#and Alice and Smiler knew that he wasn't going to be happy writing an e-mail to his mother

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer OT3 Week, Day Six: No One Wants To Leave The Cuddle Pile

The penultimate day of OT3 Week, courtesy of @ot3-week, and we have a fairly soft prompt to go with it -- "No one wants to leave the cuddle pile!" Because why would you? :p This one also said "Modern!AU" to me, so here we have Victor, Alice, and Smiler hanging out together at Victor's in a blanket nest. And while no one WANTS to leave the cuddle pile, a certain someone feels he HAS to... (Oh, and again, a warning for slight kinkiness at the end -- it's not even as explicit as the Day Four prompt, but the last line makes it clear where this is going. XD)

--

“I really should get up.”

“No, you really shouldn’t,” Smiler instantly retorted, snuggling their head more firmly into Victor’s chest as they continued playing phone Solitaire. In their peripheral vision, they spotted Alice put one of her legs over Victor’s, silently echoing the sentiment without looking up from her book.

“I should,” Victor insisted, though without much force behind it. “I promised my mother that I’d look at those photos she sent me of Duke Melbourne’s party, and I haven’t gotten to them yet.”

“Sod your mother,” Alice said, wriggling into Victor’s side. “I’m comfortable.”

“Same,” Smiler agreed, glancing up at Victor’s – well, mostly his chin from this angle. “We spent a half-hour getting this pillow nest together, and I’m not getting up until I’m good and ready.”

“I didn’t say either of you two had to get up,” Victor pointed out, poking Smiler’s nose. “I’m certainly not going to make you look at the probably twelve million pictures she’s sent me. But she’s expecting me to fake enthusiasm for her little trip in an e-mail before the day’s out, so...”

“It’s not that late,” Alice said, finally looking up. “At least, I don’t think so. Smiler?”

Smiler glanced at the top of their phone screen. “Only 5 PM,” they confirmed. “You’ve got plenty of time to pretend to be excited she got invited to a party you don’t care about.”

“I – I don’t know,” Victor muttered, unwrapping his arm from Alice’s shoulders to rub the back of his head – Alice pouted at the loss. “If I don’t respond to her in time, she’ll send me another e-mail about how electronic post isn’t supposed to get lost, and then it’ll become a whole thing, and – I should get it over with.”

“How about you stay here instead, and after supper, I’ll help you set up a form e-mail that’ll automatically mail itself to her a couple of hours after she sends you one of her ‘you won’t believe who I saw throwing up in a gold toilet’ photoshoots?” Smiler offered. “She’ll never notice you keep saying the exact same things for each party, right?”

“You really could – no,” Victor cut himself off, shaking his head. “I should at least make some effort. And I know neither of you think much of her attention span in regards to me–”

“Or her in general,” Alice added, recapturing his arm and wrapping it around herself.

“Of course – but she probably would at least eventually notice that it’s the same e-mail each time. And that would be...” He grimaced. “Bad.”

“You’re a grown man living on your own,” Alice pointed out. “She can’t do that much to you anymore.”

“Unless she comes barging over here to demand what I’m on about,” Victor muttered. “And if I think I’m funny and don’t I care about how our family is perceived and why am I always like this and...”

“Okay, yeah, let’s avoid her actually showing up in person,” Smiler agreed, grimacing. “But come on, the e-mail can wait until after supper. Just pretend you were giving all the pictures an extra-close look.”

“You can bullshit her anytime,” Alice agreed, still hanging onto his arm. “Stay?”

Victor pulled some faces, and for a moment Smiler was sure he was about to give in...and then what they’d privately dubbed the “familial bullshit” frown crossed his face, and he sighed. “I r-really should just do it now,” he mumbled, reluctantly pulling his arm free from Alice’s grip. “At least – pretend to be a good son.”

Smiler frowned, then looked over at Alice as Victor continued untangling himself from them. She met their eyes, then nodded once. Smiler nodded back and sat up, ending their Solitaire game and moving over to Photos. From there, it was just a matter of flicking through their collection of gifs until they found the right one –

And then, just as Victor made to stand up, grabbing Victor’s wrist and saying, gently but firmly, “Open your heart to joy, Victor.”

Victor jerked to a stop, eyes wide – and then the trigger actually hit him, and his gaze took on a familiar muzzy look. “Oh, that’s not fair,” he complained, voice already dulling.

“Wouldn’t work if you didn’t want it to,” Smiler sing-songed, tugging Victor backwards.

“Indeed,” Alice agreed, lightly pushing on Victor’s chest to help topple him over. “Now lie down on the pillows again, there’s a good boy...I think Smiler has something special for you to watch, don’t they?”

“Yup – your favorite,” Smiler confirmed, holding the looping gif of the twin spinning spirals right in front of Victor’s face. His eyes immediately locked onto the screen, and Smiler saw his shoulders sag into the pillows just a little bit more. “Let the spirals empty out your head now, Victor. Let them drain away all those worries, all those cares, all that everything that was stopping you from relaxing and enjoying yourself. Let it all go. No more thoughts for now, Victor. No more thoughts. No thoughts...”

“...just smiles,” Victor responded, his lips lifting into a beautifully silly grin as the trance took full hold.

“That’s right,” Alice nodded, shooting Smiler a pleased smirk before curling up by Victor’s side and stroking his hair. “No thoughts, just smiles.”

“Just smiles,” Smiler agreed, getting themselves into a slightly more comfortable position as well –

And then they grinned, and rested a hand on Victor’s thigh. “Well. Maybe a little more than just smiles...”