Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The funny thing about their relationship is, Quackity met both Karl and Sapnap before they met each other, and yet they started dating before they dated Quackity too.

Quackity was six years old when he met Sapnap.

They met when Quackity’s parents moved into the house at the end of the street.

Quackity had always been told he was a rather shy kid, not very good at engaging in what the other kids usually wanted to play.

Quackity remembered that day in very few moments, he remembers the many boxes creating a maze around the new house, he remembers his parents yelling over something in the new kitchen.

He remembers grabbing one of his transformers out of a box and sitting down in the front yard of the new lawn as he watched strangers move their furniture out of a van.

And then he remembers Sapnap.

Standing on the street, holding the handlebar of a red bike with blue stars on it. Two smaller training wheels are helping him keep balance on it.

“Hi” the boy’s hair was shorter when Quackity first met him.

Quackity blinks for a moment before replying
“Hi”, focusing back down on his transformer again.

“Is that Optimus Prime?” The boy leaned over his handlebar, like he was trying to see the figure in Quackity’s hands better despite being a good few meters away from him.

“It’s Bumble Bee” Quackity answered him again.

“Cool. I’m Sapnap. What’s your name?” The boy smiled at him like the sun.

Quackity looked back up at him and smiled back.
“Quackity”.

“That sounds like a duck. I like ducks. Wanna go play at my house?” Sapnap asked and sat back on the bike seat.

Quackity blinked at him and looked back at the house behind him covered in boxes.
He looked back to Sapnap
“I’ll ask my parents” he said and ran into the house.

That was the first afternoon they spend playing with legos on the floor of Sapnap’s room, creating the first of many adventures they’d have in a colorful blocky world.

Quackity was nine when he met Karl.

Sitting on a warm bus seat and pouting like he was being sent to prison, cause in Quackity’s head, that was exactly what summer camp was to him.

It was nine weeks alone with bugs and mosquitos, and other mean kids. He wanted to go to space camp with Sapnap. Not science camp.

And he only wanted to go because Sapnap was going.

Sapnap got to play with Dream and George, while Quackity was stuck in the woods alone with strangers.

In the middle of mumbling words he only heard older kids use, a boy with the biggest, most unruly brown curls bumped down into the bus seat next to him.

“Hey” the kid greeted him, hugging a backpack, with Ninja turtles printed onto it, to his chest.

Quackity looked at him and muttered a tiny
“hello” back to him.

“I’m Karl. Are you staying in the Newton house? I am, wanna be my bunk buddy?” The kid immediately started to ask him a list of questions Quackity wasn’t even ready to answer. But Karl always were like that, talking a mile a minute when he got excited over anything.
“Oh, what’s your name?” He asked.

“I’m Quackity” he answered and watched the boy unzip his backpack, pulling out a neon purple Gameboy with a washed off sticker peeling off the back of it.

“Wanna play Mario kart?” He asked.

“I don’t know how” Quackity looked back out the window.

Karl worked quick to shove the little disk of the game into the slot for it.
“I can teach you” he smiled wide.

Karl played on his gameboy with Quackity leaned up against his shoulder, pointing at all the shiny cubes and trying it himself a few times before cursing at it.

Karl and Quackity were inseparable from the moment they got up from that bus seat till they were dropped off at back home with their parents waiting for them.

Karl and Quackity became what his parents referred to as ‘pen pals’ after that. They spend a few weekends together over the months, calling and asking for play dates often despite Karl living on the other side of the city.

Then came middle school.

And Quackity had never been more happy than when he saw Karl sitting in the classroom.

Sapnap and Karl were introduced around 30 seconds into Quackity babbling excited over how he got to have both of his best friends in his class for the rest of what his brain could comprehend as forever.

And it only grew as Sapnap and Karl started to get along, and Dream and George adopted Karl into their friend circle soon after at the next recess.

So from middle school, it had been the five of them and all the mischief they could ever manage to get into.

Quackity slept over at Sapnap’s house practically every night, and on those he didn’t, Sapnap slept at his place. And on the weekends, Karl joined them.

Karl and Sapnap were with Quackity the day he got his braces, teasing him to no end on the new lisp. And yet Quackity still remembers when Sapnap was sent to the principal’s office for beating up one of the older kids for calling Quackity names.

