Work Text:
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“Slingshot?” Coil called in that same annoying sing-song tone of voice he’d loved to use. He received a glare back for it before getting a proper response.
Slingshot looked more annoyed than not at the chair pulled up in front of his counter, only mumbling a quiet:
“Afternoon, Coil.”
“Where are your siblings today?”
He’d seen Vinestaff working the register before he walked in, and Shuriken was clearly the one snoring in the back room. Still, the fact that none of them were out except Slingshot was somewhat rare.
“I’m the only one who agrees to take your orders.”
“Bummer.”
“Do you need them for something?”
All of Slingshot’s typical attitude had faded, seeming to suddenly focus more on Coil the moment he’d brought up his siblings. He’d blame some part of it on protective brother instincts.
“Only if you agree to it.”
Coil was giving him puppy-dog eyes, trying to play off some innocent appearance, only to be met with a hardened expression.
“Meaning?”
“I wanted to invite you all out to something,” he continued as if sounding defeated, trying to tug at some heartstrings, “But clearly you don’t wanna. So it’s fine.”
Slingshot hummed, seeming more focused on baking something else than keeping up the conversation by the time Coil said that.
“Slinggg, I know you aren’t that mature. Aren’t you gonna ask?”
“I have work,” he replied to Coil casually, not seeming to have his usual annoyance while talking to him.
“Even if I’m trying to take you on a date?”
That was a partial lie, but planting the idea in Slingshot’s head had the perfect effect.
Slingshot paused mid-motion, glaring down at the oven before running his hands over his face. Chances are he’d made him blush. Which meant Coil had done part of his job right.
He was clearly still processing while answering, mumbling, “If you were taking me on a date, I wouldn’t let you bring my siblings.”
“Well, not right now, but this is just a little prologue thing I wanted to take you to.”
Coil paused, trying to continue the lie with a somewhat obvious tone:
“I figured Vine and Shuriken are strong enough to take it well.”
“If you’re trying to ask me about inviting my siblings to some boxing event, I’m not doing that.”
Phuck, he’d given himself away.
There was still a recovery route, though!
“But wouldn’t you want to come with me?” Coil started trying to blink up at Slingshot, giving the sweetest look he could muster up while adding, “You’d get to see me in the ‘ring’, and I’d be shirtless—”
“Shut up.” Slingshot was already red at the idea, trying to ignore Coil. But he could see it, hidden behind all that glaring was consideration.
Ah, but he didn’t need his free baker getting hurt by coming unprepared.
“They usually make newcomers fight on their first day.” He looked and sounded hesitant while admitting that, trying to rush to do damage control after, “But I could go against you first! And you know, I wouldn’t try to beat you up. Just fake it a bit.”
There went Slingshot’s patience and blush! He hadn’t done it too intentionally, but oh well, that seemed to be the natural consequence of bringing this up to anyone.
“You sure you’re meant to be inviting anyone to this?” Coil could see the other’s raised eyebrow while asking that, with Slingshot leaning harder into the bit:
“Sounds like the sort of place you’re not meant to be telling anyone about.”
“I mean…”
It was the first rule and the second rule; Slingshot didn’t know that! All Slingshot needed to know was that a handsome guy was inviting him out.
“I’m not going to Fight Club.”
“Sling, come on! It’d be a cute little date!”
The deadpan expression he got in return for that wasn’t too surprising, but what was— is that Shuriken seemed to budge into the conversation, wasting no time becoming curious.
“You two talking about Fight Club?” Coil snickered at the expression on Shuriken’s face upon seeing Slingshot nod, watching as the brothers suddenly decided this was a topic they had to talk about.
“Sling- you have to go to Fight Club.”
“No, I don’t?”
“Yeah, you do! That’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen you invited to.”
“It’s a Fight Club— not some cute phight; it’s a Fight Club.”
“He has a good point.” Coil was responding more clearly to Shuriken, saying, “You can’t tell me being invited to Fight Club isn’t an honor.”
Shuriken gave him a glare, as if to signal this wasn’t his fight, before mumbling, “You’re one bad member if you’re telling all of us about it. Remind me, what are the first and second rules?”
Yeah, right, he got it, not his fight.
“See, and that’s why I’m not going,” Slingshot retorted, “I’m not in the mood to get beaten up for thirty minutes and pretend I’m enjoying it.”
