The One Where Steve Feels Smart
“Where are Jon and Argyle?” Steve asks Nancy. The rest of the group gathered around the table for their weekly group dinners.
“Jonathan said that he has a lot of work to do, and Argyle is working closing. Said they would try to come later if they could.” Nancy sits at the table, acting as if the information doesn’t bother her.
Steve doesn’t buy it. “I thought Argyle never closed on Fridays.”
“I don’t know,” Nancy shrugs, annoyed. “Maybe he’s covering for someone. It doesn’t matter, so just eat.”
Steve still doesn’t buy it. Jonathan will always use their hangouts as a break, so his eyes don’t try to kill him. Argyle values friendship too much to take a shift during one of their hangouts. If what Steve knew about them was right, though.
But, he decides to ignore it, and eats dinner.
The next week, however, something like this happens again. It’s not an everyday thing that the group gets together at the coffeehouse after work to talk, some can’t justify buying coffee five days a week when they can just make it themselves. But today, everyone is there. Everyone except for Jonathan and Argyle.
“Isn’t it weird that they aren’t here?” Steve asks, mainly to himself. He’s sitting at the bar, bugging Eddie while he’s on shift.
Eddie shrugs, passing a drink across the bar to a customer. “Maybe they’re busy again. Didn’t Jonathan shoot like four wedding in the past two weeks? That’s a lot of editing.”
“But he would bring it here. Especially since Argyle would get off shift,” he looks down at his watch, “an hour ago. They would come in here together and chill with the rest of us.”
“Don’t know man. Maybe they just wanted to stay at home. The weather is kind of shit today.”
It’s never stopped them before. Something else is going on.
The next time it happens, it’s on game night. He asks Nancy if she’s heard from them and gets shut down immediately. Something about the both of them needing to work. Nothing else.
When it keeps happening, Steve starts to get more and more suspicious. Everyone else seems unbothered. Blind to the excuses that mean nothing, and continue on with their lives. When Steve knows that they are hiding something.
He decides to bring it up again when him and Robin are making dinner. Trying to use both their heads to figure this out without Nancy shutting him down immediately.
“You don’t think they finally,” Steve makes a motion with his hands, indicating that they are together.
Robin glares at him from the kitchen. “Probably not, Jonathan’s demi, remember.”
“That is not what I meant,” Steve says, partially annoyed. “I just meant like, dating. What if they are dating.”
“I would hope they would tell us if that actually happened. We’ve listened to too much of their suffering to not know.”
Steve stares at the cutting board. Not so sure about that. “I think Nancy knows something.”
“Here we go,” Robin groans.
“No, Rob, seriously. Like every single time I ask, she shuts me down almost immediately. With the same excuse. Jonathan is busy editing, or has a shoot, and Argyle is working a closing shift. I’ve never known Argyle to have this many closing shifts in his life.” He turns to her, hoping to see that she sees what he sees. “Isn’t that a little weird?”
“I guess,” Robin goes back to stirring the vegetables in the saucepan. “But maybe their rent got raised and they had to pick up a few extra shifts. Wouldn’t be that surprising.”
Steve is still not convinced. “Maybe.”
A week later, the group was planning on going to see a movie. Some weird horror movie that Nancy and Eddie love, but will probably traumatize both Steve and Robin. Normally Jonathan and Argyle would come along and laugh at how unrealistic it is, but they bailed again.
They’ve been bailing for about a month now, something was definitely up.
Steve stands in line to get the popcorn, letting the rest of the group go into the theater to get their seats. Hoping that Eddie is able to save a seat next to him for Steve.
Out of the corner of his eye, Steve sees two people who look familiar. After thanking the guy behind the counter and turning toward his theater, he sees it. Jonathan and Argyle walking in with their tickets. They make eye contact with him, looking caught.
“Well, there you guys are,” Steve says, trying not to make it weird. “I feel like I haven’t seen you guys in weeks.”
“Uh, yeah,” Jonathan says. “Just been really busy with work, that’s all.”
Steve nods, going alone with the lie. “Yeah. I’m glad you guys were able to make it tonight though. Unless, you know, you came to see a different movie.”
Argyle opens his mouth, going to say something. Jonathan nudges him with his shoulder, shutting him up. Argyle presses his lips together in a forced smile. Eyes wide.
“Yeah. We were just going to get some popcorn, so why don’t you go into the theater, and we’ll meet you in there.”
The smile that forms on Steve’s lips is one of pure joy. “I don’t mind waiting. It might be easier to carry all this shit to the theater.” He takes a glace down and sees their hands clasped together. “Four hands are better that two, so.”
“Four hands?” Argyle questions under his breath.
Jonathan looks down at their hands, and pulls them apart.
“You guys weren’t going to see the same movie, were you?” Steve questions. Feeling smug.
“No, we weren’t,” Argyle blurts out. “We were going to see this comedy together because we’ve been dating for a few months now.” He immediately slams a hand over his mouth.
“A few months,” Steve says much louder than he should.
Jonathan starts looking around. “Dude, quiet down.”
“Sorry.” Steve lowers his voice to whisper shout. “A few months. I thought you were just dating for a few weeks.”
“You knew we were dating?”
Steve snorts. “You two are not as subtle as you think you are. Always missing hangouts conveniently at the same time. It’s really rude to cancel on your friends to go on dates for your secret relationship, by the way.”
“We’re sorry,” Argyle apologizes. Looking like he’s going through multiple emotions at once. “We just have been busier with work so the only times we’ve been free to go out are the days we would hang out.”
“You’re not going to tell everyone, are you?” Jonathan asks, hand rubbing at the back of his neck.
Steve shakes his head. “No, it’s your thing to tell. I wouldn’t do that. I just miss you guys. I am still going to gloat about being right, they just don’t need to know what about.”
“Thanks, dude.” Argyle finally calmed down back to one emotion.
“We really appreciate it.”
“I have to go, the movie’s about to start. Have a good night, guys.”
Steve turns and head to the theater. He finds the rest of them and sits between Eddie and Robin. The popcorn immediately getting pulled from his hands.
“What took you so long?” Robin asks over a mouthful of popcorn.
“The line was long,” Steve says. This was going to be fun.
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I have ANGST! Part 4
To the past >1 >2 >3 To the future >5 >6 >7
In hindsight, Danny really should have told his parents about being Phantom ages ago.
It seems so obvious now that they wouldn't hurt him once everything was explained properly (which took several hours, a couple boxes of tissue, and Jack Fenton's body weight in fudge.)
In the past few weeks, his mom and dad have really cleaned up their act.
His parents have stopped shooting at him.
They've officially cut off Vlad (Jack was devastated when he found out that Vlad had been trying to kill him).
Dani, or Ellie now, was introduced to his/their parents (Maddie punched Vlad extra hard when she found out he'd made her a grandmother without Danny's consent) and now she has her own room for when she wants to take a break from traveling.
His parents also disabled the security system that kept attacking him.
And they're trying to figure out a way to keep ghosts from popping out of the portal (It's a work in progress).
They've started asking him to help or give advice on their inventions.
They've actually started paying attention to lab safety and stopped cooking/contaminating food with ectoplasm.
It's been great!
His grades have gone up. He's actually getting more than 2 hours of sleep a night. Less injuries. More time to hangout with Sam and Tucker.
The only thing that hasn't gotten better is the GIW.
They don't seem too happy that the Fenton's aren't helping them anymore.
In fact, they seemed really upset that his parents have changed their views about ghosts. Especially since they've been helping him out as Phantom.
Anytime Danny is out as Phantom the GIW starts swarming and trying to capture him.
They seem really desperate to get him. But, as long as his family and friends are on his side, he'll be fine.
Right?
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