Chapter Text
Benrey poked his head around the corner. “Yo.”
Gordon quit pacing and whipped his head around. “ What? ”
“Dude, were you just walking around in circles? You lost or somethin’?”
“No, I’m fucking- stressed! ”
He stepped all the way into the room now. “You don’t got anything to stress about, dude.”
Fists clenched, he bit back a scream. “ Yes, I do!”
“What? Bro- bro, what’s wrong?”
“ You, for starters!”
“I didn’t- I didn’t do anything, man, you’re-”
“Don’t-”
“You’re the one who fucking, decided you can walk into everywhere without proper I.D. You see me goin’ in a loop-de-loop over it?”
He pressed his hands against his face before tossing them down. “Why are you like this?”
“Calm down.”
“ You- ” Gordon quickly shut up as a stream of sweet voice flew into his mouth.
Benrey clamped a hand over his own mouth a bit too late when he finally noticed the light was rather, well… green. “... Uh…”
While he did seem a bit less tense, it was clearly more to make room for being dazed than anything else. “Whuh… What?”
“Huh?”
“What’d you want me to do, exactly?”
Benrey tried to think back on other times he’d given someone that much green and came up short. “... Could you just snap out of it? Is that- can we do that, please?”
Gordon stepped forward, grabbing onto his shoulders with something unreadable in his eyes. “No, please, I need to do something for you, man, I can’t-”
“Dude, relax, you-” Just like that, he relaxed, leaning most of his body weight (and his body in general, for that matter) against Benrey in an instant. “How- how’re you being such a dick right now, man? I thought green time was not-mean time. Kinda fucked up, that you’re like this.”
He blinked at him, face mere inches away. “Mm?”
That… had no business being as adorable as it was. “ Uhhh. ” Prying Gordon’s hands off him, Benrey maneuvered him over to a nearby wall. “Here, just… sit. Chill out for a second.”
Gordon did so without hesitation, basically falling with his back against the wall. “Now what?”
The way he was looking up at him nearly made Benrey’s heart flutter, but it also made him very uneasy. “Now, uh… now you… wait right there for a sec, kay? ‘m gonna be right back.” He poked his head back in one more time before leaving. “And sit a more comfortable way, damn. Gonna make your legs allll… sleepy, like that. Idiot.”
Quieter than a mouse, he walked back to where they were all supposed to be sleeping. Rather than figure out the best way to step around the scientists on the floor, he cupped his hands around his mouth before whispering, “Yo, Tommyyy. ”
Coomer, closer to the door than the others, was the one to stir instead. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes. “Hm?”
“Shit, sorry, dude, I just need- gotta borrow Tommy for a sec. Go-”
“Tommy, Benrey needs you for something!” he said incomprehensibly loud, causing everyone else in the room to jump.
Bubby rubbed at his poor, poor ears. “Oh my god- ”
Benrey buried his face in his hands. “Cool, cool, cool, cool-”
Coomer just smiled, pleased as punch. “Not a problem!”
Stretching his arms over his head, Tommy watched as Benrey stepped around the other two in a hurry. “What- what’s happening?”
He offered his hand, Tommy pulling himself up with it without even needing to think about it. “Just- follow me, please.”
Back in that smaller room away from it all, Tommy waved at Gordon, who now had his legs folded towards his chest, as opposed to jammed underneath him at haphazard angles. “Hi, Mr. Freeman!” When all he got back was a few blinks and a faint wiggle, he finally took his other hand out of Benrey’s, if only to plant both of them on his hips. “Is it- is this the green? Like- a lot of green?”
Groaning, Benrey ran his hands down his face. “Bro, I didn’t… I was trying to do the blue. Dude was real wound up.” He shot Gordon a look over his fingertips. “What- what’re you just, not gonna say hi back to him? Huh? Dick?”
“Hi, Tommy.”
“Hi!”
“Hi.”
“Can I- uhm-” Benrey smacked his lips as he thought his words over. “You do a lot more- actively knowing things about the sweet voice. Can I make it wear off faster? Don’t feel great about this. Feel kinda, really bad, honestly.”
Tommy tapped his chin. “Mmm… have you tried telling him to snap out of it? That- that’s usually how it works in the movies.”
