Work Text:
“You ever think we fucked up?” J0hn said, from his perch on the hood of Larry’s pink Cadillac. The city lights glowed down the steep hill, their orange tint blotting out the stars. Larry swung a leg over the metal guardrail on the side of the road. Was he comfortable? He didn’t look comfortable . J0hn was half-sure Larry was about to start picking up pebbles and throwing them at the cars on the highway exit, a couple hundred feet down.
“Hm? I mean, I’m kind of a fuck up,” Larry laughed, as if the whole thing was a point of pride. J0hn abandoned his ginger ale and bag of drive-thru fries on the dashboard.
He puts his arm on Larry’s.
[[He remembered, once, when it had all just happened. When he was scared and confused on the floor of Larry’s apartment, called over at three am. Larry’s skin had felt wet and cold and not at all solid. He had been dimly aware, on the bathroom floor those years ago, that he also didn’t feel the same. His arms weren’t the same warm, soft arms as when he met Larry. He was metal, that night on the floor. He was also cold. His chest rose and fell, and with every exhale forced air out through vents between his mechanical ribs.]]
Were they fuck ups?
Larry’s arm was solid and warm under his hand, now. He’d gotten a grasp on the whole shape shifting thing, and J0hn was more than okay with being an android. He’d gotten used to it. Adjusted. It had its perks.
[[It was still weird, to think about how jarring it was back then. When he’d asked Larry if he could call anyone for help, Larry kept saying no. J0hn knew his stuff, sure, but medical stuff wasn’t his area, and he wasn’t sure there was a first aid protocol for helping your boyfriend into bed when he was the consistency of upset Jello.]]
“Maybe it isn’t a bad thing,” J0hn mused, in the present, “Not living up to potential. Getting to fuck up.”
“Not living up to potential? Dude, I’m all about that, but also we like, have a lab,” Larry balked, picking up a handful of roadside pebbles. He didn’t throw them far enough to be a hazard, but the two watched them tumble out of sight down the hill nonetheless.
“That is a little impressive, yeah,” J0hn considered, sitting down on the rail. It wasn’t comfortable, as he’d expected, “What? You’re looking at me funny.”
“Nothing,” Larry said, smiling at J0hn’s resulting sigh.
“Spit it out,” he raised the eyebrows of his holographic faceplate.
“What, the fries I stole from you earlier? I mean, I don’t know if I can do that ,” Larry antagonized, but in a way that was familiar. It was comfortable.
“You’re doing it again,” J0hn said, “You’re looking at me with the extra eyes.” Even when he was a human, J0hn had never been good at reading people. He didn’t have a lot of friends. Oh well . He’d learned to read Larry’s quirks, and it helped that they were pretty distinctive.
“If it’s a crime to get a good look at you, take me to jail, like, years ago,” Larry grinned, causing the eyes on his cheeks to squint, “I mean, it’s dark, more eyes help.”
“I don’t have that problem,” J0hn teased. Ah, what a joy to have a visor instead of eyes. He had equipped it with some infrared capabilities a while back, much to the worry of Dan.
[[“It’s fine!” He’d said to Dan, taking out screws in his face, “It’s just like building a PC!” This did not convince Dan. This, perhaps, had worried him more.]]
Regardless, that infrared sight was great for seeing in the dark. Though, not so great sometimes. It could get… overwhelming, like noise in his vision. Thank god for his sensory issues that he could just, like, shut off his infrared. That was a plus to being part machine, if anything. Not that it solved all of those sorts of issues, of course-
“You’re thinking,” Larry leaned towards him, giving him a poke (of course with the hand that was dusty from picking up road pebbles).
“I am,” J0hn nodded. He almost added a, ‘ you should try it sometime ’ as a joke, but Larry knew what he was about to say and grinned.
“I dare you to say it,” the smile was evident in his voice, and even in the dark of night J0hn couldn’t help but think Larry looked like the sun.
“It’s too late now,” J0hn rolled his eyes on his visor, the pixels scattering.
“Where’s that Cones impulsivity now?”
“Fine, fine,” J0hn leaned towards him, “ ‘You should try it sometime’, happy?”
“Very,” if J0hn weren’t completely and hopelessly in love with Larry, he’d think his smug grin was infuriating. But unfortunately for him, the shapeshifter’s smile melted his heart.
