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Hannes can hear Joakim throw things around in his room, something crashes against the wooden door that causes a loud thud, an annoyed growl and groan can be heard on the other side,
“HOW IS HE GONE?” he hears him shout,
Hannes sighs and knocks on the door, “You ok man?”
“No!” he hears him whine,
“Can I come in?” he asks,
there’s a moment of silence before Joakim answers, “…Yeah…” he sounds absolutely defeated,
Hannes nods and tries to open the door but there’s something heavy that’s making it difficult to, he forces his way in until he sees just what it is, it’s the grey-weighted blanked he bought for Joakim,
He lifts his gaze to look around his friend’s room, he sees many things in disarray, things have been thrown around in anger and annoyance,
“Woah… what happened here?” he asks him,
Joakim huffs in an annoyed manner, “Do you know where Baron is?”
“Your bear?” Hannes asks and watches Joakim nod, “No, I haven’t… isn’t he usually in your room?”
“Yes, he’s always here…!” Joakim states, “He never leaves my room! He’s only ever in here! Nowhere else!”
Hannes gently approaches Joakim and he can see just how frustrated he is, his ears are pink and so are his cheeks, it’s not out of embarrassment but rather annoyance, “Easy man… we’ll find him…” he says, “After all, how hard can it be to find a six-foot teddy bear?” he asks,
“Hard…” Joakim replies, “Trust me, I’ve tried…”
Hannes nods, “Alright well, if Baron isn’t in here then he’s probably somewhere else…” he suggests,
“No fucking way he isn’t-“ Joakim retorts,
“-He is!-“
“-How do you know-?”
“-Because if he was here we would’ve already found him…!” Hannes exclaims, and that shuts Joakim up pretty quickly, he doesn’t say anything instead huffing,
“It's ok, we’ll find him…” He reassures his friend,
“A-And what if we don’t?” he asks with a look of worry in his eyes,
“I can always buy you another one just like him…”
Joakim shakes his head, “No… I want him… not a replacement…” he declares,
Hannes nods, “Alright, we’ll find him, don’t worry… but first let’s clean things up in here before we leave… ok?” Joakim nods, and the two get hard at work at fixing Joakim’s room,
Soon, when everything is back in order Joakim takes one final look at his bed, its bedsheets are neatly made and the pillows are propped up, his weighted blanket is on top of the bedsheets, folded like he always does,
But it's missing its core component the giant huggable plush bear,
He frowns but says nothing,
Hannes places a comforting hand on his shoulder and re-assures him once again, he also indicates that they should start to look around and see if by chance Joakim had taken him out of his room without realizing,
Joakim nods as he heads out with Hannes close behind him,
Onwards begins the hunt for the fabled bear!
Joakim is sitting down on the living room couch, his hand is on his face and it's covering his look of anguish and frustration,
Hannes is sitting next to him, he sighs and rubs Joakim’s back in a loving manner,
“We did the best we could, you’ll just have to sleep without h-“
“-Don’t you dare say that to me!” Joakim hisses as he slams his hands down onto his thighs in frustration, hitting himself,
“I said I would buy you anoth-“
“-I don’t need another! I want him!-“
“-But he’s not here-“
“-I know-!”
“-So, what’re you going to do then, huh?” Hannes asks,
Joakim sits there for a moment, as he quietly contemplates his decisions,
Finally, he comes to a compromise,
“I’m not going to sleep then!” he declares,
Hannes rolls his eyes, “Oh, don’t be ridiculous Joakim, you can’t just sleep because your teddy bear isn’t beside you!”
“Oh, Fuck off…!” Joakim retorts,
“Hey, language…!” Hannes says,
“I’m a fully-grown man who can do whatever the hell he pleases!” He states,
“Then by that logic, you should be able to go to sleep! Joakim- look, man, you have the weighted blanket Pär bought you! If we lost Baron I can just replace him, It doesn’t bother me-!”
Joakim groans, “-But it does bother me!”
“Why?”