“Yeah, he just- he got all weird about it. Dunno why.”
“‘Cause if I don’t do literally everything in my power to do whatever you want right away my mind will actually tear itself apart,” Gordon chimed in from the floor.
“... Huh? ”
“Uhhh… that sounds really fucked up, I think.”
Benrey placed a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “I don’t… wanna think about it too much right now.” After a moment, he squinted. “Hold up.” He walked a little closer to Gordon. “But- but the thing I want is for you to stop being like this? Why don’t you just, uh- do that? ”
He grabbed Benrey’s leg, still wobbling as he grimaced up at him. “I don’t get to decide how your funny brain lights work, Benrey.”
“Woahp- okay, ” he let out before awkwardly prying Gordon off of him. “Stop- stop doing that, bro. It’s weird. Thought I was supposed to be the one that freaks you out, huh.”
With a huff, he sat back against the wall again. “Okay.”
“Wh- wow, damn, you’re… you’re pretty sassy for a hypnotized person, aren’tcha?”
“... I guess…?”
Tommy scratched the back of his neck. “Uhm… I think you might just have to roll with it ‘til it goes away on its own. That was kind of the only idea I had.”
“... Shit, alright.” He patted Tommy on the shoulder. “You go back to bed, man, I’ll, uh… I can take it from here. Thanks.”
“Are you sure? You seem really uncomfortable about… literally every aspect of- just, this whole situation.”
“Oh, totally, but… y’know. Sleep’s important and shit. For you.”
“Well… okay.” Before he left, he stopped to wave one more time. “Good night, Mr. Freeman!”
Slowly, Benrey turned back around. “Sooo…” He came and sat down right next to Gordon, still jarred by the total lack of protests. (Personal space never seemed to be a huge deal with him, but there was still the whole… Benrey aspect. Supposedly.) “You, uh… mind giving me a quick rundown of what had you so bent outta shape before?”
For the briefest moment, his eyebrows ever so slightly furrowed together. “There’s… a lot. I’ve had a lot of shit on my mind since all this started. Sometimes it’s just too much to think about.”
“Why don’t you- I mean. Uhmmm. Ever tried not thinking about it?”
“... No?”
Okay. Okay. Choosing his words more carefully does seem to work. Now to… keep not making this weird, he hopes. “Well… don’t- don’t tell future you I said this, but your worrying’s kinda the main thing that always keeps us makin’ progress, so… you’re gonna have to think about it again after this shit wears off, sorry. But, uh…” He turned his head to the side, only a little surprised to find Gordon already staring at him. “Go ahead. Stop thinking ‘bout all that stuff.”
As he let the thoughts in question go, something rippled through him, making him feel from his jaw all the way out to every edge of himself a depth of relaxation that, if he’d ever felt it before at all, had to have been far too long ago. “... Mhm.”
“How’s, uh… How’s that feel?”
“Feels pretty nice, actually. Like…” Like he’d just aged backwards. Like he could float away at any second like some forgotten balloon and he wouldn’t even care. Like if he closed his eyes, when he opened them again, this whole fucked up world would’ve turned out to have just been a bad dream. “I dunno. Brain’s off. But it’s good.”
Benrey was still really not sure how to feel. “Is that. Y’know, what you’d say if you weren’t… like this?”
“Oh, absolutely. ”
All he could muster was a nod. “Cool… cool.” While he thought of what to do next, the floor started to seem pretty interesting. “Am I, uh… allowed to hug you?”
“You’re allowed to do whatever you want, man.”
Benrey smacked the heel of his palm against his forehead. “No- no, I mean- like, if normal you found out, you think he’d be mad?”
Gordon shook his head, his whole body swaying along with the motion. “Not… not with what you’re doin’, no.”
“... Alright, uh…” Scooting himself around a bit, Benrey pulled him close, his heart hammering when Gordon returned the gesture, collapsing into the hug. Gently patting the back of his head earned him a content sigh. He carefully undid Gordon’s ponytail, hair tie joining several more hidden just under his sleeve. As he ran a hand through his hair, he struggled to keep in a burst of pink sweet voice at the way he nuzzled into his shoulder. “Is- how’s this feel?”
“‘s good.”
