Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hey, Author here. You can call me Blank.

Now I know what you're thinking. "What the literal fuck is this story?" But I implore you, please abandon your skepticism and give this a chance.

My friends and I were up at ungodly hours of the night giving random head canons about the Backyardigans characters that we thought were funny and made some kind of sense. But as the conversation dragged on for well over two full hours, we delved way deeper into this initially playful plot than we were planning to. So here we are.

We tried to make the ethnicities and life situations make sense as we thought fit for each character, and it'd be great if you readers saw that too. Disclaimer; if some things in here seem a little uneducated, we humbly apologise for our lack of knowledge on certain things. Even if you would have done some things differently, it could still be fun for you to see how we interpreted these characters as people in the real world. (I say "real world", but for story related reasons, I'm setting the book in a real-world "replica" that doesn't exist, so none of the places mentioned here actually exist in real life.)

To make a long explanation short, this story arose from late night ramblings and ended up being something a lot more elaborate than anticipated, but we still have hopes that what we came up with could be a great story.

Without further ado, please enjoy the story!

~

DISCLAIMER: FOR STORY-RELATED PURPOSES, THIS BOOK IS SET IN A UNIVERSE THAT DOES NOT EXIST. THEREFORE, THE PLACES AND AREAS MENTIONED IN THIS STORY DO NOT EXIST IN THE REAL WORLD. ANY SIMILARITIES TO REAL LIFE PLACES OR EVENTS ARE PURELY COINCIDENTAL. 

Chapter Text

The sound of other kids playing around would make any little boy jealous of the fun they were having. Austin, timidly peeking through the little hole in his backyard's fence, was exactly that as he engaged in his favourite activity from his daily routine.

Chapter Text

11 YEARS LATER

Sunday was one of Austin's favourite days. It reminded him why he loved being the early bird amongst his backyard posse. A lack of school was always cause for celebration, but Sundays in particular were one of a kind.

He crouched among the tall blades of grass, scratching the back of his neck as they rustled in a cool breeze and tickled his skin. He should probably tell his parents that the grass needed a trim soon, but not today. Austin was hunting today.

"Found one..." he whispered, slowly creeping towards a patch of grass. He plucked a blade of grass and inched it towards the small creature he had identified, praying it would take his bait. He had to keep himself from vibrating with excitement as the furry thing seemed to sniff at his gift curiously, and promptly begin crawling its way up the length of the grass. The grass ended in Austin's palm, leaving no other route but for the two-toned creature to venture onto his plush skin. He freaked silently, caressing its tiny furs with his slender finger.

"It's a woolly bear," Austin absentmindedly muttered to himself, admiring his discovery. "Possibly my favourite caterpillar species. So cute too!"

He fumbled for his phone with his free hand, doing his best not to startle the caterpillar taking solace in the cradle his hand provided. He zoomed his camera in on it and filmed a short video after lightly disturbing it - much to its displeasure - and quietly apologised to the furry thing, knowing full well it didn't understand him. It waddled over to his index finger with some coaxing from his thumb, and he lifted his hand to his face to take a selfie.

"What are you doing rolling up in the damn grass?!"

The sudden shriek startled Austin, toppling him over onto his behind. He'd managed to keep the caterpillar from dropping, thank goodness, but that didn't excuse the fact that he'd been interrupted.

Easily identifying the voice's owner, Austin's eyes wandered upwards towards a house with salmon coloured walls and fell upon a girl leaning from her second story window, waving wildly to get his attention.

Honestly... he sighed internally, cupping his mouth to yell back to her. "You shouldn't lean out of the window like that, it's dangerous!" He grinned when she rolled her eyes at his warning and disappeared into the house. He couldn't see her doing it, but he was sure she was. He got up carefully, caterpillar still perched on hand, and dusted dirt from his pyjama bottoms before making his way over to the house. He was sure she was on her way downstairs to come meet him, so he strolled over to her patio to wait for her.

Soon enough, the girl swung open the patio door and put her hands on her hips. "I'm sure your pale ass is full of red marks from all the flies in that grass. Come, lemme look at you."

Austin snickered as the girl immediately started twisting his body around, checking for any signs of insect-related injury or irritation. "Uniqua, I'm fine. I come outside all the time, I'm practically a part of nature now."

"Human beings count as a part of nature, even though we're hellbent on destroying it at every turn." she flicked his head playfully and grinned when he winced. Her gaze followed his outstretched hand and landed on the fuzzy thing creeping along his fingers. "What's this little thing?"

Uniqua regretted her question immediately upon seeing Austin's eyes twinkle with interest. "This is a woolly bear, my favourite kind of caterpillar! It's also called the banded woolly bear, or some people like to call it the woolly worm, but I like woolly bear better. And it's so cool too! You wouldn't usually find them in places like these, since they're normally in cold areas, so it's really interesting that-"

Austin didn't even notice that his words were coming out muffled until a full five seconds after Uniqua had covered his mouth.

She shushed him coolly, stroking his cheek. "I forgot that you were a serious bug nerd." She shot Austin a look that translated to 'If I let you go, you'll shut up?', and the boy nodded. She released him and pinched his nose. "I don't mind you rambling about your interests, babe. But not right now, I've got something to be getting ready for."

Austin crouched to the ground, allowing his furry friend to return to its home in the grass. "Where are you going?"

Uniqua released a dissatisfied hum, adjusting the ribbon of a pink dress Austin had only just noticed she was wearing. "One of my cousins is getting christened, so we're getting ready for church. However," She shifted uncomfortably and wrung her hands. "Church dresses are a different breed, man. This piece of crap is so tight and hard to wear. I swear, if this lace irritates me for the entire service I'm probably just gonna get up and walk out."

Austin smiled fondly as his friend loudly complained about the discomfort of her attire. Uniqua had grown up nicely since they first met; now a curvaceous femme with a voluminous afro, tamed only by the baby pink hair braided into it. He remembered how self conscious she used to be about her vitiligo, which Austin himself had always found quite fascinating and unique about her. But these days she owned her light patches with a fiery confidence, and he was proud to have bore witness to her growth.

Austin retreated to his own house after waving temporary goodbye to Uniqua, knowing he would see her in a few hours when they got together with the others. It was still pretty early, early enough for him to have at least an hour before any of the others were up and about. His parents were early risers like him - maybe an inherited gene, he pondered - so his household was already kicking.

"Morning, Austin." His mother's greeting was chipper while she bustled about the kitchen. "Made you breakfast."

"Oh?" Austin hummed curiously, sliding over to the counter where a plate of toasted bread and meat steamed with freshness. "What's the occasion?"

"Gosh, I really stopped cooking that much for us, huh?" she exhaled thoughtfully, garnering a short chuckle from her son. "Well, things have been going smoothly since last night, I got a new client!"

Austin clapped his hands together, smiling tenderly at his excited parent. His mother was in the listing for one of the most competent real estate agents in the area, yet she never lost her humility. It was refreshing.

"That's great, mom," he bit into a sausage. "Anything particularly pleasant about them?"

"Ah y'know, typical newlywed couple looking for a place to settle down with each other." The flames on the stove flickered out, and his mother sat beside him with a plate of her own. "I'm going to meet them both today so we can discuss their budget and what they're really looking for in a house. After all, when you get married, the home you look for could very well end up being your forever one."

She musingly eyed her surroundings. "This house was recommended to your father and I by a real estate agent too." she commented after a moment of forking food into her mouth. "But you were the deciding factor."

"Me?" Austin blinked, chewing his toast. Crunchy, just the way he liked it.

"Mm," his mother hummed in response, cutting a piece out of her pancake and biting it off the fork. She wouldn't speak until her mouth was empty. "We wanted to make sure that we gave you the best possible space to grow up in. After five or six years, we realised the city didn't fit that criteria, so your father and I started making arrangements to move elsewhere."

"I don't remember much about living in that city," Austin pondered, trying to remember what it was like. "Just that it was really loud all the time. But I thought we moved away because of dad's job."

His mother took a long sip from her mug and laughed. "Yes, it was pretty loud. Especially in comparison to where we are now." She set down the mug and stared at her hands with an air of wistfulness. "You never really left home back then, so it's no wonder you don't remember a lot about it. And yes, your father's job did play a part in the decision making process. There weren't exactly a lot of opportunities for landscaping in the city, after all."

Austin hummed. "I bet. Everything's already landscaped, there's no need for it."

After a short laugh, the two sat and ate in comfortable silence, broken only by the sound of clinking silverware. Once they were both done, Austin moved to gather up their dishes before his mother got the chance.

"I'll get them," he offered. "It's Sunday, and you've got clients to meet. This is nothing."

She lovingly squeezed his cheek. "Thanks buddy," She was soon bustling about once again, and out the door with a quick, "Bye honey!"

Austin smiled to himself as he lathered their dishes with suds and rinsed them, then neatly put them away. If he was lucky, he could get back outside before-

"Morning, Austin."

...dang it.

"Morning, dad." Austin nodded curtly to his father descending the stairs, eyeglasses on and a folded newspaper tucked under his armpit. He gestured towards the roll. "Anything interesting?"

"Not particularly," his father grunted, seating himself in one of the living room chairs. "But I like to keep up with what's going on around here. When something does happen, I'll be one of the first to know."

Austin took a breath, mentally preparing himself for the risk he was about to take. "Because you're one of the only ones who actually read the newspaper?" He released a quiet exhale when his father snorted in response.

"That too. I don't even think the kid that brings the papers reads them, either."

Thankful for the short and somewhat humorous exchange, Austin briskly made his way out of the room and upstairs to his own. Closing the door behind him as quietly as he could, he looked up to the ceiling and sighed with relief.

Whew.

Looked like he would be inside for a while.

~

It surprised Tyrone to wake up to a quiet house on a Sunday. A quick second glance at his alarm clock told him that it was, indeed, after eight in the morning, meaning that the house should have been raging with the sound of sizzling oil and loud gospel music being belted at the top of someone's lungs.

But things were still. Not enough to be unsettling, but still enough to warrant investigation. Tyrone's sweats hung low on his hips as he rose from bed with a long, satisfying stretch and grabbed his toothbrush before venturing out into the house.

His father, a tall, full framed man with an umber-like complexion, was in the kitchen, sliding a final hash brown onto a large plate and setting it next to the stove. An apron with 'Best Dad' printed in large letters across the front was tied to his waist. The two made eye contact, communicating silently, and ended the exchange with a tart nod.

"I'll never understand you two and your wordless conversations." Tyrone's mother, a short, round-nosed woman, scoffed at what she had just witnessed. Having a quiet husband was almost a chore for her eccentric self, but he just had to be the one with the dominant genes to pass onto their son. Said son slid past her after nodding his head to her as well, and she stopped him in his tracks with a clear of her throat.

"...Morning." he finally let out, his low voice still laced with grogginess.

"Good morning to you too, Tyrone." she huffed. "Forgot your manners, I see."

"I'm just tired, I guess." he combated. "Not entirely used to sleeping this late on a Sunday. Why aren't we going to church?"

"Just didn't feel like it today." his mother mumbled through a mouthful of bacon. Tyrone cocked his head at her. He never usually felt like going either, but he still had to go regardless. Not that he would say that out loud. He somewhat enjoyed his life. He had people he liked spending time with. He couldn't sacrifice all that to say a couple words.

"I'm going over to Pablo's," he settled, slinking off to the bathroom. "Probably gonna meet up with the others, so I'll just be outside like usual. I'll text you if we decide to go anywhere."

"Tyrone."

Tyrone looked back to his father, who called to him from in front of the stove. The two returned silent stares for a few moments again, much to his mother's non-understanding chagrin, and once their momentary telepathy had ended, Tyrone turned away to go clean himself up. His beard was getting a little untidy. He'd have to fix that.

"What are you two even saying to each other when you do that?" he could hear his mother pestering his father from the bathroom while brushing his teeth. "You're so weird, just tell me!"

A shadow of a smile passed over his lips.

~

Austin batted away his billowing curtains, perched at his desk by the window. On his laptop, he was busy putting together a new collage of the woolly bear he'd found in the backyard earlier. A distraction, however, pulled him from his activity.

He almost caused his blue tree frog to leap away in fright after he hit his knees under his desk, groaning in self pity. It was his fault for being so easy to startle, and even more his fault for being surprised at Pablo's loud antics first thing in the morning, as if it wasn't a normal occurrence. A quick peek over his windowsill revealed the reason that the boy was screeching like a distressed parakeet. Tyrone had him hoisted over his shoulder and was marching into the backyard with his cargo.

"Someone help, I'm being kidnapped! Austin, Uniqua, Tasha, anyone!" he wailed, pounding against Tyrone's back, who just seemed to painlessly absorb his strikes.

Austin chuckled to himself, eyes trained on the loud boy, who stood at no taller than 5'6, trying his best to assault the larger male, before he was set down at their normal gathering bench. Clad in boxers and a white vest, it was obvious that he'd been roused from sleep, explaining his sour reaction. Once seated, however, the boy protested no further.

"Pepé, today is going to be another fun day, isn't it?" Austin cooed to his frog, stroking its tiny head. The creature's large eyes bulged cutely at his remark, not understanding a word, as Austin was very much aware of. He giggled nonetheless, scooping Pepé into his hands and watching the two males in the backyard. Pablo was telling Tyrone about something - most likely a video game the two were familiar with, since that was one of the few hobbies they shared.

Austin stood up to go set Pepé back into his terrarium and return to his desk, but not empty handed. Now equipped with a small, leather-bound book and a pencil, he scribbled away at the blank pages; glancing over his windowsill every few seconds. This continued for a few minutes, his only pauses being to sharpen his dulling tool.

He finally set the pencil down with a sigh, trailing his fingers softly over the rushed portrait he'd just completed. The pages rustled as he flipped backwards through the other portraits he'd drawn in the past, some of the creatures he'd found, some of Pepé.

Austin closed the book, resting his head down on the desk with a long, wistful exhale.

It couldn't be helped that eighty percent of his drawings were portraits of the loud boy in his backyard.

Chapter Text

Bitter drinks weren't Tasha's favourite, but sweet coffee wouldn't be as effective at waking her up in the morning. She downed the contents of her mug and disgustedly flashed her tongue at the flavour. She had to remind herself that it was for the caffeine and nothing more. How her mother joyfully drank this every morning without fail, she would never understand.

Neither of Tasha's parents were home, not that this fact came as a surprise. One was more substantially busy than the other, but whining about them being absent wouldn't magically summon them. At the very least, it gave her more freedom to do what she wanted around the house, so who was she to complain?

"It's this late already?" she yawned, noticing the time on her microwave read 1:26 PM. Tasha wasn't an early riser on the weekends unless her friends waltzed in to wake her. That didn't happen today, but she could hear them in the backyard already so she skipped outside - still in her dotted pyjama trousers - with an adrenaline spiked grin.

"I swear, if my dad didn't make me stay, I would've called an Uber and came straight home," Uniqua was engaging the rest of the party in a conversation Tasha wasn't yet sure how to put into context. Though knowing her, and judging by Pablo's ensuing fit of laughter, it was quite the shenanigan. "Tasha, babe, it's way past the societally accepted time to be awake."

"That's okay," Tasha stretched comfortably. Her white sweater rose above her belly button as her body lifted onto her toes. "It's the weekend. What are you guys doing?"

"Listening to how a priest almost dropped Uniqua's baby cousin into a water basin." Pablo wheezed. "Damn, I wish I'd been there to see it. Was it as funny as it sounds?"

Tyrone flicked him in the temple. "That's not funny. Babies are fragile, that could have been dangerous." he frowned and looked to Uniqua, pulling Tasha to snuggle into her side. "Is the kid okay? Last I knew, babies usually aren't that old when they get christened."

"Only like two or three months," Uniqua confirmed. "My aunt was pretty pissed though, and ended up bailing. Started complaining and saying stuff like 'this is why I thought this whole thing was fucking stupid' on the way out."

"Did you guys get baptised as babies?" Austin questioned. "I don't think my parents ever found the time to do things like go to church and stuff like that. I've only ever been to church with Tyrone and Uniqua."

"My mom still has pictures from when I got baptised." Tyrone grumbled quietly. "She takes any chance she gets to show them off."

Tasha, interest piqued, stretched her leg across the bench to poke him with her toes. "I'm sure you were a very cute baby." she assured with a comforting grin.

Uniqua glanced down at the curly-headed girl beside her. She dreamily gazed at the boy across from them and sighed quietly. It was no secret to anyone in their posse that Tyrone was the subject of Tasha's affection - except to the oblivious idiot himself. Tasha made no attempts to hide her feelings either. In fact, her behaviour made it so painfully obvious that it was a wonder how Tyrone hadn't caught on yet.

"Did you leave your hair out when you slept again?" Uniqua suddenly pointed out, roughly gripping a lock of Tasha's hair. The girl smiled sheepishly.

"Uh, maybe..?" she trailed, guiltily letting her gaze fall to her lap. "I was really tired last night, I just passed out when I got to my room."

"Tired doing what?" Uniqua raised an eyebrow, groaning when Tasha twiddled her fingers with pursed lips. She rolled her eyes, no longer surprised by her antics. "Come on, girlie. We've gotta take care of this before it starts to mat."

Tyrone watched Uniqua walk over to Tasha's porch with her fuzzy haired culprit in tow, whining that she'd only just stepped outside. He chuckled shortly, before looking around to catch the two other boys present staring at him.

"What?"

Pablo shrugged.

Tyrone glanced over to Austin, posing the same question. Austin hid the bottom half of his face with his phone while pretending to be focusing on it, much to Tyrone's confusion.

The hell?

~

"Girl, you are not in the last bit strategic." Uniqua deadpanned, combing oil through the girl's hair.

Tasha huffed a stray curl from between her eyes. "What do I do then? He doesn't even notice when I'm trying to flirt with him. Or maybe he's just ignoring me."

Pretty sure it's the former... Uniqua sighed internally. She thought there had to be a limit to how dense one could be in real life, especially Tyrone, who was usually the observant one. No matter how much she racked her brain, it made no sense. There was no plausible way that Tyrone wasn't privy to Tasha's feelings; the poor girl couldn't be discreet about it even if she tried. It simply wasn't a skill she possessed.

But on the other hand, Uniqua had known Tyrone for over eleven years. That said, she had pretty much confirmed through her own means that Tyrone had absolutely no idea Tasha liked him in the way she did. It was possible that it had something to do with how close their entire friend group was, so he could just be mistaking her romantic feelings for platonic ones. Hell, Uniqua herself had never really made any attempts to limit her touchiness with him, or the other two boys in their posse.

Maybe she just had to tell Tasha to screw it all and confess normally?

"Uniquaaaa..." Tasha lolled her head backwards into Uniqua's lap, staring up at her with large doe eyes. "Help me, please."

"How do you feel about telling Tyrone straight up that you like him? Like, as more than a friend?" Uniqua dropped the bomb and reached for a comb, parting out a section of Tasha's hair for twisting after readjusting her head. "Don't move your head, I'm twisting it."

Tasha blinked for a few seconds, suddenly finding her toenails the most interesting thing in the world. Confess to him? How would that go?

I don't think I want to ruin what we have...

"Sounds scary..." she subconsciously began to curl in on herself, which shifted the position of her head. Uniqua wasn't pleased about that, but made no attempt to scold her like she normally would, opting instead to gently move it back into its previous spot.

"Figured," she nodded, already finished with the twist and moving onto the second. "You're thinking about how awkward it'd be afterwards if you get rejected, right?"

Tasha nodded. Uniqua's hands in her hair soothed her, willing her to speak more.

"I just don't want to break our group up by doing something stupid." she admitted quietly. "It wouldn't be fair to you and the others to have to deal with that awkwardness all the time."

"But you know you're just speculating about what could possibly happen, right?" Uniqua was sure that she was overthinking the scenario and imagining useless things. "Just because he might reject you doesn't mean you'll mess up the entire group dynamic. Besides, I know you know that Tyrone isn't like that. He wouldn't go and make things awkward when everyone else is around."

"I know he wouldn't." Tasha whispered. "That's one of the things I like about him."

"What?"

Tasha pulled her knees to her chest and stared at the carpet, shifting in her seat. "Tyrone's become a lot quieter since we were all kids, but he's still such a considerate person. So I know that whatever happens, he wouldn't make a big deal out of it and make me or anyone else uncomfortable. But think about it."

Uniqua paused Tasha for a moment to turn her body to the other side, so she could begin to twist the other half of her hair. She also let her grab a cushion from the couch, since her butt was evidently becoming numb from sitting on the floor for so long.

Tasha gazed outside at the boys still on the bench, watching as Tyrone smiled along at whatever joke Pablo had just made. "Where does that leave me, the rejected one, in all of this? Having to watch him be unfazed all the time, as though he wasn't the one that refused me?"

"Tasha..." Uniqua couldn't really say or do much in response to that. As much as she wanted to tell her that overthinking the outcome of her confession would do no good, realistically, her fears weren't incorrect and were in fact, quite plausible. But at the same time, none of them were getting any younger, and Tasha would definitely regret not having told Tyrone her true feelings sooner than later if he ended up getting a girlfriend. It really wouldn't be a good look for her to be the one objecting at his wedding.

Uniqua twisted the rest of Tasha's hair in silence. The topic hadn't been milked for what it was worth, but there was nothing to be gained then and there by talking about it more. Plus, it was saddening to see Tasha in a sour mood, which was inevitably what would happen if they continued the conversation. She never took Tasha, in all her purity, as one for having intrusive thoughts, but when it came to that guy, the girl was just about capable of anything.

Uniqua just hoped that an eventual confession fell within that list of capabilities.

~

Pablo was alone.

It seemed that Tyrone had come out of his house for no other reason than to interrupt his beauty sleep and leave, Uniqua and Tasha were inside of Tasha's house doing girl things, and Austin was...somewhere. Austin was never known for having much of a presence, which was probably why Pablo didn't really notice his absence until Tyrone was gone. He had been so busy chatting it up with the guy, and Austin seemed perfectly content to just listen in while doing his own thing on his phone. In the spirit of boredom, he decided that Austin was currently his best bet and had a pretty good idea of where the boy would be, since he most definitely wouldn't be in his house during the day on a weekend, and he would never travel anywhere without one of them going along with him. 

Pablo stood from the bench and plucked a splinter from his thigh, then trekked through a couple bushes before coming to a little clearing in the backyard. He turned his gaze upwards towards the large tree and could already hear the telltale sounds of someone's presence creaking the wooden building atop it.

The treehouse was in a surprisingly good state, all things considered. Especially with someone as accident prone as Pablo existing alongside it. It was made of strong hickory, and would have stood out if it wasn't hidden by the odd, but complementing patch of forestry the backyard had in this one corner. Eleven years of being Austin's friend meant that it was impossible not to know how fond he was of being outside. Even if he wasn't rolling around getting grass in his hair, eyeballing a grasshopper, or hugging a tree - which Pablo had never actually seen him do, but wouldn't put it past him regardless - Austin could always be found somewhere that wasn't within the confinements of a regular building when he could help it, and the treehouse didn't fall under such a category. Unfortunately, his love of the outdoors had inevitably stemmed from his half-fear of staying in his own house.

Pablo noticed it when they first met. Austin's father was far from the chillest guy on the planet, and there were few memories Pablo had after encountering him when he'd been allowed outside to play. It was clear that he was the governor of the household for the most part, and his word was law. His mother obviously had a say in things, but her behaviour left too much to the imagination when both of them were involved. Of the five, his house had been visited for hang outs and playdates the least, but Pablo was pretty sure from the looks of Austin's mother that she wasn't anything like her husband. This would be a comforting thought if she was home more often. Unfortunately, Austin's only solace was a backyard that wasn't even his, and/or the school grounds.

Therefore, the children had conspired with each other from a young age to have somewhere close by where Austin could feel more comfortable, not that Austin himself had actually known about their plans. After months of pleading and exploiting the puppy eye skill, Tyrone and Pablo had convinced their parents to band together and invest in an treehouse.

It was a nice little fort the group had utilised many a time while they were still young children. It made for a great witch's hut, or otherworldly dwelling for the imaginative games they indulged in. Austin especially had taken to the space more than the others, immediately finding it a safe space like they had intended. Even in their teenage days, it made for a nice little getaway spot. Tyrone, the tall freak, had grown too tall to make going inside the treehouse practical in any way, shape or form. Tasha had outgrown their more physical interactions for the most part, and Uniqua always insisted that her nails wouldn't withstand the climbing labour. It was a miracle she even got anything done with those talons on her fingers, Pablo thought. But this meant that he and Austin were the only two still making use of the little hideaway space, either small enough to still fit, or just generally being willing to make the effort to get inside.

It was worth the effort once you finally entered.

Pablo climbed up the little rope ladder, feeling somewhat insecure that it still felt like a bit of a long way up, and peered over the top. Sure enough, Austin was huddled in his little cozy corner, eyes glued to his phone screen. The treehouse was an enclosed space and sheltered from the rain, and Austin had taken it upon himself to decorate most of it; not that any of the others minded, considering he used it the most. Along with a little corner cubby of small trinkets, there were multiple coloured bean bags and pillows and blankets, and Pablo noticed that there was now a surplus of glow in the dark stickers littering the walls and ceiling, all in the shape of stars and/or wildlife.

Very Austin, he thought with an inward smile, climbing the rest of the way up. Another thing about the treehouse was that it was impossible not to know when someone else was coming up. Pablo's closeness to the interior of the little cabin caused the boards to creak, which alerted Austin to his presence and he flashed a grin at him.

"Hey," he greeted. "Wanna come look at bugs?" He turned his phone screen, displaying the video he took of the fuzzy thing he'd seen earlier.

"You mean apart from the ones you have on the walls?" Pablo snickered in response, crawling inside regardless. If anyone in their group knew anything, it was how nice it was to see Austin happy. His freedom had been significantly more limited than theirs, as had his social life, so they made every effort to make him feel wanted and included. Which was why they always listened to him rant about any and everything, even if they weren't particularly interested in the subject from the get-go.

Seriously, Pablo had retained more information about common backyard animal biology from Austin than he'd learned in school.

"I saw this little guy earlier today." Austin beamed, handing his phone over to Pablo, who was making himself comfortable on a bean bag next to him. He watched as the boy studied the creature on the screen before scratching his head and Austin resisted the urge to chuckle. "You have no idea what it is, do you?"

"I know it's a hairy...worm...thing." Pablo attempted, squinting at the picture like it would help. He zoomed in on its rear end and stroked his nonexistent beard. "Is this the head?"

Austin sputtered with laughter. "That's its butt."

"You're bluffing," Pablo rolled his eyes, dropping the phone back into the cackling boy's lap. "You're just trying to make me look dumb. There is literally no difference."

"There is," Austin wiped a tear from his eye. Zooming in on the picture, he eyed his furry friend. "You'd notice if you were a connoisseur, such as myself."

Pablo suddenly flopped back across Austin's lap and plucked the phone from his hands, pouting at the image and mockingly muttering 'connoisseur' under his breath. Try as he might, it was difficult for him to see the difference on his own. In fact, he only succeeded at digging himself deeper into confusion.

"...Nah, I don't get it." He frowned, after moments of failed studying. "How do you tell the difference so easily?"

"Well..." Austin rubbed his neck, doing his best to keep a regular expression as he pointed out the caterpillar's parts. "This part right here, the black part on the left, is slightly longer than the black part on the right. If you really pay attention, you can see it pretty clearly."

Pablo sat up as quickly as he'd laid down, and Austin found himself missing the weight. "I didn't even see that. Damn, you've got some good ass eyes."

"Not really," Austin hid his blush at the compliment, though it was small. "I just really like animals that people tend to find gross."

"I know." Pablo mused, reaching into his pocket. "That's great. It's good that you have a regular hobby. Mine isn't all that dignified, y'know?"

Austin nodded, eyeing the small bag Pablo retrieved from his person. "To each his own. Can't fault anyone for having a hobby if they aren't hurting anyone, right?"

Pablo crawled out of the space, nodding along in agreement while chewing his laced treat. He appreciated that Austin didn't judge him, especially considering what a goody-two-shoes the kid was. Pablo supposed that in some way, it could have been a rebellion of sorts against his father? Surrounding himself with crude friends was definitely a way to piss the guy off, and a stoner definitely fit the bill, but Pablo didn't want to corrupt him by getting high around him.

"Well at least I'm not addicted," Pablo snorted. "That's more than you can say for some other poor bastards out there. I just like to enjoy myself."

"That's how people become addicted, smarty pants."

"Watch your tone, young man." Pablo winked, lowering his legs onto the ladder. "I just came to check up on you though, yeah? Make sure you were straight and all. We're the only ones that come up here, so I didn't want you to feel alone."

"That's okay, I like it up here. It's a nice place to come and just...exist without having to care about things." Austin looked up, reflecting the glowing stickers in his eyes.

He shot Pablo a little two-fingered salute as he climbed down from the treehouse, then peeked outside to watch him walk away. The boy looked back and noticed his face protruding from the treehouse window and flashed a farewell grin before continuing to walk off. Austin waited for him to be completely out of sight before dropping onto a blue bean bag and burying his face in a nearby cushion.

"Great freaking job, Austin. That wasn't a weird thing to say at all." he groaned into the crimson-shaded mound, wishing it would just absorb him. "Really? 'Exist'? Was that seriously the best word you could find to use? Why'd you make yourself sound so freaking cryptic..?"

Austin knew he was freaking out over nothing. Pablo was a pretty simple guy as far as regular conversations went. He wouldn't think much of what Austin said, apart from the fact that he "caught on" about Austin's "alone space", which was definitely what the others would designate it as from now on, he was sure of it.

His mind wandered to the feeling of Pablo's back momentarily pressed against his thighs, desperately scanning the picture in hopes of miraculously receiving a vision that told him that the darn thing was called a woolly bear. The way his eyes had peered up at him, asking questions about Austin's favourite subject of all time, and brightened triumphantly when he'd finally discovered how to do something so simple like differentiate one end of a caterpillar from the other. It was almost impossible not to constantly loop moments like those in his mind.

Austin couldn't help but fall in love all over again.

Chapter Text

Tyrone was familiar with the feeling of exasperation; especially on weekdays. He was the second earliest riser of the five, and two of them had the bad habit of sleeping in when they had important places to be. He wondered how they'd survive without him someday.

But future aside, it was absolutely ridiculous to stroll over to his neighbour's door at 8:15 AM and be greeted by her quiet father, only to venture up to her room and find her sprawled across her bed, pink braids scattered about her head.

Tyrone sighed, moving closer. Uniqua was never known for having the best sleeping positions.

"Get up, it's getting late," He shook her firmly, knowing that she was far from a light sleeper, especially in the morning. "We're gonna get to school late if you don't get up right now."

A long groan in response.

"I know you're tired." By now, Tyrone was fluent in her morning language. "I'll whip up something for you downstairs to eat, so go shower and get yourself ready. You can eat on the way to school."

Another groan.

"You don't have to do makeup, you're pretty as is." He patted her shoulder and rolled her over. "Now get up, or I'll lift you."

"Okay, okay..." Uniqua droned groggily, cocooning herself further in her blanket by rolling, then promptly falling off her bed with a soft thump. "Urgh..."

"If you'd sleep earlier at night, you wouldn't have this issue." Tyrone commented, already making his way to the door. "Cheese or garlic butter?"

"With toast?"

"With toast."

"Garlic butter, please." the girl lifted her head with a droopy grin and watched as the male closed her door behind him, before sighing and letting her head fall.

I wonder if I should have him stop waking me up, she pondered, stretching and rising to her feet off the floor. If Tasha's gonna be seriously trying to get with him from now on, then I should keep my distance.

The more she thought about it, the more conflicted she became about whether or not that was actually a good idea. It would be weird to suddenly stop doing things they'd been doing for eleven years. Just because Tasha would be dating him didn't mean their friendship was gonna change.

Dating him, huh...

Uniqua stared back at her reflection in a full length mirror and lightly fingered at the light marks on her skin. It was a habit she'd never quite grown out of from the era in her life when she despised them. It was still a stretch to say she liked them, but she was definitely embracing them more and more. No one at school gave her shit about it like in the past, since she'd secured her reputation as one to not be messed with, but years of insecurity weren't about to just vanish without a trace.

"I think they make you look cool!"

Uniqua smiled to herself, flipping her hair for added flair, before trotting off to the bathroom to spice herself up for the day.

~

"Where's Austin?" Tasha spotted the others grouped at the sidewalk where they normally gathered in the morning, with a notable absence of a certain male. "He isn't usually the last one to turn up."

"There he is," Pablo waved wildly, trying to grab Austin's attention. "Austin!"

"You know you don't have to do that, right?" Uniqua side-eyed him musingly. "It's not like we ever meet up anywhere else. He'll find us."

Pablo pouted, not really able to respond to that. Austin skipped up to them, a square bandage on the top of his hand.

"What happened?!" Tasha screamed, grabbing his hand and inspecting it. Not that it did much good since the bandage covered most of the damage, but his hand was very obviously reddened.

Austin offered a sheepish smile. "I just spilled some tea on my hand, nothing major."

"Shit," Uniqua hissed. "Was the water freshly boiled?"

"Thankfully no, so it wasn't that bad, but it was still pretty hot." Austin sighed. "On the downside, I won't be able to go looking for bugs at school today since I have to rest my hand."

Pablo cocked his head. "I don't think that a burn should stop you from-"

Tyrone elbowed him, eliciting a coughed out grunt. "That's fine, it'll heal up soon since it isn't serious. You can just sit with us at lunch today."

"Isn't it weird that there are five of us, yet only two of us ever share any classes?" Uniqua pondered out loud as they all began to make their way towards Tyrone's garage. "We hardly see one another during school like we used to, unless it's lunch or at the end of the day."

The party used to traveled in two groups, since both Tasha and Tyrone owned vehicles, but they eventually agreed that it was more economical to travel all at once. Tyrone had run inside his house to grab something, so they were all climbing into his SUV to sit while waiting for him to return.

Austin crossed his arms and mulled over Uniqua's observation, having noticed the same thing before. "Most likely it's because the majority of us are in different streams. Tasha and I are the only ones that share a stream, since we're both science students."

"I never understood that, by the way." Pablo took the passenger seat, while the others filed into the back. "Austin, I understand, since he's quite obviously a nerd."

"What?" Austin retorted, confused. "I just like-"

"Like I said, nerd," Pablo cut him off and Austin pouted. "But Tasha you like makeup and clothes and girl stuff. Why didn't you go into marketing or something? You like fashion, so you could have sold clothes and stuff if you studied business or economics."

"A surprisingly smart suggestion, coming from you." Uniqua snorted, smirking as the boy shot her a scowl.

"Liking 'girly' stuff doesn't mean I can't like science too, Pablo." Tasha beamed, solidifying her point by applying lip gloss in the middle of her statement. "Science is the one thing I can do to connect with my dad, even when he isn't around.

Tyrone returned and took his place at the wheel, dropping his schoolbag at Pablo's feet. "Behave yourselves. Seatbelts, everyone. Especially you." He leaned over Pablo's lap, sliding the seatbelt across his chest.

Pablo flushed as Uniqua promptly started cracking up. "I'm not a kid, I know how to put on a seatbelt."

"Yet you forget to do it the majority of the time." Tyrone responded plainly. "I'm not paying a fine because of you."

The ride to school was not in the least bit quiet with Uniqua and Pablo in the same space. Tyrone had thankfully been blessed with godly focus, able to manoeuvre the roads properly while surrounded by such loud passengers. Austin and Tasha, two of the quieter members of the group - in comparison to those two, anyway - were content to listen and occasionally chuckle at the duo's playful bickering; most of which tended to consist of Uniqua taking jabs at Pablo's very existence, and Pablo struggling to come up with a comeback.

By the time the posse arrived at school, and Tyrone was backing into a parking space, Pablo was already a hot-headed ball of frustration. His ego was now sufficiently bruised from Uniqua's remarks about his height, and she wasn't one to hold her punches.

"You know she didn't mean it." Austin attempted to console the poor boy, flashing his tongue at Uniqua. She whipped her head away and whistled, cementing her lack of remorse while walking towards the school building with Tasha and Tyrone. Tasha had her head in her phone scrolling through her socials while allowing Tyrone to lead her towards the building, lest her lack of focus cause her to be run over. Tyrone, dwarfing everyone else, had his palm flat atop Tasha's head as he steered her away from any passers-by she might have bumped into without his guidance.

"Am I really that short?" Pablo sulked, walking side by side with Austin.

Austin gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder. "Come on, you know Uniqua always exaggerates. She's just teasing, don't feel bad about it." He couldn't help but find the boy's frown cute in its own way, and gave in to the temptation to tease him further. "I won't lie to you and call you tall, though. You're a little under average."

Pablo whipped his head at him incredulously and allowed betrayal to contort his face. "Dammit, you're supposed to be on my side. I trusted you."

Austin simply chuckled at his melodramatics and followed the others into the school. They'd managed to make it on time, so now Austin just had to make it through his classes and reunite with them at lunch.

~

Mondays were the biggest pain of Tyrone's week when it came to his day schedule, though it never showed on his face. It was bad enough that his locker was on the highest floor, but every single of his classes were on different floors, and not a single period that shared a floor with another was close to it on his timetable. So he'd have one class on fourth floor, and right after that he'd have to go down to the first floor, then after that he'd be going all the way back up to the third floor. It was a pain in the ass. The staff in the admin department needed to reevaluate their job choices if they were going to arrange such an inconvenient schedule.

Some of his irritation dissipated when he spotted Austin a couple lockers over with the body of his bag hanging on his stomach and he was about to approach him before he stopped in his tracks. Two lean looking guys, both of whom Tyrone recognised from one of the school's sports teams, waltzed up before Austin; one with an uncomfortably mischievous glint in his eyes.

Wordlessly, Tyrone made his way over to the trio, taking care not to be louder than necessary. His jaw flexed briefly when he caught a piece of the conversation.

"Hey shrimp." the brunette of the two sneered.

I remember Uniqua drooling over the blonde for some reason, he recalled her describing the boy with words his brain didn't register and reminiscing about him with a dreamy gaze.

He resisted the urge to scoff.

Austin didn't seem to catch the crack at his stature the unfamiliar boy had just made, but shyly glanced up at the pair. "Hi, I don't think we're acquainted?"

"Marv." the brunette responded, drawling his voice in an attempt to be intimidating. Tyrone thought he was being thoroughly betrayed by the thickness of his British accent.

"Charlie." the blonde - voice laced with an identical accent - introduced himself, seemingly disinterested but going along with it nonetheless. "I can't recall ever seeing you around before, but you look pretty familiar with the place so you can't be new. You don't have much of a presence, huh?"

"Not that anyone would want to notice." Marv leered condescendingly at Austin. The dumb kid cocked his head confusedly, not understanding his comment, and Marv was about to repeat himself with a significantly more hurtful choice in vocabulary.

Out of nowhere though, Marv was suddenly aware of a much larger presence towering behind the pint-sized dork that had seemingly materialised out of thin air. He was tall and threatened Marv with a poisonous glare, daring him to continue his attempt at a verbal onslaught. He remained silent and made no moves to interrupt, but the challenge was in the air.

Charlie, having seen the guy approaching from a few metres away, calmly realised that he wasn't the target of his threatening aura, and the situation clicked immediately. He and the kid were obviously acquainted and if Marv opened his mouth again, he'd either be leaving with a shattered ego or a shattered wrist. With this fact in mind, he discreetly pressed his two strongest fingers into the back of Marv's neck, forcing him to step backwards as he whined painfully.

He gave Marv's failed prey a few glances up and down, met eyes with the tall new challenger behind who hadn't yet released his glare on Marv, then curtly nodded towards the former. "What's your name?"

"Austin..?" the kid answered like he was unsure, evidently confused. He had every right to be, considering the situation unfolding in front of his eyes without explanation. Charlie hummed, deciding to chalk it up to him being either hopelessly oblivious or hopelessly unobservant, and used the pressure in his fingertips to turn Marv around and leave without escalating the situation. He definitely owed him for that later.

Austin watched the two boys disappear around a corner, sufficiently puzzled by whatever had just ensued, then turned back towards his locker, only to yelp in surprise when he turned around to a looming Tyrone standing behind him.

"Jeez, how long have you been there?" he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment.

Tyrone stared off in the direction he'd watched the troublemaker and his more perceptive friend retreat towards. "Not very long. Are you heading to class now?"

"Yeah, I got Biology!" Austin beamed. Of course that made him happy. He was in his element in that class. At least one of them was enjoying their Monday. "Did you need something?"

Tyrone looked down upon him, hands gripping his bag straps and looking strangely small. Not just because he was a lot taller than him, but he seemed a lot tinier than he normally did. It reminded him of how he looked when they'd first met; wide-eyed and curious.

Hm.

Tyrone set a hand on his head and gently pat his hair. Austin, now even more confused than before, just let it happen before simply watching him walk off in the opposite direction to his scheduled class.

"Good talk..?"

~

Austin's crinkled eyes faded not long after the last bell before lunch. It was fun to learn about micro and macroevolution, or any topic in Biology really, but it severely sucked that he couldn't go outside and try to observe any examples for risk of irritating his burn. No matter, the others were sure to welcome him in the cafeteria.

Austin paused.

Crap, I forgot my lunch.

He sighed at the realisation, even more heavily since he hadn't left home with money either, and started making his way towards the lunch room while continuously shortening and lengthening his bag straps - a habit he'd developed when facing an unfortunate development. Being in the cafeteria reminded him of why he usually chose to stay outside and look at plants and bugs; it was much louder in there than Austin was comfortable with.

"Aussie~!"

Austin flinched, turning in the direction of the familiar feminine voice yelling for him across the room. Tasha was wildly waving her arms, being unnecessarily conspicuous while trying to get his attention. Unfortunately, she caught more than just his attention and was attracting more eyes as she ran straight towards him and gripped his sweater.

"I'm so glad you're eating with us today!" Tasha was grinning from ear to ear, and Austin couldn't help but feel a sense of fond exasperation at her bouncy energy. The girl was a social butterfly, so no doubt she was in her prime while in the presence of others. "Come on, you gotta see the pictures Uniqua took today." She was already pulling him towards a corner booth, where the other three were already waiting with their own food. Pablo saluted him, mouth stuffed, while Uniqua and Tyrone nodded at his arrival.

"Heard you've got some pictures to show off?" Austin grinned in Uniqua's direction, sliding into the booth beside Tyrone. Tasha's mouth gaped, her spot next to her crush now unknowingly stolen, but she simply scooted next to Austin without mention.

"Dammit Tasha, don't go telling everyone and their moms about my pictures, these were for an assignment." Uniqua pinched the bridge her nose with a helpless exhale. "I'm not supposed to be broadcasting them to anyone outside of my class for consumption, it's school policy. All of our assignments are the property of the school. I'm just showing you guys since, well, it's you guys."

Tasha offered a cute, apologetic wink. "Sorry!"

Out of the blue, a boy none of them had ever seen approached their table and cleared his throat. "Tasha?" he spoke up, looking directly at her. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure!" she beamed, skipping after him before Uniqua could get out more than a syllable.

"I'd say you tried," Pablo started, swallowing another mouthful of his food. "But you didn't get the chance."

"Son of a bitch..." Uniqua flopped backwards in her seat with a breathy groan and a tired facepalm. Austin glanced around the table obliviously.

"Am I missing something?" he piped up. "What's wrong with Tasha talking to that guy? Is he weird?"

"Probably." Tyrone responded flatly, watching the two walk off.

"Ugh," Uniqua sat straight up, preparing her explanation. "This happens at least twice a day. Our girl Tasha's quite the looker, so naturally she attracts all the testosterone freaks that see her."

"But it gets annoying for her to run off with every guy that approaches her, since she has no proper understanding of the word no." Pablo finished.

The four all nodded in agreement at his last statement.

Uniqua rested her chin in her cupped hand and released a displeased exhale through her nostrils. She seemed the most irritated by the new development. "I'm usually able to catch them before she can agree, but today I got distracted."

Austin shrunk in on himself. "Sorry about that, I'm not usually here. Probably my fault."

"Maybe, but what can you do." Uniqua shrugged, immediately backtracking when Austin seemed to shrivel more. "Don't sweat it, babe. I'm glad you're here instead of outside getting sunburnt anyway. You should come eat with us more often."

It was now Austin's turn to sigh. "I forgot my lunch on the counter this morning. Realised that on my way out of class."

"I have enough to share, if you want." Tyrone offered, reaching in his bag, then pausing when another thought occurred. "Or I could just give you some money to go buy something."

He continued reaching for his food with a small smile when Austin's eyes twinkled at the mention of his food. As he should have expected, honestly. Austin loved his family's food.

"This looks so great," Austin fawned, almost drooling at the sight of steamy lasagna in a large box. "It's a lot of food, though. I probably won't eat all of it."

"Eat what you can. Even if you do end up eating it all, I have more for myself." Tyrone pulled another box from his bag, and Austin took that a the permission he needed to dig in. Tyrone chuckled with a knowing expression, which didn't go unnoticed by Pablo.

Tasha soon bounced back up to their table and slid in the booth next to Austin, while Pablo raised a suspicious eyebrow at Tyrone. "I saw that, you tall weirdo. Couldn't you have just asked him this morning where his lunchbox was, so he could run home and get it?"

"Sure, I could have," Tyrone shrugged. He smiled over at Austin, not paying attention to the conversation as he forked lasagna into his mouth. "But he could always warm that up and have it for dinner when he goes home. Besides, look at him."

They all collectively grinned at their designated nerd, completely unaware that he was the topic of discussion.

"Not every day he gets seasoned food." Uniqua snickered. Tasha's jaw dropped, and Pablo almost snorted food out of his nose.

"Uniqua!" Tasha scolded. "That is so not nice!"

Uniqua yawned. "Please. Look at his parents, you already know they season their food with salt and pepper. Why do you think he loves coming over for dinner so much?"

Even Tyrone couldn't resist a short chuckle at that one.

"I don't think I count, since my mom's a caterer." he mused. "It's in her job description to be good at cooking."

"But didn't you cook this?"

Everyone went quiet at Austin's sudden question, cheeks bulging with food like a squirrel. He looked more childish than ever with a mouth stuffed with food.

"I did," Tyrone blinked in surprise and took a bite of the lasagna from his own lunch. "But how can you tell?"

Austin swallowed and shrugged. "I dunno. Just tastes like you made it."

The four gaped at the revelation of this apparent new skill as the boy went on scarfing down his meal without a care in the world. Tyrone ruffled his hair fondly, chuckling at the pleasant surprise. As plain as he might have seemed from the outside, Austin really was something, and he was glad that they were the first ones to see it.

"So Tasha," Austin chirped. "What'd the guy say?"

Chapter Text

"Do you like guys?"

Well this was a predicament.

Twiddling his thumbs nervously did little to ease his rocketing anxiety as Tasha sat across the booth from him, blankly staring him down. They'd been there for a good two minutes now and Austin still didn't break his silence. How was he supposed to get out of this?

- A FEW HOURS EARLIER -

"I've been sitting down literally all day but I sweat so much." Pablo complained, tugging repeatedly at his collar to produce some wind. "What gives?"

"It's not exactly cold out." Uniqua pointedly replied, despite knowing the question was rhetorical. "It pretty hot, actually. I'm sweating a bit myself. If not for my antiperspirant I'd probably smell like ass."

"What's wrong with ass?" Pablo wiggled his eyebrows, earning a shove from Uniqua paired with an amused chuckle.

"Do you guys know what Tasha and Austin's schedules look like today?" Tyrone frowned, looking at his watch. "We've been here for a few minutes waiting on them. It's in character for Tasha, but Austin?"

Uniqua shrugged, sliding her hand through her braids. "Maybe it's a chain effect from earlier this week. He was a little tardy Monday morning, too."

Pablo snorted. "Tardy?"

"Don't rag on me for knowing how to make use of my vocabulary."

"Nerd."

The two started senselessly bickering again and Tyrone let out a long sigh. They'd definitely be at this till Austin showed up. It was weird how he didn't have to do much to return the peace apart from just be present. He was usually so oblivious to negative interaction too, even when it involved him, so how he had the otherworldly skill to moderate those two of all people, was beyond him.

Ping!

Tyrone barely heard his phone over the loud mouths beside him, and slid his phone out of his pocket to check the notification. His senses were correct in assuming it had to do with Austin, and his eyes glided through the messages.

⏤  6 New Messages From: Austin ⏤

Austin: Hey Tyrone, I'm texting you since you'll probably see this the fastest, but you guys should head on home without Tasha and I

Austin: Tasha's shirt got a little...frayed in Chemistry class from a semi-potent acid they were experimenting witj

Austin: with*

Austin: I had an extra sweater in my bag to give her, so she's changing right now

Austin: But she's telling me that taking her shirt off is gonna mess up her hair and her makeup, so we'll probably take a while

Austin: We can walk back home

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Tyrone almost facepalmed. How Tasha managed to disintegrate her shirt not even a full two weeks into school was a mystery he wasn't about to delve into, or mention to these two idiots for that matter. He was sure Austin could handle Tasha's predicament, and they'd all walked the way home before. Surely the two of them would be fine.

Tasha was definitely the one to worry about, but Austin had a decent head on his shoulders.

Thankfully, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had either realised they were arguing over nothing or had run out of insults for each other. Either way, the quiet made it a lot easier for Tyrone to deliver his next point.

"Tasha and Austin'll meet us back at home," he informed them, beginning to make his way across to his black Wrangler - the only one in the parking lot. A bragging right in itself. "Tasha's getting held up, so Austin's waiting for her. They'll both just walk home when she sorts it out."

"But why didn't she call me?" Uniqua pouted her lips in wonder, then checked her phone to see if she had any missed notifications.

"Aren't they both in science?" Pablo reminded her, scratching his belly and following after Tyrone. "He was probably closer. Or maybe they had a class together."

The three reached Tyrone's car and climbed in, with a few protests from Pablo when Uniqua stole his shotgun spot from him to man the aux chord. These two were alright once not left unattended and Tasha was a bit of a scatterbrain, but she wasn't stupid and neither was Austin.

Those two would be fine.

~

Austin had no idea what to do.

Tasha's wails could be heard from all the way down the other end of the hallway and she was inside the bathroom, if that was any indication of her volume. As a good friend he knew that he had to sympathise with her, but was one shirt really worth the fuss she was making?

A sudden jump in volume confirmed his unasked question.

"Tasha?" Austin cupped the side of his mouth and called into the girls' bathroom, silently mouthing an apology to a trio of girls that scurried out. "You okay in there?"

His call seemed to bring her back to reality and the wailing gradually died down to somewhat quieter sobs and hiccups. A couple of loud sniffles later, Tasha emerged from the bathroom with dark tear stains lining her normally rosy cheeks.

I thought you were supposed to be fixing your makeup, Austin wanted to say, but opted against it. Instead, he produced a small pack of disinfectant wipes he carried around on his person and softly wiped her dirtied cheeks clean of any smeared makeup.

"Feel a little better?" he asked as she stood before him quietly, trying to hold back the occasional sniffle. It never occurred to Austin just how much Tasha adored her clothes till she'd lost an article in such an unfortunate manner. He'd seen her donate clothes before, so he knew she wasn't unwilling to part with them, but having them destroyed was another story. He had to admit, he might be pretty sad too if his favourite sweater suddenly had holes burnt all over it.

Tasha shook her head in response to his question, allowing him to clean all the makeup tracks from her face.

"Still sad?"

She nodded.

"Wanna go get some food from Ivy Parlour?"

Another nod.

Ivy Parlour - one of the group's many designated hang out spots in town, and definitely their favourite on the list. There wasn't anything particularly special about the modest little diner, but they were super friendly with all the staff, and the food selection was phenomenal for such a small business. Not to mention that the taste of said food was as phenomenal as the menu made it look.

Austin beamed and straightened out some untended wrinkles in Tasha's - well, his sweater, knowing she'd definitely cheer up once she got some food in her stomach. He couldn't remember seeing her eat very much at lunchtime - having been interrupted by more guys - so appeasing her appetite would likely do some good, and the Friday specials at the diner were always top tier.

Turned out, it did way better than just 'good'.

Austin was usually pretty surprised by how much Tasha could eat in comparison to him or Pablo, though not quite Tyrone. Austin wasn't a big eater, Pablo ate as much as about any regular guy, and Tyrone was too active for him to eat less than any of them. But Tasha had quite the loaded bank account and could order whatever she wished and in any quantity she wished. The table at their booth was covered in plates, and these were just the appetisers. Austin hadn't even ordered yet.

There was so much food, Austin didn't even wanna bring up her shirt, since it seemed like she'd forgotten all about it.

Tasha looked across at him, crunching a won ton between her teeth. "Aren't you gonna eat?"

"We're sharing?" Austin blinked. "I mean, I knew it was a lot of food, but you eat a lot too so I didn't wanna assume..."

"Silly," Tasha swallowed her food, pushing a plate closer within his reach. It was a plate of multicoloured nachos, arranged in a circle around a bowl of salsa dip. "Sure I eat a lot, but I'm treating you right now. For the sweater."

So she didn't forget.

Austin hummed decidedly, taking a chip from the plate. "You don't have to treat me for something like that, I was just helping out. You were pretty upset about it before, but you seem so happy that I thought you'd forgotten."

"Food fixes all problems!"

Austin laughed heartily at that. "Can't argue with that."

"Now that I'm looking, this sweater is pretty big on me." Tasha glanced down at the sweater, a cream-coloured crewneck. It didn't go badly with the rest of her outfit, thankfully, since that was a major thing she was constantly aware of.

If she was being honest, she looked pretty cute. The crewneck gave her a nice oversized look with her ruffled pink miniskirt, white bunched-up socks and white faux leather platform sneakers.

"Well duh, you're smaller than me," Austin chewed some more nachos while sending an accusing glance in her direction. "I'm a boy, y'know."

Tasha giggled at his defensiveness. He didn't get conscious about his size like Pablo did, but it often flustered him when he was treated like he needed to be protected. "Ready for something heavier?"

Austin's eyes widened as he stared down at the almost empty dish. When had he eaten so many of the nachos? "Oof. Sorry, did you want some?"

Tasha waved his concerns away. "I've got won tons and fried coconut shrimp. If I feel like nachos later, I'll just get some to-go."

"Well then, let's get some more food." Austin rubbed his hands together in hungry preparation. Tasha laughed and flagged down a waiter, ordering their next selection.

Time flew by like nothing at all as the two laughed carelessly and ate their food, consisting of tacos, rice bowls, fries and a shared bucket of fried chicken with the diner's special sauce. Austin heard the tale of how Tasha's precious shirt came about in the first place, and listened with an attentive smile as she recounted the battle she endured with another customer at the store when she spotted it on sale. She lamented how it would be dearly missed, and wiped a dramatic tear from her eye.

