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the-parentheticals · 6 years ago

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Characters: Beckett, Reese, Lev

Warnings: Food

Word Count: 905

A/N: So, @ask-villegas-sides wanted me to write something for them, and after over a week and several drafts, here’s what I have!

“Kiddo? Come on, we’re having dinner! You’ve been working for an hour.” Lev called.

Beckett slammed his laptop shut. “Coming!” An hour… had it really been an hour? According to the clock on his computer, it was.

He adjusted his hoodie and walked into the kitchen. Lev was standing at the stove, a plate of pasta in his hand.

“Hey.” Beckett nodded at his roommate. “The usual?”

“Yep!” Lev moved to the table, pasta in hand. His phone dinged.

“No phones at the dinner table!” Beckett said in a poor imitation of Lev’s voice. Lev giggled and went to check.

“Oh, it’s Flint. Aw, he wanted to check up on me!”

“You’ve been dating for four months.” Beckett pulled his legs under the chair.

“But it’s still adorable!” Lev grinned.

“I never said it wasn’t.”

“You’re right. And–” Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a thunk.

“Beck?” Lev asked. “Was that you?”

“No…” Beckett said, shifting a little. “I thought that was you.”

“Nope.” Lev frowned. “Can you go check? Please?”

Beckett chuckled. “Sure.” He pulled open the curtains to the only window in their dorm.

Why are you doing this? he thought. It’s 9:40 and too late to go visit people and too late for dinner and too early to go to bed. When he did look, he thought that maybe it wasn’t too late for a visit from this one person, anyway.

Reese was standing there, absolutely soaked, wearing a trenchcoat and… skirt? Yes, a bright red plaid skirt. One shoe was on, and the other was against the wall of the building. He was holding a bouquet of red and black roses.

Did he throw his shoe at the window? thought Beckett.

“I’m in your yard, I’m a dead girl walking!” he sang. How was he so loud? “Before they punch my clock, I’m snapping off your window lock! Got no time to knock, I’m a dead girl…”

Beckett opened the window and yelled, “Are you trying to serenade me?”

“Yes. of course!” Reese raised the bouquet.

“Lev’s in the next room, so you might want to pick a different song!”

“Got it!” Reese thought for a few seconds before deciding.

“We can start and finish wars! We’re what killed the dinosaurs.”

“That’s worse!” Beckett placed his hands on the edge of the window. “Anything else?”

Reese gave a small smile. “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes…”

He stared directly at Beckett.

“Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear…” Beckett found himself singing along.

“Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes.” Reese twirled around, tripping a little in his sock-clad foot. “How do you measure, measure a year?”

Is he going to do the whole thing? thought Beckett.

Apparently not, because as soon as he was finished thinking that, Reese took a bow.

“What do you think?” he asked.

Beckett rolled his eyes. “I like it. But seriously, why?”

“I’m proclaiming my love for you, as outlined in every single romantic movie I’ve seen.”

“Every one?”

“Most of them, at any rate, but the rest require money I don’t have.”

“Still, I–” Beckett frowned.

“Panda bear?” called Lev.

“I’m fine! Reese is just… proclaiming his love for me, apparently!” He turned back to the window.

“So this is your dorm!” Reese gave a small smile. “I had to go to Flint’s dorm, an empty dorm – two empty dorms, actually –, and the dorm of soneone named Junie who yelled at me about it being a terrible idea to throw pebbles at the window.”

“And you listened to them?”

“Why else would I have thrown my shoe?”

“Oh my god, just… stay there.” He groaned and rushed down the stairs, not even bothering to put on shoes. He hated wet socks, yes, but this was Reese.

He threw open the door and ran out onto the front lawn. Reese frowned and stuck an arm to the side.

“You are so extra.”

“Beck! That’s not how this works! You’re supposed to be up there! I’m trying to proclaim my love for you here.” Reese said, although Beckett could tell he was surpressing a laugh.

“Then wait for when it’s not raining.” Beckett took the bouquet and rolled his eyes.

“I just want everything to go perfectly.” Reese blushed.

“You know you don’t need to do that. I like it when we watch movies together.”

“I know, I know, I just… I messed up.” Reese sighed. “I messed up.”

Beckett bit his lip. Honestly, he wasn’t the best at feelings. That was more Lev’s thing. But… “You’re my boyfriend. Look, I might react pretty harshly to a lot of things, but I’m not mad. I promise.”

“I guess.” Reese turned away, but Beckett stopped him.

What am I supposed to do? he thought. Then an idea hit. Do what Reese did, right? And his current obsession was… Dear Evan Hansen! Here goes nothing…

“And what do you do when the distance is too wide?” He paused and waited for Reese to continue.

“You just seemed so far away…” Reese was smiling.

“And what do you do when there’s this great divide?”

“It’s like I don’t know what to say–”

“And how do you say…” Reese raised his head.

“I love you?”

“I love you.”

“I love you!” Reese wrapped his arms around Beckett.

“I love you…” Beckett let go gently.

Reese smiled. “You are such a dork.”

“So are you.”

#sanders sides #technically?#pari writes real fics #fic #my fics #villegas sides #lev villegas #beckett villegas #reese villegas #flint villegas #my fic

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hiddendreamer67 · 5 years ago

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Enemies to Lab Partners to Make Out Session Associates

This is a commissioned piece for @eat-moar-veggis for their sanders sides OC ask blog: @ask-villegas-sides .

Summary: When Flint, the science teacher and also Beckett’s dad, paired up Beckett with Reese on a group project to help them ‘grow closer’, he never could have anticipated how close the boys would actually grow. Also featuring guidance counselor Lev.

Commission info available here! Commissions are open! :)

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“Dad, please, don’t pair me up with Reese.” Beckett begged, staying after class with his father, Flint, the high school Chemistry teacher. “He’s insufferable.”

“You seem to be under the impression that everyone is insufferable.” Flint mused.

“Well, it’s true!” Beckett said exasperatedly. “But he’s extra insufferable. No, he’s just extra, period.”

“Is that a slang term?” Flint asked, stacking a few student’s papers on his desk so it appeared more orderly.

“Yes, dad, it’s slang, and in this case it means bad.” Beckett groaned. “Reese is the epitome of everything wrong with the world. He likes crowds, and people, and things.”

“You like ‘things’, as you put it so delicately.” Flint was clearly fighting the urge to roll his eyes.

“Yeah, but not theatre things.” Beckett stuck out his tongue. “Or jock things. He’s probably gonna end up shoving the whole project onto my plate, and if that happens I’m not doing it so I need a new partner.”

Flint paused, putting a hand to his chin as if he was considering the proposition. “I always wondered what it would feel like to fail my own son.”

Beckett immediately paled at his words. “Dad, you’re…you’re not serious, right?”

“I’m always serious.” Flint assured him, gesturing to his necktie as further evidence to his serious nature. “Beckett, it’s a group assignment, not the end of the world.”

“Sounds the same to me.” Beckett muttered.

“Beckett, I will not be having any more disruptions in my class.” Flint said, his voice turning stern as he glared down over the bridge of his nose. “You and Reese have been solely responsible for three interruptions in my class in the past week. I will stand for it no longer. Pairing you two up is my last warning for you two to get. Along. If I don’t see the two of you growing close over this assignment, I will be forced to report your behavior to the school board and fail you both for this project.”

“Dad!” Beckett’s jaw dropped, shocked at how harsh his dad could be.

“My word is final, Beckett.” Flint gave a nod to the door. “I trust you heard my declaration as well, Reese?”

Beckett turned to see the theatre athlete standing in the door frame, looking as though he was about to knock. Reese lowered his hand, looking sheepish. “…clearly, Mr. Flint.”

“Good.” Flint seemed pleased with this resolution. “Then I trust you two will spend the rest of your study hall getting started instead of moaning to me about how unjust my decisions are. The library should be an ideal place to set up.”

“The library should be an ideal place to set up.” Reese mocked, only for his eyes to widen in horror as he realized he said that out loud. “I mean, uh, meet you there!”

“No running in the halls!” The counselor’s called from the hall, the sounds of frantic footfalls slowing only slightly on the tiled floors.

“Guess I better go after him.” Beckett muttered, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets and trudging down the hall.

It wasn’t fair. His dad shouldn’t be able to force Beckett to behave with Reese as if he could just shove them into one of those two-person ‘get along’ shirts. This was totally embarrassing! Beckett didn’t even care about the stupid grade in the first place, having planned on bailing the second he figured out his partner, but now he had to actually make- ugh, an effort- so that he didn’t end up on the gallows in front of the entire school board.

“You’re late.” Reese commented the moment Beckett arrived, setting the teen’s teeth on edge.

“Well, you cheated.” Beckett growled. “And you’re a prick.”

“Ah, I see you’re just as pleasant outside of daddy’s class as you are inside.” Reese rolled his eyes with a smile. He held out his palm. “Give me your phone.”

“What the hell? No.” Beckett frowned, considering this to be the world’s worst mugging attempt.

“I’m not stealing it.” Reese rolled his eyes again. He seemed to do that a lot. “I’m just going to put in my phone number.”

“Why can’t I have your phone, then?” Beckett raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, and get your weird witchy cult vibes all over it?” Reese looked like he was pretending to gag. “No thanks.”

“You shouldn’t insult me if you want something.” Beckett argued.

“You walked in here and immediately called me a prick.” Reese deadpanned.

“Well, you said I was late.”

“’Cause you were.”

“Maybe you were just stupidly early.”

The two were quiet for a moment, irritated energy practically seething off of them both.

“A truce, then.” Reese decreed, pulling out a pen and paper. He wrote down his number, sliding it across the table to Beckett who typed it into his phone. Reese’s own phone dinged a moment later, and he pulled it out to check the message.

B: Hey stupid.

Reese rolled his eyes, not even bothering to reply as he tucked the phone back into his pocket. “I don’t just hand out my phone number to everyone, so treat this as a privilege. Don’t abuse it.”

Beckett raised an eyebrow, a silent challenge. “You got it.”

A moment later Reese’s phone dinged again, so he pulled it out.

B: Made ya look. ;p

“Oh, real mature.” Reese huffed, putting his phone back and not deigning Beckett with a response. Beckett seemed content to keep staring down at his phone, a series of chimes coming from Reese’s pocket again. “Beckett, I swear on Evan Hansen himself I will block your number.”

