Chapter Text
Fresh was excited to find out that the neighbourhood had kids their age, granted, moving houses it a lot of work and a lot of boxes. They ended up meeting one of them while they doodled chalk drawings onto the wooden fence, he was a short black skeleton with black clothes, normally Fresh would wonder why he was wearing such dark clothes on a nice sunny day but they didn’t question it, they were just excited to have a neighbour that wasn’t an old person.
(Fresh’s definition of an old person was someone in their 30’s)
They stood on an old milk crate to greet their neighbour, “Hey! It’s nice ta meet ya Neighbour! Do you play video games? What school do ya go to? I might be going there as well!”
The other skeleton flinched and his red eyes dart to him, looks like he was in the middle of throwing something in the red bin, his nose and blue cheek markings scrunched up before he turned and headed back inside, leaving Fresh a little confused. Maybe they caught him at a bad time? Well they tried to not dwell on it too long, they were sure to meet him again soon!
~~
Funnily enough, it was their mums meeting which causes them and him to meet.
While Fresh and their mum were moving stuff out of the truck, it was then that they met Error and his mum, the two older women hit it was pretty quickly while Fresh observed Error who was hiding behind his mum, still wearing that same jacket and sweatpants.
“Come on sweetie, be nice to our new neighbours” His mum gently coaxed him.
Error’s eyes flickered over to Fresh for a brief moment before looking back at the ground, “H-hello..”
That alone was enough to make Fresh beam.
While both their parents chatted, Fresh decided to go over to Error and talk to him.
“What video games do ya play?” They asked him.
He scrunches up his nose hole, “C-consoles..”
“Dat’s so cool!” They remarked, Error flinching, balling his hands into fists, “Can I come over and play?”
“Don-n’t know..” Error answers vaguely.
Fresh did find the way he talked a little odd but they didn’t care, they found Error to be interesting, they want to get to know him more.
~~
Fresh did end up finding out that they both go to the same school, though Error was one grade lower than him so they didn’t end up in the same classrooms but they would always end up finding him on the school’s oval, under the same tree and so the two would eat together.
They noticed that he always ate the same food, A chocolate bar, blueberry muffin, some green grapes and a whitebread crustless sandwich with cucumbers, sometimes the muffin would be replace with some yoghurt but it was always the same.
“Why do you always have crustless?” Fresh asked them.
Error under that large school hat, nibbled on his sandwich, “It tas-tes bad”
“Mum says they’re good for you, but I dunno, I just feed them to the birds” Fresh just shrugs before throwing their crusts onto the oval, birds flocking to take a bite.
Fresh might not be the brightest skeleton around but even they could sense that Error was lonely, no one other than them came to see him, he simply sat as he watched the other kids run around and play. Error didn’t seem like the extremely shy kid, he welcomed Fresh when they showed up they first time, just quiet and awkward, they couldn’t help but be a little confused with what’s up with him.
“Ya want my twizzlers?” Fresh offered, watching Error scrunch up his nose.
“No.” He said before adding, “T-hank you..”
Weird, most kids would kill for a twizzler, Fresh just shrugged and grabbed a handful, “More for me I guess”
He’s a strange kid for sure.
~~
“Hey mum, Why is uh Error like that?” Fresh asked her one day, sitting at the counter.
“Like what?” She spoke as she preps his lunchbox for tomorrow.
“He talks funny, he wears the same clothes and eats the same food, is he broken?”
“Fresh that’s not nice” their mum sternly said, shooting a motherly glare that shuts them right up, “He’s not broken, he’s autistic”
“oh, what’s that mean?”
“Well...to put it simply..” She tries to find the right words, “His brain developed differently, he might be more sensitive to taste, touch or textures than like you, he just..thinks a little different”
Huh, Fresh thought to themselves, so that’s why Error was like that, he’s just autistic, granted they didn’t really know what that fully means but they were a curious kid, they wanted to know more about Error.
~~
Fresh pops their head over the fence, seeing Error walk out of his house and onto the pathway.
“Hey E!” Fresh greets, “My mum told me you’re autistic”
“I am..” Error replies, his nose twitches before turning away and walking off, “Mum says I’m per-rfect the wa-ay I am”
Fresh decides to follow Error, walking next to him who looked back at them with slight confusion.
“Is being autistic the reason you do that nose thingy?” They spoke, shoving their hands in their pockets.
“I can’t—can’t help it” He answers and Fresh accepts that for an answer.
Then the two fall into a comfortable silence, Error fiddled with the pull strings of his jacket while Fresh followed.
“Where are you going?” Fresh then chimed up.
Error doesn’t respond.
“Can I come?” They asked.
Error looks at them before continuing to walk, “Okay”
Fresh smiled, happily following alongside him, neither one speaking up, Fresh did have a lot of questions but they are curious to where Error was going and didn’t want to distract him or make him regret allowing them. Passing along many houses the two ended up in a field and within that field was a park.
The park itself was small, but to a child it was like a whole new galaxy, monkey bars, curly slides, rocking animals, those weird plastic ball things you’d walk on that were hung by chains and! And!! who could forget a spinny that you were spin so fast you’d throw up in three seconds flat.
Fresh was in awe, looking around, “Wow! How come I’ve never seen this before!”
Error doesn’t answer, walking past them, leaving them a little confused when he passes by all the cool playground stuff.
“Uh..Error?”
The black skeleton goes over to the small sandbox and kneels down, digging a hole. Fresh looks at the playground then back at Error, walking up to him, kneeling along side him.
“You play in the sandbox?” They asked.
“Yes” He answers as he pushes and pulls sand around, “I don’t—don’t like the soun-ds of metal”
“Sounds of metal? But it’s quiet here”
Fresh tries to focus and listen, wondering what he meant and...if they really listen they can hear the metal chains on the swings, it’s faint and they have to really strain what they’re hearing but it’s there, is that what Error meant about the sounds?
“So...you have like superpower hearing?” Fresh spoke up, doodling in the sand.
“It’s a dis-disablity, I don’t like it” He explains, digging a hole deep enough to put and entire fist down it, “It hu-rts my head”
“huh, can’t you listen to something else?”
“I am listen-ing to you”
That was nice to hear from him, Fresh smiled before glancing down at the hole, watching him pick up some rocks and drop them into the hole.
Fresh picks up a smooth rock and offers it to Error, he looks at it before carefully taking it and shoving it into the hole.
“Are we burying treasure?”
“Yes”
“Oh!! let me help!” They offered.
“Make your o-wn hole” Error bluntly said to them, so quickly that Fresh took a moment to register it.
Fresh does so without question, digging with their hands into the sand, digging like an excited dog which startles Error a bit, who gives a flat-lip expression before looking at the tiny grains of sand and tracing his finger in it, watching the specks move around.
“Why d-o you ha-ng around me?” Error quietly spoke up.
“Because I think ya cool E” Fresh spoke with no hesitation.
His nose twitches, “Be-cause I have games?”
“No, well, it’s cool ya game, we have something in common!” Fresh replies, smiling, “I wanna get to know ya more and the more I know, the interestin’ ya get”
Error pauses, a low hum escapes his throat, Fresh tilts their head,waiting for him to reply but he doesn’t. This doesn’t bother Fresh too much as they go back to digging, the two enjoying their time together under the skies begins to go orange.
Suffice to say, Error might be warming up to them as he hummed the entire walk home with them.