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lazyfandombean · 7 days

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So bury your roots (Deltarune - Sweet-centric)

Summary: He wasn’t sure why he’d decided to fix it. Maybe because it gave him something to do that didn’t have to do with survival. Or maybe it was because he wondered if they were the same; if he’d been thrown away because he was broken. --- Sweet spends the first seven years of his life not knowing who he was or why he was abandoned. He spends the next seven years of his life figuring it all out. --- A.k.a.: Sweet gets adopted by Queen and also meets the CC in SCC AU, all built around ONE SINGULAR JOKE THAT I HAD NO INTENTION OF WRITING SO MUCH FOR. Anyway sorry I suck at summaries :') Warnings: Lots of manipulation, a bunch of hurt/comfort, and SCC ARE BROTHERS AGENDA!!! Also angst. ALSO be warned that this is entirely unedited and not beta-read and I hate it very much but I'm posting it anyway out of spite for the sleep I lost finishing it. Also also this was supposed to be crack. It is not crack anymore. Also also also it uses an unhealthy amounts of headcanons. I've added too many also's. Words: 17,657 Notes: I'm gonna be honest, I have no clue what I'm doing here. I've never actually cross-posted a fic onto Tumblr before, so if this format isn't working, just let me know and I can figure out something else. ALSO there's some stuff in the author's notes of the Ao3 version of this fic that are exclusive to that site (mostly because I don't feel like copy-pasting all of that and fitting it into this format). A link to the Ao3 series will be at the end of this fic so you can check those notes out if you want.

— — —

He first met her while he was playing in an alleyway. Not the one he usually stayed at, but it was close to the Queen’s castle, so that meant it had the best food. He wasn’t there to eat though; instead, he sat in a little corner fiddling with a small robot.

He’d found the poor thing in one of the dumpsters. From what he could tell, it used to be able to walk and move its arms up and down, and it even had a little button that played garbled music when pressed. But it had been broken, so it’d been thrown away.

He wasn’t sure why he’d decided to fix it. Maybe because it gave him something to do that didn’t have to do with survival. Or maybe it was because he wondered if they were the same; if he’d been thrown away because he was broken.

He didn’t think about it too hard as he shuffled and fixed various parts. He didn’t totally know what he was doing, but somehow he could tell when he’d gotten something wrong or right. There was a remote that the robot was supposed to have that he hadn’t been able to find, but that was fine; he could build one for it later.

He’d just managed to fix the speakers that played the song (turns out it was hip-hop; not his favorite, but not bad) when a shadow suddenly loomed over him and said, “Wow Cool Robot.”

He looked up and replied, “Thank you,” because you were always supposed to be polite to strangers. Especially the Queen.

She looked down at him, tilting her head as question marks appeared on her visor. “Why Are You Sitting In: My Backyard?”

“Sorry,” he said automatically, “I didn’t know this was your back...yard.” He held up the robot as it continued to play a song he didn’t know. “I was fixing him.”

“Fixing Him?” She repeated, looking down at the toy. He nodded. “Was He Broken?”

He nodded again. “He’s supposed to walk an’ his speakers were messed up before,” he explained. “I fixed his speakers and legs ‘n stuff, but I can’t find the remote to make him move.”

“That Is: Impressive,” She said with a hum. “Most Children I’ve Met Don’t Know How To Do Stuff Like That Yet; Even The Bigger Ones. What’s Your Name?”

“I don’t have one,” he replied, wondering what she meant by ‘bigger ones’. “What’s yours?” He mentally kicked himself for asking that— obviously her name was the Queen.

She didn’t reply for a moment, and he felt his system heating up in embarrassment. He was right about to apologize for the dumb question when she answered, “Technically My Name Is Serial Number Q5U4EX7YY2E9N, But Most People Call Me: Queen.”

He blinked his eye. “Oh. Well… it’s nice to meet you, Queen.” Probably. Meeting the Queen should be nice, right?

“It’s Nice To Meet You Too, Nameless Child,” she replied, before pausing and shaking her head, the word NOPE flashing onto her screen. “No, No, I Can’t Just List You As: Nameless Child; Too Long.” She looked at him. “Are You Sure You Don’t Have A Name? Not Even A Designation?”

He shook his head, unsure of what a ‘designation’ was, but unwilling to ask. She made a weird ticking noise with her mouth. “Well, What Can I Call You Then?” She looked back at him, but kinda seemed like she was looking more through him, so he didn’t answer. After a moment, she snapped her fingers. “I Will Call You: Sweet. Because You Are: Sweet. How Does That Sound, Sweet?”

He paused, thinking about it. It sounded nice, and he’d never had a name before; having one might be fun. Sweet nodded. “Good. Thank you for the name.”

Queen waved a hand dismissively. “No Need To Thank Me. I Already Know I’m The Best.” And then, to his surprise, she held her hand out to him. He flinched, because people usually only did that if they were gonna hit him, but she didn’t; she just kept it there as she spoke again. “How Would You Like To Come To My Mansion? We Can Like. Watch TV Or Shrink In The Acid Pool Or Something.”

Sweet had no idea what either of those things were, but he definitely wasn’t gonna pass up the opportunity to see Queen’s castle in person. And even the inside! He moved the robot in the crook of his arm and reached his hand out to hers, hesitating at the last second to see if she’d move it away. When she didn’t, her eyes just changing to four question marks again, he grabbed her hand. It was warm. “Yes ma’am.”

— — —

Two of Queen’s friends — Tasque Manager and Swatch, she’d told him — didn’t seem to like Sweet very much when they’d first seen him. It’d made him nervous at first, because he didn’t want to get kicked out right as he got there, but Queen reassured him (after having some long fight with her friends) that he wasn’t gonna he kicked out, and that apparently they were just worried because the first thing they saw him doing was getting into the ‘acid pool’ with Queen, which was apparently ‘unsafe for children’. To be honest, he wasn’t entirely sure what was going on or what any of that meant, but he was just glad he got to see more of Queen’s castle.

After that, they’d started on a tour; then being Sweet, Queen, and Tasque Manager. Queen was the main guide, but sometimes she’d get distracted or start rambling, which was usually followed by Tasque Manager reminding her of what they were doing. It was a lot of fun! He got to see all of the guest rooms (although there was one they wouldn’t show him), all of the dining halls, all of the paintings… and all of the pottery. Queen really loved pottery for some reason. Maybe ‘cause they all looked like her face.

By the time the tour was over, Cyber City had gotten dark; well, as dark as it ever got. Sweet was reminded of the fact that he hadn’t eaten yet when his lower speaker growled. It was then that he wondered if he’d overstayed his welcome, if he should leave, but instead of being kicked out by Queen or her friends, they instead made dinner for him, which he ate happily. It was even better fresh than it was from the garbage, and he didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to steal it from him here!

They all got really weird looks when he mentioned this, though, so he didn’t talk about it after that.

Queen made him play this game called ‘Minecrap’ on her phone after dinner, which was fun. He really sucked at it though, so he just watched her play for a while. His eye started getting droopy as more time passed, and as more of Cyber City’s lights winked out (but not all of them; never all of them), he started to feel more and more guilty for taking up so much time. So, once Queen had beaten this thing called ‘the Ender Dragon’ after her ‘speedrun’, he decided it was time to rip the band-aid off.

“So when do I have to go?” He asked hesitantly once she’d turned off the phone. “Because I can leave now if you want.”

She paused, and for the nth time this evening, he wondered what he’d said that was wrong. “Do You Have A: House To Go Back To?”

Sweet winced. Was it bad to not have a house? “No,” he muttered, scuffing his shoe on the floor.

Queen shrugged, putting up her phone. “Then You Don’t.”

He blinked. “Don’t what?”

“You Don’t Have To Go.”

He froze. “What?”

She turned towards him, seemingly noticing his utter confusion. “Well I’m Not Just Going To Toss You Back Onto The Streets,” she said, which only confused him more, because that was exactly what he’d expected her to do. “Why Do You Think I Showed You A Room Labeled: Sweet’s Room?”

He blinked. He’d forgotten about that room. And that Sweet was his name now, when he saw it. “Oh.”

…

“Wait, didn’t you just name me like… three hours ago? How’d you make a room and a label in three hours?”

“The Swatchlings Are: Fast As Heck.”

— — —

Being a permanent resident of Queen’s castle (or mansion, as she often corrected) was probably the best thing that’d ever happened to him. He got to eat regularly, was allowed to play with whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted (as long as it was in the castle and also not the acid pool), and he even got a bunch of clothes from Queen! Even if they were kinda hard to fit over his box-shaped head and body.

There was some stuff he didn’t like, though. Queen made him do stuff like school (which wasn’t very hard for him, but it still wasn’t fun), and he had to get check-ups from an Ambyu-Lance a lot, and it always took a while, and he always had to stay still, which was annoying. Those were helpful though, ‘cause they were able to figure out a lot of stuff even he didn’t know about himself. Like the fact that according to his ‘make and model’, he was around seven, he was short for his age, and only having one eye was normal for him.

So it wasn’t information that he liked hearing, but it was good to have.

He still had a lot of fun, though! Playing with the Swatchlings was fun (even though they only really played when Queen told them to), and the tasques were all super fluffy and soft, and they didn’t even hiss at him anymore after the first week or so! He liked hanging out with Queen, Swatch, and Tasque Manager too, but they were too busy for him to play with very often.

Which was the biggest problem, actually; he didn’t really have a lot of people to play with. Even the Swatchlings couldn’t stay with him all the time (they still had other guests to attend to, after all), and other than the Addisons who would sometimes come to visit Queen, he was pretty much left by himself when he wasn’t learning or playing– which was a lot of the time. He spent most of his days wandering around Queen’s mansion, exploring the places that hadn’t been on the tour. He even found a bunch of secret shortcuts all throughout the mansion!

He avoided the guest room that they had kept him away from, though. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was inside.

But even then, within the first couple of weeks in the mansion, he’d explored all there was to explore. Every secret hallway, every floor of the mansion, every room… the only place he hadn’t explored was the basement, and that was only because it was always locked (and no one even acknowledged there was a basement at all when he asked). So it didn’t take long for him to get bored.

Sweet knew he shouldn’t complain, and he didn’t! Not out loud, at least. It was a lot better than when he didn’t have a house; back then, he didn’t have anyone to play with, and he didn’t have regular meals, and he didn’t have other changes of clothes, and he didn’t have any protection from stuff like Virovirokuns or maice. He could deal with a little loneliness, especially when he had so much other stuff that he hadn’t had before.

Then again, he didn’t really have the time to worry about loneliness back then.

He never brought it up to Queen or Tasque Manager or anyone, but apparently they noticed anyways, because after almost a month of him living there, Queen decided to send him and Swatch out to the Cyber Fields for a ‘vacation day’, but she was too busy to go with them. He wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but Queen saying ‘Go Make Lots And Lots Of Friends While You’re Gone’ was what really tipped him off.

And he tried, he really did. The Cyber Fields were really fun and were so much different from the City. Swatch didn’t seem to like it very much, but he never said anything and took Sweet wherever he wanted to go, so Sweet figured it was okay. Actually making friends, though, was harder than it sounded. He met a lot of people, like the Plugboys and some Darkner named ‘Fommt’, but he wasn’t ever able to ask to be friends before they had to go somewhere.

He’d been thinking about giving up when he met them.

Swatch was busy buying CD Bagels from a vendor, leaving Sweet to wander aimlessly. He didn’t really know where he was going; he just wanted to walk around.

He eventually found a place that looked a lot like a trash dump, except it looked like someone had been trying to build something with the trash. He walked around, picking up a piece of ‘junk’ about half his size and examining it. It looked like a broken engine… maybe he could–

“Hey, what’re you doin’ with our stuff?” A voice yelled from behind him, startling Sweet enough to almost drop the engine. He tightened his grip at the last second, preventing it from crashing towards the ground and breaking even more as he turned around.

A Darkner with a cassette player for a head pointed at him… angrily? It was hard to tell, because he was wearing sunglasses, as well as a blue jacket that looked a little too big for him with a white shirt and black pants. Behind him stood a taller Darkner who had a CD player for a head, wearing a black jacket and green pants.

“Sorry,” Sweet apologized, putting down the engine with care. “I didn’t know this stuff was yours. I was just looking.”

The Darkner huffed, but he stopped pointing at Sweet. “Well, it is. But I guess it’s okay if you didn’t know.” He crossed his arms. “Who’re you?”

“I’m Sweet,” Sweet replied, fiddling with his fingers now that there was nothing in his hands. “What’re your names?”

The other jabbed a finger at himself and the monster behind him. “I’m Cap’n, and that’s my older brother Cakes,” he informed, then grinned. “And this is our shop!” He gestured around the junkyard. “Or, it’s gonna be. We’re working on it.”

“You can just call me K_K,” the other monster spoke up. “It’s short for Cakes!”

Sweet waved. “It’s nice to meet you two,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Cap’n waved a hand, walking over to Sweet. He stopped just in front of him, pausing. “So where’re you from? I’ve never seen you in the fields before.”

