#despite everything he fought sooooo hard to prove to himself and everyone else that he could be the man that charles always thought he was

[kendyroy]

i’ve always wondered what worst logan thinks of main logan. is he jealous at all of how revered he was? i mean what do you even think of the guy that’s considered the “best version” of you when you’re seen as the worst.

[quietlydiabolic]

“The Sleepover” - BassRock short oneshot fanfic

By: Jixie Fandom: Mega Man Classic - Human AU BassRock week: May 13 - Pillows Rating: G Word Count: 1200

How, exactly, Blues managed to convince Bass to spend the night, Rock couldn't even begin to guess. But whether it was the social pressure from a middle-schooler, or bribery, or heck, even blackmail… it was still a miracle that it even worked in the first place.

And the evening had been…

…well it kinda stank.

Bass complained about everything. Everything. From their house ("It smells funny.") to their food ("Ugh, your grandpa is an even worse cook than Wily is.") to their internet ("Sooooo slow!"). When Treble— because of course he'd brought Treble— and Rush's roughhousing turned into a minor fight, he complained that Rush was too much of a wimp. When Dr. Light had asked how his family was doing, he rudely brushed him off. When he found out there was a nine o'clock TV-and-electronics curfew, the cries went up to the heavens.

"What do you idiots even do?"

"Read, usually," Rock replied. "Or… I dunno, color, play Magic the Gathering, or build Legos…"

"'Build Legos'," Bass repeated dryly. "Rocco, you're the lamest kid I ever met."

"Don't— it's ‘Rock', everyone calls me ‘Rock', and you know that." There was a tense pause. "Angel."

In a flash Bass was on him, holding him down and swinging a looping punch with his free hand. His fist seemed to move in slow motion as Rock watched, frozen in surprise, feeling the force behind the strike before it even connected.

…except it never did. Neither of them had seen Blues come into the room, but all of the sudden he was there, hauling Bass away from his younger brother. "That's enough." Although Blues and Rock had a good relationship, they were still brothers, which meant they still wrestled and fought over everything. But like any good big brother, Blues had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to anyone else picking on his younger siblings.

Only Bass was just getting started. He writhed and tried to squirm from Blues' grasp, and when that failed, started screaming and kicking. While chronic illness left the eldest Light weaker than Rock or his quote-friend-unquote, Blues had a size advantage over them. He also knew how to fight smarter, and used Bass' own momentum to fling him onto the bed— only for Bass to bounce and fall off on the other side, landing with a surprised yelp.

Furious, he started climbing up back onto the bed, stopping in confusion when Blues grabbed a pillow and held it out to him.

"Here, if you must. House rules: you can only hit each other using a pillow."

"House rules?" Rock was perplexed. There was no such regulation in effect.

Blues turned enough to give him a quick wink.

With one knee planted on the edge of the bed, Bass glared the pillow with intense loathing and said nothing.

"Hit him for real and I'll kick your butt into next week," Blues continued. "I don't care if you are a guest."

"I thought you were supposed to be my friend!"

"I am, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you beat up my little brother."

"You're only twelve! It's just two years difference!" Rock said with a groan.

"I'm in middle school," replied Blues defensively. "I'm way more mature than you kids are."

For a second it seemed like they were going to start fighting themselves, and Bass watched in confusion. Then he scowled and snatched the pillow from Blues, slid across the bed, and walloped Rock as hard as he possibly could with it.

But.

It was a pillow. It made a pretty satisfying ‘whump' sound but it didn't really hurt.

Breaking into a grin, Rock pushed past them in order to grab the other pillow from off his bed, and gave Bass a good whack upside the head— again, failing to cause any injury.

Within moments they were having an honest-to-god pillow fight… and very obviously having a blast, laughing and bouncing off the walls. A smug expression crept across Blues' face as he snuck out of the room. The battle dragged on for a while, and at one point even spilled out into the hallway, but eventually things quieted down and they settled in for the night.

"You up?"

Rock startled. He must have dozed off. "'M now," he mumbled, rubbing his right eye.

Unable to fall asleep in a strange place, Bass was still wide awake, despite how tired he was. He started talking, carrying on a one-sided, meandering conversation about the latest round of standardized testing, their classmates, the cute substitute teacher…

…but then moved onto deeper subjects. Wily, and how difficult he was to get along with. How the old man's house-arrest made everything worse for both of them. How hard it had been to adjust, even after the last few years, and right when he finally started to feel like this was home— Zero showed up and threw everything into chaos.

"It's so stupid. This whole time he didn't even know about that loser or his dumb dad. And then Zero comes in like— ugh." Bass paused, scowling, then sat up. "Y’know what Wily told me? We're not even related, like by blood. ‘It's only paperwork, that's all it is.' He used to, he used to say that— he could go get DNA tested and prove it and then I wouldn't be his problem anymore."

Completely awake now, the normally talkative Rock was hesitant, unsure what to say. "…Zero's not there forever, right?" he finally asked. "It's just a, uh, temporary thing?"

"Yeah."

There was an uneasy silence, and Rock watched as Bass glared at the wall with laser focus. Then he noticed Rock's unfaltering gaze. One hand flew up, attempting to hide some of the massive port-wine stain that made a sweeping arc across his cheeks and eyes.

"Stop staring, jackass!"

Even when talking about Wily, he had radiated anger or indignation, but now wore a pained look. He was embarrassed— ashamed, really.

Rock felt a lump in his throat, both distressed by seeing this side of Bass, and the sudden realization why the other kid always lashed out at everyone. Hurt them before they can hurt you. Even worse was the awkwardness of this misunderstanding. He choked, starting to flush as he tried to explain himself.

"I wasn't— I’m not— ah, umm, I mean… I wasn't staring. A-anyway, I— I like it. Your face. I mean, your birthmark. It's really cute. Cool! It's cool."

For a moment Bass was skeptical, but then his expression quickly changed to bewilderment. Then disgust. Then embarrassment— although this time he was flustered, not ashamed. He reached back, grabbed the pillow, and shoved it in Rock's face.

Then punched it with all his might.

"UUUUAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

There was a ‘thump' followed by heavy footsteps as Blues jumped out of bed and raced over to the next room, followed by the sound of Dr. Light hurrying over. The door flung open so hard it bounced against the wall, and Blues stood in the doorway, his fury building as Rock wailed loudly.

"What do you THINK YOU'RE—!?"

"Hey! No fair!" Bass held up his hands. "I used the pillow to hit him, like you said!"

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A/N: I can’t believe I wrote a mundane human AU. I don’t even know who I am anymore. (And I definitely don't have a bunch of head canons for this mundane human AU that I'm dying for any excuse to share. Nope. 😇)

Port-wine stain refers to a specific type of birthmark. Examples: