Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s almost midnight. Everyone at hotel OJ was asleep, except for Knife. No matter how hard he tried, his mind couldn’t rest. It’s not the first time this has happened, for the past week, his mind has been so disruptive, it’s a bit concerning.

Well, not much else to do, so Knife got up from his bed and went downstairs for a snack. On his way, however, he heard music coming from the living room. Huh, that’s strange. Who else could be awake at this hour?

Knife went to the source of the music, and found… Fan. Great. The whole reason why he couldn’t sleep.

Knife wouldn’t ever admit this to anyone, but he had been thinking about Fan a lot more recently. It was definitely a crush, and he wasn’t very subtle about it.

“…hi Knife.” Fan seemed pretty tired as well, no idea why he of all people would be awake at this time.
“…hey.” Knife responded, in his raspy, tired voice. “…why are you still awake?”
“…my favourite artist released new songs.”
…of course.
Well, this could be an opportunity to get closer to Fan, so Knife decided to continue the conversation.
“…what artist?”
“They’re called ‘LEZ.’ She isn’t very well known, but I really like faer songs.”
“hm. Seems interesting.”
“Yeah, she mostly does song covers, but she’s been starting to do some original songs as well.”
Knife really wanted to hear more, but he was also extremely tired. and hungry. very hungry.
“I’ll give them a listen in the morning.”
“Alright.”

Knife went to the kitchen like he had originally planned, got a snack, and went back to his room. He still couldn’t really sleep, so he decided to check out the artist Fan had told him about.
Their music was alright, not really his style, but nothing bad.
It took a few minutes for Knife to finally drift off to sleep, his mind calmed down a bit.

Someday he’ll tell Fan.
Someday.

Chapter Text

BEEP! BEEP!

Fan woke up. God, he was tired. Probably should’ve realized sooner that staying up past midnight just to listen to loud music would not be a good idea.

Fan slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. He didn’t remember much of last night, all he could think of was the songs… and-
“Are you okay?”
Paintbrush looked at Fan, a concerned look on their face.
“Oh. Yeah, I’m fine, just stayed up too late.”
Paintbrush sighed.
“Well, get some more rest, it’s still pretty early. I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”
They got out of bed and left the room, letting Fan rest by himself and collect his thoughts.

It took an extra hour for Fan to be ready to get out of bed. He went downstairs, drank coffee, and xe was back to their regular, high energy self.
He sat down, plugged xeir headphones in, and went back to listening to LEZ’s music. Her new songs were different from her previous ones, being more hyperpop styled than faer old ones.
Still, the songs were amazing, and Fan loved them.
Xe was lost in thought, just vibing along to the music, until-
“Hey, Fan?”
Knife’s voice snapped Fan out of his trance, startling him a bit.
“HUH- Oh, Hey! Sorry, I uh-“
“It’s fine.”
Knife sat down next to Fan, letting xem get a better look at his face. His eyes looked exhausted, like he hadn’t gotten a good sleep for a while. There were so many bags under his eyes it’s like he-
“Fan?”
Knife had once again snapped Fan out of his trance, they had accidentally ended up staring at Knife’s face for a while.
“S-Sorry! I uh, noticed how tired you looked and I… accidentally zoned out…”
Now, if this happened to anyone else, they would immediately pick up the hint, and realize Fan liked them. Unfortunately, Knife is Not Very Good At Romance, and is terrible at picking up hints.
Fan and Knife simply sat next to each other in silence for a few seconds, before Fan decided to break the silence.
“So, uh… Do you wanna… just, walk around the hotel?”
“…yeah, sure.”

Knife and Fan went for a walk around the hotel, mostly silent, but Fan decided to start another conversation.
“So… did you listen to the artist I told you about last night?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah. It was Lez, right? I listened to a few of their songs.”
“What did you think?”
“They were alright..”
“Well, I’m happy you at least like them! Personally, I absolutely love her music. Faer voice is great, she sings very well…”
Fan continued to ramble about Lez for a while, and Knife just silently listened. He enjoyed hearing Fan talk about the things xey enjoy, it was nice. Plus, he liked hearing their voice.