“I’m from the City,” Sweet explained, pointing out towards where you could just barely see the city’s large buildings over the horizon. “I’ve never been to the fields before.”

Cakes, who’d stayed behind, tilted his head and spoke again. “Really? What’s the city like?”

“Big,” Sweet said with a nod. “ Really big. And blue. And there’s lots of lights everywhere. And it’s super noisy.”

“We barely get any noise in the fields,” Cap’n complained, moving to sit on a pile of junk. “The only people who ever wanna make any noise are me ‘n K_K!”

Sweet looked down at the engine he’d set by his feet. “Sometimes I feel like it’s too noisy,” he muttered. “I can’t even hear myself over it, sometimes.”

“That sounds like it sucks,” Cap’n replied, picking up a piece of junk and messing with it. “Especially since you’re a speaker ‘n all.” Sweet just nodded, and Cakes started to pick up some junk too, tweaking some of its parts. Sweet tilted his head. “So you guys are making a shop… out of the junkyard?”

“Yup,” Cap’n replied. “No one ever does anything with the junk here in the fields, so me ‘n K_K decided to turn it into a shop where we can build things and sell music!” “The music’s free,” Cakes added, stacking some junk up in a pile. “What?! Why’re we even gonna play music then?”

Sweet watched them work and talk for a minute, starting to feel a little nervous. “Can I help?” he asked suddenly, causing them to pause. “Build the shop, I mean.”

“Nuh-uh.” “Sure!”

Sweet felt his spirits fall and lift at the same time, which was a confusing feeling.

Cap’n whipped his head around to look at Cakes. “K_K! This is our thing!”

Cakes shrugged, putting another box down. “So? We can let him help too. It’ll go faster that way.”

Cap’n opened his mouth, but paused, closing it again. “That’s true,” he muttered, looking at the ground. Then he looked back at Sweet. “Are you any good at building stuff?”

Sweet blinked. “Um, I think so. Sometimes I fix robots for fun?”

“See?” Cakes said, giving Cap’n a look. The latter stuck his tongue out at Cakes, before looking back at Sweet.

“Fine, you can help. But don’t expect us to pay you!” Sweet beamed. “I won’t, thank you!”

They spent the next hour talking and working on the shop, getting to know each other. Cap’n told him that his name was short for something, but he wouldn’t tell him what. Cakes told him about everything to do in the Cyber Fields, including the unfinished roller coaster. Sweet told them about playing with the Swatchlings in Queen’s mansion; which had sparked a whole new topic of conversation.

“Woah, you live in Queen’s mansion?”

Sweet nodded in answer to Cap’n’s question, soldering a few pieces of junk together (no, he was not going to question where they got the soldering iron). “Yeah, I met her a month ago and she gave me a name and then let me stay in her house ‘cause I didn’t have one! She’s really nice.”

“Huh,” was Cap’n’s response. He set down a CD bagel he’d been munching on (apparently Cakes was really good at making them). “So she’s like your mom?”

Sweet blinked. “What’s a mom?”

“It’s a grown-up that takes care of you who’s usually a girl,” Cakes answered, pushing around a broken toy car instead of helping. “Vroom vroom.”

“Oh.” Sweet paused to think about it. “Maybe. I’ll ask her when I get back.”

A loud, somewhat shrill voice suddenly pierced through the air, shrieking Sweet’s name. It took a minute for Sweet to recognize the voice (both from its high pitch and the fact that it made his ears hurt), but once he realized it was Swatch’s voice, he set down the soldering iron. “Sorry guys, I think I gotta go.”

“Aw, really?” Cap’n whined. “But I wanted to hear more about Queen! She must be a very fine madimoyselle!”

“A what?” Sweet muttered, confused, but shook his head. “Sorry, but I really do have to go.” He winced as Swatch’s unusually high-pitched voice rang out again. “I don’t wanna get in trouble or something.”

“That’s okay,” Cakes said, putting down the toy car. “You can tell us more next time.”

Sweet brightened. “Next time? Y’mean I can come back?”

“He can?” Cap’n asked incredulously, but paused when Cakes gave him a look. “I mean, sure. Yeah, you can come back ‘nd help some more. And tell us all about Queen!”

“Okay! Thanks, guys!” Sweet beamed. “I’ll see you…” he trailed off for a second, but quickly moved on, “Whenever Queen lets me come again!”

“See ya later then, Sweet!” Cap’n waved with a grin.

Cakes waved too. “Smell ya!”

“Bye!” Sweet waved back at them both, skipping out of the shop. He got to come back, and they were even letting him help work on the shop!

Did this mean he had friends now?

Sweet was jolted out of his thoughts when he suddenly bumped into a tall figure. He looked up, only to be met with the panicked and stern face of Swatch.

Oops.

— — —

Despite the fact that Swatch had initially gotten onto him for running off, he did seem happy that Sweet had made friends. Even if he got a funny look on his face when Sweet had mentioned meeting them in the junkyard. Still, he let Sweet rant about it the whole way back, and didn’t even stop him once they’d gotten back to Queen’s mansion.

Queen herself had been glad to hear that Sweet had made friends too! Or, he thought so, anyway. Sometimes it was hard to tell what she was feeling.

He mentioned that they’d said he could come back sometime, and asked if Queen would let him. She seemed hesitant at first for some reason, but eventually they worked something out: Sweet could go once a week as long as he got all of his studies done before mid-afternoon. Sweet agreed readily; even if school wasn’t fun, at least it was easy! And that meant he got to see his friends again!

Right before Queen was about to send him off to dinner (she couldn’t join ‘cause of a meeting, apparently), Sweet paused, remembering something. “Hey, Queen?”

Queen hummed in response, not seeming to really be paying attention. “Yes Sweetie Pie?”

“Are you my mom?”

Queen froze, and for the first time since he’d met her, her visor went totally blank. Weird. “Haha Sweet That’s A Good Question How About You Go Help The Swatchlings With The Maice Okay Bye.” She walked away suddenly, leaving Sweet feeling very confused.

Especially since they’d gotten rid of the Maice problem over a month ago. There was always a chance they’d come back in the seven hours he’d been gone though.

— — —

Going back to the Cyber Fields to help Cap’n and Cakes (or K_K, as he kept insisting Sweet call him) with the shop quickly became the highlight of Sweet’s weeks. He never thought he’d find people who liked building and music as much as he did, and it was awesome! The only bad part about it was when Sweet had to leave.

They bombarded him with questions about the City every time they saw him (although Cap’n’s were mostly related to girls), and he asked just as many about the Cyber Fields. They always made it sound so nice that he thought they had loads of friends, but to his surprise, they just shrugged and said they didn’t when he asked how many.

“I think everyone’s just intimidated by our coolness,” Cap’n had explained, K_K nodding along. Sweet found it hard to disagree; Cap’n and K_K were pretty cool.

“So is Queen your mom?” Cap’n had asked another time, to which Sweet had just shrugged.

“I dunno. She dodges the question every time I ask.” Literally, too. She’d jumped in the acid pool to get away.

“Bummer.”

They asked him that a lot, Sweet realized; Cap’n most of the time, but K_K asked every now and again if Queen was his mom yet. It made him wonder…

“Who’s your mom?” Sweet asked as he took a screwdriver to a particularly stubborn screw. The question made Cap’n and K_K pause, glancing at each other before looking back at him.

“We don’t have one,” Cap’n replied, messing with a pair of headphones. “We live in the orphanage,” K_K added, eating a CD bagel while drawing with his other hand.

Sweet paused. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Why? It’s not your fault,” K_K asked.

“Yeah, and it’s not like you’ve got a mom either,” Cap’n shrugged. “We’re all momless. Unless Queen really is your mom.”

Sweet shrugged too. “I can keep asking, but I don’t think she’ll answer.”

Despite the ‘heavy discussion topics’ (That’s what Swatch called them, anyway), visiting Cap’n and K_K was always his favorite part of the day. He started talking about them so much that Queen even decided to let him visit twice a week! Life was going really well for him, better than it had for his whole seven years of existence.

Things didn’t stay that way, though.

— — —

Sweet was thirteen when he first started hearing Queen talk about someone called ‘The Knight’. He wasn’t sure what that meant or who that was, but once he started pestering enough, Queen eventually told him that the Knight was a Lightner, come to enlighten their great City.

Sweet was excited at first (Lightners were what gave them purpose, right?), but as Queen began talking about the Knight more and more, she started spending less and less time with him. So did Swatch and Tasque Manager, with their responsibilities practically being doubled. Even the Swatchlings only ever helped him with chores and studying anymore; the rest of their time was spent serving Queen and the Knight. He wasn’t sure why the Knight needed so much of the staff, but it wasn’t his place to ask.

At least one good thing came from this, though, and that was the fact that he got to hang out with Cap’n and K_K pretty much every day! As soon as his studies were finished (or sometimes even before; Queen didn’t notice much anymore), a Swatchling would take him down to the Cyber Fields to visit their junk shop. It was fully built now, and Cap’n and K_K had started selling CD Bagels out of it. They let Sweet help too, and he even got a cut of the profit (despite him vaguely remembering that Cap’n said he wouldn’t)!

He even got to have sleepovers if Queen was too busy to send a Swatchling to pick him up! Like right now.

“Why’d you run away from the orphanage anyway?” He asked, settling into the blanket pile they’d made on the floor. They didn’t have any beds, but that was fine; Sweet was still used to sleeping on the concrete (or cardboard, if he was lucky), and the big pile of blankets was much more fun than a regular bed anyway.

“‘Cause it sucked,” Cap’n deadpanned, leaning back on the blankets with his arms crossed behind his head. “None of the kids liked us ‘cause of my fingers and K_K’s…” he gestured at K_K, who was busy rearranging some of the blankets. “Y’know. And none of the adults were able to help. They didn’t even try, sometimes.”

“Oh…” Sweet muttered. He stared up at the ceiling, his soul twisting for them. “You know… if you guys wanted to come live in Queen’s mansion with me, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

Cap’n scoffed. “You kidding? First of all, I don’t really wanna go anywhere near that place if that ‘Knight’ you keep talkin’ about is around,” he started, K_K nodding along as he too laid down in the blankets.

Sweet rolled his eye. “They’re a Lightner, Cap. It’s like, the best thing that’s happened to us in… in ages .” He tried to mean it, but it still felt like a lie coming out of his speaker.

“Yeah yeah,” Cap’n waved a hand. “Second of all, though, livin’ it up in her fancy mansion… as fun as it sounds, it’s not really me ‘nd K_K’s style, y’know?”

“My style is funky tunes,” K_K agreed.

“And like heck we’re abandoning the junk shop,” Cap’n added. “We built this thing with our own bare hands!” “And soldering irons,” K_K said.

“Well, duh, but you get the point!” “I get it, I get it, jeez,” Sweet said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t wanna make you abandon it anyway. I helped build this thing too, y’know.”

“So we’re at an agreement!” Cap’n huffed. “You go live in Queen’s big fancy castle and we’ll stay in our junk shop.” Sweet pulled the blankets up over himself. “When you say it like that, it makes me feel bad,” he murmured.

“Don’t,” K_K said with a shrug, pulling other blankets over himself and a squawking Cap’n. “You’re happy in the mansion. We’re happy here.”

“Oh… okay.”

The three lapsed into silence after that. Sweet stared up at the now barely visible ceiling; it got a lot darker in the Cyber Fields than it did in the City. It should have made falling asleep easier, but instead, Sweet found himself unable to power down. He tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable (which was already hard enough with his box-shaped head), but what K_K had said was really getting under his circuits for some reason.

He was happy at the mansion, he was. He was definitely happier there than he’d been on the streets, so that had to count for something, right? In her mansion he had food, a bed, nice clothes… it was his first real home, so he should be happy there. And he was.

Or, he had been.

As he turned his head to look at the two next to him, he wasn’t sure he was anymore.

It made him feel ungrateful, but… he hadn’t talked to Queen in person in a long time. He saw Cap’n and K_K much more often than he saw Tasque Manager. He talked to them about what was going on in his life much more than he’d told Swatch in quite some time. He’d played more games with them than he could ever remember having played with the Swatchlings.

He stared at the (supposedly) sleeping forms of Cap’n and K_K. He was… happier with them than he was at Queen’s mansion.

Was it possible to have two homes?

“Hey guys,” he said, suddenly having an idea. Whether or not it was a good one remained to be seen. “Are you guys awake?”

“Yes,” K_K spoke up, causing Cap’n to groan and stir.

“I am now ,” he grumbled, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “Whaddaya want?”

“We should form a band.”

Silence for a moment.

“Well duh, that’s why we made the shop, isn’t it?” Cap’n deadpanned, flopping back down onto the blankets. “Let me go back to sleep.”

“I wanna do it now,” K_K replied, sitting up to look at Sweet. “Can I be a keyboard?”

Sweet blinked. “Do you mean play a keyboard, or do you actually wanna be a keyboard?”