Okay, yeah, maybe Beckett was being a little immature. But watching the steam metaphorically blow out of Reese’s ears when he saw the stream of penguin emojis he kept endlessly sending made it all worth it. Who knows? Maybe messing with Reese wasn’t his dad’s intended goal of this pairing, but it was certainly a nice side effect. Eventually, Beckett stopped sending penguins long enough to agree on a time to meet up after class, the bell indicating their study period was over.

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B: You’re late.

Beckett tapped his foot impatiently, trying not to let his anxiety overwhelm him while he waited. This was where they always met, having started meeting up regularly a month ago. He had already checked, double-checked, and triple-checked their meeting spot twenty times on his phone in the last ten minutes. There it was, plain as day: Reese had said to meet at the library at 4:00 today. Now it was 4:20 (holla), and Beckett was considering ghosting Reese for the rest of existence.

But no, that wouldn’t work. With his luck Becket messed up which library they were supposed to meet at and Reese was going to be mad at him and then Beckett’s dad would think he wasn’t trying to make this work and they’d both fail and Reese would hate him forever-

…wait. Why did he care what Reese thought of him?

Beckett scrambled for his phone, hearing an almost silent ‘ding!’ in the foreboding silence of the library.

R: So sorry, practice is running late. Be there in five?

Practice? Practice for what? Beckett couldn’t even begin to guess. It seemed that Reese had a habit of signing himself up for quite literally everything the school offered. Beckett could never keep track of all that, and he never wanted to either; who needed all that unwanted pressure? High school was bad enough, thank you.

Beckett bounced his leg, nervously watching the clock count with agonizing slowness. It felt weird, just sitting here alone in the library where anybody could be staring at him. He knew the others were judging him. Beckett could feel their stares on the back of his neck, and took solitude in trying to distract himself with his phone. The battery was dying.

4:29. No sign of the jock in sight. Should he text again? Was that rude?

Beckett shook his head. This was ridiculous, he wasn’t the rude one. Reese had practically ditched him after making this plan in the first place.

B: You’re still late.

Even knowing he was in the right, Beckett held his breath as those three little dots appeared, indicating the thespian was typing.

R: Sorry!! This might take a while. Mind meeting me at the football field?

Yes, Beckett did mind; he minded very much. The football field was where kids like Beckett got beat up- not that Beckett went there often enough for that to happen, but cliché teenage Rom Coms never lie. Still, Beckett had nothing better to do, and he needed Reese to pull his weight in this project. It was with no small amount of grumbling that Beckett reminded himself that Reese was a… surprisingly competent partner. For a jock, anyway.

B: Be there in five.

Unlike Reese, Beckett actually meant it. His anxiety wouldn’t allow him to be tardy for fear of disappointing someone, even if that someone was a theatre kid with his gigantic head stuck in a football helmet.

He wasn’t going because he wanted to, in fact frankly Beckett would rather be just about anywhere else. Of all the activities he refused to participate in, sports was at the top. He couldn’t imagine exhausting himself, all eyes on him as he put his body through strenuous situations of his own free will. It was suicide. Not to mention, people got so invested in sports games; how did the players deal with all that pressure? If you missed the ball, you were letting the entire school down. And, even if you won (highly unlikely, given their football record the past few years), the opposing team would still hate you for making them lose. No matter what, you ended up sweaty and boo-ed. Yeah, no thanks.

But, as he turned the corner, Beckett’s eyes widened at all the muscled high school boys, realizing they were divided into shirts and skins. His heart rate increased, and he wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing that Reese was part of the half that was shirtless because on the one hand oh my god he’s so hot I’m too gay for this- and on the other hand how dare he look that hot I’m supposed to be mad at him.

…so maybe not all aspects of sports were inherently evil.

“Hey, Beckett!” Reese gave him a wave, jogging over to meet him with a smile on his face. Beckett’s own face flushed, and he burrowed further into his oversized hoodie. How did Reese manage to look so comfortable in his own skin when he was only wearing half his clothes?! Totally unfair. “I’m so sorry about all this, coach just wants us to run a few more plays before we’re done for the evening. But I figured it’d be best if you were here, so we can get started as soon as we’re done. Do you want to watch?”

I would like that very much. Beckett gave an awkward cough, shoving that thought into the far recesses of his mind. “Uh, yeah, I could do that, I guess.”

Reese gave a nod of acknowledgement, jogging back to his team as they did…a sports thing. Beckett couldn’t really comprehend what was going on, but the men seemed to be running back and forth a few times across the field.

Beckett looked up at the bleachers, deciding to take a seat while he waited. A few friends of the football players were up here as well, including a scattering of girlfriends. Beckett let them keep the front few rows and instead climbed his way to the very top where he could avoid having a social interaction ever.

The autumn wind was chillier up here, and Beckett pulled his jacket tighter around his chest. How was Reese not freezing out there? Granted, he was running around and sweating up a storm, but he was still shirtless. Why was the coach being so cruel? Would Reese catch a cold? That would be awful, especially since Beckett didn’t know how to cook soup to make him feel better- THE PROJECT! It would be awful because Reese wouldn’t be able to help him with the project. That was most certainly the only reason.

It was times like these Beckett truly loathed his dad for trying to force him to get along with the annoying hot popular guy. The world was already in love with Reese, so what did it care what Beckett thought? Beckett was nothing. He was the discarded gum that got stuck to the bottom of people like Reese’s shoes, only to be scraped off at their earliest convenience. People in high school shouldn’t be put up on a pedestal, and Beckett used to have no qualms about putting Reese in his place because Beckett was so low on the food chain he had nothing to lose.

Now, Beckett felt like he was on the brink of losing everything he had never gained in the first place.

“BECKETT!” The emo jumped, startled out of his depressing thoughts when he heard his name being called. He glanced down, seeing Reese at the bottom of the bleachers, a towel wrapped around his shoulders. The idiot was still shirtless. “PRACTICE IS OVER!”

Did that mean Beckett should come down? He assumed so. Carefully he descended the stairs, feeling uncomfortable at the sensation of being watched. Reese was definitely watching, and a few other bystanders turned to give him curious glances as well. Beckett must be the first cryptid to ever show up to football practice.

“Put on a shirt.” Beckett muttered, not looking Reese in the eye when he finally got to the bottom of the stairs.

Reese blinked, seeming surprised by this statement as he glanced down at his bare chest. When he looked up, the smirk on Reese’s face made Beckett want the earth to swallow him whole. “Why? Like what you see? Is my herculean frame too distracting for your mortal presence?”

“You’re gonna catch a cold.” Beckett huffed, which only seemed to make things worse as Reese let out a sort of squeal.

“Aww, I knew you care.” Reese cooed, and now Beckett wanted to die on the spot.

“Yeah, because a dead lab partner doesn’t do me any good.” Beckett said defensively, his shoulders hiking up to his ears. “But a partner that ditches isn’t any better.”

Reese paused, the smile on his face quickly falling. “I- you’re right, I’m sorry-“

“Whatever.” Beckett cut him off. “Just get your clothes on and let’s go.”

Reese nodded, quickly pulling on his shirt and letterman jacket, red in an obnoxious way that made his eyes pop. He fell in step beside Beckett, the two walking in a tense silence as they headed back towards the building.

“I really am sorry.” Reese spoke up softly. “I wasn’t thinking, I forgot about practice, but I thought it’d be fast enough that you wouldn’t notice. I should have texted you earlier.”

“Yeah, I get it, you’re too busy.” Beckett shrugged, trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal.

“No, that’s no excuse.” Reese said firmly. “Your time is just as important as mine, and I wasted it. I need to make it up to you. Do you like coffee? I can take you out sometime.”

“What, like a date?” Beckett teased, trying to keep his tone light and not as hopeful as his traitorous heart would believe. “If you wanted to get into my pants you could’ve just said so.”

Now that was the wrong thing to say to your growing crush. Even worse was the way Reese froze up, his face turning brighter than a cherry tomato.

“No, that’s not-!” Reese stammered, looking offended, and Beckett’s heart plummeted at the thought of being rejected even in a joke. “I would never be so crass, or forward, especially without- I mean, your intentions are important too, I wouldn’t just force myself on you like that, I was trying to be a gentleman about it-“

“Wait, what?” Now it was Beckett’s turn to blush tomato red. “Are you- you’re serious? About the pants stuff?”

“NO!” Reese’s shriek of indignation was so high-pitched Beckett could have mistaken it for a girl. “Certainly not off the bat. But- the ah, the date? I mean, maybe? Oh Lin Manuel Miranda, I never even asked if you’re into guys-“

“I am.” Beckett interrupted, a bit too suddenly for his own good. “Into you, too.” Was this a joke? Was Beckett being pranked? He didn’t exactly love the idea of a bunch of popular guys deciding to gang up and craft a plot to break his heart. Still, even as his anxiety tried to suggest such a nefarious scheme, Beckett couldn’t picture Reese being part of it, especially as the thespian had been reduced to a blushing, stammering mess at Beckett’s feet.

“Maybe…” Beckett swallowed, hoping he was making the right decision here. Good lord Romance was not his department. “Ugh, this is just… let’s start with coffee, okay?”

Reese visibly relaxed, as though a huge weight had been taken off his shoulders. “Coffee it is.”

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So, they had started with coffee dates.

And then coffee dates turned into regular dates.

And then came the hand holding, the soft kisses, and then… more.

Beckett wasn’t actually sure if Reese was his boyfriend, but there certainly should be a shorter title than Lab Partner who Occasionally Disappears Into the Back Room With Me For Super Hot Make Out Sessions.

Unfortunately, the privacy of the back room came with the unspoken caveat that while Beckett had access, it was truly his father’s prep room, and it was only a matter of time before they were caught.

“You know, while I did express that I wanted you two to grow closer as individuals, this is a bit closer than I anticipated.” Flint deadpanned, flicking on the light.

“Dad!” Beckett frantically shoved away from Reese, trying in vain to disguise the fact that moments ago his hands were wandering beneath the jock’s shirt while Reese ran his fingers through Beckett’s hair. (Beckett was pleased to note Reese’s chest felt as good as he imagined ever since that football practice).

“Professor Flint!” Reese said hastily, his face ashen as he looked like a frightened doe. Goodness gracious did Beckett just want to kiss that adorable look off his face. It was a pity his gay thoughts would not assist the situation at hand.