…lmfao gayass *AHEM* uhhh back to narration!

Fan continued to ramble about Lez, and Knife continued to listen, until they heard a conversation coming from outside.
“You sure you’re able to do this? You don’t have to if you’re too stressed.”
“I think I’ll be fine. I’m not that popular, so it probably won’t be too overwhelming.”
The first voice was recognizable to many, it was just OJ, after all.
The second voice, however, seemed vaguely familiar to Fan.
Fan began to walk towards the voices, Knife following along despite not recognizing the second voice at all.
“This is essentially a bunch of practice performances for me, just in case I end up actually getting popular and I have to go on tour or something.”
The closer Fan got, the more he knew who that voice belonged to.
Xe peeked around the corner, and sure enough, there was OJ, standing next to…

“LEZ!??”

Chapter Text

Out of all the things to happen today, seeing one of xeir favourite artists in person was not something Fan expected.
“Uh… Sorry, I got a bit excited.”
Lez chuckled a bit.
“It’s fine! Just startled me a little.”
Lez was a tall, dark blue monitor. Faer screen shows usually different images and colours, but most of the time it shows a cyan coloured screensaver image.
There was a few seconds of silence, before OJ cleared his throat.
“Ahem… I take it you already know Lez. Well, she’ll be doing a few live performances in the hotel this week.”
“Really!? That’s awesome!”
Knife just watched and listened from behind Fan. He wasn’t too into Lez’s music, but seeing Fan this happy was enough to make him smile.
“We were actually just about to enter the hotel. We’re just gonna announce what she’ll be doing here.”
“So uh, good job on getting early access!”
Lez jokingly added onto OJ’s comment.
“We can have more proper introductions later, I kinda just want to go inside already.” Lez looked excited, but a bit nervous at the same time.
“You two can come inside with us, since you’re already here.” OJ added on, briefly glancing at Knife before looking back at Fan.
“Huh? Uh, sure.” Knife was kind of caught off guard by OJ looking at him, as he was kinda zoned out during the conversation.
Fan smiled, as he and Knife entered the hotel with OJ and Lez.

“Attention residents of Hotel OJ!”
OJ entered first, speaking in a loud voice to get everyone’s attention.
“We have a special guest who’s going to be staying at the hotel for this week! They’re a semi-popular artist that some of you know, and they’ll be doing live performances here every day this week!”
“Everyone, please give a warm welcome… to LEZ!”
Lez entered the hotel, and a few of the objects got very excited, namely; Salt, Pepper, Lightbulb, Paintbrush, Baseball, and Microphone, who got up and ran to hug Lez. Most of the others still cheered for Lez, just to be supportive.
Fan and Knife entered back into the hotel shortly after, as Lez walked around the hotel, talking to the other objects.
“So… This is Lez? She seems pretty nice.”
“Yeah! She’s super cool! I’m so excited to finally meet her!”
Lez went around the hotel, introducing faerself to the other objects, before finally getting back to Fan and Knife.
“So, you two! I take it that at least one of you know me already.”
“Yup! I love your music!”
“I’ve listened to a few of your songs.”
Lez smiled. “Happy to hear that! I’m really excited to be here! I’d love to chat a bit more, but, I need to set things up for the first performance.”
Lez quickly shakes Fan and Knife’s hands, and then jogs towards another room of the hotel.

