Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

??? POV

I was walking through the halls. It was the first day of school, so thanks to our district throwing us a bone, it was just freshmen. There were only a few kids from my friend group going to this school, so I wasn’t sure if I’d make any new friends. Thankfully, the two people I was closest to were going here. Fate never liked throwing me a bone, so it was good luck. I walked through the halls to my first class with my best friend and boyfriend on either side of me.

“Are you okay, Aes? You don’t look that good.”

I looked up, my train of thought leaving me with my last braincell.

“Yeah, just thinking. Don’t worry, Chris.” I said.

“Okay, then. I need to get to my class. You lovebirds enjoy yourselves.” Chris said, walking off.

I looked at my beautiful boyfriend and we walked into class. On the board was a seating chart, and I was unfortunately across the room from him.

“Better luck next trimester?” he asked.

“Yeah. Hopefully, we do get lucky, Alex.” I said.

As soon as I was in my seat, I noticed that the girl next to me had her head down. She wasn’t moving much, but I could see she was breathing. On her desk was a pile of manga that I happened to enjoy, such as Snow White with the Red Hair, Haikyuu!!!, and Card Captor Sakura. She had purple hair, and it looked like she was a robot. I stood up and looked at her face, and her eyes were closed. I sat back in my seat and pulled out my personal manga.

“Are you reading comics in my class?” the teacher’s voice scared the shit out of me.

“Class doesn’t start for another two minutes and there’s like five people in here. I’ll put it away when the bell rings.” I said.

“I better not see it.” the teacher said before turning to the girl next to me, who was still sleeping.

The teacher shoved the manga off her desk, and it hit the floor with a loud thump. The girl still didn’t wake up, so the teacher slapped her hand with a ruler. As it was pretty clear she was made of steel, this was ineffective. The teacher took instead to shouting at this girl.

“Wake up! We’re at school, not in bed!” the bitch shouted.

The girl shot up, but she clearly looked exhausted. The teacher flicked her on the head, and she looked like she wanted to fight back but was just too damn tired.

“I do have my phone dialed to the principal, teach, if you keep getting physical.” I said.

The teacher tried to snatch my phone away, but I pressed call and the principal’s voice filled the room. Lucky my mom was a personal friend of his. Soon, his voice filled the room and the teacher looked ready to jump off a building. I explained the situation, and soon, I had principal help. Within minutes, security footage was being reviewed and the teacher was gone. The girl next to me still looked tired, but she seemed a bit more hyped up now that the teacher was gone.

“Why were you sleeping? Just curious.” I felt myself ask.

“Oh. Well, I’m not doing well at home. What’s your name, by the way?” the girl asked.

“I’m Aes. What about you?” I asked.

“Uzi. It’s nice to meet you.” she said.

“The feeling’s mutual. Do you have any other friends?” I asked.

“Yeah, but they’re all sophomores." Uzi said.

“Well, you can sit with my bestie, my boyfriend, and I when lunchtime comes.” I said.

“Thanks. By the way, is that Sword Art Online?” Uzi asked.

“Yep! I just started it yesterday!” I said.

“You’re in for a wild ride.” Uzi said.