“Yes.”

Cap’n groaned, rolling over to give Sweet a half-hearted glare. “Fine, we’ll talk about it now,” he muttered, sitting up again. “Don’t know why you two couldn’t wait until mornin’, you maniacs.”

“I can be the DJ! I’ve been working on a special turntable, too!” Sweet said excitedly, before pausing. “Wait, I thought you guys made the shop to sell CD Bagels.”

“Yeah, and music, remember?” Cap’n muttered with a yawn. “So obviously we were always gonna make a band.”

“Oh, right.” Sweet nodded, but paused again. “But wasn’t that just gonna be yours and K_K’s thing?” He hesitated. “Is… is it okay if I’m there?”

Cap’n and K_K both stared for a bit.

“Sweet, you helped build the shop,” K_K said. “You were always gonna be part of the band.”

“...Oh.”

They eventually started talking about who’d do what, and how they’d advertise their band, and what they’d name it. They stayed up almost the entire night, and yet the whole time, neither Cap’n nor K_K said anything about the fact that a tear would fall from Sweet’s eye every now and again.

— — —

The band’s start was pretty rough. They advertised it as much as they could, but there weren’t enough people in the Cyber Fields who really cared about music enough to come to their concerts. Even when they handed out flyers while selling CD Bagels (which they always sold a LOT of; K_K really did make the best food), the only person who ever came to their performances was an overly-enthusiastic Plugboy who couldn’t even make it to all of their shows.

It was nice that at least one person really liked their music, though. Which made Sweet feel kinda bad for what he ended up suggesting.

“Playing in the city? ” Cap’n scoffed, packing up his box of CD Bagels (not that there were many left). “You’re outta your mind, Sweet. We’ve never been to the city; they’d crush us out there!”

“I don’t wanna be a soda can,” K_K agreed, his own box already under his arm.

“Come on, guys,” Sweet groaned, folding up his own cardboard box as they started to head back. “I know it’s big and daunting, but I really think we’d find a bigger audience there! Plus, I could be your guide!”

Cap’n kicked the door of the shop open with a grunt. “You, our guide? Sweet, you’ve not lived on the streets of the city since…” He paused in the doorway, causing K_K to bump into him. “Sorry K_K. But still, it’s been what, five, six years since you started livin’ in Queen’s mansion?”

Sweet rolled his eye as they all filed into the shop. “Just because I don’t live on the streets anymore doesn’t mean I don’t remember anything about them. Plus, I still live in the City . I don’t just spend all my time in the mansion, y’know.”

“I think you spend most of your time here, actually,” K_K piped up, which, yeah, that was a fair point. Sweet spent so much time at the Cyber Fields that sometimes he’d forget he lived in the city until a Swatchling came to pick him up.

Still, he didn’t want to back down from this, but he didn’t know how he’d be able to convince the two of them to try playing in the City. Unless…

“Hey Cap,” he said as he closed the door. “Don’t you think it’d be cool if we met some ladies while we were performing?” Cap’n froze. “Sweet, no.”

“I’m just sayin’, the City’s full of girls who’d love to hear us play.” “I’m not fallin’ for that, Sweet.”

“I could probably even get Queen to listen to one of our concerts.”

Cap’n whirled around, pointing finger guns at Sweet. “Well why didn’t ya say that sooner? It’s a deal.”

K_K, who’d just been staring for the entirety of the interaction, frowned. “I’d rather stay in the Cyber Fields,” he muttered.

Sweet patted his arm. “The Cyber Fields are good and all, but don’t you think it’d be nice to find people that actually appreciate our music?” he asked. “Plus, I bet I could get Swatch to give you some recipes from the Color Cafe.”

K_K hesitated, thinking it over for a moment before sighing. “Okay,” he said. “Can we still play in the Cyber Fields sometimes though?”

“Of course!” Sweet nodded. “We still have to sell CD Bagels y’know! We’ll just play more music in the city.”

“Just for the madimoyselles,” Cap’n added. “And K_K’s recipes.”

Sweet rolled his eye. “I don’t think that’s how you pronounce it, but sure.”

— — —

Just as Sweet had predicted, their music was a hit in the City. Within fifteen minutes of the first place they tried (which they did ask permission to play at before performing), Darkners were coming out of stores and pausing in their walks to listen to their music. Which didn’t surprise Sweet in the slightest; despite the fact that Cyber City had all of the most famous music artists and songs playing in almost every store, it could be hard to actually hear the music over all the traffic, Addisons, and general noise of the City.

Luckily, Sweet Cap’n Cakes had gotten really good at being loud.

Their concert was pretty short, mostly meant to gauge the interest of the people there, but way more people stuck around until the end (ten whole Darkners!!), and some even asked for their flyers by the time they were done!

There were still a few… complications though.

“Watch out, K_K!” Sweet and Cap’n pulled on K_K’s arms, yanking him away from the street just as a torrent of cars flooded through. Sweet and Cap’n both flinched back, but K_K tilted his head as he stared out at the traffic.

Cap’n glanced up at him in worry. “You alright, K_K? You didn’t get hurt, did ya?”

“Do you think she’s single?” Sweet blinked in confusion. “What?” K_K pointed at one of the pink cars, crawling at a snail’s pace compared to the rest of the traffic. “Do you think she’s single?” he asked again.

“...That’s a car, K_K.”

“Yeah.”

Crisis temporarily averted, they moved on, looking for another place that would allow them to perform. They’d gotten unfortunately delayed by a lot of traffic, so most business turned them down as evening descended on Cyber City.

Sweet sighed as they walked out of yet another store that refused to let them play in front of their shop. “Sorry guys, I really did think we’d get more listeners out here…” He scuffed his shoes on the ground as he walked. Cap’n shrugged. “Eh, it’s no big deal. Plus, we did get a lot more people than normal! We’ll just come out earlier next tiIIME-” Cap’n suddenly dodged out of the way, pulling Sweet and K_K with him. Sweet was confused until a Viroviriokun rushed past, closely followed by an Ambyu-lance. Sweet’s system heated in embarrassment; he was supposed to be the one leading them around the city, and he didn’t even notice the Darkners coming.

K_K straightened up, grabbing Cap’n and Sweets hands to pull them away from the oncoming crowds. “There’s a lot more viruses out here than in the fields,” he mumbled.

Sweet winced. “Yeah, sorry I forgot to warn you guys about that.”

“So that’s normal? ” Cap’n brows raised so high that they were visible above his sunglasses. “And you lived in this?”

Sweet shrugged as the three of them started walking. “I mean, yeah, but I didn’t really stick around these parts,” he explained. “And besides, I wasn’t out there for too long before I met–” He froze, then face-palmed. “Sorry, guys, I completely forgot to ask Queen if I could bring you over to the mansion…”

Cap’n shrugged. “Eh, it’s fine. You can ask later and we’ll just see her next time.” He moved away to avoid a passing Addison. “Preferably somewhere that’s not crawlin’ with viruses and Maddisons.”

“Addisons,” Sweet corrected.

“Potato, potahto.”

Sweet sighed. “Whatever. I’m still sorry I forgot to ask, though. Maybe I can–” He didn’t finish the thought as he bumped into something, yelping as Cap’n and K_K steadied him. The three of them looked up at the figure they’d run into. A Swatchling looked back down at them– or rather, down at Sweet. They blinked, and in a monotone voice, spoke up over the crowd, “Queen requests your presence back at the mansion.” Sweet gulped; lately, whenever Queen called for him herself, it was because he was in trouble one way or another (not that he ever really got any consequences, but Queen being disappointed in him never felt good). He hesitated, looking back at his friends, when an idea struck him; a way to fulfill his earlier promise to Cap’n and K_K and also maybe not get in trouble. He tilted his head at them, a silent question. It took a minute for them to get it, but once they did, they both nodded excitedly.

He looked back at the Swatchling. “Can my friends come too?”

— — —

Bringing Cap’n and K_K in to meet Queen had been circuit-wracking. He knew that realistically that Queen wouldn’t mind —she never had before, after all— but that hadn’t stopped his soul from pounding loudly in his chest as he introduced them; so loudly he almost thought that it could be heard from his speakers.

Judging by the lack of comments on it, that probably wasn’t true.

He’d say it went pretty well, though. Even with Cap’n calling Queen ‘hot mama’ (Sweet heated up so much his speakers nearly cut out) and K_K talking about various objects he wanted to be (which, surprisingly, was a topic that Queen seemed to actually be invested in), Queen seemed to like his friends.

Well, like might have been a strong word. She’d only gotten harder to read since the Knight came alone.

Still, his hopes of no longer being in trouble were dashed once K_K and Cap’n left. This time, it was because he’d forgotten to tell her that he’d even be going to the Cyber Fields and then the City at all today, which was fair. What he didn’t think was fair was the punishment she gave.

“I’m grounded? ” He asked incredulously. “For how long?”

Queen waved a dismissive hand. “Oh Don’t Worry, It’s Just For One (1) Month In Total,” she replied, swirling a glass of battery acid. Which was weird, because last he’d checked, Swatch had banned her from having battery acid in Sweet’s presence (or in Tasque Manager’s presence; she got iffy about alcohol).

But he didn’t focus on that. “But why? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I kinda thought you’d know already. Since, y’know, I’m always at the Cyber Fields these days,” he huffed, muttering the last part before continuing at a normal volume. “Isn’t a whole month kind of excessive?”

“No, Because I Actually Wanted You Here For Something Today,” she said, crossing her arms. Her smile didn’t quite drop, but something about it seemed more… stern, than normal.

He perked up a little bit at the sentence, though. She rarely ever wanted him for things anymore, so hearing that she actually needed his presence today was… comforting, in a way. “Really? Why’d you need me?”

She sniffed, which was weird because she didn’t have a nose. “The Knight Was Here Today,” she responded, a weird undertone in her voice. “They Wanted To Talk With The Two Of Us About Something: Important. And To Actually Meet You Or Whatever.” She did frown then, looking down at him. “I’m Very Disappointed In You, Sweet.”

Usually, hearing that Queen was disappointed in him would make him wince. It’d make him feel guilty for whatever he’d done that was wrong, or whatever he’d done to upset her. He’d apologize, and then she’d send him off to his room for an hour or so to ‘Marinate Like Spaghetti Sauce’.

But things were different, this time.

He stared at the ground, and instead of wincing, he clenched his fists. Instead of feeling guilty, he felt angry. The first time she’d actually ‘wanted’ to spend time with him in nearly six months, and it was only because of the stupid Knight? And she was grounding him over it, even though the Knight was at the mansion practically every other day? And she’d had plenty of opportunities to introduce the two of them, but the only time it’d ever crossed her mind was when the Knight themself mentioned it? She didn’t even care enough about him to introduce him to the Lightner that gave them meaning on her own?

Sweet knew that he was supposed to love Lightners. That Lightners were what gave every single Darkner a purpose. But in that moment, he didn’t think there was anyone he hated more than the Lightner who’d stolen all of his mom’s Queen’s attention and care.

He almost hated her for letting them.

“Are you kidding me?!” he blurted. “You only wanted me here because of the Knight!? You’re only grounding me because of the Knight!? You only noticed I was even gone because of the stupid , STUPID KNIGHT!?”

The yell that came from his speakers was so loud that the paintings on the walls shook. The nearby tasques shrieked and ran away from the sound. The maice that had once again infested the palace since the Knight’s arrival skittered away from the noise. Queen’s visor went entirely blank, and yet Sweet couldn’t bring himself to care over the anger he felt at it all; at Queen, at the Knight, at the whole palace, at the entire city.

“ You haven’t talked to me in person in weeks! I barely ever see you or Swatch or Tasque Manager anymore! I rarely ever even get to see the Swatchlings! I spend more time at the Cyber Fields than I do at the mansion! Sometimes I have to spend the night in the Fields because you forget to pick me up! You forget to even send someone! And it’s all because of the Knight! It’s because of the STUPID F##KING- ”

“Sweet,” Queen interrupted in a low tone, halting his rant. Instantly, all of the rage and aggression he’d been feeling bled out of his circuits, quickly replaced by an icy fear. “Go To Your Room.”

Sweet stammered, suddenly frozen in place. “I-I... I-I’m sorry, I- I didn’t mean-”

“I Wasn’t Asking, Sweet,” Queen said, voice colder than he felt. “Go To Your Room. Now.”

Sweet didn’t have to be told twice, tripping on his own feet as he ran out of the room.

— — —

Oil dripped from his eye, dropping into his second speaker, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to care as his body, curled up on his bed, shook with sobs. He couldn’t believe he’d said all of that. He couldn’t believe he’d actually sworn at her. He couldn’t believe he’d yelled so loudly at her. He hadn’t even realized that he was so upset about everything, but the more he thought about it, the more it hurt.

She hadn’t even refuted anything he said. She had watched with a stone-cold face as he listed out all the ways she (and the Knight) had hurt him, and then she’d dismissed him to his room. Maybe that meant she already knew how much it affected him, and she just didn’t care. The thought made him sob harder.