Hours pass, and Lez’s first live performance of the week is about to begin. Fan is super excited, preparing himself multiple times before it starts. Knife is also excited, as he had listened to a few more of Lez’s songs and covers during the hours, and began to like her songs more. A majority of the residents showed up to watch the performance as well.
The performance took place in the lounge room of the hotel, where a small stage was set up. Lez walked onto the stage, taking a deep breath.
“So, uh… Hello everyone! Welcome to my first ever live performance!”
The small crowd of objects cheered, with some voices louder than others.
“…Thank you! Uh, so for my first few performances, I’ll just be doing song covers as practice, but for the final days, I’ll be performing my actual songs. So, hopefully that’s okay with y’all.”
Lez took another deep breath, and prepared her microphone.
“Alright. First song. 3… 2… 1…”

Lez’s first performance went well, with only a few minor screw-ups. Fae stayed in the lounge room to relax a bit, and also to properly talk to the few objects that had known her music before she arrived. Fan was ecstatic about it, and excited that he was sort of helping Lez in some way. Xe also decided to take note of every song Lez had covered today.
In order, they were:
-C’Mon - Kesha
-Funhouse - P!nk
-Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
A short performance, but Fan loved it.
Knife was very tired. He liked the performance, but it was very late at night, and combined with the fact that he woke up very late, it was not a good mix. Still, it was enjoyable, and he decided to stay up to maybe quickly chat with Fan.
Fan was currently talking with Lez, just fanboying as usual.
“I’m sorry, I just absolutely love your music, I’m so excited to see your other performances!”
“Thank you! This is like, my first time ever actually meeting fans, so it’s a bit nerve-wracking, but everyone’s been so nice!”
“Glad to be able to sort of help! Can I, uh, take a picture with you?”
“Of course!”
Fan took out his phone and posed for a picture with Lez. Knife was behind them, so he also posed for the picture since he was in frame for it. Neither Fan or Lez noticed him until after the picture was taken.
“Oh! Hey Knife! What’s up?”
“Just wanted to say hi. Also, Lez, great job up there.”
“Thank you! First day here and it’s already amazing!”
Knife chuckled a bit, then yawned.
“God, I’m tired. I need some sleep.”
Fan yawned as well. “Yeah, same. Thanks again for being here, Lez!”
Lez smiled as Knife and Fan left the lounge room and started walking towards their rooms, while Microphone began talking to Lez.

“…Hey, Fan?”
“Hm?”
“…Thanks for introducing me to Lez, her stuff is great.”
“Oh! You’re so welcome! I’ve kinda just been like, super hyperfixated on faer music recently, so all of this is kinda a lot to take in, but I’m really enjoying it!”
Knife chuckled, and smiled at Fan. They both walked up to their rooms, which were conveniently right next to each other.
“G’night, Fan.”
“Good night, Knife!”

Knife entered his room, got into his bed, and screamed into his pillow, much to the annoyance of his roomate, Pickle.
“…Again, huh?”
“yess….”
Pickle sighed. This was far from the first time Knife had done this.
“It’s even worse now. Xe got me interested into an artist they liked, he’s infodumped about them to me multiple times, and he’s just- aaargghh…” Knife screamed into his pillow again.
Pickle was the only person Knife had properly talked about his crush to. He didn’t trust anyone else with the secret, as some objects there definitely would’ve spread it around, accidentally or on purpose.
“…Have you tried asking him for fanfic recommendations? Those usually have some romance in them, maybe you could take inspiration from those to ask them out?”
“…What?”
“Sorry, I’m… not too good with romance myself. Just thought I’d at least try to give some advice. Probably not a good idea to listen to it, though.”
Knife and Pickle chuckle a bit, and then awkward silence falls again.
“…If it’s anything, I think you and Fan would make an adorable couple.”
Knife blushed, and immediately threw himself under his covers. “GOOD NIGHT.”
“Heh, good night, Knife.”
Knife groaned, and shuffled around in his bed until he was comfy.

…Tomorrow was gonna be worse, wasn’t it?

Chapter Text

another day, another… gay. i forgot how the saying went.

Knife had gotten an actually decent amount of sleep last night. Surprising, I know. Pickle was already awake and downstairs, so Knife pulled himself out of bed and got ready for the day.