“I watched a bunch of the anime, so I know...” I said.

~~~~~~

Uzi was sitting next to me as I drew in my sketchbook. There was a lot of Draco Malfoy X Harry Potter art, I noted, and all of my female OCs were making out with each other. Uzi seemed at least mildly entertained by my weird fanart when Chris and Alex walked up. Alex patted my head and Chris sat next to me.

“Hi, boys. This is Uzi, Uzi, this is Chris and Alex.” I said.

Uzi was suddenly very interested in my Drarry art.

“Hi, Uzi! I see you’re looking at Aes’ art. They’re pretty good, right?” Chris said.

“Hey, it’s mid at best.” I said.

“Gotta agree with you, Aes. You need a little more practice.” Uzi said.

“This is after almost a decade and a half of practice. I’ve been drawing since I could hold a crayon... Seeing as babies start gripping at about six months, it’ll have been a decade and a half in April, because April is my half birthday.” I said.

Just then, a random guy walked up to us. He was literally a purple rabbit with pink overalls and a blue t-shirt underneath. As soon as he saw my sketchbook, he tried to take it. Unfortunately for him, I took taekwondo in second grade, so I punched him in the face and grabbed my sketchbook back. Just then, someone else approached, and I wondered if I was about to get the shit beaten out of me. Uzi was reaching into her bag, and Alex put his hand in his pants.

However, much to our surprise, the second kid hit the rabbit boy in the back of the head. The rabbit boy turned around, but instead of fighting back at all, he ran off. I was scared that this other kid would start to harass us, but instead, they let out a loud sigh of disappointment before walking away. Instead of just sitting there like a bitch, I decided to run after them. When they noticed me, I was sure the would get angry at me, but they were relatively calm.

“What do you want?” they asked.

“To thank you. That guy was trying to steal my sketchbook.” I said.

“That’s my neighbor, Jax. He’s a dickhead, so don’t mind him. It was no problem to slap some sense into him.” the kid said.

“Okay. Do you wanna come join us? We’re looking at my Drarry art.” I said.

The kid looked like they were contemplating for a moment before they spoke.

“You know what, sure. Just lemme grab my shit and I’ll be right over there.” the kid said. “By the way, what’s your name?”

“Aes. And yours?” I responded.

“I’m Zooble.” they said.

Chapter Text

Uzi’s POV

I was lying in bed. Even though it was 3 AM, I couldn’t fall asleep. Just then, I got a tap on my window. When I looked, there was N and V both right there. N looked barely willing to be there, but V was eagerly throwing rocks at my window. I opened my window and pushed out the screen before jumping out. I totally 100% sticked the landing, and we were off to commit war crimes.

“Where are we headed?” I asked.

“I found this weird-ass playground by a church and a water park. We’re going over there.” V said.

“Okay, let’s go.” I said, opening my wings.

With those words, we were flying off. Ten minutes later, we were at the park V described. However, the swing set was occupied. I turned on my phone’s light, hoping to see who was using the swings. Much to my shock, I saw two sets of glowing eyes, which belonged to Aes and Chris.

“What the fuck are you two doing here?” I asked.

“Insomnia insomnia-ed, Uzi. Gotta do something with this energy, ya know?” Aes replied. “Are these the sophomore friends you mentioned?”

“Yep. This is N and V.” I said.

“Who’s this?” N asked.

“These are some freshmen friends I made. Speaking of which, if you two are here, did you invite Alex or Zooble?” I said.

“Yeah, but Alex lives pretty far all things considered and Zooble hasn’t answered my text, which means they’re probably asleep. To be honest, if you didn’t spawn in, I’dve texted you to come.” Aes said.

“I also have insomnia, but specifically at night. During the day, I have no trouble sleeping.” I said.

“I noticed back in first hour.” Aes chuckled.

“What was she doing?” V asked.

“Sleeping like she’d been hit with a blunt weapon.” Aes said.

“Uzi, are you sure you should be coming on these little adventures? If what they said is true, that means you’re not sleeping well.” N said.

“I understand sleeping better in daytime, Uzi, so I think you’re fine.” Aes said.

“Thank you, Aes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna climb on top of the playground.” I said.

“I’m joining you!” Chris said.

~~~~~~

I was lying facedown on the ground. Thankfully, it was dry, so my clothes weren’t getting stained. It was in that moment I realized I was still wearing my Hello Kitty onesie. I looked at what everyone else was wearing, and literally only V and Aes were in daytime clothes. V was in her usual outfit and Aes was in a lavender tank top and black jorts. Meanwhile, N was wearing a PJ set that looked like an old man picked it out and Chris was wearing an oversized shirt with a Minecraft hoe on it.

“Wanna go to McDonald’s?” Aes asked suddenly.