Joakim’s mouth hangs open, “Please tell me that you’re joking, please…”
Hannes just sits there staring at him, not saying anything,
“I-“ Joakim groans, “H-Hannes, look, I need Baron by my side to sleep- with just the weighted blanket I don’t feel safe, I-I-I just don’t…”
Hannes sighs, “But why?” he asks,
Joakim begins to tear up, “B-B-Because o-of my past, Hannes! That’s why! I-“ he stops speaking as he feels his throat tighten up, he coughs to clear it, “W-W-Without him I can see their eyes, Hannes, their cold dead eyes staring back at me, I-I can feel myself being sucked back to that day where I was supposed to fucking die, but I didn’t…” he finally says, stopping before he makes himself cry in front of his friend,
And it finally dawns on him just what Joakim has said, he bites his lip, “S-Shit, I-I’m sorry J-“ as he reaches over to comfort Joakim he flinches away from him and his touch,
“-Don’t touch me…” he hisses out with as much venom as he could muster, he knows that Joakim’s upset at how he was talked to as if he was a petulant child,
His feelings are very clearly hurt and just when he gets up to leave is when Pär comes in,
Immediately Pär spots Joakim, he looks tense and very upset at something and immediately his fatherly nature kicks in,
“Woah, Woah, wait-“ he says as he approaches the two, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Joakim doesn’t say anything instead he walks away to sulk in his room,
Pär allows him to leave as he knows that it's better he'd be left to his own devices than to upset him further, he turns his attention to Hannes and gives him the look of a scolding father,
“What did you do?” he questions and watches as Hannes sinks in on himself, ashamed of himself and his actions,
“I-I upset him…”
He frowns deeply, “Go on…”
“I forgot why Joakim needs Baron, his bear, to sleep with… because of his past, and how he had his first death…” he explains,
Pär sighs, “Jesus Christ, Hannes…” he rubs his face with his hands, clearly disappointed in him,
Hannes doesn’t say anything else,
“You know what?” Pär begins, “You’ve done your fair share of damage today, why don’t you go sleep and then apologize to him in the morning, alright? Tommy’s already asleep so please be quiet… I’ll go talk to him…” he says before walking off to go find Joakim,
Hannes sighs but nods never the less, he follows behind Pär to then go his separate way to his room,
Pär goes over to the door of Joakim’s room and knocks on it,
No reply,
He tries again and then hears a muffled groan,
“Go away Hannes!” he hears him call out,
Pär chuckles, “It’s me, Pär” to which he hears no reply,
“Look, I’m coming inside either way, alright?”
Still no reply,
He sighs and he opens his door, he finds that the lights off, save for the lamp on Joakim’s nightstand, the aforementioned man is under his bedsheets sulking,
Pär approaches him and sits on the edge of the bed, he lightly rubs Joakim’s leg through the bedsheets, “I spoke with Hannes…”
An annoyed groan is heard underneath the blankets,
“He’ll want to speak to you in the morning-“
“-For what?” comes the muffled reply,
“To apologize…”
No reply follows,
“Also… what happened to Baron? I don’t see him…” he says as he looks around the room, finally noticing the bear’s absence,
He hears Joakim stifle what sounds like an upset noise,
“…he’s gone…” comes the reply, he sounds worn out and upset,
“Gone?” Pär asks and sees the blanket shuffle, he thinks it’s a nod,
Pär hums in thought for a moment, “It's ok… he’ll turn up…”
“That’s what he said…” Joakim replies,
Pär sighs, “How about I go search for him, ok? But you have to promise me that you’ll try and go to sleep… ok?”
At that there’s movement, Joakim shifts around until he’s moved the blankets off of his form, he’s face to face with Pär and he looks to be crying,
Pär frowns, he knows just how much Baron means to him and how his absence upsets his best friend,
Pär shuffles closer and he wipes away at his tears, “Easy… there’s no need to cry…” he tries to reassure his friend,
“…He’s gone and I’m never getting him back, aren’t I…?” he says,
Pär shakes his head, “You know that’s not true…”
Joakim doesn’t say anything and just lays there staring at him,
“Look, you rest and I’ll go find him, ok? Besides, I think Chris is still awake so he can help me out…ok?” he suggests to him,
Joakim sighs, “I doubt you’ll be able to find him…”
Pär stifles a chuckle, “Joakim Brodén, I’m a one-thousand-year-old Viking, you think I don’t know how to track something down?” he says, at an attempt to get him to laugh,
But all he manages from him is a half-hearted smile before it quickly disappears, “…Maybe…” is all he replies with, Pär can tell there are tears creeping and threatening to come out, so he gently wipes Joakim’s eyes,
He watches them spill and wipes those away as well, he plants a loving kiss on his forehead, “Try and go to sleep Joakim, I’ll find Baron for you… ok?” he says and Joakim nods,
“Good…” he says as he shuts off the lamp from the bedside table,
Quietly he leaves the room and lets him rest,
Pär then descends the stairs and goes to find Chris, he is his first and only hunch as to the bear’s whereabouts,
He finally finds him in the study room, at the far end of the base doing what looks like research on something, “Chris?” Pär speaks up,
Chris lifts his head from his work, “Hm?”
“Joakim’s looking for his bear, the big one, you know where it is?” he asks him, hoping he knows,
Chris nods, “Yeah actually, I forgot to tell him but I had taken it to clean downstairs in the basement, I heard Joakim accidentally got him dirty and wanted to do him a favor… do you think to go fetch it?” he explains,
Pär happily sighs, “Gladly-“ before he leaves he turns back to Chris, “-One more thing…”
“Yeah?”
“Next time, please tell him what you’re going to do, especially if it involves the bear and his weighted blanket, he loves those two, alright?” he asks him,
And watches as Chris nods, he then takes his leave from the room,
His next destination?
The basement!
Upon arriving, he flicks on the light switch and he walks off to where the washing and drying machines should be, he opens the drying machine and lo’-and-behold!
Baron!
Baron the Bear!