It was still a bit early in the day, so not a lot of objects were awake. The ones Knife could see were Fan, Pickle, Lightbulb, Paintbrush, OJ, Suitcase, Nickel, Cherries, and Microphone. LEZ was also awake, and she and Microphone seemed to be talking with each other. They had been talking a lot since Lez had first arrived, and Knife had noticed that. He decided to get close to them to see if he- that’s fan. knife you fucking gay dumbass
“Uh… Hi, Knife!”
“…hi.”
oh my fucking god.
“…Whats up?”
“…I forgot what I was about to say.”
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
“…Lez and Microphone have been talking a lot.”
“…Yeah?”
“…You think they knew each other before?”
“…I think so, actually.”
“…You wanna try and talk to them?”
“Sure!”
well they got back on track eventually.

Knife and Fan walked towards Lez and Microphone, who were still in the middle of their conversation.
“God, I know I’ve said this a lot already, but, I’m so proud of you, Lez.”
“Thank you so much! It still feels so surreal, finally being able to talk to you after all these years.”
“Hey Lez! Hey Mic!”
Fan and Knife greet Lez and Microphone.
“Oh hey! What’s up?”
“We were kinda just wondering… have you two known each other before?”
“Oh yeah! Mic’s my sister!”
“Wait really??”
Lez and Microphone giggled. “Yep! I’ve known her even before she was ‘Lez’!”
“That’s so cool!”
Knife smiled, hearing Fan’s excitement and seeing Lez and Microphone excitement. Then a question popped into his mind.
“Uh… May I ask what happened that caused you two to not see each other for a while?”
“Oh, nothing too bad, we just went our separate ways when Mic went to college and I took time off to work on myself and my transition.”
“Ah, I see. Been through that before. Kind of.”
“Heh, Nice.”
Lez immediately got what Knife was saying, and the both of them exchanged a high-five. or… a high…zero? they don’t have fingers, is it still a high five?? HELP wait i don’t have hands at all i should not be talking about this not making sense anyways
Fan smiled. Knife seemed to be enjoying his time with Lez.
Knife’s stomach rumbled. Loudly.
“…God, I’m starving. I should probably eat.”
“No kidding, I don’t think you ate anything last night.”
“…I didn’t?”
“Yeah, I noticed you weren’t-“
“Christ, go fuckin’ eat already! Don’t want you starving to death.” Lez butted into the conversation.
“Alright, alright, fine. Let’s go, Fan.”
(“why did i…okay.”) Knife thought to himself immediately after saying that.
Knife and Fan left towards the kitchen, leaving Microphone and Lez to their conversation.
“…Are they dating?”

Knife and Fan ended up hanging out a lot more for the rest of the day, talking and sharing their excitement for LEZ’s next performance. Knife usually wasn’t the type of person to talk this much, but something about Fan just made him so comfortable to just… be himself… it’s quite cute, isn’t it? oh, sorry, back to narration.

Lez’s performance time came again, and Knife and Fan were even more excited this time. Lez appeared more confident this time, which allowed her to sing more clearly. Once again, her performance was amazing, and Fan had written down the songs that fae had performed. They were;
-Euphoria - Loreen
-Nobody Really Cares - Baby Queen
-Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
-Line Without A Hook - Ricky Montgomery
-I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) - Whitney Houston
A longer performance than last time, though, weirdly having a sudden romance theme. Still a phenomenal performance, Fan loved it. Knife loved it too, though the sudden romance theme threw him off a bit. It was probably just a coincidence, though, wasn’t it?…Wasn’t it???
God, probably best to not think of it right now. Just… time to go to sleep. There’s nothing else to-
“Knife?”
…shit.
“…You okay?”
“Uh… yeah, I was just… really tired.”
Fan was a bit suspicious.
“…Knife, you know you can talk to me if anything’s wrong. I… really care about you, you know?”
“…Thanks.”
(“god… fuck. this is-“)
Knife’s thought was cut short by Fan suddenly hugging Knife. He wasn’t expecting it, so his mind was in full gay panic.
He calmed down, and returned the hug. It felt really nice.
“Um… Thanks.”
“No problem. Tell me if you ever need anything, okay?”
“…Okay.”
Fan smiled, and then walked up to xeir room.
“G’night, Knife!”
“Good night, Fan.”