[[“Can I?” Larry had asked him once, on the couch of his apartment. They were ignoring a movie on TV, and J0hn was scrolling through his phone. They were having a good time though. It was like… how cats hung out. His idea of socialization was sometimes just, being in the same room.
“Can you what?” J0hn looked up from his phone to see if Larry was making any sort of expression that would explain. Nope, nothing particularly telling there.
“Touch your eyes.”
“What- What kind of a question is that?” J0hn squawked, blinking.
“I mean, like, you can feel through your visor,” Larry sputtered, trying to explain, “But it’s not like if you touched one of my eyes.”
“I mean no, not really,” J0hn confirmed, “But- I mean, sure.”
Larry’s smugness almost made him groan.
“Don’t make me regret it,” he reminded, lightly. Larry unceremoniously poked him in the eye, then drew back quickly.
“Dude! You didn’t even blink!” Larry made it sound like this was some amazing discovery. He was practically hovering over J0hn, but he couldn’t find himself minding.
“What did you expect?” He laughed.]]
It was that same smile, he thought. It was crooked, bright, and obnoxious just like Larry was. Endearingly so.
“God, you’re cute,” he shook his head to scatter his thoughts, causing his hair to flop over. J0hn leaned to rest his head on Larry’s shoulder. The angle was awkward at best, given that the rail wasn’t exactly a good spot to sit to start with. His neck was going to hurt in a couple minutes. A shifting came from under his head, and Larry tossed more rocks down the slope.
“Oh, so now’s a good time to tell you I finished your soda?” He put his hand- the one dirty from rocks, again - in J0hn’s hair.
“You- I’m gonna kick your ass,” there wasn’t any malice- or motion, even- with J0hn’s words, but Larry still tossed his hands up in surrender.
“We’ll stop by the gas station and get some more.”
“We’re getting gummy sharks,” J0hn insisted.
“Well, obviously .”
[[The Dennys is all but abandoned at 10pm, but it certainly doesn’t sound like it. Dadandorf apologized again to a small group of weary waitstaff while the rest of Team Cones wreaked havoc, as usual. The Guy is doubled over in the back of the booth, the counter on his chest confusedly glitching. Apparently, “pancake” counted… partially? Powerfrog patted him on the back and passed him his inhaler.
Hamburger Helper is halfway through ordering for the team when Larry decided he should be the one ordering for everyone. The ensuing passive-aggressive bout made J0hn sigh and turn back to his milkshake. It’s… very one sided. Eventually, Hamburger let Larry order until he inevitably messed up Gremlin’s order, and then he took over again. Larry sunk into his chair muttering, and J0hn kicked at his feet under the table.
“What?” He said.
“Come on,” J0hn made Gremlin and Powerfrog move so he could get up, and waved for Larry to follow him.
“This is like, low-level Cones shit,” Larry complained as J0hn refilled his water cup with soda at the fountain.
“Listen,” J0hn passed his cup to Larry, “If you want to be the one to try to get up to shit a couple weeks outta’ surgery, be my guest. Anyway, I’m gonna see if I can rig the speakers. The booth next to the bathroom has a divider, you can boost me up over there.”
“Dude, I don’t want your stitches to come out,” Larry started drinking his boyfriend’s soda before he noticed.
“It’s fine, they’re on my chest so it’s not like,” J0hn gestured, “In the way.”
“You can barely keep your arms above your head,” Larry took another long sip, waiting for him to notice.
“Hey!” J0hn snatched his soda back, “You’re refilling this again. Wait, no. I’ll do it.”
“Good call. I was gonna do Sprite Cranberry with A&W.” J0hn scoffed.
“You wouldn’t have.”
“I would!”
Behind them, Genfour is tapping away at their phone. Probably texting Matrimony Knight. Team Charm was meeting tonight, too. Not at Denny’s, of course. Apparently Charm liked to go to the roller derby. It was Rights’ idea.
The lucario puts down their phone and slips a twenty into one of the wait staff’s aprons without them noticing. Ah, so the tipping game had begun. It started as a frantic way to apologize for all of the problems they always caused, but turned into a form of chaos on its own.
“Four is gonna’ win tipping at this rate,” J0hn nudged his boyfriend in the ribs.