“Reese. Beckett.” Flint’s tone was eerily calm, the kind of scary dad tone that indicated he was about two seconds from blowing up. The teacher took in a long, tense breath, seeming to be calculating something in his mind. “I think you should both count yourselves grateful that I have discovered you on school property, and thus have an obligation to follow the necessary procedures.”

Uh oh. Beckett was tense, stepping forward to follow his father as he gave a wave of his hand. Reese moved to follow too, Flint pushing the high schoolers apart so that they stood on either side of him and had a few feet of separation.

“Where are we going?” Reese asked timidly, more nervous than Beckett usually heard him.

“The guidance counselor.” Flint’s tone was clipped now, clearly more annoyed at Reese considering he was the one discovered making out with Flint’s son. “You both have behaved wildly inappropriately.”

Reese and Beckett exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing: We’re screwed.

Flint raised his knuckles, raping on the hardwood door. There was a pleasant “Come in!” spoken from inside, and Flint’s posture seemed to relax somewhat as he opened the door.

“Good afternoon, Lev.” Flint smiled, and Beckett found it strange to see his father acting so laid back in his greeting. Beckett didn’t know his dad even knew the counselor. Did they talk behind his back?

“Oh, heya Flint!” Lev, the guidance counselor, greeted him in turn. “Nice to see you too, Beckett. And who’s this young man?”

“This is Reese.” Beckett jerked his thumb towards the guy he makes out with sometimes.

“How do you know Beckett?” Reese blurted.

“Oh, he comes in here all the time.” Lev explained with a wave of his hand. “I love having him as company.”

Beckett shuffled his feet. “Lev helps with my anxiety.”

“Be that as it may, I think it will be more beneficial to get to the matter at hand.” Flint remained standing, watching the boys sit like two properly scolded school children. The analogy was quite accurate. “I have just apprehended these two boys engaging in… suggestive acts within my lab prep room.” Lev stifled a giggle, causing Flint to frown. “What’s so funny?”

“Sorry Flinty, I know this is serious.” Lev put on his serious face, making Flint’s lip twitch up. “Now boys, care to explain your side of the story?”

“No.” Beckett answered honestly, shrinking in on himself as he tucked his knees up to his chest.

Reese sent him a glare, which clearly was meant to say ‘Don’t you dare abandon me now, you traitor.’

“Ah…that would be an accurate description.” Reese conceded. “Beckett and I thought the privacy was, um, ideal, for… kissing.”

“Just kissing?” Lev clarified, immediately making everyone else in the room twice as uncomfortable.

“Yes, just- just kissing.” Reese looked ready to spontaneously combust. “With some touching, but clothed, and-“

“I do believe we have an accurate image of the event.” Flint raised his voice, cutting Reese off before the image could get more engrained into the poor father’s head.

“Yes, agreed.” Lev nodded. “Boys, I think you’re both smart enough to know that acts of PDA are not allowed on school grounds, especially to that extreme. Save it for when you get home.”

“Or not at all.” Flint couldn’t help but tack on. Beckett rolled his eyes, but this seemed to be a very poor choice as Flint gave him the dad glare. “Do you disagree, young man?”

“…no sir.” Beckett winced, his eyes soon staring down at his lap.

“With all due respect, I do disagree.” Reese spoke up, and Beckett’s eyes snapped to him instead. The jock had puffed out his chest, clearly acting with a confidence he didn’t fully possess. “I think I have a right to physically show my appreciation for my wonderful boyfriend, in moderation.”

Boyfriend. He said boyfriend. Beckett couldn’t help but grin like an idiot. His now-boyfriend was such an idiot, and Beckett loved him so much. Hopefully he wasn’t about to die by his father’s wrath.

The room was unbelievably tense, Reese and Flint caught in a staring match. Flint was cold and unyielding, while Reese was firm but polite. Jeez, what had Beckett ever done to deserve such a gentleman to stand up for him like that? Even if it was about something as trivial as steamy make out sessions, Beckett couldn’t help but feel his heart swell.

“They’re just kids, Flint.” Lev spoke up softly, going over to put a hand on Flint’s arm. Flint broke away from the staring match, looking into Lev’s eyes with an unreadable expression.

Lev turned back to the boys, giving them a small smile. “Now, since this is your first offence, only a verbal warning is required, so don’t let the two of us catch you making out in any more closets.”

“Yes sir.” Both boys spoke in unison, the tips of their ears turning red in embarrassment.

“Reese, I do believe the two of us will need to have a chat, off school grounds, about the nature of your relationship with my son.” Flint spoke up, in full dad mode.

Reese gulped, giving a stiff nod as now he was properly shamed. “Understood, sir.”

“Well, sounds like everything is working itself out!” Lev clapped his hands happily. “You boys are excused, have fun you too.”

“We will!” Reese assured him, flinching at Flint’s gaze. “Ah, an appropriate amount.”

Beckett hurried out the door after him, nearly missing the way Lev was asking Flint to grab coffee with him. Wait, was that a coffee date? Beckett definitely needed more details about that later. In the meantime, though, Beckett had a super hot idiot to thank for defending his honor.

Beckett fell into step beside Reese, slipping his fingers between his boyfriend’s and leaning close to whisper in the thespian’s ear. “Want to get off school property?”

“Sweet mother of pearl, yes.” Reese said breathlessly, the two racing each other to the door.

#ask-villegas-sides #eat-moar-veggis #commissions #commission #writing #writing commissions #reese #beckett #lev #flint

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sassyshoulderangel319 · 5 years ago

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Flight

So... @ask-villegas-sides asked me to do this literal months ago and... most of the attempts were bad and then time and then writer’s block and now here!

Reese came slinging into the room at top speed. “Guys I’ve had an idea!” he shouted.

Flint didn’t look up from his planning. “What is it?” he asked, disinterested. “And it’s just me in here, by the way. Don’t expect to find Beck lurking in the corner under a raincloud or something.

Reese held his hands up. “Picture this: mountainous adventure fantasy!”

Flint blinked. “Uh... doesn’t Riley have... important stuff to do today?”

“Yeah, what’s your point?”

“We can’t distract them with a fantasy all day if they have stuff to do.”

“Sure we can!”

“No, Reese.”

“But I’m booorrreeed.”

“I said no.”

Reese scoffed. “Well luckily you’re not in charge. Lev is the father figure here.”

Flint just pursed his lips as Reese ran out of the room. He got to his feet and went over to the window to Riley’s life, looking through Riley’s eyes. “Okay... breakfast. That’s good at least. Got off to a good start.

“Fliiint!!” Lev shouted. It was distinctly Lev’s voice because there was none of Reese’s over-the-top dramatic tone to it.

“What?” Flint shouted.

“Why did you say no fantasy today?”

“Because Riley has important stuff to work on! We can’t distract them!”

Lev appeared in the doorway. He approached Flint and set a hand on his shoulder. “Please?”

Flint narrowed his eyes. “No.”

Lev turned on the puppy eyes. “Pleeeaaase? I wanna play with Reese too. I bet I could even get Beckett to join!”

Flint tried hard not to give in to the puppy eyes. If he gave in now, Lev would just use them again later. Again, and again, and again. He’d done it before and Flint always caved. It was hard to resist getting stared at by that pleading look. But Flint was trying to be stronger. Riley was getting older and therefore had to be more responsible. They didn’t have time for—

“Okay. One hour at the most. Riley still has stuff to do.”

Lev cheered. “Yesss! Thank you Flint!” He threw his arms around Flint and then ran out of the room. “REEEEEESE! BEEEEECK! Flint said okay! He’s not gonna shut it down!”

Reese’s cheer was heard down the hall.

Flint plopped down to let the other three have their fun while he planned out the rest of Riley’s day so that it’d be ready for when Riley got done getting distracted by Reese’s fantasy.

“What the—?! Is this the Jumanji jungle? Reese!” Beckett’s voice shouted.

“Of course not! It’s Never Land!”

Flint perked up. Never Land? Huh. He set his planning off to the side and followed the voices of the other Sides.

Before he even reached the end of the hallway he was swallowed up by trees with thick vines hanging off the branches. “Uh... guys?!” he shouted. The silence of the woods seemed to press back on him. “GUYS?! Reese? Lev? Beck?”

Nothing. The misty fog drifted through the air in gentle swirls, suppressing all the sound.

Flint cursed and pushed forward faster. “Reese? Beckett? Flint?” he called. “Guys where are you?!”

He came out into a clearing.

*****

Reese slowed to a stop. “Guys! Guys Flint came!”

Lev perked up and cheered. “Flint came! Flint came!” he chanted. “I’m gonna go get him!”

Beckett grabbed Lev’s wrist. “Hang on. I have a better idea.”

“Beck,” Reese warned.

“C’mon, Reese. It’ll be hilarious.”

Reese sighed. “Fine. But this is my fantasy and my day—don’t ruin it.”

Beck smiled. “I’ll try.”

*****

Flint looked around the clearing. “Alright, guys! This isn’t funny. Come on out. Beck, I know you’re gonna jump out and scare me.”

He paused and waited, turning in slow circles to see if there was movement in the underbrush—just waiting for Beckett to leap out with a scream. Lev and Reese might back him up but it depended on the situation.

“FLIIIIINT!” a voice shouted from...

Above?

Flint whirled.

Beckett and Lev were dive-bombing him. Flint swore under his breath. “Never Land. Of course,” he muttered.

Beckett grabbed one arm and Lev the other, hoisting him into the air.

Ignoring Flint’s shouting, they lifted him up into the sky. “Hey Reese! Little help here!” Lev shouted.

Reese glided over with a laugh and sprinkled glitter into Flint’s hair. “What the—hey—stop it!” Flint protested.

“C’mon, Flint!” Lev insisted with a dorky grin. “Just think happy thoughts! Then you’ll fly!”

“I don’t... really... do the whole emotion thing,” Flint pointed out.

Reese chuckled. “I’m aware. That’s why I modified the pixie dust for you. You just have to trust us and believe you can fly.”

Flint took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“Hurry it up, will ya? We can’t hold on forever,” Beckett complained.

“Fine then.” Flint yanked his arm out of Beckett’s grip—the sudden change causing Lev to slip and let go.

“FLINT!” three voices shouted as he plunged toward the ground.

I believe I can fly. I can. I trust Reese, Lev, and even Beckett. I can do this, he thought.

His falling momentum was arrested abruptly.

