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April Fools’ Day has always been something of an event for Jack Bright. When he was young, he and his siblings would pull fun, harmless pranks on each other just to get each other to laugh - and then Sarah had died, and TJ had nearly died being forced to bring her back, and Jack had sort of died trying to get him out of containment, so the holiday had faded into the back of his mind.
Once he’d been released, however, he’d wanted any distraction from his eventual fate as a sapient piece of indestructible jewelry who would have to live through the end of the world. He was, to the best of his knowledge, going to be alone forever; he’d believed for a fact that death would be the end of every relationship for him - so there was no diversion quite as interesting as watching several thousand superballs fly down the halls of Site-19. He’d amassed quite a list of banned pranks, most fictional, some not - and then he’d met Simon, and the list began to gather proverbial dust on the proverbial shelf. After Simon had died, he’d thought about dusting the List off, but he’d been too tired to really do anything about it.
The rules shine fresh in his mind on this sunny April morning as he chases a laughing Elias around the dorm with a Lego model of SCP-682, having more fun than he’s had in years.
“The Keter is loose!” he calls, giggling as he dashes around the coffee table. “You’d better run, Eli, the Keter is loose!”
“Oh, no!” Elias calls back in mock-fear, executing a practiced combat roll over the couch and scampering past the TV. “Don’t eat me!”
Jack just giggles again, catching Elias in a hug the next time he passes the couch, falling sideways in a tangled pile of limbs and more than a few kisses. He finally catches his breath, looking up as Elias leans down to kiss him back. “Can’t we just stay here forever?“ Elias murmurs as they pull apart.
“Forever’s an awfully long time,” Jack responds, pulling him back into a tender hug and simply enjoying his cozy, welcoming warmth. “But I’d settle for the rest of the day.”
The rest of the morning goes much the same; Elias absolutely wipes the floor with both Lachlan and Jack in a pillow fight due to his unfair advantage of eighteen years of Chaos Insurgency field training; Lachlan introduces Elias to the centuries-old tradition of the rickroll once they’re all tired out, catching their breaths on the carpet and recounting their wins and losses; Jack’s too overwhelmed by the sheer amount of love pouring in from the other two to even form words, just beaming with joy as he curls into both of their arms for a group cuddle. If he didn’t know exactly what it would entail, he’d wish this moment would never end.
“I love you guys so much,” Elias happily murmurs, a big, goofy grin on his face as he snuggles into Lachlan’s side. “Just… so much. I…”
And he’s asleep, trapping Lachlan underneath his fluffy pajamas. Lachlan can’t help but chuckle. There’s no worry of him decaying today; it’d happened two weeks ago, so he’s in that sweet spot between getting used to the new body and worrying about the next. He just runs his hand through Elias’ equally-fluffy hair and drifts off to sleep beside him.
Jack can feel himself drifting off as well, the warmth of the other two lulling him to sleep. For once, he doesn’t try to fight it.