"Hey, do you remember that boy that used to be in our class in elementary school?" Austin pondered out loud as he spooned some rice into his mouth and moaned happily. "Gosh, the food here tastes better every time."

"What boy?" Tasha questioned, biting into a taco. "Used to be..? Oh! You mean Sidney?"

"Right!" Austin flicked his finger in recognition. "I just used to call him Sid though. I remember him because we both used to be really into science, and bonded over it. But I don't remember why he left."

"I do." Tasha set down her taco, trying to fully recall the story before she started it. "With the whole science thing, he was really good at it. Like, prodigy level good. So his parents transferred him to this prep academy for science loving kids that helps them better develop their talents. But the commute would've been brutal, so they just moved away altogether."

"That explains why I don't see him around town anymore," Austin gaped with a slurp of his soda. "That's great for him, though. But is the academy just science stuff? What about the other subjects we had to learn in elementary school?"

Tasha hummed. "Dunno. I don't remember the name of the school, so I can't look it up."

"I hope it's not like that," Austin frowned at the thought of kids being set back in their vital academics just to nurture a singular talent. "Thinking about it realistically though, I doubt they'd even be able to do that legally."

Tasha cocked her head, then smiled obliviously. "Probably!" She craned her neck, seeming to ponder something. "He was pretty cute though."

Austin sputtered on his soda and coughed. "I thought you liked Tyrone!"

Tasha laughed. "I only have memories of Sidney from when we were kids, so it's more of a childish cuteness." She backtracked for a moment. "But even so, liking Tyrone doesn't mean I can't acknowledge that other people are physically attractive!"

Austin rested his head against his palm and hummed lowly, staring Tasha in the eyes with an expression that said he wasn't entirely convinced. Noticing this, Tasha bumped his arm and discreetly motioned to a dark-haired boy around their age a few tables across the room.

"Take that guy for example," she leaned over the table towards Austin, within earshot so he could hear her lowered voice. "He's got a nice face, right? But he's a total stranger. So it's not that I'm attracted to him, but I can acknowledge that he has attractive features that could possibly attract someone else. Make sense?"

Austin took another long sip of his drink and nodded, staring at the boy still and realising she had a valid point. It was times like these when Tasha made good points that knocked all the sense out of him. Which was why his next comment came out absently before he even realised and could stop himself from making it.

"Yeah. The guy is pretty cute, isn't he?"

Austin felt his heartbeat significantly increase as regret washed over him, and fought the temptation to spit out his drink. He slid back into proper seating the booth, as did Tasha,  who was currently sitting across from him and looking perplexed. There was probably an excuse he could use for this, but he had the bad habit of blue-screening under pressure.

A number of questions ran through Tasha's head as she tried to choose which of them to start with. Her mouth didn't get the memo though, and blurted out the first thing that lined her tongue:

"Do you like guys?"

Austin swallowed thickly, despite having no liquid in his mouth to swallow. Straight guys complimented other guys too, didn't they? Maybe he could play it off that way. No, that wouldn't work at all. He knew exactly what a bad liar he was so that wasn't an option, and evading the question would just make things awkward later. They would probably be awkward later anyway, if things went the way he imagined.

Oh well. A bit earlier than anticipated, and not at all in the way he wanted, but things didn't always go according to plan, did they?

"Um, yeah..." Austin's voice came out quieter than he intended, and he silently cursed himself for being such a wimp. "I, uh, I was gonna tell you guys eventually, I swear. But I was just waiting till the time felt right, so yeah..."

He hung his head low and stared intensely at his hands that fidgeted with unease, trying to avoid looking at Tasha. His drooping hair shielded his face from what he was sure was the stinging disappointment radiating from her. This was what Austin had been afraid of. His strategy to drop the bomb softly had exploded in his face and ruined everything.

Dang it, I'm crying aren't I?

"Austin, can you look at me for a second?"

Austin tried to pass off the sound that escaped him as a dry chuckle, but trying to hide it only made it more evident that it was the beginning of a sob. "I kinda don't want to."

"Could you, please?"

The comforting tone in her voice was a large contrast to the disgust or disdain Austin had been expecting, and he whipped his head up faster than he probably should have. Nothing on Tasha's face showed any signs of negativity towards him.

Even more confusing was the soft smile she flashed his way.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" he breathed quietly, attempting to keep his tear ducts at bay for a while longer as words began to fail him.

"Austin, I think you're amazing."

...Amazing?

Tasha continued before Austin could start overthinking whether or not he heard that right or if he was having some kind of lucid dream. "I asked you something you probably weren't ready to answer, and you still faced the result head on." She shot him a grin, one that Austin could see the lingering sadness behind. "I wish I could do that, just like you. You're really brave."

Brave. It didn't come close to the negative adjective he was expecting to hear, but it didn't make him cry any less. Only in this scenario, he wasn't crying in the confinements of his room where no one could see or hear him being pitiful. Here, he confidently wept into Tasha's shoulder when she got up to sit on his side of the booth and soothe him. It wasn't fully okay yet, since Tasha was just one person, but it was a better start than Austin was hoping for, even if the order of things had veered off schedule a little bit. But right now it was okay. Tasha, even without saying the words flat out, had accepted him.

Austin chuckled a little bit through his hiccups when he realised that her airhead nature might have partially been to thank for this, since Tasha was the type to go along with things as they came. Discrimination probably wasn't even within her capabilities in the first place. She was too naïvely friendly for that thought to even cross her mind.

When he finally pulled away, sniffling still, but worries sufficiently cried out, Tasha comfortingly rubbed his shoulders.

"Feel a little better?" she asked with a soft expression; not quite a smile, but not a frown either.

Austin nodded, realising she was mirroring their interaction from earlier that day.

"Still sad?"

He shook his head, completing the opposite of what Tasha had done to bring them to the diner in the first place. He noticed sticky wet marks on her shirt and cringed.

"Sorry about the sweater." he winced, rubbing his neck sheepishly.

Tasha tilted her head. "This is yours, remember?"

Austin had forgotten about that, actually. He laughed when he realised that it was indeed his sweater she was wearing and that he could wash his own snot from it without issue.

"Holy crap, look at outside!" Tasha gasped, pressing her face to the window. "When did it get so dark?"

"Time flies when you're having fun." Austin chuckled, retrieving his phone.

⏤  5 New Messages From: Ty ⏤

⏤  37 New Messages From: Uni ⏤

⏤  2 New Messages From: Pablo ⏤

⏤  2 Missed Calls From: Dad ⏤

⏤  5 Missed Calls From: Uni ⏤

His chuckling promptly stopped when he saw all of his unread notifications, gradually widening as he saw who the notifications were from. He was definitely dead when he got home, and his parents wouldn't be the ones whose hands he died at. A quick explanation would appease them, but Uniqua? If the amount of texts and missed calls from her alone said anything, it was that Austin should probably get his affairs in order.

"We should probably call a waiter to get this food packed for takeaway." he tried to keep the semi-terrified tremble out of his voice as he put his phone away. "If the sky is any indication, it's getting late and we should start walking before night falls."

"Okay!" Tasha chirped, oblivious to the murderous intent that would be directed his way once they arrived back home. A waitress skipped over to box all their leftovers and Tasha insisted that Austin didn't have to help with the bill. They were on their way home when Tasha posed him an innocent question.

Austin raised a curious eyebrow. "Sure, what is it?"

She literally bounced in front of him, nose touching his nose with how close she suddenly honed in on him. "Is it only boys that you like, or do you like girls too?"

Austin couldn't bring himself to be exasperated. It was only natural that she had questions for him now. This probably didn't even scratch the surface of what she wanted to ask, and he'd have to deal with that barrage eventually, but for now she seemed content to receive this simple answer. If anything, he was impressed by her restraint.

"Yes, I like girls too." he poked her nose, gently pushing her out of his bubble and continued walking along the sidewalk. "Not much more to say about that. I don't have a preference for one or the other."

Tasha fell back into step beside him and hummed shortly, mentally noting this new piece of information.

Austin's sexuality wasn't brought up again for the evening, though it wasn't in an uncomfortable light that this was the case. He and Tasha aimlessly rambled to each other the entire time about useless things like they had at the diner, and it felt like no time at all before they arrived home.

The gate showed Austin no mercy when he tried to sneak through it, alerting everyone in the five households that the two of them had returned.

"Austin Forde, you better have a damn good explanation for why you two are back so late!" the she-demon's voice boomed the second their presence was known, startling Austin out of his skin. He was about to zip inside, but had a moment of remembrance and peeked back through the gate.

"Tasha!" he whisper-yelled to her, about to walk over to her own house.

She looked at him. "Mmh?"

He pressed a desperate finger to his lips and she winked at him knowingly.

I won't tell.

Austin smiled gratefully, then ducked into his yard and quickly retreated to his own house. As expected, it took few words to appease his parents, even more so since his mother was present and was the more lenient of the two, meaning she could also influence his father. Once he reached the confinement of his room, Austin let out a shaky breath with his back against the closed door. Relieved tears flowed from him for the second time that evening and he took a long inhale through his nose, mentally reminding himself that today was sort of a win. Coming out to Tasha was an unexpected development to Austin's day, but he allowed himself to feel glad about it nonetheless. It was a win since, not only did she accept him, but agreed to keep his secret until he was ready.

That was all he could have asked for.

Chapter Text

Uniqua ignored the whistles coming her way as she sat down on the curved ledge of the skate park, drinking from her water flask and feeling strangely alone.

Tasha was usually here with her, wobbling and stumbling while trying to get the hang of roller skates even a little bit so as to keep herself upright, and Uniqua would be gliding circles around her happily before taking pity on her and slowly guiding her through the park.

But that wasn't the case today. When Uniqua had gone over to Tasha's house that afternoon, it surprised her to find both her and Austin sitting cross-legged in the middle of her living room in the middle of a conversation. He wasn't normally in her house alone, but there they were having the time of their lives and finding whatever they were talking about the funniest thing in the world.

"Hey Tasha, you going skating with me today?" she had asked, seemingly interrupting the two from the way they suddenly whipped their heads at her like they'd been caught.

"Not today, I'm helping Austin out with something." the girl responded quickly. Uniqua knew Tasha, and was well aware that such a vague statement from her meant that she most likely wouldn't be saying anything more about it, so Uniqua had settled for a shrug and going back to her own house. However, with skating on her mind she grew restless, thus deciding to venture off to the skate park anyway - Tasha or no Tasha.

The sudden shock of cold metal against her cheek roused her from her thoughts, and she glanced across at Tyrone leaning down over her with a steel water bottle pressing her face. "What are you so deep in thought about?"

"Probably something stupid." Uniqua muttered. She knew that was a dumb answer, meaning that Tyrone would probably sit next to her and start interrogating her about it. It was next to impossible to be even remotely cryptic with him, he always found a way to get you to spill.

Further to her surprise that day, Tyrone crouched and hung his legs over the ledge, then quietly sat next to Uniqua with a skateboard on his lap.

"If it's something stupid, then don't think about it," he stated, tone as flat as usual. "That isn't like you."

Uniqua scoffed. "Yeah? Then what is?"

Tyrone turned to look at her with a small smirk. "Are you challenging someone that's known you since birth to explain something about you?" When she turned away with a defeated huff, he knew his point was proven. "Go do something to take your mind off of whatever's bothering you. For example...roller skating? We've been here for like twenty minutes and you haven't even put them on."

Uniqua slouched backwards, letting her chin touch her chest between her collarbones. "I prefer to watch you skate right now." She swung her legs back and forth and glanced at Tyrone, who studiously trained his gaze on her before shrugging in response.

"Suit yourself."

Tyrone hopped off the ledge and slid his board along the ground, then mounted it and started manoeuvring around the park. He was a pretty skilled skater, and some awestruck kids followed him with their eyes as he performed tricks that were flashy enough to garner attention.

Uniqua watched him roll around for a few minutes and sighed, giving in and loosening the laces of her roller skates. It was mildly infuriating how Tyrone never failed to make sense, no matter what he said. Doing something else was likely to take her mind off of the fact that Tasha had started buddying up to Austin all of a sudden after basically being told - by the one to whom she was the closest - to do better with her romance situation. Uniqua couldn't help feeling somewhat responsible for the girl's new decision to distance herself from the entire thing altogether.

But that wasn't something she wanted her mind to linger on, not when she had come to the park to skate and have fun. That aside, if she had to deal with the idiots behind her not-so-discreetly gawking at her any longer, she would be fleeing a crime scene. So after tightening and knotting the laces of her roller skates, Uniqua glided down the curved surface and rolled around to search for Tyrone, who shot her a knowing smirk when they came into contact, the smug bastard. She slid past him without a second glance, nose in the air, and felt an odd satisfaction seep in when she heard the sound of his skateboard trailing close behind her.

~

Tasha beamed musingly at Austin, trying to gulp his nerves away while staring at the countertop full of hair products. He never had the need to own so many of them before, so it was probably kind of intimidating to see the sheer volume of items that Tasha owned.

"Ready?" she grinned, stifling a laugh when he took a breath of preparation.

"No," Austin answered honestly. "But the sooner we begin, the sooner I can start trying to convince myself that I'm gonna be good at this."

Tasha definitely laughed at that one. "There's nothing to be bad at, it's just hair!"

"But..!" Austin protested. "Your hair is so nice and pretty, what if I damage it or ruin it?"

"You were the one that asked to do this y'know," She folded her arms. "So come on, don't be a wimp. Just remember that hair is an experiment."

Austin groaned nervously as Tasha directed him towards the bathroom, where there were even more hair products waiting on the counter near the sink.

"Do you really need all this stuff?" he asked, unable to keep the incredulousness out of his tone. "There was already so much outside."

"Those are for after it's washed," Tasha replied, running water into the tub. "The ones right there are washing products like shampoo, conditioner, hair masks, all the good stuff."

Austin blinked. "Sorry, washed? You're having me wash it too?"

"Not a full hair care routine without a wash, now is it?"

Once the water was an acceptable temperature, she switched the water to run out through the detachable shower head and rested it in the tub, then started pulling off her clothes. Austin yelped and immediately covered his eyes, but when Tasha started giggling he peeked between his fingers to find her wearing a plain black swimsuit.

"Why are you wearing a swimsuit?" he asked the obvious question.

"Because," Tasha tossed her clothes aside and started climbing into the tub. "It'll be easier for you to wash my hair without worrying about the water getting on the floor. Now stop asking questions and go grab the shampoo."

Austin nodded obediently and preparedly rolled up his sleeves. He stared at the labels of the three bottles, then picked up two of them in notable confusion. "What's the difference between a co wash and regular shampoo?"

"Just bring the shampoo," Tasha instructed. Austin set down the co wash and took his place beside the tub, sitting on a little stool to elevate himself. "Shampoo is just shampoo. But co wash is a product that washes your hair with conditioning only."

Austin flipped the cap up and turned the bottle upside down. "So it's kind of like conditioner and shampoo in one?"

"In a way," Tasha agreed. "Now this is pretty much the same as how you would do it to your own hair, but you've gotta use a lot more of the shampoo since our hair textures are really different."

"I see." Austin stared attentively at the slime spiralling out of the bottle and paused once he had a decent-sized glob. "Is this good?"

Tasha nodded. "I'll wet my hair for you, then you can start lathering it in." As she said so she ran the water over her hair. It rolled over her face and body, and Austin realised exactly why she'd decided to put on a swimsuit. Once sufficiently damp, she grinned across at him. "Okay, all yours."

Austin gulped for about the millionth time and shakily brought his hand towards Tasha's scalp, then rubbed lines across the top of her head to spread the shampoo as evenly as he could. Once all of the shampoo was off of his palm, he set both of his hands on her head and circled his fingers through the soft strands. It was laughable how nervous he'd been initially, because now that he was actually doing it, his chest deflated with a therapeutic exhale. He lifted portions of her curls and combed the shampoo through each of them with his slender fingers, then massaged the growing foam into her scalp.

"Am I doing a good job?" he asked with a tinge of nervousness, realising he'd been so caught up in playing with the hair that Tasha might have been immensely uncomfortable. A relaxed hum from the girl told him otherwise.

"You're doing great..." she sighed. "You have good instincts. Now take that blue brush looking thing over there and pass it through my hair."

Doing as he was told, Austin reached across the tub for a blue piece of plastic and fingered the bristles curiously. "What does this do?"

"It's a shampoo brush," the answer came. "It reaches the scalp and helps to get rid of some of the buildup of hair product you used before, and exfoliates any dead skin."

"Why don't I have any of this stuff..?" He muttered, jealousy striking him while he lathered Tasha's scalp with the silicone tool. "My hair must be pretty gross if these are the things you need to take care of it."

Tasha giggled. "Your hair is fine. It's straight, so it doesn't need as much extensive care as mine, or Uniqua's."

Austin circled the plastic brush around her head one more time and let out a satisfied hum. "Can you lean back?"

"Why?"

"I'm gonna wash the shampoo out," he replied, running the water again. "It'll sting if it gets in your eyes."

"How sweet of you!" Tasha beamed, tilting her head backwards. "I usually just stand under the shower head and let it all rinse off, but it goes into my eyes a lot. I never thought to lean my head under the water and wash the shampoo out, that's a good idea!"

Austin deadpanned for a second and had to remind himself that this was still the same airhead he was accustomed to dealing with, even if she did have her few knowledgeable moments. Her common sense and situational awareness weren't as high as the average person's would be.

"I'm glad I gave you such great insight." he settled. She was utterly hopeless, wasn't she?

For the next twenty minutes, Austin took orders from Tasha on what specifically to do next with her hair, using every necessary product to maintain her healthy curls. By the time the washing process was over, he was a happy boy with incredibly pruned fingers.

"Great job, babe!" Tasha clapped, looking at her freshly washed hair in the mirror. Austin rubbed his neck, blushing at the praise. "It feels nice and soft...and smells so clean!"

"Hehe..." Austin couldn't help the modest giggles that left him as he wrapped her in a towel. "But come on now, you're dripping water all over the floor. Wasn't the reason you even wore a swimsuit specifically to avoid that?"

"Welp..." Tasha grinned sheepishly, and quickly dashed from the bathroom before Austin could continue scolding her.

"Hey, don't drip it outside too! Tasha!"

~

Any urge Pablo felt to get under the influence miraculously vanished whenever he was near or inside the treehouse. Maybe it was a subconscious need to not taint the safe space of the purest person he knew, especially in his absence, but the entire place just screamed Austin, and it felt illegal to even say his name in the same sentence as a drug.

Another thing that felt illegal was Pablo hanging inside the treehouse without him. Sure, there was no rule that stated he couldn't be there if Austin wasn't since the thing technically didn't even belong to him, nor was it in his backyard; but at the same time its entire existence had been associated with him from the moment it had arrived.

Not only that, but Pablo had a rough idea of how Austin's schedule went when the group wasn't together, and today was an abnormality. He'd either be home doing his homework or playing with his frog, or be chilling amongst the soft cushions inside the treehouse, forgetting that the rest of the world existed. But apparently the kid was over at Tasha's playing hairdresser, which in itself was kind of bizarre, but not enough that Pablo would overthink it. He just...

Kind of wanted to see him today.

It was an unspoken fact of life that Austin radiated healing properties without trying. The day was feeling a little dim, so Pablo had been hoping to rejuvenate with him a little bit and not rely on getting high, but that plan was out of the window now so he had to settle for the next best thing.

Even without Austin, the treehouse was littered with things to remind you enough of him to give off the same effect. You wouldn't notice the stickers immediately unless it was darker out, but they were definitely there, along with the multitude of animal posters and insect anatomy charts thumbtacked all over the walls.

In one particular corner that never failed to make Pablo smile, was a collage of images Austin had printed and just started piling on top of one another. Some were of him holding his pet tree frog, some were of him grinning and showing off the insects he found here and there, and the majority were pictures of their entire group and the memories they'd made over the years. Pablo snickered softly as he thumbed through them and recalled the moments captured in the photos.

"All according to plan..." Pablo sighed, flopping stomach down onto one of the beanbags. Just as expected, the thought of weed never even crossed his mind once. The beanbags were so soft, the entire space smelled like wood and leaves and it was so peaceful. He nuzzled his cheek into the fabric and sighed relaxedly as his face sank into it. How was everything Austin owned so naturally therapeutic? It would be easy enough to drift to sleep here if you weren't careful.

Pablo was not at all careful.

~

Though his hands reeked of hair product, Austin was beaming from a job well done. After gaining a new skill, braiding, he was ecstatic at what he'd produced on Tasha's head. Some of the braids were a little loose, but the girl had praised him for doing so well for his time and hadn't failed to bring a smile to his face.

Giddily climbing the ladder of the treehouse and preparing for an hour of scrolling through pictures of his day, Austin almost lost his balance when he was unexpectedly met with the sight of Pablo curled up in the crook of a beanbag, hugging another one close and drooling on it. The drool didn't bother Austin as much as the presence of the boy it was coming from.

He climbed down the ladder and stared at the grass. That was a hallucination, right? There was no reason Pablo would be in the treehouse just because. His mind was playing tricks on him and showing him useless things. Of course it would do something as ridiculous as that right after he'd had such a good day. Maybe he'd be a comedian in his next life.

After spending three minutes telling himself that what he'd just seen was fake, he made his way up the ladder, only for the hallucination to stare him in the face and rub his eyes.

"Hey..." he drawled, rubbing his hair with a tired yawn.

Austin swallowed. How does one have a morning voice at five in the afternoon?

"I came looking for you earlier, but you weren't here..." Pablo's arm unconsciously squeezed the beanbag under his arm closer to his chest. He grinned sleepily. "You're here now though."

"Yeah, I guess I am." Austin chuckled, hoping he didn't sound as nervous as he felt. He never imagined Pablo would suddenly appear when he was planning to be alone and look at some pictures, but apparently God had other ideas. "Why are you here?"

"Come up here first," Pablo cocked his head. "You're still standing on the ladder."

Crap. Austin scrambled up the rest of the ladder, laughing off the embarrassment threatening to light his cheeks aflame. Pablo scooted aside, patting the empty beanbag next to him and beckoning him closer. Austin ducked inside the space and took the spot beside Pablo, who promptly fell over to rest his head in his lap.

"You have a comfortable lap." Pablo commented, snuggling his body into the new position.

Austin let out a half-strained laugh. "I'm kind of skinny, so I though it'd be the opposite."

"Nah," Pablo stretched. "It's fine. Everything about you is comfortable for some reason. I don't know what it is."

Austin tilted his head and leaned back against the treehouse wall to support his back. "Are you gonna tell me why you're here? Not that it's a problem, but you don't usually come up first."

Pablo let out an exhale that deflated his entire body. "I was having a little bit of a bad day. Nothing in particular happened, just one of those days, y'know?"

Confused furrowing of Austin's eyebrows told Pablo that no, he didn't know, and he facepalmed internally. Austin didn't know negative emotion without reason. Honestly, what was he even expecting from the manifestation of purity itself?

"Sometimes people have days when they don't feel the best," he tried to explain his position without being too depressing in one sitting. Austin didn't need his baggage. "It might not be for a particular reason, they just feel a little down."

"Like when I don't feel like doing my homework..?" Austin pondered out loud, trying to understand where he was coming from. "I feel really tired and just don't wanna do it."

Pablo laughed at the innocent analogy. "A little bit like that. But you're on the right track when you talk about feeling tired." He stared up at the treehouse ceiling, noticing the faint glow of the stickers beginning to take effect as the day faded away. "I usually play video games with Tyrone, or come hang out with you when it gets a little worse than usual."

Austin noticed him avert his gaze as he prepared to say his next sentence. "I prefer to do that than to...well, you know. Rely on other stuff."

"Oh..." Austin said quietly. He cautiously rested his hand in Pablo's hair and was met with no resistance. He wasn't normally vulnerable around the group willingly, so it felt like they'd hit a personal milestone here.

Pablo suddenly took Austin's hand from his hair and started pressing it to his face. Austin flushed, but didn't vocally react like he instinctively wanted to. "What are you doing?"

"Your hands," Pablo sniffed Austin's palm and stole his other hand to do the same, then allowed them both to just rest on his face. "They smell nice. Like coconuts...and berries."

"Oh!" The realisation made Austin laugh. "It's probably all the stuff I used in Tasha's hair today. All the shampoos and moisturisers and stuff smell really nice and fruity."

"Well it's making you smell nice and fruity." Pablo smiled against the skin of his palm, inhaling the sweet scent.

Austin's mouth twitched. Now that's hilarious.

"I'm glad you came to look for me," he smiled a closed-eyed smile down at Pablo. "I dunno, there's something poetic about being chosen over drugs." He laughed at the dumb comment when Pablo started sputtering with laughter.

"That's definitely an interesting way to look at it." Pablo coughed between his laughter. "I guess it is pretty flattering for a stoner to choose you over his weed, isn't it?"

Not in the way I'd wish for, Austin thought. But I'll take it.

If he had to hold off on his feelings, he could at least indulge in this for a while.

"I'm still really sleepy and I don't wanna move." Pablo yawned, crawling even further onto Austin's lap until he couldn't move from his seat. "And you're a comfortable pillow, so you aren't going anywhere either."

"What?!" Austin whined.

"Get comfy, skinny boy." Pablo mumbled mischievously, closing his eyes. "You'll be here a while."

Austin couldn't even protest against him and simply sighed in defeat. If he sat still long enough, he'd probably fall asleep too. But he would overthink later about how that meant that he and Pablo would literally be sleeping together.

Chapter Text

Austin tensed at the kitchen counter, using a food processor to mince some ginger. It was always so suffocating to do things with his father around, even something as simple as cooking. It felt like he needed to be prepared to defend himself at any moment, yet all the man was doing was drinking from a mug.

It was kind of ridiculous, Austin knew as much, but it couldn't be helped.

"So Austin," his father piped up, much to Austin's chagrin. "What are you thinking of pursuing once you leave school?"

Austin quietly flared his nostrils. This was the third time he was answering this exact same question since school had begun almost a month ago, and he knew quite well that his father's memory wasn't deteriorating at all. No, this wasn't a dementia fuelled shenanigan, he just asked the same question every now and then to see if Austin's answer had since changed. His father didn't fully accept the fact that he wasn't striving towards something generic like doctoral science or law, but he had at least one parent that supported his decisions and that was the leg of support he needed to stick to his dream. Austin was a bit of a pushover when it came to his father, but what he chose to study wasn't his father's decision - he knew that much to be able to stand firm by his life choice.

"I'm going to study biological sciences." he answered, scooping the minced ginger from the processor. He was making a soup for his mother, who'd come down with a little bit of a fever, but the ginger and onions irritated his nose and eyes.

Austin's father give a dissatisfied grunt and he took a strange happiness in ruffling his feathers. That was a thing with him lately; finding pleasure in his father's displeasure. That was probably a bad habit waiting to develop, so he should probably try to break it early.

"What exactly will you be studying then?" his father pushed. "Biological science is a vague answer."

"I'm weighing my options, but I'm leaning towards either entomology or herpetology," Austin replied immediately. He knew his father had no idea what those things were, since his interests weren't something he ever really involved himself with, so he tried to end the conversation as quickly as possible. "Entomology is the more probable of the two."

"Well don't change your mind when it's too late," the man settled, taking another sip from his cup. "You won't have the option to change once you've already made your decision."

"I don't plan to, dad."

Austin raked the vegetables into a brewing pot on the stove, sensing that the exchange was over.

For now.

He would rather focus on the task at hand than have a back and forth with his father about why he didn't think studying insects was a poor life decision, so he used the terms he could come up with that had the most syllables so his father wouldn't question anything in the moment. Big words had a stupid way of convincing him of things, since the man tended to associate a wider vocabulary with a higher level of sophistication. The fact became increasingly more stupid when you considered that medicine had less words than both the sciences he'd mentioned. But Austin chose not to care, instead accepting it as a loophole waiting to be exploited whenever possible.

Once the soup was finished and he had an accompanying mug of honey and ginger tea, Austin made his way upstairs to his mother's room. It hurt his heart to see her bedridden, but he knew a cold was easy enough to ward off as long as he took care of her.

"Hey mom," he called softly, using his foot to lightly tap the door and let her know he was there. She was wrapped in a blanket, looking quite comfortable for someone who was supposed to be sick. "I brought you some soup and tea."

"Thanks Austin," her voice was hoarse and definitely sounded sick, but she still managed to look cheerful even if her body wasn't in the best of states. "What's in it?"

"Just some vegetables," he beamed, setting the tray at her bedside table. "And I put ginger and garlic in it, since Google said that might help. The tea is ginger and honey."

"Did Google tell you about that, too?" his mother smirked, laughing when the boy nodded. "I'm glad I have such a reliable son."

"At least one of you feels that way." he shrugged absentmindedly, standing from the bed to leave. His mother pulled him right back down and creased her eyebrows with concern.

"What does that mean?"

"Ah, I said that out loud..." Austin groaned. His mother de-cocooned herself from her blanket and swung her legs over the side of the bed, levelling her gaze at her son.

"What did your father say to you?" her tone firmly demanded that Austin be straight with her, and he sighed. He was hoping not to bother her with this.

"He didn't really say anything, it's just the implications." he tried to shrug it off. "He's always asking me what I plan to study after school, as though he expects me to change my mind."

A dry laugh left him. "Funny, really. Even when I was a kid, he thought that me showing the slightest interest in drawing meant I could lean towards architecture in the future, even though the only things I ever drew were animals and insects."

His mother's face showed no signs of amusement despite Austin's attempt to laugh off the situation. She had a better knack for seeing through him than his father did.

"He just...expects me to take after you guys for some reason," he continued, realising she had been waiting - almost like she knew there was more for him to say. "You're a real estate agent, he does landscaping; I dunno, maybe he wanted me to pick up the slack somewhere."

"Your father's only expectations for you should be that you do well," his mother told him sternly. "Not that you go into a field he finds appropriate for you."

She watched Austin stand up and don a strangely unreadable expression on his face before he offered her an obviously forced smile. "Eat the soup, mom. I don't want you to stay sick."

She wordlessly watched her son exit her room and stared down into the steaming bowl in her lap, wishing that the boy would care about himself as much as he cared about her.

~

Tyrone resisted the urge to smirk as he beat Pablo for the third time in a row. Playing against him was never much of a challenge, but it was still fun to hang out.

"Want something to drink?" he offered, getting up to go for something to drink for them both.

"Sure, but could you at least get rid of the victory screen?" Pablo groaned, lolling his head back against the couch. "I don't need to be reminded of my failures."

Tyrone snickered quietly at the frowning boy as he walked off to the kitchen and purposely left the victory screen flashing in his face. There were beers in the fridge, which Pablo liked the disgusting taste of for some reason, but those belonged to his mother so he couldn't touch them. He settled instead for two CapriSun packets, shut the fridge, and tossed the cold drink to Pablo when he reentered the living room.

"CapriSun?" he snorted. "What are we, six?"

Tyrone shrugged. "I still buy them because they taste good. I can take it back if you don't want it."

That earned him a defensive hiss.

The two drank their juice in comfortable silence, simply leaning back against the furniture while the game's background music looped. Tyrone finished his off quickly with a firm squeeze while Pablo was still slurping his.

"So," Pablo began, suddenly cut off by a burp. "You went on a date with Uniqua yesterday?"

"It wasn't a date." Tyrone muttered. "We just went to the skate park, we've done that a million times. Besides, I didn't ask her to go; she asked me."

"And that makes it not a date...how?" Pablo drawled slowly. "I thought you'd leap at the chance to call it a date, what's the problem?"

"Usually, maybe, but..." Tyrone scratched his head, recalling the events of the day before. "She didn't ask me just for the sake of going out, she was originally planning to go with Tasha."

"But Tasha was with Austin most of the day yesterday." Pablo pointed out.

"Exactly," Tyrone sighed. "I was more of the replacement partner for the day which - as much as I enjoy Uniqua's presence - isn't a pleasant thought."

Pablo snorted at that and Tyrone raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Pablo looked at him with a disbelieving expression. "Come on, do you really think Uniqua would have come to me to go to the skatepark if you weren't available?"

"Well you can't really skate all that well so-"

"Not the point," Pablo cut him off with a disgruntled clearing of his throat. "Besides, even if you wanna go there, Tasha can't skate well either but Uniqua still takes her to the park. Why doesn't she just go with you?"

"Because that's a part of their girl time," Tyrone rubbed his face and groaned. "Tasha doesn't have to be good at it, they're just going to have fun."

"Then by that logic, she could take me too, couldn't she?

"You aren't a girl!" Tyrone exclaimed frustratedly. "What part of 'girl time' are you not getting, man?"

Pablo blinked at the male next to him, having a crisis he couldn't understand. He knew that Tyrone had his dense moments, as was evident by him not realising Tasha's feelings yet, and it was kind of weird for him to not pick up on things like this when he was usually the most observant one in their party. However, right now his lack of understanding was bordering on asinine. If Uniqua was more likely to choose Tyrone over Pablo to hang out when she was supposed to be having girl time with Tasha, and Tyrone himself understood that, why wasn't he putting the pieces together when they were right in front of him?

"I guess so." Pablo replied plainly, shaking his head in amused disbelief. It would be interesting to see how things played out with his hollow skulled buddy. "Round three?"

"Bet."

~

⏤ AUSTIN <3  ⏤

Austin: Ughhh

Tasha: Uh oh, 3 whole h's on that ugh?

Tasha: What's the matter baby

Austin: My dad is literally the bane of my existence

Tasha: Honey, we all knew that

Tasha: But what did he do this time

Austin: He just makes it so obvious that he doesn't want me to study bugs

Tasha: But you love bugs

Austin: Tell him that, would you

Tasha: He scares me a little

Tasha: Or a lot

Tasha: Sorry babe, you're on your own there

Austin: Hence

Austin: Ughhh

Tasha: Well that's not good, we can't leave things like that

Tasha: Wanna come over? I got something fun for you to try

Austin: More hair stuff?

Tasha: Nah my hair's done up nice right now thanks to you

Tasha: I got some beauty products that you can try out if you're down

Austin: Will it take my mind off of stuff?

Tasha: Definitely

Austin: On my way

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Tasha bounced her legs back and forth, calves springing off her thighs rhythmically as she swiped through her phone to check the time. She had woken up earlier than normal, only because she'd forgotten that today was supposed to be a holiday from school, but at least she had a larger portion of the day free.

"Tasha~!"

That didn't sound like Austin.

But the voice wasn't unfamiliar either. Tasha rose from the bed and peeked her head out of her room, beaming at who she saw in the hallway.

"Mama!" she squealed, voice pitched with excitement.

"Hi baby!" her mother skipped over to her and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Why aren't you at school? Are you sick?" She took hold of Tasha's face and started twisting it around to examine her features and search for any signs of illness.

"No I'm not sick," Tasha answered, voice muffled from her mother squishing her cheeks together. "There's no school today for some reason."

Her mother released her face and furrowed her eyebrows, to which Tasha just shrugged, and the two made their way downstairs. Tasha could feel a warm giddiness in her chest from her mother's presence and tried to still herself. The woman wasn't often around, not for lack of trying, but Tasha loved her dearly and relished every moment she could spend with her.

"Have you heard from your father?" her mother headed straight to the kitchen for a cup of coffee from the machine, while Tasha walked over to sit in the lounge.

"Nothing much," Tasha replied, pulling her feet up comfortably on the couch. "We text now and then when he has free time, but you know how he is."

"Busy man." her mother nodded, and they both released a collective sigh of agreement.

A soft knock on the patio door alerted Tasha to the arrival of another, and she grinned at the boy waving to her outside to let him in. She got up from the couch while her mother glanced around the wall separating the two rooms to see who had arrived.

"Austin!" she greeted, walking into the room with a welcoming smile. "What a pleasant surprise!"

"Same to you!" the boy replied politely. "I haven't seen you in a while how have you been?"

"As good as a woman can be." she winked, and Tasha nudged her playfully with a soft 'Mom!'. Austin laughed at their familial banter. He could relate, his mother was pretty close with Tasha's and the two were similar. "So what brings you by?"

"Well, Tasha invited me over to use some...beauty products?" Austin trailed off with a questioning glance towards Tasha, who nodded enthusiastically.

"Tasha, you're subjecting the poor boy to makeup?" her mother rested her hand against her face, looking between the two teenagers with exasperation. "Austin, you know you don't have to take her on, right?"

"It's fine, Mrs. Moore." Austin laughed. "I don't mind, it's pretty fun sometimes."

"Sweetheart, you know that we've known each other for years, call me Charlotte."

"...Ms. Charlotte?" Austin repeated sheepishly.

Tasha interjected before her mother could continue. "Mom, that's about as much as you'll get out of him. Austin's too polite to just call you by your name like that, even if you give him permission to do it every single time."

"Looks like Paige raised a gentleman!" Charlotte teased, then leaned in towards him. "You think you could share a little bit of that with Pablo?"

"We tried." Tasha and Austin answered simultaneously, then burst out laughing.

"I'll be in my room, just shout if you need me." Charlotte sauntered off with a pep in her step and disappeared up the staircase.

As soon as she disappeared, the air turned serious. Tasha glanced towards Austin, who returned her look, and they both started making their way up to her room. Austin had been in it before, though not recently, so the girlishness of the room was a pleasant encounter. The things in Tasha's room all fell under the same colour category of some kind of baby or pastel colour, and the room itself was incredibly spacious. It reminded him of a room in a dollhouse.

"Anything more you wanna talk about?" Tasha asked, going towards her vanity table for a container of items.

"I mean, I've pretty much told you what I was upset about," Austin shrugged, flopping onto her bed. "Unless you want me to go into detail about what he said and why it implied the things it did, there isn't much else to tell."

Tasha nodded, softly shaking a bottle of eyeliner. "Then let's start there."

For the next half hour, Austin sat on Tasha's carpet spilling his troubles while Tasha listened in silence and applied light makeup to his face. Austin had nice skin already, she noted, so she wanted to go for a more natural, male approach. Austin didn't strike her as the type that would adore a full face of makeup, fancy eyeshadow and all, so she settled for something subtle that would accentuate his eyes.

"So basically he has a mould for you in his head but he's upset that you won't lay in it." Tasha murmured. "Is that the gist of it?"

"More or less." Austin huffed. "I'm just glad my mom isn't the same way, otherwise I wouldn't be able to cope at all. I'd feel so suffocated."

Tasha hummed. She couldn't imagine what that must have been like, but she could empathise with Austin and be a safe person for him to vent to. He could communicate with his mother, obviously, but no one wanted to sit and listen to their son talk trash about their husband.

Tasha sat back and squinted at Austin's face for a moment, then gave a satisfied nod and closed the lid of her blush.

He cocked his head curiously. "Is it done?"

"Yup!" she beamed, pulling him off the floor and moving towards the vanity. "Take a look."

Austin stared at the reflection in the mirror and did a double take. That reflection was his?

"Wow...You didn't even do much but I look so different!" Austin muttered in awe, turning his face left and right. "What's this on my lips?"

"Lip gloss." Tasha crossed her arms with a triumphant smirk, feeling awfully proud of herself. "I didn't put on a lot, just enough to give your lips some shine. The blush really makes your eyes look more vibrant than they were before, though."

"I really like this stuff on my eyes." Austin lifted his bangs out of the way, mentally noting that he should probably get a haircut soon, and stared at the black line on his eyelid. "Is it mascara?"

"No silly boy, that's eyeliner." Tasha snickered. "Mascara goes on your eyelashes to make them longer, and your eyelashes are already long enough as is. I assume you like it then?"

"Do I!" Austin struck a pose in the mirror, immediately ceasing when Tasha cackled out loudly. "I look so cool!"

"We should go show Mom."

"Lead the way."

Tasha dragged Austin two doors down from her room and opened the door to find her mother relaxing, watching the TV up on the wall.

"Mom, look at Austin."

Charlotte glanced at the two in her doorway and clapped her hands together.

"Very cute!" she flashed them a thumbs up and grinned wider as she saw her daughter swell with pride at her praise. "Amazing job, Tasha."

When the two left her on her own once again, seemingly satisfied with the reaction, Charlotte pondered for a moment. When had Tasha grown to be so close with Austin? Obviously there was no problem with that, since she knew he'd been a part of their group for a long time now, and was one of them. But her daughter had a tendency to gravitate towards girls when it came to friendships, and as far as Charlotte knew, that role had been filled by Uniqua for as long as she could remember. Uniqua was the sole presence in their house when the boys weren't around, so why was Austin suddenly a new member of that equation? Maybe she needed to call Paige and ask her if something was going on?

Whatever the reason was, Charlotte sensed no hostility or any signs of a falling out in Tasha's behaviour. She also knew what a striking reflection of his mother Austin was, and could detect no anomalies in his behaviour either. It was strange. Maybe things between them were just taking a spontaneous shift? Or maybe Charlotte had been absent from Tasha's life longer than she'd originally thought?

"Teenagers..." she sighed. It was useless to overthink it, and she couldn't pry it out of them either. So instead of unnecessarily stressing herself out over things that weren't within the boundaries of her control, she would limit her interference to watching from the sidelines. They weren't children anymore, they'd be young adults soon. They knew how to take care of things for themselves.

Charlotte just needed to trust that whatever was going on, good or bad, was within their control.

Chapter Text

Another school day, successfully wrapped up.

Austin smiled happily to himself as he gathered the necessary homework textbooks from his locker and stacked them neatly into his backpack. School had been flying by without a hitch, and if he was lucky, the rest of the year would be the same. Not that he really thought much about school as a whole, anyway. It was kind of just a side job that he could maintain without issue. His main life's priorities were his friends and his frog.

And bugs. He adored bugs.

But that wasn't the only thing he'd been giddily bouncing in his steps the whole afternoon for. No, what kept his mood warm was the thought that his face was made up for the first time at school, or in any public place for that matter. Tasha had ambushed him at lunchtime to bring up the idea, and with how excited she'd looked to show off, how could he refuse? Besides, he'd loved the look she did last time and she had outdone herself on her second attempt.

Her job was simple, since Austin didn't exactly want to try being extravagant. It wasn't like he was trying to draw attention to himself. The look ended up being more or less the same as the last time Tasha had done it, but she added a little colour to the corners of his eyelids that matched with the navy blue sweatshirt he'd chosen that day, and he was absolutely rocking the two. They went so well together that even if he got any attention while trying to avoid it, he wouldn't have minded it as much as usual.

A clanking sound alerted Austin to someone's presence, and he glanced over to the locker next to him to notice a tall male leaning up against it. He peered down at Austin with a hint of a grin, and Austin wasn't sure why he was being stared at.

"Can I...help you..?" he attempted softly, still not sure if the person was paying attention to him. He wasn't normally paid attention to, much less by other boys at school, so it wasn't that likely.

"I don't know," the boy replied. "Can you?"

Austin blanked for a second, trying to process the response. What did that even mean?

"I don't think so?"

As Austin poured random things from his head, unused to talking to strangers, he tried to pinpoint the reason for the mild familiarity this person was giving off. Much like other people tended not to pay attention to him, he never paid much attention to other people. It was a peculiar type of wallflower category he fell under. But he was sure he knew this person, if not from speaking to him, then...

"Oh, you're in my social studies class!" Austin suddenly blurted out in his moment of recognition. "You sit in the middle row by the window, right?"

"You're in my social studies class? With Mr. Kennedy?" the boy cocked his head as Austin gave him a nod of affirmation, and his face fell for a fraction of a second before donning a flirtatious smirk. "I don't recognise you. I think I would have seen a cute girl like you in my class before. You sure you didn't switch?"

"No I'm sure," Austin confirmed with an awkward smile. It was only natural that someone in his own class didn't recognise him. "I've been in Mr. Kennedy's class since..."

He paused, running that sentence back in his mind.

"I think I would have seen a cute girl like you in my class before."

"Um, did you just call me a...'cute girl'?" Austin questioned. It didn't help that the disbelief in his voice made the pitch rise, but he hoped that what he thought was going on wasn't actually occurring.

"What, does that make you shy?" the boy leaned in closer to Austin, closing some of the distance between them. Students passing by them paid no attention to their exchange.

Oh my gosh, I think I'm being hit on right now, Austin inwardly panicked. He thinks I'm a girl? What do I do?!

On one hand, Austin could just leave the situation there and leave him where he stood, but then he might get bothered another day for the same reason, and that was embarrassment waiting to happen. Not that this wasn't embarrassing in itself, but he would really prefer if it didn't happen again in the future. The only issue was that this person was larger than he was, and it was terrifying to think about what could ensue if he didn't take the revelation well. What would he do when Austin revealed that he was actually a boy? Would he think he was tricking him by not speaking up about it immediately? But the sentence didn't register right away, so that wasn't his fault!

Now to gamble on if this boy would see it that way.

"U-Um, sorry to disappoint you, but..." Austin muttered meekly. "I'm not a girl..."

"Speak up, sweetheart," the boy crooned, boosting Austin's heart rate. "I can't hear that pretty voice-"

"I'm a boy!"

Crap.

Austin wasn't planning to yell like that, and now he had the attention of not only the subject in question, but any passers-by who were in ear shot of him. Who was he even kidding, he'd blurted that out loudly enough for people the next hallway over to hear him. And he'd been exasperated with Tasha the other day for crying so loudly? He basically just did the exact same thing!

"You're...what?"

In his panic, Austin had almost forgotten that there was a person in front of him that he'd been addressing, and immediately paled when he looked back at him. His face wasn't particularly scary, but the level of shock he was exuding was enough to make Austin slam his locker closed and make a beeline for the stairs. Not once did he look back, nor did he take a look at the faces of anyone he passed, which was why it startled him more than it should have when an arm yanked him from his path.

"Who..." he panted, hunching over to catch his breath.

"Hey, why are we running?" Uniqua's familiar voice fell on grateful ears, and Austin looked into her eyes with his increasingly teary ones.

"Please let's go home."

Uniqua's face hardened at the sight of his tears, and her grip on his arms tensed. "What's the matter?"

"I'll tell you when we go home," Austin evaded. "Can we please just go?"

Uniqua glanced towards the hallway he'd just come from, seeing nothing out of the ordinary apart from a few confused and curious stares directed towards them. She knew Austin didn't like the attention, and started leading him away with a frustrated sigh.

"Text the others, tell them we're going straight to Tasha's when we get home." she instructed. Austin nodded and retrieved his phone from his still open bag, sent a quick text to their group chat.

⏤ BACKYARDIGANS  ⏤

Austin: Guys, we're going to Tasha's when we get home

Austin: I'll explain later

Pablo: What

Pablo: Wait what

Pablo: What happened

Tyrone: ...can you read?

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Austin followed closely behind Uniqua until they got out of the school building and to Tyrone's car. Running footsteps behind them let them know that Pablo was approaching, and Tasha was already in the backseat - likely thanks to Tyrone taking it upon himself to go find her.

"Everyone in." Tyrone promptly instructed. His voice left no room for protest. "Austin, you get in the front."

Everyone climbed into the car as directed by Tyrone, no objections. Sitting in the front usually made Austin feel a little important, and was a surefire way to cheer him up a little on the drive home, which would definitely be a quiet one.

Tasha reached through the little space between the car and the front seat to softly touch Austin's shoulder. He glanced at her through the mirror and gave her a reassuring rub on top of her hand.

Uniqua looked between the two and then looked around at the others. Tyrone's eyes wouldn't leave the road, while Pablo kept occasionally sending concerned looks in Austin's direction. Uniqua herself had feelings of unease rising the entire way home.

She only hoped that nothing terrible had happened to him.

~

Pablo couldn't contain his wheezing laughter when Austin reached the end of his pitiful story. His body trembled with unreleased cackles the entire time he'd been recounting the tragic events that took place, and he'd finally broken when everyone else just sat in silence.

Tyrone didn't even have the capacity to stop him from laughing. He had no idea how to react to that story.

Uniqua just looked exasperated at the way the story had unfolded, pinching her nose with flared nostrils. That was definitely not the direction she was expecting it to go, but in all honesty she didn't know what she had even been expecting. Austin wasn't the one in the group to really have problems at school, so this was even more out of the ordinary than normal.

"I'm never wearing makeup to school again." Austin groaned. He did his best to cover his embarrassed face with his hands, but he was unable to hide the redness that started spreading to the tips of his ears. In hindsight, the way he'd reacted was definitely an overreaction and entirely unnecessary, but in the moment it had felt appropriate. Who'd want to deal with that embarrassment around so many other people?

"But something about this doesn't really make sense," Tyrone piped up. "Even if we take his makeup into account, it's not like Austin really looks like a girl, does he?"

At his comment, all eyes promptly fell on Austin who was peeking at them through the spaces between his fingers. He shook his head at their unspoken request and closed the gaps in his hands.

"Babe, you gotta move your hands for us to give a proper assessment, y'know?" Uniqua informed him. Austin shook his head.

"Absolutely not." he frowned behind his palms. "What if it really is the makeup? You guys will think I look like a girl!"

"Austin, I'm the one that put it on you," Tasha stated. "If you looked like a girl, I'd have told you. Now come on, move your hands let them see."

Austin parted his fingers and pouted. "Do you promise not to make fun of me?"

Tyrone flicked Pablo - who was still laughing for some reason - hard in his temple. "We promise." He sent a glare Pablo's way that made the boy gulp fearfully and nod in affirmation.

Austin didn't seem fully convinced, but everyone was sitting around him expectantly and he couldn't really leave them hanging, so he hesitantly lowered his hands. Tasha suddenly materialised beside him and squished his cheeks in her hands.

"You are still so cute!" she fawned. "Ah~! I did such a good job, oh my god. Uniqua, look at him."

Uniqua craned her neck to look at Austin's face, and her mouth formed a pleasantly surprised 'o'.

"Wow," she hummed, nodding in acknowledgement of the job well done. "You did him up good, Tasha. It actually looks pretty great."

"What do you mean actually?" Tasha huffed. "Are you doubting my beauty skills?"

"I'm not doubting anything."

Austin flushed under the attention when even Tyrone started agreeing, not entirely sure how to respond to it. No one was drawing any attention to the reason they were here in the first place, which he supposed was somewhat of a good thing since he didn't want it to be a constant memory.

"All things considered," Pablo suddenly piped up, squinting at Austin's face and rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I think he looks pretty cute."

Austin hoped his face didn't look as hot as it felt.

"No homo, of course." Pablo quickly added. "Just a guy hyping up his guy friend."

"I feel like you didn't need to say 'no homo' then," Tyrone noted. "Kind of defeats the purpose."

Pablo rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man."

Austin snickered quietly at their back and forth, and silently played with his fingers in his lap.

No homo.

Of course, he didn't expect anything less. Not that it mattered. Austin was perfectly fine with admiring from a distance. Social cues had set the boundaries of their relationship, and he respected that.

There was no rule that said he wasn't allowed to like him regardless.

~

"Your nails are so pretty!" Tasha beamed, brushing a swipe of baby blue polish onto Austin's thumb. Everyone else had returned to their own houses after the incredibly anti-climactic reveal of Austin's situation, so now it was just them two in her room. Austin had accepted her offer to paint his nails as a way to make him feel better and take him mind off of the embarrassing moment, and Tasha was glad to finally have someone willing to indulge her pastel addiction.

"I suppose so?" Austin laughed, trying to remain as still as possible so he wouldn't mess with her concentration. "Not sure what makes nails 'pretty', but I'm glad mine apparently are."

"It's so unfair, honestly," Tasha glanced up at him. "Guys always have the best physical features that most girls would kill for. It's practically wasted on them."

Austin huffed playfully at her. "Rude."

"I didn't mean you, obviously, dummy." She stuck out her tongue in reply. "Unlike most guys, you actually have an appreciation for your attributes."

"Courtesy of you." he reminded her. "If not for you getting me into all these things, I'd be another guy who didn't appreciate my blessings."

"Fair," Tasha hummed. "But you have other things I'd love to have too, not just your nails."

Austin tilted his head, curious about what she found appealing about him. He'd never really considered himself and the way he looked until he'd started spending more one-on-one time with Tasha, which naturally came along with certain activity requirements like makeovers. Even the foreign routines he never even thought about like skincare and haircare felt like he was going out of his way, though they usually brought with them a therapeutic feeling afterwards. Maybe Tasha was bringing out something new in him.

The thought brought a warmth to Austin's chest. Until recently, Tasha's presence was always just the ditzy girl that was friendly and social. But anyone who really knew Tasha knew that she didn't have many real friends, as did Austin. So while she fluttered from person to person, excelling at interaction, those who she considered real friends knew that she was the sweetest gem to be around.

"So what else do you find attractive about me?" Austin boldly wiggled his eyebrows, causing Tasha to sputter with laughter.

"You should do that to everyone you meet." she gasped. "They'll fall for you for sure."

If only, Austin hummed internally.

"I'll make note of that." he laughed along with her. "But I'm serious! Skip the part when I said attractive, but what kind of stuff on me would you want for yourself? Those features you mentioned that girls would kill for."

"Well first of all, your skin is flawless." Tasha answered immediately. "Plus you have freckles. There are some people that'll use makeup to give themselves freckles, and there are others that have them naturally and use makeup to cover them up. But freckles are adorable and you make them work, since you've got such a cute face."

She listed off all the things Austin had on him that were to die for, like his long eyelashes and slender fingers.

"You flatter me." he grinned. "You should be careful, you're a natural flirt."

"Doesn't really matter if the person I want it to work on never picks up on it," Tasha groaned. "But I'm glad someone else besides Uni can see it, cuz I was beginning to think that I was just terrible at it and she was just being nice to me."

"No trust me, you're being incredibly obvious." Austin assured her, suddenly solemn in the face. "It sometimes gets a little sad that he never notices."

Tasha resisted the urge to wring her arms at the relief she felt. Austin definitely understood. "Right?! It's like, what am I even doing wrong?"

"Maybe..." Austin trailed. "I dunno, there must be a reason you haven't done it by now..."

"What?"

He took a short breath. "Now hear me out...you could tell him directly that you like him, and see where that goes?"

"Uniqua told me the same thing," Tasha smiled sadly, closing the bottle of nail polish. "Maybe it really would be better if I just came out and told him, but part of me is probably putting it off because I'm so afraid of the rejection that might come."

She looked into Austin's eyes as he covered her hands with his own. "Don't worry, you don't have to explain that. I completely understand. You feel more secure keeping your feelings to yourself because you might ruin everything if things don't turn out well, so you're okay to just live with those feelings instead."

Tasha nodded in surprised affirmation, realising that Austin suddenly seemed a lot larger after saying that. He was still the cute boy that liked other boys that she could enjoy doing girly things with when she wasn't with Uniqua, but right now he was giving off a new air of maturity.

Either that, or something between them had connected in that moment of relatability.