When Flint peeled his eyes open, he was mere feet from the treetops.

“Holy—”

“You did it!” Lev called from above. “Come on! Come up here!”

Flint smiled, twisted, and ascended. He came to a hover surrounded by the others. “I did it,” he said.

Lev cheered and threw his arms around him. “You did it! C’mon! Let’s go exploring!”

Flint chuckled. “Right. But one hour, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah. Got it. Whatever,” Reese said. “Let’s go!”

Lev grabbed Flint’s hand and the four of them shot through the sky. Flint’s, “Aaaaahhhhh!” echoed across the entire imagined Never Land. He wasn’t used to the height or the speed. He felt like his organs were going to fly out his toes.

Lev laughed. “You’re doin’ great, Flint!”

“Thanks?” Flint shouted over the wind roaring in his ears.

“Isn’t this fun?” Lev called.

“Ye... yeah!” Flint shouted.

Reese whooped and swooped around, twisting and showing off, laughing his head off. Beckett was grinning but not talking. He seemed to be enjoying it too.

Flint ended up so distracted that they wound up fantasizing for several hours instead of just one as he set the time limit.

But for the bonding and the fun they had, Flint was willing to overlook the lost time.

#ask-villegas-sides #Flint #Reese #Beckett #Lev #ask villegas sides

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pllandcompany · 6 years ago

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(it's a) dangerous game

Summary: Riley's sides get a taste of what it is to be human.

Warnings: violence, homelessness, cursing, non-sexual nudity, anxiety, crying, implied character death (but also not really death at all)

Notes: I have no idea where this came from but it was written for @eat-moar-veggis and their OC sides! Hope you enjoy it, dear!

Pounding.

That was about all Beckett could process as he slowly came to consciousness after what was apparently the most intense night of sleep of his life. He remembered vaguely having nightmares of being attacked in the mind scape, more vivid and realistic than usual but waking up like this was definitely out of the ordinary. His hands and feet felt raw and dry. His stomach ached with cramps. His head felt like someone had smashed it into a brick wall...wait, hold on. They had.

And they were still doing it.

"Yo, man, get your ass up! This is my spot! I own this turf!" Suddenly more wide awake than ever, Beckett realized three things in rapid succession.

1. He was not only awake, but he was awake and fully human.

2. He had absolutely no idea where he was.

3. A homeless junkie was going to beat the life out of him if he didn't get the fuck out of there now.

Bats escaping the hottest corners of hell couldn't keep up with how fast Beckett ran.

****

Flint couldn't move. This was far beyond his capacity for comprehension. After all, the current events were unprecedented. Never in the history of the mind had something like this occurred. In fact, this should have never happened at all. This was supposed to be impossible...yet here he was, with no earthly idea of how this happened or how to fix it. One moment, he was dreaming of standing in a massive lecture hall, attempting to teach a college-level philosophy course in nothing but his underwear and the next moment...he was lecturing a college-level philosophy course in a massive lecture hall in nothing but his underwear.

Flint felt his face and chest grow hotter and hotter with his blush as the 300-plus student class just howled with laughter. He felt sick he was so embarrassed. He wanted to run. He wanted to bolt, find his clothes, and sprint back home where he could attempt to bury this whole mortifying event deep in the recesses of Riley's memory.

Damn it if he couldn't figure out how to move though.

****

Okay, if this was still a dream, Reese was certain he had transcended the earthly plane into pure paradise.

Reese snapped to awareness abruptly to find himself seated on a lofty and ornate throne. It took a moment for him to make heads or tails of this new development when it suddenly hit him: He was Hamlet. (Or maybe somebody from Game of Thrones, he wasn't sure which.) A ordinary daydream had Reese somehow becoming someone's knight in shining yet tortured armor. And this was no ordinary high school Shakespeare play, either; his weapons were weighty and authentic. Feeling the heft of his costume and the pride of his apparent achievement of the dashing, romantic lead, he strutted across the wildly realistic set (seriously, was he actually in a castle?), belting out his beautifully memorized lines in perfect iambic pentameter. This couldn't have been a better daydream, getting to stretch his acting skills while also participating in such high quality-

Oh.

Oh. Oh God.

There was no time to react. The blade pierced his side before he could move to block it or run. It was a fatal blow surely and Reese felt himself slipping away. The darkly dressed man who stabbed him twisted the knife for good measure before dropping the royal to the ground.

"That will teach you to steal my kingdom from me," the dark baron growled as Reese struggled to breathe. He saw the people of his court all around him, surrounding him like vultures. One moment ago, they had been adoring and praising him and now, in his last moments, they mocked him mercilessly. He felt himself fading more and more, descending into darkness until...

He awoke once again in a lofty and ornate throne. The same one, in fact.

With the same traitorous people around him, smiles glistening like sharpened fangs, waiting in the wings to destroy him.

****

When Riley woke up that morning, they knew immediately something wasn't right. They felt...empty somehow? Like parts of themselves were missing. They hardly had a second more to dwell on that thought when Lev walked forward and shook Riley to full consciousness.

"Lev? What are you doing here-?" Realization slammed into Riley like 1000 bricks hitting a concrete wall. "Oh my God, you touched me."

Lev nodded solemnly. "I know, Riley but we have to focus. We have to find them, " he whispered to himself. Lev's voice shook, displaying his genuine, unadulterated fear, the raw emotion tearing through Riley like a bolt of lightning. Lev winced at the ripple of pain working through his host, feeling particularly guilty for having caused the distress.

"I'm sorry, Riley." Without warning, Lev burst into tears.

"Hey, hey, It's all right, this is all really weird and you were scared! You couldn't help that. Besides, I'm fine." Riley bit their lip uncomfortably as Lev continued to sob. The normally chipper side was acting nothing like himself. After all, this was certainly a strange development but Lev should be thrilled that he's human! Means now he can get all of the hugs he could ever want from his host, right?

Perhaps a change of subject might help, Riley thought.

"So...you're real and here...outside of my head?" Riley inquired curiously. Lev gave a tight smile and nodded gingerly, fighting to control his tears and willing his host to go back to bed so he could figure this out alone without a hundred questions. The quiet moment gave Riley license to snoop around a bit when their curiosity piqued and they noticed yet again that something was...missing. Thinking nothing of it, Riley opened their mouth to ask a innocent question and as soon as the words left their lips and entered Lev's ears, the moment suddenly drove home to Lev just how bad of a situation they are in.

"Lev, where are the others?" Riley asked in a state completely devoid of panic. Lev, however, wrung his hands nervously, pulling the fingers so hard he looked as though he'd yank them right off. He opened his mouth, took a shaky breath, and said the most honest thing he's ever said in his lifetime.

"I...I have no idea."

#ask villegas sides #lev #beckett #flint #reese #my writing #prompt request

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virgil-on-crofters · 5 years ago

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Homecoming Heartbreak (Villegas Sides)

As requested by @eat-moar-veggis for his blog @ask-villegas-sides

Summary: With homecoming just around the corner, Reese is excited to ask out his crush to the dance, until he gets rejected. Now it’s his friends’ job to cheer him up.

Genre: Angst/Fluff

Warnings: Crying, rejection, heartbreak

Word Count: 897 words

<><><>

Those were the words that Reese was hoping he wouldn’t have to hear.

He stood there, the sign and bouquet of red roses in hand, the plan he’d been excited to execute for months, all of it crushed by that one sentence.

“Why would I go to homecoming with you?”

Reese’s heart, along with his pride, shattered. As he watched the boy he’d had a crush on for so long walk back down the hallway, he couldn’t help the tears that started to brim his eyes. He sniffled a bit, pivoting around and making his way down the hallway, going towards the front doors of the school. On his way out he tossed the sign, which he'd spent hours meticulously crafting to be absolutely perfect, and bouquet of roses, that he'd saved up to buy for weeks, into the trash can, along with his hopes of a magical evening at the school’s annual fall homecoming dance.

Lev was the one to text Reese after he missed English class, concerned as Reese never ditched class.

/Hey kiddo, you've been kinda mia...are you alright?/

Reese had gone straight home after the rejection and was busy curled up in bed and crying when the message from Lev appeared with a ding from his phone, drawing his response. He sniffled as he read the message, starting to cry more giving a simple response that got straight to the point.

/He said no.../

Lev’s eyes widened and he frowned, but now he had a new mission. So after seventh period he gathered Beckett and Flint and explained the situation to them. Before anything else, they went to make sure they had, as Lev referred to it as, “necessary heartbreak remedy supplies”.

Reese was curled up in bed, wearing some sweatpants and a sweatshirt as he cried on and off. He would manage to calm himself down before he would start thinking about it again and just...start bawling all over again. The only thing that interrupted the cycle was someone kicking his door open.

“THE HEARTBREAK SQUAD HAS ARRIVED~!” Lev said as he made his entrance, a bag of almost too many flavors of vegan ice cream in one hand and a stuffed teddy bear in the other.

Beckett and Flint filed in behind Lev, but before either of them could greet Reese he started crying again, a small choked sob leaving him as he curled up more and covered his face, "W-why doesn't he l-like me?".

Lev frowned, setting the bag down and hurrying over, pulling Reese into a big hug, “Oh Reese, it’s okay...”

Reese whined, pushing his face into Lev’s shoulder as the others made their way over. Beckett had brought some fluffy blankets with him which he draped over Reese’s shoulders before he sat down and hugged Reese, Flint joining in as well. They hugged the boy for a few minutes as he cried, eventually starting to calm down. It took about five minutes, but his cried started to turn into small sniffled and eventually stopped. The other boys pulled back as Reese rubbed his eyes, “Y-you guys really didn’t need to come over.”

Flint shook his head, “Nonsense Reese, we’re here to help.”

Beckett nodded, “Yeah,” he chuckled a bit, “Can’t have you all down in the dumps now can we?”

Reese chuckled before he nodded, sniffling a bit again, “T-thanks...”

They all smiled and nodded before Lev hopped up, giggling, “Now, we got blankets, ice cream..” he tossed the stuffed teddy bear at Reese, “Stuffies aaaaand, Flint’s Disney Plus account!”

Reese chuckled a bit, looking at Flint, “You have Disney Plus?”

Flint rolled his eyes, pushing up his glasses, “The National Geographic documentaries are quite intriguing...”

Beckett snickered, “Mhm...that’s totally why you spend twelve dollars a month...”