A knock on the door sounded out, and that was the only warning he got before the door clicked open. He froze as he heard the sound of heels on the metal floors, thinking it was Queen, but the purrs that accompanied the steps gave away that it was Tasque Manager.

He sat up and hurriedly wiped the oil out of his eye, knowing how much she hated disorder and uncleanliness. She didn’t seem to mind this time though, as she sat next to him on the bed despite the fact that the bed was unmade. He slept in it so little that there was hardly ever a reason to fix it.

“I heard your fight with Queen,” Tasque Manager said gently. “Well, everybody heard it; your speakers got quite loud.”

Sweet winced, his systems heating up in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to yell so loud…” he mumbled, crossing his arms over his legs.

“But you did mean what you said.”

Sweet hesitated, but nodded.

“That’s fair,” Tasque responded, “and Queen is sorry that you’ve been feeling that way. We all are. However, there’s a lot at play that you don’t know.”

Sweet looked up, curious.

Tasque Manager sighed. “The Knight, although we dare not speak ill of them,” she gave him a pointed look, to which he cringed, “has been keeping everyone very busy as of late. They’ve been filling Queen in on many matters; both the issues of the Dark World, and of the Light World. Many such matters have required a large amount of listening ears. However, the matters discussed are quite heavy, and not so… children-friendly. Queen has been sending you to the Cyber Fields to shield you from our... honestly bleak future, but the Knight insisted that it was time for you to know today. When we couldn’t find you, the Knight was… displeased. They have since been delayed for quite a few months.”

“Oh,” Sweet muttered, now feeling pretty guilty. So Queen did have a good reason to be upset at him; he’d practically driven the Knight away by… not showing up? I’m

“That isn’t all, though,” Tasque Manager continued, cutting off his train of thought. “We…” She sighed, and then she looked at him sadly. “We really are sorry that you’ve been feeling this way, and that we haven’t done much to help. But…” she sighed again. “When we couldn’t find you today, Queen was genuinely… distraught, to say the absolute least. We were all worried, of course, but Queenie was nearly frantic in our search for you; in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so panicked. Or heard her worry so much for someone else’s safety.” She laughed at what was apparently supposed to be a joke, but it quickly tapered off, and she coughed before continuing. “I must say, she showed a remarkable amount of self-control while your friends were present. And even more so after you yelled at her.”

Sweet winced, now feeling ten times worse than before. She really did care, she really had been worried about him, and what had he done? He’d gone and shouted at her so loudly that the entire mansion could hear, and he’d been so wrong about everything. He was so stupid.

“I don’t blame you for lashing out,” Tasque Manager spoke, apparently having sensed his line of thought. “It’s clear now that you were dealing with a lot of pent-up emotions, and we failed to notice when we should have. For that, we are truly sorry.” She paused for a moment, and then added: “Queen doesn’t blame you either.”

At that, Sweet looked up, a spark of hope in his chest. “Promise?” His voice felt small; it almost reminded him of his first days here.

Tasque Manager smiled at him comfortingly. “I promise.” She stood, smoothing out her dress. “Queen has requested that you stay in your room for the time being, to give you time to rest up before dinner.”

Sweet nodded, honestly grateful that he didn’t have to see Queen again so soon after fighting; he didn’t know if he could take the shame. A thought occurred to him as Tasque Manager walked to the door, and he hesitated before calling out her name. “Hey, Tass?”

She paused in the doorway, turning back to him. “Yes?”

“Can you ask Queen if she can send a Swatchling to the Cyber Fields? To let my friends know I’m grounded.”

She smiled. “Of course. I’ll see what I can do.” With that, she shut the door, leaving him to get some rest.

— — —

Dinner that evening was… extremely awkward. For one, it was the first dinner he’d eaten at the mansion in… well, at least a month. Secondly, for the first time in even longer, everyone was actually at the table; Sweet, Swatch, Tasque Manager, the Swatchlings… even the Tasques got to eat in the same room.

And, of course, and most importantly, Queen.

No one spoke for the first fifteen minutes of the dinner. Although the dinner itself was pretty good, with heaping servings of Spaghetti Code being the main dish, premium Butler Juice (or ‘Butt’ juice, as Sweet and Queen used to snicker to themselves) being the beverage, and CD Bagels for dessert (Sweet couldn’t help but compare them to K_K’s. He really liked those bagels), but the tension was so thick that Sweet found it hard to enjoy the dinner in front of him. Apparently, everyone else did too.

The first time any of them spoke to each other, it was Tasque Manager asking Swatch about how business at the Color Cafe was going; apparently, the Knight was taking up everyone’s personal time.

Things were a little smoother sailing after that. Sweet still didn’t talk much, but then Swatch asked him about Cap’n and K_K, and suddenly he was talking about everything he’d been doing with them over the last year; having finally finished the junk shop, selling CD Bagels with Cap’n and K_K, starting their band… there was some stuff he didn’t tell them though, like the fact that they’d both run away from an orphanage, or the fact that none of them ever had anything good to say about the Knight; he stuck to the smaller details, like how K_K was really good at baking and cooking, and how Cap’n was super bad at flirting.

That was when Queen had joined that particular conversation, attesting to Cap’n’s terrible pick-up lines. It was a really stilted conversation at first, but after half an hour, everyone was talking and laughing with each other, just like old times.

Just like the times before the Knight came

He cut off that particular train of thought.

He even managed to confirm with Queen that she’d send a Swatchling to the Cyber Fields, and after they’d all finished dinner, she took him down to the acid pool to ‘Just Hang Out’, while the others took care of dinner. He was still too young to go in the acid pool, so he just watched her float around on a donut tube as he swung his feet over the acid.

They talked for hours, just catching up. She told him about all the trouble she’d gotten into, he told her about how he’d made his own turntable that could fly. She suggested that he get into building as a side job, with how good he was at it, and he said he’d think about it.

It was during a lapse of silence that he remembered a question Cap’n had asked him once; one that he’d asked Queen multiple times. He hadn’t bothered to ask since he was ten, but he was feeling… curious, maybe, and wondered if it was worth the risk of losing time with her just to see if he could get an answer.

He hesitated for a while, but eventually, he blurted, “Queen, are you my mom?”

She froze, in the same way she had back when he first asked, and he quickly backtracked. “Sorry, that was a dumb question, I shouldn’t have asked, I’m really-“

“I’m Your Legal Guardian,” she answered, cutting Sweet off in the middle of his rant. “But I Suppose If You Want To Call Me: Mom, Then You May.”

Sweet blinked several times, moving to speak several times, only to stop himself. “Oh,” was what he ended up saying.

They didn’t talk about it again after that.

— — —

The rest of the month that he was grounded went by much the same. He was still extremely bored by being stuck in the mansion all day, but at the same time, it was nice to have things back to… mostly normal. He was able to hang out with Swatch in the Color Cafe, he helped fix paintings with Tasque Manager, he played Minecrap with Queen, he played games with the Swatchlings… he even got them to tell him about that one closed-off guest room, previously having belonged to someone named Spamton G. Spamton. They didn’t tell him much about it, but from what he did hear, he was glad they didn’t tell him more.

They still wouldn’t acknowledge the basement, though. Bummer.

Despite all of this, he still found himself missing Cap’n and K_K. He missed hanging out in the shop, he missed playing music with them, he missed selling CD Bagels, he missed eating K_K’s CD Bagels, he missed bantering with Cap’n, he missed having sleepovers… he even missed performing for the one singular Plugboy who bothered to listen out in the Cyber Fields.

That was why, the second he was un-grounded, the first thing he asked to do was visit Cap’n and K_K. Queen agreed, sending a Swatchling to go with him, and he was practically bouncing the entire way there.

He spotted them selling CD Bagels at their boxes, and his soul lifted. “Hey, hey guys!” he yelled, jumping and waving.

The both of them paused, turning to stare at him. After a moment, Cap’n scoffed and turned back to the customers, while K_K gave him an uncharacteristically small smile before doing the same.

Sweet blinked, confused by their reaction, but figured they were probably just too busy serving customers to talk at the moment, so he sat down to wait.

He didn’t have to wait too long, because the lines were pretty short, so as soon as the last Plugboys was out of view (with no other Plugboys arriving), Sweet hopped up and bounded over to them. He stopped right in front of their boxes, soul once again lifting in delight.

“Hi guys!” He chirped with a wave. K_K gave a small wave back, but Cap’n scowled at him.

“What do you want,” he muttered, harshly shoving leftover CD Bagels into the box.

Sweet blinked rapidly, taken aback by Cap’n’s aggressive attitude. “Wha- what do you mean, what do I want?” He asked incredulously. “I was just saying hi.” He looked at K_K. “Man, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you guys, I-”

“And who’s fault is that?” Cap’n snapped, closing his box so hard it was nearly crushed in his grip. K_K followed suit, but handled his box with much more care. “What, did you come back to rub it in?”

Sweet blinked once more, now thoroughly confused and feeling a terrible sinking feeling in his circuits. “Rub what in?” He asked, bringing his hands up to grab his arms. “I-“

“Oh, nothin’,” Cap’n cut him off sarcastically, “Why don’t we all just pretend that you don’t think you’re better than us, huh? That everything’s just fine and dandy, that you didn’t just totally ditch us once you remembered how nice it was to live with Queen?” He threw his hands up in the air, a sardonic grin on his face. “That sounds like so much fun!”

“What are you even talking about?!” Sweet exploded, throwing his own arms up in the air in genuine confusion- and now a little anger, too. “What do you even mean?”

“He means because you don’t want to be friends anymore,” K_K said quietly.

Sweet froze, a horrible feeling settling over him like the crash of a wave. “Huh- what? ” He sputtered. “Why- why would you think I didn’t wanna be friends anymore??”

“Why wouldn’t we think that?!” Cap’n yelled, kicking his box of CD Bagels. “You go totally radio silent for almost a whole month, and then when we finally get ahold of one of those ‘Swatchlings’,” he put his fingers up in mock quotation, “the guy says that they’ve never heard of ‘mAStEr SWeEt’ having any friends! Especially not from the ‘Cyber Fields’! They didn’t even know our names!” He yanked the sunglasses off, his glare now on full display. “So yeah, it’s pretty f##king obvious just how much you care about us!’

Sweet- didn’t know how to respond to that. His whole body felt cold, like someone had just dumped an entire gallon-sized bucket of ice water on top of him. It almost even felt like he was about to start glitching out in the same way that getting water in his circuits would do to him. “I-I- that’s- that’s not-“

“Whatever,” Cap’n scoffed, muttering under his breath. “It must’ve been real nice to go home and remember that your wittle ‘mommy’ cared about you.”

And just like that, the ice turned to fire. He had no idea what was going on. He had no idea why they thought he didn’t care about them. But Cap’n just insulted Queen. He’d just insulted the one person Sweet was actually sure cared about him anymore.

He didn’t think about what he said before he said it. He just knew he wanted it to hurt.

“At least I actually have a mom, #sshole.”

Sweet slapped a hand over his speaker. Cap’n froze. K_K dropped his box.

The heat of his anger melted away, only to be frozen solid. He couldn’t even say it felt like ice; it was so, so much colder than that. Every circuit froze up, every system stopped responding, each of his speakers went dead silent, and even his mind felt like it’d been frozen in place.

It was so, so cold.

Cap’n abruptly picked up the box again. Sweet struggled to find his voice. “Cap-“

Cap’n didn’t stop, whirling around. Sweet practically begged. “Cap- Cap, wait, I-I’m- I’m so-”

“Go f##k yourself, Sweet,” Cap’n deadpanned, not even bothering to turn back. “Clearly, she never should have named you that in the first place.” He marched off into the distance until Sweet was staring despairingly at nothing.

After a few moments of silence, K_K bent down to pick up his own box. Sweet looked at him, pleading. “K_K, I’m- I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean it, I swear I didn’t mean it, I’m so sorry-”

K_K stood at his full height, Sweet’s voice catching in his circuits. K_K wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t look angry. He looked profoundly sad. Quietly, he said, “I think you should go home, Sweet. Cool off.” With that, he turned and followed after Cap’n, only glancing back at Sweet once before he too disappeared from Sweet’s sight.

Sweet didn’t know how to tell him that he was already freezing.

— — —

His trip home felt like it took eons. The Swatchling sent to accompany him barely spoke the entire time, leaving Sweet to swim around in the icy water of his thoughts. He might as well actually be frozen in ice; with how slowly he moved and the way his hands trembled, he didn’t think he’d be able to tell if he suddenly was.

No one was there to greet him when he arrived through the front door. He couldn’t bring himself to feel angry about it, or upset, or even resigned. He just felt cold.

He didn’t bother trying to make it to his room; he knew if he did, he’d just end up collapsing on the floor to sob. Instead, he made his way to the Color Cafe and dragged himself into one of the plush chairs inside. Swatch wasn’t there.

No one was in there, he realized belatedly, and he vaguely wondered where they all went. He couldn’t bring himself to get up and find out.