She didn't even realise she was tearing up until Austin wiped the corners of her eyes. "It's scary, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is."

Tasha gave a long sigh and began patting her cheeks. "Wow. We just had our first sentimental crying session. How cute is that?"

Austin rolled his eyes, amazed at her rebound, but indulged her. "Actually it's the second. Remember I cried the day you found out about my...romantic interests?"

"How did I forget about that..?" Tasha facepalmed. "Everything's happened so fast since that day, and it feels like we've been leaving everyone else out."

"You think?" Austin pondered. All the time that had elapsed since the day he and Tasha started hanging out one on one didn't feel as long as it actually was, but two weeks was a pretty long time for them to not hang out with anyone else in their friend group. They were all usually so tight-knitted, but he was so excited lately to just be free of secrets around someone that he lost track of everything around him.

Well, except for one secret.

Tasha knew and accepted that Austin liked guys which was definitely a step forward, but telling her that he currently liked one, and that the guy in question was Pablo, was a much larger leap that he definitely wasn't ready to take. Unlike her, he wasn't being obvious about liking him either, so no one in his group had caught on yet.

At least, he hoped so.

"We've been hanging out a lot lately, and don't get me wrong I love spending time with you." Tasha stood from the spot on her bed and started pacing around the room. "But we haven't hung out or done anything with the others in a while. Maybe it's time we did something together like we used to all the time. We could plan a trip somewhere or have a day out."

"Ooh, that sounds great!" Austin clapped excitedly. Hanging out together with everyone did sound like a fun idea. "Maybe this weekend, or the one after? We could go on a road trip."

"Fun!" Tasha was already furiously tapping her phone screen, taking note of every idea they threw out. "Where would we go?"

"We should ask the others and plan it together," Austin suggested, taking out his own phone. "Since everyone's going, we should all pitch in our own ideas and decide on something. We should probably take a shopping day too, so we can go and buy all the things we'll need."

"I know it's never usually a problem, but I feel like with my recently acquired knowledge I should ask you if your dad'll be okay with you going." Tasha looked questioningly towards him.

"I don't ask him about stuff like that," Austin laughed. "I don't go anywhere so he doesn't really care what I do as long as I'm not getting into trouble and my grades aren't slipping. I just let my mom know whenever we're doing something, and she knows all of you so she never says no to us going out together."

"Perfect," Tasha grinned. "This is gonna be amazing. I can see it already - imagine all the pictures we'll take! Ooh, maybe we should go somewhere with a meadow!"

Austin chuckled at her as she squealed delightedly at her own ideas and began to mutter to herself all the things they could do. An outing with their whole group might have seemed random if they posed it out of the blue, but everyone would more than likely be up for the opportunity to get out of the house. If they were really lucky, maybe they'd even be able to stay somewhere overnight.

Tasha's head was definitely in the right place. Whatever they planned would be amazing.

Chapter Text

The three boys stood in a silent circle within the backyard sandbox. Tyrone lifted handfuls of sand and watched the grains fall between his small fingers while Pablo, at another spot in the box, used a shovel to dig a hole as deep as the box would allow. Austin hovered nearby and patted mounds of sand together in silence, as he was befallen with a strangely uncharacteristic feeling of boredom.

"What are we supposed to do now that the girls aren't here?" Pablo complained, refilling the hole he'd dug for the fourth time so he could dig it up again. "They aren't here to do the girly things for the game. We were supposed to do a princess story today!"

"I don't wanna go home either..." Austin timidly spoke up, pouting a little bit as he too felt frustration over their plans being thwarted. He'd grown a little more comfortable around them to finally voice his own opinion - albeit not too often yet - since he was caught watching them for the first time. "It feels like I would have come outside for nothing."

"There's no reason we can't still play," Tyrone flatly chimed in. The other two boys turned to look at him curiously. He usually didn't speak up unless he had an idea. "But one of us is gonna have to make a sacrifice."

Pablo frowned. "A sacrifice?"

Tyrone slowly glanced up at them.

"One of us will have to be the princess."

Silence befell the trio at his words, and the gust of wind that passed over them felt weirdly on cue.

"I don't wanna do it." Pablo quickly declined, discarding the shovel he was holding. "I rather be the prince that saves the princess."

"I think you would be cool as the prince!" Austin beamed, eyes sparkling. Pablo glowed pridefully as his ego was sufficiently stroked by Austin's praise.

"Do you want me to be the princess then?" Tyrone offered. He pointed a finger at himself, and silence befell them again.

Tyrone had entered a growing phase and was both larger and taller than the rest of them. When the thought of putting a purple tutu and a tiara on him crossed their minds, they wanted to shudder. To make the matter even worse, Pablo was so much smaller than he was that him having to save Tyrone would just look odd.

Having solidified that point meant that Tyrone was out of the running, which only left Austin - gulping at the realisation that the role of the princess was now his. "Do I...have to put on the skirt?"

"Not if you don't want to, but you should at least wear the tiara so you'll look more like a real princess." Pablo replied, already looking through their stockpile of costumes for the tiara in question. "So then Tyrone, you can be the big scary dragon guarding the lair that's keeping the princess, and I'm gonna come in and ..."

Austin shifted his weight from one leg to another, listening attentively to the revised plan for the afternoon. It startled him when Pablo suddenly fixed a tiara onto his head and stood back to glance him up and down before breaking out into a grin.

"You don't even look bad!" he laughed. "You make a pretty princess! Way better than Tyrone would have looked."

Austin blankly stared at him for a few seconds, hardly registering when Tyrone took some kind of offence to his words and started socking him in the side. Pablo whined and exclaimed in pain at Tyrone's punches, now much more painful than they used to be due to his new size. Austin reached atop his head and stroked the tiara that Pablo had put there.

He smiled.

~

High pitched croaking roused Austin from the short nap he'd drifted off into and he blinked the post-nap blurriness away to find Pepé's eyes slowly blinking back at him.

"What a silly dream." he softly chuckled to himself. It was a little absurd to be dreaming of the past like that. To subconsciously remember those small little interactions that he'd never even thought twice about in the moment were just telltale signs of how his feelings had grown bit by bit over the years. It wasn't just attraction on some whim. That dream surely wasn't the only instance and as time went on, recalling other things would surely prove interesting.

"Are you hungry, Pepé?" Austin beamed, feeling light as he stretched. There were open textbooks on the desk in front of him and he remembered that he'd fallen asleep while finishing assignments. He had ample time to finish it later.

Pepé released a high pitched croak and marched into his offered palm while Austin brought him back to the terrarium, where he perched onto a branch. He had a surplus of crickets in a jar specifically for feeding his frog and he had never been afraid to touch the creatures with his bare hands. Unless Pepé was feeling particularly cheeky that day, he didn't have anything to worry about while feeding him crickets with his bare hands instead of a tweezer like usual.

"Wait, who's gonna take care of you while I'm gone?" Austin pondered to himself, stroking Pepé's head. His father wasn't even being taken into consideration, and he knew that his mother liked the frog but usually hated dealing with pesky insects, so she might have a problem feeding him - even if only for a day or two.

It was starting to occur to Austin what an inconvenience it was sometimes to not really know other people.

"I'm sure I can find someone..." he murmured. Pepé seemed to smile obliviously up at him from inside his habitat, bringing Austin a sense of comfort. "You're so cute, y'know that!"

The frog croaked and he mimicked the sound back at him, giggling as he put the lid on the terrarium.

Austin usually didn't like to fall asleep in the middle of the day since he hated the groggy feeling that always came after. His body and head felt light, yet heavy at the same time as he walked out of his room. His homework was mostly finished, he would just finalise it later. He vaguely made out conversation happening outside his window, meaning that the others were in the backyard at that current moment, and he didn't want to miss them.

"We are not going camping." Uniqua denied as Austin was walking up to the bench.

He cocked his head. "But I didn't even-"

"I was talking to Pablo." Uniqua corrected. "I don't know why road trip translates to him as the great outdoors."

Austin laughed and took a seat beside Tasha, who scooted closer as he sat down. She shook his arm excitedly, trying to get him to acknowledge the discussion. She must have brought it up recently; she looked pretty ecstatic that everyone had taken the suggestion well. Not that Austin expected anything different. None of them ever turned down a fun opportunity.

"But I've never been camping!" Pablo crossed his arms and frowned. "Why don't we ever do anything that I wanna do?"

"Because the last time we did something you wanted to do, you got us lost in the bayou for hours." Tyrone answered flatly. "If not for Austin's weird outdoor senses and that ranger patrolling the area, you would probably be part of an alligator's biomass right now. You literally have no sense of direction, and you're always straying away from the group on your own."

"I don't think I can disagree there..." Austin nodded. Uniqua snorted and sat forward.

"Even Austin's not on your side," she cackled. "Seriously, your sense of direction might be even worse than Tasha's."

Pablo's frown soon deepened to a scowl. "Screw you all."

"Maybe if you were to suggest something reasonable by our standards, we might be inclined to do it." Tyrone added, just so he wouldn't pout throughout the entire discussion. "But we are not going into the woods, or the forest, or anywhere that we need to have some kind of navigation skill."

"Well, since you've so kindly you've given me such specific parameters..." Pablo mumbled sarcastically. "I do happen to know about something going on in the next two towns over..."

Everyone turned to look at him and he start stammering, not expecting them to take an interest in something that sounded so vague. "I-I was just looking up some stuff a little while ago and I saw that they're hosting a festival. It'll have art stuff, agriculture stuff, sports stuff...a little bit of something for everyone, really."

"Sounds kinda like a fair." Uniqua commented, putting her feet up on Tyrone's lap.

"A fair? That's so cute!" Tasha squealed, excitedly clutching Austin's arm. "We can buy little souvenirs and eat from food stalls and it'll be so fun!"

"You should probably go to an ATM before that," Tyrone suggested, softly bonking her on the head. "Those kinds of events aren't really known for having POS terminals and you have a habit use a card for everything. You should start carrying cash."

Pablo blinked, genuinely surprised. "Wait, is that really where we're going?"

"Sure!" Uniqua smirked. "Not a bad idea, shorty."

He wanted to scowl at her remark, but he couldn't help the warmth in his chest that they were actually going with his plan for once. He usually went along with whatever they decided since his plans would be shot down anyway, but this was a pleasant surprise.

"Two towns over, you said?" Tyrone nudged him, scrolling through his phone. "Which one?"

Everyone listened attentively as Pablo detailed the location of the fair/festival and the kind of events that it would be hosting. Austin and Tasha's eyes lit up at mention of the science corner, Uniqua took interest in the fashion exhibit, meanwhile Tyrone just nodded along at anything - content to be along for the trip with everyone.

"That all sounds amazing!" Austin twinkled with excited energy as he got right into Pablo's space to grill him for more. "Are there gonna be any animal viewing stations? Maybe insects? Ooh, or is there gonna be a part where someone goes over the agriculture? There are probably so many different bugs out there!"

Pablo gently poked him away, laughing at his antics. It was hard for him to calm his excitement immediately, wasn't it? Not that he minded; it was refreshing. "Calm your freckles, bug boy. I'll send the flyer in the group chat so you can check the website. Pretty sure there are some things to sign up for too."

"Dope," Uniqua playfully punched his bicep. "This is sounding pretty fun, huh?"

Tasha wiggled in her seat. "Yes! We haven't gone out together in so long, so Austin and I thought that a group trip would be fun!"

"Oh..." Uniqua murmured, scratching her cheek. "You two were thinking about us?"

"Of course," Austin grinned. "We're always thinking about you guys!"

Uniqua laughed dryly, feeling a little stupid that she'd concerned herself over the two of them spending more time together. What would it even have mattered if they started hanging out more? They were all a group and they had been a group for years now. Two of them spending one on one time wouldn't change anything. Why did she think that?

Tyrone's gaze fell to Uniqua, quietly watching the subtle shifts in her expression. He couldn't pinpoint what she was thinking about, but it seemed like she was finally content about something - most likely the thing that was bothering her before when she dragged him along to the skatepark. It slightly irked him that he hadn't been able to pry it out of her like usual, but it was also kind of concerning since it meant that whatever it was this time was probably important.

"So um," Pablo shifted eagerly in his seat. "When are we going?"

~

"Mamá!"

Pablo burst into his house, startling his mother when he loudly addressed her.

"Pablo, por favor no hagas eso...(Pablo, please don't do that...)" she sighed, pressing a hand to her chest in relief. "¿Qué es? (What is it?)"

Pablo bounced giddily. "The others are going on a road trip this weekend, two towns over. We're gonna be staying out, so I'll need some money."

His mother rose from her seat and walked towards him. "¿Donde van? (Where are you going?)"

"You know that festival I've been looking at online?"

She smiled knowingly. "You mean the one with the art exhibit you-"

"Si, ese. (Yes, that one.)" Pablo blushed. "I wasn't sure how I'd get there so I was just gonna look at it online, but then Tasha suggested a road trip over the weekend and it was an opportunity so I took it and now they're going and-"

"You're rambling, mijo. (son)" his mother grinned. "Why are you so nervous about asking? If it's something you want to do then just say the word and I'll try to get it done for you."

He shrugged. "I know, but...y'know..."

She stared at him blankly, urging him to elaborate. He sighed.

"It's not that important, so I didn't want to bother you with it." he finally admitted. "And it's not vacation either, I'm still in the middle of school, so staying out over the weekend is a little..."

"How is this any different from when you slept over at Tyrone's house in elementary school?" his mother questioned. "Sure, you're basically an adult now, but you shouldn't be worrying about things like that."

She tenderly stroked the sides of his head. "You're still young and you have good friends; friends that love you and include you enough to go somewhere that you want to go. Make sure to grab onto that, okay? Those kinds of friendships are hard to keep."

Pablo couldn't hold back the pleased grin on his face. "So I can go, then?"

"Por supesto. (Sure, why not.)" she confirmed. "Honestly, you're still such a polite child. Your cousin just tells his mother, 'I'm going out!' and leaves the house without warning."

"You raised me right, mamá." Pablo smirked as he casually tossed shade towards his aunt. His mother rolled her eyes, but smiled at his remark nonetheless and playfully roughed up his head.

"Damn right. So how much do you need?" His mother started walking to the kitchen counter where her purse was. "You'll need money for accommodation and some spending money, right?"

"That sounds about right." Pablo nodded.

"Hm. Then how much do you want?"

He pondered for a moment and realised that he didn't actually know how much money he might need. The group had all agreed on where they were going, but none of them had actually discussed details of the trip and the expenses.

"I'll get back to you on that by the end of the day." he ran off to his room after leaving that conversation up in the air and quickly unlocked his phone.

"How much does an average nice hotel cost?"

~

"Almost two hundred per night."

Tyrone blinked. "Two hundred?"

His mother nodded, chewing on a bread stick. "Sometimes more. Hotels have a lot of luxuries, depending on where you stay. The average decent hotel will charge you somewhere around that price, or maybe like fifty dollars lower if you can find a cheap one. Where are you guys looking to stay?"

"Pablo sent us the flyer for the thing we're going to, and it's happening two towns over," Tyrone scrolled through the Backyardigans chat to find the link for the digital poster to show his mother. She hummed.

"I've been there once or twice with your father," she nodded. "Pretty nice place. How'd Pablo even find out about this event?"

Tyrone shrugged. "Tasha brought up the idea of a road trip and he brought it up during the discussion when everyone was suggesting where to go. He might have seen it on an ad somewhere on social media and it caught his eye."

"Looks like there's gonna be some interesting things there, huh?" his mother whistled, glancing over all the activities. "Maybe I should come along too."

"If you want to," Tyrone looked up towards her. "Though I don't know how you'd fit in the car. Actually, Tasha will probably bring her car with her so you should be fine."

His mother groaned. "You're such a weird son. Any normal teenager your age would automatically say 'No, absolutely not, stay home, you're not coming, that's embarrassing' or something along those lines to try to keep them at home."

Tyrone turned back towards his phone absently. "That makes me a weird son? None of them would mind if you were there, they think you're fun to be around. I think so too. You're pretty cool, mom."

She blushed lightly and got up to walk away. "You're so corny. Where did I even get a child like you?"

She walked off running her fingers through her hair, feathers ruffled from his blatant honesty. Tyrone watched after her and smiled to himself as he typed in the group chat. It seemed like he and his father had similar taste.

⏤ BACKYARDIGANS  ⏤

Tyrone: We gotta figure out where we're staying

Pablo: Yeah I'm working on that

Austin: My mom said I can go so I just need to know how much it costs

Tasha: Ditto

Uniqua: ^^

Pablo: I've been looking up some hotels in the town and there's two of em we can choose from

Pablo: *LINK*

Pablo: *LINK*

Uniqua: Excuse me

Tasha: They're both pretty cute

Unique: The prices aren't

Uniqua: 170 a night??? 185 a night???

Uniqua: I-

Austin: I mean we'll only be there for two nights

Uniqua: It's not a worthy investment

Tyrone: I thought this might happen

Tyrone: So I looked into some other options

Tyrone: Look at these

Tyrone: *LINK*

Pablo: Woah nice

Tyrone: Motels and inns are way cheaper than hotels

Tyrone: And it doesn't have to be extravagant since we'll be out most of the time anyway

Pablo: Makes sense

Pablo: Works out too cuz I was trying to find places that weren't too expensive

Uniqua: And those hotels were your only options??

Pablo: I didn't think about motels and inns! Those places usually suck and have murderers living in them

Tyrone: You watch too much TV.

Uniqua: For all you know you already live next to a murderer

Austin: Yeah like me

Uniqua: Lmao

Pablo: Pfft

Tasha: Austin you wouldn't hurt a fly

Uniqua: The fly would probably hurt him

Austin: Rude

Tyrone: There are a couple of things to choose from so take your pick

Tasha: I like Gentle Gem

Austin: Me too

Pablo: I'm digging Cloud

Uniqua: Why???

Pablo: It looks nice and has a cool name

Pablo: Cloud Motel

Uniqua: It has a 3 star rating

Uniqua: And costs 100 bucks

Uniqua: That isn't adding up

Pablo: Crap

Tyrone: The most economical one would probably be either Gentle Gem Inn or Olive Motel

Tyrone: If we stay at Gentle Gem we'd be able to stay closer to one another with the room availability

Tyrone: Olive Inn has cosier rooms, so we'd have to pay for more to hold everyone, but the facilities are better and there's a higher rating

Austin: Only by a few percent though

Tasha: I like the idea of staying together, so let's go to Gentle Gem

Pablo: I second that notion

Uniqua: Sounds like a plan

Austin: Yup

Tyrone: Cool

Tyrone: I'm guessing there's a lot of availability since it's a weird time in the year, but we've got a lot of options

Tyrone: *LINK*

Tasha: Omg those rooms are so cuuute

Uniqua: So I assume Tasha and I'll stay in one room, and you three boys will stay together in another?

Tyrone: Ideally yes

Tyrone: And the way this place works is you pay by room, and not per person

Pablo: Way cheaper that's perfect

Austin: How much is it?

Tyrone: A double for Uniqua and Tasha costs 55

Tyrone: A suite type room for the 3 of us is 80

Tyrone: A bargain, all things considered

Tasha: Then let's make the booking XD

Uniqua: No one uses XD anymore

Tasha: I do ;(

Austin: XD

Pablo: XD

Uniqua: I know you just did that to make me the wrong one

Austin: I have no idea what you're talking about

Pablo: Whatever do you mean Uniqua?

Tyrone: Lol

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Chapter Text

For the first time in his life, Austin's mind was wandering during Biology class; the one class he always put the most effort into focusing and absorbing information. The excitement and anticipation within him made it almost impossible to keep his head on straight during the class, and he wasn't asking or answering as many questions as he usually would.

His class was probably thankful for that, since Austin was always quick to participate and painfully oblivious of anyone else who wanted to ask the tutor questions as well.

Not only was he excited for the road trip that weekend, having finalised all the details and packed most of his belongings days in advance, he was also running out of time to find Pepé a sitter for the weekend. If he asked his Biology tutor to do it he might have some luck, but he didn't want to burden him any more than he probably already was with assignments from students. Plus, although it was ridiculous to even think about, Austin had a nagging fear that the tutor might take an interest in his frog since it was a blue tree frog and not an average toad or something, and he'd return from his trip and find poor Pepé dismembered.

"Mr. Forde," the tutor's voice reminded Austin that he was still in class. "You seem...distracted."

Austin smiled sheepishly and flicked his earlobes, embarrassed to have been caught publicly. "A little."

"Your honesty is charming, but please don't slip up." the tutor sighed, walking down the classroom aisle. "You're one of my most diligent students, I can't have you nodding off."

Austin nodded, secretly thankful for the interruption as well as the praise. A nudge back to reality was what he needed, and he couldn't slip up in his studies while in his final year. If he was going to achieve his dream of becoming a master insect expert, he needed to excel in this class.

A couple detailed diagrams and questions later, Austin made the decision to ask his tutor about frog-sitting Pepé after all. If push came to shove, he'd just politely ask him to leave his limbs intact.

"What can I do for you, Austin?" the tutor's normally hardened expression faded a tad when encountering him. He was one of the few students in his three senior classes that didn't treat his class like a burden.

"Well, um," Austin wasn't used to asking unfamiliar people for favours, so he really had to fight to get the words out. "I'll be out of town this weekend, and my pet frog...my parents can't take care of him, so I was wondering?"

"If I could keep him over the weekend?" the tutor smiled, and Austin nodded hopefully. "I'd love to keep him."

Austin's eyes lit up. "Really? Thank you so-"

"Well hold on now," the tutor cut him off before he could jump the gun. "I said I'd love to keep him, but..."

Austin frowned. Of course there was a 'but'. Life was going to do its darnedest to make things difficult for him right as he was about to have a fun experience.

The tutor sighed regretfully at his forlorn expression. "Unfortunately, I'll also be away this weekend. That's partially why I've given you an extra week to complete the assignment I gave you on Monday."

Austin sighed. "Oh, I see..." He couldn't give up. Even if the tutor couldn't take the job, maybe they knew someone else in town that would be willing to. "Do you know of anyone else I could ask?"

The tutor cocked his head, seemingly confused. "None of your classmates are available this weekend?"

Ah... Austin rubbed his neck sheepishly. He hadn't considered asking his classmates since he didn't really talk to them. He'd just assumed that they would reject him for being the weird student in class that knew way more about Biology than he probably should.

"I didn't exactly ask them..." he admitted after moments of silence.

Is he being bullied? the tutor frowned. Austin was a quiet kid, but he never showed any telltale signs of discomfort around his classmates, or anything that could make one think he was being bullied. Maybe he just wasn't as social as most of the others were. It wouldn't be right to force that; as much as schools tried to push the importance of friendships, there were going to be those students who preferred their solidarity above all else.

Maybe if he recommended something a bit tamer.

"If you don't have anyone else in mind, how about I introduce you to my niece?" he suggested with a smile. "She's a pretty sweet girl, I'm sure she'd love to babysit your frog."

Austin chuckled at him calling it babysitting. "Sounds great! Would I need to pay her? I can do that if she wants."

At that the tutor laughed heartily. "Pay her? Don't worry, I doubt that girl would ask for something like that."

Austin stopped short of rummaging through his wallet for what he thought would be a reasonable salary for the girl's job and nodded. "So when can I meet her?"

The tutor stroked his stubble and hummed as a new idea came to him. "Why don't you come with me after school tomorrow? You can bring the frog with you too, so she can see what she'll be working with. After all, little girls don't usually like slimy things."

Austin hummed. He hadn't even thought about that. He just supposed that the girl would be fine with it since her uncle had suggested her for the job. What if she was scared of Pepé and thought he was slimy and gross? What if she thought he was slimy and gross for keeping something that was slimy and gross?

His tutor laughed at his grimacing face. "Don't worry, my niece has always been pretty unique. A bit fussy sometimes, but she's a charming girl."

"She sounds nice," Austin sighed with relief at his assuring words and started walking back towards his seat to gather his belongings. "I don't think we have a class tomorrow. Where should I meet you?"

"Come to the staff room before 3:30," the tutor stood and started to gather his own things. "Just ask for me and I'll pop right out."

Austin beamed. "Alright, thanks again sir!"

"Glad to help."

~

"Now class, don't forget that we'll be going on a field trip next week for you to get some photos for your portfolio. I'll be emailing you the rubric this afternoon, so be sure to check your school emails for that."

Slightly groaning, Uniqua shut her binder and turned her camera off. She wasn't really looking forward to that field trip now that it would be so laced with work. She was hoping that it would just be a day for them to go out and get some outdoor experience but apparently that wouldn't be the case. How tedious.

"Girl, look over here a second." her friend beside her suddenly nudged her for her attention.

"What is it, Abby?"

The girl was peering out of the window she sat next to, gaze trailing to the left. "Ain't that the cute little white boy you hang out with?"

Uniqua's head immediately whipped towards the window. "What?" She leaned over Abigail's lap to look outside.

Sure enough, there was Austin making his way out of the school. He was walking and chatting with a man, presumably one of his teachers, across the courtyard and into the school parking lot.

"What the hell..?" she muttered to herself. What was he doing out there?

Her eyes widened when the two started to slow their pace when they reached a car, and the man beside Austin opened the door for him to get in. She scrambled from her spot, rustling Abigail's clothes in the midst of her sudden frenzy, and hoped to God that he wouldn't get in the car, but it didn't seem like he would be answering her prayers.

"Um," Abigail scratched her head. "Is it...a bad thing that he's getting into a car with that teacher?"

"I don't know," Uniqua was already cramming her things into her bag to leave. "But for that man's sake, it better not be."

She was packed up and darting from the room before Abigail could even say goodbye. She adjusted her disheveled hoodie and the red cap on her head and just shrugged.

"Good talk, I guess."

~

⏤ BACKYARDIGANS  ⏤

Uniqua: Austin where are you going???

Pablo: Huh

Pablo: Where is he

Uniqua: I just saw him walking out of the school with a man and getting into his car

Pablo: What??

Uniqua: What the fuck

Uniqua: I just got to the school entrance and they're driving away

Uniqua: All of you get here rn

Pablo: Shouldn't he be seeing these texts though?

Uniqua: Maybe he isn't paying attention to his phone

Uniqua: He isn't reading the messages

Tyrone: Austin went somewhere?

Tasha: What??

Uniqua: Stop asking questions and just come to the main entrance

Tasha: Omw!

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

~

Tasha bit at her nails anxiously, frowning when she earned herself a swat from Uniqua.

"Don't bite your nails, it's a bad habit." she scolded.

Tasha's frown deepened. "I'm just worried."

Pablo and Tyrone soon jogged up beside them and the group stepped out of the building as a unit.

"Did you reach his phone?" Pablo asked, tapping through his own. "I can't get through to him, I called like twice."

Tyrone's jaw clenched as he seconded Pablo's comment. "Did he turn it off?"

"Maybe it's dead." Uniqua released a quick and frustrated breath through her nostrils. "Dammit. Where the fuck could he be going right after school? The bell just rang."

"No need for colourful words," Tyrone pinched and twisted her nose. "You do that when you panic. Calm down. That goes for everyone."

Uniqua paced back and forth. "I don't even know which direction they went in."

"Did you see him before he got in the car?" Pablo questioned as they all approached Tyrone's SUV.

"I was still in class and my friend spotted him before I did," Uniqua explained. "When I looked out the window he was leaving the school building with a guy. Probably the same guy he drove off with."

Tasha suddenly paused. Austin left with a guy..?

Hit with a sudden thought, she grabbed the others by the shoulder and stopped them in their tracks. "Wait you guys. I don't think we should try to look for him."

"What?!" Uniqua shrieked incredulously. "Tasha I know sometimes you can be a bit air-headed but this is something serious. We don't have time for that right now."

Tasha bit her lip at her words but still tugged at them nonetheless. "No, I'm serious. He might not want us there."

"Why do you say that?" Tyrone raised an eyebrow, and she opened her mouth to speak but quickly sealed it.

I'm not supposed to tell them yet.

What was she supposed to do? On one hand it would ease their nerves if she told them about Austin and that she speculated that he was just hanging out with a boy. On the other hand, she couldn't reveal something she had no right to after he'd trusted her with such an important secret.

What do I do?! Tasha pressed her lips together and made up her mind.

"I just...feel like that might be why he didn't say anything." she murmured quietly, releasing their clothes from her grip.

Tyrone eyed her suspiciously, shuffling her feet and looking fidgety. That wasn't like her, and she usually wasn't good at keeping people from knowing when she had secrets, but if it was related to Austin it was probably important. First Uniqua and now this; why was everyone just keeping things to themselves lately? Why hadn't he been picking up on it like usual? What was going on with everyone?

He quickly glanced towards Pablo, but he looked like he always did. There was no way Pablo was hiding anything.

"Even if that's the case," Uniqua sighed. "I think he would have at least told us that he was going somewhere, even if he wasn't specific about where. He doesn't usually like to make us worry, so this is pretty out of character for him."

While Tasha wanted to believe that Austin really was just hanging out with a boy - which would be good on him for taking that initiative - she couldn't help but be infected with the worry of the others. Tasha knew his secret, so he trusted her, right? That meant that she would probably be the first one he told if something like that had happened. He would probably have told her about it before even going anywhere. So was he really just with another guy?

⏤ TIN TIN <3  ⏤

Tasha: Austin babe, are you okay?

Tasha: Text me back as soon as you can and lemme know where you are

Tasha: Everyone's kind of freaking out

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Tasha frowned at her phone screen as her messages delivered but weren't read. Hopefully he was just busy having so much fun with his new guy friend that it had just slipped his mind to tell them. That had to be it.

Right?

~

Austin didn't exactly feel awkward in the car beside his tutor, but the silence was a bit daunting. Neither of them had said a word since they left school around five minutes ago, and Austin would break the silence occasionally by tapping his nails against the glass of his miniature terrarium.

Pepé was quiet inside, perched atop a branch with wide eyes staring at the stranger next to Austin.

"Looks like he's wary of me." the tutor suddenly commented with a short chuckle. "Does he think I intend to eat him?"

"He doesn't usually meet new people very often." Austin laughed in return. "But no, I don't think he's afraid of that."

"I've never seen a frog like him in person before, except for the one time a circus visited town." the tutor hummed thoughtfully. "Where did you get him?"

Austin cocked his head. "I was just lucky to find him I think. Only a small percentage of frogs can be blue without being part of the poison dart species, so finding Pepé was a stroke of good luck on my part."

"I don't think you know how small that small percentage actually is," his tutor grinned. "Only about one or two percent of frogs are affected by that type of morph. It's a type of albinism among them."

"Really?!" Austin sparkled, leaning over and almost startling his tutor into swerving the car, but he laughed at Austin's enthusiasm. "Oh, s-sorry. I'm a big wildlife nerd, I get a little carried away sometimes."

"I'm not intimidated by that, Austin." he smiled. "That must be why you're such a diligent student, right? Do you want to study animals?"

"Well I specifically want to study about insects, but Pepé's been giving me some second thoughts." Austin peered into the container at Pepé, looking up at him with an oblivious frog smile. "I've always been a lover of insects, but after getting Pepé I started being interested in all kinda of different animals that I could find in my backyard. Lizards, frogs, caterpillars - everything is so fascinating and cool."

Austin paused when he realised he was rambling and rubbed his neck embarrassedly. "Sorry."

"Don't apologise for having a hobby." the tutor reassured him.

Austin hummed, content with the way that exchange had played out. It was nice when there were people willing to listen to him ramble about the weird things he loved, but it was another thing entirely to know that someone else shared that interest with him. It was a happiness he couldn't place since it was so foreign.

"Here we are." the tutor suddenly revved his car and made a turn that lead them right up a steep hill. He parked along the slope of it and turned the engine off after setting every brake and gear necessary, giving Austin a surge of anxiety when he didn't feel the car become upright like it should have.

"U-Um...there's no flatter place for us to park..?" he quietly asked, peeking at the car mirrors like he was expecting the entire vehicle to roll backwards down the hill. "I wouldn't want the car to fall."

"It's fine, it's fine!!" the tutor released a genuine laugh at Austin's concern, snorting a bit as he exited the car. "We won't be long. Where else would we park? Did you want me to park at the bottom so we could walk up the hill instead?"

Austin trailed his eyes downwards, actually having to tiptoe to see the bottom, then sighed defeatedly. He would have liked to lie and say that yes, he would most definitely prefer to walk up the hill, instead of parking in what looked like an incredibly dangerous spot. But upon further inspection, he wasn't even sure he'd make it to the top if he tried.

The triumphant smile on his tutor's face reminded him of Pablo whenever he made a semi-decent point during a conversation. "Come on then, lad."

The home in question was a yellow brick house that looked like it was designed more for function than style. It was incredibly simple looking with no patio and no stairs; just a tall, upright cuboid with windows and a flat red roof. Austin's tutor shimmied over to the front door - or rather, the only door, and rapped at it a couple of times. Someone must have been waiting directly at the front door for him to arrive, because it opened not even five seconds later.

"Uncle Gregory!" a boy who looked no older than fourteen years old came barrelling into the tutor's belly, headbutting him in the gut and giggling the entire time. "Hi!"

Gregory messed up the boy's hair and held him in a playful headlock. "You're getting big, aren't you George?"

The boy giggled again, snorting in between, then noticed Austin standing idly a couple of feet behind. "Who's that?"

"This boy's here to meet your sister," the tutor explained. "Go run and get her, and tell your parents to come on down too."

"Okay!"

The boy dashed off into the house and up the stairs, giving the tutor a chance to step inside and remove his shoes.

"Come in Austin, my niece should be down any second now." he said as he made his way into the dining room.

Austin nodded and pulled his sneakers off by the heels. He was slightly overwhelmed by the sudden burst of energy he'd been met with, but not averse to it.

The sound of stomping footsteps on the floor above him prompted him to look up at the ceiling.

"Wild little ones, aren't they?" his tutor chuckled. Austin nodded politely. He wasn't sure if he could call them little.

"Uncle!"

A pink faced girl with a freckled face and incredible dimples was suddenly in their presence, throwing her arms around Gregory's neck. She looked around fifteen years old. "It's been so long! How are you?"

"Holdin' on." Gregory laughed heartily, holding his stomach, and the girl hugging him giggled. Her laugh was just like her brother's, snorting in between. "There's someone here who'd like to talk to you?"

She cocked her head before realising that Austin was also present. That had a tendency of happening, so Austin wasn't too fazed by it.

"Hello!" she instantly walked up to him and held her hand out. "My name is Peppa."

"Pepper..?"  Austin repeated, deterred by her accent.

"No, Pep-pa. With an 'A' at the end." she beamed, then turned to her uncle to snicker at Austin's misunderstanding. "I forgot that the people here don't speak like we do, Uncle!"

"Don't be rude now, Peppa." Gregory commented.

Austin chuckled at that and shook the girl's outstretched hand. "My name's Austin. How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

He had honestly been expecting someone a lot younger from the way his tutor had talked about her. His description of her made it sound like she would be twelve years old the maximum, not the full fledged teenager standing in front of him.

"Well Peppa..." Austin mentally prepared himself for the possible rejection about to come. "How do you feel about frogs?"

"I love frogs!" Peppa beamed. "When my brother and I used to play when we were little, we would pretend to be frogs. We'd find a lot of them in grandpa's orchard."

"Great!" Austin clapped his hands together and grinned, masking the intense relief he felt. "In that case, I have a little job for you this weekend..."

Chapter Text

Where the hell is that kid?

The evening would have been a peaceful one if not for the pending absence of a certain nerd. Standing outside in a large group might have just intimidated Austin when he got home and saw everyone, since he had the natural tendency to overthink things when they were all together without him; so it had been decided that everyone would just stay on the lookout in their respective spots for when he arrived.

Of course, Pablo had chosen their go-to spot to wait for him, in case he made his way up there first.

It was becoming hard to fight the urge to take one of his edibles to calm himself down. If he hadn't been in the treehouse, where he'd declared drug usage illegal, he probably would have eaten one already. Maybe even more from the stress of the effect not kicking in immediately. But Pablo wouldn't want Austin to come upon him on Cloud Nine, or have to be subject to smelling his awful weed breath. So instead he decided to tolerate the unnerving pounding in his chest and hope that the kid was alright.

The squeaking of brakes coming to a stop was enough to put him on alert. Everyone around this area of town knew what cars sounded like what, and to whom said cars belonged. If the awful brakes were any indication at all, this car didn't sound in the least bit familiar, which was right on the mark for their missing party member.

Pablo could see out onto the street from one of the treehouse windows, and strained his eyes to see who was exiting the vehicle that had just stopped by the curb.

"Austin," he deflated in utter relief. "Thank god..."

With his worries gone, he was now able to remember that he was supposed to be angry. Austin had given them all heart attacks and didn't even seem to notice - he was definitely in for an earful. If not from Pablo, then Uniqua was sure to rattle off enough to cover the four of them.

"AUSTIN FORDE, GET YOUR ASS INTO THE BACKYARD RIGHT NOW."

Speak of the devil...

Pablo whistled, pitying the verbal onslaught Austin was about to be subject to as he made his way down the treehouse ladder. There wasn't much that could be done once Uniqua started up, so all he could do was pray for Austin's safety.

~

Tasha bit her nails between her teeth, watching as Austin exited the strange car by the sidewalk. That pleased grin on his face wouldn't be there for long if he stepped into the backyard to face Uniqua's wrath, and if he was forced to tell them all where he went, he'd die of embarrassment! She had to do something - anything to save him from that catastrophe.

"Please tell me his phone's on now..." she prayed, chewing her thumb as she listened hopefully for her call to be answered.

"...Hey Tash, I just got back! What's u-"

"Austin, you need to come into my house, stat!"

Tasha could already see his confused face as he waved the car away. "Is something wrong?"

"Not yet as long as you get in here; and fast!"

"But why do I-"

"AUSTIN FORDE, GET YOUR ASS INTO THE BACKYARD RIGHT NOW."

Tasha grimaced at the furious voice booming from Uniqua's house. "Still wanna stand there and ask questions?"

"Nope." Austin squeaked on the other side of the line. "Come open the door, quick quick quick, before she finds me!"

"On my way!"

She didn't even hang up the call completely before she was dashing down the stairs to her front door. Uniqua would most likely be looking for him to come through the gate leading into the backyard, so if he went towards her front door he'd be temporarily safe while Tasha got enough answers out of him to formulate a plan of action.

And hopefully a convincing enough excuse for why he'd left school with a stranger without telling them.

Austin looked like a distressed puppy when Tasha reached the door to let him in. She quickly ushered him inside, then shut and locked the door after him. The two rushed up to her room and closed themselves inside, now temporarily safe.

"Hopefully she won't go looking for me at my house..." he breathed, flopping onto Tasha's fluffy carpet. "Though I don't think she would. Why is she so upset?"

"You really don't know?" Tasha blinked. "Have you been checking your phone at all this afternoon?"

"Not really," Austin scratched his head and retrieved his phone from his pocket. "I've been pretty busy so I didn't really get the chance to...oh...oh my gosh..."

His eyes gradually widened at the number of missed calls and unread texts he had from the entire group, who apparently seemed to have been worriedly trying to contact him about his whereabouts. But that didn't make any sense.

"I texted the group chat this morning though?" he furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure I let you guys know that I'd be going to drop Pepé off at one of my tutor's relatives so they could keep him for the weekend while we're on the trip."

Tasha pouted, scrolling past the barrage of messages everyone had left in the chat, then shook her head. "The message probably didn't go through or something, cuz...I don't see anything from you this morning."

She suddenly paused. "Wait...Pepé?"

"Yeah! Y'know, my pet frog?" Austin nodded. "I can't really rely on my parents to take care of him so I was asking around to see who I could leave him with, since I don't wanna have to worry about him all weekend."

"Oh..." Tasha's mouth remained in an 'o' shape as everything started connecting. Now that she thought about it, she had wondered that morning why he was taking his terrarium to school with him, but she just figured that it probably had something to do with his Biology class and hadn't bothered to ask. Maybe if she'd let her curiosity get the better of her then...

"Oh crud," Austin groaned, frowning at his phone. "I sent the message to the group chat with my parents, not with you guys...ugh, so that's what happened..."

"Well, glad that that's all cleared up then." Tasha laughed sheepishly. "But um...breaking that info to Uniqua might be a little harder."

"Is she really mad?" Austin cringed.

"AUSTIN, WHERE ARE YOU?"

Both of them gulped.

"Yeah," Tasha nodded fearfully. "She's really mad. But!" She firmly gripped his arms. "It's only because she was worried. She won't do anything drastic, or violent to you. I promise. I won't let her."

Austin bravely flared his nostrils and released a puff of air. It felt like the two of them were about to go stand off against a villain.

"Okay. Let's go face her."

~

I need to buy some more protein powder.

Tyrone frowned down at the contents of his flask as he realised that he wasn't picking up the flavour of his protein powder as much as usual. He remembered that he had been trying to ration it lately so it would last him until he was able to get out and buy another one. But if he couldn't taste the powder in his concoction, it meant that he wasn't being consistent with what he was feeding himself.

The issue with obtaining protein powder was that he didn't just buy it from the store, he ordered it online from a specific brand, and they usually took a few days to arrive. That wasn't ideal for someone like him who regularly consumed protein shakes between meals.

"Are you done yet?" Tyrone muttered, glancing up to look at the scene before him. He didn't want to be on his phone with such an "important" scene unfolding, but his protein powder was like an essential to him.

Austin looked absolutely terrified with his fists on his knees while Uniqua glowered above him with a looming fury.

"She hasn't even said anything," Pablo rolled his eyes. "She's just been menacingly standing there for like five minutes."

"I figured that this boy would have opened his mouth to say something by now." Uniqua growled, clenching and unclenching her jaw. Tyrone admired her restraint. None of them liked to scare Austin, but he knew from her body language how livid she currently was and how she usually acted when she reached this point; so it was praiseworthy that she was holding herself back while still managing to look and sound as angry as she did.

Austin flexed his knuckles and tried not to let his voice stumble. "I didn't mean to alarm any of you..."

"Bit late for that, isn't it?" Uniqua rocked back and forth. "So where were you?"

Tasha slowly scotched across towards Austin, wanting to help him somehow. "He was-"

"You be quiet," Uniqua's head snapped towards Tasha, shutting her up immediately. "I'd like to hear from Mr. Disappearing Act himself."

Austin swallowed harshly. "I-I was with my Biology tutor...we went to-"

"Went to what?" Uniqua cut him off, slightly raising her voice. Austin flinched and shrunk in on himself.

Tyrone stood up, not wanting the poor kid to be pushed past the brink of tears, and gently rested a hand on Uniqua's shoulder.

"Don't touch me." she seethed, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

Tyrone gave her a reminding squeeze. "You need to calm down. We're here to clear up misunderstandings and get missing parts of the story. We aren't the police, you aren't the bad cop, and this isn't an interrogation." He motioned with his head towards a timid looking Austin, staring down at his fidgety hands on his lap and looking just about ready to shut down altogether. Uniqua released an understanding sigh.

"Fine." She knelt down to Austin's eye level, where he was frozen into his seat on the bench. He was all but trembling, and it worried her that he seemed so scared of her in that moment. "Austin, babe. While I am upset right now, you need to understand that it's coming from a place of worry, okay? None of us knew where you were at, so we're just trying to make sure that wherever you went was safe and that we can make sure this doesn't happen again in the future. You with me?"

"Yeah," Pablo nodded, rocking his body upright. "So just let us know where you were at and what you were doing." He was glad that the conversation was finally progressing, though he was masking his internal worry better than everyone else. The kid had seriously tried to stop his heart.

Austin nodded, thankful that things seemed to have calmed down from the tense atmosphere lingering in the air before. His chest had felt unbearably tight, and he didn't want to end up crying from an honest mistake.

"Yesterday I asked my Biology tutor to take care of Pepé for the weekend but he said he couldn't because he was gonna be busy, so he referred me to one of his family members." he started explaining everything from the beginning. "He said he'd take me there today so I could show Pepé to his niece and let her take care of him while I was on the trip with you guys."

"Makes sense," Tyrone hummed. "I did see you take your terrarium with you. But I thought you were just doing something for Biology."

That's what I thought too! Tasha inwardly agreed, clenching her fists. She wished she could say something, but she also didn't want Uniqua to bark at her again.

Tyrone sat back against the bench and frowned. "So then why didn't you tell any of us that you were going?"

"I thought I did!" Austin wailed, fishing his phone from his pocket and showing them the screen. "But I sent the message to my parents instead of you guys by accident. I swear, I thought that you all knew where I was this entire time. But then I came home and all of a sudden everyone was..."

Everyone's eyes were drawn to Uniqua, the one who had kicked up the biggest fuss, and she suddenly tensed. "Oh, so it's my fault now? Everyone else was just as concerned as I was!"

"But, you were the one yelling the moment Austin got back home." Pablo shrugged. "Gotta admit, you did contribute to the escalation of the situation."

She rolled her eyes. "Please. Don't act like my reaction was unwarranted. Sure, it's cleared up now, but what if that hadn't been the case? What if my friend in class hadn't seen him leaving the school this afternoon? We'd probably be out and about looking for him when he didn't show up after school!"

Tasha closed in on Austin and nudged him softly while Uniqua and Pablo broke into a back and forth conversation of their own. "Could've gone worse, right?"

"Yeah, much worse." he breathed. "But I'm glad we were able to clear up everything so easily."

Tasha nodded. "Especially since I thought you were actually with-" She suddenly cut herself off, but it was too late. Austin was already sending her a curious side eye.

"Actually with who?" he probed, raising an eyebrow.

Tasha hid her face behind her manicured fingers, lowering her voice to a whisper. "I thought you were out with a boy!"

Austin sputtered at her comment, hiding his ears for fear that they would burn red. He covered his mouth and spoke into her ear: "Why would you think that?!"

"Because!" Tasha whisper-yelled back, the two of them leaning closer towards each other to keep the conversation discreet. "When I heard you left the school in a guy's car and didn't look totally terrified, I thought you snagged yourself a date or something!"

"With a stranger?!" Austin helplessly pressed. "Tasha, I barely know anyone in the school, you know I'm not that brave."

"They might have made the first move," Tasha suggested with a shrug. "I dunno, I didn't know the details!"

Uniqua's senses seemed to alert her to the secret conversation happening beside her. "What are you two whispering about?"

"Nothing!" both culprits immediately answered, speaking simultaneously and seeming even more suspicious. Uniqua pouted at their behaviour, but decided it was best to brush it off. She had already accepted that those two seemed to be getting closer, so she wasn't about to pry into whatever they wanted to keep between them.

For now, anyway.

"You two have been acting a bit weird lately..." Pablo crinkled his nose and crept up to the two, eyeing them suspiciously. "What have you been up to, hm?"

"You know what we've been doing, Pablo." Tasha beamed and pinched his cheeks fondly, shaking his face back and forth like you would a child. "Austin's been a very good makeover partner."

Pablo grudgingly rubbed his aching face. Either Tasha was being passive aggressive, or she was much stronger than she realised. "I thought you used to go to Uniqua for makeovers, why have you been kidnapping Austin?"

Tasha tilted her head. "I've never given Uniqua a makeover. I've done her nails before, but never her face."

"It sorta just...happened," Austin grinned sheepishly. He wasn't about to tell Pablo that they got a lot closer after the day he accidentally came out to Tasha and had a breakdown in front of her. "Besides, I don't think Tasha's style of makeup matches Uniqua. Do you?"

Pablo's sight trailed towards Uniqua and true; her look was very femme and powerful looking, making her seem like a pretty strong individual. Tasha on the other hand gave him the vibes of a soft Barbie doll.

"Fair enough." he shrugged, sitting back and putting his feet up on Tyrone's lap, who promptly shoved them away.

"So..." Austin began hesitantly. "Is everyone...okay now?"

"Yes, everything's fine," Tyron stood up and dusted his lap off, then shot Uniqua a scrutinising side eye. "Right?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, everything's fine. Nothing to worry about anymore."

"Great!" Tasha beamed, springing up from her seat. "In that case, I gotta finish packing!"

Pablo groaned. "Ugh...I haven't even started. It's Wednesday, I can just pack tomorrow. All I need is clothes, don't I?"

"D'aww, does the child need a list of essentials for his little road trip?" Uniqua teased, pressing her forehead to Pablo's playfully. "Hm? Does he need his mama to help him pack his widdle toothbrush and his widdle undies?"

"Get away from me."

"Okay Tweedledee, maybe we shouldn't needlessly provoke Tweedledum, hm?" Tyrone scooped Pablo up like a tote bag, sending a scolding squint in Uniqua's direction. She and Pablo flashed their tongues at each other before walking off in opposite directions; though Pablo's exit was just him being carried off by Tyrone into his house. Tasha had already skipped off to her own home to pack more things, so it was just Austin left in the backyard by himself.

"Seems like I don't have much to do." he hummed to himself, bouncing his body upwards off of the bench. "Maybe I should go feed Pe-"

He stilled. "Oh, that's right. He's over at Peppa's right now..."

It was strange not having anything to do on his own like usual. It was too late in the evening for him to be about the backyard looking for wildlife, and Pepé wasn't around to pet or play with. What was he supposed to do for the next day and a half?

"Maybe I can hang out with Tasha for a while." he started, already making his way to her porch the moment he had the thought.

When he actually got inside however, he started having second thoughts.

"Austin, perfect timing!" Tasha beamed, skipping over to pull him inside. "I can't decide which of these outfits would be better for the fair, so I'll let you decide. Leather or wool?"

The entire living room floor was covered in what looked like Tasha's entire wardrobe. Clothes lined the couches, the living chairs and the carpet. There were even clothes spread out over the coffee table and pairs of shoes lining the wall to his right. One would have never guessed that this girl literally owned a walk-in closet if they were to come upon a scene like the one here.

Already used to her antics, Austin hummed, not exactly the best with fashion himself. However, when he thought more about the clothes she had him choosing from, he realised that he did perhaps have his usefulness in other areas.

"I think you should choose something else completely," he suggested. When Tasha looked like she was about to cry, he flailed his arms exasperatedly at her misunderstanding. "No no no, not like that, the outfits you picked are really cute! But..."

Austin ran his hand over the fabric of the dresses she had before him. "I checked the forecast for this weekend and you'll probably be really hot if you wear either of those outside."

"Really?" Tasha rubbed her chin thoughtfully, then shrugged. "Guess I have to toss those."

Austin flinched as she suddenly flung her clothes across the room with a fury, and they flew right over his head. "Argh, why is this so difficult?!"

I don't think it is... Austin chuckled inwardly. He got to his knees and started rummaging through her clothes for the most lightweight articles he could find.

"What you need most for this weekend is soft, light clothes," he absently commented. "Something like silk of chiffon...you could probably get away with jeans, but if you plan to wear a skirt or a dress..."

"Something light?" Tasha pondered. She dashed to the centre of the mess, leaving Austin incredulous at how she had managed to pick out exactly what she wanted from the vast pile. "What about this?"

She held up a strappy dress with frills on the skirt section. Austin hummed as his eyes examined it from top to bottom.

"Organdy..." he murmured. "Maybe that's a little too light, unless you bring a jacket or a coat? Something like that's a little extravagant to me, but if you wanna wear it then you should be fine."

Tasha scoffed. "Extravagant? Austin please, you know I'm all about being extravagant."

Austin giggled. "That you are."

The two spent the next hour or so sifting through Tasha's surplus of clothes and finding the most suitable ones for the weather that upcoming weekend. Somewhere along the line, they thought it necessary to text the others about the new piece of information. Needless to say, everyone was grateful for the heads up.

~

⏤ BACKYARDIGANS  ⏤

Tasha: Guyssssss

Austin: Guys

Pablo: Sup

Uniqua: Mhm

Tyrone: What is it

Tasha: Austin says it's gonna be suuuuper hot this weekend

Austin: I went a little overboard with my planning hehe

Uniqua: Meaning?

Austin: I checked to see if there was gonna be any rain expectancy and the weather is supposed to be pretty nice for the most part

Austin: Butttt it will get pretty hot on Saturday

Austin: So maybe we should stock up on water

Tyrone: Well I have an insulated flask that keeps water ice cold

Tasha: Same

Tasha: My VSCO phase wasn't a pretty one

Pablo: Yeah you bought some for all of us when you went through that phase, except Tyrone cuz he already had one

Pablo: Cuz "the turtles were dying"

Uniqua: You don't get to bully anyone in here

Uniqua: You're the only one that gets bullied

Pablo: Your only insult for me is that I'm short

Pablo: Come up with something new, yarn head

Tyrone: Yikes

Uniqua: Say what you want, I rocked that hairstyle

Pablo: Yeah, all fun and games till you meet a stray cat

Pablo: Hair? Done for

Austin: So guys

Austin: Weather?

Tasha: I was stocking up on leather and wool, but I had to reorganise my entire selection after hearing about the weather

Tasha: Sighhhh

Tasha: But yeah make sure to pack light

Uniqua: Rich coming from you

Uniqua: Tasha you get two suitcases MAX

Tasha: What??

Uniqua: You're welcome to bring more

Uniqua: But you'll be taking them in your car

Uniqua: AND you'll be carrying them by yourself

Tasha: But I can carry them myself though

Tasha: Everyone else just offers to hold them for me because they think I'm weak

Tasha: >:(

Pablo: She is not weak

Tyrone: ?

Uniqua: ?

Austin: ?

Tyrone: Why do you say that?

Pablo: She just isn't

Uniqua: That's a hilarious backstory waiting to be exploited

Uniqua: Is Tasha stronger than you?

Pablo: Would it be a problem if she was?

Uniqua: Touché shorty

Tasha: Teehee

Tasha: I'm stronggggg

Tyrone: Of course you are

Austin: But Tasha...you don't need more than one suitcase anyway

Austin: Why would you need to bring two? It's just for the weekend

Uniqua: You seem to forget that she's gonna bring outfit options Austin

Austin: Oh...

Tasha: I won't this time! I don't like doing laundry so I've been trying to cut back on my clothing use!

Tasha: I'll only bring two options for every occasion

Tasha: Then I need at least one option for every different thing we could possibly do

Tasha: ESPECIALLY if we're gonna be taking pictures

Pablo: Looks like her suitcases are gonna be her travel buddies then

Austin: Lol

Uniqua: Perhaps

Tyrone: Thanks for the heads up though Austin

Tyrone: I had a couple long sleeves packed already, glad I could eliminate those

Austin: ^__^

Uniqua: Cutie

Pablo: ^

Uniqua: h u h

Pablo: That was supposed to be replying to Tyrone...

Tasha: Oh so you don't think Austin's cute?

Pablo: I never said that

Austin: Uhh...

Tyrone: I believe Austin does fall into the category of cute

Pablo: True dat

Uniqua: You couldn't have just agreed normally??

