Scummy!!!! ❤❤ I was so happy to see I was matched with you! You’re one of the people that make me smile just by appearing on my dash - not to mention how much I adore your work. I was very determined to make this fic featuring your boys special, and rereading some of your own (absolutely fantastic) works with them helped me out a lot! Their dynamics together challenged me in the best way possible in the whole past week I really, really hope this will be to your liking. Many thanks to Bryn for making it possible in the first place with this lovely event!
Your laughter gets lost in the loud music as you tug Isaac to the dancefloor. The bright, beating presence of everything surrounding you is conquering the best of your senses, it has been for a while now, but you still concentrate fully on your boyfriend - desperate to see him loose up and enjoy himself as well.
You know that this would be a job for your other boyfriend, Arthur, as he was originally the one to give the idea. He is in charge of today’s date, after all.
Admittedly, it took you a moment to take in what he meant, and his chuckle at how quickly you blushed only further flustered you as the heated puffs against the shell of your ear sent a jolt of arousal through you.
“My, someone is thinking dirty thoughts.”
“That’s not- you started it!”
“I don’t mind finishing it,” his tone dipped lower, his hand tracing your side until the pads of his fingers rubbed against the fabric of your skirt, “if you’ll let me.”
It took four words to break off a friendship which only you had considered as such.
“Friends? Us? As if.”
Scoffed in three broken sentences, said with such a blush rising on his face as if the very thought embarrassed him. This was how Theodorus van Gogh had broken off your friendship in your early days. By denying its very existence to everyone in your class when you had tried to invite him to your birthday party.
What followed after was, in hindsight, expected, for children are cruel, and even more so in the face of a public rejection. Something that already took place under the surface, but which worsened after. Only endured because of Arthur’s friendship, another child who found himself in your boat.
“Together we stand stronger, not?” a young Arthur had offered you, extending his hand to you in comfort. Ever since the two of you were a team, fighting the bullies and surviving childhood into puberty and even beyond.
“Ah, I’m parched,” Arthur would say years later, long after becoming an adult. The small boy he had been before, weak and rather bookish and awkward, had disappeared even longer ago. Now he was a handsome man with mischief in his eyes and a thirst for skirts. When Arthur said he was parched he meant that he wished for adventure, and with that he meant another liaison.
Puberty had done him well, and BBC’s Sherlock had launched the private detective into an unimaginable popularity that your childhood self would never dare to dream of.
He had kept a promise, however. Still standing firmly at your side even after all these years. Primary school had long passed, high school was also behind you and you both had even graduated from college, pursuing your own careers as young professionals.
“What about the one from the coffeeshop? She was cute,” you had sounded, to which Arthur waved his hand, his head already shaking as if that conquest was a story long behind him, over and done with. This time it was your turn to scoff, your eyes rolling at the everchanging interest of your best friend.
“This time I want something… rougher,” Arthur muses, and you didn’t even dare to question after the implications before noticing yet another familiar figure walking in, eyes a storm and lips formed into a snarl.
A sigh escaped from you at the very sight of Theodorus, the one and only other constant in your life along with Arthur.
“Here!” Arthur calls and you sigh even deeper, forever regretting allowing your friend to reconnect with Theo in college, thus inadvertently reconnecting you with him.
You regretted your grudge even more, for Theo hadn’t truly done anything to you as a child besides from rejecting your invitation. It had been your classmates who spiralled it, and you who had decided to cut your ties.
Besides, no one seemed to remember but you.
“Yo,” Theo would say, now an art dealer and even more handsome than you had remembered him as a child. It made you even more self-conscious around him than you had before, now for whole different reasons.
Feelings that you cursed, for what use were they when there was still an unresolved grudge?
But you feel his eyes glide over you and you feel how there is a tension in his face as he sits down across from you, ordering his coffee with too much sugar as he looks like there is a frog in his mouth fighting to come out.
“Hey,” you finally greet, forcing a smile out before you reach for your bag, ready to flee once more as you eye Arthur inconspicuously, about to formulate your excuse for leaving before the private detective snaps his fingers.
“I totally forgot about my date!” he exclaims and hurries out of his seat without a goodbye or an acknowledgement into either your or Theo’s direction.
The awkwardness that rises after Arthur leaves thickens, turning heavier as you fumble with your hands under the table before flashing Theo yet another forced smile.
“Typical,” you both say, one in a scoff, the other in a slight laugh before it grows quiet again, eyes meeting in that surprised pensive way.
Silence returns before you finally gather the courage to get up from your seat, your lips already parting to formulate the excuse you wanted to use earlier;
“Sorry,” you both speak in choir once more. One in remorse, yours a bit flippantly, but once more you meet those dark blue stormy eyes that seemed to have softened in Theo’s otherwise sharp features.
Before silence can overtake your conversation once more, and before you can decide to proceed your leave, Theo exhales deeply, crossing his arms as he meets you firmly, addressing you directly for the first time.
“Back then, with your birthday invitation. Sorry,” he tells you, and the tightness in your chest confuses you. It makes you wonder if you are relieved, or disappointed, or what else. It had been so long, a grudge you held until you didn’t know better than that it was there.
You realise, however, that it wasn’t only you who hadn’t moved on yet. That Theo carried the story with him just as you had carried it with you.
