Work Text:
Radford had no idea what the hell happened that night, he had just seen his friend possessed by a demon and then vomited it out. He wasn’t exaggerating how bad the job was. He never really believed the stories about the troubles those 2 kids brought him, they looked completely harmless! But turns out Kevin was right after all. He felt terrible.
Radford leaned down towards Kevin as he was coughing up some dark substance left by the demon who just destroyed the candy store and ran out. ‘’Are you okay?? What the hell was that thing-?’’ He said before patting his back and holding him up with his other hand to help him cough up whatever was left. Kevin didn’t respond for a while as he continued coughing up small bits of the tar until it finally stopped and Kevin was left gasping for air. ‘’Fucking Christ- of course they brung another creature here.’’
‘’Another??’’ Radford asked Kevin in surprise, he didn’t even sound that scared from the whole situation, just annoyed and pissed off. ‘’Yeah.. Did I not tell you about those things?’’ He answers as Radford sits down next to him on the ground while still holding onto him. ‘’No? I mean- not that I know of.’’ Kevin just leans against Radford as he looks around what was left of the store. The doors were completely gone. There was candy scattered all across the floor and even stuck to the ceiling, glass covered parts of the floor from the shattered gumball machines and broken counter.
But then he looked back to the right of the store. The wall was missing an entire chunk out of it with debris that had fallen from it covering the floor as well. He could barely handle cleaning the glass and candy, losing some gumball machines and repairing the door and counter. But the entire wall? How would he even afford that? He felt his heart sink at the thought. This was too much, this was one of the worst problems Skid and Pump had brought him, worse than getting stabbed by a doll, encountering a cannibal with a knife, or cleaning blood.
He felt his throat tighten and tears pricking at his eyes, it was embarrassing. But he couldn’t help it, he couldn’t handle any of this right now. He wasn’t even worried about the fact he was just possessed, the damage to the store was what sent him and it finally broke him after years of trying to keep himself together even with all he was dealing with. He let out another gasp for air before he gripped tightly onto Radford's work shirt and hid his face against his chest. Sudden tears and snot staining Radford shirt.
Radford was taken aback from this sudden change in emotion. He had never seen Kevin like this. He had never seen him cry, whenever something bad happened to him he would just get angry and complain about it to him, never would he react like this. He wasn’t completely sure what to do so he just wrapped his arms around Kevin as he allowed him to cry. Radford didn’t really wanna try and talk to him first, he didn’t really know if he even could talk with how bad he was crying, and it was only getting louder once he hugged him.
‘’H- hey man.. It’s alright, I’m sure we can.. Fix this.’’ Radford said before he brought a hand up to Kevin's hair to gently brush through it in an attempt to soothe his cries. He wasn’t even sure how they could fix this. Kevin was barely getting by living with the money he was earning working at the Candy Club and Radford already took a couple weeks off of work and was staying with his parents so he wasn’t earning any money by himself. But he didn’t want to tell Kevin that, he just wanted to make him feel better at this moment. So he pushed away his own panic and worry and just focused on Kevin.
The hand in Kevin's hair did seem to help him a bit though. The cries began to slow down when he regained his breathing after a few deep breaths as he was left clinging onto Radford sniffling and whining in mental pain. His hand let go of Radfords shirt and he instead hugged Radford back as he finally pulled his head away from the movie nerd's chest and rested it on his shoulder.
‘’Are.. You okay?’’ Radford asked while still running his hand in Kevin's hair, he felt a bit stupid for asking the question, of course he’s not okay. Kevin sniffled again before speaking in a shaky and squeaky voice ‘’Yeah.. I’m fine.. I’m sorry for crying- and messing up your shirt..’’ Radford knew that was a lie, he just felt terrible for him. ‘’You don’t need to apologize Kevin, it’s not your fault.’’
There was a bit of silence in the air from the both of them, the only thing heard were the soft cries and gasps Kevin was still letting out, although it was much better than before. Radford finally broke the silence and spoke to him once again ‘’Do you wanna go home? We can deal with this tomorrow after you get some rest.’’
Radford felt him nod against his shoulder before he stood up with Kevin and held onto his hand. Kevin was still leaning up against him despite standing as they both walked out of the destroyed store back home. ‘’You wanna talk about how you're feeling Kev? I won’t judge.’’ Kevin was just staring at the ground while they walked, he just shook his head ‘’I don’t know.. This is just too much for me man..’’
Radford didn’t want to pressure him to talk about it until he was comfortable, so he just changed the topic. ‘’You wanna go right to bed when we get home? We could.. Watch a movie.. Or hang out if you’d like!’’ He didn’t mind spending a bit of time with him, but he also thought going right to bed might be a good idea for him right now so he can process this in the morning. Kevin sighed before he spoke again. ‘’I just wanna sleep right now.. It’s been a long day Rad.’’
‘’That’s alright we can do that, whatever makes you happy.’’ They both continued to walk in silence before they stopped at Kevin’s house down the neighborhood they were walking through. They walk up to the door as Kevin unlocks it for the both of them. Radford walks inside and watches as Kevin trudges to his bedroom and falls onto his bed the moment they get in.
Radford follows behind him and stares as he sees Kevin just lying in bed staring at the ceiling completely silent with those tired half lidded eyes before walking in and sitting down onto Kevin's bed next to him. ‘’You want me to stay here tonight dude?’’ He says before he grabs the blanket and pulls it over Kevin. ‘’I would prefer that.. Yeah.’’ Kevin mumbles out as he finally breaks his gaze with the ceiling and looks back at Radford, still with the same expression on his face.
Radford gives Kevin a small smile before ruffling his hair and standing up to head to the living room ‘’Alright, I’ll sleep on the couch then, see ya in the mor-’’ His words were cut off just as he was starting to walk in order to leave the room. Kevin had quickly grabbed his hand as he mumbled out a plea with a tone of embarrassment. ‘’No no wait.. I want you to stay here with me’’
Radford felt his face heat up slightly from the request in surprise from the request, although he didn’t really have much of a problem with it. ‘’Oh! You want to share the bed? Uh.. Yeah, I can do that, no worries.’’ He said before walking towards the other side of the bed and lying down next to him while pulling the blanket over himself as well, leaving a small bit of space between the both of them. He didn’t want to get too close without Kevin saying he wanted to first.
‘’Can we hug?’’ Kevin blurted out almost the moment Radford got into bed. Radford let out a small laugh from the quick request as he looked back at Kevin with a small smile on his face. ‘’Yeah we can do that.’’ Radford opened his arms from under the blanket and let Kevin scoot closer towards him before wrapping his arms around him. Kevin let out a small sigh of relief as he rested his head against Radford's chest once again.
There was no sound coming out from the both of them before Kevin speaks up. ‘’What are we gonna do about the shop..?’’ Radford opened his eyes and looked down at him with a sympathetic look. His heart skipped a beat from the question. ‘’We’ll figure it out in the morning, I think you need some rest after all of.. That stuff, ya know?’’ Kevin stared back at him for a few seconds before letting out another sigh and closing his eyes and going silent again.
After that they finally both fell asleep in each other's arms, finally getting the much needed rest after the sudden havoc and destruction they dealt with that day. Tomorrow was going to be another hard day but at least they could handle it together.