He smiles and grabs the large bear, he notices that its zipper on its back is undone, indicating that Chris must’ve removed the electronic heart,
He looks around for it until he spots the large red plastic heart,
He grabs it and turns it on, hearing the machinery roar to life as its begins beating in his hands, it feels similar to what an actual heart should with the beating,
He smiles and slips it inside of Baron, once it’s in position, he closes the zipper,
He also notices how lovely Baron smells,
He takes another deep whiff of the Bear’s scent and immediately picks up on what the smell is,
Lavender,
He’s heard that Lavender is well known for being extremely calming and that makes Pär smile,
He quickly picks up the large bear and hauls ass, his next destination? Joakim’s bedroom,
He hopes that when he opens the door that he’ll find Joakim fast asleep instead of still awake,
He takes a deep breath and slowly opens the door,
It’s very quiet and dark, all he hears is the sounds of Joakim’s soft breathing,
He nods and very quietly makes his way to him, slowly his eyes adjust to the darkness around him,
When he’s finally close enough to Joakim, he’s able to tell with his adjusted eyes that Joakim is fast asleep,
He looks to be frowning and Pär silently hopes it’s not a potential nightmare,
Carefully he lowers Baron to Joakim and then let’s go,
Which is a great thing! Because as soon as he does Joakim seems to unconsciously recognize that someone is with him as he wraps his arms around Baron, he takes a deep breath as he settles back down with his missing companion,
Pär smiles at his friend who is in a deep slumber,
He hopes that this will give him the comfort that he was so dearly missing,
Quietly he begins to leave his room, making sure to not make any accidental noises on his way out,
When he finally reaches the exit, he closes the door behind him and sighs,
He’s exhausted and decides to head on over to his room for some well-deserved rest,
After all, he can deal with everything in the morning…
Joakim slowly begins to stir, he’s waking up and he can feel that he’s holding something soft,
His hand caresses what it is as his tired mind tries to piece together what it could be,
When suddenly his eyes widen up in surprise,
“Baron?!” he quietly exclaims, still tired as he looks at the bear in front of him,
Its sewn-on smile and warm presence greets him as always, and Joakim lets out a sound of pure delight as he squeezes it tightly,
The sound of its familiar heartbeat grounds him and brings him to safety,
He can also smell lavender on him and it makes him smile,
“…Welcome home, Baron!” he mutters to his friend as he holds him close,
Suddenly there’s a knock at his door, he jumps in surprise and turns to it, wondering who it could be,
“…Joakim? It’s Hannes… c-can we talk? I want to apologize…” He can hear Hannes’ voice on the other side and he sighs,
He doesn’t know if it was Hannes who found Baron or not, but he supposes that he should at least let him apologize for how he conducted himself yesterday,
“…Yeah, come in…” he calls out and watches as the door opens…
When Pär finally wakes up in his warm bed, he stretches his arms and legs, feeling the joints loudly pop, it’s a satisfying sound that brings him joy,
He lays there for a moment looking up at his ceiling and sighs, basking in the morning glow,
For half a second he considers going back to sleep until his mind flashes the face of Joakim being sad at him,
‘I should go check up on him…’ he thinks to himself and nods,
He stretches once more and sits up, he looks over to his clothes and sighs,
Once he’s dressed he makes his way out of his room and over to Joakim’s, as he approaches his friend’s door he can hear two voices talking, he stops to listen,
“…What do you mean you didn’t bring me, Baron?”
“I didn’t!”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know a pause, “But I’m glad he’s back… b-by the way, you’re not mad at me, are you?”
There’s a pause,
“No, I’m not…”
“You sure?”
There’s a laugh,
“Yes! I’m sure!”
The conversation makes Pär smile, thank god, his boys are no longer upset at each other and on top of that, it seems that they’ve made up and Hannes has apologized,
That’s good!
He knocks on the door, “It’s Pär, can I come in?”
“Yes!” answers Joakim and he opens the door, stepping inside and closing the door behind him,
“Glad you two are awake and happy…” He comments and watches as they both smile at him, he approaches them and sits on the bed next to Hannes,
“Yeah” Hannes nods, “I just apologized to Joakim, so we’re all good…” he states,
Joakim nods, as he confirms what Hannes has just said,
Pär smiles, “That’s good to hear…”
There’s a moment of brief silence before Joakim speaks up, “…Hey Pär?”
“Yeah?”
“…Did you bring Baron here? To my room, I mean…?” he asks,
Pär nods, “I did…”
Joakim beams happily, “Thank you!”
He chuckles, “No problem… now, how do you two feel about breakfast with bacon and eggs?”
He watches as both boys’ mouths begin to water at the delicious image in their heads, they eagerly nod at him,
He laughs, “Alright then! the last one downstairs is a rotten egg!” he exclaims as he then runs out of the room, with Hannes quickly follows close behind him,
“H-Hey!” Exclaims Joakim to throws the blankets off of him, he abandons his dear friend Baron on his bed as his stomach growls for the delicious good morning breakfast, he quickly chases after them….