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Jaron sat next to his teammates, not really paying attention to what they were saying, instead playing Connect 4 on his communicator again.
It was fun, and he felt like it, and there probably wasn't a life-changing conversation going on. As far as he knew, nothing important was happening around the server. Nothing that affected him or his teammates.
But then he was being poked insistently, so he had to tune into what was going on. At least he'd finished his game first.
“What's going on?” He swatted away Planet's hand, tossing his communicator on the ground to deal with later. It's not like it would break from a little fall.
“Did you hear anything we just said?” Bacon definitely knew the answer to that already, judging by the look he was giving Jaron. His bad for doing something else.
“Was it important?” If it was, then Jaron might feel a little bad. Probably not, but there was a chance!
“We're talking about giving you away to Mapicc and Ro,” Planet said cheerfully. Jaron kicked them and they yelped.
“So we're not talking about that,” Bacon rolled his eyes. “Zam called Planet weird for saying we're not friends and they're complaining about it.”
“Why is it Zam's problem?” As far as Jaron was concerned, it wasn't anyone's problem what they were as a team. They were a team, why did it matter? Answer: it didn't.
“It's not, that's what I'm saying,” Planet pulled their legs up onto the pillow pile they were all sitting on. They criss-crossed their legs and huffed. “He was really annoying about it.”
“Something about why would we team if we don't actually care that much,” Bacon filled in. He sounded about as annoyed as Planet about it.
“Do we have to be friends to team?” Jaron made a face. “That's not a requirement.”
The fact that they weren't friends was probably why they were functional, actually. It was kinda how they all were.
Besides, there wasn't any requirement for a team, last Jaron checked. There wasn't a rule about that. Not that he'd follow it if there was, but there wasn't.
“Apparently it is,” Planet rolled their eyes. “Apparently you're supposed to actually care. Like, in that weird exhausting way.”
“Ah, that way,” Jaron nodded. The way that was normal and that pretty much everyone else had. Something that would feel like a stab through the heart if something unfortunate happened.
It wasn't like they didn't care about each other. They just didn't feel some internal bond like everyone else did. Or they did, but not “properly” or permanent. Theirs was in a different way.
“It still isn't Zam's problem.” Bacon shifted in place. “She can mind her own business.”
“I said that we're teammates, and that's it, and he said that wasn't how it worked. That's how allies worked.” Planet sighed frustratedly, fidgeting with one of the smaller pillows.
“I guess we're allies.” Jaron shrugged. He grabbed one of the other small pillows and lazily tossed it at Planet before they could throw theirs at him. “I didn't know that.”
Throwing Jaron's pillow back, Planet snickered. Bacon snorted, sending Planet's pillow back at them when they tossed it.
“Neither did I.” Bacon grabbed a pillow too now, holding it like a shield. “I think I would betray if we were friends. I'm not doing that.”
“I'm fine with it, but we're not,” Planet stretched out their arms, antennae dipping. “We can be accomplices or something though.”
“That makes it sound like we're criminals.” Jaron pointed out. It would be accurate, actually. “I'd have quit by now if we were friends. I'm at the ‘nope’ point.”
At first sure, he'd go with it, but after a month or two he definitely would've hit the weird point where friends suddenly felt like a disease.
Not quite that, but there wasn't really another way to describe the thing that twisted and flipped in his chest and made being around exhausting and gross. Good thing he didn't have to explain that.
“We should commit more crimes!” Planet lit up, a grin splitting their face. It dropped again after. “Sometimes it feels like we're actually wrong or like, bad weird.”
“We're not,” Bacon said immediately. “We can do whatever we want. I don't want friends at all, you only do sometimes, and Jaron doesn't care. It does not matter.”
That summed up that part approximately. Not the second half, but the actual friendship part. The Three Heart Trio dynamic on friends, summed up as not something they wanted with each other.
Sometimes Jaron went with the label of friends because it was easier and explaining it every time was more trouble than it was worth when he was just trying to get something. Or getting away from situations he didn't like.
Jaron cracked his fingers, looking Bacon dead in the eyes because he kept complaining about how loud it was. Jaron also kept talking like he wasn't doing that, ignoring how Bacon looked like he wanted to kill him.
“We could pretend to date, I think they'd leave us alone if we started being weird at spawn.” It would definitely be funny, with only a fifty percent chance of being killed, if he was generous. Realistically it was a seventy percent chance.