Coil could only listen to the bickering continue, only being mildly comforted by the fact that Vinestaff had come in during their argument. Neither of those two acknowledged it, but he did.
“Vine!” He gave her one big smile, redirecting his gaze to her instead of staring at Slingshot, while asking, “You ever watched Fight Club?”
And now he’d become the target of their new argument.
“Vine, ignore him!” Slingshot hadn’t even bothered with being subtle, knowing the two of them were close enough for something like this.
What was that something?
Reaching his hand over the counter, and covering Coil’s mouth, trying to muffle him from speaking.
He could wrangle his way out, but Slingshot was still strong enough for that to be a struggle rather than easy.
“Now why would you mention that to her?” Shuriken was glaring at him before looking back at his sister, “Ignore him. Ignore all of that, actually. He’s joking.”
She only looked confused. It wasn’t often the three of them would be holed up in one big conversation, especially not about a movie like Fight Club. Shuriken loved it, Slingshot thought it was ‘too predictable’—
And to be real, she sort of enjoyed it too. But that wasn’t something she was meant to say aloud, considering how dangerous the other two thought it’d be for her to fight.
Not because she was weak, but having a wooden arm and being over six feet does look intimidating.
“Wait, why?” She was trying to restart the conversation as if she was clueless, barely hiding her excitement.
If Slingshot had mentioned it, it’d be normal.
If Shuriken brought it up, he only wanted to do a rewatch with her.
If Coil, the one person she knew who was into underground boxing, was talking about Fight Club— he was part of it!
“He’s trying to manipulate you.”
Slingshot was being overdramatic, ignoring how Coil had licked at his hand with it over his mouth; his reaction gave away the action happening at all.
Shuriken only went, “I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Oh my gosh-” Her eyes lit up. No, this whole thing was right up her alley.
“Coil, you know a Fight Club?”
That got a groan out of Slingshot, releasing the other with a quiet chide about how nasty he was. Coil was taking pride in his work; not his fault he’d chosen to put his hand there.
“I may know a guy or two.”
Shuriken’s sigh was a bit too audible, but in all truth— both him and Vinestaff looked equally excited.
“I was thinking of taking your brother,” Coil continued, ignoring the small ‘he’s not’ Slingshot added while he spoke, “And inviting you two. But, you know, it’s all up to whether or not he allows you to. Not really my choice.”
“How come it’s up to him?”
“‘Cause he’s the one I invited. He can invite you two all he wants.”
For someone who sounded like he didn’t want his sister to go, Shuriken’s behavior had gone right back into that pleading attitude without a second thought.
“Sling, you have to let us go!” Vinestaff was quick to join her brothers behind the counter, somewhat tugging on Slingshot’s arm. He was trying to be more productive and mature than the two of them, but that wouldn’t last long.
Coil hid his snickering with his hand, seeing how Shuriken had gone to Slingshot’s other side to join the pestering:
“It’ll only be for one fight! Then we can watch Coil for the rest of it.”
“Shirtless, by the way.”
“Shut up!” Okay, well, yikes. Both Shuriken and Vinestaff were quick to leave him out of their sibling quarrels.
It still turned Slingshot red whenever he added that part, nice.
“Vine, I don’t know if they’d let you in, though—” Coil thought on how to word his sentence properly before settling on, “You definitely fit all the criteria for it; it’s jus’ I don’t see girls there often.”
“I’ll say I’m a guy.”
Fine by him then! He gave her a small smile before watching the two of them continue trying to pressure Slingshot into letting them go.
“You know me and Shuriken could put up a good fight!”
“Exactly, we’re not that weak!”
Everyone in that trio had the build for it if Coil were to keep things real with them. Vinestaff was just an absolute tank, and even if the other two were smaller, they had the strength for it.
Coil seemed much more reluctant to interject this time around— but he did, adding, “Come on, Sling, please?”
Slingshot’s hands had paused on the dishes he was trying to wash, and all three of them sat in silence with nothing but the beeping oven before he sighed.
“We can try it once.”
That worked!
His fake pleading finally worked!
There was a shared look of victory on their faces, especially when Coil started discussing the scheduling with them.
…
“Just like the real thing, right?” He had a big grin on his face while leading Shuriken down into a restaurant's basement.
It’d taken about an hour of Coil trying to talk slick before Slingshot gave in to going to Playground for the Fight Club.
And even now, he was still trailing behind the three of them to check if anyone would attack their back.