“Sure! I’ll go, of course.” Chris said.

“I’m down.” V said.

“I guess I will.” N said.

“I’m coming.” I said.

Aes nodded and grabbed a razor scooter, which had been idly waiting in the bike stands. I took out my wings and started flying before remembering I was still pretty new to this neighborhood. Aes motioned for me to hop onto the scooter with them, and I was unsure. However, I did as they motioned, and they took off. Chirs hopped onto his bike, and N and V followed. I instinctively wrapped my arms around Aes, and only twenty terrifying minutes later, we were at McDonald’s.

“Where did you even get a razor scooter this big?” I asked.

“I dunno, my mom got it for me as a birthday present after my tiny one got too loose and I almost hit the pavement too many times. I still have a scar on my shoulder from when I actually hit the pavement when I was 13.” Aes said.

We walked into McDonald’s, and Aes pulled out a tiny My Little Pony purse, and I almost laughed before looking at my Hello Kitty onesie once more. They seemed to notice I was staring, so they spoke.

“I got it when I was in Kindergarten, so I’m using it for more than dress-up.” Aes said.

“You’re like 15, why would you-”

“I used it for dress-up when I was six.”

I nodded. Soon, it was our time to order. I realized I hadn’t brought my wallet, but V pulled hers out, and a moment later, she was discussing how much money she had with Aes. I notices Aes had a thick stack of yellow papers and about five blue papers, which I realized were a ton of coupons. Pretty quickly, Aes had taken the reins and ordered far too many nuggets and enough fries to make a horse sick. They had also gotten some ice creams.

“Glad we got all those coupons.” Aes said.

We sat in a booth while we awaited our food, and everyone was in a conversation about compost. I occasionally offered a nod, but I mostly ate my fries. Eventually, there were only about twenty fries left, so I tried to grab them all, but so did Chris. I slapped his hand, but he slapped back.

“My fries.”

“Bite me, they’re mine!”

“I also want the fries, you two...”

Chris and I devolved into a mildly physical (but mostly verbal) fight pretty quickly. A few minutes later, the fries had mysteriously vanished, but I didn’t care anymore. I had used up all my energy. I didn’t even notice when I was no longer conscious.

~~~~~~

I woke up in my bed to my dad shaking me. I opened my eyes, and my dad looked a little peeved. I considered staying in bed just to be annoying before remembering I had school. While that wasn’t much motivation, I felt that I didn’t need a truancy so early in the school year. I dragged my ass out of bed before pulling on my usual outfit. My dad had left the second I crawled out of bed, so when I got downstairs, he was already there.

“You got a letter.” my dad said calmly.

Said letter was a haphazardly sealed envelope with my name on it. When I opened it, all it said was ‘You fell asleep at McDonald’s and N had to carry you home, emo bitch’ and it was signed by V. I almost laughed as I stuffed it into my pocket and grabbed a piece of toast before going outside to wait for the bus. By the time I got to school, I was barely remembering that the sophomores, juniors, and seniors would also be at school.

Fuck.

As soon as I walked in, I was overwhelmed with the sounds. Why were there so many people? I decided to just ignore everyone as I walked to first period. However, I wasn’t paying attention where I was walking and bumped straight into a black-haired jester girl with a permanent sad face. She immediately fell flat on her face and I didn’t know what to do next. I froze, but the girl stood up quickly and started talking even faster.

“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t be walking so slowly! I’m just in your way!”

“No no no! I wasn’t paying attention! It’s my fault!”

We started spitting apologies, and I didn’t know why I was doing so. However, the warning bell rang and we both had to rush to class. As soon as I was in class, I noticed Aes was reading Sword Art Online. When I sat down, they looked up with a look of ennui on their face.

“What’s up?” they asked.

“The sky.” I responded.

“The sky. Good response.” Aes said.

~~~~~~

“Seriously, I think Pikachu would be stronger if he had a gun!”