“I gotta save a few bucks so we can stop by to get your gummy sharks.”
“Dude, babe,” J0hn laughed, sliding back into his spot, “We don’t need to get them.”
“You’re getting your gummy sharks, and I’m getting my peach rings,” Larry said, matter of factly.]]
The tradition lived on. It had started on a disaster of a date where they planned on getting dinner together but only had the money to stop by the K Mart.
[[It was a fond memory, eating the way-too-sweet snacks sitting in Larry’s car in a parking lot. The day was too hot and J0hn needed to keep running his fans and Larry wouldn’t stop making fun of him for it. Was that the time they graffitied Mozilla’s Tesla? He didn’t remember.]]
It was a lot like now, sitting on a rail on the road. Speaking of...
“My neck hurts,” J0hn complained, trying to move out from where Larry’s chin was resting on top of his head.
“Then move!” Larry made no effort to make moving easier “Do you wanna head home?”
The night stretched beneath them, the red taillights of fading cars becoming sparser and sparser as it grew late. Soon, late would become early.
“Yeah, c’mon,” J0hn raised his head and climbed off the rail. The cold metal wasn’t dissimilar to the plating on some of his own skin. Larry watched him make his way towards the car, lopsided smile on his face, before following. The cyborg hopped into the passenger seat, “Y’know, when you asked if I wanted to come up here, I thought we were gonna’ make out in your car and listen to Jimmy Buffett.”
“What, you didn’t like talking and having 3 am dinner?” Larry jabbed, harmlessly, “We’ve like, been together way too long for us to go out just to make out in the car. We live together .”
“No! I liked it,” J0hn snatched his (empty, thanks Larry) soda can off the hood with his bag of fries, “Just unexpected! Not bad. Jimmy Buffet isn’t my vibe, anyway. You know that.”
“Listen, we can make a combo playlist. Put it next to some Death Grips,” this, of course, caused J0hn to burst out laughing.
“We’ve been dating for,” J0hn counted in his head, “Not quite but almost three years. And this is the first time you’ve suggested we go with my playlist.”
“Not your playlist, a combo one.”
“Asshole,” J0hn reached over to mess up Larry’s hair, his eyes pixellating from his smile.
“You like the Carly Rae Jepsen playlist!” Larry tried in vain to lean away.
“Of course I do!” J0hn tossed his hoodie in the back seat and pulled on his seat belt. The mock-serious tone of his voice made Larry sputter, “But if I have to listen to Mr. James William Buffett while kissing you I’m gonna’ lose it.”
Larry looked him directly in the eye. His other eyes looked J0hn directly in the eye. He buckled his seatbelt and turned on the car. And then he did it. The absolute madman turned on his Jimmy Buffet playlist.
“ You ,” J0hn said, like it was a curse.
“I’m driving, I get to pick.”
For as big of a deal as he made of it, J0hn thought it was cute to watch Larry sing off-key to the music. It was just, a tradition, at this point. To jokingly give each other a hard time. He’s glad they were both on the same page about that. He’s glad they were close enough to do it.
[[He’s tucking Larry into bed one night, only a few days after he first became a shapeshifter. The pattern on the blanket is imprinted on his skin where it can’t keep its shape. He looks… pathetic, to be honest. He’s been feverish and restless for days. The dark circles on his eyes- all of them, now- look heavy. J0hn is getting ready to go to sleep in the armchair, like he has been for a few nights. Larry was a stubborn bastard. He still wouldn’t let J0hn call Home MD.
He knows that Larry also saw him, when his cybernetics were raw and glitchy. They were cutting into what bits of his skin remained. They’ve seen each other at their worst. It’s a special kind of understanding.]]
“I’m glad we did this,” J0hn said, voice half-lost to the wind as they made their way down the slope towards the highway. It was late enough that cars passed them only occasionally. Larry had, of course, rolled the windows down.
“What was that?” Larry asked over the sound of the road. Despite the lack of other drivers, they weren’t exactly going the suggested speed limit.
“I said I’m glad we did this,” J0hn repeated.
“Yeah,” Larry leans back in his seat, “It was nice, wasn’t it?”
By the time they’re home, late truly has become early. When he wakes up, J0hn might call staying up til 4:30 am a mistake, but he won’t mean it. He wouldn’t have traded it for anything.