Work Text:
A quick moment of reprieve, and a quick type out of an idea in my head has yielded this. Set as Dennis reworks the group. Will could see their dynamics changing, but he hadn’t realized how much they had changed until now. All it took was bubbles, vines, and roarball.
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Will took a deep breath in as he stretched in the tepid morning air, feeling his tension melt away as his muscles pulled. This was a good morning with the sun peaking over the rise of the greenhouse canopy. Dennis had elected to give them all the day off, but from the looks of things he wasn’t the only one who had decided that sleeping in wasn’t in the plans.
The small, initial spike of disappointment quickly dissolved when he hopped down toward where Archie was reclined on the concrete bleachers. The smell of fresh coffee stemmed from his massive bucket of brew he held in his left paw while the right rested down on roarball that he absently rolled about. The rhino glanced behind him and offered a smile to the approaching goat.
“Morning, rook,” he greeted, lightly bumping the offered fist with the back of his coffee-filled paw, “Come to throw a few?”
“No days off,” Will responded, flopping down next to him.
The giggle of the twins brought his attention down to the court. They were romping about rather innocently for once, and he was pleasantly surprised to see them blowing bubbles from the little wands in their hands. A half-empty roarball rack was pulled out on the field, and a neat line of balls lay arranged behind the goal on the far side of the court.
A quick once-over of Archie’s clean shorts, t-shirt, and sneakers told him that his teammate hadn’t gotten much work in yet.
“You done already?” he asked Archie, and the rhino shrugged.
“Not my rack. I got here after he started, now I’m just enjoying the show.”
Will shot him a look as the rhino took a drag of his coffee.
“You got here after who?”
He almost leapt out of his skin when the Komodo manifested from where he had been hung from of the vines above, that now-familiar skin-crawling cackle of absolute joy rumbling from his throat. The twins let out a thrilled squeal as he bounced and leapt around them, snapping his jaw at the bubbles that dared to float into range of his teeth. Cripes he was quick, Will realized with a gulp. What would it be like to be standing against that?
He had played some good games with Modo in more recent weeks, but seeing this demonstration of speed and aggression was…
What was meant to be a gentle nudge from Archie’s elbow was enough to almost knock him over, but it got his attention away from the snapping jaws and leaping lizard below them.
“Why so worried?”
“Why aren’t you?” he pushed back incredulously. Archie looked confused.
“What do mean?”
“You gotta be joking. Just look,” the goat prompted him, gesturing down to the Komodo that was crouched down, front paws held in front of him. Modo’s eyes had fixed onto a large, surviving bubble above him that drifted lazily back and forth in the light breeze and his tongue and tail both wiggled in joy. The saliva-coated teeth glimmered in the rising sun, “You aren’t concerned? It’s not like you’ve ever said anything good about him. You trust him doing that with them?”
The bubble met its fate with a crunch, and Will looked back to the rhino with one hoof still gesturing to the scene below. His face was plainly marked with his incredulity. Archie, to his credit, still actually seemed honestly confused.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Will dropped his paw in exasperation.
“C’mon Archie, it’s not like you have a high opinion of him. You’ve never really said anything good about him and he’s kind of a….”
He trailed off. That was going too far. Did he really have the right to call someone that, especially considering where he sat? Modo had never done anything to him other than make him feel weird.
“Yeah, he’s a freak,” Archie responded bluntly, taking another sip of coffee as he watched his girls.
Will almost felt offended for Modo. Archie said it so dryly as if it was an accepted fact, and it didn’t seem right to talk behind his back so negatively when he wasn’t even engaged with them enough to defend himself. Will himself had no problem with the Komodo, but he did have to admit that he….agreed. That felt so dirty, almost like he had to go down and apologize to the one bouncing around the arena after the bubbles.
“You don’t gotta say it like that,” he actually spoke in Modo’s defense, growing more tense as the rhino chuckled, “We’re supposed to have each other’s back.”
“I don’t think we’re on the same track here, rook,” Archie told him with a half-groan as he reached behind him to set the coffee on the next bleacher seat. He sat up straighter, bouncing the roarball lightly once before holding it with both paws in front of him, “Just sit here and watch for a second. Don’t think about it, just watch.”
Will did.
He watched Modo down below them with the twins, cackling and jumping and darting around after the bubbles that the girls pumped into the air. They were having a field day with him, watching him weave and bobble and chomp at the soapy objects with straight joy and exuberance. He had never seen them act like… kids.
“I still don’t –“
“Keep watching.”
He obeyed, watching his teammate’s body language change when he realized he had caught all the bubbles. Modo took off like a bolt toward the twins, skidding to a stop on his back atop a mess of vines in front of them, mouth panting and tongue lolling while sparkling eyes focused on them upside down.
“He’s a freak,” Archie told him again, and they both kept watching.
One of the girls blew a couple more bubbles from her wand, one of which floated gently ahead and adhered to one of Modo’s pink spikes that rested on his snout. The komodo’s eyes crossed in an attempt to see it, his tail waggling in excitement as he bound back up and bit away from the two. Will could hear his jaw snapping shut while he tried to shake the bubble free, and he was surprised to feel himself smile.
Archie grunted as he stood, bouncing the roarball twice.
“Modo’s a freak.”
The statement was blunt, cut, and dry. An accepted fact. The ball bounced a final time into his paws. Modo finally got the bubble with his tongue and came to a stop with a happy trill. Archie spared him a glance.
“But he’s our freak.”
The rhino launched the ball out toward the court with force, bringing his paws to his snout to shout out:
“JUMP SHOT!”
Modo’s head popped up and bobbed side to side at his call, his body crunching when he saw the roarball.
“Ball! Ball!” is all Will could hear above his own laughter while he watched Modo leap off after where it bounced once. The Komodo jumped up on its second bounce to slap it with his tail amid a backflip, sending it flying across the court and into the hoop. As soon as it hit the ground on the other side Modo was on it, placing it in the line of his already utilized balls on the other side of the goal.
He was back up the stands and crawling amongst the suspended vines high above them not a few second after, his happy growls and purrs telling the goat that he was very much so enjoying himself. Archie sat back down next to him, retrieving his coffee before reclining back.
“We understand each other?” he asked and seemed satisfied at his smaller friend’s nod.
“All I can say after watching that kind of shot is…I’m sure glad Modo’s on our side.”
Archie hummed in agreement. A moment later he nudged the goat.
“Go down and get another ball. The girls got some bubbles left and I wanna see if I can get him to do a hookshot.”
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This was a quick idea, but quite fun to write. I hope I am doing the layers of Modo’s personality justice.
Respectfully,
Eliana