Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Henry never in his 14 years of life has he ever felt so much frustration and annoyance, since that time he was being bullied in school by the most mediocre bullies ever. 

In front of him, his kinda-ish mentor and kinda-ish friend were holding hands. It wouldn’t be such a weird or annoying thing really, like he had basically seen them straddle each other before, if only they would stop looking at each other with soft eyes and an even softer smile seemingly ignoring his existence.

Steve, Garrett and him were having a discussion about possible tweaks or improvements on their soon to be released new game called Block City Battle Buddies, which meant that it was a very important meeting. 

But it had been 7 hours and the meeting had gone to basically nowhere, since every time Steve talked about a possible improvement in the design he would slowly lose his train of thought and shut up in favor of staring at Garrett's side profile or eyes. While every time Garrett would suggest an adamantly cool new mechanic he would get shy and all tongue tied because of Steve’s stare. 

But what was worse was that every time Henry opened his mouth and talked about refinements in the code. Steve would discreetly slide his hand to the side and connect his and Garrett's pinky, only for Garrett to fully connect the hands and intertwined fingers. Making them both look at each other, making them both fucking get distracted and not listend to a thing he was saying.

Henry slams his hands on the table making them flinch and look at him. “Guys! Focus! We can’t delay the game release any longer since the gaming store really needs the money!!” 

“Ohh don’t worry muchacho! GarGar and I already have a super amazing plan to keep that old place floating even without the game being successful.” Steve replied with an easy voice, almost cocky. His free hand on Henry’s shoulder as to appease him.

It honestly made Henry want to crash out more. He knew these dumbasses (affectionately) were pathetic at being adults in the real world. Sure, Steve was super competent in the Overworld and Garret was still alive after years of being still here, but it really meant nothing when Garrett had called his sister at 2 am in the morning asking if cereal had an expiration date. Only for Steve to do the same a day later at the same hour about how to cook carrots without a magical furnace and coal.

Don’t get Henry wrong he was very supportive of their relationship or whatever they had going on. It was just that he didn’t think that it would be good for them to be together, since they seem to be messes respectively. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if that was combined.

“And what’s that plan?” It shocked Henry slightly how much that had sounded like his sister, but he mentally shrugged it off and looked pointedly at them waiting for an answer cross armed.

Garrett grinned and side hugged him. “Kid, it’s fine. We are two grown ups! We know what we are doing.” He lets him go and wipes non-existent dirt from his pink jacket. “Anyways wanna go grab some food at our place?”

“Your… place? As in together…” Henry asked slowly, pointing at them both. They just shrug and walk to the door waiting for him before locking the door. The walk is quiet to the small house, inside is surprisingly clean and kept together although somewhat crowded.

Steve bumps his shoulder playfully “Do ya dig the place, boy. Me and GarGar did a total deep clean and remodelation. Cool, right?”

Henry is slightly taken back and nods as Garrett and Steve force him into, possibly, Garrett’s bedroom. “You get comfy, while we make dinner.” Steve says cheerily as he drags Garrett with him to the kitchenette closing the door. 

Henry mentally maps the nearest escape route from what he remembers of the house and puts 911 on speed dial in case of the, very likely, emergency and waits anxiously.

Only that the emergency never comes. The small house was completely silent and it was not helping Henry’s nerves. Taking a breath he opens the door and discreetly walks to the small corridor into the entrance of the living room.

In front of him at the kitchen counter there was Garrett and Steve in aprons, the counter was a mess with an absurd amount of plates on the sink that weren't there before. On the stove there were two pots with stuff boiling, everything seemed good but chaotic.

Then Steve yelps as he was burned by touching the handle of the left pot without a towel. Henry was about to rush there and check on him, when Garrett lowers the heat of both pots and quickly guides him to the sink and turns on the faucet. Letting the cold water run on Steve's wound.

“My god… I forgot that in this world's heat acted differently…” Steve says hand still under the cool stream as Garrett yet again focuses on the pots. “That was so dumb of me…”

“You are not dumb. You lived in another world where things were different and now you are just relearning stuff…” Garrett pauses and grabs his shoulder with both hands. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. When I was in the Overworld you helped me learn about the things that were obvious in that world, so of course I will help you to learn about things that are obvious in this world.” Henry can’t really see what expression Garrett had made, but it must have been quite gentle and honest for Steve to hug him that tightly.

“If I can’t you will, and if you can’t I will…” Garrett whispered softly and to that Henry took it as a queue to leave them be.

After a few minutes dinner was ready, simple buttered noodles and Steve's hand was wrapped by a burn dressing. Maybe Henry wasn’t giving them enough credit, even if both of them were chaos magnets at least they could rely on each other to get out. Since they seemed like equal matches in every sense of the way.

With a big grin Henry playfully asks “Soooo when are you guys getting married?” Then taking a forkful of his food.

They look at each other confused and Steve replies bewildered “What do you mean kid? He is my best friend.” Garrett nodded along in agreement.

“This dumbasses!!! (affectionately)” Henry mentally screams, still politely smiling.

Chapter Text

She is a busy woman in every sense of the word, but lately it has been even more stressful adding three part time jobs in her repertoire. However she was not going to quit now after her impromptu trip to the Overworld it finally made her realize that she could follow her passion for animals and not have to jump from job to job. 

She just needed some support, more money, and a shitton of trust in herself. Driving to her newest part time job, when she sees Steve and Garrett having a mild argument on the sidewalk. She slowly stops the car in front of them but they seem to not notice continuing in their very ‘important’ discussion.

“Dude! I didn’t mean that! I see the potential of Vanessa ending with Julio instead of the asshole of Francisco, but she a hundred percent is destined to be with Adriana.” Steve crosses his arms and scoffs annoyed, finishing with “That is if only the writers weren’t such cowards and feared success!!”