Flint rolled his eyes, tossing a pillow at the emo before standing up, “I can get my account hooked up to your TV downstairs and we can have a movie night on what every...animated film you’d like.”

Reese’s eyes lit up, “Any movie..?”

Flint sighed, rolling his eyes and chuckling a bit, “Yes...any movie.”

So the boys made their way downstairs, stopping to change into onesies first before dishing out the vegan vanilla ice cream and plopping down on the couch. Reese selected Coco to watch and they settled in for the movie night. About halfway through the movie, Lev had an idea. So they paused the movie as Lev hopped to his feet, his cat onesie seeming way too big on him, "So homecoming is next weekend, and none of us have dates soo...what if we go as a group?"

Beckett smirked, "I wasn't going to go in the first place, but if you nerds are going then I might as well tag along..."

Flint nodded, "That plan seems acceptable..what do you think Reese?"

Reese smiled softly, taking another bite of his ice cream as he pulled the stuffed animal closer, "Sounds like a plan."

Lev giggled excitedly, moving to tackle hug Reese, almost resulting in the spilling of ice cream all over the couch. Reese giggled, hugging him for a few moments before allowing him to return back to his spot on the couch and underneath the giant blanket that Beckett had brought from his car.

Reese was still feeling heartbroken over his unexpected rejection, but at least he had great best friends to keep his spirits up.

#writing #fanfiction #writing requests #villegasides #angst #fluff #beckett #reese #flint #lev #highschool #heartbreak #homecoming

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broccolettuce · 5 years ago

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More Villegas Sides Headcanons!

Lev is best at shapeshifting.

One time the sides decided to put Flint’s Crofter’s in the hardest to get to places. Both around the mind palace and the imagination. He somehow managed to safely get them all back. (One was in a volcano. How did you get into a volcano?!)

They’re planning to do the same with Lev‘s ice cream.

Pride has at least a hundred lion plushies in his room.

Pride’s favorite season is spring.

After learning about Flint the Fish, Flint decided to get a pet fish for his room.

Flint has 10 different puzzle apps on his phone.

Beckett has one of those lil bamboo plants in his room. It’s one of the few things with color.

Everyone has forgotten the color of Reese’s walls because they’re covered in posters, pictures, and other things.

Scorch’s favorite kind of rocks are igneous rocks.

Scorch acts like a giant puppy.

@ask-villegas-sides asked me to make more headcanons! I hope you like them! I had a lot of fun again!

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pidgeon-brained · 5 years ago

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Figure I'd explain middle names, and send in my first piece of fanart! I'm going to continue to send in my asks anonymously because it makes me happy but here you go! @ask-villegas-sides

Here's Lev. I did him first because I absolutely love Dad characters! If one character calls another 'kiddo' they become one of my favorites. I'll eventually draw everyone but I wanted to show Lev first!

Flint William- so there's a lot of famous poets and stuff with the name William and even though he's more of a science nerd, Flint is the knowledgeable side, so he got a smart name.

Lev (who I did the fanart of) Robert- like I said, Robert is a dad name and Lev is sort of a dad guy.

Beckett Lee- I just like how they sound together, I don't know I just like it.

Reese Michael- Reese figured his out already! Michael Mell is the inspiration for this one. Michael is my favorite character from BMC and it's one of my favorite musicals.

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princeespresart · 5 years ago

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Got an art request from @eat-moar-veggis for their ask blog @ask-villegas-sides of Lev, Reese, Beckette, and Flint!!

(Open for better quality)

#request #art requests #drawing #my art #art #digital art #painting #pesart #fan art #fanart

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transromansanders · 6 years ago

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The Invisible Bad Guy

Warnings: looooots of angst

Word Count: 485

A/N: This is a drabble I wrote for @eat-moar-veggis/@ask-villegas-sides for their OCs, whom I love very much. Which is why I have to make them suffer. :) It's based on two songs from the Beck's Tunes playlist, which you can find under #beck's tunes on their Ask Villegas Sides blog. The songs are The Bad Guy from Ultimate Storytime and Invisible by 5 Seconds of Summer. I used the lyrics to create some of the metaphors and other such literary devices used in the drabble. Without further ado, a drabble:

------------------------

Everything about Beckett was written in pen. He'd discovered that Reese was drawn quite similarly, if not a little more bold. The black lines that marked out Beckett we're impossible to scrub away. He couldn't get rid of that part that he hated. The part that built those walls around himself and Riley. The walls that were meant to protect them. The walls that prevented any escape.

Was Beckett the bad guy? Was he hurting Riley? He knew for a fact he'd done so in the past. ...Was he hurting Flint, Lev… Reese? He was meant to help them all, be the hero they needed, or that's what he'd thought so long ago. He thought he had chased that silly dream away by now.

He let go. One by one, he let go of them. First the hardest, Reese, Lev, Flint… Riley. Maybe that was the hardest. He let go of the dream of truly being good to any of them, and it all floated away, balloons into the clouds. “I'm sorry…” he whispered brokenly.

Beckett could have been something great, maybe, someday. Now he didn't even know who he was. How long had it been? He'd locked himself in the deepest part of Riley's mind. He was tired of hurting them all, of being pushed around by circumstance, knocked hard onto the pavement. He was the bad guy, and he was tired of it.

He'd always seen things very black and white. Either people weren't trusted, or they were clung to for dear life. There was no grayscale, just the extremes. The colors faded away. Of course, there were no colors where he was. That was certain.

He had already been missing for a long time before he left. And now he was alone with his shadow and all that he'd done, the memories pushing him further and further from the people he hurt.

Beck was ripped from his thoughts by the area being flooded with light. “Beckett, Dearheart?” he heard.

“Reese?”

*~*~*~*~*

It was a long talk, with a lot of crying.

Beckett fell asleep nestled against Lev's side with Reese behind him on the sofa. Reese was wrapped around him protectively, stroking his hair.

“I'm still worried about him…” Reese mumbled.

Flint cleared his throat. “We'll just have to keep a closer eye on him.”

Lev pressed a quick kiss to Beckett's forehead. “Yeah. We'll take care of him.”

Reese nodded.

*~*~*~*~*

The other two had gone to bed a while ago. Reese decided he was going to stay on the couch with his boyfriend. He didn't want to wake him.

“I love you,” Reese whispered, voice barely audible. “I don't think of you as the bad guy, okay? I'm not angry with you. I'll never hate you.”

Beckett gave a soft sigh in his sleep. “Reese… love you…” he mumbled, barely awake, then he was out like a light again.

They'd be okay.

#ask villegas sides #beckett villegas #reese villegas #lev villegas #flint villegas #tw self loathing #tw self deprecation

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loveistrueblue · 5 years ago

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A Past of Pride

Summary: “You hit me,” Beckett whispered.

Pride ignored him. “Get out. If you like those light sides so much, go find them. See how much they really care about you.” Pride crouched down. “Because when push comes to shove, they don’t give a shit. About you, about me, or any of us. You’re alone, Beckett.”

Pride stood back to his full height, looming once more. “You’re gonna wish you’d listened to me after all.”

Warnings: Mild violence, mentions of past trauma, mild philosophical discussion concerning goodness and badness.

Pairings: None explicitly shown.

Word Count: 3,020

Fic Type: Commissioned 3k fic for @eat-moar-veggis.

Notes: I was commissioned to write a 3k fic in response to the prompt, “flint has a talk with beckett and finds out he has history with the dark side named pride, and an emotional conversation results.” None of the characters in this fic belong to me, but are all Riley’s OCs. You can find more about them on their sideblog, @ask-villegas-sides.

I had such a great time with this prompt and writing this! Thank you to Riley for commissioning me to use your awesome characters. ❤

Beckett’s hands were shaking in the darkness of the mindscape and he tried to still them in his lap, carefully avoiding eye contact with the side looming over him. It’d been a while since he’d spoken to Pride. If Pride asked, it was because Beckett was busy. He had a lot of duties to do all in the name of keeping Riley safe, of course.

However, if he was being a little more honest with himself, it was because he was frightened, in some small way, of Pride. The way he held himself like Beckett was nothing but scum at the bottom of his shoe. The way he’d yell and scream when things weren’t going as he wanted them to. The way he just… loomed over Beckett and made Beckett feel two feet tall.

“Have you done as I asked?” Pride said, his voice just as strong and unwavering as ever. His hair was pushed back, revealing piercing eyes that felt as if they were scanning Beckett’s soul- finding every little dirty secret tucked away in the corners of his mind.

“Yes,” Beckett said. The lie felt acidic and sour on his tongue. His hands still shook, and he pressed them harder against his knees.

Pride raised an eyebrow, leaning back a fraction. “All right,” he said. “Any success?”

“Look, Riley doesn’t want to hurt their friends. If they do this, they’re going to hurt their friends.”

Pride scowled. “Riley deserves to be recognized. Riley deserves to win.”

“But…” Beckett swallowed. “Riley doesn’t want to be recognized or win if they’re hurting their friends in the meantime.”

“You’ve been spending too much time around Lev,” Pride snarled.

“No!” Beckett rushed to say. The chair under him felt like it was vibrating. “I’m just telling you how Riley feels. Not how I feel!”

“Do you want Riley to succeed or not?”

“I do! You know I do, but this course of action… look at me.” Beckett was trembling so hard that it felt like his teeth were rattling. Something felt horribly wrong, horribly off about the whole situation. Pride looked more agitated than ever. “It’s gonna hurt Riley in the long run.”

“No, you’re just a coward,” Pride said and took a step back. “Riley’s going to hurt their friends occasionally. It’s inevitable.”

“You’re going to have a hard time getting them to purposely do it though.”

Pride turned to Beckett; his face was so full of rage that Beckett flinched back. “We are not physically harming their friends, Beckett.”

“But emotional harm-”

“Shut up!” Beckett obeyed, teeth snapping together. “You were supposed to make Riley anxious. Make them anxious about losing. Make them anxious about their reputation being ruined by their friends winning and not them. Not the other way around.”

“I tried,” Beckett said. “I really did, but Riley just- they’re not the kind of person to just screw their friends over.”

“How do you know that?” Pride asked, voice dangerously calm. “If everyone would let me influence them a little more, maybe Riley would feel differently.”

“It’s not my fault they don’t listen to you that often.”

“I’m starting to think you’re lying,” Pride said smoothly.