Tyrone: Where's the fun in that

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

~

Austin stared at his phone screen, then set his phone down and rolled over, planting his face in the middle of his pillow.

He screamed.

Chapter Text

Austin was thankful that his mother was an earlier riser than his father since it meant that he was able to inform someone of any early morning plans he had, without having to go through the daunting experience that was interacting with his father. Quarter past five lit up the screen of his alarm clock, meaning that he'd slept through his five a.m. alarm, but an extra fifteen minutes of sleep couldn't hurt. Today was about to be an exciting day after all.

After an excruciating wait time, it was finally the day that he and his posse left town for their little expedition, and Austin couldn't be buzzing more with excited energy. Despite the fact that he had just woken up, his heart was already racing with anticipation for what the rest of the day had in store.

"I doubt she's awake but..." Austin rolled out of bed and felt around his end table for his phone, accidentally switching on his lamp in the process. He sent a quick text to Peppa, asking how she was getting along with Pepé, giggling when he suddenly realised the similarities between their names.

To his surprise, his phone blipped as a notification came back from Peppa within less than two minutes.

~

⏤ PEPPA  ⏤

Austin: Morning, Peppa! It's pretty early, but I just wanted to check in and make sure everything's going okay with Pepé

Peppa: Hi Austin

Peppa: Everything's fine so far, he's been pretty calm

Peppa: I started to get a little worried since he was so quiet, but my uncle says it's nothing to worry about

Austin: Wow, you're up pretty early today

Austin: But yeah, he's a bit lazy haha

Austin: Probably even more than usual since he's someplace he isn't used to

Austin: He should warm up to you over the weekend though, he's been there a couple days already

Peppa: I sure hope so

Peppa: I love him already

Austin: Haha I'm glad

Austin: I'll check up with you again a bit later, okay?

Peppa: Okay bye bye

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

~

Austin smiled, setting the phone back down to charge and standing up from where he had rolled onto the floor. Though she was slightly younger, Peppa was a nice kid who he wouldn't have minded staying in touch with. She seemed pretty open minded about new things, which could give Austin someone new to share his interests with, and perhaps even tutor her if the opportunity ever arose.

The idea gave him happy shivers.

Having other things to do that morning, he crept over to his mother's room and knocked softly. "Mom? You awake?"

"Maybe," came a whisper from inside. The door opened a crack, and Austin stifled a giggle at the visible piece of his mother's eye behind it. "Who's asking?"

"Your son." he gently pushed the door open. "Are you feeling better?"

"Thanks to you, my lovely son." she beamed, playfully flexing her arm. "All that care made me feel good as new. You go a little overboard sometimes whenever I feel under the weather."

He shrugged. "I can't help it. I want you to be healthy all the time, it makes me kinda frantic."

His mother ruffled his hair. "I'm grateful for such a good son. So what is it? It's so early, it's not even five thirty yet."

"I'm just pretty excited!" Austin sat on his mother's bed. "Today's the day the others and I leave town, remember?"

His mother clasped her hands together and beamed, feeling his contagious excitement. "Oh yes, that's right, how could I forget? This is the first time in a while you're all going off as a group, isn't it? You've all gotten so big and been so busy with school lately, I'm glad you're still close enough to be able to do things together like this."

Austin smiled fondly, glad that his mother actually cared about the relationships he'd maintained. "I'm really glad too. When Tasha and I got the idea to go out and everyone started pitching ideas for where to go and what to do, it felt like old times when we all used to band together to come up with games to play in the backyard."

Paige almost wanted to cry from seeing Austin so happy about going out with his friends. It was such a change from the bored expression he donned where they lived before; where he'd always be alone without much to do except study. Even though it had been so long since she had seen him with such an expression, she couldn't help but remember the way he used to be, and be thankful that he had no reason to wear such a face again.

"Anyways," Austin rocked his body up from the bed. "I'm about to go shower and make breakfast. Want anything?"

~

"Six thirty," Uniqua murmured. "Weird. Maybe I'm excited or something."

It was an achievement that Tyrone didn't need to come wake her up today, and she would make sure to rub it in his smug face, however small the feat was.

Waking up early must have been a sign from God, since one look in the mirror told Uniqua that she absolutely needed to do something with her hair. Her pink braids had been a statement to her ridiculous teachers that she was in her last year of school and any creative liberties she took to express her personality were not within their capabilities to prohibit. Unfortunately, it was high time she took them out, as they were starting to frizz, and her natural hair underneath was starting to protrude from the pink in unsightly strands.

School began at nine and was barely a five or six minute drive away. If she left home twenty minutes before, she'd make good time, and the conclusion to that calculation left her with over an hour to get ready, which could include taking out her braids. If she did a quick wash and go, her hair would be tamed enough to look decent for school.

"Okay," she huffed to herself, grabbing a comb and some plastic bags. "Let's get to work."

~

Tyrone cringed inwardly at the way Tasha exited her house, waving to her mother and trying to get her off her tail.

"What am I going to do in this big house all by myself~?" her mother wailed, hugging Tasha's waist as she tried to exit the door with her luggage.

"Mamaaa," Tasha groaned. "If you didn't want to feel lonely when you're alone, you shouldn't have bought such a big house!"

"But it's big so that you and your friends can have fun whenever you come over," her mother pouted. "Don't you like the hot tub?"

"Of course I do," her reply was immediate. "I love the hot tub. But mom, you have to find something to do while I'm gone. There are loads of things to do here. You've been travelling for a while, go talk to some of the people around town that you missed."

"I suppose I could organise some time with Paige..." her mother murmured. She released Tasha and her three suitcases, then fixed her crumpled skirt and blouse. "Alright, fine. But be safe, you hear? Do you have my convenience card?"

"Yes..."

"And do you have your own card?"

"Yes..."

"Do you have cash on you? Not everywhere accepts cards you know-"

"Mom." Tasha said sternly.

Her mother sighed. "Fine, fine, go ahead. That boy you like is waiting for you."

At that, Tasha almost tripped and fell down the steps. "Mom!"

How did she even...

"We both may be a bit ditzy, but I'm not an unobservant mother." she winked. "Have fun, baby."

Tasha frowned, trying to mask her embarrassment at the fact that her mother was apparently aware of her long time crush. How long did she know? Did she know that it was way more than a crush? How much did she know?!

"You good?" Tyrone nodded towards her, effortlessly grabbing one of the suitcases she was dragging along and hoisting it onto his shoulder without question. "I thought Uniqua told you two suitcases only."

Tasha had to prevent herself from visibly swooning at his nonchalant display of strength. "She said I'd have to carry them myself if I brought more than two."

"Well according to Pablo, your strength is nothing to be downplayed," he nodded, walking off in the direction of her garage. "But I'd rather not leave you to carry these by yourself."

How polite, Tasha smiled to herself. She knew better than to think his behaviour was exclusive, but that didn't mean the treatment didn't still feel nice sometimes. If she was going to continue delaying her confession, she might as well keep at it in hopes that Tyrone miraculously caught on. Years of obliviousness weren't about to go away in a weekend, she knew that much, but she wasn't about to pull her punches either.

"It's a good thing your car has a lot of space," Tyrone grunted, placing two of Tasha's suitcases into the trunk of her car. "There are five of us, so suitcases will definitely have to come with you in the backseat."

"Austin can tag along with me when we go." the girl suddenly said, tossing the third suitcase in the trunk and dusting her hands off. "He'll only have one bag, and it's pretty small so he could probably put it in his lap, or on the ground in front of him in the passenger seat."

"You and Austin sure have been hanging out a lot lately, huh?" Tyrone subtly slid in. "Any real reason?"

"Not exactly," Tasha pouted. "I guess it came naturally? Pretty late, right? We're almost adults but we just recently found ways to connect with each other."

Tyrone cocked his head and allowed a shadow of a smile to pass onto his lips. "So it'd be the same if we hung out together and found something to bond over, right?"

Tasha's eyes widened. "W-Well, I don't know. Something like what?"

"Anything," he shrugged, leaning down towards her as he propped himself up on her car. "It doesn't matter. But we could hang out if you wanted to."

"Of course I'd want to!"

She covered her mouth embarrassedly. She didn't mean to blurt that out so quickly. It almost sounded as though she was desperate.

To her further humiliation, Tyrone chuckled at her and pat her head gently. "That's good then. Just say the word. I can be a good playmate too."

Why oh why is he so flirtatious..?!

Tasha struggled with her inner crisis and took her spot behind the steering wheel, fully prepared to detail that entire interaction to Austin on the way to school.

~

"¡Hay alguien en la puerta, Pablo! (There's someone at the door, Pablo!)"

Pablo sat in the living room, pulling on his sneakers. "Can you get it, ma?!" he called back. "I'm a little busy right now!"

He heard his mother shuffle through the house and open up the front door, then release a fond noise. "¡Uniqua, cariño! (sweetheart) How are you? Are you here to get Pablo?"

"¡Estoy bien, Señora Rodríguez! (I'm doing good, Mrs. Rodríguez!)" Uniqua grinned, replying in perfect Spanish. "Yes, I'm here for Pablo. Is he ready?"

"Pablo!" his mother yelled into the house with an urgency. "You're making your friend wait! ¡¿Qué haces?! (What are you doing?!)"

"¡Voy, voy! (I'm coming, I'm coming!)" Pablo hurriedly scuffled over to the door where Uniqua was hiding an amused smirk beside his mother. "I was just putting on my shoes."

"Come on then," Uniqua snickered. "Nos estás haciendo más tarde. (You're making us late.)"

Pablo scoffed. "Creída... (Showoff...)"

His mother nudged him hard in the side. "Don't you go saying things like that, Pablo." She turned back towards Uniqua and beamed brightly. "Your Spanish is beautiful, dear."

"I'm honoured." she replied. "Time to go, Pablo. Got everything?"

"Mhm." he hummed, patting the duffle bag at his side. His mother pulled him in for a tight squeeze and a kiss on the cheek, before pinching and wringing his nose. "Mamá!"

"Go on now." she grinned, satisfied by his embarrassment. "Diviértete y cuídate. (Have fun and be safe.)"

While his mother waved after them as they walked off, Uniqua couldn't help the smug expression on her face. Pablo took one glance at her and picked up his, grumbling inaudibly as she laughed and jogged up beside him.

~

"Um, Tasha..."

Austin and Tasha were both seated in her car and ready to go to school, but it seemed like Tasha had something on her mind and was wordlessly staring off into space.

"Tasha," Austin snapped his fingers next to her ears. "Hey, anyone in there?"

"Mm..?"

Austin furrowed his brows upon receiving barely a hum, then parted his hands and clapped them as hard as he could. Tasha screamed at the sudden loud noise and gripped the steering wheel for support.

"W-What..?" she panted, looking all around. "What was-"

"You are really spacing out right now," Austin frowned. "I don't have a driver's license so I can't take your place, which means you have to stop thinking about whatever you're thinking about right now."

Tasha sighed. "Sorry babe, something's just been on my mind."

"Clearly." Austin chuckled. He checked the time on the car's clock and nodded towards her. "We've still got time. You wanna go get a milkshake and talk about it on the way?"

She donned grateful puppy eyes and promptly started up the car. "Yes please."

The drive to their first stop was relatively quiet, save for the distasteful music playing from Tasha's radio, until Austin broke the silence.

"Ready to tell me what you were thinking so hard about?" he slowly trailed his eyes towards her.

She sighed. "It's stupid. I was just caught a little off guard by Tyrone's flirting this morning and-"

"His what?!" Austin screeched, closing in on her eagerly. "He was flirting with you?!"

"Kind of?" Tasha shrugged. "Maybe? Yes? Argh, I don't know! That might just be the way he is! You know how he can be suave without even realising it."

Austin pursed his lips as he thought about Tyrone's normal demeanour. He wasn't sure if he'd just never noticed the way Tyrone acted around other people, especially when they were around girls, but his behaviour around Austin seemed more protective than flirtatious.

Obviously, Austin scoffed to himself. He's straight. Why would he flirt with me?

"Well, what did he say?" It was best to probe for more information before making a judgement.

"He was asking me how come you and I started hanging out more lately," Tasha recalled the interaction vividly. "Obviously I can't tell him that you accidentally came out to me and I'm the only one who knows so naturally we started getting closer, right?"

Austin chuckled. "Right."

"So then..." Tasha took a breath. "He asked me if we'd be able to hang out the same way. As in, me and him, together."

"Interesting," Austin couldn't help the pleased grin on his face. Was Tyrone finally coming around to her feelings? Was he finally noticing, and making moves to reciprocate them? "And what did you say?"

"Well I wasn't expecting him to say that," she blushed. "So I just stuttered and asked him what we'd even do. 'Anything', he said. 'We can hang out if you want to'."

"Of course you want to!" Austin exclaimed.

"That's what I said!" Tasha agreed enthusiastically. "But I said it a little too quickly, which was so embarrassing. But then-"

Tasha suddenly halted at a red light and hit her head against the steering wheel, practically steaming from her ears. "He said 'I can be a good playmate too.'"

Even Austin had to blush from that one. He wouldn't even know how to react at all if Pablo said something like that to him, so he couldn't begin to imagine how overwhelmed Tasha was right now.

"I totally understand your crisis," he consoled her. "It should be a crime for him to say things like that so unconsciously."

"I know, right?!"

The two sat back in their seats and sighed, then promptly burst out laughing.

"So what about you, Austin?" Tasha cocked her eyebrow. "Do you have somebody that you're crushing on right now?"

"Maybe..." Austin tapped his fingers together. "Perhaps. But I'm not ready to tell you that yet."

"That's okay," Tasha waved away his concern. "As long as it's someone cute and not a total jerk, I'm always rooting for you."

He beamed to himself, still not entirely used to the support from her. Tasha was so thoughtlessly on his side, as though supporting him and his lifestyle was the only obvious decision to make, and the thought of that gave him a warm feeling in his chest. It was already something that he'd discovered how fun she actually was to spend his free time with, but her unconditional support of something he was still so insecure about meant the world.

"Thank you," he slipped out, voice soft from being within his own thoughts. "Really. I don't think you have any idea how much that actually means to me."

Tasha looked across at him with a questioning face, having not heard him from speaking too quietly. "What was that?"

Austin hadn't even noticed that they had arrived and stopped at the coffee place already. They were in the drive thru lane next to the order box, and he chuckled.

"Don't worry about it for now. I'll have a hazelnut truffle latte."

"Hi, good morning! Can I get..."

~

That day was the longest school day the five had ever had to endure. With practically no ability to focus on their classes at all, it only seemed like the day was progressing as slowly as possible to torture them. All they could think about was the moment the day would come to an end.

And that moment was finally upon them.

"Wheeee!" Tasha leapt over the first set of steps leading down into the school's courtyard. "It's time, it's time!"

"I'm glad we're seniors," Uniqua nodded, stretching her body. "The school day ends earlier for us since we have shorter classes."

"Okay everyone, are we all absolutely sure that we have everything?" Tyrone inquired. They all were subconsciously walking faster than usual and had already made it to their cars. They had made it to school at an earlier time than usual in order to land tow parking spaces closer to the school, so they could leave faster. It hadn't even been coordinated, they'd all just had the same thought.

"I have a list." Austin retrieved a small notebook from his pocket. "Enough clothes for the weekend?"

"Check!" Tasha beamed. At that, everyone promptly rolled their eyes. They all knew quite well that she had enough clothes.

Austin chuckled. "Toiletries?"

"Check," Pablo chimed in. "My mom made sure of that."

Uniqua sniggered, earning an annoyed nudge from Pablo, which then escalated into a small war.

"Devices and chargers?"

"Check." Tyrone nodded.

"Money?"

Tasha flashed her purse and two cards at the group triumphantly. "Check, check and check!"

"Alright gang, everyone pile in." Tyrone flashed a small smile, excited himself despite not showing it so obviously in his behaviour. "The town's an hour and a half away, the time right now is 2:45 and we check in at 5:00 pm. We'll have time for a quick refill at a gas station along the way, and maybe a bathroom break, but I trust everyone already took care of their business so that doesn't happen?"

Everyone nodded, though Pablo's looked a little uncertain.

"So without further ado..." Tasha grinned, dramatising her entire body as she and the others hopped into their respective cars. "Road trip!"

Chapter Text

"Can I please just go inside and buy something really quick?"

Tyrone's face remained stone in the face of Pablo's pleas. Why he wanted to go inside of a store at a truck stop when they were only stopping to refill the gas tank was beyond him.

Even worse, there were two trucks at the pumps beside them with some strange looking men inside, and while Tyrone should have been the last one to be judge someone based on appearance alone, the world was a dangerous place. He was the oldest and the unofficial muscle of the group, so he had to do what he could to protect their entire-

"I'm gonna run inside and get something, be back in two seconds, kay?" Tasha was briskly making her way towards the store with a pep in her step, leaving a helplessly forlorn looking Austin in the passenger seat of her car.

"Dammit..." Tyrone pinched his nose bridge and sighed, giving in. "Fine, whatever, just...go make sure she doesn't waste her money on anything stupid."

Pablo nodded animatedly, immediately bouncing from the car and running inside after the colourfully clad girl.

"You could have sent me instead, y'know." Uniqua commented, resting her feet up on the dashboard. A quick side glare from Tyrone immediately made her take her feet down. "I'd definitely make sure she didn't buy anything stupid and deter any idiots that might try to go around her."

"Psh, you really wanted to deal with Pablo sulking the rest of the way to Palbourne?" Tyrone scoffed, resting his arms behind his head and reclining his seat. "I'd rather he waste two or three minutes looking at stupid stuff in there than deal with that for the next twenty minutes."

She shrugged, finding no fault in his logic. "Fair enough. What about Austin?"

The two poked their heads out of the window to peek back at Austin in Tasha's car. He offered them a small grin and a wave when he noticed them looking at him, so they waved back and pulled themselves into the car again.

"He'll be fine."

"Totally fine."

~

"We're in Palbourne!"

Uniqua blanked as she held her cellphone inches away from her ear, still able to hear Tasha squealing loudly into the microphone even without speaker being enabled. "Indeed. I hope you aren't holding your phone in your hand while you're driving."

"Nope." she popped her 'p'. "My phone's connected to the radio."

"Okay. How's Austin doing?"

Tasha glanced across at the comfortably dozing boy, strapped to his seat by the seatbelt and slightly reclined. "Having sweet dreams, I think."

"He's asleep?" Pablo leaned forward to speak into the phone. "Surprising, considering the amount of noise you're making. Was he tired?"

Tasha physically shook her head despite the fact that she was talking over the phone. "Mm mm. I don't think so, at least. He didn't seem tired when we left school, or while we were at the truck stop. Maybe he's just taking a little nap. Aw, he looks so cute when he's asleep!"

"Keep your eyes on the road, please." Tyrone deadpanned, knowing that she was probably grinning at the poor kid's sleeping face and not watching where she was going. "We're almost at the inn, I don't need you crashing into anything before we get there."

He could practically hear her pouting on the other end of the line. "Fine." She huffed, hanging up the phone in their ears.

Uniqua swiped her phone screen to check the clock once the call was over. "Didn't you say our check-in time is at 5?" She turned towards Tyrone questioningly.

"Mhm." he hummed in affirmation.

"We're more than half an hour early," she frowned. "What are we supposed to do until then?"

Tyrone shrugged. "Who knows. Better we're here early than late, right? If anything, you should be applauding me for keeping us so accurately on schedule."

"Whoa..." Pablo whispered, pressing his face to the window. He watched with wonder as the scenery passed by, following everything he could with wide, curious eyes. The town was adorned everywhere with decorations as well as townspeople setting up for the weekend's festival, and it made him wonder if there was more to it than he originally thought. The entire time he'd assumed it was just a fair, but everything was so colourful and everyone looked so happy to be setting up that he believed it had to be more than just some event.

"The place is really pretty and cozy, isn't it?" Uniqua grinned, noticing his awe. Startled, he coughed himself out of his stupor and nodded bashfully, slightly embarrassed to be caught geeking over something like that. Uniqua sighed. "I know I tease you a lot, but not right now. I'm glad to see you happy about something for once. You're always acting so goofy, but you never really act passionate about things. I'm looking forward to seeing what it is you really came here for."

"Shut up, why are you being so embarrassing?" Pablo retorted, scratching behind his ears. He was lucky that he didn't have the skin to visibly blush and could just hide his face instead. He still couldn't stop the tiny smile creeping onto his face at her comment though.

I saw that, short stuff. Uniqua chuckled inwardly, genuinely pleased at that quick little moment of happiness the boy displayed. For someone with a psychologist father, it was almost impossible not to pick up on Pablo's internalised insecurities. Although she didn't know what they were yet, it was evident from his constant clownish behaviour that he was trying to compensate for something.

Hopefully this trip would bring some of that insecurity out of him.

~

Austin could feel his body bouncing rhythmically as he stirred, and his entire frame was hauled over a firm surface. Blinking the fresh blurriness away after his short nap, he realised shortly after coming to that he was being carried on someone's back.

"Kidnapper..?" he drawled, sleepily chewing on air. He wanted to rub his eyes, but feared losing his balance.

"You awake up there?" Tyrone's voice called to him. His voice resonated in Austin's ears from his head being so close and he hummed in reply. "Had a nice nap, I heard."

"It was okay," he yawned. "You can put me down if you want."

Tyrone shook his head. "You're fine. Catch yourself a little bit, you might feel dizzy if I put you down right away. You aren't that heavy either."

Austin flushed. He found it a bit embarrassing to be so lightweight for a boy. Especially when Tyrone, Pablo and most other guys he saw were built the way they were. Tyrone was a generally active person which led to him possessing a well-built physique, then there was the fact that he was taller than average. Pablo was by no means as buff as Tyrone and much, much shorter; but his freedom and overall playfulness meant he got a lot of moving around done, which would naturally develop his physique.

Then there was Austin, slightly under the average height for a boy his age with such a slim physique it was apparently possible for other people to mistake him for a girl. Tasha had mentioned a while ago that he was bigger than she gave him credit for, which hinted at the possibility of him growing, but sometimes he couldn't help but compare himself to his friends.

Tyrone caught his attention by bouncing him slightly. "Whatever you're overthinking up there, I assure you it isn't as big as you're imagining."

"Are you some kind of mind reader?" Austin laughed. Tyrone shrugged playfully, offering not much more than a whispered 'maybe'. It was comforting to have such a deductive companion nearby, which made it all the more infuriating that he never caught onto Tasha's advances.

At the thought of this, Austin gave him a frustrated bonk on the head, much to Tyrone's confusion. Notice her already, would you? We're all dying here.

Speaking of, Austin started looking around for the others, having forgotten them during his and Tyrone's small exchange. He only just noticed that they were walking towards a fountain in the middle of the foreign town, and Tasha was leading at the front of the troupe. Pablo and Uniqua followed closely behind; likely to make sure she didn't wander off.

"We absolutely have to take pictures here!" she grinned, holding up her cellphone and testing different angles and positions. "The lighting will be so perfect here once the sun is a little bit brighter."

"As a photography and fashion enthusiast, I'm inclined to agree." Uniqua nodded. "This space is pretty aesthetically pleasing."

"The thought of swimming in that fountain is pretty aesthetically pleasing." Pablo grinned, rubbing his hands together mischievously. "Think I'd get arrested if I tried?"

"I won't be there to pay your bail if you do." Uniqua absently waved him away, choosing not to indulge him. With Pablo's occasional impulsiveness and obvious excitement about being away from home, it was best not to water any horrible ideas taking root in his mind.

Austin cocked his head, new questions arising in his head one after the other. "How come we aren't at the inn?"

"Oh, you're up. Welcome back to the land of the living." Uniqua smiled, walking over to tap his cheek fondly. "We aren't at the inn because we arrived earlier than expected, and those two were gonna combust if we just sat and waited." She jerked her thumb towards Tasha and Pablo, both staring at the stone fountain with astounded eyes, and chuckled shortly. "So I guess we're just getting a quick sneak peek right now before we officially go exploring."

Austin formed an understanding 'o' with his mouth and promptly began to survey his surroundings. Taking the amount of space and the fountain into consideration, there was enough activity and people bustling about to make this area the designated town square. Of course, there could have been another larger area and this might not have even been the heart of the town, so basing his assumption mainly on the presence of a fountain was a bit hasty.

Tasha seemed to notice that he was with them once again and happily bounded over to him. "Austin~! Isn't this place so cute and great?"

"Sure is," Austin smiled, happy that their plan had finally come to fruition. "I'm glad we came."

"Bit early for that," Tyrone commented, squatting to allow Austin to slide safely off of his back. "I mean, we've seen a fountain and we're already impressed? Pretty easy to please, considering we didn't even come here for that."

"Are you dissing the awesome fountain of these townspeople?" Pablo raised an eyebrow, popping up from absolutely nowhere. "The insolence."

Tyrone held his arms up defensively. "I'm not dissing anything. But come on, it's just a fountain. There are definitely gonna be other, better things to see tomorrow."

Pablo crossed his arms, definitely knowing he was right but still trying to act as unconvinced as possible. "We'll see..."

"Should we take a few commemorative photos?" Uniqua suggested. "Tasha's already got her phone out. These'll be our 'just arrived' pictures."

Tasha squealed gleefully. "You totally read my mind, Uni! Come on, let's take them over by the fountain."

The party made their way over to the fountain, striking cool and goofy poses for every picture Tasha took, and eventually captured the scene of Tyrone and Uniqua preventing Pablo from jumping into the fountain to steal a quarter he seemed to catch a glimpse of. Overall, their arrival was a fun success, and they all couldn't wait for what else the town had in store for them over the weekend.

~

"Your destination is on the left."

Two vehicles filled with a total of five eager teens pulled into the parking lot of the Gentle Gem Inn. Tasha was the first out of her own car, glancing between her phone and the building.

"It looks just like the pictures on the website." she commented with a pleased nod.

"It'd be concerning if it didn't." Uniqua rebutted.

Pablo stepped up beside them and shrugged. "I dunno, not everywhere is gonna look like the advertisements right down to a T. As long as it's mostly accurate it should be fine, right?"

"Correct." Austin agreed. "What are we waiting for? Let's unload our stuff and head inside."

Pablo tried his best to simply nod and go ahead and take out all the suitcases as though he didn't feel like he was about to burst from containing his eagerness. There was something about being out on a trip that filled him with great elation, and even more so because he was out with his friends. No parents, nothing.

"Doing okay over there, Tasha?" Uniqua smirked, figuring that the girl must have been struggling to even get her suitcases out of the car. Tasha, however, walked past her while effortlessly lifting two of her three suitcases like they were dumbbells. Tyrone passed soon after, carrying her third one up on his shoulder and his own luggage on the other shoulder.

Pablo snorted at Uniqua's dumbfounded expression. "You must have thought I was joking when I said she wasn't weak. I was being completely serious."

"I didn't think you were joking, I just thought you were a weakling." Uniqua shrugged, and a satisfied smirk made its way onto her face at Pablo's scowl in reaction to her comment. "Bring your singular duffel bag and come on."

He grumbled under his breath and followed after the three, but stopped in his tracks when he realised that Austin wasn't following them. He peeked around Tasha's car and smiled quietly at the sight of Austin trying to lift his suitcase out of the trunk. "Need some help there, bud?"

Austin yelped suddenly, unaware that anyone was present much less watching his embarrassing struggle. When he noticed that the present party was Pablo, his embarrassment multiplied and he began pinching at the hem of his sweatshirt. "It's not that heavy...I just didn't want it to get damaged from dropping out of the trunk and hitting the ground, but it was a little hard to lift..."

"No need to defend yourself, it's okay." Pablo laughed, easing him to the side and ruffling his hair. He was glad that someone was around for him to impress a bit, what with Uniqua always shooting him down. He could do anything around Austin and feel normal. It was comforting.

Austin watched as Pablo lifted the suitcase out of the trunk, looking away to hide his blush when his biceps and the veins in his arms bulged from his clenched fist.

Wow...

"One safe suitcase available for carriage," Pablo nodded triumphantly. "Unless you want me to carry it for you too?"

"N-No!" Austin flailed his arms. "Just taking it out was enough, I can carry it!"

Pablo laughed again, a sound that was melodic to Austin's ears. "Hey, I was just offering, don't cry."

Austin pouted at his teasing as they both started making their way towards the inn's entrance. "I wasn't gonna cry."

The earlier trio was already at reception with all their and luggage waiting for the final two members of their party.

"Is this your entire group here now?" a short lady behind the receptionist's desk looked between them all as the two arrived.

"Yes, this is everyone." Uniqua confirmed. "We'll be checking in now."

The lady beamed, bending down to retrieve a book from under the desk. "We don't get a lot of young ones like you bunch at this inn. They usually prefer to stay at the place on the other side of town." She set the book down and offered them each a pen to write their names.

"I can't understand why," Tasha frowned. "This place is so adorable, I had to stay here."

"Most of the time they care about the more modern amenities." the lady sighed. "No one cares that much about someplace small and cozy when you have a place with a built in spa and a pool."

"They have a pool over there?!" Pablo exclaimed incredulously, instantly earning a swat across the back of the head from Uniqua.

The receptionist chuckled dryly. "It's alright, I already know that it sounds more appealing. We here at Gentle Gem do what we can with our budget and our customer service, but it's hard to compete with a place with much higher ratings in the same zone. Even harder to get any ratings at all when barely anyone comes by, and those who do don't usually leave ratings that often. Things are difficult."

The five couldn't do much else but stand and stare pitifully at the lady, who was looking a bit crestfallen after expressing her troubles to them. But she quickly shook her head and donned a pleasant smile, preparing to show them around. "I didn't mean to make the mood so sour with my story. You all just seem like such nice children. Come, I will show you to your rooms."

"Can you show the girls to their rooms first?" Austin timidly requested. "One of them has the most luggage, so she might be a little tired."

The lady flashed him a grin. "What a young gentleman you are! Of course, which of the rooms are the young ladies staying in?"

Uniqua stepped forward to answer before Austin's face could catch fire from how deeply he flushed at the lady's compliment. "We're in the double room, thanks."

"Right this way. I'll be back with you in a minute, gentlemen."

As Tasha and Uniqua were led off to their rooms, the three boys remaining stood awkwardly beside one another holding their luggage. They weren't sure what to say or converse with each other about in the short time they'd be alone.

"So..." Pablo slowly began, looking between the two boys at his sides. "Nice weather?"

"You did not," Tyrone deadpanned. "You did not just say nice weather."

"It's okay, I guess?" Austin offered.

Tyrone sighed. "Don't humour him Austin, please."

"What do you think there is to do around here?" Pablo quickly changed the subject, eyes wandering to take in his surroundings. There were statues littering the room of the reception area and a small little stone fountain in the corner. Said reception area was a lot smaller than he expected it to be; not much bigger than the waiting room of a dentist's office. "The people here sure do like fountains."

"Maybe there's a reason?" Austin suggested. "We still don't really know what this festival fair thing they're having is for, we just came because we saw the activities listed for it. Maybe we can ask around, find out more about this place and why they're having the festival in the first place."

Tyrone nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Should we do that when we put up all our stuff in our rooms?"

"We aren't going to sleep early, are we?" Pablo frowned. "There have to be places around here that are bumping during the nightlife! We gotta check them out!"

"Bumping?" Austin furrowed his eyebrows, confused by his sudden use of slang. "What do you mean by that?"

Pablo grinned. "Y'know, alive! Up and kicking! Open for business, even at late hours in the night!"

"Oh!" Austin's eyes lit up. "I've never really been out late before, unless I was at a sleepover with one of you guys. But we didn't actually go out, we just stayed up late. I've never gone somewhere so late."

Pablo threw his arm around Austin's shoulders with a captivating grin, harbouring a slyness that Austin didn't pick up on, but Tyrone definitely did. "Trust me, you'll have fun. Being out at night is one of the most thrilling experiences you'll ever have."

"This all sounds amazingly entertaining, Captain Impulse," Tyrone placed his palm on top of Pablo's head and squeezed, making the boy wince. "But need I remind you that the reason we're here is to get out and take part in the festival events? Events that you were interested in? If we're out so late tonight, do you really think we'll be awake early enough tomorrow to make the most of the day?"

Pablo huffed, tugging away from his grip and massaging his scalp. "No need to be such a parent, I get it. But but," He clasped his hands together pleadingly. "We won't be out too late, I promise! You usually wake up early anyway, so you can wake me up if I'm still asleep. Please, please, please?"

Tyrone kept his face firm, not wanting to show any signs of his wavering resolve to keep the kid in order, but when even Austin started making a face like he too was intrigued about the nightlife of the place, he gave in with a sigh.

"Fine," he settled, holding up a finger right as Pablo was about to cheer victoriously. "But we'll be out no later than midnight."

"Who am I, Cinderella?" Pablo snorted. "If that's your only condition, I don't have a problem."

Tyrone lowered his body to Pablo's level and stared him dead in the eye. "No bars either. We're underage."

"Dammit."

~

Uniqua snickered as Tasha tossed her suitcases down and threw herself onto the bed she wanted. Both beds were the same, but she'd insisted that the pattern on one was cuter than the other, so she needed to sleep on that one in particular.

"These beds are so soft and comfy!" Tasha stretched and rolled around. "So many pillows!"

"Don't mess up the bed just yet, we just got here." Uniqua scolded her playfully, tossing one of her own pillows at her. "We gotta go check up on the guys and see if they're all settled in. I get the feeling that we're gonna do some exploring before we hit the sack later, so let's put some of our stuff away and hop to it."

Tasha's eyes glimmered with interest. "Exploring? Where? When? Now?"

"When we're all settled!" Uniqua repeated, socking her with another pillow. "Open your ears, girlie. We'll probably just go around town and see what buildings they have, places to eat, any areas of interest, stuff like that. Since we'll be out at the festival for the majority of the weekend we might not get in as much exploring as we'd like, so we should get some of it out of the way now."

Tasha nodded firmly. "Okay, I got it."

"Good."

She paused for a second to hum thoughtfully to herself. "So where are we going?"

Uniqua pelted her pillow directly into her face.

Chapter Text

"I am going to the bathroom for two minutes," Tyrone informed the two boys firmly. "Two. Minutes. Do not, and I cannot stress this enough, do not break anything while I'm gone."

Pablo frowned. "What are we gonna break in two-"

"Shut up," Tyrone pinched his lips together, immediately shutting his mouth. "You are a walking five foot catastrophe waiting to happen, and Austin doesn't have the capacity to stop you. So the both of you are going to sit here quietly until I come back, or engage in something that requires little to no movement. Understand?"

"Yes!" Austin replied a bit too enthusiastically, as though he were speaking to a drill sergeant, and Pablo couldn't do much else but nod, what with Tyrone still clamping his lips shut with two of his fingers.

Tyrone reluctantly glanced between the two before releasing Pablo's now swelling lips and moving towards the door. "I'll be back."

No sooner than the door closed did Pablo direct a mischievous grin towards Austin, who gulped fearfully. He had genuinely thought they were going to adhere to Tyrone's instructions, which for Pablo were more than a threat than anything else, but it seemed like Pablo had other plans.

"Think we can build a fort before he gets back?" Pablo challenged. Austin's interest was immediately piqued, not even allowing himself the chance to be relieved that the suggestion was nothing unordinary.

His eyebrows rose in opposition. "Is that a challenge?" he fired back, already reaching for a pillow from one of the nearby beds.

"I like your zeal, Forde. Why don't we make it interesting?"

Austin tilted his head. "Interesting how?"

"We'll have Tyrone judge when he gets back," Pablo explained. "Whichever fort he says is best, the winner gets to choose where we explore first."

That did sound like a fun contest. Austin took a stance, prepared to make a beeline for as many pillows and cushions as he could grab, and Pablo snickered.

"Looking mighty serious over there, Austin. I might have to put my game face on for this one." he teased, mimicking Austin's stance. "I just hope you can handle the place I take you to."

Austin stuck out his tongue. "I won't need to. I'm totally gonna destroy your crummy fort."

Pablo gasped dramatically. "Trash talk? From Austin? Well, I never!"

Austin giggled at his antics.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"...Go!"

~

Uniqua let Tyrone into her and Tasha's room when she peeked out and saw him standing outside, smirking as he immediately looked away from her half naked body. "Oh please, don't be such a wimp."

"It's called being respectful," Tyrone retorted, frowning to hide his blushing expression. He was incredibly glad that he couldn't turn a different colour right now. "Mind telling me why your shirt is missing?"

"I'm about to shower," she explained, leading him inside. "Tasha's in there now, figured I'd let her go first since she said she wants to 'admire the plumbing'."

Tyrone raised a confused brow and Uniqua shrugged. "Hell if I know. I chose not to question it, but  it sounded like she'd be in there a while so I got out of the way."

"So she's...in the shower right now?" Tyrone drawled, trailing his eyes towards the bathroom door and back towards Uniqua. "Y'know, this is obviously a bad time, so I'll just come back later."

"Did you need something?" Uniqua asked, grabbing a shirt from a small pile of clothes on her bed when she realised that he was having a hard time figuring out where in the room to look. "I'll put on a shirt if you're feeling shy."

"I'm not shy," Tyrone frowned again, hoping her comment didn't mean that he looked as flustered as he felt. "Just came to let you know that we were gonna head out soon, so..."

"Right, we're going to explore a little bit." Uniqua nodded in remembrance.

Tyrone hissed sheepishly. "Um...well, maybe not a little bit, exactly."

Uniqua turned towards him suspiciously. "Meaning..?"

"I may or may not have indulged Pablo and Austin and said we could go out late tonight." He stayed quiet and waited for her to yell, but relaxed when she just rolled her eyes.

"Is that all?" she scoffed. "I thought that was the plan. It'd be a waste not to see what the nightlife here is like."

"Right, I forgot that you and Pablo used to be the monarchs of horrendous sleep schedules because you were always out partying..." Tyrone facepalmed. "How could that have slipped my mind?"

A chain of memories flooded Tyrone's mind and he clenched his jaw.

"We just need to make sure Austin stays safe is all," her voice was suddenly solemn. "He isn't the 'night out on the town' type, we all know that. We gotta keep him in sight at all times."

Tyrone nodded, flashing her a quick thumbs up. "Roger. I was on my way to the bathroom, so I'll be going. I just came by to let you guys know-"

"Uniqua!" Tasha's shrill voice made it past the bathroom door to both of their ears. "Could you bring me my face soap?! I forgot it in my suitcase!"

Both Tyrone and Uniqua trailed their eyes towards Tasha's three suitcases, then looked back towards each other. With an unapologetic grin, Tyrone gave her a quick departing salute and dashed from the room to avoid opening that can of worms, meanwhile Uniqua was steaming out of her ears.

"Which suitcase?!"

~

Tasha exited the bathroom after a long, refreshing shower, giggling when Uniqua waved the oncoming steam away from her face.

"Jesus, it's boiling." Uniqua lamented, fanning herself from the heat. The mirrors were fogged up and she already could feel herself beginning to sweat before she had even stepped inside of the room. "Did you shower in exclusively hot water? Why does it look and feel like a sauna in here? How did you even look at yourself in the mirror?"

"I didn't!" Tasha chirped, strutting past Uniqua into the room still wearing her towel. "The mirrors were too foggy so I'm gonna use the ones out here."

Uniqua rolled her eyes. "Great...I'll be heading in now then. Hopefully my cold shower will get rid of all that steam."

"Take your time!"

Tasha hummed giddily to herself as she picked out an outfit, multitasking to check the notifications on her phone. There was a text in her chats with Austin, so she opened it and grinned at the attachment he'd sent.

It was an image of him taking a selfie making a peace sign with his tongue out, while Pablo was in the background carefully putting together the rest of what looked like a pillow fort. She giggled to herself, glad that he seemed to be having fun.

~

⏤ AUSTIN  ⏤

Austin: *IMAGE*

Tasha: Cuties

Austin: Hehe

Austin: We were just doing this till Tyrone gets back from the bathroom

Austin: He told us not to break anything in the meantime

Austin: You excited to go out?

Tasha: ?

Tasha: Wdym go out?

Austin: Oh you didn't know? I figured he'd stop by there and fill you guys in

Tasha: I was in the shower up until two minutes ago so maybe he did and I didn't know

Tasha: Uniqua didn't say anything tho

Austin: Yeah we're going out tonight and we'll be out pretty late

Austin: It's so exciting

Austin: I've never been out after 10 before

Tasha: WHAT??

Austin: What

Austin: Is that bad?

Tasha: Bad is a strong word

Tasha: More like unbelievable

Tasha: How have you never been out after 10??

Tasha: What kind of life have you lived until now??

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

~

Austin pouted at his phone, feeling slightly offended at the implications of his life being called stale. Was going out so late at night really as amazing as they all made it seem? Austin was always perfectly fine staying inside drawing or writing, and he even had fun doing homework sometimes; at least when it was Biology related. Furthermore, he was always content to stick around his friends during the times he wasn't home, so far having no complaints about his routine. He'd never developed the urge to be out after dark, even when he knew that the others were going somewhere. Maybe this was his chance to change that.

"Haha!" Pablo suddenly cackled triumphantly, largely gesturing to his finished pillow fort. "Behold, my masterpiece. Isn't it great?"

Austin stifled a snort at the pile of pillows he had stacked on top of each other. They reminded him of the structure of a card castle.

Card castles always tumbled easily.

Austin pursed his lips momentarily as he stalked closer to Pablo's fragile building and examined the fort with more scrutiny than was probably necessary, all while doing his best to hide his suspicious intent. "It looks a little unstable. Maybe you should move one of the pillows somewhere else?"

Pablo frowned. "What do you mean? Which pillow? Move it where?" He started looking all around the structure for the pillow in question.

Austin grinned deviously. "This one." He kicked his foot out, causing Pablo's tower to tumble in one swift movement. Pablo froze, mouth agape at Austin's act of mischief while he just stood there with an innocent gleam in his eye. "See? Unstable."

"Oh, you've done it now Forde."

"Huh?"

Austin barely had time to process the threat before he was swatted across the torso with one of Pablo's fallen pillows. "Take that! You'll pay for destroying my castle!"

Playing along, Austin brandished two pillows of his own from the floor and took on a playful battle stance. "En guard!"

"I'm back, hope you didn't break any..."

Tyrone stepped back into the room and stopped halfway through the doorway with his hand still resting on the doorknob. The sight in front of him was Austin and Pablo looking at him like they'd been caught stealing from the candy jar, both about to assault each other with pillows. The floor was littered with cushions and pillows and was extremely messy, but above all, nothing was broken.

"...thing." he finished his sentence after taking in the scene fully. "Y'know what? I'm not gonna touch that. Get yourselves ready, we're leaving in a few."

Without another word, he strolled over to his own empty bed - devoid of pillows thanks to a certain duo - and sprawled himself across it. The two boys were frozen in their stances and looking like a pair of deer caught in headlights until Tyrone caught their attention again. "Why are you just standing there? I said get ready."

"Oh, r-right!" Austin sputtered, dropping the pillows in his hands. "What should I wear?"

Pablo gave him a quick pat on the chest and flashed a thumbs up. "You look fine as you are."

Austin blushed as Tyrone added a hum and a nod of agreement.

"Are the girls ready?"

At that, Tyrone covered his face with one hand and ran it harshly down his face.

"Uh...give them like ten minutes...no, maybe fifteen..." he replied quietly, eliciting a shared look between Pablo and Austin. It didn't seem like he was going to elaborate, and he didn't even need to since Tasha came bursting through the door within the next few moments to debunk his prediction.

"Oh my god, why are you so bright?!" Pablo hissed, physically covering his eyes at the sight of her entirely pink outfit. "It's nighttime! Couldn't you have chosen an outfit that was a little more...I dunno, dark?"

"I think we both know the answer to that question," Austin giggled. "Don't listen to him, Tasha. You look gorgeous."

"As if I don't already know," she flipped her hair and flashed her tongue at Pablo. "I am the life of the party."

"I beg to differ."

Everyone's eyes fell to Uniqua as she strolled into the room. Even with her outstanding outfit choice, Austin's eyes twinkled with unspoken delight at the sight of her bouncy afro on full display.

"Nice hair, Epcot," Pablo clapped sarcastically, making a jab at her despite genuinely appreciating the look. "Any rounder and I'd have thought you were a walking microphone."

"Lose the attitude, shrimp," Uniqua walked straight over to him to momentarily use him as an armrest. "Tonight, we declare momentary truce."

Pablo licked his lips as she peered at him from above the rims of her shades and the two shared a knowing grin. "Damn, it's serious now, isn't it?"

Tyrone and Tasha both groaned, leaving Austin to glance back and forth between them in confusion. "Wait, what? I think I'm missing something."

Tasha gave a short laugh. "When these two are out late, you'd never guess that they're always at each other's throats the rest of the time."

"Joined at the hip." Tyrone rolled his eyes. His gaze passed over the two, already looking like a dynamic pair despite being in the same space for less than five minutes, and the passive-aggression in his voice threatened to spill. "I assume we're all ready then?"

"Yup!" Austin nodded, literally bouncing on the spot as Tyrone's subtle shift in tone went completely unnoticed. "Ready, ready!"

Tyrone rose from his spot on the bed and fixed his jacket with a small smile. "Okay then, boys and girls. Time to hit the streets."

~

Austin quickly fluttered left and right about the empty streets with bright, excited eyes. Now that it was dark out, the lights and lanterns littered about the corners of the town made everything look entirely surreal. It was almost like they had gone to a new world altogether.

"This place is amazing!" he beamed, unable to contain himself as he spun around to inhale the crisp night air. The breeze was cool on his face, and he was thankful that despite the weather broadcast saying that it would be hot, that he'd decided to pack a jacket. The nighttime was always colder than the daytime, and he was sure he'd be freezing to death right now without it.

"Pictures really don't do this place justice," Uniqua whistled as she too, took in the lit up scenery. "This is beautiful. I almost feel bad for being about to get my freak on."

"Emphasis on almost." Pablo grinned, rubbing his hands together. "We need to hit up a club."

"Oh yes, a club," Tyrone drawled, not even attempting to hide his sarcasm. "And how do you propose we get into a club?"

Pablo ran a hand through his hair with a smug look on his face. "You think I didn't so my research on this place?"

"No."

He winced at the lack of faith in Tyrone's immediate response. "W-Well I did, thank you. And there are two clubs here - one for adults, and one...well, kind of also for adults, but if you're sixteen and over you can get in with a an adult as long as you don't drink any alcohol."

Uniqua pouted. "Sounds boring."

Tyrone nudged her in the side, gesturing to a starstruck looking Austin to remind her of their main objective for the night.

Keep Austin safe.

Tasha watched as Austin bounced from place to place, beaming brightly as he pressed his face against various glasses to look inside of shop windows or browsed various objects at little merchant stalls. She had been thinking more often lately how glad she was to have gained this deeper connection with Austin; it had given her a perfect opportunity to see how cute he was and how adorable he acted. Of course, Austin had always been cute in her eyes, but when she really observed him moving around and interacting with things, it was almost unbearable.

"Look at this!" He bounded over to the rest of the group with his hands outstretched. They all leaned over to look at the small trinket in his palms.

"What is it?" Pablo cocked his head, poking the small brown thing.

Austin was literally vibrating with glee. "It's a tiny clock! Isn't this amazing?"

Everyone turned away from him and facepalmed quickly to compose themselves, then turned back and offered him words of agreement.

How can a single person be so pure?

"That's great, y'know, but this isn't really the nightlife I was telling you about." Pablo whispered, pulling him into his side. "This kind of thing? You can get that anywhere during the day. No, the nightlife is all about amazing parties!"

Austin blinked. "Parties?"

Uniqua nodded, slinging her arm over Pablo's shoulders. "Absolutely, I have to agree. Pablo, lead the way. Direct this young lad towards the truth."

Pablo and Uniqua marched a dazed Austin off in the direction of what was presumably the nearest club. Tasha and Tyrone followed close behind at a slower pace.

"When do you think they'll realise that Austin isn't a partier like they are?" Tyrone chuckled, quickly glancing down at Tasha. She didn't seem to hear him, but she looked like she was shivering as she rubbed her arms up and down. "Tasha?"

"Huh?" she jumped, looking up at him. "S-Sorry, I didn't hear..."

He gave her one look and didn't even bother to ask; he simply removed the jacket he was wearing and put it around her. Immediately flustered by the gesture, Tasha began sputtering words of protest.

"Oh, y-you can keep it! You must be cold too, and it was my fault for not wearing enough layers! I..."

Tyrone smiled softly and rested his palm atop her head. "It's fine, I was a little hot actually. I have a lot of body heat so I'll be okay."

"Oh..." Tasha hid the lower half of her face with the jacket as the two continued walking in comfortable silence. "Then..."

He raised his eyebrows. "Mm?"

"Can I...stick close to you?"

Now he was confused. "Stick close to me? Like how?"

Tasha blushed furiously. Keep going! Be bold and don't hold back! "Y-You said you have a lot of body heat so...can you share some of it with me?"

The silence that ensued between them was intimidating. Was that comment too far? No, scratch that, too far meant he would probably read the mood right? But what if that wasn't a good thing? Why was he taking so long to answer? Was she being rejected right now?

Tyrone chuckled, casually putting an arm around her. "I think you're spending too much time with Austin. You both do way too much overthinking these days. If you're cold just say so, yeah?"

She blushed again at the feeling of his arm pulling her close. "Yeah, okay..."

"Score!"

Tyrone sighed. "I think they found the club." He removed his arm from Tasha's shoulders and jogged ahead of her a little bit. She kept at the same pace, secretly a little crestfallen at the new lack of contact, but her mood was immediately lifted when Tyrone looked back at her and offered her his hand with a gentle smile.

"Shall we?"

~

This definition of an amazing nightlife was definitely not what Austin had expected from Pablo's description.

If he was being honest, he didn't exactly know what he was expecting either, considering that he had no assumptions or stories to base his imagination off of. He was sort of just heading into everything with his eyes opened. But loud music and being surrounded by strangers was not at all what Austin had in mind.

As offensive as he thought the idea was, the place reminded him of school, but a lot worse.

Pablo and Uniqua seemed to think differently however. They were both standing atop two cylindrical platforms protruding from the ground and 'getting their dance on' as Uniqua had referred to it. Pablo's shirt, much to Austin's pleasant surprise, was no longer on his body. Instead he was holding it in his hand and waving it in a large circle, banging his head to the pumping beat of music blaring from large speakers; all the while being cheered on by a group surrounding him.

If he could watch and secretly admire the violently please look Pablo made when he was having this much fun, then maybe the place wasn't so bad. But still, he wished there was something in the place that he could do for fun when he wasn't discreetly gawking at his crush.

"Just hypothetically," Tyrone leaned over to him from his space on the couch where they both were sitting in the lounge area. "How long do you think it'll take him to pass out?"

"Pardon?" Austin's eyes went wide with a frozen smile of disbelief at Tyrone's question. Wasn't that a strangely random thing to say?

"Look at him," he gestured towards Pablo with his cup of...whatever he had ordered from the bar. "If he bangs his head any harder he's gonna snap his neck."

At that, Austin giggled and took a sip of his own soda. He knew Tyrone probably wasn't the type to engage in these kinds of things since he was even quieter than Austin usually was, so he was glad that someone had stayed by him while Uniqua and Pablo had their fun.

"Oh god," Tyrone suddenly sat up straight and looked around frantically. "Where the hell is Tasha? She was here just a second ago!"

Austin giggled again at his panic and tapped him for his attention, pointing over to where Uniqua was busting moves of her own. Tasha was amidst the cheering crowd with her phone out, cheering right along with the strangers and recording Uniqua's dancing for documentation.

Tyrone deflated with relief. Being the oldest was turning out to be a larger pain in the ass than he'd originally expected. The bouncer at the entrance was already skeptical of how an eighteen year old was going to keep a bunch of "teenagers" in check when he was only a couple of months older than them himself, and Tyrone had to begin agreeing with him. The easiest task was Austin, who most likely wouldn't do much moving apart from getting something to drink from the bar or going to the bathroom; not that Tyrone was going to let him go to the bathroom anyway. He didn't trust them.

The others were proving a lot more difficult. Pablo was always a wild card, but as unhinged as he was at the moment there was no telling what he might get up to if Tyrone looked the other way for a measly five seconds. Uniqua was less of an issue, but when she and Pablo were in the same space together and feeling mutual enjoyment, she tended to lose a lot of her reason. Tasha had a tendency to stray away from the group altogether, and he'd lose her if he wasn't careful. Hell, he almost had.

Wait a second.

Tyrone turned towards Austin, eagerly drinking his soda through a long straw with his eyes trained on everyone. His pupils darted back and forth, observantly marking everyone's presence. He'd even kept track of Tasha earlier, so maybe...

Time for an experiment.

"Austin, I gotta go to the bathroom real quick," Tyrone half lied. He didn't feel the urge to go in that moment, but once he got in there he might. Either that or he'd immediately be put off by the presumably disgusting state of the restrooms. "Can you hold down the fort for a bit? Just keep them on your radar, make sure that none of them wander too far."

Austin nodded absently, seeming to hear and take in his instructions, but already too focused on intently watching everything and drinking his drink. Tyrone stood up and left the lounge, moving towards the bathroom. Now that he was standing up, it was unsettlingly easy to feel that the drink he'd downed before had definitely passed far enough for him to actually need to use the restroom.

All he had to do now was hope his intuition about Austin was right.

Chapter Text

By the time Tyrone returned, Austin had already finished a second glass of soda and was onto his third. He hated to say it, but maybe the kid would be an okay drinker if they ever let him in on it one day.

"Everything okay over here?" He slid back into his spot next to Austin on the lounge couch. The shift in weight caused Austin to tensely look over and notice his presence, then relax slightly after realising who it was.

Austin nodded. "Mhm. Nothing much has really happened since you left."

Tyrone looked around, realising that no one was where he had left them. "Where is everyone?"

"Pablo switched dance platforms," Austin's answer was almost immediate as he pointed Tyrone in his general direction. Sure enough Pablo was in the direction of Austin's hand, somehow looking like a complete drunk despite not consuming a single drop.

Or so Tyrone hoped.

"There was a guy that tried to challenge him with dancing earlier, but Pablo won I think?" Austin frowned, scratching his head as he recalled what had happened in the last three minutes. "I'm not sure, I didn't really understand what was going on. I just know that the guy walked away looking sad and Pablo got some applause and so he moved to a different platform."

Okay... Tyrone furrowed his eyebrows at the unexpected development. "Anything else?"

"Uniqua and Tasha came and sat with me for a while when they saw I was alone, then they both went to the bar for something to drink." Austin glanced quickly to the left of the club. "Tasha's still over there sitting at the bar, she's talking to the bartender right now...and I think I saw Uniqua going back onto the dance floor, but she isn't on a platform anymore. Somewhere close to where Pablo is right now, probably."