Knife went to his room as well. Pickle was already fast asleep, so he couldn’t really talk to anyone. Kinda sucked, since his feelings for Fan had gotten worse, and he desperately needed advice.
Suddenly, the door opened, and Nickel was there.
“Oh shit- wrong room, my bad.”
Nickel was about to close the door when Knife stopped him.
“Wait, Nickel, hold on.”
Nickel looked at Knife in confusion.
“…Do you think you could… help me with something?”
“You need MY help? Shocker.”
“Just… come here.”
Nickel closes the door and walks closer to Knife’s bed.
“What’s up?”
“So… you and Baseball are a thing, right?”
“…yeah? We’ve been together for a few months, why?”
“…How did either of you confess to the other?”
“Well… We were kinda just at a party, and I got a bit stressed out by all the loud noises, so I asked Baseball if we could just, go somewhere private for the night. Long story short, I was gonna confess my feelings to him, but… he did it first, heh.”
“I see…” Knife took mental note of some of the things Nickel mentioned.
“Yeah, uh, why did you want me to…” The realization hit Nickel.
“…You like someone, don’t you?”
Knife blushed. “…Don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t, I won’t. Don’t worry. G’night, Knife.”
“Night.”
Nickel left Knife’s room, finally going towards his actual room.
Knife took out his phone, and wrote in his notes app;
“take him somewhere private”
…It sounds kind of threatening out of context, doesn’t it.
Knife shrugged it off, and turned off his phone, and went to sleep.

He’s slowly getting more confident.

Chapter Text

she knife on my fan till i oh shit we’re live uh ignore that

Knife woke up in the middle of the night. He was tired, but couldn’t sleep at all. He decided to just go downstairs and find something to eat.
Knife opened the fridge and grabbed a few pieces of bread, not bothering to toast them. Knife was quite a messy eater, just shoving pieces of bread into his mouth. how did he miss he just dropped a piece of bread onto the ground is he okay probably not-
…he’s not bothering to pick it up… maybe i could…
brb y’all i’m gonna do something

…shit he saw me
“wHUH-“
“UHHH”
Knife was… afraid? i think? He probably wasn’t expecting to just… see a face on the ground try to steal his bread.
“…Fuck, I’m hallucinating, aren’t I?”
“…Yes, correct, you are definitely hallucinating, I’m not real, ooooo~”
*pop!*
…
*pop!*
“Yeah you’re not hallucinating.”
oh boy this is gonna be a lot to explain
“Ugh… who are you?”
“Name’s The Floor, or just Floory.”
(“…Of course the floor has a face, why wouldn’t it.”) Knife thought to himself. Kind of rude, if you ask me… don’t ask how i can read minds that’s not important
“…So, uh… why are you here?”
“You dropped your bread. I wanted the bread.”
“…It was on the ground.”
“I am the ground, your point?”
“…uh…”
“Alright, I’ll leave you alone now, enjoy your bread, mate.”
*pop!*
Knife felt confused, but was still relieved that- hold on one more thing
*pop!*
“By the way, don’t tell anyone about me, m’kay?”
“…okay?”
*pop!*
alright back to more professional narration *AHEM*
Knife was very confused. He still felt like he might’ve been hallucinating, despite what “Floory” had told him. He lost his appetite for eating, and just left the plate of bread on the counter and went up to try to sleep again.
…waste of food if you ask me.