Planet started giggling, and Bacon threw a pillow full force at him.
He didn't raise his hands in time to stop it from hitting him square in the face. He went falling backwards with a yelp. That was an overreaction.
“I definitely wouldn't date you guys.” Bacon said flatly. When Jaron struggled upright again, Bacon deadpan stared at him. He stared back.
“Why not?” Planet stuck their lip out in a pout. “Do you hate us? Jaron, I think he hates us.”
“We should kick him out of the team,” Jaron suggested. “We can be the Three Heart Duo instead and make everyone at spawn uncomfortable.”
“And Bacon can be alone forever.” Planet stuck out their tongue at Bacon, antennae swaying.
“You guys are stupid.” Bacon sighed, but was suppressing a grin, the corners of his mouth tightening. “I've copyrighted the name already, you guys can't use it without me. I'll sue you for all of your hearts.”
“You'd kill us for copyright reasons?” Jaron made a face, then laughed.
“I thought we were best friends,” Planet gave a wounded look. “And we were supposed to be stuck together forever.”
“So we're not saying that,” Bacon threw his communicator this time, and Planet shrieked, swatting it away and killing Jaron's eardrums.
“Bro, my ears,” Jaron winced, elbowing Planet as hard as he could. “I'm going to sue you for hearing damage.”
“I was joking,” Planet elbowed back. “And Bacon tried to kill me!”
“You're fine,” Bacon rolled his eyes. “We just said we're not friends, and now you're legally binding us?”
“I'm not—” Planet huffed, crossing their arms. “I hate you. You're actually the worst.”
“When did we all become lawyers?” Jaron was pretty sure his ears were fine now, but that hurt. Planet was very loud. “I thought we were petitioning against Zam having opinions about us.”
“When were we doing that?” Bacon made a face.
“Before this.”
“I thought we were petitioning against friendship.” Planet added in. “Or something. Because we all don't like it.”
“I mean at first it's fine,” Jaron pointed out. “It's later that I don't like it.”
“I like it sometimes and then only like doing friendship things without it.” Planet shrugged. “It's fun.”
“It's overrated,” Bacon said, adjusting the stuff around him. “And overhyped.”
Planet hummed agreement. Jaron shrugged.
Honestly, it was easier not to go through it at all. Even if Jaron did want to at first, people usually didn't like hearing the whole “yeah, I don't care as much as you'd want me to” shtick, just because it sounded bad.
Friendship was associated with constant contact and caring that turned into exhaustion so fast that Jaron couldn't get himself to care for as much. Planet was the same, actually, because they fluctuated so much in caring like that.
Jaron much preferred whatever this team was, where they existed and hung out and did whatever, sticking together in their own weird way.
Planet got a mischievous look in their eyes that Jaron only caught after reaching for his communicator. That meant it was too late.
A blanket was tossed over him, and judging by muffled noise across from him, the same happened to Bacon. Same blanket, Jaron was pretty sure. But he was too busy trying to adjust to actually pay attention to that.
And then Planet was there in the middle, giggling like they'd achieved something more than trapping their teammates.
“What was the point of that?” Bacon asked flatly, from the other side. “Literally what was the point?”
“‘Cause I wanted to,” Planet stretched out. “And I'm tired.”
“So you're forcing me and Jaron to be tired too?”
“Mhm!”
Jaron snorted, adjusting to look at his communicator again. “I'm going back to playing Connect 4.”
“If course you are.” Bacon sighed. If Jaron craned his neck, he could see Bacon shifting to see anyways.
“I'm watching,” Planet decided, like they hadn't just said they were tired. They moved around until they were able to hook their head over his shoulder like he was a living headrest.
“Okay?” Jaron didn't know why that came out as a question actually, it just did. Maybe he was tired too. “If you make me lose, I'm leaving you here.”
Planet only scoffed, and Bacon had managed to find a way to see too, laying on his arms like there weren't pillows around.
Yeah, Jaron preferred whatever this was, whatever they were, over some friendship or something. Not that he'd randomly say that, but he did!
Did it look like friendship? Maybe, but it really wasn't. None of them felt the bond they were meant to, and they could do whatever they wanted. Even if that meant leaving because they got tired of it.
Jaron doubted that would happen, especially considering they'd found a way to function together that was better than anything else it could've been. He liked being around them, they liked being around him.
It didn't have to be friendship, he decided. He'd decided that a long time ago.
So he settled in and started up Connect 4 again.