Tyrone whistled. "Wow. I was right."

Austin frowned. "Right about what?"

"You have really good situational awareness when you sit and focus." he explained. "Before I left to go to the bathroom you looked kind of dazed and I thought you were zoning out, but you instantly knew where everyone was. It didn't even seem like you were looking for them."

"Oh!" Austin chirped, intrigued by this new revelation. He didn't even notice that he was watching anything so intensely, it had all just felt like a part of his peripherals. Everything was happening all at once, and he was keen to take it all in. "I think I'm just really good at looking at things. I have good practice from all the bug watching I do back home."

Tyrone chuckled at his modesty. "Sure, let's go with that."

After sharing a short laugh, the two sat in silence while Austin slurped on his drink. Tyrone glanced over at him, wondering why he had just sighed for the third time in a row. "Are you okay? Tired?"

Austin's eyes widened, not realising that he'd been heard. "Oh, sorry if it bothered you. I'm not tired, I'm just a little bit-"

"Bored?" Tyrone finished the sentence for him with a small smile. "You're just sitting over here drinking and not doing anything, so it wouldn't surprise me if you were."

"Oh...but isn't that a little rude?" Austin whined with sad eyes. "Everyone wanted to come here so I might just spoil the mood if I got bored of it so fast."

"Not everyone," Tyrone reminded him. "Personally, I'm just along for the ride, as I am with most things in my life. You're probably here because everyone else is too. I doubt this is the kind of place you'd willingly come in your free time on your own."

Austin didn't have to look around to agree with that. Even school got a little too loud for him sometimes, so this level of volume was absolutely atrocious by his normal standards. Was this what the nightlife was? Was this what Pablo was into?

If it was...surely there had to be some part of it that even he could find genuine fun in, right? For Pablo's sake?

"You don't have to pretend to like being here, Austin." Tyrone said seriously. "I can tell this isn't your scene. It's nice and all that we're together with everyone, but we all aren't having as much fun as the next guy. There's nothing wrong with that, we all have our hobbies and interest, and this one just isn't yours."

"I'm glad you're understanding about it at least," Austin looked down at his idle hands in his lap. "But is there really nothing at all that I can do in here? Is this really the nightlife I was so excited to see?"

"It doesn't have to be."

Austin looked into Tyrone's eyes as he stared back directly into Austin's.

"We don't have to stay in this club all night. This is just the first stop on our nightlife expedition. There's more to the dark than parties with bright lights."

"Oh..." Austin hadn't thought about that. Obviously this was just one place, one building. One area of the town that was available to them at night. There were other places around for him to go to, other places that he'd enjoy outside of this loud place that made him feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest more violently than he'd like.

"So with that said," Tyrone sat forward. "Where do you want this night to take you?"

Austin blinked a couple of times and pondered. He pondered about the outside. About what he had seen so far. The little things and the big, and everything he had been able to take in so far. As for what he hadn't...

He smiled softly to himself as he mentally confirmed his answer. "I want to go..."

~

It was irritating. Tasha had been talking to that stupid bartender for almost fifteen minutes now, meanwhile Austin and Tyrone were chatting up a storm in the lounge. What was Tasha doing?!

Uniqua had seen the way they interacted on the way to the club and mentally cheered Tasha on as it seemed like she was making progress, despite the weird feeling in her chest. Even if he wasn't aware of his own actions, Tyrone seemed to be subconsciously reciprocating her advances, which meant that Tasha must have been doing something right in that moment. It was for this reason that Uniqua had immediately stalked off into the club to have her fun after getting inside, while also secretly watching from afar to see that things were going well.

So why, oh why, was Tasha not capitalising on that moment they'd both had and continuing her onslaught of affection? Why was she currently in the process of talking her life away with some sleazy bartender instead of the literal love of her life?

Who knew? But it was time to intervene.

Tasha didn't even notice when Uniqua sidled up beside her, the freaking scatterbrain. She caught the attention of the bartender first, who immediately eyed her up and down with a disgustingly sly grin. It made Uniqua laugh inside to think about how he'd react when he found out that they were both minors.

"Is that your friend?" The bartender didn't take his eyes off of Uniqua, despite having them trained on Tasha for the past ten minutes. Talk about an easy target. "You're both so beautiful."

I'm not too happy to get that compliment from you. Uniqua resisted the urge to roll her eyes back into her skull. "Thank you. Having fun over here, Tash?"

"I've just been talking to this guy for a little bit." Tasha beamed. She looked so hopelessly oblivious. "He's been showing me some cool tricks with the mixers."

"Oh, really?" Uniqua pouted. "Shame you won't be able to drink any of the stuff he makes."

She cut her eyes at the bartender when he seemed to physically stutter. "W-Well, I wouldn't mind covering the price of your drink if it's a problem."

Uniqua grinned, relishing in his increasingly suspicious behaviour. "But you have to check her ID, right? We wouldn't want you to get fired for not following procedures..."

Thinking that she had just been trying to help him out, the bartender relaxed slightly. "Oh, okay. Can I see your ID, miss? Y'know, procedure."

He winked towards Uniqua, who returned a dry giggle. Tasha reached into her purse for her ID card and handed it to the bartender, and Uniqua almost burst out laughing when his expression dropped completely.

"O-Oh, um...I, uh..." he stammered, handing the card back to Tasha, who was making the entire interaction better by being completely lost.

"Is something the matter?" she questioned, sincerely concerned.

The bartender looked like he wanted to pass out. "Y-Yes, everything's fine...can I ask what drinks you...young ladies...would like?"

Uniqua squeezed Tasha into her side with an amused grin. "Any soda would be fine. Or something virgin."

The bartender coughed and scurried off to make their drinks and tend to another customer sitting at the bar, and Uniqua finally released the cackles she had been holding in.

"What?!" Tasha wailed. "What is so funny?"

"Oh god, don't worry about it babe," Uniqua inhaled and flared her nostrils as she calmed herself down. "You being clueless just makes it that much funnier."

Tasha pouted as Uniqua dragged her to make their way over to where Tyrone and Austin were seated, not caring that she had left the bartender to make two drinks that would never reach their targets. She pushed Tasha down onto the couch beside Tyrone, then took up a spot next to Austin.

"Hi guys!" Austin greeted them brightly. "Aren't you having fun?"

"Oh, I've done plenty." Uniqua smirked. "I've had my fill for tonight. What time is it?"

Tyrone checked his watch. "Eleven. We should make our way outta here soon. Where's Pablo?"

Austin slurped the rest of his drink - surprisingly his fifth tall drink of the night - and pointed over to where Pablo was sprawled out on a couch with his head lolled back.

"Is he dead?" Uniqua sat up suddenly.

Austin giggled. "No. I think he got dizzy. He'd been banging his head to the music for a while now, I wouldn't be surprised if he was feeling a little queazy."

"He didn't drink anything weird, did he?" Tyrone frowned.

"He didn't drink anything at all." Austin stood up and stretched, finished with his fifth drink. "Maybe that's why he looks like that now. He's been dancing for like an hour now and he hasn't had anything to drink."

"Can't say the same of you." Tyrone commented, amusedly eyeing the empty glasses on the table in front of them. Austin blushed and giggled sheepishly. "Go get him, would you? We'll be leaving when he gets here."

"Me?" Austin's eyes widened. He turned to look at the crowd and swallowed. "Um...maybe Uniqua can do it?"

"I'm a little tired too, Austin." Uniqua breathed, cocking her head at him. "Come on, don't be wimpy. You've been over here all night. Go get him and come right back, as fast as you can."

Austin frowned fearfully, easing his way into the crowd and immediately being bumped between people's dancing bodies. He soon disappeared into the mass of dancers, leaving Tyrone and Uniqua blinking after him as the last of his limbs disappeared from view.

"Uh," Tyrone scratched his head. "Was that a bad idea?"

Uniqua narrowed her eyes at him. "You're the one who told him to go and now you're questioning it? Literally look where you sent him!"

"You didn't oppose me either!"

Tasha couldn't even hear the two when they started bickering. The moment Uniqua had pushed her down to sit beside Tyrone, her hand had accidentally landed on top of his and hadn't moved since. Even now, as animatedly as he was moving while verbally combatting Uniqua over why they had sent Austin into a dancing crowd, his hand never moved from beneath hers. All she could do was sit there and try not to scream at the fact that they were basically holding hands. Well, not really, but it was fun to imagine that they were.

Regardless of her needless fantasising, she didn't mind being able to rest her hand atop the warmth of his for a little while longer.

~

Austin had read lots of stories before, and had recently come to understand the feeling of wanting your existence to cease. There was no manoeuvring through this crowd normally; he didn't even know where on the dance floor he was, much less where it would spit him out by the time he reached one end.

Thankfully the latter came sooner than later, though his suspicions were unfortunately confirmed and he had no idea where in the club he was.

"Darn it..." He glanced around the area, frantically trying to spot Pablo. "Where are you, Pablo..?"

"Ooh, look what we have here~"

Oh no.

Austin twisted around and was faced with a pair of girls. He had absolutely no idea where he was supposed to look if he was going to be respectful, but to make eye contact was even more intimidating, so he awkwardly focused on one of the girls' collarbones. It was a strange place to look, but there was too much skin showing anywhere else.

"He's a cutie," one girl purred, latched onto her partner's arm as she noticed his dilemma. "Do you wanna dance with us?"

"I-I'm sorry but no, I...I can't dance." Austin fumbled, wringing his hands into his shirt. What the heck was he supposed to do to get out of this situation?

"That's alright, sugar." They slithered up to either side of him, pressed onto his arms, and he swallowed uncomfortably. "You don't have to be good at it. Just let us do the working."

"Sorry ladies..." Someone smoothly took Austin's wrist and spun him from the girls' clutches, hanging an arm over his shoulder. "He's with me tonight, he's very busy."

This voice...

Austin glanced up at the culprit and felt a wave of relief wash over him when he saw Pablo wink down at him. Thank goodness.

"You're a cute one too," the girls still didn't relent in their advances. "We can all have fun together."

Austin grimaced as he watched Pablo visibly falter for a moment, before grinning confidently. "I'd love to, but maybe some other time. We've got places to be, isn't that right?" He squeezed Austin for a response, and he nodded frantically; eyes to the floor.

The girls pouted, but went their separate ways nonetheless at the new presence of an unfaltering boy. Pablo sighed and looked towards Austin, who was looking a little down. "Hey bud, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." Austin perked up immediately, not wanting to worry him. Obviously he couldn't tell him that it hurt a little to witness him have a moment of hesitation to choose between dancing with girls or saving Austin. But it seemed like he was doing a worse job hiding how he felt about it than he thought.

It frustrated Austin how attractive he thought Pablo looked right now. The flashing lights of the club paired with the sweat on his face made his face glow and glisten with rapidly changing hues of blue, red and green; it was almost like he wasn't even real. If not for the physical contact the two had right then,  Austin wasn't sure he'd be able to tell the difference. The boy was panting; clearly tired from dancing all night, and his arm was still around Austin's shoulder. What a predicament. Austin hoped his face wasn't red, or that Pablo wouldn't notice if it was.

"The others told me to come get you," he explained, subtly changing the subject. "We were gonna leave once everyone was together, but you were the only one not there."

Pablo snorted. "Damn, Uniqua didn't even tell me anything and we came onto the dance floor together. Alright then, lead the way kid."

"I'm not a kid." Austin pouted. "I'm older than you."

"Only by a month."

Austin rolled his eyes as he led Pablo over to where the rest of the group was waiting. Pablo's eyes immediately darkened when he noticed Uniqua.

"You traitor," he spat. "You left me alone on the dance floor and didn't even say anything? I'm appalled."

Uniqua pinched her nose bridge and sighed. "That's because this idiot was two moves away from getting drugged by the bartender." She wrung Tasha's nose between her fingers, smirking as the girl wailed in pain.

"I wasn't gonna get drugged!" she protested, rubbing her aching nose. "He just didn't know I was underage."

Tyrone rested his hand atop her head. "Still, you have to be careful. Clubs aren't the safest places to be, okay?"

Tasha immediately quieted down and nodded, hands obediently in her lap. The others - Tyrone excluded - sighed knowingly.

"So what's the deal then? Are we leaving?" Pablo cocked his head as he flopped down beside Uniqua and laid his head in her lap. She casually rested a hand in his hair and he leaned into her palm.

"Austin's not really having fun." Tyrone stated flatly. All eyes fell on Austin, and he flailed his arms frantically to try an explain himself.

"It's not that I'm not having fun!" he cried defensively. "I'm just...a little bit bored."

He was bracing for Pablo's disappointment, but he just nodded instead.

"That's understandable," he hummed. "This kind of place isn't your thing, it's mine and Uniqua's. I mean, just look at what happened back there. Who knows what might have happened if I didn't notice you standing there like a lost puppy."

"Wait, what happened?" Uniqua arched a brow at him, suddenly concerned.

"Nothing much," Pablo waved his hand. "Some girls were trying to dance with him and he didn't want to, but they were being a little pushy. I came by and got them to go away."

Tyrone and Uniqua shared a look. Let's not send Austin off on his own ever again, the two seemed to communicate to each other, and nodded firmly.

"Yikes." Tasha grimaced. "Why don't some people just leave people alone when they say they don't wanna do something?"

"It's called inconsideration." Uniqua commented matter-of-factly. "Something you don't yet  seem to grasp the concept of."

"She always thinks positively of someone before assuming the worst." Pablo shook his head. "That's a weakness, Tasha. It's gonna get you hurt someday."

"He's right." Tyrone nodded. "Be more mindful of the kinds of people you surround yourself with."

Yet again, Tasha seemed to isolate Tyrone's comment alone, nodding along to his advice only.

"It's like we're invisible." Uniqua rolled her eyes, and Pablo hummed his agreement. "So Austin, where was it that you wanted to go?"

Austin, who had been slightly disconnected from the conversation, suddenly perked up at mention of his name. "Huh?"

"Tyrone mentioned you had somewhere in mind. Where is it?"

"Oh." Austin hummed, trying to recall the little place that he'd seen while they were all walking towards the club. "It's not that far from here. If we leave now we can spend some time there before heading back to the inn."

"Being secretive, are we?" Tasha grinned. "I like surprises. I hope it's something cute."

Austin chuckled. "I mean, I guess you could consider it cute. It's a bit more...gentle, I'd say."

Uniqua kneed Pablo off of her lap and he ended up in a groaning heap on the floor. "Well, let's not waste anymore time. Lead the way."

~

"How did you even notice this place?" Uniqua murmured, awe in her eyes as she looked around.

"I told you, he's got some pretty observant eyes." Tyrone smiled, pleased that he had discovered this new skill of Austin's.

The boy had brought them all to a small clearing a few buildings away from the club. They'd had to pass through an alley to reach it, but the squeeze was worth it for the starry sky they now had viewership privileges to. The area was small and grassy, strangely well kept for such a secluded looking area, and there was a dilapidated bench off to a corner where the stone wall of a building cut off the clearing from the rest of the open town. A fence did little to keep any passers-by from venturing into the small pond that was beyond it, but the whole space was quaint and cozy.

"This is so adorable," Tasha squeaked. "Look at the sky!"

The group all craned their necks upwards, gazing at the sky littered with dozens of lights, and were all overcome with an air of peace. The night air didn't feel as cold as it did within the town, and a vague warmth surrounded them as they all just stood and took in the scenery and the nature.

Pablo smiled to himself, inhaling the scent of the night mixed with the scent of grass under his feet. He glanced across at Austin, who had brought them there in the first place, and felt his entire being pause at the way he looked.

His pale face looked at ease, unlike the tense demeanour he showed inside the club. Nature really was where he belonged, after all. The stars shone down onto his freckles like they were illuminating every single one, and the smile on his face brought a pleased feeling to Pablo's chest. It was weird to him; to feel so happy just from seeing the happiness of someone else, but he supposed it was just because it was Austin. He already knew the calming effects he had over them. He deserved to be happy like this for a change. He deserved everything.

"Can we just...stay here a while?" Austin breathed, bending his knees to lower his body and sit cross-legged on the grass. "The air here feels nice and cool."

Tasha skipped up beside him and took a seat, resting her head on his shoulder. "The stars reflecting on the pond look so pretty."

One by one, the entire group sat down near one another in a huddled bunch to gaze at the sky atop the pond's surface. No one minded how close they were, or who was resting their head on whose shoulder. It was simply a moment for them all to relax in silence, savouring the presence of their closest friends. This was why they traveled. This was a moment in their lives that they lived to remember. A precious memory to always cherish.

None of them would ever forget.

Chapter Text

Tyrone slowly sat up in his bed, cracking his neck. He had momentarily forgotten that he was on a trip, but a few seconds to take in his unfamiliar surroundings returned the memory. Pablo was sprawled on the floor, sleeping on top of the cushions he and Austin had used to massacre the tidiness of their room the day before, and Austin was...

Not in his bed.

It wasn't exactly cause for panic, since Austin was an early riser just like Tyrone. Knowing him, he probably tried his best not to wake them up while he went off to do something else.

The sound of a toilet flushing was enough to alert Tyrone to Austin's presence, and he yawned. Austin opened the bathroom door and flinched when he noticed him awake and sitting up in bed.

"Did I wake you?" he asked with a regretful tone, visibly grimacing.

Tyrone chuckled throatily, the tendrils of sleep still lowering his voice. "Nah, I woke up a little before. Morning."

"Good morning." Austin smiled, going up on his tiptoes as he stretched. He glanced over towards Pablo, still completely knocked out on the floor. "I'm not expecting him to wake up for another hour or so."

"Oh right," Tyrone scratched his head, feeling around for his phone on the nightstand. "What time is it..?"

"Probably around six by now," Austin responded before Tyrone could even check the time. "I woke up at five thirty and went outside to look for bugs. There were fireflies! Isn't that crazy?"

"Why is that crazy?" Tyrone asked, swinging his legs over the end of the bed. He stood up and went to rummage through his bag for his toothbrush.

"Because fireflies are nocturnal creatures," Austin beamed, excited to share. "It was still a little dark out, but it's still morning. I'm surprised I saw any at all!"

"Mm." Tyrone hummed, locating the toothbrush. "Are either of the girls awake?"

Austin looked up in thought before shaking his head. "Not sure, but I don't think so."

"Mm."

The next hour was calm and uneventful as the two early birds got themselves ready for the day. After they'd both taken showers and brushed their teeth, Tyrone flicked through his phone while Austin sat by the windowsill and absently stared out of the window at the morning sky. He could see the townspeople up and about already, mingling with one another as they set up stalls and opened up their shops for the day. Way earlier than the opening times for shops in their own town, he noticed. There were festival workers milling about and checking on all of the decorations to make sure they were in order for the festival later that day, and Austin smiled as a trio of children ran past, laughing and kicking a ball between them.

"This place feels really homey," he murmured absently. "It's so much more relaxing than I thought."

"True." Tyrone agreed, chuckling a little bit when Austin squeaked in surprise like he wasn't expecting to have been heard. "It's a real change from home where everyone pretty much keeps to themselves, or is just kind of sleazy otherwise."

"Sleazy? Really? I never noticed."

Of course he never noticed. As counterproductive as it was, they all did their best to shield Austin from the horrors of the world. Tyrone's latest recollection of this was discreetly saving him from what would have escalated into a bullying incident at school. He'd have to come face to face with some kind of harsh reality eventually, but for now they'd do what they could to allow him a peaceful and stress free life. Even if that came at the cost of their own stress.

"Ugh..."

The two boys glanced down towards the source of sudden groans and witnessed Pablo stretching his arms and legs and shielding his face from the light coming in through the window. Austin looked away as his vest rose past his belly button.

"Dammit, why's the fuckin' sun so bright..." he complained, sniffling and rubbing drool away from the corner of his lip.

"Language!" Austin scolded.

Tyrone snorted. "I forgot what a potty mouth he is in the morning. Give him a few minutes, he'll fall out of it." He rocked himself out of bed and walked over to softly thump Pablo with his foot. "Oi, open your eyes. It's morning; that's why the sun's out, genius."

"Shut up, five more minutes..." he mumbled, rolling back onto his side and hugging one of the cushions.

Tyrone shared a look with Austin, then he shrugged. "Suit yourself. Austin and I'll just head out to look at the festival ahead of time, you can catch up with us later."

Pablo's head immediately shot up. "You aren't going any fuckin' where without me."

"Language."

~

Tasha yawned quietly, checking her phone first thing in the morning. Seven thirty wasn't a bad time, especially for someone who usually slept in late whenever she had the chance. If anything, she'd actually been expecting to wake up a little earlier than normal since she was away from home.

What she didn't expect, however, was to roll over to the sight of a grinning Uniqua staring creepily at her from the side of her bed.

"Uniqua..." Tasha mumbled, unable to hide her disgusted face. "What are you doing? Were you watching me sleep?"

"I saw something online that people can sense when they're being watched in their sleep and it makes them wake up faster." she laughed, getting up from her crouching position. "I've been here for like fifteen minutes though, so that's probably a lie."

"Weirdo..." Tasha muttered through a second yawn. "Are the boys awake?"

Uniqua nodded. "Austin and Tyrone were up first, earlier than I was, but you already know that those two wake up at the ass crack of dawn on a regular basis. Pablo's awake too, which is more of a surprise. I definitely thought he'd sleep till like, at least eleven. But come on; up, up you get." She clapped her hands, urging Tasha to get out of bed. "We gotta get ready and have breakfast. The fair officially opens to patrons at ten, so we've got a little bit of leisure time before then and I wanna eat out for breakfast."

"Shouldn't we get food from the inn?" Tasha queried. "They offer food, don't they?"

"They do, but we didn't include that in our booking, all we booked was the rooms. We didn't pay for meals." Uniqua explained.

"Oh, okay. So where are we eating?"

Uniqua grinned, pulling Tasha out of bed. "Glad you asked."

~

Austin reached across to cover Pablo's mouth as he yawned, scratching his belly under his shirt.

"Come on, we're in public. Manners." Tyrone jabbed his fork at him. Pablo responded with a flash of his tongue and yawned again, this time covering his own mouth. "I told you we should have gone to sleep early."

"Shut up..." Pablo groaned back, holding onto the back of his chair and twisting his torso to crack it. "Ugh, that's good..."

"Yay!" Tasha clapped as a waiter with brown, scruffy hair approached their table with a tray carrying a large omelette, a plate of pancakes and some orange juice.

"Fluffy omelette with pancakes and orange juice?" the waiter prompted. His voice was gruff, but young, and his face looked like he was doing his best not to scowl. Tasha raised her hand and he set the dishes before her. "Enjoy your meal."

"I will." She beamed, already glowering down at her food with hunger. Despite her barbaric display though, she was adept with her knife and fork, and pleasurably reacted to the taste of her food. "This tastes amazing, oh my gosh."

"Can I try some?" Austin asked her, eyes sparkling at her pancakes. She squinted defensively at him, protective over her food, but still cut a layered slice and offered it to him over the table since his own meal hadn't come yet. He chomped down on the fork and smiled, almost forgetting to give Tasha the fork back. "It really is good. This place is great, Uniqua. How'd you find it?"

"There's no way I was going on a trip somewhere without checking out the available food joints." she huffed, forking a sausage into her mouth and slapping Pablo over the head when he chortled. "This place is great for breakfast and lunch. Though we probably won't need to buy lunch from a store since the fair will be going on."

"I meant to ask about that," Tyrone piped up, retrieving a flyer from his hoodie pocket that he'd received from a worker. "Is this event really a fair? It seems more like a traditional festival than anything else, just that it happens to be open to the public."

"Traditional festival? You mean like a founding festival?" Austin asked, in the middle of receiving more of Tasha's food.

Tyrone shrugged, going through the flyer's contents. "I'm not sure if it's a founding festival, but something like that, yes. Maybe we could ask one of the locals."

"Jeez, you make them sound so exotic." Uniqua grimaced. "They're just townspeople."

"But they're still locals though."

"Regardless," Tasha interrupted, before anything could escalate. "We could ask someone who lives around here what the festival is actually for."

"I can answer that!"

The entire group, save for Tyrone, startled at the sound of a new voice. There was a girl sitting at their table who none of them had even noticed arrived. With blonde straight hair and an almost ethereal smile, none of them really minded that she had practically snuck up on them.

"Sorry," she giggled. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Her voice was laced with a soft British accent that didn't quite match the joyous energy she gave off. Austin was reminded of the blonde boy he'd met once at school.

"I mean, you're kind of still scaring me considering you're still here and none of us know who you are." Pablo snorted.

The girl laughed again. "You're funny! My name's Margaret, but it's an embarrassing name so everyone around here calls me Molly. I live here."

"In the restaurant?" Tasha gaped.

"No, in town silly." she giggled again at Tasha's peculiar question. "I just overheard you, and we don't have a whole lot of teenagers here so I thought I'd introduce myself! How has your stay been so far?"

"Nice," Austin smiled. He liked the energy he felt from her. "It's been really nice. This place has a cozy feel to it; very warm and welcoming."

Molly seemed to bounce gleefully. "That's because we don't usually have people come in from out of town, so everyone's pretty excited! This festival's sure to be a great time!"

Pablo frowned. "So you don't usually have the festival then?"

Molly waved her hands. "No, we do. But we usually don't openly advertise it outside of town. This is actually the first time we've gone out there to get people to come to town for it! Usually word gets around here and there, but only because people happen to be visiting while the festival's happening."

A hand rested atop Molly's head and stroked her hair. "Molly, you can't keep ambushing all the strangers you meet. You're gonna scare everyone away!"

Another girl also possessing a soft British accent had appeared, easily interacting with the first. She was a brown skinned beauty with dark eyes and smile creases in her face. Obviously the two were friends, if their closeness was any indication. In fact, they seemed really close.

"But Milly," Molly pouted. "They're our age! How could I not come talk to them?"

"Really?" the girl, who went by Milly, shot her eyebrows up. "That's new. Hi, I'm Milly. Nice to meet you. I hope this one didn't disturb you." She sent a reprimanding stare in Molly's direction and ruffled her hair a little more roughly.

"No no, it's fine." Uniqua grinned. "Girl, I love your hair."

"I love yours too!" Milly beamed back, shaking Uniqua's hand. "Not everyday I see people rocking their afros so confidently around here, it's nice to see someone else doing it! You have such tight curls, I love it."

"I wish I had your loose texture," Uniqua groaned. "You'll love this hair until you have to deal with it every day."

The two girls laughed over their banter, while the rest of the table looked on pleasantly.

"They were wondering about the festival!" Molly shook Milly's arm. "Come on, you love telling people about this."

"Alright alright," Milly chuckled. "So what exactly do you want to know?"

"Well," Pablo cleared his throat, feeling somewhat intimidated by their confident auras. "The place is, I mean the festival came across as more of a fair in the ad, so we were wondering if there was anything special about it?"

Milly snapped her fingers. "Darn it, I knew we should have told Sophie to put more information." She clicked her tongue and sighed. "Knowing it's an actual festival isn't gonna deter you from taking part in the activities I hope." She looked a bit sullen, as if something so disappointing had happened before.

"Of course not!" Austin piped up immediately, knocking away all of her concerns. "On the contrary, it makes me wanna take part in it even more. I've never been to a festival before."

"None of us have." Tyrone added. "It would be a shame if we backed out just because of something like that."

Molly smiled sadly. "Some of the people that have visited don't think like that. They think it's just an open event with food and activities, then get bored when they have to take part in other things."

"Other things?" Tyrone cocked a brow. "Like?"

"Would be no fun to spoil that, now would it?" Molly laughed. "Be patient, the festival's in a few hours. Oh, I think one of your orders is coming now."

"Yay, that's mine." Austin's tongue slipped out of his mouth as the waiter from before set down a bowl of vegetable soup and a plate with bacon, scrambled eggs and fruit. "Thank you!"

The waiter flushed and offered him a small bow and a clear of the throat. "You're welcome, sir. E-Enjoy your meal." His voice was noticeably higher this time, like he was trying to be nice.

Austin watched curiously as the waiter walked off, discreetly flipping Milly and Molly off when they giggled after him. "Is he shy?"

"Maybe it's his first day." Uniqua suggested, slurping some of her hot chocolate.

Milly shook her head, still chuckling between her words. "Oh no, he's been working here for quite some time now." She nudged Molly, who was still laughing to the point of tears.

Austin looked between them and shrugged as he drank the rest of his water. Surely it was nothing to worry about.

~

Tasha stared suspiciously after the waiter and observed the two girls' reactions. A flushed face, stuttering over his words, politeness that he hadn't shown the rest of them and teasing from the girls...

Oh...my...god. He likes Austin!

Tasha immediately reached for Austin's hand over the table. "Austin, I gotta talk to you, now now now!"

He pouted. "But I haven't finished my-"

"Come on!"

Tasha squeezed past Uniqua and yanked a begrudging Austin up from his spot at the table to drag him away to a secluded corner of the restaurant. Uniqua and Tyrone blinked in confusion, while an oblivious Pablo just continued eating his own food, and occasionally stealing some of Tyrone's.

"What is it?" Austin rubbed his hair. "My bacon's gonna get cold, and you're gonna buy me another plate if it does."

"The waiter has a crush on you!" Tasha squealed in a quiet whisper. "He totally digs you! Did you see how he was acting? I bet those two girls noticed it too, that's why they laughed! Oh my gosh, you should totally get his number!"

Austin choked. "W-Wait, pause. Stop. Please, give me a second to process. What?"

"The waiter that brought our food. He likes you. I'm sure of it." Tasha nodded firmly.

Austin sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. "Okay, let's say he does...what do you want me to do about that?"

Tasha scrunched up her eyebrows, as though the answer to that was obvious. "Go talk to him! Duh! You could get his number, and maybe go on a date!"

"But I already told you..." Austin tapped his fingers together as the volume of the second half of his sentence suddenly decreased.

Tasha leaned her ear towards him. "What was that?"

Austin cupped his hands to her ear and whisper-yelled, "I already told you have someone I like!"

Tasha gasped and slapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh my god, how could I forget? I'm so sorry."

Austin rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, I don't really have eyes for anyone else."

That's adorable. Tasha wouldn't say that out loud though. "Well, maybe you could at least be friends with him?"

"But wouldn't that be like leading him on?" Austin frowned. He didn't want to do something terrible like that.

"No, of course not." Tasha waved her hands absently. "You're just trying to make friends with him, not act as though you like him when in reality you're just toying with him." Austin blinked at her interestingly detailed distinction between the two. Eventually he sighed, putting on the most confident face he could manage.

"Okay. I'll talk to him."

Tasha clapped. "Yay! Go on, now. He's over there at the counter."

Austin gulped.

~

Tyrone stared suspiciously as Tasha came bouncing back to their table without Austin, who was about to walk up to the restaurant's counter. The last time they'd sent Austin on his own to do something he got lost in a crowd.

"What is he doing?" he questioned her the moment she sat down, looking like she'd just done something amazing. "You didn't tell him to do anything weird, did you?"

"Of course not," Tasha waved her hand, still grinning triumphantly. "Just being a great friend."

Everyone at the table shared confused glances with one another at her weirdly cryptic statement, but Austin didn't seem to be in any danger so they all just let it slide.

"Doing God's work there." Milly laughed, slapping the table ferociously. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. Humphrey's a bit rough around the edges, but he's harmless."

"Humphrey?" Uniqua glanced over to the counter, where Austin and the waiter seemed to be engaging in an awkward conversation. "You know him?"

Molly laughed. "We know everyone around here! We're a pretty tight knitted bunch."

Milly smirked and pulled Molly closer into her side. "Damn right, we are."

"Oh shush, you."

The energy emanating off the two girls was so...intimate, that Pablo couldn't keep his question in anymore.

"Are you guys dating?"

Everyone at the table fell silent, and Uniqua gaped annoyedly at him before slapping him upside his head. "You rude little goblin, you can't just ask people that out of the blue!"

Pablo scowled. "But we were all thinking it, and don't you dare lie and say you weren't."

Both girls laughed even more than they had before.

"Where on earth did you lot come from?" Milly wheezed. "Goodness, that's the biggest laugh I've had all day."

Molly blushed nonetheless and snuggled into Milly's arm. "But to answer your question, yes we're dating. Very happy, too."

"Aw." Milly nuzzled her cheek into Molly's hair and gave her a quick peck, at which Tasha melted.

"That's so precious." she fawned. "I hope you guys are together forever."

"I hope so too!" Molly grinned, seeming kind of embarrassed at her support. "Sometimes it's a little overwhelming how much the people are willing to support our relationship. We thought for sure that they'd be opposed to us."

Milly nodded. "But we've been best friends since we were kids, and eventually it turned into something more. Bit of a bumpy start, but we came around."

At that, Uniqua glanced across at Tasha, listening hopefully to their story. Obviously. She was basically in the same position when it came to Tyrone. Childhood friends to lovers was a dream she'd been hoping for for years now, and to see it happen to someone else probably made it seem that much more attainable.

"How...did you realise you liked each other?" Tasha tapped her fingers together awkwardly. "If you don't mind me asking."

Molly released a puff of air and looked helplessly towards Milly, who just shrugged in response. She turned back to Tasha and offered a sheepish smile. "Well...honestly, we've been together for so long, we don't even remember exactly what happened. It just...happened."

"Might have had something to do with us ignoring all the boys in class all the time." Milly cackled. She was obviously a very lively person when amused.

Molly rolled her eyes at that. "That's cuz they were all annoying and stupid. Don't you remember what a menace Humphrey used to be?"

"But what I will say is," Milly continued. "We probably liked each other for a lot longer than we both thought. We just got together after the fact."

Tasha smiled down at her hands. "I see..."

So I have a chance then.

Tasha glanced towards Tyrone, obliviously looking on as usual, and quickly looked away before their eyes could meet. If it could happen to someone else, then it could definitely happen to her.

Chapter Text

Austin returned to the table with a dazed look in his eyes. He didn't notice the eyes of everyone trained on him the moment he arrived, he could only focus on how his phone felt a little heavier in his pocket as he walked.

He'd just gotten someone's phone number.

Of course, there were no implications behind him getting the number. Not on his part, anyway. But if he didn't already have someone he liked, was it really just that easy to do it?

Well, easy was a bit of an overstatement considering he already had an advantage. After a few minutes of what began as awkward conversation, Austin was soon chuckling at the waiter's gruff antics while he seemed to grow increasingly more red in the face. He'd been embarrassed to admit that his name was Humphrey, and seemed thankful that Austin wasn't the type to judge him for it. If Tasha hadn't tipped him off, he probably would never have noticed the way he covered his mouth when Austin complimented something about him, or the way his ears burned as he averted his eyes to avoid Austin's gaze.

He smiled to himself, thinking how glad he was to have seen such a side of a person, though still feeling. He still thought it was a little bit wrong to have approached Humphrey at all while having an inkling of his little crush on him, but Tasha was right. It couldn't hurt to make a new friend.

"Milly and Molly are gone?" he said finally, leaving his thoughts behind to focus on his friends at hand.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for Austin to speak first and he hadn't even noticed the silence. It was getting a little uncomfortable, honestly.

"Yeah, they had some stuff to do since they're helping out with the festival and all." Uniqua nodded. "By the way, your food's cold."

"What?!"

Austin sent the evil eye in Tasha's direction and she averted her gaze innocently, though her sheepish grin gave her away.

"Don't pout," Pablo chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair as he squinted at his food with a frustrated glare like it had personally offended him. "Get it to go, and you can warm it up when we get back to the hotel."

Though not completely convinced, Austin crossed his arms with a quiet huff.

Cute.

Everyone thought it was cute when Austin was upset, considering it didn't happen often. But when it did, he couldn't keep the pout off his face. Cute or not though, that didn't excuse Tasha from being the reason he was upset in the first place, so everyone was glaring knives at her while she did her best not to make eye contact.

"We have about an hour to kill before the fair is officially open." Tyrone checked his watch and said. "What do you want to do?"

"Hm..." Uniqua rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. What haven't we done yet?"

Pablo belched into his fist and snorted. "We haven't gone into some of the stores. Since we'll be caught up with the stalls and whatnot, why don't we go see what's inside?"

"Ooh, that's a good idea!" Austin beamed, all traces of frustration suddenly discarded. "Maybe we'll find some nice souvenirs in one of them!"

"Um, if I could recommend..."

Everyone's eyes turned towards Humphrey, who had been waiting for an opportunity to say something without rudely interrupting.

He cleared his throat as he started gathering the empty plates and cups onto a tray with more ease than should have been humanly possible. "There's a store to the north of the fountain in the square. Big red wooden sign, can't miss it. I think in there might have some things you like."

Austin flashed a brilliant smile his way. "Thank you, Humphrey. We'll go check it out once we leave."

Humphrey nodded quickly and made a swift getaway from the table into a back room of the restaurant.

"He seems kinda...flighty." Pablo observed, furrowing his eyebrows. "For someone so good at his job, you'd think he never dealt with customers before."

"There's a good reason for that." Tasha giggled and hid her smirk with the back of her hand, ceasing only when Austin tapped at her from under the table.

How embarrassing... he thought to himself. Poor Humphrey.

~

Humphrey wiped his forehead of sweat as he finished washing the last of the dishes he needed to at that present moment before returning to his post behind the counter. He sighed and grumbled under his breath when he spotted two annoying girls sending cheeky smirks his way.

"What do you two want now?" he murmured, despite knowing exactly why they were here. Sneaky brats.

Molly's grin widened. "How was your little chat with Austin? I saw some phones in your hands. Things went well, I assume?"

Humphrey trembled with embarrassment as the both of them snickered. "None of your business."

"Oh Humphrey," Milly shook her head. "It's a wonder how we were never able to tell what you were thinking back when we were kids. You acted like such a menace all the time but you're really an open book."

"Shut up..." Humphrey groaned, attempting to hide his face by burying his head against the counter. "You two don't know shit."

Molly frowned. "Come on, Humphrey. The kid is cute, and you've been hung up on Alfie ever since he moved away for that scholarship. Why don't you let yourself move on?"

"By flirting with a guy who's gonna be here for a day?" Humphrey glared at Molly as he peeked over his arm. "They aren't gonna be here forever. He probably isn't even into guys. What's the point..."

Milly cocked an eyebrow. "Then why did you guys exchange phone numbers?"

"...He asked me first."

The two girls blinked. "What?"

Humphrey squinted at them angrily. "If you're messing around with me then stop it. I said he asked me first."

"That kid asked you for your number first?" Milly blinked, looking back at the empty table where Austin and his friends had recently vacated. "Didn't strike me as the bold type."

"This is stupid," Humphrey murmured, wiping his hands on his apron. "Why am I even trying? Like I said, he probably isn't into guys, so it was probably just platonic. It's not like Alf and I exactly broke up anyway."

Molly rolled her eyes. "You might as well have. You haven't even heard from him since he left. What else could that mean?"

"It's a Math scholarship Molly, he's probably busy." He mumbled. "Ugh, I don't have to defend myself against you two freaks. Just...leave me alone."

Milly pushed away from the counter and shrugged. "Whatever you say. But who knows? Maybe he'll be happy with a souvenir from you before he leaves. He seemed pretty excited to go check out the stores."

Humphrey looked away bashfully. "...You think?"

~

Tasha's eyes sparkled at the new camera she'd just bought from the antique store, holding it up to the sunlight.

"It baffles me that you would buy a camera just to take pictures of yourself holding it." Uniqua shook her head, mildly exasperated. "The clerks did tell you that the camera doesn't work anymore, right?"

Pablo snorted. "I bet she plans to keep it for decoration."

"Read my mind." Tasha grinned, flashing him a thumbs up. He and Uniqua just rolled their eyes, not even surprised.

Austin peeked over her shoulder to look at it in her hands. "It looks like an accordion."

"And it's so big too." Tyrone frowned. "Where are you even gonna keep that thing?"

Uniqua looked towards him with a face of disbelief. "You act like you haven't been inside of her house before. You know she's got space."

He shrugged with a hum of agreement, looking over towards Pablo who was smiling down at the object in his own hands. "What did you buy?"

Pablo quickly pocketed his item. "Nothing."

Tyrone gazed at him with hooded lids. "Seriously?"

Pablo frowned, quickening his pace to speed past him. "It's nothing." he drawled, trying to get him to drop the conversation. Tyrone squinted suspiciously at him, but conceded nonetheless. He'd find out what it was eventually anyway.

"It's about time we stopped browsing the stores and got in line for our wristbands." Uniqua grinned, spotting Molly at a post. "We'll be first in line if we go now."

"Awesome!" Tasha grinned, hooking her arm into Austin's. "Come on!"

Austin yelped as she began to speed walk towards Molly without warning, leaving the others to snicker after them.

Molly greeted their party warmly and fastened the wristbands onto them after receiving their payment.

"Make sure you don't lose these." She winked. "You could get something special after the festival if you keep it safe."

Uniqua snorted. "Way to be subtle."

"I've found charm works more than stealth." Molly replied cheekily. "Enjoy your time, guys!"

The group waved to her as they moved past her post.

"What are these wristbands even for?" Pablo frowned, fiddling with the orange strip around his wrist. "This space is all open, it's not like we're at an amusement park."

Tyrone hummed thoughtfully. "Probably to distinguish who's taking part in festival activities and who isn't. Everything is pretty much in town, and there's only so much they can do to differentiate between the two groups of people. Maybe this just makes it easier."

"Or maybe there are perks to being part of the festival goers." Austin chimed in. "Why else would the people here have to pay to walk around their own town? Maybe if someone sees you with this wristband it does something, or you get something special."

"That makes sense." Pablo agreed, grinning widely as he pulled Austin close. "Wanna walk around with me buddy? I'll show you a fun time."

Austin felt his face burn as Tyrone pulled him away, thankful for his intervention.

"I think we've already established that your fun and Austin's fun are different, if the club was any example." Tyrone glared at Pablo, who seemed to shrink in on himself. "Why don't you go walk around with Uniqua?"

"Fine." Pablo rolled his eyes. "Uniqua, let's-"

He suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence and glanced left and right before scratching his head. "Uh...she's gone."

"What?!"

~

Uniqua couldn't believe it. There was a modelling segment of the festival and she'd had no idea. Was this the missing info from the flyers that Milly and Molly had mentioned? Watching the show would have been great eventual job experience and for her school portfolio in the long run.

"I can't believe Pablo was right about this damn fair..." she murmured, eagerly fishing for her cellphone. It would be a waste if she didn't get any pictures here. This was such perfect reference material.

"Excuse me, are you here for the show?"

Uniqua whipped around to find what appeared to be an employee offering her a customer service smile.

"You look a bit lost," she observed. "I can direct you to the seating area."

Uniqua bit her lip, remembering that she had scuttered away from the rest of the group like a child when she'd realised there was a fashion show. She had to go back to them, but how could she pass up such a good opportunity to take notes? They would be fine without her for a little while, wouldn't they?

"Yes, I'm-"

"Just a moment..." The employee rubbed her chin scrutinisingly as she glanced Uniqua up and down with approving nods. "If it isn't too much trouble, would you like to be a part of the showcase? I'm sorry if this is sudden, but you have a very...unique style about you. Are you a fashion student?"

"Yes!" Uniqua replied immediately, feeling embarrassed over letting out her immense eagerness like that. "Well I should say I plan to be studying it. Right now I do photography, fashion is more like a hobby on the side."

The employee clapped her hands. "I see! You have the air of a fashionista about you; trust me, we know one when we see one. So you have no qualms then?"

She felt compelled to agree as the lady's eyes sparkled, urging her to follow.

"Sure, why not."

I'm sure they'll be fine. Tyrone'll be there, they have nothing to worry about so long as they don't split up.

~

"Let's split up."

Everyone blinked at Pablo, gaping at his sudden suggestion.

"We just lost Uniqua," Austin furrowed his eyebrows, concerned at his thought process. "Why would we do that?"

"If we cover more ground, we can find her!" he responded defensively. "I'm not stupid, I have my reasoning."

"As much as I hate to agree, he's kind of got a point." Tyrone sighed. "If we spread out, we have a higher chance of finding her. But..." He looked around at them all, looking so different from one another that you'd never guess they'd all arrived as a group. "To be honest, it doesn't make sense wasting what little time we have looking for Uniqua anyway. Knowing her, she probably saw something that caught her eye, so we should go spend our time to the fullest. Like I said in the club last night, we all have different interests, so splitting up might be for the best anyway. Even if we aren't actively looking for Uniqua, we could stumble across her sooner or later without trying."

"Sounds smart to me!" Tasha flashed a thumbs up, pouting when Tyrone gently lowered it with an amused snort.

"Everything sounds smart to you when it comes from me."

"Oh, so you've noticed." Pablo raised an eyebrow. "Funny how you choose such weird times to be observant."

Tyrone frowned. "What?"

Austin elbowed him in his side, a sign to keep his mouth shut, and he muttered a quiet 'Nothing...' under his breath.

"So..." Austin habitually pinched at the hem of his shirt. "Do we just...go our separate ways then?"

It felt strange to do that when they'd always gone practically everywhere as a group and stayed together as they explored new territory. It was a bit weird now to have to acknowledge the fact that everyone wasn't always going to have the same amount of fun looking at something as someone else might. Having to accept that all of a sudden, especially when Austin and Tasha had made the plans for them to get closer as a group, was kind of...

"You'll be fine on your own, won't you?" Tyrone smiled assuringly, giving him a small pat on the head. "Better to get the experience in now rather than later, since we'll all be real adults soon."

Tyrone was right and Austin knew it. He couldn't cling to them forever like he'd been doing since they were six. Sure, it had started off as them being a solace from his strict household where he had no friends and no time or opportunities to play. But now he had developed his own interests outside of his own childish curiosity, and sure enough, they wouldn't always be drawn to it like he was. His tastes weren't exact

"Okay." He finally nodded confidently. "But we should still make sure we all know where to meet up later. Just so we aren't aimlessly looking everywhere for one another."

"See? You're good at this." Tyrone grinned at him and gave him a pat on the back. "Okay so the fountain is a pretty easily noticeable landmark and it is currently...quarter past ten."

"What?" Pablo frowned.

"Ten fifteen." Austin whispered to him. Tyrone rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, that's the time right now. Let's meet at the fountain at twelve, get some food, then split up again. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded their agreement.

"Great. See you in about two hours."

So they all set off in different directions, though not quite sure what to do or where to go alone.

~

Pablo glanced around, making sure none of the others were around, before scurrying quickly back in the direction he came from. He had a general idea of where the area was that he wanted to go, and he wanted to go take care of his business there before he stumbled across someone he recognised.

"Yes, it's here!" He beamed, stepping towards an exhibit he hoped would be open early.

The art exhibit.

When he really thought about it, Pablo knew that art was kind of a dumb thing to be embarrassed about your friends finding out, but he couldn't help feeling somewhat insecure about it despite that knowledge. He had gone as far as to take the class secretly in school and not even his mother knew about it. The reason for that was the same reason there weren't a lot of consistent students in the class since he'd joined it.

It wasn't a realistic career choice. Other students seemed to have come to terms with that fact halfway through the course and had decided to drop it altogether, so it was just Pablo and about six other students taking the class now. It had diminished significantly from the full class of almost thirty students they'd begun with and had slowly dwindled overtime. But Pablo had confidence that he could see it through to the end, and apparently so did his remaining classmates. However, he couldn't really find fault with the dropouts for their decision either.

Being an artist wasn't guaranteed to bring him income later on in life, and pursuing it might have been wasted money in the end, which was why doing it had to be Pablo's secret. He didn't want to disappoint anyone by having them find out he had a love for something so useless. He was wasting his time on something like this when he could have been doing something worthwhile like Austin and trying to be some kind of scientist. Or even go into a market in demand like Uniqua with her fashion. He wasn't entirely sure what Tyrone wanted to do or be, and part of him envied him for that fact since he knew that it was due to Tyrone not knowing himself what he wanted to pursue. He was lucky to be able to skate by in life the way he was now while remaining so calm in the midst of being unsure of himself and his future. It was kind of unfair honestly. There Pablo was, having the crisis of his life over pursuing his dream, meanwhile Tyrone was so nonchalant about it that it was almost infuriating to think about.

This was why he did weed.

But despite himself and his plethora of doubts, Pablo still wanted to put his best foot forward towards achieving his dream. Which was why he was here today to submit an art piece to a competition for the first time. He'd known about this competition for a while now and it was open to anyone within a certain age range; one that he fortunately happened to qualify for. But the problem had been the submission, and the fact that it was mandatory to submit it in person. The issue further came with how he was going to submit it without letting someone else catch wind of his plans. He couldn't ask one of the others to take him, and he didn't dare ask his mother.

Definitely not his mother. She'd done so much for him, especially without his father being physically present, how could he ruin her image of him being a good son by letting her know he had such a fruitless dream?

So that was why Pablo had discreetly jumped at the chance to suggest coming to this town. Austin and Tasha mentioning a trip in the first place was a pure stroke of luck on his part, and the others taking his bait and coming to this town was yet another miracle considering that he was fully prepared to give up on his submission. But here he was. So he wasn't about to waste this opportunity.

"Hi, um..." his voice was uncharacteristically small when compared to his usual boisterous attitude. "I'm here to submit an art piece...for the exhibit?"

"Of course!" the peppy tone of the man taking the piece from him was slightly off putting, if for no other reason than the fact that he'd just been having a majorly depressive episode in his mind. "Will you only be submitting for perusal? Or will you also be submitting the piece to our competition?"

"I-I'll..." Pablo gulped and clenched his fists determinedly. "I'll be submitting for the competition, please."

~

"I thought I might find you here."

Uniqua whipped around, horrified to find Tyrone leaning up against one of tentpoles with interested eyes.

"Nice outfit." he mused. "Definitely not what you showed up in. Did you buy that?"

Uniqua trembled as she clenched, cursing internally at the fact that he just had to be the one to find her first. She wished it had been Tasha; at least she wouldn't look so annoyingly amused, and would have just fawned and squealed over the fact that Uniqua was about to model some clothes. This prick, on the other hand, was more likely to make fun of the fact that she'd not only strayed away from the rest of the group unannounced, but had gotten roped into partaking in one of the festival events like this. It was the worst.

"No, I didn't buy this." Uniqua seethed through clenched teeth. "I'm just helping out with the showcase they're having. I'll be an impromptu model for a little bit, then I'll be back with the rest of you."

"Ah, about that." Tyrone's grin widened. "We split up. Figured it would be better that way."

"You what?" Uniqua screeched, gathering up the material at the foot of the dress she was wearing so it wouldn't drag on the ground as she stalked angrily towards him. "You let Austin-"

"Austin this, Austin that. We can't gatekeep him forever, Uniqua." Tyrone grabbed her wrists so she would look at him and listen before she had a chance to bark at him. "We won't be with him all the time either. It's a small festival, and there isn't a whole lot of ground to cover anyway. Austin will be fine. Even if he isn't, he has a working phone. Hell, I'm surprised you aren't worrying about Tasha like you always do."

So am I. She thought, snatching her hands away from Tyrone's grip. "Then why are you here instead of going off doing something else like the rest of them?"

He shrugged. "I just happened to be passing by." He held up his hands defensively when Uniqua sent him the evil eye. "I swear, I wasn't being sarcastic or anything. I saw you getting parts of this dress pinned to tailor to your body better so I decided I'd pop in and give you a little scare."

"Seeing that face of yours would scare anyone." she retorted. She expected him to feign hurt, but instead he walked towards the exit of the tent and looked back at her with a calm smile.

"Then I guess I'll have to scare you from the audience."

With that he was gone, leaving Uniqua to groan in solitude.

Chapter Text

Uniqua was angry at herself for succumbing to a habit that she always scolded Tasha for when she caught her doing it, but jagged, uneven nails were the least of her problems. At least those could be fixed with a nail file and a quick trip to her nail tech. How the hell was she supposed to get rid of that obnoxious presence in the crowd?

She would be lying if she said he didn't make her nervous, as much as she always tried to brush it off. They always had their banter and their mildly combatant exchanges, and every time she would try to come across as more collected than she actually felt. But Tyrone was an infuriatingly calm existence that interfered with her composure despite her every effort to get over it. He wasn't cocky in the slightest; no, he didn't have a single condescending bone in that tall body of his. But his smile just knew it all, knew everything about her, and he knew it just as well as she did. Yet, as adamant as Uniqua was that he didn't, in favor of preserving her pride, she couldn't even convince herself.

The issue was why this reaction was even happening to the degree that it was. She usually chalked it up to just having that sort of dynamic established with him over the fourteen years that they had known each other, since Uniqua had always been a bit of a smart mouth and Tyrone was always there to knock her down a few pegs, but ever since she'd caught wind of Tasha's crush on him something had changed. The twinge in her chest when she saw Tasha's not-so-discreet fawning over him, the infuriating sense of relief she continued to feel when Tyrone never noticed it, the pity she felt for Tasha's internal battle to confess or not in fear of ruining their entire friendship, but still hoping that she'd end up never doing it in case Tyrone really did accept. All of this was an issue that she definitely knew how to place, but simply refused to. It wouldn't be fair to Tasha, after all these years.

Now the source of her problem was about to watch her do something she absolutely loved and had never thought she would get an opportunity to do here of all places, and her nerves were freaking out because of a ridiculous inner crisis that had no relevance to the current situation. It was stupid and she knew it was. Tyrone would have called it stupid too if he heard, in a slightly nicer and sugar-coated way, so long as he didn't know that he was the cause. Uniqua didn't even want to imagine what his reaction would be like if he knew.

But on the other hand, what would it be like? Would he be happy? Would he be upset? Would he act like he knew the entire time, like he did with just about everything else? Maybe...

"We will now have a special, random guest chosen from among our festival goers to present one of our outfits!"

Dammit. She fumbled for a moment when she heard the sudden announcement to introduce her and quickly fixed the dress on her body, then stilled herself as she took a deep breath. She could do this. It wouldn't matter if he was watching. There were so many other people to look at in the crowd that she probably wouldn't even notice him.

Against her better judgement, Uniqua peeked out quietly from behind the curtain, freezing when she made immediate eye contact with that annoying boy. He shot her a wink and a thumbs up, along with the mouthed phrase 'I'm rooting for you', and she quickly ducked back behind the curtain to bury her face in her hands.

Dammit...

~

Despite the urge to buy every interesting thing he saw, Austin knew he wasn't Tasha. Sure, he could ask her to buy things for him, but he didn't want to impose on her either. Even if she wouldn't see it as imposing, he'd still feel incredibly guilty about it.

So he bubbled with jealousy as he watched her from afar, sparkling as she glided through the festival's science section and bought whatever she liked. The two had bumped into each other in the science section of the fair, a pleasant chance encounter, and figured they could just look around together to make things feel more fulfilling. Even though he knew that she must have chosen to pursue the sciences because she liked them, as Tasha was not one to ever commit to something she didn't enjoy, Austin had never actually realised what a science fanatic Tasha was outside of school. It was a surprising change to her usual obsession with clothes and all things inherently feminine - but it wasn't an unwelcome one.