For someone who was the youngest sibling, Slingshot had the protective habits of the eldest. He’d wanted to comment about that to Shuriken, but it didn’t take long for him to realize the same rule applied.
Both of them were keeping Vinestaff in the middle solely to make sure there were people covering her front and back.
Not only was she clearly the strongest out of them, but she seemed the least intimidated by the whole thing.
Coil snickered to himself at the thought, opening the door and bringing them into a crowd of other Inphernals. Shirts and shoes were off, it smelt of iron, and there was a suspiciously red-colored liquid staining the concrete of the ground.
“Cool?”
“Absolutely—” Vinestaff was the first of them to immediately get into her tank top, looking too eager for the fight altogether.
Shuriken followed suit afterwards, and he didn’t take the time to explain the rules.
There were the first two rules:
Don’t talk about Fight Club. He’d broken those, and he didn’t care enough to elaborate on the rest aloud.
There were the obvious fight-ending rules and the one fight at a time hype.
Plus the clothing ones, which he’d long adapted to.
Nobody in the room was focused on them, having their own conversations. The only important rule was the first-nighters fighting, and Shuriken got straight to work. Vinestaff had decided it’d be easier to go against him, stepping in while Coil took off his hoodie.
Slingshot was staring directly at him before getting his off, and he wouldn’t let it go without comment.
“You know, this wasn’t the only way you could—”
“Joke’s over.”
Man, Sling had predicted it before he’d gotten the words out.
“You’re not exactly being subtle about looking at me,” Coil retorted, narrowing his eyes to check Slingshot out himself. “I’ll quit checking you out in front of those two, though. You know, because I have decency and all that.”
"Don't you plan to be my first fight?”
“Mhmm,” he hummed back, not bothering to look Slingshot in the eyes. Coil had become more focused on tracing the man’s forearm. He was more built, sure, but this was still fun to do.
“Sounds pretty indecent to me.”
Shuriken and Vinestaff were still tussling, using the fight as a way to let out their frustration. After his first three days in the basement, he didn’t find things like that interesting anymore.
But, he would admit, seeing Shuriken last that long against wood, straight to his gut, multiple times was impressive.
Slingshot’s eyes honed in on the fight, somewhat concerned while watching; Coil was quick to redirect the other into staring straight at him while he laughed.
“You scared?”
“I’m watching my brother get beaten half to death. What do you think?” Fair enough. Shuriken wasn’t bleeding, but there was definitely some physical effect.
“I think you should be happy Vine isn’t letting it out on you.”
Seeing Slingshot’s face slightly crumple when watching the fight for too long gave him a small grin that he bottled, solely for the sake of trying to be serious.
“Do you want me to go Beast Mode on you?”
“Don’t say that again.”
“Well, do you?”
They only stared at each other before he heard a long, heavy exhale followed by a quiet laugh. Slingshot didn’t answer the question yet, giving him another look up and down before trying to form an answer.
Coil knew he’d win if he tried playing rough. It wasn’t like Sling was weak; no, it was the opposite— but he wasn’t boxing nearly every day and doing heavy training for it. There’d be no way for him to win.
Under normal circumstances. If Slingshot wanted him to play gently, he’d act as if he’d never thrown a punch before.
“You can.”
Now he regrets asking. Coil didn’t want to beat up his ‘situationship’. Even if he’d joke about it, there was no way he’d want to hurt someone he cared about.
“Do you want to go next, or—”
Ah.
Shuriken had begun bleeding somewhere between him and Vinestaff’s fight. Not only that, but he ended up tapping out while Coil spoke. Even if Slingshot didn’t want to, those two ending their fight like that would rush them into it.
There was an awful lot of cheering as Vine grabbed Shuriken, leading him right back up to the two of them with a big grin.
Coil would’ve looked worried too if it weren’t for Shuriken making the same face.
“You’re never doing this again,” Slingshot chided, indirectly confirming that he and Coil wouldn’t be fighting next as two different Inphernals stepped up.
“No, c’mon,” Shuriken panted the words out with a little blood mixed in, still holding onto Vine and letting Slingshot turn his face all sorts of ways around, “I liked it!”
“Your face definitely didn’t.”
It wasn’t Coil’s fault whatsoever that he invited them. Nope. Slingshot was glaring at him for giving Shuriken a thumbs-up, but he’d ignored that intentionally.