Garrett rolls his eyes “That is so toxic! Adriana tried to poison Vanessa to steal her husband…”

“THAT'S WHY IS CALLED TOXIC YURI, MAN!! THE NAME SAYS IT ALL!!” Steve screamed, grabbing both of Garrett's shoulders and shaking him a little. Garrett seemed about to reply when he noticed Dawn and wave at her, making Steve stop and turn around to her.

If you asked Dawn this wasn’t the weirdest squabble that the couple had ever had nor the first. Hell, they would quarrel for almost everything, both having stupidly big prides and even bigger egos. A constant dick measuring contest to calm their inner masculinity. To be honest at this point she just assumed that was how they flirt and stopped questioning it.

She smiles and waves back, from the inside of the car. “What are you guys doing?” Steve and Garrett look at each other and seemingly shrug together. 

“Me and Steve are discussing ships and our preferred endgames of the new telenovela we are watching together.” Garrett’s voice was almost too professional, as if shipping was an art to be marvelled at and Steve gently nodding in agreement would make anyone question if they were actually pretentiously discussing ships instead of classical art pieces.

Dawn slowly nods, frowning her eyebrows slightly. “Anyways… wanna join me in tidying and maintaining Chuglass’ park?”

“There’s a park?!?” Both Steve and Garrett reply immediately looking at each other then at her, making Dawn take it as an affirmative and unlocking her car’s back doors. Steve and Garrett excitedly enter the car putting their seatbelts on.

The drive to the park was uneventful, thankfully, as she parks on the abandoned parking lot of the park they are met with a sight that Dawn could only describe as the equivalent of a plant invasion.

Garrett and Steve quickly go to inspect the park's entrance while Dawn stays watching next to her car. They were poking and touching every fence and sign from the entrance, it was like watching over two overly excited 11 year olds.

“Now I understand why I didn’t know there was a park. This place looks apocalyptic, man.” Garrett leans on an old fence and it immediately breaks making him fall, but luckily Steve catches him.

Dawn sighs rubbing her neck tiredly “It used to be Chuglass' biggest pride, but after a few different town mayors this place was soon forgotten.” She opens her car's trunk and pulls out some gardening equipment. “They have been talking in the past few days about restoring it but nobody has been willing to do so much manual labor.” 

She hands them the gardening equipment. “So why did you take it, dude?” Steve asked putting on gloves as Garrett was opening and closing the pruning shears like a toddler seeing scissors for the first time.

She takes the shears of Garrett’s hands softly “I needed the money. It's also not that bad helping the community.” As she sees how they are all geared up, they enter the abandoned park. Deciding to split up into sections to make it easier.

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It wasn’t that bad, Dawn had almost finished her part, the park might have looked from far away as messy and too much of a hassle but once she had put in the work it was easier than it seemed. Finishing with the shaping of the last bush she decided that maybe they should finish here.

Walking to Garrett’s section she hears Steve's voice. “Man, I don’t think you should do that to the flower bed. Maybe you shoul-”

“Dude, shut up! If you think you are so much better than me in gardening then be my fucking guest!” Garrett explodes, throwing his shears onto the ground.

Steve seems to frown and looks at him. “What is wrong with you?! I was just giving you some suggestions!”

“What is wrong with me?!” Garrett seems to get angrier and grabs Steve by his collar. “You have been non-stop nagging me to do everything your way!! I’m sorry if my attempts aren’t fit for the legendary Steve!!!”

They stare like that for a second then a minute in simmering silence. Dawn was trying to think of a way to deescalate the situation since she didn’t want her friends to break up or fight each other. They would argue but never to this extreme. 

Just as she opened her mouth to say something. “I am sorry, Gargar…” Garrett lets Steve go and exhales softly. “It's fine or whatever… I know my attempts leave a lot to desire… We still have to finish with th-”

Steve grabs his arm and Garrett looks at him. Dawn assumes Steve's eyes were full of honesty and conviction since so was his voice. “Your attempts are enough and I fully trust you to do anything.” 

There was a slight pause, but he still continued “It’s my fault… It has been so long since I was alone shouldering and doing everything, that I have become too controlling… I am sorry…”

Garrett nods and smiles softly “I am also sorry for screaming back at you… my insecurities made me so angry at myself that I directed them to ya…”

Dawn can’t help but smile fondly as her friends hug. They might scuffle like kids from time to time, but they knew how to put their pride aside and have an honest one on one.

After that Steve lets Garrett deal with his half himself as an exercise to learn how to let go of control and Garrett starts being more present for Steve so he doesn’t have to shoulder too much on his own. While Dawn happily watches jealousy to not have someone to communicate her struggles as they both do, maybe she should lean on her friends more…

They finish the park’s restoration in a week. As people come over for the park's grand reopening she watches as Steve and Garrett are seated on a park bench side by side utterly enraptured in another of their silly debates.

“Nooo! Marcus cannot be the masked killer! It was his dear sister who died! He would never!” Garrett said, poking Steve on the chest.

Steve scoffs “You only say that because he is hot!!”

“Even If he were evil I would still find him hot!!” Garrett declared in an absurdly honest way.

Dawn chuckles they might do silly things but are surprisingly emotionally intelligent. They immediately turn towards her, as if they were preschoolers plotting mischief and being accidentally found out by their parents. “You guys really should have your lovers' quarrel in private.”

They look at each other then at her confused. “We aren’t dating. He is my best friend.” Garrett replied honestly and Steve next to him agreed.

Maybe Dawn had given them too much credit for being emotionally intelligent and good communicators… They really were just like kids…