The next day, Sapnap had claimed that only he and Karl were allowed to bully Quackity. George were made an exception later on, but Quackity had laughed nonetheless.

Sapnap’s parents were the ones that tried to help Karl learn how to ride a bike, the poor kid apparently never had one.

As they grew older, they started to explore more, playing in the creek a mile or two away from their houses.

When he got his braces off, Karl and Sapnap brought him so much cotton candy bubblegum to celebrate.

Quackity doesn’t like bubblegum, but they blew bubbles till their cheeks hurt.

There’s a lot of funny things about their relationship when Quackity thinks back on it.

Karl and Sapnap were each other’s first boyfriends.

But Quackity were both of their first kisses.

Sapnap’s was Quackity’s first kiss.

It happened while they were having a sleepover at Sapnap’s house, the summer before their first year in high school.

Sapnap’s dads weren’t home, Quackity doesn’t remember why, he just remembers both Sapnap and him being too lazy to make any actual dinner and microwaving nachos to eat.

They were laying in Sapnap’s bed, laughing and whispering with no reason to. Quackity always slept in Sapnap’s bed, he did it when they were six and he still did it when he was fourteen. No matter if it was just the two of them, or the others were sleeping over too.

Quackity always slept up in Sapnap’s bed, and that wasn’t gonna change no matter their age.

“Hey big Q?” Sapnap whispered when he finally managed to stop laughing. Quackity snickered as he answered,
“yeah?”.

“Can you keep a secret?” Sapnap then whispered, turning to lay on his right side. Quackity could clearly see him in the moonlight shining through the window above the bed.

“Is it the one about Dream and Annie? Cause I don’t believe it” Quackity whispered back, turning to lay on his left side and face Sapnap properly.

“No, not that one. We all know he made it up” Sapnap chuckled.

“What’s the secret then?” Quackity smiled.

Sapnap bit at his bottom lip “I think I might like boys, but I don’t know” he confessed.

“You don’t know? Why?” Quackity asked. Sapnap shrugged his shoulders, rustling the sheets in the process.
“I just don’t know. I think the girls on tv are hot, but so are the guys? I know I like girls, but I can’t tell the difference between how I like them?” Sapnap tried to explain, but it was clear he only confused himself and Quackity more.

“Well, maybe you just need to kiss a guy then?” He suggested, always trying to solve mind puzzles.

“And what guy is gonna kiss me? I can’t ask Dream, he’ll laugh. And so will George” Sapnap groaned.

“Kiss me then” Quackity said.

“You’d be okay with that?” Sapnap asked and raised an eyebrow, but looked hopeful at him.

“Sure. Then I can say I had my first kiss before George. He keeps teasing me about the one year you guys have on me” Quackity pouted.

Quackity was a year younger than the others in their little group. He skipped 2nd grade and got to be in Sapnap’s class.
They hardly ever noticed except for on Quackity’s birthday, that’s the one time a year they notice.

Sapnap chuckled
“cool. So um, do I just?” Sapnap trailed off, looking from Quackity’s eyes and down to his lips.

“I don’t know” Quackity blushed slightly, leaning in closer. Sapnap did the same.

Kissing was a lot different than Quackity pictured it. Sapnap and he stayed still for a moment before Sapnap tried to deepen the kiss, opening his mouth and using his tongue.

Kissing was kinda messy, and their tongues felt odd against each other. But Quackity couldn’t help but notice the fluttering feeling growing in his chest. He tried to do what Sapnap did, but it was clear neither completely knew what they were doing.

They pulled back a moment later, saliva all over their lips, and both of their cheeks red.

“I like guys and girls” Sapnap said a moment later.

“Cool” Quackity replied, still a bit stunned himself at the feeling still fluttering in his chest.
“Can you keep a secret?” He then whispered.

Sapnap nodded.

“I think I like guys” Quackity chuckled.

They both bursted out laughing.

Quackity kissed Karl three weeks later.

That happened in Karl’s room. They were alone that afternoon, Karl’s mom had left the apartment to run some errands according to Karl, and his dad was at work if Quackity remembered correctly.

Karl was sitting on the floor, holding a comic book, while Quackity was lounging on his bed, reading one of the other comics Karl owned.