“I’m not,” Beckett said, heart freezing in his chest. “I’m not lying.”

“I’m starting to think maybe you don’t want me to be listened to either.”

“Pride-”

“Shut up. You’ve had every opportunity this week to influence Riley in my favour. But you haven’t. You’ve put it off and off. I’m starting to think maybe you don’t want me to win after all.”

“I do, I just-” Before Beckett could get another word in, a loud smack echoed in the darkness. Beckett’s cheek stung and he tasted blood from his teeth hitting the inside of his mouth. He cupped his cheek with a trembling hand and watched Pride wring his wrist out, gaze unwavering and cold.

“You hit me,” Beckett whispered.

Pride stood back to his full height, looming once more. “You’re gonna wish you’d listened to me after all.”

Beckett shot up with a gasp and tossed aside the covers on his bed. The air around him whipped then stilled as he took deep breaths in and out, reminding himself where he was. The night was still young, and his room was bathed in almost total darkness. Usually, he really wouldn’t quite mind the darkness. Matter of fact, he could enjoy it. But the remnants of his dream seemed to cling tightly to his skin like a leech and with a deep sigh, he flicked on his bedside lamp.

The room filled with a dim light and Beckett ran a hand over his face, then over his arms. He took a few more deep breaths, standing up and beginning to pace.

“Pride can’t get to you here,” he whispered. His hands were shaking again as if his body refused to believe the words coming out of his own mouth. “Pride can’t get to you here.”

The floorboards outside of his room creaked and Beckett found himself flinching back violently, knocking over a photo frame on his wall.

“Idiot,” he hissed to himself. “You’re acting like a child.” He took a deep breath and carefully placed the photo frame back on his wall, quietly filled with gratitude that it hadn’t broken as it had been a gift from Reese and meant a lot to him.

Beckett glanced over his dimly lit room once more before determining that his room was out to get him and was the cause of his anxiety, therefore, it only made sense to leave it immediately. (Flint would be proud of him, using logic and reasoning like this- or he’d just be super disappointed that Beckett was looking at everything so black and white again, but whatever.)

Carefully, with all the caution in the world, Beckett opened his door and slid out into the hallway. He pulled his nightshirt tighter around his body. The air felt thin and cold and served only to make him feel excessively vulnerable.

Feeling half in a trance, Beckett stumbled into the kitchen, flicking on the light, eyeing the darker corners of the room warily. Pride usually wouldn’t be so… foolish as to pop up randomly where any of the other sides could catch him. Still yet, Beckett checked each possible hiding spot, then checked them again. Satisfied with the lack of Pride or any other possible threats, Beckett turned around to head to the fridge.

He let out a small shriek, immediately slapping a hand over his mouth as soon as he saw who it was. Flint stood in front of him, left eyebrow raised in calm perplexion. Beckett laid a hand against his rapidly thrumming heart as if he could physically slow it down, and steadied himself carefully before meeting Flint’s eyes.

“What are you doing up?” he growled, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides in a nervous rhythm. Flint looked him up and down, then crossed his arms, lips twitching into a gentle smirk.

“I needed some water,” he said, tone matter of fact. “Which, as you are well aware, is not unusual for me. While your state of being awake is not particularly unusual, your presence in the kitchen at this hour is. And so is your… scrambling about, as if you’re looking for something.” Flint’s eyes softened. “What are you doing?”

Beckett swallowed and tried to force his muscles to relax, despite the tension carried in his back still. He ran a hand over his face, hoping that maybe Flint would take pity on him and let him get away without having to answer the question.

No such luck. Flint stepped forward, dropping his arms in a placating gesture. He smiled dryly, his eyes shining with a familiar look. The one he got whenever he was piecing together an especially difficult puzzle or when he was trying to assist Riley in solving a problem that was more distressing than others. It was almost clinical, in a way- at the same time, however, Beckett knew it came from a place of genuine concern and care.

“You are sweaty,” Flint began. “Your hands are trembling and when I came down here, you were looking quite upset, like you were looking for a threat. This all leads me to believe you have suffered a nightmare of some sort and are still feeling negatively from it. Am I correct?”

Beckett’s heart felt weirdly jittery in his chest- like he’d been busted in the middle of doing something wrong. But Flint wasn’t looking at him like he’d done something wrong. His gaze was neutral, not accusatory in the slightest, but still firm and expectant.

“You’re correct,” Beckett mumbled.

Flint’s lip twitched upward once again, a bit of smugness washing over his face. “Of course I am. I heard you in your room earlier when I was going to the bathroom. You sounded very upset.”

“The floorboards,” Beckett whispered, feeling his body relax the slightest bit.

“Ah, yes. I wasn’t as quiet as I had hoped to be.” Flint walked over to the refrigerator and opened it. “Is there anything I can get you?”

“I’m fine,” Beckett mumbled.

“Water?” Flint persisted.

Beckett sighed. “Fine. Water’s fine.”

Beckett watched Flint as he grabbed a pitcher of water and set it out on the counter. He grabbed two glasses, filled them with water, then walked over and handed one to Beckett, taking a long drink from his own. Flint glanced at Beckett, then slowly sat down on the floor. Beckett eyed him curiously and Flint gestured to the spot in front of him.

Beckett settled down on the ground, careful not to spill his glass of water. He situated himself then looked to Flint who was eyeing him expectantly.

“I have found,” Flint began, “that it often proves to be beneficial for one to discuss things which are troubling them.”

“Nothing’s troubling me.”

“Beckett .”

“Flint.”

Flint sighed, long and frustrated. “Perhaps it would feel relieving to discuss the contents of your troubling dream.”

“Or maybe it’ll just bring up a bunch of unpleasant memories.”

“Sometimes, to deal with things, you must deal with a few unpleasant memories.”

Beckett ’s shoulders slumped. “It uhm… it was about Pride.”

“Ah. Him.” Flint took a drink of his water. “What did this dream concerning him entail?”

“It was about uhm… the night I came to stay with you guys.”

“You mean Reese, Lev, and I?”

“Yeah.” Beckett fiddled with his water glass. “Pride had told me to do something. And I dunno what it was- I’d done all sorts of crappy things for him before. But I’d been hanging out with you and Lev and Reese more and it felt wrong to do what he told me to do. So I didn’t do it and he lashed out. He hit me and kicked me out.”

Flint nodded solemnly. “I remember that night well.”

“It was a horrible night,” Beckett said. “Traumatic.”

“I would assume so.”

“And it just seems too good to be true that he’s left me to my own devices. That he doesn’t come up at any moment and punish me. And sometimes I feel guilty that we hid him from Riley for so long- for trying to suppress his influence. Like, maybe, if we didn’t do that, he wouldn’t be so… bitter.”

“You know, just as well as I do, Beckett, that when Pride gains too heavy of an influence on Riley, serious consequences can result.”

“But Riley can’t just block out a big piece of themselves like that. Pride isn’t always bad.”

“Correct,” Flint said. “There are moments when a healthy amount of pride is a good thing. Pride for a job well done, pride for others, pride for yourself. It is all important, yes. But there is such thing as too much pride and what Pride has been suggesting from day one is an excess of pride. He suggests Riley gain a position where they are above others, figuratively squashing them in the process of getting up there.”

Beckett fiddled with his thumb, sighing quietly. “I can be too much sometimes too though.”

Flint nodded. “Reese can be too much as well. So can Lev. Even… I can be that way sometimes. We are flawed. However, we choose to try to do good more often than not. That counts for something. Pride does not desire to do good. He doesn’t try.”

“Sometimes I don’t wanna try either.”

“Yet you try despite that. And when you don’t, you recognize the wrong you have done and apologise. You-”

“I didn’t use to!” Beckett snapped. “Look, it’s easy for you to tell me all this when you weren’t there with him. I slept in the room beside him; we stayed up at night and talked to each other. He called me his best friend on a good day. I did things for him, things that I knew would hurt Riley in the long run, but I did them anyway because Pride told me to, and I thought he was right.”

“But was he?”

Beckett startled. “Was he what?”

“Was he right?”

“Of course not! I certainly found that out the hard way.”

“You were wrong back then. You were… deceived and tricked into believing Pride’s propaganda. And yet now, here you are. You recognize the mistakes of your past and attempt to not repeat them. Your history with Pride… it does not define you.”

“But what if it does?” Beckett felt tears burning like acid in his eyes. He roughly dragged his shirt sleeve over his damp eyes and took a deep breath. “Your actions define you. You don’t just do something bad if you don’t somehow really want to.”

Flint folded his fingers together and leaned over so that Beckett couldn’t avoid meeting his eyes. “We all have done bad things. Not all bad things define who we are.” A tear slid down Beckett’s face and Flint’s eyes looked gentler than they ever had before. “Think of it logically here, Beckett. A toddler tells a lie to their mother with a selfish motive in mind. The toddler later comes to recognize that this lie was wrong and apologizes. Would you consider that toddler a liar? Incapable of redemption?”

“No, but… I’m not a toddler, Flint. I know the difference between right and wrong-”

“And yet you still ignore that there are areas of grey to be brought into consideration. Not everything is a difference between right and wrong- black and white.”

Beckett clenched his fist. “But what I did to Riley was wrong.”

Flint huffed out a breath, looking exasperated. “Yes. However, that one wrong action does not make you, as a whole, wrong.”

Beckett fell silent, lips pressed together. He was shaking again. “I don’t want you to be right,” he whispered.

Flint raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

“It’s easy to blame myself. Comfortable to put me in the sole position of a villain. Trying to rationalize and understand that I can be redeemed, and my past actions don’t define me? That’s… a lot.”

“I know,” Flint said.

“I don’t want Pride to hurt Riley again. I don’t want him to have an influence on them. I wish… I’d never met him.”

Flint sighed. “I cannot guarantee to you that Pride will never hurt Riley again or that his influence will never again be too much. But I assure you that we all will keep him in check. He won’t be able to hurt Riley without getting through us first.”

“I’m still… scared of him sometimes. I know he’s angry with me. I feel like I can’t relax ever since he revealed himself to Riley. Like he’s going to pop out at any moment and shut me up.”

“We won’t allow that to happen.”

“You can’t be with me every single moment of every single day to make sure it doesn’t. You can’t be sure it won’t happen.”

Flint frowned. “Beckett. Even if it did happen, we would come to assist you and help you. You are a valuable member of our group- a valuable part of Riley. We would notice if Pride tried to pull something.”