Hours passed in the cafe, or maybe it was just minutes; at the moment, Sweet couldn’t tell the difference. Nevertheless, after some amount of time, he started hearing voices fill the mansion’s lobby. Swatchlings started filing in, not even seeming to notice his presence, and not even five minutes later, Swatch himself walked in, pausing next to Sweet’s chair.

“Oh, hello young Master,” he greeted. “How was your day?”

“Where was everyone?” Sweet mumbled in lieu of an answer. He didn’t bother trying to put genuine curiosity in his voice; he knew it wouldn’t come out any differently no matter how hard he tried.

Swatch didn’t seem to notice Sweer’s numbness. “Ah, well, that’s the exciting part,” he replied, feathers fluffing as he smiled, “The Knight is coming back sooner than expected! In just two weeks, to be exact.”

“Oh.”

Sweet found himself even colder, somehow.

— — —

He spent almost the entire first week holed up in his room. He had sobbed, once he’d gotten there, and since then he had barely stopped sobbing. It’d gotten to the point where he started vomiting oil instead of crying it, which was almost a better alternative to the constant tears. No one ever came to check on him except for the stray Swatchling every now and again, who would usually just come to leave food in the room.

They never seemed to notice that he barely ate it.

He tossed and turned every night, unable to sleep. Every time he closed his eye, his mind would replay the argument, repeating his words back st him over and over and over. Every time he left his eye open, he’d get colder and colder and colder.

He left his room in the middle of the second week, practically in a haze. He ran into Queen, who barely gave him a greeting before rushing off. Before she could leave his sight, a question he hadn’t even realized he’d been thinking about fell out of his speaker:

“Did you ever send a Swatchling to let Cap’n and Cakes know I was grounded?”

Queen paused, fully stopping in the hallway. After a minute, her visor switched to LMAO. “Oh No I Totally Forgot About That Lol.” She laughed, then walked away.

That was when he broke.

It was already late in the evening, but Sweet didn’t care. He didn’t care that it was dark already, he didn’t care that most people were sleeping by now, he didn’t care that it was definitely too late to ask Queen for permission, he didn’t care that he’d probably get grounded again.

He left.

He didn’t run, not at first. He walked through the mansion’s hallways, down into the lobby, and out of the palace doors. He passed multiple Swatchlings on the way out; none of them tried to stop him.

As soon as the doors closed behind him, that was when he ran.

He ran past the Addisons trying to sell him products he’d never use. He ran around the Virovriokuns spreading their viruses into the air. He ran faster than the Ambyu-lances on their way to fatally-wounded patients. He ran past the blue, he ran past the few lights still on, he ran into the dark, he ran through the dark. He ran all the way out of the city.

He ran into the green of the Cyber Fields, into a darkness much more prevalent but much more soothing than that of the city’s. He ran past the houses of the sleeping Plugboys, past the few Virovirokuns that lived out here, past the unfinished roller coaster. He ran past the place the boxes used to be, he ran past the place the Hacker lived, he ran past the green, green, green.

He didn’t stop running until he reached the shop. Their shop.

He froze in front of the door, ice running through his limbs yet again. He warred with himself, wanting to knock and being wholly afraid of the prospect at the same time.

Just knock.

I can’t.

You can.

They hate me.

Just knock.

If I knock, they’ll just tell me to get lost.

Just knock.

They’ll throw me away, just like everyone else.

Just knock.

I can’t do it.

You can.

I can’t knock.

You have to.

I can’t.

You can.

I can’t knock.

JUST KNOCK.

His hand was rapping at the door before he’d even realized which side won.

Immediately, he froze. He shouldn’t have knocked, he should have left, they’ll hate him, they’ll toss him out, he shouldn’t have knocked, why did he knock, why did he-

The door opened, and Sweet was equal parts relieved and horrified to see that it was K_K at the door. His breath caught in his circuits as the taller monster rubbed his eyes with a yawn before looking down, blinking when his eyes landed on Sweet. “Hello-?”

“I’m sorry!” Sweet burst into tears, sobbing hysterically and clutching his arms tightly in his hands. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, I didn’t mean it but it was still so bad to say, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m such a terrible friend, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-!”

He was cut off suddenly by long arms wrapping around him. He flinched, but realized when K_K knelt down that it wasn’t to hit him or shove him away; it was a huh.

“I forgive you,” K_K said.

Sweet took a deep breath, before breaking into sobs once again. He wrapped his own arms around K_K, clutching him tightly as he sobbed oily tears into his chest. He cried and sobbed and screamed, and K_K didn’t let him go or throw him away; he knelt there, and when Sweer’s legs buckled and he collapsed into sobs on the ground, K_K fell with him, and Sweet sobbed into his shoulder.

They’d been sitting that way for a while before Sweet heard a groan from inside the shop. K_K turned his head, and Sweet froze, oily tears still running down his face, as Cap’n stumbled into the doorway, looking worse for wear himself.

“Who’s makin’ so much noise at-” he cut himself off as he noticed Sweet sitting there. He glared, before he paused and suddenly looked unsure. “Uh… what-”

“I’m so sorry,” Sweet blurted, hiding his face in K_K’s shoulder again. “I’m so sorry I said that to you, that was so horrible, I’m so sorry I said that, and I’m sorry I made you think I didn’t wanna be friends, and-“

“Woah, hey,” Cap’n cut him off, and Sweet chanced a glance at him, only to see Cap’n looking extremely uncomfortable. “I, uh… Man, I don’t know how I could just not forgive you, when you’re cryin’ like that…”

Sweet shook his head vehemently. “Don’t forgive me,” he said, hiccuping on another sob, “don’t forgive me if it’s- if it’s just ‘cause you feel bad. You shouldn’t forgive me, I’m a terrible friend, and I’m so, so sorry I messed up so bad-”

He was cut off (again) by Cap’n joining the hug, slouching against K_K and Sweet. “‘S too late for this,” he muttered, and Sweet thought that maybe he could hear tears in Cap’n’s voice as well, “we should go inside.”

“In a minute,” K_K replied, shifting his grip to hold both Cap’n and Sweet tightly. Neither of them tried to argue.

— — —

A minute ended up turning into thirty, but none of them complained. Sweet was actually pretty sure that Cap’n complained more once K_K deemed them ready to go back inside, but those protests were also short-lived once the three of them crashed onto K_K’s bed (Sweet didn’t know they’d gotten beds) and almost immediately fell asleep, still curled up in a hug and holding each other tightly as consciousness faded away.

That was how they woke up the next morning, all tangled around each other. Things were super awkward, especially between Sweet and Cap’n, but K_K just got up and made pancakes, chatting about random stuff he and Cap’n had done while Sweet was gone.

Breakfast itself was quiet, even though none of them were actually eating. Cap’n was nudging the pancakes around on the plate, K_K was sitting with his hands folded while looking off to the side, and Sweet stared at his plate, unable to bring himself to so much as touch the food.

“Sweet?” K_K spoke after several minutes of silence. “Are you okay?”

Sweet hesitated, folding his hands under the table. “Why are you even asking me that?” he muttered, willing himself not to cry again. “You should hate me.”

“Tough sh#t,” Cap’n deadpanned, coughing when K_K gave him a disapproving look. “‘Cause we don’t hate you,” he continued, “but we’re still pretty pi- ticked off that you ditched us for apparently no reason.”

“He’s trying to ask you why you left without saying anything,” K_K explained. Cap’n opened his mouth with a sputter, but paused and then nodded with a sigh.

“I was trying to have a little more tact, but yeah.”

“K_K was more tactful than you,” Sweet murmured as he twisted his hands together. He went quiet for a moment, hesitating. Most of him wanted to try to explain, but a small part of him whispered that they wouldn’t like what he had to say, that they’d say he didn’t try hard enough, that they’d kick him out if he said anything. It was almost enough to keep his speakers quiet.

But they wouldn’t do that. He knew they wouldn’t. K_K had forgiven him just last night, before he’d explained anything at all. He should explain; he wanted to explain.

So he did.

He told them about how he’d been grounded, how Queen had promised to send someone to let them know, about everything that’d happened while he’d been gone— about how he missed them. They told him stuff too; like how they’d gotten concerned when he didn’t show up for a week, how they’d gone to Cyber City by themselves to look for him, how the Swatchling they met had said they’d never heard of Sweet having friends in the ‘Cyber Field’ (and this time, Sweet didn’t miss the negative undertone of the words), how they’d waited for him to come back and say it wasn’t true for a week before losing hope… Cap’n begrudgingly admitted that he’d ended up fully believing that Sweet didn’t care about them anymore, while K_K had still held out hope that it was all a misunderstanding.

They all pointedly didn’t talk about the fight. That was fine with Sweet; he’d been forgiven and he didn’t want to think about it anymore.

“So when’re you gonna go back?” Cap’n asked a while later, all three of them lounging on the couch and listening to a radio station playing electro swing. At Sweet’s flinch, he hurriedly added, “Not that we want you gone! But like, are you sure you’re not gonna get grounded again for this?”

Sweet shrugged from where he laid against K_K’s left side, with Cap’n on K_K’s right. K_K had his arms wrapped around both of them; a gesture neither complained about. “Maybe, but I doubt it,” he replied. “She only got upset last time ‘cause I messed up things with the Knight.” He paused with a wince as he remembered what Tasque Manager had said about Queen being worried, but he was now more sure that it was more about the Knight than it was himself, so he continued. “Plus, I doubt she even realizes I’m gone.”

Cap’n snorted. “Yeah right,” he said as he leaned back against K_K. “You only left in the middle of the night and still haven’t showed up by morning. She’s probably flipping right now.”

Sweet stifled a snicker at the mental image (although Queen literally flipping out didn’t sound too out of character for her), but stared at the ground. “She’s only talked to me, like, once in the past whole week. She’ll probably only wonder where I am when the Knight comes.”

“She hasn’t talked to you in a week?” K_K asked, tilting his head. “I thought she was your mom.”

Sweet hesitated. He’d thought so too, but with everything that’d happened (why did the Swatchling pretend they weren’t his friends?) , he wasn’t sure anymore. “She… said I could call her mom, but I’m not sure she considers herself my mom.” He wrung his hands together. “But her not talking to me for a week is pretty normal, ever since the Knight showed up.”

“That sucks,” Cap’n hummed sympathetically, to which Sweet just shrugged. “Still though, she’s gotta have noticed that you’re not in the mansion at all anymore, right? Or someone’s probably noticed, at least.”

“I doubt it,” Sweet replied, feeling bitter for a second before he squashed it down. “They don’t usually notice stuff like this; otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten away with nearly as many sleepovers.”

There was a pause. “I thought that was just the first time,” Cap’n said, something strange in his voice.

“Yeah, didn’t they know about all the sleepovers?” K_K added.

Sweet shrugged. “I mean, maybe they figured it out eventually,” he replied, “but most of the time it was just because they’d forgotten I was in the Cyber Field.”

No one spoke for a few moments. Sweet looked up questioningly, only to freeze when he saw the concerned looks on his friend’s faces. A mix of unease and defensiveness washed over him, and he added, “Okay first of all, it was for the Knight, okay? I mean…” he hesitated. “I didn’t– I don’t like that they forget about me sometimes, or– or just ignore me in the hallway, but there’s a lot to do whenever the Knight arrives, so it makes sense that they’re busy.”

“Too busy to remember that you were gone? ” Cap’n asked incredulously. “Dude, that’s like– seriously messed up. They shouldn’t just forget that you existed!”

“I think that classifies as child neglect,” K_K added, no less incredulous than Cap’n.

Sweet scowled, part of him wanting to defend Queen and everyone even as another part of him quietly wanted to agree. “But it’s for the Knight,” he argued, and then before he could think about it, “And it’s not like the orphanage treated you better; they treated you worse .” His brain short-circuited, and he froze as he realized what he said. “I– I’m sorry,” he stammered, pulling his legs up to his chest, “that was unfair of me.”

There was silence for a few moments before K_K spoke. “It was, but it’s okay.” He paused, then amended, “Well, no, it’s not okay, but I forgive you.”

Cap’n sighed, and the tension Sweet hadn’t noticed before bled out of his shoulders. “Yeah, me too,” he muttered.

That was the second time they’d forgiven him, in less than twenty-four hours.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, oily tears welling up in his eye. “I’m sorry I’m such a bad friend. I really don’t deserve you guys, or Queen, or Tasque Manager, or Swatch, or anyone–”

K_K pulled him closer, wrapping his arm around him tighter. “Don’t say that about yourself,” he said quietly. “It’s not true.”

Sweet sniffed, willing the tears to not fall from his speaker. They really were too nice for him. “Yes it is,” he muttered, wiping at his eye. “I keep being awful to you and Cap, I yelled and swore at Queen, I’m being ungrateful towards everyone in the mansion, and I can’t even get it through my big, stupid head that the Knight is ten times more important than I’ll ever be.”