“Wouldja usually say that?”
“... Not out loud, but- please don’t stop.”
His fingers faltered, caught on a rough knot of hair. “... Whuh?”
“Lotta things I wouldn’t say out loud.”
“I- okay, cool, let’s- let’s not get into whatever that means rn.”
“Alright.”
He brushed Gordon’s hair a while longer, feeling like any wrong move could cross boundary after boundary, but still wanting to let him savor whatever good this did him. After a while, a little bit after his hair was finally tangle-free, he went for gently holding the back of his head instead. “Okay, status. Gimme your stats.”
“I’ve literally never felt this good before in my life.”
“... Yeah?”
He turned his head against his shoulder to almost be able to look at Benrey’s face. “Mhm.”
“Uhhh…” He nudged Gordon’s head around to not be in such an awkward position. “Do you, like…”
“I do like.”
“Uh- cool, not what I was gonna say, kinda rude.”
“Sorry.”
“S’cool, man.” Hands on his shoulders, he moved Gordon upright. “Tell me what else you need right now, please?”
“... Sleep? Yeah… yeah, sleep would be good.”
Benrey nodded. “Sweet.”
Mind pleasantly foggy, Gordon blinked his eyes open to the rest of the science team standing over him, as usual. “Mornin’, guys.”
“Hello, Gordon!”
“Yeah, hey. How’s-” He squinted as his brain finally woke up enough for basic math. “Wait. Where’s Benrey?”
“Sup.”
A string of nonsense noise coming out his mouth, he scrambled away and saw the comforts his brain didn’t even think to notice before were, in fact, Benrey. With one bent arm acting as a pillow. And the other wrapped around Gordon’s waist moments ago. Spooning him. “Je sus- ”
“You sleep good, man?”
“I-” When his mind caught up with him, he stopped. “... Actually? Yeah. I did.”
Benrey started nonchalantly picking his nose. “Sick.”
“What the fuck did-”
He stuck his free hand out, wrist on display. “Hair tie?”
Gordon froze, clapping a hand on the back of his neck to find his hair flowing loose (and remarkably not unkempt- very kempt hair). “... Thanks,” he muttered before taking a strangely familiar looking one.
“No problem.”
Coomer leaned around to better look at Gordon. “This is all very tender, Gordon, but we should probably get a move on.”
“Yeah, this feels kinda weird,” Bubby added.
With his ponytail back in, Gordon stretched, but found his whole body weirdly… not in need of stretches. “Yeah- yeah, you guys go on ahead. I think me and Benrey might need a second.”
“If we come back for you two and you’re making out, I’m going to lose my marbles.”
“We won’t.”
“... Are you sure?”
“I’m- dude. Bubby. ”
Hands up, he started backing out of the room. “Alright, if you say so…”
As all the rest of them shuffled out, Tommy shot a silent thumbs up at Benrey. When their footsteps started getting further away, Gordon turned to face Benrey fully. “So.”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“I- I’ve got no idea what the fuck you did last night, but-”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it, bro.”
“ Shut up, let me finish- But, it… it kinda feels like somebody ran a defrag on my brain or something. And it’s pretty nice. So- yeah. Yeah, just this once, I am gonna not worry about it.”
Benrey’s lips moved halfway towards a smile. “That’s cool.”
“If I find out you did anything freaky, though, I will hurt you.”
“‘s fine. Didn’t do nothin’.”
“... Okay. Just… just gonna take your word for it.” He stood up with a grunt. “We should probably go catch up with the others. I don’t want ‘em actually thinking we started making out or something.”
“Why not?”
“You know exactly why.”
“No I don’t.”
“ Yes, you do.”
“Nuh- uh. ”
He threw his hands in the air as he turned towards the door. “Alright, I’m leaving now. Follow or don’t.”
“Feel like you already know which one I’m gonna be doing.”
He’s right- Gordon doesn’t even need to turn around to know Benrey’s stood up and trailing behind him. But he can’t seem to bring himself to be annoyed this time. “Course. Course you would.”
“Betcha wouldn’t have it any other way, huh?”
“Not even justifying that with a response.”
“That- that’s sorta a response, dude.”
“... Please be quiet.”
“Well, since you asked so nicely...”