Beckett swallowed, feeling more relaxed than he had all night. “You… would?”

“Of course. I understand that it is difficult for you to understand, but you are not alone anymore. You don’t have to keep these things to yourself.”

“I just feel like I don’t want to burden any of you with my past.”

“We are your friends,” Flint said, his voice calm and sure. “There is nothing wrong with seeking one of us out when something is troubling you. Reese, Lev, me, or even Riley. We’re here to listen. To assist where we can and support you where we can.”

Beckett felt a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Thank you, Flint. I know I get so caught up in the past sometimes… it’s. Hard to think reasonably when that happens. Thanks for always being there to help me out when it happens.”

Flint gave a tiny smile in return, one so quick that Beckett would have missed it if he hadn’t been looking. He stood up, set aside their glasses, and extended a hand down. Beckett took it, pulling himself up with Flint’s help.

“I would suggest you attempt to get some sleep. It isn’t unreasonably late. You still have a few hours.”

Beckett nodded. “Thanks. I… I really appreciate it. I do.”

“I know. Good night, Beckett.”

“Good night, Flint,” Beckett said quietly. He began making his way down the hall, heart finally not feeling as if it were about to jump out of his chest at any moment. He took a deep breath and opened his door, the darkness of his room greeting him once again.

For once, it didn’t intimidate him.

#My Writing #Mine #Commission Work #Commissions #July 2019

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puns-parce · 6 years ago

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I drew Reese and Flint from @ask-villegas-sides ~

Next, Lev...I saved the best for last

#reese and flint art

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crimsontigerart · 5 years ago

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Flint and Beckett chilling and reading together. A request from sander sides au ask blog. @ask-villegas-sides

#myart #artPalace #request art #sanders sides au

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vincent-frankenstein · 5 years ago

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Someday, Somewhere, Somehow

Summary: Beckett has always been cursed, or so he believes. Every time he tries making friends, he either ends up getting too attached and being hurt, or just pushing them away out of fear of getting abandoned. His dad Flint gives him an ultimatum: he has to find a friend before the end of the school year. When he meets Lev and Reese, two kids from his English class, he thinks he’s going to screw everything up again. Maybe, just maybe, they can prove him wrong.

Commission from the lovely @ask-villegas-sides ! i had so much fun writing for their characters and working with them on this story. check out their blog, it's really cool!!! thanks for the commission <3

Warnings: feelings of inadequecy and self hatred, implied past toxic friendships, a panic attack

Beckett was cursed.

Yeah, he knew how stupid that sounded. Sure, he could be edgy sometimes, but he wasn’t usually the kind of person to attribute his (many) problems to some fantastical curse or some shit like that. But this… this problem was different.

He couldn’t keep a friend.

And you’d think, y’know, that that’d be because of his personality — he was hardly charming, after all — but it didn’t make a damn bit of difference what personality he used. No one ever stayed. He was always too… something. Too much, too little, too loud or too quiet; too kind or too foreboding, too stubborn, too unpredictable. A walking contradiction, a patchwork mess of personalities, mask after mask after mask in the hopes of finally finding the one people would like.

But no matter how he acted — no matter who he was — they always left.

So. He was cursed. What other explanation was there? Could he really just be that… that unlikeable?

It didn’t matter. It didn’t, okay? Sure, it hurt like hell sometimes, that gnawing emptiness in his chest — that longing, deep down, for something, someone, to tell him he was okay, he was worthy — but he was fine. Sure, he was terrified of the oncoming school year — oncoming death sentence, more like — and the loneliness it would bring, but —

It was fine. He was fine.

And maybe if he told himself that enough, he’d begin to believe it. He was fine as the first day of school rapidly approached, a harbinger of doom looming on the horizon. He was fine, the night before — and he was fine, the morning off, standing in the bathroom with his fingers curled around the sink, unable to meet his reflection’s eyes, begging begging begging for something to change, for this year to be different —

No. No, he was fine.

“Are you ready?” his father asked as Beckett came downstairs. He sat at the kitchen table with a black coffee in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Beckett shrugged, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his checkered hoodie.

“Sure,” he said, as convincingly as he could manage — in other words, not convincingly at all. His father raised an eyebrow, raising his head to look at him.

“Beckett,” he began, setting his newspaper down, and oh boy, Beckett could practically feel him gearing up for a lecture. Flint Villega was, among other things, very fond of lectures. “I understand your reservations about high school, considering your past experiences. However, I hope you won’t allow said experiences to prematurely sully the coming years. Primarily, I… I hope you will at least attempt to make friends.”

Because he obviously hadn’t been trying before. His hands closed into fists in his pockets. “Sure, dad,” he said shortly, because if he spoke any longer it might all burst out, and he refused to let that happen. His father was practically allergic to emotions; he didn’t wanna send the old man into anaphylactic shock with his bullshit.

“Don’t dismiss me,” his father said, voice sharp. He sighed as Beckett brushed past him, shoving his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “You cannot isolate yourself forever. It is unhealthy. I’m… worried about you.”

“I’m not isolating myself,” Beckett said, rolling his eyes as he searched the pantry for a granola bar to shove in his backpack. “The world is isolating me. Not my fault, not my problem.”

A sharp exhale; his father was reaching the end of his remarkably short patience. “So you’ve said. Beckett, you cannot truly believe that your… socialization issues are the result of a ‘curse.’”

“I can do what I want.”

“Not when it could so drastically affect your development,” his father said, turning to face him. Beckett could taste the suggestion in the air, the word ‘therapy’ sharp on his father’s tongue. “I want you to view this new school as a new beginning. I… I don’t want you to be alone. I know things have been hard —”

“Dad,” Beckett cut in, holding up a hand. “I get it.”

“No, you don’t,” he said, and — oh, wow, was that an Emotion™ on his face? Beckett had forgotten his father knew how to experience those. He seemed genuinely worried, lines of concern etched across his sharp face. Beckett held up his hands placatingly, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I do,” he said. “Look, I get that you’re worried about me. I don’t know what to tell you. This stupid curse…”

His father sighed, and Beckett trailed off. “Listen. I’ll make a deal with you,” his father began. “I want you to make every attempt you can to make friends this year. If you are unsuccessful by the time this year ends, I will admit that perhaps your ‘curse’ isn’t as fictional as I currently believe, and I will do everything in my power to reverse it.”

Out in the hall, the clock began to chime. The bus would be there any moment. “Sure, dad,” Beckett said, if only to have an excuse to leave. It wasn’t like he was actually going to make an effort; he didn’t care whether his father believed him or not.

He shouldered his backpack, gave a two-fingered salute, and ducked out the back door before his dad could say anything else. The bus was just pulling up around the corner; he took a long, deep breath, hid his shaking hands in his pockets, and stepped inside.

He didn’t talk to anyone. He didn’t look at anyone. He sat in the back — on the bus, at orientation, in every class that came after — and pretended to be fine, all the while wishing, praying for the final bell to ring so he could just go home already. And all throughout the day, his stupid brain couldn’t stop thinking about that stupid conversation with his stupid dad.

It didn’t matter that he didn’t have any friends. It didn’t! His dad should have been happy; fewer friends meant fewer distractions meant better grades. His grades sucked regardless, but. Still.

But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about it?

He fell into a seat in the back of English, yanking his hood up over his head and slouching in his chair. It was his final class before lunch — which he really, really wasn’t looking forward to. Sitting alone was a surefire way to feel as un-alone as humanly possible; all eyes would be on the newest case of social suicide, the reject sitting in the corner.

“Lev. Lev! Lev!”

Beckett raised an eyebrow, shifting his head ever-so-slightly to get a look at the nuisance that had decided to sit beside him. A Perfectly Pretentious Popular Plastic with his perfectly pretentious, perfectly expensive sneakers propped up on his desk, his chair leaned back on two legs.

The kid on Beckett’s other side giggled. “Yeah, Ree-ree?”

“Did you see that kid in Algebra today? The one with the weird hair?”

The other sighed. “Reese, that’s mean,” he said sternly, sounding more like a father than a 14-year-old dork. “I saw him, and I thought his hair looked lovely.”

“You’re too good for this world, Lev-ly,” Pretentious Plastic said with a laugh. “That’s not the point, though! He tried to copy off some other kid’s quiz. I pretended to drop my pens so I could stay behind while Mr. Berry chewed him out. He dragged his ass! It was so funny.”

“Reese,” Lev scolded. Beckett rolled his eyes and dropped his head into the crook of his arms, blocking out their conversation. Class would start in a few minutes, thank god. Then they’d have to stop talking. He —

He jerked away from the sudden touch on his arm, swatting away the hand. Reese burst out laughing and Lev yanked his hand back as though he’d been burned, his eyes widening. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare ya!” he said quickly, holding up both hands in a show of peace.

Beckett shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “‘S fine,” he muttered, though his heart surely wouldn’t stop pounding for at least ten minutes. Thanks, adrenaline. “Did you need something?”

“I just wanted to introduce myself!” Lev said. He held out his hand again, slower this time, as if he was afraid Beckett would bite or something. “I’m Lev. I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

Beckett raised an eyebrow. “Beckett,” he said. “I’m uh. New.”

“I figured! It’s nice to meet you, Beckett.” Lev smiled earnestly. A flicker of warmth burst through the darkness in Beckett’s chest and he stomped it back down and set it on fire for good measure. He didn’t have time for that shit. “This is my best friend Reese!”

“Charmed, I’m sure,” Reese said, swooping a hand through his ridiculously fluffy hair with a flourish. Beckett simply stared at him, and was pleased to see his over-confident expression falter in the face of Beckett’s deadpan one.

“So I was wondering —” The teacher stepped into the room, cutting Lev off. He shared a look with Reese and pulled out his books, and Beckett propped his head up in his hand and blocked out the class. He just wanted to zone out again, speedrun the day until he got to go home —but his brain wouldn’t shut up. What was Lev wondering? What did it have to do with him?

What if he was wondering if he wanted to be their friend?

No. No, no, no. Full stop, end scene, exit stage left, pursued by a bear. Even if that was what Lev was going to ask, it didn’t matter. Whatever friendship Mr. Perfect and Mr. Pure would try to strike up with him would die out in a matter of days, like every other relationship he’d ever had in his life.