Morning came, and Knife was extremely tired. After last night, he now had 2 things on his mind; Fan, and whatever the fuck “The Floor” was. He got out of bed, and almost fell trying to go down the stairs.
“God, you’re a mess.”
Knife looked up, and saw Nickel looking at him.
“...yeah.”
Nickel chuckled. “Heh, well, try to compose yourself. He’s coming down soon, and you probably don’t want to make them even more concerned about you than xe already is.”
(“...Did he… how did… does he know??”) Knife was very confused, and it must’ve shown on his face, as Nickel appeared surprised as well.
“...I… I completely guessed, is it actually-”
“D-Don’t say it out loud!”
Silence.
“...S-Sorry, I-”
“It’s okay, just…”
Knife trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.
“...Let's talk about this later, okay?”
“Alright…”
Another few seconds of silence.
“...heha gay”
“Oh, YOU’RE one to talk!”
Nickel and Knife giggled, poking fun at each other.
“What could you possibly mean by that? I’m-”
Nickel’s sentence was interrupted by Baseball, who surprised him with a kiss from behind.
“Hah! Got you!~”
Nickel blushed heavily, and smiled.
“Baseballll…”
The both of them giggled, Nickel going in for a proper kiss this time.
Knife smiled, it was really cute seeing the both of them this happy together.
…Maybe that could be him and Fan someday-
“WHO THE FUCK LEFT AN UNEATEN PIECE OF BREAD ON THE COUNTER???”
…shit.
Soap was in a very bad mood this morning, and ended up waking up most of the hotel out of anger. She quickly calmed herself down.
“Sorry! Just a bit tilted, that’s all!”
Soap went back to cleaning the kitchen counters, acting as if nothing ever happened.
“Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, huh?”
Knife jumped a bit at Fan’s sudden appearance.
“…What did I do?”
“Nothing, just… didn’t expect you to just… suddenly be right next to me.”
Fan chuckled. “Heheh, sorry! Didn’t mean to spook you like that.”
“It’s fine, heh.”
Fan and Knife smiled at each other.
“…You didn’t sleep well, did you?”
“Are you even surprised at this point?”
“I wish I could be.”
Fan’s tone was lighthearted, but also concerned.
Knife and Fan just stared at each other, neither of them knowing what to say. Both of them really wanted to change the topic, but neither of them could think of what to say.
“…Well, uh, I gotta go now. I promised Test Tube that I’d help her with some experiments today.”
“…What kind of experiments?”
“I forgot. Probably nothing too bad, though. Anyways, see ya!”
Fan ran off, leaving Knife by himself. Yeah, obviously he isn’t Fan’s only friend, and xe’d probably like to spend time with more objects than just him, but he still felt a bit lonely.
Most of Knife’s friends were busy at the moment. Bomb and Pickle had went out to buy things, Paper was doing work with OJ, and Baseball and Nickel were… idk making out probably
He didn’t feel like talking to Lez right now, so he just went to his room.
he’s alone and doesn’t have anyone to talk to… this is my time
brb again gamers
…
*pop!*
“Hey there!”
“WHA- Oh. It’s you.”
“I, uh, noticed you were feeling alone, so, I thought I’d pop in and say hi!”
“...Thanks.”
…damn this whole conversation thing is a lot harder than i thought huh.
you know what fuck it
“So, uh, Fan, right?”
“...How do you-”
“I’ve been around.”
Knife sighed. “...look, I barely know who you are. Why would I talk about shit like this to someone like you?”
“I get that, yeah. Just wanted to try and give you some encouragement, is all.”
“Encouragement for what?”
“Asking him out, of course!”
Knife started blushing. Caught him a bit off guard, it seems.
“Wh- Wha- Why- HUH??”
“Listen, I’ve been in a similar situation as you. Y’know, being in love with someone who you’ve only gotten close to very recently. It’s quite an event, isn’t it?”
Knife was still kind of processing, but he seemed interested in what I was telling him.
“…Yeah, uh…”
“Yeah, it’s a bit hard to deal with, I know. If it’s anything, though, things are currently going well for us! So, uh, hope that helps a bit.”
Knife smiled a bit, I guess it did help.
“…Can I ask how you confessed?”
“Oh that was a disaster I am absolutely not telling you the story”
“…Well bitch now I’m even more curious”
“I’m not telling you!”
“C’mon, I need to know!!”
“nOPE!!”
*pop!*
…
*pop!*
“…have a good day, Knife.”
“Heheh, you too, Floory.”
*pop!*
ah, that was nice. time for normal narration again
Knife smiled. A nice conversation was definitely needed. He still didn’t really know what to do, so-
*CREEAK*
The door opened.

“…Knife?”