing little wings when he pronounced the swearwords, “PRICK!”
His friend’s incredulous giggles had changed over to violent cheers by now. He was vigorously advocating for the younger side to keep going, to be louder and more mean with his words.
More and more words rolled off his tongue, his brain eagerly providing more and more words from combination and memory of actual terms.
By now, Casper’s cheeks were tinted in shades of pink to red. Even his heart-shaped freckles were shining a bit, more so than before when he expected to go adventuring with Remus! The blush on his cheeks grew darker and something in his eyes seemed to be veiled by the increasing darkness around them.
“Snakeface”, he whispered.
A tear rolled down his face but he sniffled it away and continued, in a shaky whisper “liar”.
Casper shook his head, his fingers carefully brushing over the patient cheeks and caressed them ever so slightly. His heart was aching but also resonating with the pain vibrating in his vocal chords, burning in his throat and pulling at his eyes enough to force more tears out.
Remus carefully lifted him up.
“Wanna ride into the evening?”
Oh.
Casper looked up.
For some reason, he has stared into the abyss all this time but did not notice the sun lowering enough to start and disappear just a bit behind all these large mountains.
Mountains were just twig-like giant hills, he reminded himself.
“Hey, Ree?”, he asked softly as he tapped his feet on the ground, reminding himself of what it felt like to stand and feel something grounding him physically. The pink side rested himself against his friend’s side as per usual.
A warm arm clasped around him and drew him close enough for a half hug.
“Yeah?”
Casper closed his eyes softly, a longing smile sneaking onto his lips.
“Do you think the sun wants to play hide and seek with us but is really bad at it?”
Remus smiled.
“Wanna go and find out?”
The smaller one smiled. “Eh! Yes! Of course!!! Why would you ask, I always want to do things if it is with you!”
He wrapped his arms around his friend’s arm around him and gently squeezed it before giving him the space to turn into a dragon again. He swiftly swung himself up his back and hugged him close. This time, fear did not make him grip any tighter at all.
There was comfort and love between them when the friends slowly glided into the warmth of orange hints the sun left for them.
“Tomorrow we can ride dragons together!”
Casper shook his arms immediately.
“And clouds! We need to ride clouds! Can we do that?”
Remus giggled, letting them drop a whole bunch of feet before taking a radical curve around a mountain.
“Logan would say ‘no’ but I will show you otherwise~”
Their laughter intertwined vocally and Casper stretched out his arms to try and reach for the sun’s warming rays. They were so beautifully rosy by now, just like the colour to represent him and adorn his logo.
“Anyway, my favourite word you said today was totally this ‘assbutt’ one!”
“Reee! Nuuuu!”
“Hahaha! Yesss!”