It just meant that they had yet another thing to bond over, apart from the fact that she knew his secret. It was nice.

"Having fun?" He smiled, watching her bounce over to him with a decently-sized cardboard box half-full of random objects that clinked against one another as she walked. He wanted to peek inside and see what they were, but prying was decidedly rude; even if they were there together, so he curbed his curiosity and held conversation instead.

"Absolutely!" Tasha flashed him a thumbs up, looking almost feral as she glanced around for more things to buy. "I need to get something else. Oh, this is so much fun! I wish I could buy everything!"

Austin chuckled as a thought occurred to him. You probably could...

"Hold this for a sec." she muttered, thrusting the box into Austin's hands. He almost crumpled under its weight as it strained his arms more than he was expecting, and he couldn't help but wonder how Tasha had been carrying the thing so effortlessly. He really didn't have much of a choice now but to ask her about it.

"Gosh, what do you have in here?" he panted, feeling as though the box was growing heavier by the very seconds. Tasha finished rummaging through her bag and collected the box from Austin's hands with a grin.

"Science stuff!" she beamed. "I bought droppers, vials, tubes, pipettes, pestles and mortars, and a whole lot of other stuff we can use when we go home!"

Austin nodded absently, then promptly backtracked. "...We?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah! It's pretty hard to find science stuff in town, and obviously I can't hog all of this science stuff for myself can I? Ooh, do you think we'll find a microscope while we're here?"

As Tasha began to ramble, Austin swallowed around the lump threatening to make him choke up and shed a couple of happy tears over the fact that Tasha had kept him in mind while she had been buzzing around to do her shopping. Even if he did feel a tad bit guilty that his thoughts of her buying him things seemed to have manifested into reality and that some kind of cosmic force might turn his world flat on its head sooner or later because of it, he was grateful to have such a kind and thoughtful friend, even if the capacity at which she was buying things was well over average.

"I doubt we'll find a microscope here," Austin wiped his eyes - as best he could with that heavy box in his hands - before any of those tears could spill and worry Tasha over nothing. "But it doesn't hurt to look around some more, does it? Who knows, maybe if we don't find it, we'll find something else even better. Besides, you can always order a microscope online if you really want one, or you can ask your dad about it. I'm sure he'd send you one if you asked."

Tasha nodded giddily, contradicting the waving action her hand was doing at the same time. "I wouldn't wanna bug my dad about something so small when he's so busy. But we'll figure all that out later, we can't lug this box around all day." She frowned, gesturing to the box in her hands. "Is there somewhere we can rest this stuff?"

"There is."

Both of them yelped when someone else joined their conversation without warning, and Tasha had almost dropped her box entirely. She looked through it, making sure that nothing had become damaged when she jumped, and sighed with relief when everything looked in order.

"Sorry," Humphrey, the apparent owner of the voice, grimaced at the way they jolted suddenly. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"That's okay," Austin breathed with a sheepish chuckle. That was kind of embarrassing. "It's partially our fault for getting so scared anyway. There are people all around, so why should we have jumped like that?"

Humphrey cleared his throat at the sight of the smile Austin offered him in consolation and tried to go on with his initial plan. Things would be going a lot smoother if the kid would stop smiling needlessly at him and making his words catch in his throat before he could get them out. "I-If you want to, you can keep some of the stuff at the restaurant until you're ready to pick them up later. I'll keep them safe for you." He wanted to slap himself for stuttering, but counted it as a win that he'd only done it once.

Austin shook his head. "You don't have to do that." It felt wrong to take him up on that; almost like they were unintentionally taking advantage of Humphrey's feelings like this for their own convenience. A quick glance towards Tasha's arms beginning to tremble with unreleased laughter, however, made him second guess that thought right away.

"It's really okay." Humphrey rubbed his neck. "It's only been like half an hour since the festival opened for the public and look at how much you've bought already. I'd hate it if you had to carry it all around everywhere with you when you don't have to. Especially if you plan to be buying things all day."

Austin glanced over to Tasha and silently agreed. If he knew anything about Tasha, it was how trigger happy when she was out shopping for things she wanted, and how much they were likely to end up with by the end of the day if she kept seeing items she wanted. It was an innocent thing that he couldn't exactly call a flaw, considering money had never been a problem for her and she was used to just picking up and getting anything she decided she wanted, but it might have posed a problem for them later if they had to carry everything.

"That is so nice of you, Humphrey!" Tasha loudly exclaimed, stepping forward to grin directly into his face. She was close enough that Humphrey had to take a step back before they bumped heads. "Isn't that nice of him, Austin? I can't believe you'd do something so nice for someone you just met!"

With the way her eyebrows shot up towards her forehead and the smile spreading on her face that looked more cheeky than it did friendly, Humphrey was vaguely reminded of the same smugness that emanated from Milly and Molly earlier and began to feel kind of pissed off by extension. But he held off on his snarkiness since this girl he didn't even know hadn't given him a reason to be on the receiving end of his temper.

Yet.

"Right..." he trailed, more than a little confused by her sudden interest in his actions. "Give the box here, I'll put it in one of our back rooms. If you need to put anything down later, just drop by and I'll hold onto it for you. My shift isn't over yet, I'm just on break right now, so you can call for me if you need me."

Austin and Tasha took that shred of information in immediately and promptly noticed that he was, indeed, still in his uniform. Tasha's grin grew wider, and she covered her mouth as she sent a knowing glance in Humphrey's direction.

"So you came out to look for us, then?" she teased. "You must really like us, huh?"

Humphrey physically stuttered at the question, and Tasha didn't want to laugh at him so she held in her giggles the best she could. Austin, on the other hand, couldn't do much but look on helplessly with a polite smile as Tasha gave the poor boy a tough time trying to explain himself. He looked towards her as Humphrey started mumbling to try gathering his thoughts to respond appropriately and mouthed 'Be nice'. Tasha pouted playfully, but temporarily relented nonetheless. She could have her fun in other ways.

~

A girl-packed fashion show was the last place that Pablo expected to find a guy like Tyrone, but there he was anyway; standing out amidst the crowd like a dangerously sore thumb. Being the only guy in the crowd was enough of a head turner, but he was also the tallest person there, and his head stuck out above everyone else.

To top it off, everyone was gawking at him so obviously that Pablo would have sworn that they were all just carbon copies of Tasha. Damn that guy and his stupidly good looking face and his good looking body and his good looking everything. It wasn't weird to call his friend good looking. He was! It was a fact. There was nothing weird about it.

"'Scuse me, comin' through! ¡Permiso, por favor! (Excuse me, please!) Whoa, sorry bout that!" Pablo squeezed, bumped and shimmied his way past the protesting girls sitting in the rows to make his way towards Tyrone. There were no seats on either side of him, not even behind or in front of him since there were girls surrounding him at every turn, but a few obstacles never stopped Pablo from reaching his destination.

He plopped down into Tyrone's lap and leaned up against his shoulder more casually than was probably publicly appropriate, as was evident by the stares he got the moment he took a seat, but Pablo had never been one to dial it down for other people. Tyrone was used to him by now anyway, if his lack of reaction or failure to throw him off was any indication. He slung an arm over Tyrone's neck for support and they both ignored the weird stares now directed towards them - though Tyrone probably just didn't notice, and it was more Pablo who they were consciously bouncing off of. Seriously, for such an observant person, girls eluding Tyrone's sights more often than not was an unsolved mystery.

"What are you doing here?" Tyrone raised an eyebrow, adjusting his legs so they wouldn't become numb under Pablo's weight; not that he weighed a whole lot anyway. "I know we didn't have to split up, but I figured we'd all be apart for much longer than forty-five minutes."

"I did some stuff here and there, no mucho.(nothing much)" Pablo said quickly, hoping not to linger on the topic for too long and risk Tyrone inquiring about the specifics of what he did. He could always just lie, but then he'd feel bad about it later, so it was best to avoid it altogether. "You stand out more than you think over here, so there's no way I wouldn't notice you if I was passing by. I came to see why you're here too, because if I'm not mistaken..."

Pablo pointed at the stage, which had a longer section of it connected to the main stage that was coming down through the middle of the audience. "That's a catwalk. Never pegged you as the fashion loving type, so you look pretty out of place here, amigo. (friend)"

To his surprise, however, Tyrone grinned as the next model was announced, knowing exactly who was coming out right then despite the lack of use of a name. "Watch and you'll see why I'm here."

Pablo cocked his head, but shrugged and relaxed into Tyrone's lap. Sometimes his small build could be good for something, like not being uncomfortable while sitting in his buddy's lap like a little kid. Even if he got teased about it, it had its perks now and then.

His jaw dropped when Uniqua emerged from behind the curtain wearing a long dress that flowed about her legs, strutting across the stage with a type of confidence he'd never seen. "Oh my god."

Tyrone glanced at Pablo's gaping mouth and grinned even wider, feeling a weird sense of satisfaction at being the first to know that Uniqua was even taking part in this. "What are you doing, man? Record this."

Pablo quickly snapped his mouth shut and mirrored Tyrone's grin as he fished for his phone to begin recording the ordeal.

Tyrone knew she would be looking for him in the crowd. He wondered how she might react when she realised Pablo was now present as well. The boy's appearance hadn't been within Tyrone's calculations, but regardless, it wasn't an unwelcome surprise. It just meant that Tyrone had a better expression to look forward to on the girl's face.

He leaned back expectantly as Uniqua crossed the catwalk with a confident air about her, sure to notice him sooner or later from the way she was surveying the crowd. He silently greeted her with a wiggle of his fingers and cast a knowing grin at her when she finally found him within the audience, and he waited for that split second where she would falter at the sight of him.

It never came.

His fingers went limp and it was his turn to be surprised as she caught his gaze unwaveringly and struck a pose, as if to say 'You wish', before flipping her afro and turning to walk off in the opposite direction. Cheers erupted from her display of talent and beauty like it hadn't for the other models, and despite his shock, Tyrone couldn't help but burst into a discreet grin and feel a bit proud of her.

Not bad.

~

Austin swatted Tasha's arm as they retreated from Humphrey's place of work after depositing their science box there, pouting at her bad behaviour from earlier.

"I can't believe you teased him the entire way to the restaurant!" Austin hissed, feeling bad for poor Humphrey, but still somewhat amused by the situation. "That's so...not nice!"

"Come on, I couldn't help it! He's so cute being all flustered around you, I had to get a few lines in to catch him off guard." Tasha's cheeks were stained with tear streaks from laughing so hard directly after they had moved out of Humphrey's earshot. "I swear, I've never seen anyone turn that red since the time you caught a fever from getting caught in the rain."

Austin shuddered. "I've never been more sick in my life. That was awful. But we really shouldn't tease Humphrey like that, I already feel bad enough knowing about his crush without him knowing."

"Alright, alright, if that's what you want." Tasha waved him away disappointedly. "Shame, I could have had a lot more fun this weekend. So now what do you want to do? We pretty much bought out the entire science section, so there isn't much else to do there."

"Yes, I'm sure the merchants were very happy that you gave them so much business, considering that no one else was probably gonna buy anything." Austin chuckled dryly, thinking back to how there was scarcely anyone in the science area of the festival. There were a few curious kids here and there looking around at all the lab equipment and asking to test run a couple of chemicals on display, but it was disappointing to see practically no adults milling about with as much interest as they had towards the rest of the festival. Science could be fun too!

Maybe Austin could do something to bring them some more business and interest. But what? Would they even hear him out? They should, considering he and Tasha were the reasons they'd even made any money that day, and probably the reason they would make any money at all, he feared. But all of the merchants they approached for business seemed excited to talk about all the things they had on display, and Austin could have sworn he picked up a bit of shock coming from them when he and Tasha were actually able to hold a conversation with them about their products. The shock was pleasant, however, and was more on the unfamiliar side. Probably didn't get a lot of chances to really talk with customers who knew their stuff, the poor guys. He was glad he at least provided them with something to give them hope. He hoped they'd brightened their day with that, even just a little.

"Oh my god." Tasha stilled suddenly, gripping onto Austin's arm and swatting him furiously. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!"

"What, what?!" Austin panicked, swatting her hands away as they moved to hit him, frowning with worry. "What is it?!"

Tasha pointed without a care in the world. "Look over there!"

Austin followed the direction of her finger towards whatever she was pointing at and immediately knew exactly why she was freaking out.

There was an area under a large tent where multiple people were flocked to gaze inside the enclosures present. Some were hoisted up on pedestals, while others were just small pens on the ground.

'Petting Zoo'

"We need to go in there," Tasha said with a seriousness that didn't match her usual energy. "If we don't I think I might actually die. I think I might die of cuteness either way, but I'll die if we don't go in there. You're coming with me, right Austin?"

Austin grinned widely, equally as excited to venture inside as Tasha was, if not more so.

"Absolutely."

Chapter Text

"This is the greatest day of my life to date." Tasha sniffed, shedding a singular dramatic tear whilst holding an albino rabbit to her chest. It had previously tried to kick away from her when she grabbed for it the first few times, but Austin had exasperatedly insisted that she was holding it wrong, and she had just recently discovered the correct way to hold it so that it wouldn't be uncomfortable. She was now in bliss, cradling the animal in her arms as she sat still just like it was doing. It was calm in her grasp and it wasn't trying to escape her anymore, so she couldn't have been happier.

"I'm sure you've had better days." Austin chuckled, pawing at the rabbits that surrounded him. After looking around at all the animals in the petting zoo like the birds, baby goats, even the reptiles and amphibians that Austin had to do a bit of coaxing to get Tasha to eventually touch, the two of them were within the final enclosure and sitting amongst the rabbits as they thumped around happily. It seemed like they were all wary of Tasha after her troubles with their albino comrade, but Austin had moved expertly from the start and they all crowded him with eager nuzzles and attempted to hop into his lap.

"I'm so jealous of you right now," Tasha frowned, eyeing all the bunnies gathering around Austin so casually. "Pretty sure everyone else is too."

Austin had almost forgotten that there were other people in the enclosure, but they all seemed to be silently seething at him over the fact that all the rabbits had gravitated towards him with little effort. He didn't mean to steal everyone's rabbits. All he'd done after stepping into the rabbit enclosure was softly caress one when it slowly approached and curiously twitched its nose at him. Unfortunately, his gentle treatment had attracted the attention of any onlooking rabbits in the enclosure and soon the entire fluffle was flocking over to him, flopping closer for his touch.

"I'm amazed that this one even stayed." Tasha sniffled melodramatically, cradling the bunny to her face. "You won't leave me, will you Snow White?"

Austin laughed. "You named it Snow White?"

"Fitting, don't you think?" she cooed, rubbing circles on the creature's forehead. "I wish I could buy her, but they probably aren't for sale."

Austin glanced quietly over to the sign with the rates of purchase for the animals, and silently opted against mentioning it. They had bought enough things for the day without adding a rabbit to the list. The others were already sure to groan at the pile she'd bought, and probably even attempt to have her return some of them, but they would definitely throw a fit over a rabbit if he condoned that. Yeah, it was for the best that Austin keep that teensy tidbit of information to himself.

"We've got around half an hour till it's time to meet the others at the fountain," Austin pointed out. "Should we stay here till then? We've been here for a while now."

Tasha quirked a brow at him and hugged the rabbit in her arms closer, bunching up its fur where it made contact with her. "What are you talking about? We just got here."

Austin snorted. "Tasha, I don't think forty-five minutes counts as just getting here."

"Maybe so," she countered. "But that doesn't mean we can't spend our remaining time here, right?"

"True..." Austin began, softly placing two of the rabbits in his lap back on the ground of the enclosure and standing up before any of the others could try to flop their way onto his lap. "But there must be other things to look at. Come on, let's go quickly before we have to meet up with the others."

Tasha staged a tearful, melodramatic farewell to her albino rabbit as she and Austin finally stepped out of the enclosure, and a wave of animal-free air hit their noses.

"See? Isn't it nice to be able to smell something other than hay and grass and animal droppings?" Austin smiled over at her.

"Oh yes it does," Tasha's eyes were wide as she went up on her tiptoes, inhaling deeply. "What is that amazing smell?"

Austin whiffed at the air, trying to pinpoint what exactly she was smelling, since it could have been anything. But she was right, there was a dangerously sweet scent wafting towards them, and it was coming from a nearby stall.

"Churros, six dollars a crate! Churros, get your fresh churros!" A male vendor called to passers-by as they came and went, fishing for more customers while one of his colleagues dealt with the growing line. There was a small table beside him with some dust covered churros, and they smelt absolutely divine.

"Hi there!" Tasha chirped, already hopping over to the source of the smell. "I thought I smelled something delicious. You're selling churros?"

"Yes we are, miss!" the vendor beamed back at her, oozing friendliness. "Six dollars a crate, but for you we'll throw in another one for ten dollars total."

Austin felt a little bit slimy as the vendor winked at Tasha, not missing the way he glanced her up and down, and quickly appeared at her side. He tried to appear a lot bigger than he was, and hoped that he wouldn't scuff in his attempt to lower his voice.

"Thanks, we'll take 5." Austin replied for her. "Do we have to get in line?"

The vendor sputtered momentarily at Austin's sudden presence, but was quickly wearing his friendly customer service smile again. "Of course not! Leon, five crates of churros please!"

"Five?!"

"Five!" the vendor confirmed with a yell. He looked back to the two and gestured to a wooden bench nearby the truck where the churros were being prepared. "Have a seat while your churros are being prepared."

Tasha and Austin made their way over to the bench and took up a spot, while Austin glared discreetly at the vendor's back as he started up his crude advertising once again to gather patrons. He didn't like the way that guy looked at Tasha for some reason, it felt...wrong, somehow. He didn't know how to place it, but Austin knew that if he had been on the receiving end of that look, he would have been severely uncomfortable. Did Tasha deal with that kind of thing often?

"Hey, wait a minute!" an angry voice suddenly piped up. "How come those two get to skip the line?! We were here first!"

Austin and Tasha glanced around at the line of people waiting for churros, realising that the muttering and grumbling was because of them. The vendor had told them to go there, though. It wasn't like they were cutting in line rudely or anything.

"They have not skipped the line, my friend." the slimy vendor assured. "They just ordered many churros, so I have allowed them to take a seat while they are finishing."

That's nice of him, I guess. Austin's lips pressed hard together. He didn't want to receive that guy's courtesy.

"So then why didn't you tell anyone else to go sit down?" the annoyed customer from before was venturing outside of the line now, and right over to where Austin and Tasha were sitting. "We all had to wait for our churros to finish, so what makes these brats special enough to get to sit down?"

That wasn't a very nice thing to say about people you didn't even know, Austin thought. Judging by Tasha's expression, they were both at a loss for how to curb this situation. They weren't in the wrong, since the vendor had directly told them to go take a seat, but that didn't mean that this customer's frustration was out of place. But nonetheless, he didn't have to be so rude about it.

"Sir, please do not insult any of our other customers." the vendor frowned, holding up his hands as the man started to get even more worked up. Over a crate of churros, no less.

"I understand why you'd let that string bean through, the kid's probably anaemic or something," the customer scoffed, before jerking his thumb towards Tasha. "But what about Chubby Cheeks over there? She could use the standing up to get some damn exercise!"

"Excuse me?"

The customer whipped around with his lips risen in a snarl, but was slightly offset by Austin's wide eyes and the overly polite grin that did little to mask his anger.

"What did you just call her?"

Tasha covered her eyes and peeked through her fingers, partially to hide the fact that she had slightly taken the guy's words to heart, and partially to hide her vision from whatever Austin was about to do or say.

Tasha had been a chubby kid growing up, though she was by no means fat. The guy didn't call her fat either, but it kind of felt the same way after he'd pointed out the detail in such an insulting way. She'd also lost a considerable amount of weight during her adolescent years, but she was naturally on the thicker side and at the very least had her small waist to be proud of. It felt as though this random stranger had crumbled the bit of pride she had in herself, and she resisted the urge to cry.

That was, until Austin had abruptly pushed away from the bench with a blank, disbelieving look on his face that had slowly morphed into something a tad more sinister. Sure, he looked like he was smiling, but this was only the first degree of his states of being upset. That in itself was a rarity, and terrifying to anyone who had the displeasure of witnessing it - or worse, being on the receiving end of it.

I'll pray for you, random stranger.

~

Uniqua's head throbbed as she tried to tune out Pablo's incessant bothering, flitting around her like a talkative mosquito. But even mosquitoes knew how to keel over when they were hit, and it just seemed like every mild act of violence was egging him on to tease her more. If it was physically possible, her face would have been flushed with rage, but her complexion didn't allow for such facial indications of her emotions.

"Could you please shut up for two minutes..." she seethed, rubbing her temples as she walked between him and Tyrone.

Pablo's lips twitched into a cheeky grin as he skipped ahead of her. "How could I? I'm too busy telling you how amazing you looked in that pretty dress! Totally not the style I thought you were into, but you looked gorgeous in it. Don't you think so too, Tyrone?"

Tyrone eyed the way Uniqua sent a quick glare in his direction, a silent threat that she wouldn't hesitate to end him if he joined in on Pablo's behaviour and worsened her impending migraine.

He wasn't about to shy away from a chance to tease her, no matter how much she tried to murder him with her glaring.

"I agree," Tyrone hid his grin behind a thoughtful expression and folded his arms as he walked. "The style was definitely a deviation from your usual style, but I didn't hate it at all. Quite the opposite, actually."

He relished in the way she practically vibrated with unreleased anger, speed walking to get away from the two idiots buzzing around her ears, but the boys frowned when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"What?" Pablo voiced his concern, all traces of playfulness gone. Tyrone followed her eyes and instantly set his gaze upon the source of her frozenness.

Shit.

"That's Austin, right?" Uniqua breathed quietly to him. Tyrone nodded. "And that's a stranger, right?" Another nod.

Austin approaching a stranger on his own usually meant one of two things. Option one was that they were either some kind of merchant or worker he needed to talk to and one of the others weren't around so he had no choice but to do it himself, which was the preferable option. Or there was option two:

He was angry. They all really hoped that wasn't the case. But a quick glance a few metres to the left would allow them to see Tasha trying to shrink in on herself as Austin balled his fists carefully at his sides and unfurled them; his own personal way to curb his anger. And a glance back to the right would show Austin practically chest to chest with some irritated looking guy, who didn't look half as scary as Austin had the capacity to when he tossed his shyness to the wind. To the average person he might not have looked like much, but they all knew well enough that he looked outright pissed.

Austin's temperament may have been the best in the group, but that just meant it was worse when someone actually managed to upset him, and even that was rare in itself. What the hell happened?

They weren't about to stand around waiting to find out, so the trio quickly dashed over to Tasha, who hadn't even noticed them coming. Normally she would be bouncy and cheerful to greet them, but now she just looked afraid.

"Tasha, talk fast, what's going on?" Uniqua urged, prying Tasha's fingers apart to look at her.

"That guy called us names," Tasha replied quietly. "And Austin just got up, I don't know why..."

Tyrone scoffed. "This guy..."

Everyone tossed confused glances towards him, and he figured he didn't have much choice but to explain his reaction.

"Austin's usually pretty oblivious when people are trying to insult him or take cracks at him. I don't know if you guys have ever noticed that, but I've seen it happen a couple of times. Words just bounce right off of him because he just doesn't register that it's supposed to be an insult. On the other hand..." Tyrone slowly looked towards Austin, silently taking in the stranger's berating string of colourful language, if he could even hear it at all. "He's annoyingly perceptive when it comes to one of us. He'll go ballistic for us, but not himself."

"That's adorable in a terrifying way." Tasha murmured, shielding her face with her hair. "But y'know, Austin being mad at us is one thing...but what does that mean for a stranger?"

"You think he'll punch him?" Pablo asked, tone filled with way more eagerness than it should have. Tyrone nudged him, hard, to physically bump that giddiness away, the violent midget.

Uniqua sighed. "If we intervene, it probably won't get to that point. I don't know if I'd say I wouldn't put it past Austin to punch someone, since I've hardly ever seen him angry. I don't really know what the parameters of his anger are."

"All this talking is getting us nowhere," Tyrone interrupted. "That guy is going at it and Austin's just absorbing everything he says. We have to get in between them before Austin does something...regrettable."

"I vote Pablo." Tasha raised her hand.

"Ditto." Uniqua smirked, glad to be able to take her revenge on the midget so early.

Pablo sputtered. "Wha-"

"Majority vote," Tyrone cut him off, coaxing him off the bench and pushing him towards the altercation. "You'll be fine."

"Bastards." Pablo seethed, rolling his sleeves up just in case he ended up having to use his fists. He really hoped it wouldn't come to that point, but to save Austin, it was worth a bit of pain in his knuckles.

He hid any traces of hostility as he swaggered over to Austin and tossed his arm around him. "Hey man, what's up?"

Almost on command, Austin's eyes quickly snapped towards him and widened in surprise. "Pablo? What are you doing here?"

"It's a festival, isn't it?" Pablo winked. "I'll be around. What's going on?"

The stranger before them sneered. "What's going on is that this little-"

Pablo held a hand up, cutting the stranger off as he gazed at him with hooded, uninterested eyes. "I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to my friend."

"What?!"

"A-Ah, let's not get hostile here..." The churro vendor was growing increasingly exasperated at the situation, unsure of how to defuse it, but Pablo pulled him in as well, and his body jerked into the shorter boy's side with a small grunt of surprise.

"No hostility, señor!" Pablo grinned. "Can't a guy just get some churros in peace?"

Pablo quirked a brow and made a quick glance over to the truck, where there was a line of curious onlookers just there to buy some festival snacks. The vendor twisted out of Pablo's grip and clasped his hands together, donning his customer service smile again.

"Absolutely!" His teeth were on full display, glad to finally be doing what he was supposed to and not dealing with rowdy customers.

Speaking of which, the grumbling customer from before, after realising that he was being thoroughly ignored, simply walked away with his irritated tail between his legs. If he had blown up for attention, well he'd certainly received it.

Pablo looked over at Austin, bunched up in his side and looking quite squished. His ears and face were red, and Pablo quickly released him.

"Was I holding you too tight?" he grimaced, taking him by the shoulders. "I was just trying to smooth things over here, I didn't mean to grab you like that. You okay? Everything's in the right place? Nothing's broken?"

"Why would something be broken..?" Austin murmured, hardly attentive until that one sentence.

The truth was, Austin had hardly been able to see straight a few seconds ago. He rarely ever felt anger brimming to his surface like it did then, but it was like everything was muffled around him.

That is, until Pablo showed up out of nowhere and practically hugged him into his side.

Hearing his voice suddenly was shocking enough, but when the boy wrapped an arm around Austin and pulled him in close, it felt safe; almost like a shield. Like Pablo was trying to shield him from the rotten words of other people. He was definitely overthinking it, but it felt like he was trying to protect him.

But that was a stretch, wasn't it?

"Austin." Pablo was shaking him now, and they'd apparently gone back over to the bench at some point. Even weirder yet, all of the others were present, not only Pablo. When did they all get there?

"Yeah? Yeah, I'm here..." Austin muttered absently. It didn't really feel like it, though.

"You don't look that way." Tyrone frowned. "What happened back there?"

Tasha opened her mouth to answer, but Uniqua pinched her lips shut. "Let Austin answer, since he was so directly involved."

Austin swallowed, trying to remember what happened before he borderline passed out. He didn't even recall the specifics, all he remembered was being angry for Tasha for some reason...

"Oh," he suddenly clicked, and his hands subconsciously tightened. "That guy was upset because we got ahead of him in line for some reason, and he started calling us names. He said something about Tasha, and I just..." He clenched his fist even tighter, ignoring the numbness. He was getting furious again just thinking about it.

Who did that guy think he was? He didn't even know them, but a split second of anger had him calling people names?

"Some people suck." Austin fumed.

Pablo gasped dramatically and chopped the top of his head. "Watch your language."

"That's rich, coming from you." Austin snorted back, brushing his hand away.

"Yeah, but it made you laugh, didn't it?" Pablo winked. "I'd call that a win."

Austin covered the bottom half of his face as he chuckled softly, not wanting the rising redness in his face to be visible. A win, he said. Making Austin laugh was a win.

One person shouldn't have been allowed to be so charming.

"Well, it's not like he said anything wrong." Tyrone hummed. "Some people do suck. He's just come to the realisation a little later than the rest of us."

"Not like he's used to being around people that aren't us," Uniqua chimed in. "He wouldn't have the chance to experience it."

Thanks to us, everyone failed to mention, but wordlessly agreed not to.

"Anyways!" Tasha slammed her hands against the table suddenly and stood up. "Now that that fiasco's over, where are we headed next?"

Tyrone checked his phone. "It's around the time we were all supposed to meet back at the fountain, so we might as well stick together from here on out. Anyone got any ideas?"

"We could always just wander around, see where our feet take us." Austin suggested quietly. "By the way, we can put down any stuff we buy in the restaurant. Humphrey said it was no problem, so that's a thing."

"Nice guy," Pablo crossed his arms. "We sure it's genuine? What even prompted that offer?"

"Oh shush," Tasha rolled her eyes at his skepticism and omitted the part about her pile of souvenirs. "I'm sure it's very genuine, right Austin?"

She sent a wink his way, and Austin covered his eyes with his hands to avoid looking at her. She was definitely teasing him about it, and taking advantage of the fact that the others didn't know.

"Weirdos," Uniqua shook her head, also standing. "Let's get moving. There's still a lot we haven't seen."

"But we didn't get our churros!" Tasha complained.

"You seriously still wanna get churros from this cursed truck?" Uniqua asked incredulously. Tasha simply blinked at her, and she sighed. "We'll make food our next stop, then. How does that sound?"

"I can live with that." She easily agreed.

"I've got a great idea where we can go to eat." Pablo volunteered.

It was, in fact, not a great idea.

Chapter Text

Hands on his hips, Pablo grinned triumphantly at the place he'd led the group to, completely oblivious to the looks of skepticism being passed among themselves.

Tasha was the first to say something in hesitant protest. "Not to be, um...insulting, or anything, but...is it even safe to eat from this place?"

"Same question," Uniqua flatlined. "This thing looks like a biohazard."

Thankfully far enough away from the food truck to not offend the gruff looking man inside with their concerned remarks, everyone surveyed the vehicle and became progressively more suspicious as they found more and more problems. The server was a man clad in white - or what should have been white, but now hidden by more golden stains than was probably sanitarily acceptable - with thick, hairy arms that ended in shiny, oil-covered fingers and not a hair net in sight to cover the mess brushing his shoulders. He rubbed his hands on the front of his dirtied apron and grabbed the orders as they came flying from the chef; the chef who was presently not visible from outside of the truck, but likely looked just as disheveled as the server.

"At least the service is fast?" Austin attempted, trying his best to find a positive.

Pablo snorted. "Very funny. Come on guys, we're at a fair. To make the experience genuine, we gotta get some greasy food that's been fried to kingdom come. Have you really been to a fair if you haven't stuffed your face full of unhealthy junk food?"

"Yes. You have." Tyrone countered immediately, looking vaguely sick. No one could blame him; the guy's body was a temple, the embodiment of fitness. Putting something like whatever this truck sold into his system was asking to break it down.

"You don't count." Pablo rolled his eyes. "Go eat a celery stick or something, you weirdo. As for everyone else..." He threw his arms over Austin and Uniqua's shoulders. "What are you ordering?"

"I eat a lot, so I've been trying to establish a healthier diet lately." Tasha quickly excused, putting up her hand in denial. "I'll pass this time."

Pablo frowned. "But weren't you trying to buy churros earlier-"

"Same goes for me!" Uniqua quickly added, sticking to Tasha's side to make her excuse more credible. "We're dieting together, I'm helping her. Since she definitely won't commit if she does it alone."

Uniqua wanted to pat herself on the back for that save. Everyone already knew how much of a scatterbrain Tasha was, no one would have trouble believing that. Especially not Pablo.

"I didn't know anything about that." Tyrone suddenly piped up, and Uniqua froze.

Dammit.

"Y-Yeah..." She slowly turned her head to flash him a forced grin, hoping he would take the hint and realise that they were all just trying not to let Pablo kill them all by feeding them food that had been cooked inside of a literal health hazard.

But she didn't know what she was expecting from someone who was still oblivious to Tasha's feelings.

"If you guys are dieting, I can give you some pointers." Tyrone smiled softly, looking genuinely intrigued by this new revelation. "Are you looking to do some workouts too, or are you taking things slow with the diet first?"

Tasha gripped Uniqua's arm as the realisation settled in that they were going to have to play along with this charade for more people than anticipated, and Uniqua sighed at their new predicament. She had no idea if they would make it out of this mess without having obtained an unexpected new eating schedule, but anything to get away from consuming that figurative garbage Pablo was trying to get them to eat.

"It tastes okay, I guess."

Everyone's heads whipped around and they all collectively facepalmed when they laid eyes on Austin idly munching on a fried buffalo wing with barbecue sauce and conversing with Pablo, who had taken everyone else's engagement in a new conversation to urge Austin into buying bottom of the barrel junk food. The two were both sharing a container of barbecued wings and some fried balls of dough with an unknown brown drizzle over them. Austin holstered one curiously before popping the entire thing into his mouth with a nonchalant shrug.

"We should take him to the hospital to get that stuff pumped out of his system." Tyrone deadpanned, sounding more serious than sarcastic. "He doesn't know what he just ate. That idiot is gonna make him fat."

"You're worried about him getting fat but not potentially dying?" Uniqua hissed incredulously. "He probably just downed six diseases with that one bite alone."

Tasha rushed over to Austin's side and squeezed his cheeks. "Austin! Oh my god, spit that out right now!"

Austin's eyes widened as he suddenly choked on air. "I-I swallowed it already..."

The girl inhaled deeply, looking on the verge of tears, before hugging his face into her chest and tossing an annoyed glare towards Pablo. "Throw those away."

"Hell no!" He screeched in return, protectively cradling his food in his arms. "I just paid for these, I plan to eat them!"

"They're radioactive!" Tasha wailed back. "Just look at them!"

Uniqua laid a hand on Tasha's shoulder. "He's eaten worse, he'll live." She scowled at the short boy, already sliding the meat off another chicken bone with his teeth despite the conversation they were having about its lack of safety. "If you wanna eat that, go ahead. No one else is eating it."

Pablo frowned, but shrugged at their unwavering opposition. "Suit yourselves. More for me."

~

It amazed Austin how quickly time passed without him even realising it. It felt like only a second ago that he was sweating and wiping his forehead from the heat of the sun, now the air had him feeling chilly as night fell.

The sky was prettier when you had time to stop and admire it. The freshly darkened sky was just beginning to spot visible specks of light here and there, but Austin liked to find beauty in simplicity. His keen eyes made out the faded outlines of the clouds in the sky, and he smiled to himself as he inhaled quietly.

He expected the festival to be winding down around this time, but it seemed like there were even more people around than there were during the day. It was weird to him, considering that a lot of the stalls had closed for the day and only a few of them were still open and still bustling with business. Mainly the majority of the food and snack stalls, which was to be expected, but there were little trinket and souvenir stalls littered around that were still open for service. Austin couldn't help but wonder why people had chosen to show up so late.

He was painfully stumped from his thoughts when he slurped on his blueberry slushy a bit too hard and felt a sting in his head. He winced, scrunching his eyes shut as he waited for the too-cold sensation to subside, and realised that none of his friends were around.

"Oh perfect," he murmured, standing up and frowning at his slushy. "Look what you did. I lost them. Again."

He was tempted to throw the cup away even though he'd only drunk about a third of it, since the drink was honestly way too sweet for him. But that slushy had cost him almost ten dollars, and Pablo had insisted he buy it after gulping down one of his own, so he figured it couldn't taste terrible. It had tasted good at first, but he really had to wonder how Pablo had downed the thing in one go.

"Darn it." he lamented, opting to dump it after all. He cringed as the cup audibly thudded against the rest of the trash in the garbage bin, feeling guilty that it was almost a full cup that he'd just wasted. Someone else would have been grateful for that drink, yet he'd just thrown it away like it was nothing. He could have even given it to Pablo later if he wanted, he would probably take it and drink the rest without protest.

That would be like an indirect kiss...

Austin shook the cheeky thought away, along with the stupid grin that had appeared on his face after thinking about it. The others weren't around, not that he could see anyway, and that was a bit of a problem.

"I can't help but notice that you look a little lost."

That was a familiar voice, but not one that belonged to any of his missing group members. Austin turned around and donned a friendly smile when he locked eyes with Humphrey, who immediately started to clear his throat.

"I can't tell if I'm lost or my friends," Austin sighed, returning to where he'd stood up from after slurping his drinks. "Most likely me, though. Was lost in my thoughts for a little while, probably wandered off without realising it."

Humphrey nodded. "That can happen. I mean, I've never done it, but...you um, seem like a pretty thoughtful guy so I imagine that something like that might happen to you a lot."

Austin pondered for a moment. "Not that often, really. It's usually Tasha getting lost, she's a bit of a scatterbrain sometimes."

"Tasha...that's the girl dressed up in pink, right?" Humphrey confirmed. He continued when Austin affirmed his guess with a nod. "I didn't peg her for the scatterbrained type. She seemed pretty well put together."

"It's just the clothes that make her look fancy." Austin laughed. He'd forgotten about the others for a minute, instead focusing on his pleasant exchange with Humphrey. "Don't tell her I told you this, but she's a total airhead. It's kind of crazy, cuz she's really book smart."

Humphrey smirked. "I'm totally telling her you said that about her."

"I trusted you!" Austin retorted playfully and pushed at Humphrey's leg who, not expecting the physical contact, almost toppled over. Austin was a little less than horrified. "I am so sorry! I didn't mean to push you so hard!"

The boy caught his balance and chuckled, partially with embarrassment and also to ease Austin's panic. "It's fine, you just caught me off guard. You're way stronger than you look, huh?"

Austin cocked his head at the question, and Humphrey swallowed harshly.

"I didn't mean it in a way to call you weak, you just look a little scrawny." He blurted in defence. "But not like, skeletal or anaemic or anything! No, nothing so extreme, it's just uh...you're a small guy, not too built or anything like your other guy friends, so that strength was a little unexpected, y'know? You had a real oomph in that push!"

Dammit Humphrey, what kind of garbage are you spouting right now?!

To his surprise, Austin rolled up his jacket sleeve with an expression that - if Humphrey didn't know any better - would say looked kind of pleased with himself.

"You think so?" the boy asked, looking down at his arm with an absent smile.

Now that Humphrey was able to a look at one of his limbs, he could definitely say that Austin wasn't scrawny at all. Sure he wasn't as buff or physically fit looking as his other two guy friends were at a glance, but some inspection went a long way cuz the kid didn't look like a weakling at all.

It was pretty attractive, honestly.

Humphrey audibly reacted to his own thoughts all of a sudden, turning away from Austin with a cough. What the hell did he just think?

"You okay?" Austin's voice sounded in his ears, striking him with guilt.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine..." Humphrey managed, still sputtering a little. Change the subject. "So, um...you wanna see something cool?"

~

"Milly..."

"Mhm?" Milly hummed. "What can I do you for, my love?"

Molly rolled her eyes. "Can you stop for a second so I can tell you properly?"

The two girls were sitting on a bench, cuddled up and gazing out at the pond. Milly had taken the opportunity of them being so close to start peppering kisses onto her cheek and neck, and pouted when she asked her to stop.

"Is it worth stopping this for?" Milly whined, resting her chin against her girlfriend's shoulder. Molly arched a bemused eyebrow at her in challenge, so she sighed and pulled back. "Fine. You get two minutes."

"Oh shush." Molly grinned.

She calmly rested her head against Milly's shoulder and sighed. The feeling of Milly rubbing circles along their intertwined fingers was comforting.

"This was where we had our first kiss," Molly whispered. "Do you remember?"

Milly hummed pleasantly. "I think it'd be insulting of me to forget, considering I was the one who kissed you."

"What?" Molly sat up suddenly. "That's not true, I was the one who kissed you!"

"I remember that night perfectly." Milly leaned forward, inches away from her face, so close that their noses touched. "We were both fifteen and we'd been together for about a year before that. You," She took Molly's hand in hers and pressed her finger to her palm. "Fell down after Humphrey was being a spaz."

Molly snorted. "When isn't Humphrey being a spaz?"

"Ever since he found out he was gay, I'd say he's been a lot humbler, don't you think?" Milly flashed a teasing smirk, receiving a firm thump on her forehead from Molly.

"Not nice." she scolded.

"Anyway," Milly chuckled, continuing. "I brought you over here and sat you down. You were crying, and your knees were so bruised from where you fell and hit them. You always did bruise easily."

Molly blushed when she pressed her lips to her wrist.

"My first thought after bringing you here was, 'What do I do to put a smile on her face again?' Your knees hurt, you were annoyed at Humphrey...I was kind of at a loss. So I did the only thing my mind thought to do in that moment."

"Kiss me." Molly smiled, a little breathless. "I remember now."

She laughed suddenly, making Milly pout a little. "What's so funny?"

"Well, you kissed me to stop me from crying, but if I remember correctly, I got so emotional that I just cried even harder." Molly giggled between her words, wiping tears from her eyes at the memory. Milly rolled her own.

"You were such a crybaby." She shook her head fondly. "Still are."

Molly blew out her cheeks. "Am not."

Milly leaned in to kiss her, on the lips this time, taking her by surprise. Her cheeks deflated as she closed her eyes, resting her forehead to Milly's when they both pulled away.

"I love you, Margaret Sutherland." Milly whispered. "Thought this might be a nice time to say it."

Molly smiled, not caring about the burning in her cheeks. "I love you- Humphrey?"

Milly's eyes blew wide. "Did you really just call me Humphrey? Is there something we need to talk about?"

Molly thumped her on the forehead again. "No, you dummy. Look!"

She took Milly's face in her hands and turned it to where she was looking. Both girls shared twin grins as they watched Humphrey walk by a couple yards away with Austin in tow. The rest of Austin's posse wasn't anywhere to be found, and Humphrey looked more nervous than they had ever seen him. They could both guess the reason for that, judging by his flaming ears that could be made out even from where they sat.

"Oh my god, he's actually gonna do it." Milly muttered, letting out a short laugh. "He's really gonna do it!"

Molly clapped a hand over her mouth. "Keep your voice down, you don't want him to notice we're here!"

The two watched as Humphrey led Austin over the fence, cocking their heads with confusion as he rounded a corner and disappeared from view.

"Where is he taking him?" Molly wondered, befuddled. "I didn't know that corner led somewhere."

"Who are we to impose?" Milly shrugged, standing from the bench and gracefully pulling Molly up with her. "Looks like he's trying to have as much privacy as possible, so I say let him go right ahead. We have other business to attend to."

She hugged Molly to her side, arm around her waist. Molly, still taken aback, looked up at her girlfriend with a tender smile. She knew that if she had the complexion for it she'd definitely be blushing, judging from the way her face looked right now. As much confidence as she had, Molly was always the one to bring out the shyness in her in times like this.

She tiptoed up to give her a soft kiss on the apple of her round cheeks. "Take me away, love."

~

Uniqua tapped her foot impatiently, feeling the vein in her forehead tick.

"You lost him again?" she seethed behind an eerily calm expression.

"In my defence," Pablo began slowly. "You were here too."

Uniqua felt the vein pulse. "Pardon?"

"Now isn't the time to be playing the blame game here," Tyrone sighed, stepping between them. "He just wandered off. We were separated before, we'll find him."

"Yeah, but there are more people here than before..." Tasha frowned. "It'll be harder to find him in this new crowd."

It was the club all over again, but a lot worse. At least in the club Austin was confined to a space within walls. Now that they were outside he could have literally been anywhere, and none of the four knew their way around this place well enough that they even knew where to look.

"Oh look, it's Milly and Molly." Pablo pointed out the two girls walking amidst the crowd with their arms linked. "You think they might have seen him?"

Tyrone was already wading his way through the crowd, tall enough to see over most of the heads of everyone walking around. "Only one way to find out. Milly! Molly! Over here!"

It wasn't very often that Tyrone raised his voice, but he certainly did attract a lot of attention when he did. He was loud enough to turn the heads of people who he wasn't even trying to call.

"Hey guys!" Molly greeted cheerfully when Tyrone returned with them. "You all excited for the fireworks?"

The four exchanged confused glances, and Uniqua was the first to say what they were all thinking. "I didn't know there were gonna be fireworks."

Milly released a throaty chuckle. "We were trying to keep it a surprise till later. As you've probably noticed, most people skip the whole thing until the fireworks, which is the reason for the sudden surplus of patrons. The town still gets money from them buying their way in to see them, but the stalls lose business if everyone already knows about them and does the same thing."

"I'm offended," Tasha huffed. "I can't believe you'd think so little of us. We travelled all the way here specifically for everything in the festival! Of course we wouldn't skip it!"

"That means a lot." Molly beamed, taking Tasha's hands in hers. "Really. It's always nice to see people interested in our town and what it has to offer."

"Uniqua even modelled in the fashion show earlier," Pablo snorted. "It was awesome, but she didn't want any of us to see it for some reason."

On cue, Uniqua elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Shut up."

"We'd love to see the fireworks," Tyrone  interrupted. "But it'd be a shame to see them without Austin, and unfortunately, we have no idea where he is right now."

Milly and Molly exchanged a look between them. "You don't?"

Tasha shook her head. "No. He was right behind us a couple of minutes ago, then all of a sudden we lost him. This is like the millionth time today that we lost someone in the group.

Milly furrowed her eyebrows. "But that's pretty weird then, that he wouldn't tell you where he was."

"Yeah, since we just saw him-"

Milly nudged Molly to be quiet, but the sentence had started coming out already, and no one had missed it.

"You both saw him?" Uniqua asked. "Where is he? Is he okay?"

Milly cringed. "Ah, yeah...he's pretty okay..."

"That doesn't sound very promising." Tyrone frowned. "Is he by himself?"

"Uh..."

~

Austin beamed behind closed eyes as Humphrey led him by the wrist to whatever cool thing it was he wanted to show him.

"I hope you aren't taking me somewhere to drown me." Austin teased.

"No, stupid." Humphrey immediately responded, before backtracking. "Shit, sorry. I don't mean that you're stupid, it's just...a reflex. It's how I talk."

Austin giggled. "I understand."

Humphrey released a quiet sigh of relief, then stopped when he realised that they'd arrived.

"Here we are. Open your eyes."

Despite his joke earlier, Austin really did hope that he wasn't anywhere dangerous, so he cracked his eyes open slowly, squinting through the blur, until he blew his eyes wide.

"Wow!" he grinned. Humphrey was hiding a satisfied smile behind him, but choked at his next sentence. "This is where we came yesterday!"

"Y-You came here yesterday?" Humphrey repeatedly dumbly. "But why?"

Austin turned towards him, still looking around wondrously. "We were exploring and found this little clearing here. We stayed and watched the lake for a while, then went back to our inn. It's so pretty here, we stayed for at least an hour."

"Oh..."

Austin put his hands on Humphrey's shoulders. "Don't be sad. This place is pretty, even if I've seen it before already."

Humphrey chuckled. "No need to cheer me up, this isn't what i wanted to show you."

Austin frowned. "It isn't?"

"Nope," Humphrey popped the 'p' and flopped onto the grass, patting beside him so Austin could follow suit. "I just thought I should have a nice ambience when I do show you."

Austin could feel warmth rising to his ears.

I-Is he gonna say it..?

Chapter Text

Humphrey was debating more than ever if giving this thing to Austin was a good idea. It was right there in his pocket, he could feel it; he was literally glossing his fingers over it as he sat there trying to make a big deal out of it, to the point that he'd bullshitted the hell out of Austin and told him he needed a nice ambience to show it off. If Austin wasn't as naïve as he was - or pure, Humphrey felt more comfortable calling him - he more than likely would have seen through that whole charade. But here they were now, part of the surprise already ruined with Austin's apparent familiarity with this spot.

Ironically, the spot Humphrey came any time he couldn't stop thinking about Alfie. Seriously, what was he even doing here right now?

Don't be a fucking wuss. Just show him the thing, and get it over with.

"It might seem a little weird at first," Humphrey prefaced his reveal by saying. "But it has meaning, y'know? So don't um...laugh or anything." He knew how red his ears must have been and hoped his hair would hide them, but his atrocity of a haircut probably wasn't that gracious.

"I'd never laugh at a sincere gift." Austin assured him. "I promise. Now come on, show me! I'm excited!"

Humphrey chuckled as he started to rock him back and forth impatiently. "Okay, okay."

Austin did his best to peek over at Humphrey's hand as he reached inside of his pocket for his gift, but he was doing a good job at covering up the item, so he sat back with an expectant grin on his face, gasping when Humphrey opened his palm to him.

"Oh my gosh..." he whispered, softly running his finger along the surface of the stone in Humphrey's hand.

Humphrey donned yet another triumphant grin, happy that it was going across well. "Yeah, it's pretty nice, right?"

"It's a turquoise!" Austin beamed, scooping it out of Humphrey's hands to catch the light of the moon. He pawed at the rock all over, flipping it over carefully to examine every surface. "Where did you get this? Is it naturally this smooth? Do you have a lot more?"

Suddenly overwhelmed by the barrage of inquiries, Humphrey pushed Austin out of his personal space by the nose. "Let's go one at a time."

Austin calmed his breathing, but almost couldn't contain himself. If there was any time that he needed to keep his geekiness in check, it was right now. He didn't want Humphrey to think he was weird.

"Okay," he breathed, handing the stone back to Humphrey. "Where did you get that?"

Humphrey rejected the rock with a scoff. "It's yours now, dummy. Keep it. As for where I got it..." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hard to say. I collected a lot of them when I travelled with my folks. Since I was small, we'd go overseas a lot during the holidays. I've always thought that rocks were cool, so I have a pretty big collection."

"Oh my gosh, so you don't care if I'm a Biology nerd?!" Austin practically yelled. "I love rocks too! Actually, not just rocks, I love everything! Bugs, plants, animals, every natural part of the world is something I love. I even have a pet frog!"

A smile cracked Humphrey's expression; a sincere look that was evidently pleased at this new revelation. "Seriously? That's really cool. But um, this rock..."

In a moment, the mood shifted as Humphrey's hands covered Austin's. "I don't know if you know all the spiritual stuff behind rocks and stuff, but I'm into that kind of stuff too. Milly and Molly talked about it a lot, and it's kind of embarrassing, but now I'm a complete astrology geek. Nowhere close to being a hippie like those two, though."

They both giggled at his joke at the couple's expense.

Humphrey took a deep, noticeably shaky breath. "But turquoise stones have pretty cool symbols. Like healing, or protection, or bringing relief to the body..."

"Oh..." Austin murmured quietly, swallowing nervously.

"Also..." Humphrey paused to look directly at him, and Austin wondered when they had gotten so close. "It can be given to someone else as an initiation of romance."

There it is. Austin was suddenly very aware that their hands were basically interlocked around this stone.

"So," Austin whispered, trying to peer into Humphrey's now averted eyes. "Which of those things does it symbolise right now?"

"Come on..." the boy groaned, hanging his head altogether so Austin couldn't see him. "Don't make me say it out loud."

"But I want to be sure," Austin continued. "So that...I can give you my answer."

At that, Humphrey's head flicked up immediately, and Austin's heart sank at the hope in his eyes.

"U-Um," he cleared his throat numerous times, trying to get the words out without his voice cracking or stuttering any more than it was threatening to. "Dammit, I'll just- I like you!"

Austin sat shocked for a moment, blinking at the sudden blurt of his feelings.

"I like you," He had lowered his head again and refused to look at Austin, but he could feel his hands trembling. "The second I saw you I thought you were cute and handsome, and you seemed so much different from your friends, not that I'm saying that your friends are bad, but I just - I have a type, okay? You kinda fit that type and I got a crush on you even though it hasn't really been long, and now I'm telling you about it in a really stupid way with a stupid rock. Shit, I don't even know if you like guys, but you haven't pushed me away up till now and it feels like I've been really obvious about it with you so I thought you didn't mind and probably might even think the same of me, so I..."

After trailing off, his shoulders heaved with every pant. He'd basically poured that all out in one breath.

"I don't know what else to say."

His voice was quiet. 

"All I can say is that I like you."

Austin swallowed. He knew what was coming next, and he knew he wasn't going to like how it panned out.

Humphrey raised his head, face full of expectancy. "Do you like me?"

Austin closed his eyes, steeling himself for what he had to say. Humphrey was a great guy; totally sincere, handsome and charming in his own way.

Which was why he deserved honesty.

~

Pablo was at the head of the pack, glancing around furiously in search of Austin. After what Milly and Molly had told him and the others, an unpleasant feeling had settled within his gut. There was nothing particularly suspicious about what they'd said, except for the fact that Austin and Humphrey were off together. Alone. That wasn't weird at all.

Except that it was.

Austin, the introvert of all introverts, was off alone with a guy they'd met just a day ago? Willingly? A better question to ask would have been what wasn't weird about that. It just didn't make any sense. Why was that guy so interested in Austin anyway?

Humphrey. It would have been rude to mention it at the table, and was still kind of rude to think about regardless, but Pablo's sirens were going off and his first instinct was to rag on whatever caused it. What kind of name was that? What modern day person possessed a name like that? "Humphrey". It didn't roll off the tongue, no matter what accent you said it in. Something was up with that guy. Something more than his name.

"What are you frowning so hard about?" Uniqua nudged him as she walked past. Pablo hadn't even noticed that the others had walked right by him as he was stuck in his own thoughts. "We know where he is. He's with Humphrey, in a spot we know. He's fine."

"But why is he with Humphrey? Why didn't he come back to us?" Pablo questioned.

"That's what we're going to find out." Uniqua replied. "Keep up, this was established a few minutes ago."

Tasha groaned. "Feels like we've been walking for hours. This town somehow seems so much bigger than before."

Tyrone looked around curiously. "Is this the direction of the spot we were in that time, though? I don't think we're going the right way."

"What?!" Pablo screeched. "You mean we've been walking around for all this time and haven't even got anywhere?"

Tyrone arched a brow at him. "What is your deal? Austin's not in any danger."

Pablo could feel his teeth subconsciously grinding together the more everyone told him to stop worrying. He wasn't sure what it was about Humphrey that rubbed him the wrong way all of a sudden, but he just couldn't help the feeling that Austin would be soiled somehow while out of his line of sight. It was stupid, it was overprotective, and it was an illogical series of thoughts to have.

That wouldn't stop Pablo from having them anyway.

"Hey, there they are!" Tasha pointed out, pushing past everyone excitedly.