We were sitting at the same table as the day before, chatting about our political views, but in the most bullshit way possible.

“As true as that is, Zooble, who in their right mind would give an electric mouse a gun?” Aes said.

“I would.” Alex said.

“Yeah, but nobody who’s sitting here is in their right mind.” Aes said.

“Bite me.” I said.

“And with those two words, you just proved my point! Congratulations!” Aes said.

I noticed Zooble try to hide their laughter with a cough, and Chris didn’t even try. Just then, N and V came up to us. Alex and Zooble looked confused and nervous, but Aes and Chris looked unbothered.

“Mind if we join you?” N asked.

“Not at all, feel free!” Aes said.

“Do you know these people?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, Chris and I met them at 3 AM. They be chill.” Aes said.

“You don’t lie, do you? You should go to sleep sometime, you know?” Zooble said.

“Never, my sleep schedule is fucked up.” Aes said.

“No shit, most people are asleep at 3 AM.” Zooble said.

We sat in silence as Aes and Zooble had a friendly debate on Aes’ sleep schedual for a few moments before N spoke up to ask a question.

“Do you mind if I grab some friends I made today?” he asked.

“N, you could make friends with a drunk rock. Do you know that?” I asked.

“Yep! Is that a yes or a no?” N asked.

“As long as they’re not homophobic, the more the merrier.” Aes said.

N ran off to grab his new friends while V sat down and everyone continued with their conversation about how Pikachu would be better with a gun. Two minutes later, N returned with a girl in a purple and black hoodie whose body was made of ribbons and the same jester girl from earlier. I stared for a moment before N introduced them.

“This is Gangle and Pomni! Gangle and Pomni, this is V, Uzi, Aes, Chris, and two people whose names I don’t know yet!” N said happily.

“I’m Alex, that’s Zooble.” Alex said.

The jester girl stared at me before she spoke.

“I’m sorry about this morning!” she said.

“It’s my fault! I’m sorry!” I said.

Everyone stared before we collected ourselves and just continued the conversation like nothing happened. I tuned out, but I overheard what Aes and Alex were saying behind our backs.

“How did you make the friend group grow from three to nine in just two days?” Alex asked.

“Easy, I adopted an introvert who had already been adopted by an extrovert. It’s not that hard, hun.” Aes said before kissing Alex’s nose.

Chapter Text

Zooble’s POV

I was idly lying on the couch, playing on my phone while I struggled to keep my eyes open when a knock came on the door. I considered answering, but my little brother beat me to it. I decided to roll over and ignore the world for a few minutes when my brother ran over to me.

“There’s a grey cat thing at the door who says they’re your friend.” he said.

“That’s racist, Di, don’t describe people like that.” I said, wondering who he meant.

“Well sorry!” he said.

“Don’t sass me, you’re too little for that.” I said, standing up and walking to the door.

When I made it to the door, I saw Aes standing there, looking at least mildly annoyed at how my brother had described them.

“I’m a fuckin’ mountain lion.” Aes said.

“How did you find where I live?” I asked.

“Passed your house on my drive home from school, both yesterday and today and thought I’d visit since I only live like a block away.” Aes said.

“That’s less creepy than I expected, honestly.” I said.

“By the way, Uzi’s just outside.” Aes said.

“Is there anyone else available?” I asked.

“Nope, that’s why I came to harass you.” Aes said.

“What are you planning on doing?” I asked.

“My enby parent is planning on taking my brother and I to the movies, and they said I could take three friends.” Aes said.

“Alright, I’ll ask my mom.” I said.

My mom happened to be not far from hearing range, as she responded almost instantly.

“Honestly, as long as you don’t add to or subtract from the population, I don’t care what you do. You’re turning fifteen in a week, I think you’re mature enough to go to the movies without me, especially if your friend’s parent is gonna be there.” my mom said.

“Thanks, Mom.” I said, grabbing my hoodie and stuffing my phone into my pocket.

