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He was grateful for not getting separated from his son again during prison, the children were with them as well so it was definitely the best kidnapping experience he had yet.
Maybe it was his low standards talking but at this point did it really matter?
He saw.. Arin there. Quackity hadn’t really seen the AI before, and if he had, he can’t remember it.
He looked like Luzu, and from what he understood, Arin inhabited his body. That’s as much as he could gather from the conversations they had together.
Quackity tried his best to stay close to Arin, the Ai had changed the rooming charts so they could be roommates as well. Being around it meant that Quackity had to constantly remind himself that it wasn’t Luzu, which was… frustrating to say the least.
He hadn’t seen Luzu in months, he misses his… well he wasn’t really sure of what they were to each other but Quackity does love him, so that basically means they’re married. He’s just waiting for Luzu to come back to get that confirmation.
After seeing Arin being kidnapped however… he isn’t sure if he is coming back.
He hadn’t told Tuboo who Luzu was, or why he was so attached to Arin.
Quackity doesn’t want to worry him again, lately it has been easy to do that.
He kept his head down for the rest of his stay at the prison, he stayed close to Tubbo and Philza, they were the people that he was most familiar with at the moment.
When they finally did get out of that place, they got dropped off at a different island, really different one.
Nothing that they had built was here, none of Pac and Mike’s constructions, or Tubbo’s, but he seemed more excited about it, not even anything the Federation had made- Tilin’s grave was gone.
The realization didn’t hit him immediately, he only really understood it when Tubbo went off with the kids to explore the island more. When he was alone.
Quackity thought of making Tilin’s grave again, but something inside him told him to wait for Luzu to come back, he didn’t know why he was so convinced that Luzu was coming back, but he was, and that’s all that really mattered to Quackity for the moment.
He regrouped with Tubbo later that day, they built a small house together and slept on the same bed. He could feel Pepito’s head on chest and Tubbo’s head on his shoulder, his arms hugging his body, Sunny slept in between him and Tubbo.
When he woke up Tubbo was already gone with Sunny, Pepito was still fast asleep though so he tried his best to get up without the little one waking up, moving the smaller’s body and laying it on the bed gently.
Quackity cooked a small breakfast for him and Pepito in the makeshift kitchen and waited for the little one to wake up.
Pepito ate his food fast, and started excitedly asking his dad to explore the island with him, Quackity gave in despite his still sore joints from the prison, god he sounded like Philza.
Quackity packed what little food they had and they took off, Pepito collected different types of flowers that weren’t on the last island while Quackity looked for more food and wood to take home.
They came back to the house during the afternoon, Quackity saw Philza with Tallulah holding his hand outside of the door, he had a serious look on his face, he told Pepito to go inside.
“Something wrong?” Quackity looked up at the older man, Tallulah looked a mix between concerned and confused, she clung to Philza’s leg, looking up at him with a quizzed expression on her face.
“No, I don’t think so at least.” The older man put a hand on his shoulder, “Tallulah was with Luzu all day.”
Quackity looks incredulously between Philza and Tallulah, trying his best to process the information given to him. Tallulah looks more concerned now.
The duck gets down to her level and grabs the free hand that wasn’t clinging to Philza.
“Can you describe him sweetie?”
“He… He looked like Arin? But his eyes were a different color.” Tallulah’s voice shook slightly as she spoke.
Quackity looked back up at Philza with a smile- “What is happening?” the little one interrupts to ask.
The duck picks the little dragon up and spins her around for a few seconds, both giggling as he finishes his last spin, hugging her close.
“You found my husband honey!”
“Wait- hold on! Husband?!” Philza asks, surprised.
“Well, technically we aren’t married but I’m pretty sure we’re going to be when I find him.” Quackity says without a doubt in his mind.
“...Are you sure? Shouldn’t you get Tubbo and Pepito used to Luzu before marrying him?”
“... Oh yeah, I should probably do that.”
“Does Tubbo know about Luzu?”
“I haven’t really talked about any of my past relationships with him. I’m pretty sure he is vaguely aware that I had someone though.”
“How do you think he’s going to react? The last relationship he saw wasn’t…. the best.”
Quackity pets Tallulah’s hair, trying to focus on the conversation,he felt small flowers in her hair. Did Luzu put them there? He hugged the little dragon tighter.