Pablo was instantly on high alert, trailing close behind the scurrying girl.

"Austin!" Tasha squealed, jumping into his arms. "We've been looking for you!"

"Again?" Austin's grin was sheepish. "My bad. I know getting lost is your job."

Tasha pulled away to pout up at the boy. "I didn't realise you'd found an attitude in the last fifteen minutes."

Pablo watched on as the two laughed with each other, but he wasn't watching them. No, his eyes were on the boy shadowing Austin with his head down, hands in his pockets and kicking at stray pebbles. He could feel the frown on his face and tried to physically wipe it away with his hand, but the irritation was still there.

Uniqua was the first to speak up when the others arrived, having walked there instead of sprinting like Pablo and Tasha had. "Austin, do we need to start keeping you and Tasha on one of those leashes they make for rowdy kids? Cuz I'm starting to think we might have to do just that."

She stomped over to him, grabbing him by the ear. Austin wailed in protest, grabbing her wrist as his face started turning red already.

"Ow ow ow, I'm sorry!" he cried, trying to pry her hand away as carefully as he could without hurting his ear even more in the process. "In my defence, ow, I wasn't trying to lose you. When I looked up from my slushy, you guys were, ow, gone!"

Uniqua raised an eyebrow and studied his face, then reluctantly let go of his ear with a cross of her arms. "Fine. I accept part of the blame."

Pablo didn't miss the way Milly and Molly sidled on over to Humphrey under everyone's noses, fussing over Austin again. His head seemed to droop even lower as they whispered things to him, seeming excited for some reason, before snatching away from them and turning his head. They both looked equally as confused as Pablo felt about this entire scenario, but something in him was keeping him from prying even though he really wanted to.

"I'll catch up with you later at the restaurant, okay?" Humphrey quietly said to Austin, amidst all the noise. Austin somehow seemed to catch that, and he returned a quick nod as Humphrey touched a palm to his shoulder and stalked off with Milly and Molly both in tow, probably ready to grill him for answers. That was what Pablo would have liked to do to Austin right now, but it didn't feel right somehow.

Especially when he caught the split second of dejection on his face as he watched Humphrey's back disappear into the crowd. He looked back towards Austin and the two made eye contact again, but Humphrey was the first to look away and continue leaving. Austin heaved his shoulders up with a sigh and shook his head, instead focusing on Tasha who was now hooked to his arm wailing for attention.

Just what the hell happened with those two?

Pops and awed gasps arose from the entire crowd suddenly, and beams of light flashed onto the group's faces as they looked up towards the source of the sound.

"What the hell? There was a fireworks display? But this place is so small!" Uniqua frowned. "Where did they even find the time?"

"Or the money, for that matter." Tyrone hummed in agreement. "But that's not really our problem to think about now, is it?"

Tasha squeezed into Austin's arm tighter. "Austin, aren't they pretty?"

"Yeah," he smiled down at her. "They are. I haven't seen fireworks since our town stopped doing them for New Year's when a shed caught fire a couple years ago."

"Should we go find a place to sit and watch them?" Tyrone questioned.

"Nah," Uniqua denied. "We've been out all day, and I'm beat. I think we've done everything we can for today."

Tasha already had her phone out. "I'm gonna record them for a little bit."

Everyone assented to this and stood around, clumped together within the crowd of watchers as the girl took another memory for them to remember. She would occasionally turn the camera to record them, pouting that none of them looked as lively as she wanted them to for her footage.

The entire time, Pablo's eyes drifted towards Austin whenever he wasn't being filmed. The way his eyes lingered on the floor, or the way his nostrils flared with every quiet sigh he thought no one was watching him release. Tyrone and Uniqua, being the designated parents, seemed to preoccupied to pick up on any of this, and Tasha was focusing more on the fireworks than any of them right now. Surely it had nothing to do with Pablo's intense focus on Austin since hearing that he was off somewhere alone with that guy; Humphrey, or whatever.

"You have enough," Uniqua demanded. "We're going back to the inn now, let's go."

"Okie dokie." Tasha beamed, linking arms with Austin again. "You and I have a lot of talking to do."

She winked at him and he chuckled curtly, not at all looking forward to the conversation, as he knew exactly where it would be headed. But it was unavoidable, so all he could do was respond.

"Yeah." he mustered a small smile. "We do."

~

It was none of Pablo's business really. No, it was certainly none of his business what Tasha and Austin were up chattering about. Despite the fact that he could hear her giggling, and Austin's characteristic protests - most likely against being teased - it was in Pablo's best interest to roll back over and go back to sleep.

Yes, 'back' to sleep, as if he'd even gotten a wink in the first place.

Humphrey. That guy was an enigma. Why was Austin suddenly so comfortable around him? That shy kid who could barely look strangers in the eye was suddenly chummy enough with some guy from another town that they could walk off to have private conversations? How long had it even taken Pablo to do that?

"Why is this bothering me..."

He rolled onto his back, covering his eyes with the back of his arm and releasing a long sigh. Everything about his discomfort sucked, because it shouldn't have been present. It shouldn't have been present, yet he had no idea what to do to get rid of it.

Maybe if I ask him what they talked about, I'll feel a little better.

Yeah right. Who was he to go interrogate Austin after he looked the way he did when they'd found him? That conversation must have gone south, so why would Pablo want to bring it up and make him feel bad again by remembering it?

He didn't have much time to think about it since he heard the door open, meaning Austin was back, so he quickly pulled his sheet over himself and stilled. Had Austin seen him moving?

Seemingly not, as there was no sound but the boy's cautious movements around the room as he tried as much as possible not to wake him or Tyrone, who was already asleep. He was a heavy sleeper, so if he were to get up and talk to Austin then he most likely wouldn't hear. Maybe he should take this opportunity to question him?

"Pablo, you're awake?"

Austin's voice startled him, as it was suddenly very close, almost as if he were right beside him. When Pablo pulled the sheet down below his eyes, it turned out that he was right beside him. He was crouched down, looking into his face with a neutral expression that Pablo couldn't quite read.

"Y-Yeah," Pablo murmured. "Just kind of giddy from today, I guess. So much fun, right?"

Austin smiled; a smile that drooped his eyes and softened his features. "Yeah, today was fun. I'm glad we came."

It was like Pablo had been in distress for absolutely nothing. How could someone be so therapeutic without even trying?

"So, you and Humphrey," No, stop. Don't. "You guys were together before we found you."

"Oh."

Suddenly, that melancholy air from before was back, and Austin's gaze quickly fell to his feet before catching Pablo's eye once again. Dammit Pablo.

"He showed me that place we went to before, when we were watching the pond." he answered. "He was just a little disappointed that we got to it first, since he wanted it to be a surprise."

Pablo nodded, sitting up a bit. "I see. And you guys talked?"

"For a little bit."

His voice was even quieter.

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to."

Austin looked up at Pablo with large eyes. "I would. I really would. But..."

Pablo remained silent, wordlessly urging him on.

"It's just related to something I'm not ready to talk about yet. Sorry."

I bet Tasha knows. Pablo refrained some worsening the exchange with his intrusive stupidity. If he'd used a term like 'ready', it meant that he would find out sometime. All he needed to do was be patient. Besides, he and Tasha had been cosying up lately anyway, so if he told her, it wasn't a big deal.

Yeah, not a big deal at all.

"It's okay. If it's something serious, then I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable."

Austin seemed grateful about that, but didn't say anything to confirm it. He just got up with an acknowledging nod and walked over to his own bed. He was quick to sleep when his head touched the pillow, and Pablo was soon sure that he could get up without interruptions.

As silently as possible, he crept over to his bag, digging into it for a familiar plastic container. His thumbs ran over it slowly, contemplating whether or not to follow through, then frowned and stood up and stalked off to the bathroom, holding it tightly in his palm.

If there was anything that could make him feel better in a moment, it was this.

~

"Jeez, how much did I drink today..." Austin groaned, rolling over to check the clock beside his bed. Two twenty-seven a.m. Ugh. Well, at least he hadn't wet the bed. Because how embarrassing would that have been, right?

He doubted that something like that would happen anyway. He'd never wet his bed before, so why should he start now? His thoughts were a funny thing.

He took up his phone, still bouncing on the spot to hold his soon bursting bladder, and shot a quick text to Peppa, asking after Pepé's wellbeing and how things were going. Amidst all the fun, he hadn't forgotten about his precious frog. But seriously, he needed to stop distracting himself and get to relieving himself.

Maybe he should have been more aware of his surroundings. Maybe then he might have noticed the empty floor and the discarded bedsheet; a very obvious sign of Pablo's absence. Maybe that might have deterred him from entering the bathroom so casually.

But even if he had done all that, nothing could have prepared him for the sight of Pablo slumped against the bathroom wall, looking half passed out, hand clutching an empty bag that Austin horrifiedly recognised.

"Pablo..?" his voice was quiet, already cracking at the scene before him, and in the next moment he was rushing down to his side and tapping his cheeks. "Pablo, Pablo, get up. Hey..."

His breath... Austin frowned. Why had he done this? He knew why he usually ingested it, but what had been bothering him so much that he decided to take so much of it at once?

"Austin..." Pablo grumbled, seemingly coherent of the situation, much to Austin's joy.

"Pablo? Hey, it's me. I'm gonna get you some water, okay? Don't go anywhere."

"Okay..."

Austin stood up and left the room, walking over to the mini fridge in the corner. There were plastic cups and a jug of water available, thankfully, meaning that he wouldn't have to give him tap water.

"Here," Austin offered as he returned. "Drink."

Pablo downed half of the water quickly, then suddenly choked and began to hack back up some of what he'd swallowed onto his own chest and stomach. The water seeped through his shirt, making it partially transparent, and Austin's head spun.

Now is not the time, Austin. He steeled himself, hoping that the darkness hid his blush well. Even if it did, he doubted Pablo was in a state of mind to notice.

"I'm sorry..." Pablo muttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Sorry?" Austin tilted his head. "Sorry for what?"

"I knew that you were sad about whatever happened with Humphrey..." he breathed, trying to sit up straight against the hard tile of the bathroom. "But I still asked about it anyway. That was selfish of me, and you had to remember something that made you feel bad. So I'm sorry..."

Suddenly, Pablo fell forward onto his shoulder, fully passed out now after speaking what was on his mind. Austin blinked for a few seconds, processing what just happened, before sighing. He had definitely underestimated how much of an overthinker Pablo was. He had done this over something like that?

Austin tried not to blush at the sudden thought that that meant Pablo was in distress because he cared so much about him, and instead focused on trying to get him back out to his sleeping spot. Should he bring this up later? Should he tell the others what happened? Would Pablo even remember?

Austin struggled a bit with dragging Pablo's sleeping body back out to his sheets all over the floor, then sighed with relief at his sleeping face, looking way more peaceful now than before.

Maybe it would be for the best if this could just stay a thing of the past.

Chapter Text

And a thing of the past it stayed.

Much to Austin's relief, it seemed as though Pablo remembered nothing of last night once the group was all together for breakfast. How he managed to school his expression whenever Pablo looked up at him in the middle of chewing his food was beyond him, but he simply counted his blessings and kept his lips sealed, even if he was sweating internally at the confused looks the boy kept throwing his way.

Austin couldn't help but wonder, though, why Pablo had wrecked himself overnight because of him. They were all friends. The closest of friends. Family, dare he say. But excuse him for the unending nag of self deprecating thoughts, telling him that the object of his attraction fussing over him enough to inhale an entire stash of weed in his predicament, was nothing short of delusional.

"What are you frowning about?"

The sound of Pablo's voice jerked him out of his thoughts, and he grimaced at the sticky feeling of a syrup-doused pancake on his cheek.

"That is gross," he pouted at the boy, shooing his hand away. "I'm just thinking."

Tasha, across from him, levelled him with a studious gaze. "Enough to make a face like that?"

She mimicked his facial expression, obviously exaggerating as she scrunched up all of her features and made him giggle.

"I do not look like that." He took another bite of the omelette in front of him, sighing at the taste. They had eaten breakfast at this restaurant both days of their trip, and it was a bit saddening that this was their last morning.

"You're gonna choke." Uniqua mused as she watched him tear through his breakfast, physically holding him by the collar to pull him away. "Boy, it isn't going anywhere, relax."

"But I have to savour it now," he whined, cheeks stuffed full. "This is our last morning here, I need to remember this flavour!"

A dramatic gasp came from the direction of the restaurant counter, where Molly had a hand up to her mouth.

"Gosh, you lot are going home today?" she remarked, failing to hide her disappointment. "You were all so pleasant and you blended in so well, I forgot that you had to leave sometime."

"Yeah, unfortunately." Uniqua sighed, donning a sad smile. "We aren't exactly on vacation, this is a weekend trip in the middle of the school year."

Molly perked up at that. "Is it?"

"Yup," Tasha popped the 'p' with a nod. "We literally have school tomorrow morning, even though it doesn't feel like it. I wish we could stay longer."

Molly tapped her fist against her palm. "I have to tell Milly. We'll prepare some parting presents for all of you."

Austin almost choked on his sausage. "You don't— ack! Y-You don't have to do that for us! You were welcoming enough as is!"

"We insist," Milly's voice sounds, emerging from an employee room all of a sudden and standing beside her girlfriend. "We loved having you here, even if it was for a short time. Most of the people our age from this town have moved away to study and pursue other things this town is too small and quaint to offer them, so meeting other teenagers is a wonderful experience. We insist, it's absolutely nothing."

"Thank you." Tyrone's voice is deep, still laced with sleep somewhat as it is currently eight in the morning. "That means a lot. Five stars on this place."

Milly absolutely cracks up at that. "Thank you for that! We don't have a listing on any rating sites, but we appreciate the sentiment."

"I think you should." Pablo comments, pushing his empty plate forward. "The food here is amazing. Advertising the businesses here will help you get more people to visit the town too."

Austin glanced around the restaurant, eyes scanning the other employees present. There was another girl halfway across the room, wiping down tables, and a boy setting some of the already cleaned tables.

"Humphrey doesn't have a shift till later today, if you're looking for him." Milly said to him, noticing his search. "I think he'd want to see you all off, though. I can call him for you, if you like."

Austin flashed a quick smile, one that didn't reach his eyes, and waved his hands. "That's okay. I wouldn't wanna bother him during his downtime."

Milly and Molly exchange a worried glance between each other before turning to the group as a whole, ready to take their empty dishes.

"Thank you so much for taking care of us while we were here." Uniqua beamed, opening her arms to hug Milly, then Molly promptly afterwards. "Can we keep in touch?"

"Of course!" both girls exclaimed happily, phones at the ready to exchange numbers.

Information that Uniqua would share with the rest of them later.

"I hope you visit us sometime again!" Molly called after the group as they left the restaurant, waving her arm. When the bell jingled, she dropped her arm and crossed them both over her chest, turning towards the counter.

"They're gone," she frowned, tapping her foot against the tiled floor. "You can stop being a coward and come out now."

At her voice, Humphrey timidly peeked out from over the counter, seemingly not believing her.

"Are they really?" he turned his eyes towards Milly, who subsequently rolled hers.

"Didn't you hear the door?" she scoffed. "Honestly, Humphrey. Why are you being such a wuss?"

"You weren't there." he mumbled, knuckles whitening as his grip on the edge of the counter grew harsher. "You didn't see the look on his face when he rejected me. You didn't hear his voice when he talked to me. I-It was like he was sorry about it, like he pitied me, a-and I just-" His voice caught in his own throat, and he took a shuddering inhale. "I'm just not sure I can look at him right now, okay? Please don't ask me anything more. Please."

The two girls watched on helplessly as he slunk back to the employee backroom, a new weight in his shoulders that hadn't been present before.

"Poor guy." Milly sighed. "I thought for sure Austin would have liked him back. They seemed so compatible!"

"They are." Molly demanded, lips a flat line. "I'm sure of it. Austin is definitely his type too. There has to be something else at play here. Something we're missing. Something we didn't think about."

The lightbulb flashed for both of them at the exact same moment, and they found themselves groaning.

"He already has someone he likes." Milly slapped herself in the forehead, frustration outweighing the sting. "How on earth did we not consider that?"

"We were too hasty," Molly pouted, feeling her own bout of pity for their poor friend. "Humphrey's been so down in the dumps, we got too excited over this new opportunity and now..."

They both sighed. It was important to know when you made mistakes, and this was surely one of them. They could only hope now that the relationship between the two wasn't irreparable now.

~

Austin laid in bed, eyes glued to his screen as he texted Peppa about his frog. It had been a while, but Pepé never slipped his mind. He chuckled at her reluctance to give him back, swiping through the texts from her where she insisted that he leave Pepé with her for a few more days while he settled back home. But Austin adamantly assured her that he would need no such time to get used to his own home again after being gone only for the weekend.

"What are you giggling at?" Pablo pried, snatching his phone from his hands to squint at the screen. "Oh, that kid that's keeping your frog. How is he? Is she taking care of him?"

"He's doing great," Austin smiled softly, sitting up as Pablo thumbed through their messages. "If there's anything she needs help with she texts me right away, but she's been doing a good job of taking care of it on her own for the most part. She has her parents there to help her too, if anything, so he should be fine."

"He better be when we get back." Pablo huffed, tossing his phone back to him. "I know how much you love that little guy. If anything happened to him, I'd spill blood."

Austin laughed at his excessiveness. "Pablo, Peppa is just a little girl. You can't spill her blood over a frog. Even if I love that frog to death."

"Just try and stop me." Pablo smirked, ruffling the boy's hair fondly.

Times like this made Austin's heart swell for this boy even more. Moments that were calm. Domestic and playful. Moments that he'd had a hundred times over with the rest of his group, but never quite felt the same attachment towards them as he did towards Pablo.

The boy who taught him proper Spanish as best he could, when he struggled in school. The boy who stuck close by him more protectively than was probably necessary. The boy who sent himself over the edge with drugs because he was worried about Austin.

Austin wondered who wouldn't fall in love with someone like that. Really. Who wouldn't?

"Is there anything else you want to do before we go?" Pablo asked softly, dipping the bed with his weight. "We still have a few hours before checkout. We could go check out a store..." He slung an arm over Austin's shoulder's and allowed his weight to fall back onto the bed, pulling the other boy down with him to gaze up at the ceiling.

"We could take a stroll," Austin continued quietly. "Just walk around for a bit and look at the rest of the festival. It won't be over by the time we leave."

"O-Oh," Pablo stammered, trailing his gaze to the side. "Yeah, we could do that. Just not for too long, okay?"

Austin furrowed his brows. "Why not?"

He could almost see the cogs in Pablo's head turning, trying to conjure up an answer.

"Well, uh..." he began. "We already saw the majority of what there was to see at the festival yesterday, right? So we don't really need to spend so much time there today. We can grab a bite or two to eat, but we don't have much more sights to see that we haven't already."

He was hiding something. Pablo was a horrible liar sometimes, and this was definitely one of those moments. It usually only happened when he was caught off guard, but Austin knew it. He could see it clear as day in those eyes of his, flitting everywhere but Austin's eyes. He couldn't hold eye contact when he was frantic in his lie, and it was telling. He wasn't sure if anyone else knew that little detail about him, but it was nice to imagine that they might not have.

Whatever he was hiding, though, couldn't have been that much of a big deal, Austin thought to himself. Maybe he was avoiding someone that would be walking around at the festival. Maybe hoping to shield Austin from that sleazy churro dude again.

And Austin certainly had no room to judge either, considering he was keeping a secret about him from him. So he'd consider them even.

Nonetheless, he took pity on Pablo's helpless fumbling. "I've already seen most of what there was to see at the festival, so we don't have to go back." He plucked the phone from his thieving hands, checking to see if Peppa had said anything more. "We can go look in some stores. I think I even saw a place that had a-"

Austin shut his mouth all of a sudden, cutting himself off before he could continue. Pablo didn't miss it, however, arching a brow in the boy's direction.

"Had a what?" he pressed.

Austin's eyes darted off to the side. "Ah, nothing special...it was just a...a..."

Pablo's curiosity only grew, creeping closer to him to urge the answer out of him. "Spit it out, Forde. What did you see?"

"A bong!"

Austin covered his face with his hands, skin lighting up red to the tips of his ears. "I'm sorry..."

Pablo blinked, confusion imminently replacing his satiated curiosity. "For what?"

"Making assumptions," Austin whined, peeking at him through the spaces between his fingers. "I know that you do...w-weed, and stuff, but...I shouldn't have just assumed you'd be into that sort of thing. I'm so sorry!"

His wails made him sound like he'd just committed a federal offence, and Pablo sputtered to reassure him that he'd done nothing wrong.

"I mean, realistically," he began, comfortingly patting Austin's shoulder. "It's a valid assumption to make, isn't it? Weed is weed."

Austin's sad pout only deepened. "But..."

"Sure, I only usually do edibles cuz I'm not a big fan of smoking, but there's no way I'd expect you to just know that." Pablo sighed, ruffling the boy's hair. "I always do my best to keep it away from you, anyway. I don't..."

His voice trailed off and he glanced off to the side, a hint of what Austin could only pinpoint in that moment as shame visible among his features.

He sighed, deeply. "I don't really want you to see that side of me. I think too much of you to want to expose you to that kind of thing. I know we're older now, and I know you're not some naïve idiot, but..." He looked back at Austin, gaze a little unsteady. "Let me shield you from this in the way I can right now. Let me be selfish about it, just for a little bit, okay?"

Austin's lips pressed tightly together, wanting so badly to tell Pablo that he didn't care. That he'd never cared, beyond the concerns for his health. That he'd already seen a glimpse of what he could be at his worst, and still never thought lesser of him.

Still wanted to be by his side.

But instead, he swallowed it all down, choosing to nod his acceptance of Pablo's little plea. Even if flashes of the night before gnawed under his flesh as he wordlessly gave his affirmation.

"Okay, Pablo." Austin relented, without much battle really. "It's fine."

Pablo sighed, his chest deflating with relief. "Thanks."

"But you should be careful anyway, it isn't as easy to know how much of the cannabis is actually in an edible."

"Austin-"

"I'm serious, it could be detrimental to your health. In a way, smoking it is actually better."

"Austin..."

~

Soon came the time for the five to make their way from their rooms for checkout. Tasha was a blubbering mess, tightly hugging the little old lady at reception like her life depended on it.

"I'm going to miss you!" she wailed, tugging the poor woman impossibly closer into her chest. "It was so great to stay here, we'll definitely come back someday!"

Uniqua emerged from down the hall where their rooms were located, suitcases in tow. "Tasha, unless you want that lady to have an early burial, let her go please."

While Tasha fussed over the wheezing elderly lady, Tyrone and Pablo emerged after Uniqua with bags of their own.

"We've got everything, right?" Tyrone asked, calmly looking over everything in his immediate vision. "Neither me nor Pablo had that much to begin with, so I'm pretty confident that the two of us are set."

Pablo gave the side of his duffel bag a rough pat. "Yup! Got everything I brought right here."

"We're missing an Austin. Again." Uniqua frowned. "Where is he?"

Tyrone cocked his head, stepping aside to reveal the boy in question, muttering to himself as he skimmed through a notepad in his hands.

"We got this, and this, and I made sure I didn't forget that..." His eyebrows were furrowed as he flipped page after page, mindlessly stepping forward to scan everyone's belongings.

"Whatcha thinkin' about so hard, bud?" Pablo questioned, slinging an arm over his shoulders.

"It feels like there's something missing, but I have everything checked off the list..." The creases in his forehead deepened as he wracked his brain to no avail. Sure, he had all his belongings, but something still felt off. Like it wasn't here with them.

"Oh!" Tasha suddenly exclaimed. "We left our souvenir boxes from the festival at the restaurant!"

Austin tapped his fist to his palm. "Of course."

Uniqua threw a sinister eye Tasha's way. "Souvenir boxes?"

Tasha felt the beginnings of sweat bead at her brow as Uniqua suddenly came into her space demandingly, tearing her vision away from the threatening girl and turning it towards Austin. "Y-You should run and get them while I, uh...explain to Uniqua."

Austin didn't need to be told twice. He and Tasha had bought so many cool things at the festival, it would be a real shame if they forgot them.

Plus a huge monetary loss...

Vaguely, Austin thought he could sympathise with Uniqua's frustration. Tasha never lacked anything in life, far from it actually, and it made her spending habits a little wild sometimes. Most of them were fairly well off, but Tasha was the obvious rich girl within their group, and she often acted as such. A bit too obliviously, to everyone else's chagrin. It was as endearing as it was exasperating. She never meant any harm, Tasha was way too sweet for that, but it could feel a little mindless sometimes.

Austin wasn't even sure where the boxes would fit in their cars, considering the girl already had a pile of luggage. And that was only for the weekend! He couldn't imagine what her arsenal would look like when she took off on a real trip.

Speaking of, he had been too lost in his thoughts to realise he arrived at the restaurant where they'd left their souvenirs the day before, almost walking into the door in the process. He pushed it open, ears ringing with the now familiar tinkling of the bell above it.

"Welcome to Spice Paradise, how can I help you..."

Austin glanced wearily towards the source of the greeting voice, voice catching in his throat.

"...today..." Humphrey finished, mouth remaining open.

The two boys stared at each other, memories of yesterday hanging in the air.

...How awkward.

"Um, hi," Austin waved. "I- Well, I stopped by so I could, um..."

Austin fidgeted under the boy's slack-jawed stare, wringing his hands at the hem of his shirt.

"I came to pick up the stuff Tasha and I bought...from the festival, yesterday..."

Humphrey blinked. "Oh."

More silence, save for the quiet bustle of other employees in the restaurant and the few conversing patrons. Some of whom had paused to glance confusedly at the two's exchange.

Finally, Humphrey cleared his throat. "I put your stuff in the back. Follow me."

He didn't leave any room for reply, simply spun around and quickly started to walk away. Austin's body soon caught up, scurrying to walk after him.

"Wait here." Humphrey instructed when they reached the counter, disappearing into a back room.

Austin rocked on his heels as he waited, hearing the boy rummaging around even from where he was standing. He must have put the boxes away well if he had to search for them.

"You're one of those tourists, right? The boy from the group of five?" a female voice suddenly sounded from his right side, almost making him leap away.

One of the waitresses, a fair skinned girl with straight hair braided in two on either side of her head, stood nearby him, eyeing him curiously. She was a tad bit taller than he was, making him feel a little intimidated to be literally under her gaze.

"Y-Yeah, I am. Why do you ask..?" Austin managed, voice unconsciously growing more quiet the more anxious he became.

The girl beamed at him. "No real reason! Tourists just don't usually come 'round here so I was curious. Only Milly, Molly and Humphrey have really seen you lot. Figured I'd talk to one of ya when I got the opportunity."

"And now you've had the opportunity, so it's time for you to go back to work." Humphrey said in a grumbly tone as he returned, Austin and Tasha's boxes hoisted onto his shoulders. "Now piss off, Poppi."

Before Austin could even attempt to be aghast at Humphrey's open rudeness, the girl Poppi simply saluted him, straightening her posture comically. "Yes sir!"

As she skipped off, Humphrey scoffed, squatting and setting the boxes down. "Idiot..."

"Everyone's pretty used to how gruff you are, huh?" Austin asked hesitantly, curiosity shining through at how the boy's words just seemed to bounce right off that girl, and just about everyone else he talked to.

"I guess so," he shrugged, standing back up to his full height. "People who know me know I don't mean any real harm, so they just take it as it is."

Austin smiled, a genuine smile, at such a display of what can only be considered real friendship. "That's so great. You must really like your friends for being able to tell."

Humphrey stalled for a moment, then turned away a bit bashfully. "They're okay."

There was quiet between the two of them again, both boys fidgeting awkwardly until they tried to speak at the same time.

"Sorry." Austin whispered.

"That's my line." Humphrey groaned, running both hands down his face. "I shouldn't have put you on the spot like that yesterday. We've only known each other for like what, two days? It was presumptuous of me."

"It was nice."

Humphrey blinked up at Austin looking at his hands shyly. "I've never...had anyone tell me they had a crush on me before. It was new and...nice. So thank you. For liking me, I mean."

Humphrey continued to blink, before suddenly dropping down into a squat and pulling at his hair. "Dammit, why are you so...nice? I can't even feel sour about being rejected."

Austin chuckled softly, lowering himself down to Humphrey's height. "For what it's worth, it isn't your fault. I already like someone else."

At that, Humphrey just groaned louder.

"Must be one lucky guy." he murmured, peeking up.

"Well, we aren't dating, and I probably won't ever tell him because I'm pretty sure he's straight." Austin sighed, his smile turning a little sad.

Then, he got an idea. A sudden, random - maybe bad - and risky idea.

"The guy I like," he whispered to Humphrey, beckoning him closer to whisper into his ear. Humphrey leaned in, frowning questioningly. "...is the boy in my group."

Humphrey promptly lost his balance, falling straight onto his backside.

"I was competing with that guy? Seriously? He's so tall and scary, there's no way I was getting in with you!" he whisper-shouted back.

Austin blanked for a moment at his mistake. "No, the...the other boy."

Silence.

...

More silence.

...

"I lost to that guy?"

"Humphrey..."

~

With some packing and stuffing and forcing, everyone and their belongings were safely tucked into their vehicles. Tasha's entire upper body was outside of the driver's side window, her arms thrown around a panicking Molly as she sobbed into her shoulder.

"Don't forget about us!" Tasha sniffled, gazing teary-eyed into Molly's stupefied face. "You have to text us, okay? We're all friends now!"

"...Is she always like this?" Humphrey nudged Austin from his spot leaning against the car, where Austin sat in the passenger's seat shaking his head.

"Unfortunately," he sighed, leaning over to pull her back inside. "Tasha, you're driving us home. You can't drive if you can't see from all your crying."

"But..!" Tasha started, only to be shushed by Austin's finger on her lips.

"No buts. We all exchanged numbers, remember? This isn't goodbye forever."

Tasha pouted, throwing one last watery-eyed look towards the girls before steeling herself and gripping the driver's wheel.

"Not goodbye forever." she repeated, almost like she was trying to convince herself.

Austin released a breath through his nose, turning back to Humphrey.

"Guess this is goodbye, huh?" the boy asked, more calmly than Austin had heard him in the two days that they'd been here.

"Temporarily," Austin nodded. "There's no way we won't come back here someday to see you all."

He offered a hand out to him and the two boys shook hands.

"And hey, keep me updated on that idiot, would you?" Humphrey snorted.

Austin pouted. "He's not an idiot."

Humphrey could feel the death stare on him in his peripherals.

"Sure."

Once everyone had properly exchanged their final goodbyes, the group made off out of the little town, feeling light and happy about the experience and their new friends.

Austin could vaguely hear the sound of sniffling and whimpering, pinching his nose bridge in advance.

"Tasha..."

"I-I'm gonna miss them so much!"

Chapter Text

"This weekend almost doesn't even feel real." Tasha groaned.

The five were at lunch, Monday morning, at school, the literal day after they'd returned from their weekend excursion. None of them had even begun to unpack the luggage they took.

"I can't believe I had to come back to school after all of that." Pablo groaned right along with her, lolling his head onto Tyrone's shoulder, who promptly pushed it away. "It should be illegal to have that much fun and have to come back to school after."

Uniqua stroked Tasha's head as the girl leaned on her, sleepy after playing all weekend and having to lug around her suitcases. "We were the ones who decided we could use a little weekend getaway. We're only tired because of how far we had to drive."

"Not that it's our fault," Tyrone commented. "Our town is kind of far away from...well, everything. A long drive was unavoidable."

A collective sigh.

"I don't really mind school," Austin chimed in quietly, tapping his fingers together. "It's kind of loud sometimes and crowded everywhere but I don't mind classes."

"Yeah, cuz you're a science nerd," Pablo replied, voice muffled by the table he was currently face-planted on. "I'd expect you to like your classes. Even the ones you don't have to do."

Austin frowned. "There's nothing wrong with being a science nerd. I'll have you know that science-"

"Is basically the knowledge of everything, I know." Pablo finished for him. "I've heard your spiel too many times to count, bud. I never said being a science nerd was bad, but you gotta take pity on the rest of us simpletons."

"Speak for yourself," Uniqua huffed. "I'm not fighting for my life to stay awake whenever I go to a boring class."

"Not my fault those classes are such perfect napping opportunities either." Pablo shrugged.

Tasha pouted at the boy, before taking Austin's hand. "Don't worry Austin, I'm just as much of a science nerd as you are."

"And I'll never understand why," Pablo shook his head. "A Barbie doll doing science. What a world."

Uniqua sliced him in the back of his neck with a frown. "Stop being a hater. It's no one's fault that you're jealous of not being as smart as them."

"Oh yeah?" Pablo piped up, sitting up straight and leaning over the table to holding her gaze challengingly. "And what about you? Think you're smarter than me too?"

Uniqua simply grinned, knocking him back by the forehead. "I know I'm smarter than you, shortstack."

"...Least we know nothing's changed." Tyrone sighed, watching on helplessly as the two began to bicker, as per usual.

Tasha hummed amusedly, glancing over to Austin who was staring off thoughtfully into space. "Whatcha thinkin' about, Aussie?" she questioned, nudging the boy softly.

"School, and what I'm gonna do once I graduate." he answered, resting his chin in his palm. "I've been considering getting into entomology but I'm still weighing my options, since I'm not dead set on the whole zoology thing. I know for sure that I definitely wanna go into biological science though. Probably something to do with those sorts of animals, like lizards and frogs and stuff."

Tasha hummed, laying her head down to stare up at him. "You like insects, don't you? I think entomology would be good for you, then. People usually do their best when they're doing something they love, and if you love that, then I think you should go for it."

Austin smiled, petting her head fondly. "Thanks, Tash. What about you? Tyrone's most likely gonna study management, and Uniqua's gonna go deeper into photography and fashion. I know you're into the sciences just like me, but what specific area you thinking of getting into?"

"I like a lot of things!" she beamed. "I might go the medical direction, though. Like my dad!"

"You really look up to him, don't you?" Austin took note of the dreamy look on Tasha's face at mention of her father. "You must be sad that he moved away."

Tasha hummed. "I do miss him. We video call sometimes, though it's nothing like having him around for real. But I know he's busy and stuff, so I can deal with it. Besides," Her happy grin grows even wider. "I never feel lonely without him around. I've got my momma. And the four of you!"

"Aw," Uniqua cooed, tuning in on their conversation and squishing Tasha's cheek. "We love you too, babe."

"Yeah! Even if your dad isn't around, and it's just you and your mom, the four of us will always be your family!" Pablo chimed in with a nod. "Right Tyrone?"

Tyrone nodded. "Definitely."

Something in Tasha's heart panged a little bit to hear it from Tyrone, but she smiled nonetheless at their displays of affection. "I'm so happy to have you guys.

And no matter what she masked from them, that would always be the truth.

~

"Pepé!"

Austin pressed his cheek against his frog's travel terrarium, eyeballing the little creature inside with a beloved fondness. "Aw, thanks so much for taking care of him, Peppa. He looks so happy!"

"Of course!" Peppa grinned, hands on her hips triumphantly. "I was the best at taking care of him!"

Austin couldn't help but coo over his pet, looking as cute as ever.

"Do you think I could see him again sometime?" Peppa innocently asked, unable to tear her eyes away from the frog. "He's so cute, and I really loved taking care of him."

"Of course you can," Austin smiled, resting a soft hand on her head while carefully holding Pepé's terrarium with the other. "He seems to like you now, I bet he'd be happy to see you again too."

Peppa's eyes sparkled. "Really?"

"Definitely. Just say the word and I'll visit when I can."

"Okay!"

Austin waved his goodbyes to her and her family as he made his way back down the hill, where Tasha was waiting in her car.

"Can't believe you walked all the way up there and back, and with Pepé in your hands on the way down." Tasha marvelled, watching him as he got into the car.

Austin looked at her, eyes wide and solemn. "You weren't there last time, Tasha. My tutor parked along that hill and I thought we were gonna roll right back down. I actually thought I might die."

Tasha cackled out loud at that. "You don't know how cars work, huh? You would have been fine!"

"Obviously I know that," Austin pouted. "But it still felt scary for the car to be on a hill that steep."

"Aw, poor baby," Tasha ruffled his hair adoringly. "You're so cute. Are you scared of heights?"

Austin peeked out of the window, peering up at the house at the very top of the hill, and shuddered a little.

"...Probably."

He looked back towards Pepé, who was blinking slowly at him within his terrarium. "Ready to go home, Pepé?"

The frog simply blinked at him once more. Not much of a response, but Austin still beamed down at him nonetheless. He was so cute. He couldn't wait to get him back home.

~

"We're baaack!" Tasha announced loudly, she and Austin proudly making their way into their shared backyard. Tyrone and Uniqua were perched on the bench, scrolling through their phones absently. Or rather, Uniqua was scrolling through her phone while Tyrone watched the screen from over her shoulder.

"Welcome," he greeted, eyes not lifting from Uniqua's screen until the two got closer. "I see you've retrieved the frog."

He leaned forward to stare through the glass at Pepé, watching as his neck promptly bulged in a croak. "Is that him saying hello?" he asked Austin, arching his brow.

Austin giggled. "You could say that." He looked around, realising a certain boy was missing. "Where's Pablo?"

"At home with his mom," Uniqua was the one to answer him. "She got a bit of a scratchy throat so he's at home taking care of her."

"Does he plan to cook? Cuz that sounds like a hazard waiting to happen." Tyrone deadpanned with a click of his tongue. "Someone should go check on him." He wasn't the least bit discreet as he stared Austin down unwaveringly, making the boy shift his weight awkwardly.

"Y'know, you could just say that I, specifically, should go check on him." Austin frowned, turning away to go to his own house.

"You understood me though, didn't you."

Austin rolled his eyes, making his way back to his own home and calling out to his parents when he entered through the rear patio door. No one seemed to be home yet, judging from the lack of an answer, so he made his way upstairs to transfer Pepé from the smaller, portable terrarium to the main one in his room. Pepé was limp and comfortable in Austin's hold as he picked him up with ease, not so much as a squeal of discomfort as he was set back into his rightful home.

"There you go Pepé," he smiled widely at the little guy, watching him already getting himself comfortable in his familiar space. He knew that the frog must have felt a little cramped in his little travel terrarium compared to his real home, so he was happy to see him properly spreading his legs now.

He put the smaller terrarium away carefully and made his way back outside, but not before giving the frog a little treat before he did for being so well behaved.

"You were so good," he praised, rubbing the top of his little head after feeding him a cricket. "I know being with Peppa might have been a little scary, but you didn't fuss at all. I'm so proud."

He cooed at Pepé one last time, then washed his hands and left the house again.

When he went back outside, Tyrone was sandwiched between Tasha and Uniqua as the two girls looked at his phone, all three looking deeply invested in whatever they were looking at on it. He smiled fondly to himself, then trotted over to Pablo's back door.

"Hello?" he called out, knocking softly on the door. "Pablo? Señora Rodríguez?"

He knocked a few times again before he heard shuffling on the other side, then the door swung open to Pablo's mother with a tissue stuck up her nostril.

"Ay, Austin," she sighed, ushering the boy inside. "You need to be louder, mi hijo! (my boy)"

Austin flushed, rubbing the back of his neck while he made quick work of kicking off his shoes at the doormat. "I didn't want to make any noise, ma'am. I heard you're feeling a little flu-like."

"How thoughtful of you," She smiled adoringly at him, pinching his cheek. "If only my boy was more like you. And I told you, you can call me tía! (auntie)"

"¡¿Mama, quién es?! (Mom, who is it?!)" came the voice of the boy in question from upstairs, causing Austin to giggle softly as his mother shook her head exasperatedly.

"It's Austin!" she yelled back.

Then came the prompt, unmistakable sound of feet thumping fast  against the floor; obviously due to Pablo scurrying to come down and see him. He stopped halfway down the stairs, almost like he was making sure the boy was really in his house, before leaping the rest of the way, earning a quick thump to the back of his head from his mother.

"Mama..." he whined, rubbing his head soothingly.

"I keep telling you not to do that, it's dangerous." she scolded, motherly face taking on a much sweeter and calmer air as she turned back to Austin. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Austin?"

Oh right, Austin thought, fidgeting slightly. Why exactly did I come here?

"Well, I um...since I heard you were a bit sick, I wanted to come check on you and Pablo..." he admitted softly, swinging his body back and forth a bit bashfully as though he hadn't known this woman for seven years. She'd literally seen him naked before as a kid. "Also, Tyrone doesn't trust Pablo not to burn the house down if he tries to cook you something, so he said I should come make sure everything was in order."

Pablo frowned immediately, scandalised. "Huh?!"

His mother snorted at his expense. "As if I'd let this one burn down this house his father and I worked so hard for." She turned to her blushing son, setting a hand atop his head. "But he has been taking good care of me, I'll give him that."

"I don't doubt it," Austin beamed, turning his eyes on Pablo. "He's always really caring whenever one of us isn't feeling the best, sick or not."

"Guys..." Pablo whined, his head tilted down. He could feel his face burn hot at the compliments from his mother and best friend. "It's not a big deal, jeez..."

"Regardless, though," Austin continued, rolling up his sleeves. "My mom was under the weather the other day too, so I figured I'd come make some of what I made for her and give it to you. She was up and running in no time, so no doubt you'll feel better too."

"Lovely!" Pablo's mother clapped happily. "Pablo, go help Austin in the kitchen with whatever he's making and bring it to my room, vale? (okay)"

"Alright, mama." Pablo agreed, escorting his mother out of the room to go upstairs. "We'll bring it to you when it's ready, now go lie down."

"Oi, I'm not incapacitated, I just have a little cold- ack! A little cold."

"See, even your voice is betraying you. Now go."

Austin chuckled at the two's interaction, venturing further into the house to where he remembered the kitchen was. It looked the same as ever, despite him not having been inside Pablo's house for a while. They all typically hung out in the backyard, or at Tasha's house since it was the biggest and easiest to accommodate the five of them. And when it was just him and Pablo together, the two usually retreated to their treehouse, where it was more familiar and comfortable.

Being inside of Pablo's house, though, felt cozy and welcoming. It was a little different from the rest of their houses' interiors, his family's culture really shining through within the dimly lit rooms, down to the print of the carpet under his feet. He loved it; the little things about Pablo's life that he could witness and even be a part of without protest.

He loved Pablo for it.

"Back," Pablo huffed, leaping halfway down the stairs again even though he'd been told only minutes prior to refrain from doing it. "She kept gushing about you, telling me how I could take a page out of your book. As if." He puffed up his chest proudly. "If I suddenly started acting like you one day she'd take me to the hospital thinking I went crazy."

He took Austin's wrist, pulling him in front of the cupboards and smirking triumphantly as the boy started to laugh. "Okay so there's a lotta spices and stuff in here that I dunno what they are, even though I just throw 'em into the food I make. But you can probably find whatever stuff you used in your mom's food in here, plus much more, so go crazy and I'll help out where I can."

"Do you have lemon and honey?" Austin asked, humming when he received an affirmative nod. "Okay, boil some water so we can make some tea, and after you do that, help me find some vegetables."

The two boys got to work promptly. They bustled around the kitchen, Austin instructing Pablo or asking him where a certain ingredient was located. He had to show him how to hold the vegetables properly while peeling them, since it was evident that he was at a loss for how to do so. Despite that, though, Pablo still managed to cut himself while dicing up the garlic, laughing when Austin started to panic and almost cried over the blood dripping from his finger. He pouted when he was reduced to watching Austin work from over the counter, as punishment for making him worry and then cackling about it.

Pablo had never actually stood by and watched Austin in the kitchen before, or anyone else for that matter. He wasn't much of a cook himself, so when someone else was cooking for him he wasn't usually around to watch the process. But he couldn't help but think that something about the way Austin did it looked almost artful. His hands were quick and effective as he peeled and sliced up his ingredients, not a single moment wasted as he moved around to toss things into the pot.

It already smelled so good too, and he was so focused on the scent that he missed Austin's next request.

"Pablo," Austin called again, snapping his fingers next to the boy's ear and making him flinch. "I asked you to bring me a mug. The soup's boiling so I'm gonna start making the tea."

Pablo blinked dumbly, body moving without his brain working. The only command that registered was to obey whatever he was told. Austin obviously knew what he was doing, so who was he to do otherwise?

"What a cute cup," Austin smiled, turning the mug over in his hands to read the endearing mother's day print. "I got my mom one just like it for mother's day a few years ago."

That seemed to bring Pablo back from wherever he'd gone. "I got that for her when I was like, a kid. I saved up my allowance every week to buy that crappy thing, and she's been using it every day even though she has other, better mugs."

"Mm. I get her though," Austin continued, setting the cup down absently as he spoke. "I mean, I still use that green worm pen you gave me when we were fourteen."

Pablo stilled. "What?"

Austin blanched, realising what he'd just confessed. Crap. "Um, well it's a- it's a good pen, so..."

"Austin." Pablo's voice was firm and steady. "That pen is three years old. There's no way it still writes."

Craaaap.

"Well," Austin started again, voice much smaller now. "I may or may not have been replacing the ink cartridges whenever they run out."

There was quiet between them for a minute, and Austin didn't dare peek up at whatever face Pablo was making then, opting to focus on rinsing the mug he'd been given.

"But why?"

Austin shut off the tap. "Huh?"

"Why'd you keep it?" Pablo asked, sounding confused. "It was just a pen."

Austin frowned. "Yeah, but it was a present from you. Of course I'd keep it."

He was convinced that Pablo was going to think lesser of him once he finished processing what that revelation meant, and he steeled himself for the incoming judgement.

That is, until Pablo loudly released what sounded like a groan, dashing around the kitchen counter to squeeze him in a hug.

"Brooo!" Pablo exclaimed, voice muffled from where his face was pressed into Austin's stomach as he actually hoisted him off the ground in his embrace. "That's so cool of you! I can't believe you'd really think so highly of a dumb gift like that!"

Austin was interrupted from his blue-screening by that comment. "But it's not dumb. Sure, it's simple, but it was great anyway. I used that pen every day."

Pablo couldn't help his giddiness, practically bouncing in place. "You did? Really?"

Austin hoped his ears weren't red then, because he could practically feel them burning with how flustered he felt at how the boy was acting.

He's so cute. So cute. What the heck, why is he acting like this, what am I gonna do?

"A-Anyway," Austin sputtered, secretly inching away after noticing how Pablo had been leaning eagerly into his space. "Go back around the counter, I told you to stay over there till I'm done cooking."

"But my finger doesn't even hurt anymore," Pablo frowned, glancing at the bandage Austin had slapped onto it in his panic. "It only hurt when it got cut, it'll be better by tomorrow."

Austin threw him a skeptical look. "Maybe so, but I don't want you to cut yourself again."

"You aren't even using the knife anymore!"

"Not the point. What if you get hurt some other way?"

"Come on..." Pablo pouted, giving Austin the best puppy dog eyes he could muster. Austin would carry it to his grave how much they worked on him in that moment. "Please? I'll be careful, I promise."

There was no way Austin wouldn't relent against those eyes. Stupid crush making him do stupid things.

Thankfully, true to his word, Pablo was careful, and didn't really seem to want to do anything in particular. He seemed content to just stand by and watch Austin do his thing, perking up when Austin took pity on him and asked him to stir the soup and turn the stove down a little. While the soup was nearly ready, Austin got to work mixing the herbal tea with some lemon and honey, sniffing the pleasant aroma that wafted from the mug with a satisfied smile.

"All this stuff smells great, Austin." Pablo commented, also sniffing at the air. "Mom is gonna love it, she loves vegetable soup."

Austin blushed at the praise. "It wasn't much. I didn't know if she'd prefer a lighter, more broth-y soup or a thicker soup, but with all the great vegetables and herbs you have I figured it would be a waste not to use them. Garlic and squash are great for cold symptoms, so it should knock the sickness right out of her before it can get any worse."

"You know a lot about colds, huh?" Pablo mused, turning off the stove when Austin nodded for him to do so.

He nodded, stirring the tea while Pablo grabbed a bowl for the soup. "Before I moved here I used to get sick a lot from living in the city. There was always something in the air, and I was young and vulnerable to everything around me so I had the sniffles more often than not. I just replicate what I remember my mom used to do."

"So you can cook for me in the future then?" Pablo grinned, tossing him a big grin as he stood in front of the soup pot with the bowl in hand. "If I get sick?"

I'd do anything for you, sick or not.

"Sure." Austin smiled back at him. "Any time."

"Great- shit!"

"What- Pablo, you're spilling the soup!"

Chapter Text

⏤ TASHA  ⏤

Austin: Tashaaaa

Austin:  ╥﹏╥

Tasha: what's wrong babe??

Austin: the person i like

Austin: is so nice

Austin: and cute

Austin: i think i like them even more now

Austin: what do i do

Austin:   ╥﹏╥

Tasha: aww baby

Tasha: wanna come do face masks and talk about it

Austin: (T_T)

Austin: yes please

⏤  ⏤  ⏤

Austin face planted on his bed, bouncing as he allowed his full body weight to drop down onto the mattress. He whined into the sheets, lifting his head to stare up at his judgemental frog peering out of his terrarium at him.

"Don't look at me like that, Pepé," he frowned, narrowing his eyes at his pet. "You weren't there when he hugged me. When he acted like me keeping that pen was the greatest thing in the world."

Austin could see the pen in question from where he lay on the bed even now, perched almost reverently inside a pen holder. It was his favourite pen, with a cute green colour pattern and a wobbly little worm sticking off the end. It was cheap and dumb and thoughtful; Austin couldn't help but love it. He'd never gotten rid of it, and he used it practically every day.

He never took it to school though. He knew what an unforgiving place school was, and the sorts of nimble hands that existed within it. If he ever misplaced the pen there, or worse, it got stolen, he'd be devastated. Inconsolable, in fact.

Austin leapt up from the bed, remembering that he'd told Tasha he was coming over, and quickly pulled on a shirt. Once he had his keys and his phone all gathered up, he sent one last frown Pepé's way.

"You're such a judge-y frog," he tsked at him. "Where did I even get you?"

Pepé's neck bulged out in defiance, and Austin turned his nose up as he walked away, deciding that he didn't deserve a treat this time if he wanted to be so sassy.

The backyard was serene in its emptiness, the trees only allowing a few speckles of evening light through their leaves and dotting the finely kept garden in gold. Tasha was already prepared when he showed up at her door, face masks and moisturisers at the ready.

"Come on, babe." she cooed, ushering the bemoaning boy inside when she took in his appearance. "Let's talk."

~

Uniqua hated to admit when she was at a loss. But dammit, sometimes schoolwork got the best of you and you had to seek help elsewhere. She could only frown and grumble helplessly at her computer for so long until she finally decided to do something about it. Even then, Google was only so helpful sometimes, and it seemed like it would take someone explaining things to her for her to be able to properly execute what was required for this assignment.

Problem was, the only person who even knew vaguely how to help her was someone she didn't really want to call on right then. But unless she wanted to show up to class empty handed, she had no choice. So she begrudgingly picked up the phone to call him.

"..."

Uniqua frowned. She definitely heard the telltale sound of the phone being answered, so what was with the static silence?

"Tyrone?" she murmured, confused.

"...Yes?" came the reply of a deep voice, clearly unable to hide his amusement.

Uniqua rolled her eyes, despite the boy not being able to see it. "Idiot."

"If you say so."

This guy.

"Anyway," she cleared her throat. "You're in Hardin's class for sociology, right?"

"Mhm."

What's with the short answers? she pondered, ignoring it in favour of her own needs. "The assignment, on social conformity, did you get it?"

"I did."

"Did you finish it?"

"I did."

She smiled with relief. "Great. Come over and help me with mine."

"..."

"...hello?" she called again, becoming a little frustrated with his silence. "I'm gonna deck you if you're doing that on purpose again."

"You want my help?" Tyrone inquired coolly.

Uniqua's brow ticked a little. "The hell? I just told you to come help me. What do you think, Sherlock?"

"Then why don't you ask me properly?"

Damn him.

"I'm not playing this game with you." she ground out, jaw clenched behind the safety of her phone. "Are you gonna come help me or not?"

"You didn't ask," he replied simply. "Maybe if you ask me to help you the right way, I'll consider it."

"Consider it?" Uniqua screeched into her receiver. "Why are you like this? I just want help with an assignment, I could literally ask one of my classmates."

A hum sounded from the other end of the line. "So ask one of them. Technically I'm not even in your class, we just have the same assignment from the same teacher. Makes more sense for you to ask someone in your immediate circle than me."

"Screw you, Tyrone."

He chuckled, deep and sounding even more bemused.

"You made a demand that I don't feel like humouring until you ask nicely. So either you spit it out or get help somewhere else."

If Uniqua could blush, she would be alight in a full body one, all the way to her toes she felt like.

"...Please help me." she mumbled quietly into the phone, hoping that was enough for his sadistic self.

"Hm?"

She ground her teeth together, shoving her face into her bed, then took a deep inhale. As infuriating as he was, she wanted his help. "Please come help me with my assignment."

"Mm."

She yelped, startled by a knock on her bedroom door, keeping the phone to her ear as she hopped up to answer whichever one of her parents were behind it. Only to stall at the door entirely, almost dropping her phone in the process when she gazed up at Tyrone.

"That was really hard, huh? I'm proud of you." he grinned calmly, ending the call that had still been going. Uniqua had been so focused on the phone call that she didn't even hear his voice coming from right outside her door.

Lots of things filled her at once in that moment; regret, embarrassment, rage, and that was only to name a few, all which she promptly decided to let out at Tyrone's stupid back as he side stepped her and walked into her room.

"Ow," he deadpanned as her fists hit him again and again. "Ow. Ow. Did you not want help with an assignment? Why are you doing this?"

Uniqua huffed, her head hanging low as she panted heavily from the barrage of punches she'd just unleashed onto him. "You...stupid..."

"Yeah, yeah," Tyrone hummed, yanking her arm so she fell flat on the bed in front of her laptop. "Enough. Now calm down and show me what you're having trouble with."

Uniqua continued to grumble about Tyrone being stupid the entire time as she trudged across her room and back to retrieve her assignment book. She folded her arms when she handed it to him, frowning as she watched his gaze flick between it and the half-completed assignment on her laptop screen.

"It's funny that conformity of all things is what's got you lost," he mused, skimming through the unfinished assignment. "Considering how you don't ever fall into it, it's only natural that the concept of conformity is so foreign to you that you'd have trouble understanding the study of it."

Uniqua's frown only deepened, grabbing Tyrone by the scruff of his shirt as she snarled in his face. "Don't piss me off. You tryna say somethin'?"

Tyrone bit back his scowl at her attitude, gripping her wrists and forcing her to unravel her fists from the fabric of his shirt. "Stop being so hostile. If you weren't tryna antagonise me for some reason, you'd have realised that it was supposed to be a compliment."

