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"If we could just get a fake license, Paco could buy us alcohol easily.”
Paco sighed. “And you can’t do that yourself? Why do I have to do it?”
Usagi leaned forward, eyes bright. “Because you look old!”
“What the fuck?” Paco muttered.
“Not like old, old… not wrinkly or anything,” Usagi insisted, waving his hands in front of him. “Just tall and muscly. You could be older than nineteen. Besides, wouldn’t it be nice to drink after we get this done?”
“Of course, YOU want to get drunk… probably use it to wash down coke.”
“Huh?” Usagi hummed. “Do I look like I do that stuff~?”
Paco looked him up and down, scowling. He opened his mouth for another judgmental comment when Dragon spoke up, “Can you guys stop fucking around?” They gently hit Paco’s back.
Paco glared at them. But they didn’t care, only looking away from Paco’s eyes to hear Usagi as he spoke again, “We should go over the plan when little Jojo comes back. He’ll say what the house looks like and how many people there are, so the plan will be more accurate, Dragonnie.”
Jojo? Dragonnie? Who did this guy think he was? He’s known Jodio for a day, and Dragona for even less, but he dares to call them childish names. Paco’s known them for years, but he doesn’t have enough in common with Jodio to hold a long conversation, and Dragona’s…
“Mm, yeah, you’re right, but still. Shut the hell up, I'm going to take a nap. Paco, don't try to knock me off the hood,” Dragona muttered. They hopped onto the car hood and lay across it the way hot girls on posters from a boy's room in a nineties movie did. Then they curled up more, their head resting on their hands like a pillow as if the warm metal of their car was comfortable.
Paco scoffed. “The thought hadn’t occurred to me… hey? Remember when Elio smashed his car hood? When he was drunk?”
Dragona looked back through the windshield to stare at him, face decorated by the patterns of shade made by the trees above them. “You know Elio?”
“Uh yeah?… he went to our school…”
“We went to the same school?”
Paco looked away, resting in the car's back seat. “Uh… we were in the same grade and everything, Dragona. I missed our graduating year, so I’m repeating now.”
“…Oh fuck yeah…. I did know you from back then….” Dragona’s eyes were wide, pupils searching around at Paco’s face like they wanted a reaction.
Dragona turned around, playing with their locs gently as if they had something to be embarrassed about. Sure, they were more boyish back in high school, but they’ve always been cute and liked. Maybe they did get teased, but it didn’t matter because they hung around the nice girls anyway. The kind of girls who wouldn’t talk to Paco and would giggle at each other when he talked to them. Paco was left to hang out with a group of boys; they became more chilled out as they grew up, but there wasn’t a moment of the day when he didn’t know his place as the fat friend. No one liked a fat man who didn’t make jokes at his own expense, and he couldn’t be a comedian. Instead, he was the guy who didn’t get changed in the locker room, the guy no one had a crush on, and the guy people would sneakily film TikToks of when eating to leave the all-telling caption of ‘No comment.’
Then he lost weight, and people were nice to him. Then he gained muscles, and people were attracted to him. But he doesn’t feel happy; he feels like a kid parading as a 19-year-old. He feels unaccomplished no matter how muscular he looks. Dragona was the opposite; they were pretty, graduated, had a job, and a safe family. It was hard not to resent them. But, he did like them.
When he was younger, he liked them a lot. But they didn’t seem to pay attention to him, and when they did… they gave him a certain “Look.” Their big doughy eyes would develop a soft light coupled with a blank face. He didn’t know what that Look meant, but he always looked away; he couldn’t picture it as anything but judgment. He guessed a lot of girls and boys chased Dragona… why would they go for someone like him? Then when he began working with Dragona’s brother, he started to wear clothes that showed off his new body so Dragona would see how attractive he had become when he and Jodio swung by Iko Iko. Instead, they gave him the Look he got when he was in high school. So he gave up on his little crush, especially after he got caught stealing multiple times in Iko Iko by them. They even offered him a job. But he didn’t steal because he needed money, although money is nice, it just gave him endorphins; it was like playing a video game or drinking an energy drink. A few years back, if he’d known he’d be in a car with Dragona lounging on the hood, he would’ve been enthralled. Now he just feels nothing.
He needs someone who needs him. Someone he can keep safe for love in return. Someone who can let him be separate from them, not hold him back, and even help him.
He didn’t like Dragona like that anymore. But still, just an hour later after they had been resting in the car, they had ended up in the jungle, where he couldn’t stop himself from protecting them with his whole body.
It started when the thread pierced their stomach, and he ran to hold onto them, cringing at the way they yelled. Then the thread pierced him; it hurt like hell, but he was more worried about the wounds Dragona got from them being threaded together, as the string was in a way more dangerous place on them. When they noticed Usagi was gone, he began screaming; he couldn’t help himself. All of that just for the newbie to ditch him. But he snapped out of his anger when Dragona yelped in pain at the jostling movement he made while yelling.
“Oh shit…” He whispered.
He was sweating, Dragona pressed to him. They were warm and smelled like the beach, but all he could think about was the pained panting falling from their lips, and he held onto them tighter to the point where they were basically on his lap. Jodio was the only one to take the initiative despite being hung upside down, telling them to get underneath him. He got them over, carrying them as Jodio summoned November Rain, then kneeling with them, shielding their body from the rain and the strings inching towards them. Jodio managed to get the strings away from them; his stand thrashed them to the ground. As he withdrew his stand, Dragona looked over their shoulder at Paco, panting and groaning in pain, but that Look in their eyes. He stared back, panting less than them, eyes wide. He tried to understand why they would look at him with judgment at this moment. He just protected them. Shouldn’t they be grateful? Was it because of how he’s holding them against him? He only meant to comfort them… not make them upset.
Paco loosened his grip around their waist, letting them fall a bit away from the position of their back to his chest. But Dragona stayed against him, one arm reaching back to grab onto the back of his head, still giving him the Look. The bright light in their eyes didn’t waver, even as their eyelids winced in pain. He frowned, trying to understand; then he realised the Look wasn’t one of judgment.