“Did you have fun, Vine?”
“Oh, absolutely!”
There was blood on her wooden arm, and some of it was definitely Shuriken’s; either way, she looked so proud of herself. She flexed afterwards, putting a little cherry on top.
Slingshot wasn’t violent enough for this, was he?
“Can we go next?” Coil was looking at him with stars in his eyes, not bothering to be subtle about the whole thing.
It wasn’t like he wanted to fight with Slingshot but letting him experience a match against him sounded too exciting.
Shuriken was still getting a thorough examination before Sling even acknowledged Coil's question, giving a small hum of approval before processing it. He was way too worried about his brother, actively beginning to check the man’s gums as well.
“If I got that hurt, I would’ve tapped out earlier,” Shuriken grumbled, leaning more into Slingshot’s hands for a moment before pulling his face away.
That reassurance didn’t help.
The two Inphernals fighting in the middle right now were both sloppy and inexperienced, and Coil wasn’t surprised by it. They were slapping each other around almost uselessly, with the fight only becoming interesting as the scrawny one got punched down.
Slingshot had started to watch with him, but he was quiet.
Oddly quiet.
“You know, I’ll let you tap out whenever you need to. I won’t mention it again if you have to.”
Coil didn’t know what else to say. Under regular circumstances, he would’ve been more teasing, but seeing someone so concerned instead of enjoying the fights was new.
“Fine by me.”
Yikes.
That didn’t sound like some regular agreement; it sounded more like he had something to let out that’d been building up.
Sure, he was challenging someone who constantly worked with annoying customers with a ton of patience, but Coil trusted in overpowering with muscle—
Slingshot yanked him in.
He’d heard of Slingshot’s experience with the Darkage clan, being a direct front-liner.
The only other person he knew who did that sort of thing was Katana, and he looked somewhat intense.
But that didn’t matter!
“Sorry,” Coil murmured the apology pretty sheepishly under his breath before beginning to try and throw punches.
For someone he’d threatened to go ‘beast mode’ on, Slingshot was quick to begin blocking. Coil had seen how much training he put into his forearms and core, so those blocks were a bit too strong for him to do direct brute forcing through.
The only issue was that changing to defense didn’t work that well either.
Slingshot was a bit too eager to kick at him when he tried blocking with his forearms, changing to punches.
All he had was pure build over him. They were around the same height, so he couldn’t tower over him the way Vinestaff would beat Shuriken.
The good thing about having a bigger build was how much he was tanking, blocking every other punch. Each one that hit hurt, but he wasn’t letting that get to him right now.
Shuriken and Vinestaff looked too excited to watch him get beaten up, though.
But his focus was quickly pulled back into the fight, as Slingshot hit him in the face.
Coil had unconsciously kept himself back for a second, but that was all he needed before beginning to throw rougher punches. Not only were they rough, but they were also speedier.
And he didn’t hesitate to do the same, smiling back at Slingshot before getting hit again.
It took a lot of punching each other around before he got Slingshot on the ground, ready to finally start throwing in more punches before feeling two slaps on his thigh.
“Just like that?” Coil snickered while he spoke, only pausing and feeling his own face get hot.
He wasn’t too sure about roughing up one of his friends, especially someone he liked— but Slingshot was smiling at him. Fully bloody-nosed, smiling at him.
His nose was bleeding too, but he didn’t care. Feeling some sort of way about fights he’d done all the time wasn’t meant to be his automatic reaction.
“Come on! I thought you went beast mode.” Slingshot was so quick to taunt him, not caring about getting beaten down to the ground.
Oh, he’d never look at him the same.
Coil couldn’t even make eye contact, having lost all his typical urges to annoy.
That was a lot.
“Quit, c’mon, I got the point.”
He didn’t even realize how Vinestaff’s eyes narrowed, or how she’d nudged at Shuriken. Those two seemed to have gotten into their whole split conversation the moment the fight finished.
Neither of the two said a word to him or Slingshot.
He was receiving a weird look, clearly red from something beyond blood. Considering he couldn’t look at Slingshot’s face without it becoming worse, he couldn’t even tell if the feeling was reciprocated.
Which meant the four of them sat in silence, with the only form of communication clearly being Shuriken and Vinestaff looking at each other.
The only thing that broke it was when the next cheers for another fight came in, with Slingshot softly asking:
“Coil, could you send me the schedule?”