Class came and went, and he shouldered his bag and left as quickly as he could, before Lev could stop him. He ignored the twinge of guilt he felt at leaving him behind, snuffing it out as he stepped into the overcrowded, overwhelming cafeteria. Oh, he hated this place.

He dopped into a table in the corner, as concealed as possible, and dug a granola bar out of his bag. In the middle of searching for his headphones — all the better to ignore all the eyes on him with — someone dropped into the seat across from him.

“Hi!” Lev said cheerfully, as Reese sat beside him. “You looked sorta lonely over here, so we figured we could give ya some company!”

“He figured,” Reese said, raising an eyebrow at Beckett’s hunched form. “Personally, I thought you looked just fine on your own. It fits your… emo aesthetic.” He waved a hand through the air, gesturing to Beckett’s jacket.

“Thanks,” Beckett deadpanned.

“Anyway!” Lev clapped once, making both Reese and Beckett jump. “What’d you get on the math quiz today?”

“Uh. I — I didn’t check,” Beckett said. Lev slipped into conversation so easily, like he’d known Beckett his whole life. “I don’t really care, so.”

“I can’t believe he sprung a pop quiz on us on the first day,” Reese said, rolling his eyes. Everything about him — from his voice, to his enunciation, to the way he moved — screamed theater kid. He was so dramatic. “I’ve always said math is the devil’s work, and now look! We have Satan himself for a teacher!”

Beckett snorted. He hid it behind a cough.

“Aw, c’mon, it wasn’t that bad!” Lev said, giggling into the back of his hand. “It was just a review, anyway. I got a 96.”

Adorable and smart? Beckett raised an eyebrow. Reese laughing, digging his test out of his bag. “Twinning!” he declared, proudly showing off the bold red 69 on the top of the paper.

“Nice,” Beckett quipped, shooting finger guns on instinct. With a snort of surprised laughter, Reese finger-gunned back, and Beckett realized with a dawning horror what the warmth in his chest was.

He was getting attached.

“What?” Lev asked, looking between the two of them. “I don’t get it.”

“Tell him and you die,” Reese threatened, and Beckett lifted his hands placatingly.

“I would never.”

“Well! I’m confused,” Lev said with a laugh. Beckett felt a hint of fondness lace through the warmth in his chest as Reese laughed, and he stomped it down. This — whatever this was, this fluke, this mistake — it wouldn’t last any longer than lunch. The bell would ring, they’d go their separate ways, and —

And —

And they’d walk with him to their next class, which they also shared, and they’d exchange phone numbers before they left, and they’d wave to him as they parted ways for the day, and they’d leave him with an overwhelming sense of warmth that crawled up his throat and choked him to death.

It won’t last, his mind whispered, again and again and again, until every last bit of that hope had been crushed back down into the darkness. Even if they hung out with him the next day, and the day after that — no matter how many times they tried to break down his walls — eventually they’d see that it was a pointless venture.

...Right?

Apparently not. A week passed, and then two, and though Beckett tried at every turn to push them away, they didn’t leave. Reese seemed as reluctant as he did, at times — but Lev, impossibly stubborn Lev, stupid or brave or maybe a bit of both, he was determined to make Beckett his friend. And that terrified Beckett in ways he hadn’t thought possible.

Being alone sucked. But somehow, somehow, having friends was worse. It was so much easier to brush off rejection if he was already at rock bottom. But Lev was dragging him up, up, up out of the hole the world had dug for him and onto a pedestal of friendship that would never last. It would crumble, and he would fall, and the impact at the bottom would break him.

He couldn’t let that happen. He had to leave them before they left him. It would hurt like hell, but… it was better than the alternative. So — three weeks exactly from Lev’s first attack on his walls — he vowed to avoid Lev and Reese at all costs. The nuclear option: the cold shoulder. He faked sick and stayed home from school, much to his father’s chagrin, and he ignored every worried text sent his way.

Or, well. He didn’t ignore them. He stared at the notifications flying in — “are u okay?”s from Lev and “where tf are u”s from Prince Perfect — and wanted so, so badly to open them, to respond, to explain. Every ding from his phone was another spike through his heart.

He put his phone on silent, shoved it under his pillow, and rolled onto his floor for good measure. He couldn’t break now; he had to stay strong. Isolation was the only way he could stay safe.

But he couldn’t hide forever. He’d have to go back to school at some point — probably tomorrow; he doubted his father actually believed he was sick — and then he’d have to face Lev and Reese. Would he be able to ignore them, face to face?

He had to. He had to protect himself.

The day passed in slow, endless agony. He barely slept that night. The next day loomed like a titan on the horizon, a beast poised to crush every last bit of hope Lev and Reese had inspired.

A beast he had no choice but to face.

His heart pounded against his ribcage as he rode the bus to school, a frantic beat to accompany him as he marched off to war. His thoughts swirled and swirled, growing more erratic as the day went on, as English grew closer and closer — and they reached a panicked crescendo as he dropped into his seat in English and shoved his headphones over his ears.

“Hey.” Reese sat beside him, one eyebrow quirked. “Where were you yesterday? Lev was worried sick.”

Beckett bobbed his head, pretending to listen to the nonexistent music playing through his headphones. He didn’t even glance at Reese; he couldn’t let him know he’d heard.

“Hey!” Reese shoved a hand against his shoulder, his eyes narrowing. Beckett shifted away, turning his head and propping it up boredly in his palm. This was safe for the ten seconds it took for Lev to enter the room and sit on his other side, his face lined with worry.

“Beck, what happened yesterday?” he asked softly, and in the split-second before Beckett turned away, Lev’s confused expression almost broke him. “Are — are you ignoring me? Did I do something wrong?”

Ow. Beckett silently prayed for class to begin. He couldn’t take much more of this.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong, Lev-ly,” Reese said with a sneer. “I guess someone thinks he’s too good for us now. A weird hill to die on, really, considering we’re his only friends.”

Ow^2. Beckett’s heart dropped into his stomach and shattered into a million pieces. He ignored the pain, ignored the way Lev’s voice faded, ignored Reese’s angry scoff, ignored ignored ignored until the teacher finally arrived and class began. And the moment it ended, he bolted out of his seat and vanished into the crowded hallway outside, striding right past the cafeteria as quickly as he could. He didn’t think he could handle the sheer noise contained in that hellscape right then.

The hallways emptied. Silence fell across the world like a thick, suffocating blanket and Beckett leaned against a locker and fell to the ground, dragging his knees up against his chest with a log, shaking sigh. This pain was all-too-familiar; this wasn’t the first time he’d distanced himself. Still, he preferred this pain to the burning agony of being abandoned. He just hoped no one found him out there.

But hope was a deceitful bitch, and he was found within minutes — by the two people he least wanted to see. Reese slammed a hand against the locker Beckett was sat against, making him jump to his feet in shock.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said, grabbing Beckett’s arm before he could run off. Behind him, Lev lifted his hand, as though he was going to admonish Reese for being so forceful, but his eyes never left Beckett’s face. The shattered remains of Beckett’s heart crumbled to dust and choked him.

“Beckett,” Lev began, his voice ever-so-soft, “if you don’t want to be our friend anymore, that’s okay. You don’t have to stay with us. But —”

“But you have to tell us why,” Reese cut in, his eyes narrowed. “You owe us an explanation, at least.”

Beckett shook his head, trying to wrench his arm out of Reese’s grip, but it was no use. Reese was twice as strong as he was. His grip only tightened the harder he struggled. Lev stepped forward, his face a kaleidoscope of doubt-worry-fear that made Beckett’s heart clench. “Please,” he said, far too gently, and Beckett yanked his arm out of Reese’s hand and stumbled backward as words he’d never meant to speak yanked their way out of his throat.

“Because I don’t want to lose you!”

It was ironic, really, how deafening silence could be. It crawled down Beckett’s throat and stole away his words, everything he could have said to brush off the painful truth of his statement. Reese blinked, eyebrows furrowing.

“You’re leaving us because… you don’t want to leave us?”

Beckett’s hand curled towards his chest, tangling in the fabric of his shirt. His breath quickened, sharp, erratic bursts through his lungs. “I don’t — I don’t want you to leave me,” he managed, and immediately wished he hadn’t, because god, were those tears in Lev’s eyes?

“So you’re leaving us first,” he whispered, understanding swirling through the hurt in his eyes. Beckett nodded slowly, lowering his head to stare a hole through the floor, his face burning.

“Too — too many people have, y’know. Left. I’m… I’m not the easiest person to be around, I-I guess. I couldn’t — I can’t —” He cut off, shoving his hands into his pockets to hide the way they shook. His eyes began to sting. “I knew it was only a matter of time until you —”

Something crashed into him, and it took him a long moment of panic to realize that he wasn’t being attacked — he was being hugged. Arms wrapped tightly around his middle, so tightly that he could barely breathe — or maybe that was just the disbelief, welling up in his chest, tangling in his lungs and stealing his breath away.

“L-Lev?” he managed, hands hovering awkwardly out to his sides. Was he supposed to hug back? Was that how this worked?

“I wasn’t planning on leaving,” Lev whispered into his chest. “Ever. Never ever. Neither of us was.”

“Yeah,” Reese said, his eyebrows furrowed, something angry shining in his eyes. “I don’t care what the idiots you used to hang around with told you. You’re ridiculously easy to be around. And even if you weren’t, you’re worth hanging around anyway.”

Beckett didn’t respond. He didn’t move, barely even dared to breathe. He didn’t find his voice until Lev pulled away just enough to look up at him, his eyes red-rimmed and hopeful.

“I… I’m a handful,” he said, because how could he re-enter this friendship fairly without warning them first? He had to, at least, let them know how deeply he felt things. How badly things could hurt him, and how badly he could hurt others. He opened his mouth to say more, but Reese rolled his eyes.

“We’ve got four hands, dumbass,” he said, as Lev pulled away to do jazz hands in Beckett’s face.

Beckett couldn’t help it. He laughed — snorting giggles dissolving into full laughter dissolving into tears. He wiped at his face with his sleeves and shook with something between giggles and sobs.

“Are — are you okay?” Reese asked, sharing a look with Lev, who only managed a few moments before breaking out laughing too.

That day, for the first time in years, Beckett brought friends home after school. He caught his father’s eyes for only a moment before Reese dragged him upstairs, excited to see how “horrendously emo” his room could be, and in that moment he felt a weight lift off his shoulders that he hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying.

His curse was broken.

His father smiled.

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