“Hopefully well, Luzu isn’t like Schlatt”
“I know that you know that, but none of us know him all that well. I trust him, but Tubbo might not. Keep that in mind.”
As Philza finished his statement, Tubbo and Sunny were visible from the distance, both walking towards the house. Philza looked at him and grabbed Tallulah from his grasp.
“Tell him.”
Tubbo held Sunny in his arms as he got closer to the other men, he smiled and quickly gave his dad a hug, or at least an attempt at a hug.
“Sup Phil, did you need something?”
“I was just leaving actually, I was just coming to give Quackity some news.” Philza leaves with Tallulah in his arms before Tubbo can say anything. The younger man looks at his dad with a questioning expression, Quackity shrugs and turns to get inside their home.
Tubbo follows behind.
“What did Philza come to tell you?” He asks as he sets Sunny down, the young dragon quickly running to the other dragon of the house. Quackity didn’t turn around to meet Tubbo’s eyes.
“Just that an old friend is back.” Quackity makes himself busy by cleaning some of the dirty dishes on the sink.
“Can I meet them?” Tubbo goes to stand next to his dad, he picks up a rag and starts drying the dishes after Quackity cleans them. They fall into a familiar rhythm, memories of old times threatening to come back and ruin a simple moment between them.
“... You will, eventually. He’s important to me, like you are. Just in a different way.” Quackity pushes his son close, hugging him. “He’ll love you.”
Tubbo looks at Quackity and hugs him back.
“I hope so.”
Both men separate after hearing yelling from the other side of the house, the young dragons arguing over none of the fathers understood. Quackity picked up Pepito and looked out the window, watching the moon set in the night sky, while Tubbo picked up Sunny. He looked at his father and asked, “Think it’s time for bed?”
“Let them have dinner first, then we’ll sleep. Are you going to leave early tomorrow again?” Quackity walks to the nearest chests and grabs some fruit and gives them to the children, “We’ll give you a proper lunch tomorrow okay?” He says while looking at Pepito, the little one nodded excitedly, seemingly more focused on the apple that he was eating.
“I’m going to leave a little earlier to try to get some meat, Sunny will come with me.” He watches his daughter eat her own fruit. “Pepito can come with me if he wants as well.”
The little dragon looked up from his devoured fruit and denied with his head, he wanted to sleep in again which he knew would happen if he stayed with his dad. Tubbo nods his head in understanding, almost like he knows exactly what Pepito is thinking.
“If I was you I’d want to sleep in too.” Tubbo laughs and picks up Sunny. “Come on little princess, let’s go to bed.” Sunny grumbles when Tubbo sets her to bed.
Quackity sets Pepito next to Sunny on the bed before laying on the bed. He feels his eyes close with exhaustion.
The next time he wakes up, Pepito is in front of the door and answering it. Quackity hears two voices that he recognizes pretty quickly, Tubbo and… Luzu?
Quackity sits up as quickly as he can and sees Tubbo entering the house with Sunny and Luzu behind him. He hears Tubbo call Luzu ‘father’ and the older man laughing, Sunny giggles around them. Pepito looks curiously at the new man in the house, looking back at Quackity, checking how he should react to the situation.
Quackity isn’t sure, he scrambles out of the bed, falling onto the floor in the process. The attention turns to him, Luzu’s eyes widened with recognition.
“Oh hi dad! Luzu this is-”
“Quacks?”
Both men’s eyes meet, a lot has happened since the last time they had seen each other. Quackity had gained and lost a child, Luzu had gotten possessed, they both had gotten kidnapped, but they could still recognize each other.
Luzu noted all of his duck’s differences since they had last met, all the new scars that were visible, the exhaustion under his eyes visible from a distance and the clipped wings, his duck’s wings were clipped and he wasn’t there to help him through the aftermath.
“Luzu?” Quackity quickly tries to get up, scrambling a bit and forcing Pepito to run over to make sure he doesn’t lose his balance.
“You guys know each other? Wait, is he the guy that Phil was talking about yesterday?” Tubbo tries to make logic out of the encounter.
“Yeah it’s him,” Quackity finally stands up straight and pats Pepito’s head as a thank you. “Me and Luzu were… lovers in the past you could say.”
Quackity sees Luzu’s face brighten up a bit, he sees the taller man get closer to him and before he knew it, Luzu had placed his arms around his smaller body and squeezed it close. Quackity hugs him back.
“You look different.” Luzu says into Quackity hair.