You wonder if you should dismiss it, pretend that it hadn’t troubled you each time you saw him, or address it. So that the both of you could move on. You wonder why Theo decided to speak out now, decades after the fact.
“I just wanted to say,” Theo starts, cutting your train of thoughts off as he searches for his next words, “I just wanted…” he trails off, repeating his words.
“That I was too conscious of you just like I’m now and I’m sorry for being a jerk!” Arthur pops between, another fling in arms as he flashes an exasperated Theo a bright smile before giving you a wink.
“You were taking too long, old chap,” Arthur chirps before introducing his newest catch and leaving once more, this time mouthing something into the direction of the dirty blond who shakes a fist into his direction.
Silence falls between you once more, thick and awkward as Theo realises he doesn’t know how to continue now that his spotlight was so thoroughly stolen from him.
You, however, with a reignited courage sit down easily, finding the need to change course that has been ongoing between the two of you.
“Coffee?” you suggest, and this time you know Theo isn’t about to repeat the same mistake.
To be stuck in an escape room with a renowned mystery writer sounded like a piece of cake to get out. So you believed, until the sir himself had simply exclaimed that he rather fancied being stuck, and thus required no effort to escape.
“Don’t stare too long, it would be trouble if you fell in love,“ his little tease came, a wink sent into your direction as he scanned around the room, a tut tut escaping him in a neutral appraisal of the setup.
The square room in which you found yourself contained all of the clues you needed to open the door. Clues leading into more and more riddles with yet another answer. It seemed like a never-ending cycle when your partner only did the bare minimum to show off.
You in the meanwhile had been glaring at the man, knowing that he had long solved the little game in which you were stuck, yet made no effort to get you out. It had earned you that lovely remark only Arthur could think of.
"Look over there,” he told you instead, pointing at a wall where papers and pins were decorating the otherwise pale white backdrop. “Though, if you prefer my face I can bring it closer?” Arthur teases, eager to take another step into your direction. One glare kept him at a distance, however.
“Shameless,” came your response finally as you turned around, eyeing the setup that the man had pointed at as you tried to make sense out of it.
“Is it supposed to be the key to the door?” you question, to which Arthur laughs, charmed by the question as he taps on yet another display in a corner. You were tired, however, and ready to just bide your time and admit defeat.
“A key to a key; a clue!” he calls, pointing at the locked door, “for we will have to forge our own to get out!”
For a moment you believed Arthur to actually sound excited, though nothing in his face seemed to give away that he was actually intent on helping. In fact, he seemed very much content to remain for a little while longer as you squinted at the so-called clues.
“Maybe I could be moved to help with some magic?” the man finally concedes, yet another mischievous smile on his face.
It was an unfortunate thing for Arthur that the senses of a vampire were so much more heightened. When the door flew open with a loud bang, the sole of a leather shoe the first thing coming in sight as light flooded the room.
“You dirty old lech!” a voice called, annoyance clear in his voice and a dirty blonde man stepped inside, eyes like a storm and a snarl on his face that meant business for the author.
The look of storm in the eyes of Theo convinced you that playtime was over the moment Arthur had intentionally sealed the two of you within the box by no coincidence.
finally in first place with rendered piece + simple background, @venulus requested lovesick/heart-eyes arthur! it’s the closest he’s gone in losing, mc, you should take pride in that.
also please pretend the chess pieces are there. i don’t know enough on how to position them for the specific scenario i have in my mind
Arthur, with little Isaac in his arms: Oh yes, his mother just abandoned us and left us empty-handed -kisses his head- It would help us a lot if you gave us a coin to return hom-
Lady: Oh, you poor things. Here is a coin
MC: Ahem. Arthur, I just went to the store to buy a juice for Isaac… Why are you telling everyone that I abandoned you? We are not even his parents
Sebastian: You are one of my very best friends. And I cannot stand by and watch you throw away your life like this. You’re too young….YOU’RE TOO BEAUTIFUL!
MC: What the fuck are you talking about?
Sebastian: I’m talking about the baby that’s growing inside of your belly right now
Arthur: See ya! -leaves-
MC: …I’m not pregnant!
Sebastian: Well, not after that punch you’re not. I’ve been taking muay thai classes
MC: I was never pregnant, Sebastian!
Sebastian:What? Are… you sure?
MC: Yes I’m fucking sure!
Theo: I’m sorry, but why the fuck is everybody yelling over here?
Sebastian: Oh, I found this positive pregnancy test and—
Arthur: We already fed you and changed your diaper. What else do you want?! Just go to sleep!
MC’s baby:-cries-
Isaac: Maybe we should sing them something like a lullaby!
Theo, in a monotonous voice: Rock-a-bye, baby; on the treetop; when the wind blows; the cradle will rock! OH PLEASE GO TO SLEEP
MC’s Baby:-cries harder-
Arthur: This is not working!
Dazai: Obviously it’s because you’re not putting on a good show
Arthur, Theo, Isaac:…
[5 minutes later]
The four dressed and dancing as Backstreet Boys:Tell me why! Why don’t you want to sleep? Tell me why! If I already fed you! Tell me why! I never wanna hear you say: I don’t want to go to sleep!
