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Brady had never felt so stressed in his life.
Mostly because of the whole ‘Tanner and Lela in the real world’ thing, but also because Tanner– as in that Tanner– was in his beach hideout, touching anything and everything. The man was like a hurricane of destruction and fast talking, but man. He was so innocent, Brady really couldn’t be mad at him for any of this.
It could, however, become more of an issue if Tanner stayed for longer. Nobody knew the answer to that.
“What do these do?!”
“Those are-” Surfboard parts. “...-Mittens! From the future, yeah…” He placed them on Tanner’s hands. “Make sure you hold onto ‘em tight.”
Tanner exclaimed with childlike wonder at the objects in his hands. Shaking them against the breeze. Brady chuckled at how well this distraction worked and how much fun the other boy seemed to be having over such a simple little thing.
This also delayed Tanner’s eventual wreckage of the place.
Brady’s brief relaxation was cut short by the sound of footsteps. His heart might as well jump out of his chest.
A knock on the wall, and his mom was the guest.
“Brady? I’m ordering out tonight.”
Exhaling deeply, Brady felt less terrified…
…And then it hit him.
“Oh, hello?” Mom took note of the other boy in the room. “I’ve never seen anyone else up here with Brady before,” she chuckled. “And who might you be?”
As his mom shook hands with Tanner (still holding the surfboard parts), Brady panicked his mind jumping to how he’d been introducing him all day. “Um. M-My cousin! Dolf! From… Iceland…”
Mom pursed her lips. “You don’t have any cousins, hon. Especially none from Iceland.”
“...Right.”
Real bozo moment to make up a cousin to his actual mother.
She brought her attention back to the other male. “How about I let him introduce himself?”
“Oh. That’s not-”
“Hi! I’m Tanner!” He beamed, stretching his arm out for another handshake, for some reason. “Tanner Lewis Ready Danger!”
“Tanner…” Her eyes wandered to Brady’s and then to the wall behind him. It had plastered on one of his many Wet Side Story posters. This one proudly displaying the text ‘Andrew Hart as Tanner’ , with a very familiar-looking face attached to it. “...It’s very nice to meet you, Tanner.”
“Hehe! The pleasure’s all mine, Mrs. Brady!”
“Right! Cool!” A bead of sweat formed on Brady’s forehead. His mom and a fictional character interacting couldn’t be good, but he wasn’t about to find out. “A-Anyway! Pizza would sound really good right now, mom, thanks! …Like, right now! Right now-right now!”
He tried to subtly escort her out the shack as Tanner waved goodbye to her.
“...Brady, I think your bike has a flat tire,” she said. “Let’s take a look, if you’ll excuse us, Tanner…” That made Tanner wave to her once more.
“Aw, man?” Brady exclaimed. Quickly, he got his tablet and handed it to Tanner. “Here. Hit the green pigs with the little birds.”
“Ooh!”
Brady and his mom went back to the ground. He took a look at his vehicle.
“...Huh… My bike looks fine…?”
“It is. You’re acting a bit off. I just wanted to talk to you in private…”
“...Wh-What’s there to talk about?” Brady laughed nervously. “A-About pizza for dinner again? ‘Cuz I’d be fine with burgers-”
“About this Tanner boy…”
His mouth went dry. “You don’t like him? He’s cool! Not a lot going on in the brain department, but hey- I’ve been there.”
“I’m sure he’s nice, but… You bring someone to your private spot for the first time ever… You bring some boy even when you didn’t want to tell Mack about it… You try to pass him off as your cousin… He looks just like the guy from Wet Side Story… I think I know what’s going on here…”
Oh. Oh god.
“...You do?”
“Of course I do.” She claimed. “...You have a boyfriend.”
Brady almost choked on nothing. “Wh- BOYFRIEND?! ” His face was redder than it has ever been from any sunburn. “You- Y-You think Tanner’s my-”
“Don’t worry! I support you a hundred percent! You’ll always be my little Brady-Boy…” Mom held an arm around him affectionately. “I’m just a little concerned...”
“...About what?”
“That you’re maaayyybe dating that poor boy just because he looks like the main character from your favorite movie,” she chuckled with a slight shake of the head. “Crazy coincidence that his name is also Tanner. You know that’s not… actually him from the movie, right?”
If only you knew.
“...Y-Yeah. Yeah, I know… We-... We met at film club, a-and we both like that movie…” The gears turned in his head. “H-He’s just in costume right now… Heh…”
“Aw, he likes it as much as you do?! Might as well put a ring on it right now!”
Brady blushed even harder as he got lightly nudged. “ Mooom… ”
Brady’s mom gave her blessing on the ‘relationship’, offering him to bring Tanner over for dinner, and left the scene.
…Okay, so. His face was still burning.
When he went back up to the hideout, he could barely even look Tanner in the eyes.
Tanner was glued to his tablet game. That being said, he still had a question;
“Oh! When did we start dating? Not that I mind, I just wanna know! Hehe!”