The girl blinked. "What?"

Tyrone scoffed. "I said that it's funny how conformity is something you're finding hard to study, considering that you never do it. You're always you, unapologetically, and don't usually give a shit about what people around you think, even the teachers. If that isn't the complete opposite of conformity then I don't know what is. Hell, you went to school with pink hair and no one could even say anything you about it."

"Oh." Uniqua replied quietly, eyes in her lap as she truly took in what he'd said. It was, in fact, a compliment. A really nice one in fact, one that spoke to her, considering how one of her personal mantras was to always be true to herself regardless of the people around her. It was nice that someone else saw that and could so easily point it out to her.

It felt greater coming from Tyrone.

"Thank you." Her eyes were softer now as she looked at him, a genuine smile directed towards him in place of the sneering face from before.

"Seriously, what's with you these days?" Tyrone sighed, rubbing her head. "You act generally the same with everyone else, but why have you been so much more hostile to me than usual? Did I do something?"

It's not you, it's me. I don't know what's wrong with me.

"No, of course not." Uniqua scoffed, brushing him away when he reached a hand out to her. "Just frustrated and stuff from school. I mean, you said it yourself, conformity has me in a struggle. This isn't the only thing I'm worried about right now, either. Just a bit more to think about, so sorry if I've been taking it out on you."

Tyrone retracted his hand, nodding at her. "Yeah. Yeah, I get that."

"Yeah," Uniqua parroted. "So the assignment."

"Right."

Tyrone's help was insightful, as Uniqua expected. He was especially helpful with the long answer questions, diligently pointing out where she could improve on some of her wording to make the ideas clearer and more concise. Pablo joked often and called Austin a nerd, but when it came down to it, it felt like Tyrone was the real smart one of the group. It felt as though you could ask him anything and you'd receive an answer. He was also so calm and confident with it too, and it made him a lot more attractive than he already was.

Ugh, what the hell are you thinking? Uniqua groaned, face planting into the bed.

Tyrone arched a confused brow at her. "You good?"

"Yeah," she responded, a little too quickly. "Yeah, fine."

When she lifted her head, Tyrone's face was inches away.

"What the f-"

"You're distracted," Tyrone noted with a sigh, closing her laptop. His face was still mere inches away, much to the detriment of Uniqua's heart. "What are you thinking about?"

She'd sell herself to the devil before she said that out loud.

"I told you, my mind's just in a swirl from schoolwork and all that." she mumbled, mouth pressed into her arm as she lay flat on her stomach on her bed. Tyrone shifted to lie on his side, propping his head up on his palm. "This assignment is due tomorrow and I've had it for a good few weeks now. I put it off because of all the trouble it gave me, but now I'm in a bigger predicament than before."

She groaned into her hands. "All these things I'm feeling lately just have me so messed up and I don't know what to do about it..."

Tyrone petting her head comfortingly did little to soothe her, but she was thankful for his attempt nonetheless, considering that he was the cause of her problem.

If no one else, Uniqua could at least admit it to herself. Tyrone had been the centre of her attention for the last few weeks now, and she hated the unfortunate timing of it all. She hated the existence of it in the first place, and if she could get rid of it for Tasha's sake, then she would.

Because honestly, forget the obvious feelings that Tyrone never saw in that girl, it was much, much worse having to hide them when all he could seem to do was make himself present when the feelings swelled to their worst. Sometimes he was all she could think about, and she'd rather let the earth swallow her whole before she told the guy that was the real reason why she was stumped in her schoolwork. She literally could not think about anything else. Why the hell did she even think calling him over had been a good idea? If anything, him being here only made it worse?

He was in her space. Very much in her space. A little too much, if you asked her. He'd always been comfortable coming around, venturing up to her room to wake her up for school, interacting with her parents, cooking her breakfast - it was his own fault, really. It wasn't always like this, but Uniqua just couldn't help herself. It was only fairly recently that she even thought to acknowledge the tight feeling in her chest whenever Tasha gushed over him. She wanted so badly to agree with every dreamy thing she said about Tyrone; to gush over him right along with her, but what would that look like to Tasha? After all those years she'd spent pining over the oblivious boy, so oblivious it was almost cruel, what kind of friend would Uniqua be to even allow any of what she was feeling to be known? By anyone?

Screw schoolwork, this was a much harder thing to wrangle.

"I don't know what's on your mind," Tyrone began, obviously in an attempt to console her.

Uniqua just wanted to scream. You. You and your stupid face and your stupid voice. You and your stupid...everything.

"But maybe you'll feel a little better if we get this assignment done. It'll be one thing crossed off your to-do list, and lighten your load a little bit. Yeah?"

Uniqua peeked up at him from over her arms where she had her face buried into the crooks of her elbows. "Yeah...okay."

~

"It's getting worse, Tash."

Austin was sprawled out on Tasha's big, comfy couch lamenting his innermost troubles - as much as he could without revealing anything unnecessary to her. Because sure, she was in the know about his sexuality now, but her finding out who he liked was a whole other ballgame.

His hair was pushed off his forehead with a fluffy blue hairband, and he and Tasha both had cool, soothing face masks on that smelled of lavender. Perfect for relaxing and airing out his troubling thoughts.

"Your crush?" the girl questioned, in the middle of trimming her nails. "What do you mean it's getting worse?"

Austin groaned, upset that he couldn't pull a cushion over his face to hide his expression or to just scream his lungs out into. "I just keep liking him more and more as time goes on, it's becoming problematic!"

Tasha frowned, turning around to fix him with a look of confusion. "Why exactly is that a bad thing? Doesn't that mean he's doing things to make you like him more?"

"Yes, but that's bad!" Austin wailed, leaning off the couch to face her. She obviously wasn't grasping the full picture here. "The more I like him, the more it's gonna hurt later because I can't have him."

"Pause," Tasha arched a trimmed brow questioningly. "First of all, you're you, and that means you can have anyone you want. Anyone who doesn't want you, the cutest boy ever, is an idiot that doesn't deserve you in the first place."

Austin snorted at the way she'd crowded his space demandingly. "Or maybe," he suggested softly. "Hear me out. Maybe he doesn't like guys."

Tasha blinked. "Oh. Yes, there's that problem too, huh?"

"Yes." Austin nodded, confirming her fairly late deduction with a dejected sigh. "I'm okay to just...like him, y'know? But it's gonna be so painful later to watch him probably go on dates with other people, end up liking someone, eventually get into a relationship..."

Thoughts of Pablo flirting with girls at school plagued his mind unhealthily, reminding him that he reserved that behaviour for them. For girls. It wasn't a privilege Austin would ever get to be on the receiving end of, never mind something significantly more intimate.

"Oh baby," Tasha cooed sadly, cupping his face in her hands. He didn't even realise the silent tears streaming down his cheeks until she said, "You're gonna mess up the face mask."

Austin snorted. "The face mask isn't what's important right now, Tash. What about my feelings?"

"The face mask is supposed to soak up all those feelings and make you feel better right now," she squished his cheeks in, mushing up his face. "You won't feel better if you get all your sad tears on it."

He sniffed. "Fair enough. So what do we do once we take them off?"

Tasha bounded up, hands on her hips with a calculating smile. "We go test out all those little gadgets and gidgets and trinkets and thingies we bought on our trip! We haven't even started to go through any of them yet. Won't that be fun?"

Austin's eyes widened a fraction, recalling that he hadn't, in fact, gotten around to sifting through his souvenirs. He'd been preoccupied with getting Pepé back and floating around within his own self-wallowing, so the thought hadn't even crossed his mind. Funny, considering how eager both he and Tasha had been to buy them, proclaiming to kingdom come how they'd never put them down once they started to use them.

"I'm gonna make my own beauty products and stuff with all the kits I bought too," she nodded, grinning triumphantly to herself as she allowed her brain to run wild with thoughts about the future. "Money well spent, Tasha. Don't let Uniqua scare you, it was a worthy investment!"

Austin giggled at mention of Uniqua, remembering how he'd left to go retrieve their stuff before he had a chance to witness Uniqua tear into Tasha for overspending again.

"Oh!"

How could he forget?

"Tasha," he called to her. "Did you text Milly or Molly yet?"

Tasha gasped. "No, I haven't! God, I don't think they texted me as yet either. Maybe the signal was bad."

I haven't talked to Humphrey yet, Austin thought, slipping his phone from his pocket and skimming through his contact list till he reached the boy's name. He did tell me to keep him updated about Pablo...maybe I should text him, tell him about my little predicament.

~

"Humphrey!" Milly yelled across the restaurant, waving the boy's phone in the air. "Your phone's vibrating, I think you're getting a call!"

Humphrey grumbled incoherently, resting down the mop in his hands as he made his way over to the counter. His parents were out of town still and they didn't usually call him, nor did he often get calls from anyone while we was at work that didn't usually come through the restaurant's landline, so who could it be?

"The hell..?" he muttered, noticing a lack of recent missed calls. "What are you talking about, Milly?! No one called me!"

"Then check your texts, obviously! It was vibrating, maybe someone's talking to you!" the girl yelled back.

"What a pain..." he continued to grumble, opening his messages to an unfamiliar number. "What the..."

⏤  ⏤  ⏤

⏤ UNKNOWN NUMBER  ⏤

Unknown: Hi Humphrey!

Humphrey: Who is this?

Unknown: Oh you haven't saved my number yet?

Unknown: It's Austin!

⏤  ⏤  ⏤

Humphrey promptly choked on nothing, moving at top speed into the restaurant's back room, clearly interrupting whatever Milly and Molly had going on back there.

"Hey..." Molly pouted. "We were in the middle of something."

"Yeah, slacking," Humphrey retorted immediately. "Don't care, now leave. Go make out somewhere else."

"There is nowhere else," Milly frowned, eyeing the way he was glued to his phone as she began to guide Molly out of the room. "I guess it was important?"

Humphrey gulped. "It's Austin."

"What?!" Both girls exclaimed. "He kept your number even after...everything?"

"First of all, screw you," Humphrey scowled at them both, heavily feeling the urge to flip them off. "Second, are you really surprised? Austin's so...nice. Even after all that awkward shit, he still wanted to be my friend because he thought I was a good person."

Molly squealed excitedly. "Aw, what a great guy! Are you sure he doesn't like you? You can probably seduce him, y'know."

"No I can't."

The girls blinked. "Why not?" Milly asked, confused. "He likes someone else, but from the way he acted it didn't sound like they were dating."

"He likes that guy in their group."

Milly sputtered loudly before clearing her throat. "Oh...you were up against tall, dark and handsome? Damn. Sorry Hum, but you never had a chance."

"I agree." Molly nodded sombrely. "It's sad, but there was never any way."

Humphrey groaned, facepalming at their mistake but unable to fault them for it, considering he'd made the same one. "It's not him...it's the other one..."

Molly gaped at him. "The little Hispanic boy?"

"The short Hispanic boy?" Milly added, barely any different to Molly's observation. "Uh...Are you sure you don't wanna at least attempt to go for it? You never know, you might have some luck."

Humphrey didn't know how to feel about the sudden 180 the girls had done when they found out who Austin actually liked, versus who they initially assumed he liked. Did they not have faith that Humphrey could try to win Austin over if his crush had been the tall one?

If anything, it just made him feel bad for the other guy that no one considered him first.

"I don't really want to distract him," Humphrey sighed, running a hand through his rough hair. "If that guy is who he likes, then I want him to go for it the same way I did. I shot my shot and I got rejected, so he's just gonna have to man up and do the same. I know how scary it is though, so I'm just gonna support him from the sidelines."

"Spoken like a true man," Milly teased, with an equally annoying grin on her face. "Seriously though, it's great that you're leaving him alone to pursue what he wants. It's mature."

Molly smiled, more genuinely than her girlfriend had. "Milly's right, you've really grown up, haven't you?"

"Oh shut up," Humphrey rolled his eyes. "You didn't expect me to stay a dumb, emotionally-stunted kid forever, did you?"

Milly shrugged. "I dunno, you were pretty stubborn."

"He's still pretty stubborn," Molly corrected her with a grin. "But he's definitely not as bad as he used to be."

"You two are so-" Humphrey growled, shooing the two out of the room like flies. "Just get outta here, would ya?!"

The two complied without protest, laughing between themselves at his behaviour while he felt his cheeks burn. He'd never admit to them that he was grateful for the way they never left him alone in their childhood, forcing him to become a better person as he got older and started to see the plethora of errors in his ways. It was hard to break absolutely everything, but judging from the way they talked, it seemed like he'd made good progress.

Not that it really mattered in the end if it still didn't really get him what he wanted, but he supposed it was a start.

~

Austin beamed down at his phone happily, already giddy to relay all updates to his new friend, as per his parting request.

⏤  ⏤  ⏤

⏤ HUMPHREY  ⏤

Humphrey: Hey

Humphrey: Hope you remembered to keep me updated

Austin: How could I forget?

⏤  ⏤  ⏤

Chapter Text

If there was one thing Pablo was proud about, it was having four best friends. Not one, not two, four. It was his greatest accomplishment in life, being practically born into a friend group that came together by default of them all being neighbours. Even if one had arrived little later than the rest, it felt like it was that particular one to whom he'd grown the closest.

Pablo had always doted on Austin. If anything, how could you not dote on a guy like him? He was quiet, small and in love with all of his nerdy interests, effectively worming his way into the lives of the rest of them. He brought an effect with him that just made you want to take him and squeeze and pinch and pull him apart until he burst; in a completely doting, friendly, non-violent way.

Best of all was his introverted nature, making his immediate friends his main and only priority. He completely adored his four best friends and always gave them his full attention wherever he could.

Though as of late, it seemed like that wasn't the case.

Granted, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Austin hanging out more with Tasha. If anything, it was great that they were. Everyone in the group should get along with one another, as unexpected as their harmony might seem. Tasha and Austin were the last two in their group he'd expect to find having one on one time, for the mere fact that he couldn't fathom what they did when they were together. He guessed that Austin, in his exasperation to follow along with Tasha's whims, partook in all the girly things she liked to do like shop and dress up. Austin wasn't the sort to turn her down, and in turn, it seemed to bring the two closer together. They were always close these days, sitting next to each other and giggling about something between them. It was good that they were building on their friendship even more.

Yes, it was good. It didn't matter that sometimes, on the off chance that Tyrone wasn't around to play video games with him, or Uniqua didn't feeling like chopping it up together, the treehouse felt way more empty than it should have.

It started off innocently enough. It was a surprise not to find Austin up there the first time, considering the boy was in the treehouse just about every chance he got. Pablo was always smug about the fact that he and Austin had that space just for them, since all the others had physically outgrown it and couldn't come up there anymore. With his short stature and Austin's naturally slim body, the two could still fit in there with ease, and so they'd made it their own. Austin's weird, gross bug pictures would stare back at him from the walls, and Austin would always fall asleep among Pablo's blankets and beanbags. That was them. Their dynamic in their little haven.

Soon enough, though, Pablo was becoming increasingly aware of Austin's prolonged absence, even going so far as to feel a bit lonely when he wasn't around. He liked listening to the nerd's spiels about...well, anything really. It was what best buds were for. Even if Pablo felt it was too shameful or embarrassing to talk about any one of his personal pastimes or interests, he was more than happy to lay and listen to Austin go on about his. The boy would talk for days if he could, Pablo was convinced. Nowadays he found it too quiet without him. It sucked, if he was being honest.

Especially since, when he wasn't occupying himself with him or any of the others, he turned to the one thing in his life that was bad for him.

He hated sullying Austin's space - because yes, that was more Austin's space than it was his - with himself when he was anything less than sober. Pablo would never carry any of his...recreational treats up there; no, doing that was going too far. But recently, he'd started breaking his own personal rules and going up to the treehouse while he was in the zone. He couldn't help it, being high made him a little clingy, and his clinginess always chose Austin. Why that was, he didn't have the foggiest idea, but he saw no issue indulging it. High or not, he like to be around Austin.

Problem was, where was he?

If Pablo had to guess, he was somewhere in Tasha's house girling it up with her. Again. How unfair.

He wanted to hang out with him too.

~

Either Tyrone was a scatterbrain who didn't remember when he was expecting company, or there was an uninvited guest rapping at his front door. Neither of his parents were home yet, but they had their own sets of house keys, so why would they knock?

His answer came in the form of Austin, who...wasn't exactly the last person he expected to see on his doorstep, but he definitely wasn't who Tyrone was anticipating. He hadn't been anticipating anyone at all, for that matter.

"Hey," he greeted the boy anyway. "Needed something?"

Austin looked strangely giddy, staring back with large eyes. "Do you want to go to Ivy Parlour with me?"

Tyrone blinked. "What, now?"

A nod.

"What's the occasion?"

A head shake.

"There is none?"

Another head shake.

Tyrone tilted his head a little. "You just...want to hang out?"

Austin smiled. "Yup."

That was how he'd confusedly ended up driving them over to Ivy Parlour, now sitting at a booth blinking calmly at Austin as he frowned down at the menu in his hands.

Nonetheless, he smiled fondly at him, reaching across the table to ruffle his curly hair. There was nothing wrong with a little one on one hangout every now and then. He'd been doing it loads of times with Tasha lately anyway, he supposed it was just his turn now. "Want me to cover the bill?"

Austin's head whipped up. "No, I'm just...kind of hungry."

Tyrone arched an eyebrow curiously. "Alright. What do you feel like eating then?"

"I don't know..." the boy groaned, dropping his head against the table. "The stuff here is so good..."

Tyrone grinned, plucking the menu from his hands to browse it himself. "I'm probably gonna have...some wings and mozzarella sticks. Some fries might be good too. I should get some salad to even that out, maybe a bit of coleslaw too..."

When Austin started to giggle, he glanced up at him. "What?"

"No, it's just...the way you list stuff from the menu with no hesitation reminds me of when I come here with Tasha." he replied. "She eats a lot of food too, way more than it looks like she eats."

Tyrone hummed his agreement. "She definitely knows how to eat. I should bring her here one day so we can eat together."

"You should!" Austin exclaimed suddenly, slapping his hands on the table and startling Tyrone immensely. "You should definitely do that! Matter of fact, you should bring her here soon! I bet she'd like that a lot!"

"Um..." Tyrone stared at him, looking him up and down as he fully leaned over the booth into his space, eyes glimmering excitedly. "Okay, I'll do that."

Austin chuffed proudly. "Good!" He sat back down, picking the menu from Tyrone's hands again to frown at it once more.  "Darn it, I want to order everything."

"You better decide fast," Tyrone mused, jerking his chin to the girl approaching their booth. "I think our waitress is coming over right now."

"What?!"

Tyrone chuckled, watching Austin promptly begin to panic as a girl in the parlour's uniform trotted over to them with a notebook in her hand and a pen tucked behind her ear. "Hi Austin! Here with a different friend today?"

Tyrone immediately furrowed his eyebrows. Had he and Tasha been coming here so often lately that the wait staff knew them by name? Interacted with them enough to address his so casually?

"Yeah, you know Tyrone, don't you Pinky?" Austin nodded. "Tasha and I have come here lots of times before in a group of five. You don't recognise him?"

Pinky - a fitting name, considering her bright pink hair - groaned exasperatedly. "Don't tell me the others have you calling me that now, too. I already told everyone this was just a dye accident!"

Tyrone rested his chin in his palm, now a little curious about the alleged mishap. "What was the intention?"

The waitress glanced towards him, considering him for a moment before answering. "It was actually supposed to be red. But the hair dye I bought turned out to be a dud purchase, and now," She gestured helplessly to her head. "This. The worst part is that I don't even like pink. But now my hair's pink and everyone's calling me Pinky."

"So what's your real name?" Tyrone continued, tilting his head.

Pinky smiled politely. "Rose. People usually call me Rosie."

"Rose," Tyrone repeated, flashing a white-toothed grin. "You do realise the irony in that, right?"

The girl cocked her head confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"Rose is French for 'pink'. So your name means pink in another language." His eyes slit as his grin widened, showcasing his amusement. "Sounds like something you should take up with your parents later."

Pinky scoffed playfully. "So even without the hair, I'm cursed. Maybe I should just accept my fate then. You two ready to order?"

Austin nodded, waiting for her to flip open her notebook before listing off what he wanted. "Can I get two portions of sweet potato fries, a burger bowl..." He frowned, squinting as he scanned the menu for another item. "Oh, and some garlic bread, please."

"Two minutes ago, you didn't even know what you wanted," Tyrone blurted. "Are you gonna eat all of that?"

"You're getting more than me!" he retorted with a pout.

"Yeah, but I'm constantly burning off all my food." Tyrone explained. "Plus, I have somewhere to put it. Where is all that going?"

Austin held up his arms, flexing pitifully. "Right here."

Pinky snorted, scribbling everything down before turning to Tyrone. "Of course. What about you?"

He shook his head, slightly amused despite himself. "Right, I'll have the..."

~

Loud, rapid knocks on her door had Tasha shuffling over to her patio door as quickly as she could, trying not to disturb the towel wrapped on her head or dry out the mask on her face.

"Coming!" she sang out, wondering who it was. Maybe Uniqua came over to hang out? They hadn't had a real girls' night in a while, that would be fun!

When she drew back the blinds, she blinked dumbly at the boy standing behind her sliding doors. "Pablo?"

Pablo pulled open the doors on his own, staring at the other girl with an almost blank look in his eyes. "Let me join."

Tasha blinked again, now confused. "Huh? Join what?"

"You and Austin," he elaborated. "Whatever you're doing right now, I wanna join."

"Um..." Tasha took in Pablo's appearance for a minute. Something about him looked tired, but he wasn't acting tired, even though his eyes were red. It was more like...

Oh, she realised.

"Austin's not here though," she shook her head, choosing not to dwell on it. They were all pretty used to it anyway. "I haven't seen him since we all left school."

She almost wanted to whine at the way Pablo immediately became downcast, turning his gaze to the ground. "Oh," he said, voice small. "Okay."

Before he could turn to leave, she grabbed ahold of his wrist. There was just something about him right then that made her not want to let him just leave like that. "You can still come in, though? I mean, if you want to."

Pablo stared down at Tasha's manicured hand, wrapped around his wrist as she invited him inside. He didn't have much else to do really, so why refuse?

"Sure," he agreed, mustering a smile. "What are you up to?"

Tasha closed the doors behind them as she ushered the boy inside. She was visibly a little damp, wrapped up in a pink bathrobe with her feet pushed into a pair of fluffy slippers. She looked the very image of pampered as she sauntered past him.

"I washed my hair a little while ago and took a bath, so I was doing some skin care." she said, eyeing Pablo from head to toe.

He was swaying on his feet, very evidently high and just gazing around her house with his jaw a little slack. She squinted as she observed his face; tan skin with the odd mole here or there, curly eyelashes and damn near flawless lips.

Boys are the worst, she inwardly huffed. Seriously, why do they get all the good stuff? They don't even appreciate it.

"Sure," Pablo nodded suddenly. "Let's do that."

Tasha gaped. "You...wanna do skin care with me?"

"Sure," Pablo shrugged, repeating himself. "You do it with Austin, right? Do it with me too."

He wanted to cover his ears when she squealed, startling when she suddenly clasped both of his hands in hers and began to practically glow with newfound excitement. "You will never be the same. Come with me, we have a lot to do."

Pablo simply followed and nodded along, allowing himself to be led up the stairs to Tasha's way-too-large bathroom and promptly seated on the toilet lid.

"Don't go anywhere," she instructed. As if he had any intentions of doing so. "I'll be right back."

Pablo took in his surroundings calmly, the lightheadedness making everything a little wobbly. It was a good thing he wasn't standing up anymore, he might have swayed and bumped his head against something.

From what he could observe, Tasha had what looked like the entirety of Bath & Body Works in her possession, if the sheer amount of products on the bathroom counter was anything to go by. He couldn't even identify half of those things, and he was almost positive that two of the bottles in his line of sight weren't any different from each other.

"I'm back!" Tasha sang, skipping back into the bathroom with a blue robe in her hands. "Take off your clothes and put this on."

Pablo might have been high, but he wasn't so completely out of it that he would just listen to her so blindly. At the very least, he had the presence of mind to look perturbed by her demand. "What do you mean 'take off my clothes'? What are we doing?"

"You're gonna take a soak first," Tasha replied simply, dropping the robe onto his lap and going to begin filling the tub. The freakishly humongous tub, Pablo noted. "I'll wash your hair for you and then we'll get to the real fun stuff."

The boy gulped when she fixed him with an almost menacing smile. This is what Austin's been doing lately? This is so scary, what the hell?

"You have such good skin too," Tasha cooed, squishing and rubbing one of his cheeks. "Oh, you are gonna be glowing when I'm done with you."

Pablo returned a wobbly smile under her bruising grip.

Austin, you are one strong soldier.

~

Tyrone wondered if Austin had invited him out to hang out with him, or the wait staff at Ivy Parlour. The two hadn't been able to sit in peace for ten full minutes without another member of staff passing by on their cleaning rounds to engage him in conversation; a strange cycle that Tyrone suspected was their way of taking turns with one another to pass and chat with the boy without looking conspicuous about it.

Tyrone had long finished his food, choosing to focus on eating it every time someone new approached them and interrupt Austin from eating his. At first he was a little confused, wondering why there were so many people coming over, but the more Austin chatted with them, the more he was enlightened as to why. He wasn't sure when, but Austin had successfully - and probably unknowingly, now that he thought about it - endeared himself to them.

From what he had gathered while - not purposely - eavesdropping on their little chats, Austin and Tasha were used to tipping them all pretty well. He cleaned up after himself if he got a little messy, taking care of some of the initial cleanup before any of the waiters arrived to properly wipe down the tables; heck, he even got free food from the kitchen staff who also - crazily enough - seemed to love him too. How he'd managed that, Tyrone had no idea. The cooks weren't even the ones out front.

Spoke volumes, when you thought about it.

However, Tyrone knew how irritated Austin could get when his food went cold, so he cut into the conversation he was having with a blue-haired waiter. "Austin, your burger bowl's getting cold."

That caught the boy's attention, and he was immediately frowning down at his food. "Is it?"

"No sweat," the waiter grinned, quickly scooping the bowl up. "I'll go ask one of the chefs to heat this up a little bit for you, yeah?"

"Thank you, Nicholas!" Austin beamed after him as he was already walking away. He opted to pick at his garlic bread instead, turning to face Tyrone once more.

"Aren't you popular?" Tyrone teased, reaching across the table to bop him on the nose with a finger. He smiled fondly when the boy scrunched his nose up. His plates had been cleared away a while ago, so it was only Austin's dishes that took up their table now.

"You think?" Austin questioned mid-chew. Those innocent eyes told Tyrone that he was completely serious. "I thought the staff members were just really nice."

Tyrone hummed. "They probably are. Though they haven't talked to me like they've been talking to you. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were some kind of celebrity here."

"Now that's just going overboard." Austin laughed. "I'm not that special, they're all just really nice."

The blue-haired waiter returned not long after he'd left; microwaving food that had barely gone a bit tepid couldn't have been a long process, after all. "Here you go, nice and warm."

"Thanks," Tyrone butt in, before Austin could, turning hard eyes on the waiter. "We got it from here."

The waiter nodded. "We're all here if you need anything."

Tyrone held himself back from narrowing his eyes. Yeah, that's your job.

He kept his gaze on the waiter's back as he retreated to...wherever he was supposed to be instead of lingering around their table, then turned back to Austin with a cynical look. "Is it usually like this every time you come here?"

"Hm...probably?" Austin hummed, already taking a bite from his burger bowl. "I don't usually pay attention to it very much. But Tasha and I have a lot of fun here, and we really like the waiters!"

Tyrone hummed, content to sit and watch him eat the rest of his food. Considering that Tasha was most likely responsible, he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not, but Austin seemed to really be able to put his food away now. Maybe he would start bulking up a little more.

If the waiters doted on him a little while they were here, there was really no harm done if they weren't making him uncomfortable. But he couldn't help the teeny tiny biting feeling in the back of his mind that wanted to gatekeep Austin just a little bit.

Austin munched happily on the rest of his food in comfortable silence as Tyrone watched. No wait staff had returned for a while, much to Tyrone's satisfaction. So as expected, Austin finished off his food rather quickly now that they were free of interruptions.

He sat back in his chair with a quiet little belch, patting his belly. "Wow, I'm so full."

"Finally," Tyrone teased. "You've been eating for so long, I was beginning to think that your stomach was never-ending."

Austin rolled his eyes playfully in return. "Again, you had even more food than me, and you finished it faster. If my stomach is never ending, then yours is a black hole."

Tyrone shot him a mock frown. "We need to keep you away from Pablo. His bad behaviour looks like it's rubbing off on you."

The fond look on Austin's face at that comment was a little unidentifiable, and he giggled softly. "I don't mind that. He isn't that bad."

"The guy's a gremlin," Tyrone snorted. "With the height to match."

"Rude!" Austin laughed. Having feelings for Pablo didn't mean he couldn't enjoy a lighthearted joke at the boy's expense. He wouldn't even know. Heck, he didn't even know they were here.

...Wait.

Austin frowned, reaching into his pocket for his phone. He remembered telling Tasha he was going out to eat with Tyrone; it was kind of impossible not to after the girl had held him back and made him promise three times, upside down and on his life that he wouldn't say anything to Tyrone about her feelings for him. He most definitely remembered informing Uniqua that he was going out, not wanting to incur her wrath again after the last time he'd come home late unannounced and had to deal with her explosive temper.

But no matter how much he racked his brain, he had no recollection of telling Pablo he was going anywhere.

Checking his phone confirmed this fact, and he felt a bit of a chill when he saw a few missed calls from the boy and a slew of messages, varying from inquiries about what he was doing to where he was. The latter being more recent, from about an hour prior.

"Shoot." he mumbled under his breath, chewing his lip.

Tyrone tapped his wrist gently, noticing the sudden dip in his mood. "What's wrong?"

"I forgot to tell Pablo that I was going out," Austin explained, hand subconsciously slipping down to fiddle with the hem of his shirt. "He's probably wondering where I am."

Tyrone furrowed his eyebrows. "So? Didn't you tell Tasha? Or Uniqua? If he asks one of them then they should be able to tell him, right?"

"Yeah..."

Yet Austin couldn't help but pout a little. It was a little dumb, sure, but he felt bad that he hadn't told Pablo about his plans beforehand. Now, if his phone notifications were anything to go by, he'd been wondering why Austin wasn't responding to him and probably had to go hear from someone else that he went out to eat with Tyrone.

It was stupid. Austin knew it was stupid. But there was a bitter taste in his mouth because of it, despite the lingering aftertaste of his food.

"We should go," he suddenly announced, scrolling through Pablo's chat and frowning deeper. "I'll flag down Pinky so we can get the bill. How are you paying?"

"Whoa, whoa," Tyrone eased, calmly waving his hands. "We don't have to rush, we live five minutes away."

Austin sighed. "I know. I just...wanna go back home."

Tyrone frowned. He didn't get it. One minute Austin was fine, giggling with the waiters and enjoying his food. Now he seemed so anxious all of a sudden, wringing his fingers into the fabric of his shirt as he looked around trying to spot their waitress.

It reminded him of how the boy was when he'd first met them. He didn't like it.

"Okay," Tyrone nodded, sliding out from the booth. "I'll go ask for her, then we can get ready to go, okay?"

Austin nodded up at him, a grateful look in his eyes that had Tyrone patting his head before walking off.

He figured he could just ask Austin about what was up when they got into the car.

~

Unfortunately for Tyrone, Austin didn't even give him a chance to speak once they reached home. He was immediately bolting out of the car, phone already up to his ear with the dial tone beeping on the other end.

"Hey Austin, what's up? Had a good time at Ivy?"

Austin stopped in his tracks, utterly confused by Tasha's voice coming through the phone. He even held his phone out to gaze at the screen, confirming that he had indeed called Pablo, before bringing it back to his ear again. "Tasha? What...why do you have Pablo's phone?"

"Because he's here."

Austin blinked dumbly, even though she obviously couldn't see it. "What?"

"Who is it?"

Austin gasped when he heard the sound of Pablo's voice in the background, followed by Tasha's response.

"It's Austin."

"Austin?!"

There was a strange crackling sound accompanied by shuffling on the other end that had Austin frowning at his phone screen in confusion, wondering if the call was breaking up.

"Hey! Be careful, would you? It could fall in the-"

"Give it to me!"

After the minor scuffle that seemed to unfold in his ears, Pablo seemed to win the battle, his voice now coming through the phone instead.

"Austin," the boy breathed, sounding out of breath. "Hi. What's up? Where are you right now?"

Austin swallowed, feeling his heart thump rapidly all of a sudden. "I'm uh, in the backyard." He glanced around, realising that he had been walking for the duration of the call and ended up in front of Tasha's patio door. Probably walked there subconsciously after hearing that Pablo was there for some reason.

"Cool!" Pablo replied, sounding like he was definitely grinning. "You should come over here! Like, right now!"

The warmth that spread through Austin's chest deserved its own medical study. "You want me to come there now? But what are you doing at Tasha's house, aren't the two of you busy right now?"

"I mean sure, but you can come be busy with us."

He wants me there, Austin's brain decided of its own accord. He shook the thought away quickly though, not wanting it to grow into something more, and settled for allowing himself to smile in secret. "Sure, I'll be there in a minute."

Tyrone came walking up behind him soon after he hung up the phone, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Everything okay?"

"Yes," Austin turned to him, a soft, pleasant smile gracing his features. "Perfect."

Chapter Text

Pablo had no idea why he was so happy to see Austin, but he'd been feening for his presence for a while now. Suddenly seeing him was like a weird, pleasant slap to the face - if that made any kind of sense - and he couldn't help but sidle over to him the moment he rounded the corner.

"Austin," he greeted, smiling dopily. Stumbling a bit over the texture of Tasha's carpet, he almost fell straight into the boy's arms.

Austin held his arms out, steadying Pablo as he studied him up and down. He definitely looked...clean. Tasha had him wrapped up in a fluffy blue bathrobe, hair damp and face practically glowing. He gazed at Austin through reddened, hooded eyes. It almost looked like he didn't fully know what was going on.

Tasha was close behind, having led Pablo to Austin since their phone call ended. She wasn't too sure why he'd so sternly demanded to see Austin, but it wasn't like there was any viable reason to decline him - despite the fact that they were still in the middle of their impromptu beauty routine. It was cute in a way, she thought, that he was so excited to see him. It made it easier to ignore the state he was in.

The state he'd showed up to her doorstep in.

As Pablo began to fully drop his weight onto Austin, he made eye contact with Tasha over his shoulder, who had no proper response for him other than an exasperated shrug. There was a silent agreement to explain - as well as she could, anyway - later on, when Pablo wasn't right between them.

Tyrone, who had been following Austin since they arrived back home, poked his head through the patio door and folded his lips. "I suppose this means I can be on my way, then?"

Tasha, not expecting him to suddenly be at her doorstep, stammered over her words for a moment. "Well, uh, you're welcome to um...to stay for a little bit, if you want to?"

"It's a little late, so maybe not." Tyrone declined. "I'll pass by in the morning to make sure everything's all good though. You guys can drop an update in the chat, even, I'll see it eventually."

Austin nodded, still holding Pablo's body up the best he could. The boy was suddenly extremely touchy, pawing and hugging onto Austin like some kind of koala. "Okay. I'm most likely gonna head home myself too once I figure out..." He couldn't gesture at all, so he just made a bit of an awkward expression and looked down at himself, then back up to meet Tyrone's gaze. "...all this."

"That's calm." Tyrone nodded. "Tasha, keep an eye on these two, alright?"

Tasha perked up, suddenly aware that she was being addressed. "O-Okay!"

Once Tyrone disappeared, Austin turned his gaze to her with a deadpan expression. "Smooth."

She buried her face in her hands with a groan. "Shut up! I wasn't expecting him to show up here, I panicked!"

"Clearly," Austin snorted. "Um, you're welcome to, um, stay, um, if you want to?"

"Okay, first of all, I did not say 'um' so many times," Tasha pouted, folding her arms. She watched as Austin led a slightly inebriated Pablo over to her couch and set him down, beginning to pry his hands from around his neck. "Secondly...did you two have plans today or something that you forgot about? Cuz if you ditched Pablo to go on a date with my crush, that's a little low, man."

He knew she was joking about that last part, but he couldn't help the way his eyebrows scrunched up. "Please. He's all yours. Tyrone's great, but he's definitely not my type."

Tasha chuckled. "But in all seriousness. He showed up here looking for you and he seemed, like, really down about the fact that you weren't here. I get how it could be disappointing if you're not around cuz you're adorable and I always wanna hang out with you, but he seemed a little out of it. As you can see."

She gestured towards Pablo's body, slumped lazily on the couch, definitely out of it. He looked partly asleep, yet extremely happy and amused all at once.

Tasha cringed a little, mustering up her next sentence. "I think he might have...y'know. Done some stuff before coming here."

Austin nodded, glancing over and taking note of his still reddened eyes. "I think so too. I wonder what happened."

"Nothing happened..."

The two stiffened, suddenly realising that an out-of-it Pablo did not equate to a deaf Pablo.

"I just wanted to see you, man." Pablo frowned, looking up at Austin from his place on the couch. Despite the redness of his eyes, Austin couldn't help but admire their lovely colour, or the attractive length of his lashes. "We haven't hung out lately. You're with Tasha so often these days, doing girly stuff together. The treehouse is always so empty." He tried to stand, but ended up making it only about three inches off the couch before slumping back down onto it, falling forward and bumping his forehead into Austin's stomach. "I miss hanging with you. So I just decided to see what was so nice about hanging with Tasha that you've been doing that instead."

Tasha clasped her hands together and cooed. "Aww, your friendship is so cute." Austin's heart wailed silently at the word 'friendship'. "But just out of curiosity, how did you like our little self-care session?"

"It was nice..." Pablo hummed, a loopy smile playing across his lips as he recalled everything. "It felt like going to a spa...and a salon...everything on me feels squeaky clean."

The gears in Austin's head turned, before an idea crossed his mind. "Then...do you want to join us sometimes?"

"No."

Austin and Tasha shared a look as Pablo pouted.

"Our time is guy time." he declared, matter-of-factly. "If we do any of that stuff, Tasha can't be there."

Austin blinked, then burst out into chest heaving laughter, wiping tears from his eyes as he looked over to a dumbfounded Tasha. "Well, you heard him Tasha. I don't make the rules, guy time is guy time."

"Ugh." she rolled her eyes. "I can't impose on that. I know how important my girl time is with Uniqua, guy time must be important like that too. But if you ever wanna do it as a big group, don't hesitate to ask!"

Pablo, literally and figuratively on cloud nine right then, just tossed a smile towards her. "You got it, loca."

~

Uniqua had concluded that she was an absolutely horrible friend.

That was the only explanation for the slew of feelings she'd suddenly been having lately. She was a terrible person that didn't deserve Tasha's loyalty or unwavering friendship.

For years - literal years - she had been Tasha's main supporter in her feelings for Tyrone. What had begun as a silly, childish crush, had developed into real feelings for the guy. Everyone but the idiot himself could see that, and everyone was supportive. Who wouldn't be supportive of their friends being together? Tasha was a sweetheart, granted with a bit of a ditzy side. Tyrone balanced her out perfectly with his calm, collected exterior. On the inside, they all knew what a caring, doting person he was when it came to all of them; his closest friends. If he were to apply that to romance, he'd be the ideal boyfriend. It was exactly what Tasha had always wanted. What Uniqua had always been encouraging.

So why did things have to turn out the way they did?

Uniqua sighed, staring out her window at the view of Tasha's house. Austin and Tyrone seemed to have just returned from their little excursion to Ivy Parlour, with Austin immediately making a beeline for the other girl's house. Not surprising when she thought about how much they'd been hanging out lately.

As far as she knew, Pablo was over there too, so she was the only one missing. It made her feel slightly left out, as ridiculous as that was to think about, but she also didn't really want to head down there with the way she felt then. Being around Tasha after her epiphany would just make her feel worse. Not to mention...

"Goddammit." she grumbled, pushing away from the windowsill. Pacing back and forth in her room was the only form of solace she'd found somewhat useful. Screaming into her pillow did next to nothing, and stress eating would only make her gain weight. Maybe racing around her room would burn her calories, along with the unwanted feelings plaguing her.

Because she really didn't want them. They were meant for Tasha, not her. They always were. She had no right.

She turned her eyes to the ceiling with a glare. "Why would you do this to me? How could you?"

Maybe she needed to go to church. Maybe there was something she needed to repent for. Maybe she was being punished. Though as far as she knew, she'd been quite the upstanding citizen. She'd acknowledged when she made her mistakes and tried to correct them, she'd supported her friends - what did she do to deserve her turmoil?

Against her better judgement, she padded over to the window again. She'd battled herself internally for a couple minutes already, and Tyrone was now leaving Tasha's house. Without Austin in tow, she noted, but again - that wasn't surprising, given their behaviour together the last few weeks. They'd grown close. For someone like Austin, who was still very obviously coming out of his shell in some ways and learning to act outside of his comfort zone, someone of Tasha's nature was a huge step up. She was proud of him. Proud of them both, honestly, since Tasha had obviously done something right in order to have Austin be that way with her. The only other person he'd stuck to in that way was Pablo, for reasons Uniqua still couldn't understand to this day.

As Tyrone strolled off of Tasha's porch, he stopped in his tracks to take a deep breath. Then, he turned his eyes up towards the night sky. His eyes took in the stars, the moon, the black of the night...

And something else too, looking out through her window.

Uniqua flinched as their eyes met from afar, but refused to break eye contact. The two just stood in silence, neither saying a thing or moving in that moment.

Then, as if he'd never even seen her, he cast his gaze downwards once more, continuing the trek to his own residence. Only a couple of walls away.

Uniqua was still standing in front of her window, staring at the spot where he'd been. Her eyes had followed him as he walked away, right until he'd disappeared from her line of sight. Even then, it was like she was trying to find his phantom in the space where he stood. In fact, it was almost working. She could nearly see him still, eyes trained on her. He was too far, so she couldn't quite make him out. What exactly did he look like?

Curious? Deadpan? Serious? Was there nothing in his eyes at all as he looked her way? Simply looking for the sake of looking? Just to notice her and be on his way? What was he thinking?

Suddenly, Uniqua took a startled step back from the window, nearly stumbling over herself. She gripped the corner pillar of her bed frame to steady herself, inhaling shakily and releasing it harshly.

What was he thinking? What the hell was she thinking? What on earth were any of these thoughts she was having right now?

"Why..?" she murmured to herself, feeling absolutely gutted by her new epiphany. "Why did I have to start liking him now?"

~

Austin and Tasha both gazed down at Pablo sprawled across Tasha's couch, snoring quietly. Whatever anxiety he'd had from Austin not being present had completely withered, leaving nothing but fatigue in its wake.

"What did you do to him?" Austin glanced questioningly at Tasha. "Why is he so tuckered out? Didn't you just do face care?"

Tasha scoffed. "Just face care? You underestimate me. I made a day out of it. He'll be sparkling for a week."

Austin snickered, shaking his head fondly. "No wonder he's so tired. Well, I guess we should just let him sleep. He'll probably be a handful though, do you want me to stay while he's here? I can tell my parents I'm spending the night if you want."

"That'd be nice," Tasha hummed. "But it's really up to you, I don't mind either way."

Austin was obviously going to stay. Getting to stare at Pablo secretly while he slept? What more could a boy ask for?

"Mom?" Austin whispered into the phone, suddenly conscious of the fact that Pablo was sleeping. It would be a shame to ruin that perfect resting face. "Something came up, I'll be spending the night over at Tasha's. I already have some things here, is that alright?"

"Of course, love." his mother replied. "Is everything okay?"

Austin took another quick glance at Pablo, smiling quietly to himself. "Yeah, no worries. I'm just helping Tasha take care of some things, that's all. We'll be fine."

"Alright sweetheart, be safe. I'll let your father know."

Austin swallowed.

"Right. Thanks mom."

He hung up the phone, nearly startling when Tasha suddenly appeared nearby once more.

"Everything okay?" she asked, pushing his hair from his forehead and examining his face. "You look a little pale and sweaty. Want me to run you a bath, since you're staying over?"

Austin inhaled, deeply, before nodding. "That'd be great, thanks."

While in the bath, Austin scrolled mindlessly through his texts. There were a few from Peppa, asking if she'd tutor him in the classes she was struggling with. He snickered to himself, already seeing through her guise. Her real objective was coming over to his house to see Pepé, but who was he to deny helping her out in the process? There was no rule against fun and productivity in the same day.

There were a few other unread messages in his phone, but one stuck out to him, causing a lump to form in his throat. He knew it would be rude to ignore it, so he just had to man up and get through one awkward interaction.

~

⏤ HUMPHREY  ⏤

Humphrey: Hi. It's Humphrey.

Austin: Oh hey Humphrey, haven't heard from you in a couple weeks

Austin: How have you been?

Humphrey: Pretty good, all things considered

Humphrey: Work got kind of slow since you and your friends left, obviously since the festival ended so all the foreigners left town

Humphrey: But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Slow is kinda the norm for this place since the town is small

Austin: Oh I see

Austin: Don't you go to school?

Humphrey: No I graduated last school year

Humphrey: The girls and I are about a year older than you and your friends

Austin: The girls?

Austin: Oh you mean Milly and Molly? True, they did give off a bit of an older vibe when we talked to them

Humphrey: But not me?

Austin: I didn't mean it like that!!

Austin: I'm sure you're also very mature, I just meant that those two seemed way more experienced somehow

Humphrey: Relax lol I'm just playing around

Humphrey: And you're right anyway, I was always pretty immature compared to those two growing up

Humphrey: I was kind of a weird kid at times and picked on them both

Humphrey: Had a slight crush on Molly so I guess I was showing that in my own way

Austin: That sounds cute lol

Humphrey: It really wasn't

Humphrey: I was pretty insufferable

⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤

~

Austin found himself chuckling more than once during his conversation with Humphrey, much to his surprise. He didn't expect him to be so talkative after what went down between them on the trip, but Humphrey proved a lot stronger than Austin imagined.

Either that, or he had overthought the situation just like Austin did and did his best to tough it out. Successfully, might he add, because their conversation felt beautifully normal.

He didn't even notice when Pablo showed up in the bathroom doorway, on his way to use the toilet.

"Austin, is that you in there?" he called out, already lifting the toilet lid without a care in the world.

Austin yelped, quite loudly, nearly losing grip on his phone. Which would have been a tragic affair, given he was in the middle of a bath. His phone would have ended up lost at bubbly sea.

"...Pablo? Is that you?" he cautiously whispered, now protectively holding his phone with fifty times more care than before. If that was due to the bath or his conversation with Humphrey, he would never affirm. "What are you doing in here?"

Pablo snorted. "Taking a piss, what else?" Right on cue, Austin heard him release a stream into the toilet, his face immediately flushing red.

Why is he doing that with me in here?!

"You, uh, couldn't have waited?" Austin questioned meekly, not wanting to come across as rude but still feeling like his privacy was somewhat encroached on. Sure the bathtub had a curtain to shield him, but he was torn between letting it slide because it was Pablo, and being immensely uncomfortable. He also couldn't fully blame Pablo, as he was probably still a little out of it.

"Nah," Pablo hummed, sounding like he was finishing up. "For all the rooms this house has in it, it's a bitch to find the bathrooms. This was the closest one, and I didn't realise you were in here from the jump. My bad."

"I-It's okay..." Austin murmured quietly, sinking down below the bathwater. He rested his phone on a little designated surface outside the tub, face down.

"Are you gonna be out soon?"

Austin glanced across, only able to see Pablo's silhouette through the curtain. "Huh?"

"Your bath," Pablo clarified. "Are you soon done?"

"Y-Yeah, in a few more minutes."

A flush of the toilet. "Well okay, don't stay in there too long. You'll turn into a prune."

If he wasn't so embarrassed, Austin might have thanked him for his concern. But the only response he could manage was a soft little "okay" before he listened attentively to Pablo's movements through the room. He carefully listened for when he washed his hands, to the rustling of him using the drying towel, and finally him shutting the bathroom door.

A bathroom door which, now that Austin thought about it, he couldn't remember actually closing. So in hindsight, it wasn't even Pablo's fault that he'd just waltzed in there like it was vacant.

"Ugh..." he groaned, sinking below the bathwater once more and blowing bubbles to the surface. How was it that he managed to embarrass himself in front of the one person he hoped to God he'd always look good in front of?

His phone vibrated, and he lifted it from its perch to check the messages.

⏤ HUMPHREY  ⏤

Humphrey: So have you told that shorty you like him yet?

Humphrey: Cuz I'd be pretty disappointed if you haven't by now

⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Austin promptly sputtered, actually losing grip on his phone this time, but miraculously catching it moments before it touched the water.

⏤ HUMPHREY  ⏤

Austin: Well...

Humphrey: Jesus

Humphrey: I'd understand if it was the other guy but come on, the gremlin?

Humphrey: The worst he could do is bite your ankles

Austin: That's mean

Austin: ...and also a little funny

Humphrey: So what's the deal then

Humphrey: You rejected me for him so I thought you would have made a move by now

Humphrey: Are you shy?

Austin: Um

Austin: I've never exactly called myself shy but

Austin: If I were to go by definition then...probably, yes?

⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤

There was also the likelihood that Pablo certainly, most definitely did not like boys, so all of Austin's hopes and dreams were officially out the window. At least it was nice to talk to an uninvolved party about the whole thing. Even though Tasha was in the loop about his orientation, he couldn't exactly tell her that he liked Pablo. It was too big of a step. Too much of a risk. It was better to share his troubles with someone like Humphrey who-

"For God's sake Austin, every part of you probably looks like a raisin right now! Get out of the bath, it's been like fifteen minutes!"

Pablo's voice was definitely unexpected, though thankfully came from outside the bathroom door this time. Austin hadn't even noticed how much time passed since he'd come in to do his business. Obviously enough, if Pablo had come back to get him out of there.

"Coming!" he called, frantically standing to step out of the bathtub. He nearly slipped and banged his elbow against the side of the tub, but was able to gain support on the corner of the sink (that he feared would crumble under his weight.)

Once Austin was wrapped up in a huge towel, he grabbed his phone and opened the door, nearly walking straight into Pablo who was stationed outside of the door like some kind of bouncer.

"...Pablo, why are you standing here guarding the door? We're the only ones here besides Tasha."

Pablo arched an eyebrow. "I'm not guarding the door, I was just waiting for you. Thought you were drowning or something in there." His eyes trailed to the cellphone in Austin's hands. "You took your phone into the bath with you?"

Austin felt the colour drain from his face. "Ah, yeah I was talking to someone..."

"Who?"

"Peppa."

It wasn't a lie. Yeah, he hadn't been talking to Peppa the whole time, but he had spoken to her. Just briefly.

That fact didn't make him feel any less slimy about leaving out the rest of the details.

Pablo's demeanour immediately softened up and he snorted. "Kids love to yap your ear off, don't they? I bet she was geeking out over your frog."

Eager to keep the subject off of the actual culprit, Austin nodded along with a forced chuckle. "She thought she was being sneaky by asking me to tutor her. But all she really wants to do is come to my house and play with Pepé."

It was pure muscle memory, the way the two made their way over to the guest bedroom, equipped with four beds. Four beds for the four friends and their ever frequent sleepovers at Tasha's house. That room held a lot of their dearest childhood memories.

"Would your dad be cool with that?" Pablo asked, falling backwards onto his designated bed. "Her coming over? I know how he gets about people going into you guys' house sometimes. It was hard for us to visit you even as kids, you'd always come over to one of ours."

Austin sighed, sitting on his own and beginning to dry off his arms. His fingers did feel a little numb from all that time in the tub. "I've taken to asking my mom for most things these days, and she just passes on the info to my dad. Things are a lot easier that way. I can actually make plans if I talk to her first. My dad is..."

Pablo frowned, watching Austin's face sadden, and suddenly regretted asking about his father. The group already knew about Austin's father and his nefarious strict behaviour, and had wordlessly agreed amongst themselves to bring it up as little as possible unless necessary.

It most certainly hadn't been necessary here.

"We know." Pablo finished, not wanting Austin to delve too deep into any unfortunate thoughts. "He's stricter, but your mom can hold back that tiger so you let her handle it. I understand."

The thought that he was currently naked under a towel while Pablo was only a bed across from him was not a thought that escaped Austin, though he so wished it had. He was fighting down the blush that threatened to creep up to his cheeks, and was sure that his ears were already ablaze, hidden by the damp brown strands sticking to the sides of his head, shielding him from more embarrassment. Somehow, the discomfort of the conversation at hand was not enough to dissuade such things from his mind.

He didn't quite like speaking about his father. In his mind, his father was the polar opposite of the very thing Austin craved all his life.

Freedom.

Which was what he currently craved from this awkward scenario - a scenario that was likely only awkward to him.

Pablo blew out air through his nose, trying to figure out how to best continue the conversation. He'd already messed up by mentioning Austin's father, if his silence was any indication. Maybe he needed to stage a strategic retreat and regroup later.

"You want anything from the kitchen?" he queried, sitting up straight. "I'm feeling pretty hungry so I'm gonna go raid Tasha's fridge. It's always full."

Austin lit up slightly at the mention of a snack. "Some fruit snacks are good, if she has any. Otherwise just bring some of whatever you decide to get."

"Alright, be back in a few."

The minute Pablo shut the door, Austin wasted no time throwing his clothes on. Towel discarded, every article of clothing made it onto his body in record time. It was a full three minutes before Pablo had even begun making his way back up the stairs to the room with Tasha in tow.

Making Austin even more glad that he'd decided to get dressed in that short timeframe.

"I'd been making-"

"Heating."

"Heating a pizza for us to share," Tasha beamed, partially through gritted teeth at Pablo's correction. "So I figured we could eat in here, like old times."

Austin could almost feel himself salivate at the sight of plump crusted pepperoni pizza. It smelled like meat and garlic, and he was suddenly beside himself with hunger.

Tasha set the pizza down on her bed and looked at the two boys, face suddenly solemn.

"Let's say grace-"

"No."

"Tasha, please. Let's just dig in."

In the midst of their camaraderie, not once did Austin pay attention to the vibrations of his phone.

~

⏤ HUMPHREY  ⏤

Humphrey: You just have to find the confidence you had when you rejected me. You rejected me in such a strong, respectful way, that I wondered how you were able to do that so easily

Humphrey: Oh you're offline

Humphrey: Well, when you see these

Humphrey: If it's any consolation

Humphrey: That short stack used to give me the evil eye whenever we were near each other

Humphrey: That might mean something

Humphrey: But don't worry, if I can do it and I'm an immature asshole

Humphrey: You can definitely do it too

⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤

~