I walked outside and closed the door behind me. True to Aes’ word, Uzi was waiting impatiently by a large Razor scooter. As soon as she saw me, she walked over to us.

“Can you have even taken a minute longer? The bird shit I was staring at is still wet.” Uzi said.

“Have patience.” Aes said.

Aes hopped ont their scooter and Uzi hopped on behind them. However, Aes didn’t start moving quite yet.

“How much do you weigh, Zoob?” Aes asked.

“Uh, about 50 pounds? Why?” I asked.

“And Uzi, how much do you weigh?” Aes asked.

“Uhh, why?” Uzi asked.

“Just answer the question, I’m figuring shit out.” Aes said.

“I weigh 45-ish pounds.” Uzi said.

“Alright. This scooter supports slightly less than 200 pounds of weight, I’m 112 pounds. This won’t do, you guys haven’t been to my house yet and we’re too heavy to all ride the scooter. Uzi, could you fly behind? You can keep up more easily on your wings than Zooble can on foot.” Aes said.

“Sure.” Uzi said, getting off.

I carefully got on behind Aes, wondering what to do next.

“Grab onto my shoulders, and if I move them, let me or we’ll crash. Also, try to keep your feet on the scooter.” Aes said.

I did as they told, and they took off. I watched Uzi take some wings out of her body, which somewhat shocked me, but I didn’t know if I should have been surprised. Uzi’s a fucking robot, robots are weird. I let myself space out, and it only took about a minute to get to Aes’ house. When we got there, Aes looked at me, stopping the scooter. I stepped off and Aes carried the scooter up the front steps. When they came back out, they were accompanied by a taller boy and who I assumed was their enby parent.

“You got everyone you’re bringing?” the adult asked.

“Yeah.” Aes said.

“Where’s Chris?” the adult asked.

“He has to practice his instrument, so he can’t come.” Aes said.

“I see. Does he still do drums?” the adult asked.

“Indeed he does, father.” Aes said.

“Who are these friends, then?” they asked.

“This is Uzi and Zooble. Guys, this is my enby parent.” Aes said.

“I told you, you can just introduce me as your dad.” Aes’ parent said.

“I know, I just like it when my friends call you by your correct pronouns.” Aes said.

“Well, let’s get going.” Aes’ parent said.

As soon as they said that, the tall boy jumped to the front seat.

“Who said you’re getting the front seat, Joni?” Aes asked.

“I’m taller!” the kid, apparently named Joni, said.

“Well, I’m older, and age trumps height. I also think it’d be polite to let one of my friends take the front seat.” Aes said.

“Oh. D’oh.” Joni said.

Aes turned to us. “What are your birthdays?”

“September 5th.” I said.

“January 3rd.” Uzi said.

“Zooble gets the front seat.” Aes said.

Joni moved to the backseat, which Aes was already climbing into. Since I was sitting next to Aes’ parent, I decided to ask them something.

“What do you want Uzi and I to call you?” I asked.

“Just Mx. Craftsman is okay.” Aes’ parent said.

“I have the power of your full name.” I said, looking Aes in the eye.

“Nope, I have two middle names.” Aes said.

“Who in their right mind gives their kid two middle names?” Uzi asked.

“My parents, and I got one from each side of the family. Honestly, it wouldn’t even bug me if you used my middle names, it bugs me more if you mispronounce them.” Aes said.

“Then what are your middle names, Aes?” I asked.

“I’m not telling you because it doesn’t matter.” Aes said.

“Come on, Aes~” Uzi said.

“No! I refuse!” Aes said.

Uzi and I both looked at Aes, giving them our best puppy-dog eyes, but they remained steadfast in their refusal. I pulled out my phone to turn it on do not disturb when it started vibrating with a flood of notifications from my mom’s phone. One look at the messages told me one of my siblings had gotten my mom’s phone and was just trying to figure out where I was.

“Who texted you?” Aes asked.

“One of my siblings probably stole my mom’s phone.” I said, showing them the text messages.