“You too, you look more pink.” Quackity says into the older man’s shoulder, his hand squeezing the pink fabric of the hoodie.
“I wanted to start fresh, thought a more coquette look would fit me.”
“... It does.”
Quackity feels his lover’s smile.
Tubbo and the rest of the kids watch the interaction unsure of what to do, Pepito being the one to break the moment by tugging on Luzu’s pants.
“Does that mean that you’re also my dad now?”
Both of the adults in the embrace freeze in that moment before quickly recovering, Luzu lets go of Quackity and looks back at the duck.
“You had more kids?” He asks in a genuine tone.
“Two more, Tubbo and Pepito, we had Tilin but…” Quackity rubs his neck nervously, the last part of the sentence goes unsaid.
“Oh,”
“Actually let’s talk for a bit, “ Quackity quickly asks Tubbo to take the children outside, the young man seems hesitant but does so.
“Soo, Tubbo? He seems like a nice kid, how come you never mentioned him before.”
“I thought he was dead.”
The silence fills the room as Luzu watches Quackity sit down on the bed while holding his arms.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, it was my own fault.”
“Did you adopt him?” Luzu sits down next to Quackity, he wants to understand his duck, he knows now that Quackity had hidden things from him. He wants to know why.
“He came from my first marriage.” Quackity lets his head fall into Luzu’s shoulder, a familiar feeling that he had forgotten.
“I didn’t know you were married.” The older man puts his arm around the younger one.
“I don’t like to talk about it,” Luzu watches Quackity’s microexpressions as he speaks. “It wasn’t a good one, I was too young and he wasn’t a good man.”
“And Tubbo?”
“He saved me.” Quackity looks up at Luzu, “He was the reason I was able to survive for so long. I wouldn’t have been able to without him.” The duck grabs the fabric of his jacket and grips it as a way to ground himself.
“Were you scared of telling me?”
“I wanted to leave it all behind.” Quackity turns away and gets up from the bed. “I was scared of what you would think after I found out that Tubbo was alive, but I don’t think you’d hate me for not telling you.”
“You’re right.” Luzu follows Quackity, he puts his arms around the younger man and pushes him close. “I couldn’t hate you even if I tried.”
Luzu feels Quackity shaking beneath him, he tries to comfort Quackity as best as he can. Quackity turns around in Luzu’s embrace and hugs the taller man hard.
“I love you Quacks.” He whispered into the smaller’s hair. Luzu heard Quackity mumble something that sounded a lot like ‘I love you too’ and smiled.
They stayed like that for what felt like forever but realistically it was probably only for a few minutes. Quackity broke away from the embrace after hearing the door creek open.
“Sorry but the kids were hungry,” Tubbo says in an apologetic tone. “I’ll get out fast.”
“No no it’s fine.” Quackity brushes the remnants of tears from his eyes. “We were done so it's fine.” Luzu watches Quackity carefully, he keeps one of his hands on the duck’s waist.
Tubbo nods and starts making food in the kitchen, the children gathering around him to watch him cook. The two men watch the children in the kitchen, Pepito grabs the eggs and gives them to Tubbo while Sunny grabs some vegetables from her bag.
Luzu helps Quackity sit down on the bed again. Quackity talks about Arin, he asks Luzu if he has any idea of where the AI was stored, Luzu says no.
By the time they’re finished with the conversation Tubbo comes up to them with plates in his hand.
“Here’s lunch, I know you didn’t get breakfast but it’s kinda late for that.” The young man chuckles a bit before handing both the older men their plates. “It’s just an omelet, I don’t really know how to cook all that much.”
“Because I cooked for you all the time,” Quackity says while eating the food on his plate, he notices the little eggs eating at the small table Tubbo had made, they seemed to be satisfied with their food.
“You actually cooked?” Luzu asks surprised “How come you never cooked for me?”
“Because you never trusted me to cook for you.” Quackity sounds offended. “You always thought I would burn the kitchen for some reason.”
“To be fair dad, you did burn something in the kitchen once.”
“See.”
“I was 18 and it was the first time I had seen an electric stove before give me a break!”
His son and lover (?) laugh at him, they’re both happy at least, that’s all he could really wish for. Quackity would’ve done anything for a moment like this a few months ago.
He’s just glad he got it.
He’ll talk about marriage later, he’ll let Luzu and the kids hang out a bit more before the big day.