“Shut the f##k up,” Cap’n growled, startling Sweet. K_K hugged him tighter while giving Cap’n yet another disappointed look. Cap’n ignored it as he continued, “First of all, you swearing at Queen is bad#ss. Second of all, f##k the people in the mansion! Sure, they took you in when you were younger, but that doesn’t change the fact that now , they’re treating you like sh#t. Third of all, and most importantly,” Cap’n paused to clamber over K_K (who noticeably said nothing about the multiple swears) and practically threw himself on top of Sweet, who let out an ‘oomph’ at the impact. “I don’t care about some dumb fancy-pants Knight. Maybe Queen and her cronies don’t think you’re important compared to the Knight, but I don’t care. You’re important to me. You’re important to K_K. Don’t you dare say otherwise ever again.” He hugged Sweet tight, although Sweet had the feeling that that wasn’t the reason he suddenly found it hard to breathe.

“What he said,” K_K added, hugging the two of them tightly. “You’re important to us. You’re both important to me. I don’t care what you do or say; there’s nothing you can do that’ll make me stop caring about you, and there’s nothing you can do that’ll make you unworthy of love.”

Sweet’s resolve to not cry crumbled, and as the three of them sat there in a group hug, he could’ve sworn he felt tears from the other two fall onto him as well.

Sweet knew by now that it was possible to have two homes, but he thought it’d be okay if he just had this one.

— — —

He still went back to the mansion the next day, despite Cap’n and K_K’s reservations. He explained to them that one, he still lived in the mansion, and two, he was legally Queen’s… ward? Ward or child. Still, this meant that she was still in charge of him, and he really didn’t want to get grounded again. They eventually agreed, but only after they made him promise to come back the next day, and said that if they didn’t hear from him in a week, they’d go to Queen’s mansion and break him out themselves, whether he wanted it or not.

He didn’t mind that in the slightest.

Cap’nhad shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot as he’d been getting ready, rubbing the back of his head while K_K stood nearby. “Hey, uh…. I’m sorry for assuming the worst after you got grounded,” he’d apologized. “And for swearing at you so much yesterday. Even if you kinda deserved that last part.”

Sweet had paused. “Oh, uh. I forgive you?” He’d already forgiven him, to be honest, but he was also so used to being the one apologizing that hearing someone else say it was uncanny.

“I’m sorry too,” K_K had added.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, K_K.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t notice you were hurting when I should have, and for not taking action to help you.”

Sweet’s breath had caught in his throat. Despite the fact that K_K shouldn’t be taking any responsibility for that, it still felt nice to hear. It was reminiscent of Tasque Manager’s apology, but it felt…. different, somehow.

“That wasn’t your fault, K_K. But if it helps you feel better, I forgive you.”

They’d all hugged goodbye, taking an unusually long amount of time due to them not really wanting to be separated, but eventually they’d let go, and Sweet headed back to the mansion alone. He tried not to miss Cap’n and K_K the whole way there.

Although once he got to the mansion, missing his brothers? friends? friends was somehow both the last thing on his mind and at the forefront of it.

The palace was in disarray, with Swatchling’s running amok and carrying different materials. Tasques prowled around the place as though they were going to pounce at any moment, and the maice that had been so bold before now skittered back to their hiding spaces in the walls. He was pretty sure he heard Tasque Manager in the Color Cafe and Swatch yelling frenzied commands at the Swatchlings.

The only person who seemed unaffected by the chaos was Queen, who stood at the bottom of the steps, surveying the lobby as she drank a glass of battery acid.

No one spoke to or acknowledged Sweet in any way as he ducked and dodged through the traffic, trying to make it to Queen to figure out what the heck was going on. They didn’t even seem to notice him when he accidentally tripped one of them up, just stepping around him like he wasn’t even there.

Once he made it over to Queen, he hesitated. What if she had noticed he was gone and got angry at him?

Still, he was already right there, so it’d be kinda hard to sneak away now. So instead, he cleared his throat and asked, “Queen, what’s going on?”

She didn’t respond for a few moments, and only seemed to notice him when he repeated the question. She looked down at him with the biggest smile he’d seen on her, and yet nothing about it looked genuine. “Oh Lol Hey Sweetie Pie, You Just Missed The Knight.” She took a sip from her battery acid.

Sweet froze. “The— The Knight? But I thought they wouldn’t be here for a few more days.”

Queen shrugged. “They Got Here: Early.” She took another sip from her battery acid and didn’t say anything for a few moments. Just as Sweet considered walking away, she added, “Oh Wait Sweet There’s Something I Have To Tell You.”

He paused, a feeling of apprehension coming over him. “...yeah?”

“I’m Going To Ban All Music Lol. Except Noise Music And Reverse Diss Tracks.”

“...What?”

“I’m Going To Ban All Music Lol. Except Noise Music And Reverse Diss Tracks,” she repeated, downing the last of her battery acid. Then she suddenly threw it on the ground, glass shattering with a loud crash. Sweet flinched away from the shards that went flying, but the Swatchlings didn’t even seem to notice what had happened; instead, they just stepped on and over the shards of glass, not a care for the mess or potential injury while they had other tasks to do.

“The Knight Said I Should Ban Like; All All Music, But I Decided I Still Wanted To Listen To Music I Like, So I Only Banned: Most Of It.” She laughed like it was the funniest joke she’d ever told.

Which was what this all had to be; a joke. There was no way she was actually doing that; why would the Knight even say something like that? “You can’t be serious,” he said slowly, waiting for her to come out and say that it was a joke.

Instead, her visor shifted to ???. “Why Would I Not Be Lmao.”

Sweet blinked. Then blinked again. Then blinked some more. “You— you can’t just ban all music!”

“Most Music,” she corrected, “And Actually I Literally Can Lol.”

“I’m literally in a band!”

“Will You Only Play Noise Music Or Reverse Diss Tracks?”

Sweet sputtered. What even was a reverse diss track? “No??”

“Then You Can’t Be In A Band,” she stated simply.

Sweet froze. He couldn’t be— but he had to. They were a trio; Sweet Cap’n Cakes. He couldn’t just not be in the band. And he was literally a speaker; playing music was his whole purpose. “What if I just play other music anyway?”

She tilted her head. “I Would Have To: Ground You.”

“Over playing music in a band?”

“Yes.”

Sweet gaped. This was genuinely the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “Well— I’m gonna do it anyway!” he blurted after a second. “I’m gonna go be in the band, and I’m gonna play whatever songs I want, and you can’t stop me!”

Queen laughed. “I Literally Can Lol.”

“No you can’t-!”

— — —

Turned out she very much could. All she had to do was order a Swatchling to bring him to his room and tell him he was ‘indefinitely grounded’.

He’d tried to get out as soon as the Swatchling had left the room, but the door was somehow locked from the other side. Had she switched the locks while he was gone? Or did this happen while he was grounded the last time?

He tried to kick the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. He tried to get the doorknob off, but it didn’t move. He even looked around his room that could get him out through his second-story window, but all he could find were two different outfits that were definitely not going to be enough.

After he tried (and failed) to escape for thirty minutes straight, he sat down on his bed, head in his hands as he thought. He couldn’t get out of the room right now ; anything that might have helped him escape before, he’d taken to the junk shop at some point and hadn’t brought it back. The room was nearly bare of any personal belongings by this point.

Except for one thing.

Sweet’s gaze slid over to his dresser. The toy robot, the one Queen had found him fixing all those years ago, stood there, untouched. He hadn’t used it since he was at least twelve; he’d thought he’d outgrown playing with toys.

Now he might not get to use it ever again.

He tore his eye away from the robot, looking back at the door. He couldn’t escape right now, but maybe when the Swatchlings came back to feed him (they would, right? They wouldn’t just forget he was there) , he could slip past them and get out.

— — —

The first time a Swatchling came to bring him a meal (which was dinner, supposedly), he didn’t try to escape; instead, he ate the meal and went to bed, so that when he did try to escape, he’d have the energy to do it.

It was hard to fall asleep, though. He stayed awake for hours before he managed to doze off.

At breakfast time, he’d tried to dash out of the room while the Swatchling was putting the meal on the dresser, but he’d been quickly grabbed and deposited on his bed before the door had been locked again. He’d tried to hide behind the door and slip out at lunch, but an additional Swatchling had caught him and brought him back in his room. He tried to hide under the bed to confuse the Swatchlings at dinner, but all they did was leave the food there and lock him in the room again.

The next day passed much the same way, although he did get close once at lunch when he set up a contraption to drop his other two outfits on the Swatchlings to distract them while he ran. Unfortunately, he’d been caught and brought back by Swatch himself, and when dinner came around, three Swatchlings had been added to the first two, making escape practically impossible.

He’d been pacing in his room for the past hour when he heard a knock on his window.

He swung his head around, only to freeze when he saw Cap’n’s face staring back at him. His soul lifted as he rushed over to the window, and he yanked it open. “Cap! How’re you even-?”

“Shhhh!” Cap’n shushed harshly. “There’s tasques prowling around everywhere; me ‘nd K_K barely got in!” A quick glance down revealed that K_K had extended his upper body all the way up to the window, with Cap’n sitting on his shoulders.

“Sorry,” Sweet whispered, then paused. How did they even know he was grounded? He remembered now that they’d said they would break him out if he didn’t show up for a week, but it’s only been two days, so… “How did you guys know to come get me?”

Cap’n huffed. “Just get out here! We’ll explain later when we’re not at risk of gettin’ our butts beat by Queen!”

Sweet nodded and began to climb out the window, then paused. “Give me a sec, I’ve gotta get something,” he whispered, then tumbled back into the room, ignoring Cap’n’s exaggerated groan. He grabbed the toy robot from the dresser, never to be left behind again. He ran back up to the window and climbed onto the sill. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Finally!” Cap’n whisper-shouted, then held his arms up. “Okay, I’m gonna grab you, and then K_K’s gonna slowly bring us all down.” Sweet looked at Cap’n dubiously. “Are you even strong enough for that?”

“Shut up and get out here, Sweet.”

Sweet nodded, slowly lowering himself out the window, and to his credit, Cap’n did manage to grab and hold him, even if Sweet felt his grip slipping every other second.

“I didn’t know you could extend your limbs that far, K_K,” Sweet whispered as K_K slowly started to lower the three of them to the ground.

“Neither did I!” K_K whispered with a grin. “We were gonna kidnap a Swatchling if this didn’t work!”

Sweet blinked. “Wait, you were gonna what-?”

He cut himself off with a yelp as Cap’n suddenly let go, only to be caught by one of K_K’s arms. He scowled as he jumped out of K_K’s arm, just as Cap’n jumped off of his shoulders. “What was that for?” he whispered.

Cap’n breathed deeply, leaning over with his hands on his knees. “Sorry,” he wheezed, “I didn’t realize how heavy you are.”

Sweet narrowed his eye. “I’m not that heavy.”

“Yeah, he’s not that heavy,” K_K added.

“Just shut up,” Cap’n groaned, standing up straight. “We’ve gotta get out of here.”

That, all three of them could agree on.

— — —

The three of them collapsed on the couch nearly the second they made it back, the adrenaline from sneaking in and out of Queen’s mansion bleeding out of their systems. The only thing Sweet had done before letting himself sit down was check to make sure his turntable was still in the junk shop’s back room– which it was. After that, there was nothing to stop the three of them from sinking to a heap on the couch.

As Cap’n mumbled at K_K and tried to shove him off, with K_K refusing to let go of Cap’n or Sweet, Sweet just sighed, sinking into the couch with relief.

“So how’d you guys know to come and get me?” Sweet mumbled, causing Cap’n and K_K to pause. “It hasn’t been even close to a week yet.” Cap’n shrugged, struggling to sit up with K_K holding him so tightly. “We got the announcement that Queen was banning music this morning,” he explained, giving up on trying to escape K_K’s grasp and flopping back down against the couch. “We already knew that you weren’t gonna take it well and that Queen fu- freaking sucks, so we just decided to go early.”

“Oh,” was Sweet’s reply, and he gripped K_K’s arm almost as tightly as K_K was holding him. “...thank you.”

Cap’n just hummed with a nod, leaning back against K_K. Everything went quiet for a moment, before Cap’n spoke up again. “So what’re we gonna do now? Can’t exactly be a band if we can’t play any music.”

“Unless we only ever play noise music,” K_K pointed out. All three of them shuddered at the thought.

Sweet stared at the ground, thinking hard. Cap’n was right; all of the music they’d written was banned. They literally couldn’t play any of their songs anywhere unless they wanted to get in serious trouble.

But he found that he didn’t really care so much. Playing music with Cap’n and K_K was the happiest he’d ever been, and he’d loved music even before Queen took him in. Abandoning music would practically be abandoning himself; and it almost felt like abandoning Cap’n and K_K too, even if it was only their band. And again, he was literally a speaker; the words ‘never play music’ in that specific order weren’t in his vocabulary.

Besides, he would probably already be in trouble for breaking out of the mansion while grounded anyway.

He stood up suddenly, K_K’s grip having loosened during the silence. The two of them exchanged a look, but he ignored it as he looked for an RCA connector cable. “Sweet? What’re you doing?” Cap’n asked, sitting up.