Both of them immediately started laughing.

“Seriously, do they think they’re convincing? ‘Cumm hoem write nao or ur grownded four a munth’? That sounds like a toddler wrote it!” Uzi laughed.

“I mean, my youngest sibling only just started kindergarten. It was probably my youngest sister, she’s old enough to at least attempt to spell words that long.” I said.

“Their mom even directly said it was okay for them to come while I was there.” Aes chuckled.

I typed in my response to the messages before turning my phone on DnD. Once we made it to the movies, I let myself relax. Mx. Craftsman bought us one large popcorn to share, and I didn’t want to let my siblings ruin my day.

~~~~~~

We came out of the theater discussing the movie in such a way that anyone coming in would probably get spoiled, but with how old the movie is, shame on you if you haven’t seen it yet.

“I really like it when the theater does a Studio Ghibli event. Then, we get to watch those masterpieces on the big screen.” Aes said.

“Yeah, Spirited Away is a classic.” I said.

I decided to turn off DnD and see how many texts I got when I saw a spam of texts obviously from my siblings trying to get me to come home. The last text was my mom apologizing for their bullshit. I stuffed my phone into my pocket as I got back in the car. The drive was pretty quiet, at least until we were getting closer to home.

“Hey, I just wanna know, what’s it like to have siblings? I...don’t have any.” Uzi said.

“Well, it’s annoying, but at least I have a kidney to steal if I need to.” Aes said.

“I’m right here, Aes, and I’m not just extra parts for you.” Joni said.

“Well, you were an accident. At least I was kind of planned!” Aes said, grinning.

Joni just glared in Aes’ direction.

“Well, all of my siblings are under the age of ten, so they look up to me and throw hands if I’m not there. My mom’s chill and she lets me do what I want, even if it pisses them off. It gets annoying when I’m trying to do homework and I feel a million tiny hands on my back trying to get my attention, but at the time, if I ever need body parts, they’d donate in an instant.” I said.

“So siblings are annoying spare parts?” Uzi asked.

“Unless they’re physically disabled, then you’re their spare parts. Because I’m me, I’m more likely to get hit by a car and need a kidney.” Aes said.

“Well, is there anything good about them besides that?” Uzi asked.

“If they’re younger, they often worship the ground you walk on, so that’s nice.” I said.

The car pulled into Aes’ driveway all to fast, and I went home feeling better and more energetic than when I left. However, the moment I walked through the door, I was shoved to the ground by my siblings. They were all yelling my name and trying to hug me, so I just accepted my fate. The three girls were the firsts to stand up, and the oldest picked up our brother.

“Why did you leave us?” she asked.

“Well, Cosmo, I have my own life and my own friends beyond my third grade baby sister.” I said.

“You’re just way bigger than us! I’m not even a baby, I’m turning nine in two weeks!” Cosmo said grumpily.

“And I turn 15 in less than one, now let me get inside.” I said.

My siblings moved aside.

“Where were you?” my middle sister asked.

“I was at the movies, Marley." I said.

“What movie did you watch? Why didn’t you take us?” my youngest sister asked.

“I watched Spirited Away, and my friend was only allowed to take three friends, and I was the third they asked.” I left out the fact that Chris was unavailable. “Anyways, I’m in high school and I have a social life, unlike you, Fifi.”

“That was mean of you to say.” she said.

“First graders don’t have a firm social life. If I don’t have friends, there’s a risk that I’ll get flushed down the toilet, Sophina. Thankfully, I got adopted into a big friend group because I punched a guy.” I said.

“Why did you punch him? What did he do?” the brother asked.

“Well, Dijon, he stole someone’s sketchbook, and it’s that jerk kid who lives next door and throws spiders through my window and stuff.” I said.

I walked in and took out my phone while my siblings sat around me, staring at me like I’d just cured cancer. I just started scrolling Tumblr, wondering if I should take a couch nap before dinner.