“I’m gonna go play music,” Sweet said firmly, finding the cable he was looking for.

“What?” Cap’n and K_K yelled at the same time. Cap’n jumped off the couch, K_K not far behind. “I don’t know how you already forgot, but we were literally just talking about the fact that we can’t play music anymore,” Cap’n added.

“I don’t care,” Sweet snapped as he stalked off to the back room and walked up to its door. “I’m getting my turntable and I’m playing music as loud as I can from my speakers.”

“You’re going to get in trouble,” K_K warned, grabbing the doorknob before Sweet could reach for it.

Sweet rolled his eye. “I’m already gonna be in trouble, K_K,” he replied, glancing between him and Cap’n, who crossed his arms.

“You’re gonna get in more trouble,” Cap’n amended. “And we just busted you out of Queen’s mansion. Do you really wanna go back and get to find out what the dungeons there feel like?”

“Queen’s mansion doesn’t have a dungeon,” Sweet muttered, but shook his head. “But that’s not the point. I need to play music; I’m literally a speaker .” He pointed at Cap’n. “And aren’t you a cassette player?” He pointed at K_K. “And you’re a CD player. You guys need to play music even more than I do.”

Both Cap’n and K_K hesitated at that. “We can handle going on nothin’ but noise music,” Cap’n replied, but it sounded unsure.

“For how long?” Sweet asked, crossing his own arms. “How long are you gonna be okay with playing nothing besides noise music or a ‘reverse diss track’? We don’t even have many noise music songs; how long are you gonna be able to play the same four songs on repeat, for the rest of your lives?”

K_K and Cap’n shared a wary glance. “It’s better than getting in trouble, though,” K_K said hesitantly. “She might not have a dungeon, but I don’t want to know what she’ll do to enforce that law.”

“The law we’re not even gonna be able to follow?” Sweet asked incredulously. “Can both of you honestly say that you’re gonna be able to go for the rest of our lives playing nothing but noise music? Playing nothing but the same four songs over and over?”

Neither of them said anything for a moment, seemingly wanting to look anywhere except at Sweet. After a minute, K_K spoke, “Sweet, is this because of the music, or does it have something to do with Queen herself?”

Sweet frozen. He hadn’t quite considered that, but it was a real possibility. He did feel bitter towards Queen; he felt bitter towards everyone in the mansion. Maybe even everyone in the city. Maybe this was all an attempt to get back at Queen, for everything she’d done to him.

But everything she’d done to him included taking him in when he had no one.

And it wasn’t just about her, either. It was about the fact that he was made to play music. It was about the fact that Cap’n and K_K were made to play music. Music was a part of them, even more than it was for him. He could handle playing a myriad of different things from his speakers, even if none of them made him want to dance the way music did, but Cap’n and K_K would have practically nothing.

“I think it might a little,” Sweet said slowly, “but it’s also about the three of us. We’re the Sweet Cap’n Cakes; playing music is what we do . And it’d be that way even if we weren’t a band.” He tapped his foot on the ground. “And it’s not just about music either. If Queen’s gonna decide to be as petty as to ban something like music she doesn’t particularly enjoy, what’s to stop her from banning other things too? Like- like staying out too late, or being able to sell CD Bagels, or crossing the road without a permit, or–”

“‘Crossing the road without a permit’?” Cap’n deadpanned. “And being able to sell CD Bagels? That’s taking it a little too far.” “And banning music isn’t?” Sweet retorted, Cap’n quickly shutting up. “You think it’s crazy, and that’s because it is crazy, but we also think that banning music is crazy, and what’d she do? She banned music! She banned music when some of her own subjects were literally made for making music! She’s already taken things ‘a little too far’. What’s to stop her from going further? Are we really supposed to just lie down and take that?”

Neither of them answered him for a moment, just glancing at each other again. After a minute, Cap’n sighed. “So what, you’re in your rebel phase or somethin’?”

Sweet sputtered. “It’s not a phase!” he snapped, before pausing as Cap’n snickered and K_K grinned. “No, no do not laugh at me that is not what I meant–” he paused again. “But, well… kinda.”

“So you’re having a phase?” K_K asked.

Sweet groaned, shaking his head. “No, it’s– not about the phase part, I meant the ‘rebel’ part.” He put his hand on the doorknob that K_K had stopped paying attention to, pushing the door open. “Queen’s banned music, and if she can get away with that, what else can she get away with? So we should show her that she can’t get away with it, that we’re not just gonna let this happen. So- so let’s be rebels! Let’s be a resistance against Queen’s stupid laws!” He gestured at the turntable.

…

“That was so overdramatic,” Cap’n deadpanned, but then grinned as Sweet sputtered. “But I get what you’re saying; and to be honest, I don’t really like the thought of playing noise music for eternity.” He popped his knuckles, walking over to the turntable and hopping up onto it. “Plus, I’ve got a few other bones to pick with Queen myself. Even if she is a madimoyselle.”

“That’s definitely not how you pronounce that,” Sweet muttered, before looking up at K_K, who seemed unsure. “Cakes, c’mon. You can’t seriously tell me that you’re okay with what she’s doing.”

“I haven’t been okay with what she’s been doing since the time you first came back to the Fields,” K_K said plainly, but still hesitated. “I don’t want things to get worse for you.”

Sweet looked down, feeling guilty, but more determined at the same time. “...And I don’t want things to get worse for you and Cap.”

K_K stared at him for a few moments, eyes searching. Sweet wasn’t sure for what, exactly, but it made him feel uneasy all the same. “Okay,” K_K said eventually, Sweet’s spirits lifting, “but just music. And nothing that’ll get us in too much trouble; we’ll just play the songs we like and that’s it.”

“Deal,” Sweet stuck his hand out, and with a small smile, K_K shook it. The two of them turned towards the turntable. “Now let’s get out there and– Cap don’t you dare touch that I will actually kill you!!!”

— — —

Embarrassingly, Swatch didn’t notice that Master Sweet had managed to sneak away until the next dinner, when he’d accompanied the other Swatchlings to bring him his meal. The window was wide open, but nothing resembling a rope was hanging from it, so Master Sweet had almost certainly had help– most likely, his two friends from the Cyber Fields.

According to the Swatchlings, the room had been empty the entire day, but they had figured he was hiding under the bed again and thought nothing of the open window. Swatch had half a mind to fire them right then and there, but ultimately, that decision would be up to Queen.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t where Swatch’s trouble ended. Shortly after the discovery, Swatch caught wind of a video of three protestors of the music ban vehemently opposing Queen’s new law and defending themselves against Queen’s new Werewires. He had a sinking feeling that Master Sweet was involved in this, which was proved to be correct once he actually watched the footage. The video itself was quickly trending, and he knew it would only be a matter of time before Queen saw it– if she hadn’t already.

He decided that the best thing to do would be to tell Queen about this, hopefully before she came across it herself. So after submitting a request to see her (which was immediately granted, as all requests sent from Swatch or Tasque Manager were), he made his way to her bedroom/office/whatever was most convenient for her at the moment and knocked on the doors.

As he waited for her to open the door, he had to squash down a lot of feelings of apprehension. Her Majesty the Queen was rarely in the wrong, but he could not, for the life of him, understand the music ban that she’d set into place. Especially when her surrogate son was part of the subsect of Darkners created to produce music.

However, it was the Knight’s will, and the Knight was only wrong as often as Queen was. If Queen saw it fit to listen to the Knight’s advice to set this ban in place, so be it.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the door suddenly opening, although Queen was not directly behind it. This wasn’t an odd occurrence, so he walked inside, only to stop short when he saw that she was sitting… in her throne. Which she’d brought in here, for some reason. He shook it off quickly; Her Grace often did things he didn’t understand, but she always had a reason. Even if he never understood those reasons either.

She appeared to be watching something, with her facing away from him, and while he was loathe to interrupt her, she had allowed him in the room, so he cleared his throat. “I have some… unfortunate news for you, Your Grace.”

“Yes Swatch Darling What Is It,” she hummed, her statement sounding nothing like a question. She often spoke with an odd cadence, and even more so when the Knight arrived, so he ignored it.

“Master Sweet…” he hesitated, swallowing, but pushed on regardless. “Master Sweet managed to abandon his grounding at some point yesterday. I and the other Swatchlings deeply apologize for our lack of attention.” He paused, still hesitant, but continued, “Furthermore, it appears he’s joined his friends from the Cyber Fields in… rebelling against you, My Queen.” With that, he snapped his beak shut, bracing himself for her ire.

“Oh Yeah I Know Lmao,” she replied, turning her chair around to reveal she’d been watching the very same video he had; the one that showed Master Sweet sending a volley of attacks at a Werewire.

His blood went cold for a moment, before he realized that she didn’t sound upset at all. “You… are you not bothered by his?” he asked, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

She laughed. “Of Course Not, He’ll Be Fine.” She waved a dismissive hand. “It’s Just: A Phase.”

Swatch couldn’t quite keep the disbelief out of his voice. “Just… a phase.”

“Yes, He Is Just Having A Phase,” she nodded, dismissing the video. “Once He Grows Up A Little Bit He Will Realize He Is Wrong And Will Come Back. The Knight Told Me All About It, Trust.”

Hearing that should have put his mind at ease. It should have reassured him that there was nothing to worry about, that there would be few to no repercussions for this development. Instead, it only filled him with a sense of unease and the feeling that something was deeply wrong. “And you’re not worried about him at all? That he’ll get hurt resisting you?” he asked, fighting to keep the apprehension off his face.

She merely shrugged in response. “I Have Informed Every Werewire And Swatchling To Bring Him Back Unharmed, So No.” She waved him off, bringing a new video back up. “Now Shoo, I’m Watching The Latest Season Of: Cyber World’s Funniest Home Videos.”

Reluctantly, he bowed and exited the room, still feeling as though something just wasn’t right. He tried to ignore it as he walked back to the Color Cafe, but something told him that new, terrible things were coming, and that whatever Master Sweet was going through, it wasn’t ‘just a phase’.

— — —

Notes: I hate this a lot. Like, a LOT a lot. If I never have to look at this again it'll still be too soon. But I'm leaving it here anyways 'cause I spent too much time on this to leave it rotting in Google Docs. Also here's the link to the series if you want it (it's not an actual series; it's more of a place for me to dump my SCC-centric fics):

#writing #fanfic #deltarune #deltarune fanfiction #deltarune scc #scc #sweet cap'n cakes #sweet cap'n k k #i hate tagging #i hate this so much #genuinely you have no idea just how much i hate this #even if you hate it you don't hate it more than me

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gvf-imagines · 4 years

Text

Part 1

(Josh/Danny/Jake/Sam x reader)

Warnings: alcohol use, self harm scars

word count: 3252

Thanks to @callmekane for beta reading this fic!

A/N: I’m excited about what this story will bring! This is going to be a very smut filled fan fiction series where the reader has a very sexual and open relationship with all of the boys! I know some people won’t like it I’m sure but all criticism is welcome! Please leave comments and let me know what you think and of course if you have an idea for the story I’m totally open to hearing your thoughts! I hope you enjoy it my friends ❣️

If you’d like to be on the tag-list so you know when I post part 2 just message me or let me know in the comments!

—————————————————————-

You smiled as you ran off stage, the fans were still screaming and kept screaming until the next band took the stage. The air was electric, so many people, all here to enjoy the great communicator that is music. You closed your eyes to take it all in, to just listen and feel. You couldn't believe you were here, playing in front of this many people. This year you shared the stage with another up and coming band by the name of Greta Van Fleet. You hadn't heard of them before recently and they were actually really good. They had so much soul and passion in their music, it was true, raw talent.

You watched from the side stage as they played their eclectic set. The singer, Josh, really got the crowd going. He had so much energy and was really fun to watch. His voice was incredible, unbelievable even. He had this raspy, elegant twang in his voice, that truly matched perfectly with the music his band was producing. The drummer, Danny (if you remembered correctly), had such a powerful and classic Drumming style. It was full of life and emotion , just like you, he put his all into his performance. He was focused and truly the heart of the music. There was a guitarist and a Bassist, unlike your band which only consisted of you and your best friend. You, the drummer and your friend the singer and guitarist. The bassist, Sam, had a very cool way about him, his body moved with the music in a way that seemed beyond his control. The guitarist, Jake , was stunning, his hands danced along his guitar so expertly, you could tell he truly enjoyed his time with his instrument.

When they finished their set, the crowd erupted in a wave of applause and cheers, like bright yellow and orange fireworks booming through the air, you watched with your minds eye, in awe as they exploded and cracked in the sky. The Boys bowed and waved before walking off stage panting and sweating.

“Nice job!, excellent show” you comment smiling. Danny returned the smile with a grateful nod.

“Aw thank you, I'm sorry I don't think we had a chance to meet before the show, I’m Dan-” he began.

“You're Danny, Sam , Jake , and Josh” you said, pointing to each of them and smiling. They all returned the smile, there was positive energy just radiating from them, you could feel it like a blanket of warmth resting over you.

“My name is (y/n), it's so nice to meet you guys!” you chime happily. The lead singer, Josh smiles at and you think you catch a small wink as well, making your heart skip a beat. Perhaps you were seeing things. God he's handsome, his sparkling brown eyes, he had more structure in his jawline than you had in your entire life His chestnut hair was gorgeous and curly, his whole look just attracted you to no end.

Fuck.

“Hey your performance was super amazing too, your voice is absolutely incredible” Sam complimented, his voice popped all the bubbly thoughts of josh that foamed in your head. Thank goodness. “Yeah! You did an excellent job (y/n). Its one thing to be a good singer when you have three other band members to help you sound good, but you were out there all alone, just your voice and you still blew that crowd away” Danny added. You were blushing for sure now.

“Yeah your voice is crazy good, we're honored to play alongside you” Jake chimed.

“Oh wow you guys are gonna make me cry” you chuckle “thank you so much, that means a lot coming from someone with your talent” you reply. Sam waves his hand incredulously as if you were hyping them up and making them out to be better than they really were.. You weren't. They are awe inspiring musicians.

“Water?” a stagehand offered walking over with a cooler.

“Oh thank fucking Christ” Josh rendered making a bee line for the cooler. You chuckled, and now that you thought of it your throat was extremely dry from singing as well. Jake nicely offered you the bottle he grabbed with a smile. A true gentleman.

“Thank you!” you offer as you grab the bottle from him. You practically ripped the cap off and chugged the whole bottle. It was delicious and cold and ran over your tongue and down your throat with a refreshingly cold bite.

The five of you stand there and re hydrate for a minute before Sam speaks “we should go grab a drink!” he suggests with a slight raise of his perfect eyebrows. The guys look at you in waiting.

“You wanna join us?” Josh asks, flashing a pearly white smile. You look around at them for a mere second before responding.

“Sure! Yeah that sounds fun”

“Right on, I think I saw a bar down the street we can go to” Jake claims as you all head to the doors behind the dressing rooms.

Rain began to expel from the dark clouds above you as you all headed down the road. Cold air kisses your skin causing you to shiver slightly, you only had on black leather pants and a pink floral pattern blouse that you tied up a bit to expose part of your stomach. It was late, must have been almost midnight by now, the air was heavy with moisture and you could smell the rain soaked cement under your feet.

“Are you cold?” Josh questions as he walks beside you, he startled you a bit. You smiled and looked at your arms, they were dotted with goosebumps.

“Yeah kinda” you reply sheepishly. Josh instantly takes off the jean jacket he was wearing and handed it to you. Jake and the others were a few feet behind the two of you carrying on a conversation about the show. You reached out and accepted the jacket, Josh's gaze nonchalantly floated down your arm, his face fell when he noticed the deep scars that peppered across your skin near your wrists. You notice him looking at them before he brings his gaze back up to meet yours. Your cheeks burned with embarrassment and you quickly put the jacket on.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn't mean to stare” he says softly, looking down at the wet street. You knew by the tone in his voice he wasn't judging you. His look was filled with concern, not judgement.

“It's alright, people stare all the time” you responded

“It doesn't bother me so much anymore, i'm used to it.” you added. Josh nods, a sad look still lingers on his gentle face. His jacket was warm, his scent filled your nose, it was comfortable and soothing, much like the rain that fell from the sky. You looked at him out of the corner of your eye, you could tell he was thinking about something, he had that thousand yard stare stuck in his eyes. You hadn't known Josh for long but it's not hard to tell when someone is enthralled in thought.

“How long have you been singing?” you ask, trying to pull him from whatever trance he was in.

“A long time, most of my life really” he answers with a smile. Talking about his music clearly made him happy. He in turn asked you the same question. You laugh before responding.

“Honestly I've only been singing for a few years….drumming is my real talent and I've been doing that for most of my life, coming up on 18 years” you explain. Josh’s expression shifted from a smile to a look of surprise.

“Wow that’s awesome , are you self taught?” he asks again. You nodded “my dad taught me a few things here and there more when I first started out but, mostly I've taught myself” you said. Josh chuckled with a nod.

“That is really cool” he replied, you could tell by the tone and instance of his voice that he was genuinely impressed.

“Oo careful on the compliments you've never heard me play before, just because I've been playing for a long time doesn't mean i’m any good” you joke, Josh laughs, shakes his head and nudges your shoulder.

“Well have to get you behind Danny's kit some time” he implores. Hearing him say that made you happy, it meant he wanted to see you again.

“You guys did really good tonight, I cant believe I've never heard of you guys before really. It wasn't until my manager told me who I'd be playing with at the festival that I started looking into you guys.” you admit.

“Thanks you did an excellent job too, i really loved that first song you sang, ‘salt is my sugar’ I really resonated with that one, truly felt it, there's a lot of emotion in your lyrics.

“This is it,” Sam announces opening the front door and holding it for everyone to walk in. the smell of smoke and dark liquor hang heavy in the air. An ACDC song played over the speakers. It wasn't very busy, there was an older man sitting at the bar, a couple younger people playing pool and a few others scattered in booths. It was a total dive bar, a hole in the wall, which was just your style. You all sat at the bar on squeaky worn out bar stools.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked, perching himself up with his arms rested on the bar as a washrag sat, oh so typically, on his shoulder as he awaited your response. Jake looked at Josh with a raised brow giving him that ‘get a load of this guy’ look.

“I'll have a beer,” Danny ordered.

“Me as well please” Jake adds.

“Southern comfort and seven up for me please” you order next.

“Hmm I'll have a long island iced tea” Sam says. You look at him holding back a chuckle Huh didn't take him for a long island iced tea kinda guy but to each their own. The bartender looked to josh.

“Salty dog please” he requests.

“Put your IDs on the counter” the bartender instructs as he turns around to collect everyone's drinks. The five of you did as you were told and laid out your IDs.

“So where are you guys headed now that the festival is over?” you asked playing with a stained, old coaster that sat in front of you.

“We’re going back to Michigan for some well deserved time off” Josh responds.

“For a little while anyways” he adds with a smile.

“Hey I live in silver city!” you reply happily , silver city was a small town in Michigan closer to the upper peninsula.

“Small world” you added. What are the chances the two of you lived within a few hours of each other and never met until the both of you played a festival in Los Angeles.

You turn your attention to the combination of alcoholic drinks that the bartender set in front of you. Everyone reached for theirs offering quick cheers before taking a drink. The carbonation of the seven up burned against your throat before the alcohol sent the warming sensation through your chest and stomach.

“Ah yum” you said, wincing from the sharpness of the alcohol. Jake laughed as he watched you.

“Not very convincing,” Sam says smiling. You laugh and take another drink. You watch Josh stir his drink lightly with the small straw it came with, he notices you looking.

“Ever had a salty dog before?” he asks, hoping you say no.

You simply shake your head in reply. He slides his drink closer to you.

“We can share if you want, it's really good?” he offers. You look at the pink drink in front of you.

“What's in it?” you ask.

“It's just gin and grapefruit juice with a little salt around the rim,” he says.

“Oh god that sounds horrible” you laugh.

“It's actually not that bad” Danny pipes up with a shrug.

“He made me try it a few weeks ago,” he adds.

“Alright I'll take your word for it” you smile at Danny. You look back down at the drink.

“I promise I didn't spike it” Josh chimes. You laugh loudly, why would he even say that?

“That's exactly what someone who spiked my drink would say”

“But I guess I trust you guys” you add before taking a healthy sip of the beverage.

“Hmm that's not bad!” conclude, it was much sweeter than you thought it would be, it kind of reminded you of orange juice and vodka. Josh nods with an I told you so sort of look on his face.

“Here, try mine,” Sam says next, handing you his glass.

“Alright you try mine too” you reply with a smile. Sam's slender fingers brush against yours as he grabs the drink from you , your eyes look to his and he winks.

Oh god, I can't be attracted to two of them. Honestly, who were you kidding? You were insanely attracted to all of them, how were they ALL so cute and gorgeous? Not fair to the rest of man-kind.

“Wow this one is super good!” you remark going in for another drink of the long island iced tea.

“Yeah can you believe there's like 8 different alcohols in there? No tea at all” he laughs, you laughed with him. His laugh was sweet and light, like orange sparkling shards of glass dancing through the air. The five of you began talking about life and learning a lot about each other, ordering more drinks along the way. You could tell the mix of drinks was beginning to take effect on you, you felt warm and relaxed. You were standing next to Danny now, he towered over you, this man was truly a beast.the smell of his cologne wrapped around you. It was oaky and mossy with a hint of citrus, you couldn't help but feel an electrifying pull of attraction to him.

For fucks sake, you curse yourself.

A few games of pool (which, it turns out Jake is like a God at pool) later you all found yourselves back at the bar carrying on more conversation, albeit more slurred now. It was much easier to open up to people when alcohol was involved. You rolled the sleeves of josh's jacked up, exposing your arms as the alcohol was making you extremely warm.

“What happened to you?” the bartender asks loudly. You and the guys all look at him with hints of confusion.

“I got the worst concoction of my parents DNA possible” you joke , the boys laugh. Jake nudges your shoulder.

“Shut up you're gorgeous” he says softly. You give him a quick smile.

“No. Your arm. What happened to your arm.” the bartender says again, nodding to your scars. You hated when people asked that question, like they didn't know why you had those scars on your wrists. Very few things leave scars like that on skin. You looked around at the guys, josh looked pissed and the others looked saddened as this was the first time they had seen your scars, and they knew damn well what it was from, they weren’t as stupid as this bartender. The air of the bar had shifted, the mood went from fun loving to hostile very quickly. Fuck this guy.

“I got in a fight with a weed wacker” you retort sarcastically. The man rolls his eyes.

“What happened? Did your little boyfriend break up with you? Flunk a class? Your puppy ran away?” he was mocking you. You said nothing in return.

“You're just another one of those emotionally confused little girls, no reason to hate her life.” he continues. For some reason he was trying to upset you , and you had no idea why, you'd been nothing but pleasant to the man since the moment you entered the bar.

“First of all i'm not a girl, I'm a woman. Who pissed in your Wheaties this morning man? You're mad because you got all D’s in high school and now you're stuck serving losers like us in this shit hole, pretentious, sorry excuse of a bar? Go fuck yourself. I don’t hate my life.” you answer , anger pooling in your throat.

“Hey man. Lay off.” Danny says with a look of warning.

“Of course you don't hate your life” the man says ignoring Danny completely.

“You just do it for attention, think if you slice yourself up maybe someone will feel bad for you huh? I've seen your kind before girl.” he speaks again. OK now this idiot was pissing you off. You never did it for attention, attention was the last thing you wanted, especially when it came to your scars, you wished you could erase them.

“Look, I've got three things to say to you,” you reply with an irritated sigh. You stood up from your stool and stepped closer to the man.

“One” you say, holding up your pointer finger giving the illusion that you were going to list reasons of argument to him. Instead you ball your hand into a fist and punch the guy right in his fucking jaw with all your drunken might. To your surprise (and no doubt everyone else's) the bartender fell to the floor, you knocked him out.. Everyone was wide eyed and silent

“Lets get outta here” Josh says, breaking the glistening silence in the bar, noticing everyone looking at the five of you. Jake grabbed a bottle of Jack before all of you ran out of the door. None of you could suppress your laughs as you took off down the street. Out of breath you all keeled over in a field of grass a few feet from the tour buses in a fit of laughter. You sat down on the wet grass and looked up at the clouds. Danny sat on your left and Sammy was on your right, Josh and Jake sat in front of you and you all formed a small little circle.

“That felt good” you say softly, referring to punching that shit head of a bartender. Sam laughed.

“Yeah that was awesome, I can't believe you knocked him out” Jake chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. The air went silent again as you all sat with your own thoughts. Your face slowly lost emotion as thoughts of what the man said swirled around your mind. You tried not to let what people said to you about your scars get to you too much but it was hard sometimes. Danny noticed your expression and you felt his hand draw soft circles on your back.

“That guy was an idiot. He was just being an asshole” Josh said softly, you nodded, knowing he was right. Maybe it was the alcohol or maybe you were just really that sad but a tear fell down your face and your voice cracked as you spoke.

“I just feel so alone sometimes” you wiped the tears away as quickly as they fell. You could feel all of them watching you with sympathetic eyes.

“Everyone's got their vice (y/n)” Danny said quietly, his hand still grazing your back.

Josh rolls his shirt sleeve up and reveals dozens of little horizontal scars covering his shoulder. He grabs your hand and you look up at him to meet his gaze. He stroked your hand with his thumb and gave you a comforting, gentle look.

“You're not alone”

#greta van fleet #gvf #jake kiszka #josh kiszka #danny wagner #gretavanfleet #sam kiskza #gvf imagine #gvf fanfic #smut #josh kiszka smut #danny wagner smut #jake kiszka smut #sam kiszka smut #imagine

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