Karl loved comics, it was his thing, he had tons and tons of comics in stacks on his shelves. Karl even drew his own comics during recess when they were younger. He liked to make comic book rip offs based on his friend group. Quackity had one about them being cowboys back home.

Karl was good at drawing.

“Hey Quackity?” Karl then broke the silence between them, his iPod playing in the background as they read the comics.

Quackity looked up from the comic book in his hands “yeah?”

Karl fidgeted with his hands, trying not to crumble the pages of his comic book, cheeks growing slightly red as he asked,
“Have you ever kissed someone?”.

Quackity nodded, cause he had. He kissed Sapnap.

“What’s it like?” Karl asked.

“It’s weird” Quackity shrugged and sat up properly on the bed.
“Tongues taste weird, and it’s really weird to do. But I liked it” he nodded and chuckled as he looked at Karl.

“So it’s not like fireworks and roses like in the movies” Karl asked, cause asking Quackity was a lot easier than asking a teacher or his parents.

“Not really,” Quackity said and smiled as he remembered laying in Sapnap’s bed, kissing to the best of their inexperienced abilities.
“But I liked it, it felt nice”.

“Then what does it feel like,” Karl asked more urgently
“Besides the tongue part of it?”.

“Do you want me to show you?” Quackity then offered and tilted his head, closing the comic book and laying it on Karl’s bed sheets covered in Pokémon’s.

“Do you want to?” Karl asked instead of protesting at the thought.

“I don’t mind,” Quackity said and got up, plopping down to sit on the floor next to Karl. He sat on his knees, and placed a hand on Karl’s shoulder as he leaned in.

Karl didn’t close his eyes as Quackity’s lips touched his. Quackity didn’t mind, he just closed his own and stayed there for a moment more before pulling back.

Karl blinked for a second.
“You didn’t use your tongue?” He said puzzled.

Quackity laughed at the wide eyed look he got.
“Karlos, you have to open your mouth if you want that” he shook his head.

“ohhhhhhhhh” Karl said like it was the biggest discovery tonight.
“Can you do it again then?” He blushed.

Quackity smiled and leaned in again, this time Karl was more prepared and closed his eyes as Quackity kissed him.

Kissing Karl was weird too, but nice. Karl was more shy when kissing compared to Sapnap.

But it still felt weird, and the same fluttering feeling started in Quackity’s chest.

When they pulled back, Karl smiled and said
“Thanks, I like kissing”.

Quackity just smiled back
“Glad I could help”.

And then summer went on as always, they hung out everyday, spent Fourth of July at Dream’s house while watching the fireworks. They went to the beach with Sapnap’s dads, stayed inside and played video games on rainy days and stayed up till 2 am talking about anything and everything imaginable.

And then summer was over and high school began.

They shared their notes, making a system of who would take notes in class and then let the others copy later. Quackity helped them with social studies and they saved his ass during PE.

Quackity and Karl watched Sapnap, Dream and George try out for the football team, watching their practices and cheering from the preachers when they got on the team.

Then they started going to the diner.

an old 80’s diner themed restaurant close to their school, black and white tile floors, and pink leather booths. They started studying there, books thrown on the table besides delicious milkshakes and sandwiches.

Quackity doesn’t know if he missed the moment it happened, or if he just didn’t realize it was happening in front of him.

But he remembers the moment he found out Karl and Sapnap were together.

It was like a blink of an eye to him.

One day he was just walking down the hall of their school, going outside to wait by the bike rack for Sapnap, only to see Karl and Sapnap already there, kissing and holding hands.

He could see it wasn’t like when they kissed him, shy and just messing around. It was more sweet and their cheeks were red from love, instead of being shy.

Quackity just smiled as he came closer and teased them, singing the old nursery rhyme.

“Sapnap and Karl! Sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby, in a baby carriage!” Quackity laughed as Sapnap swatted at his shoulder and Karl giggled.

Surprisingly, things didn’t change all that much, Sapnap and Karl sat just as close as they used to, talked to each other the same way but with new nicknames mixed into it.

At one point Quackity felt bad for intruding on their moments, constantly asking to hang out or tag along with them. Staying over at sleepovers when his own bed was three houses further down the street, or sitting next to them when they tried to cuddle on the couch while watching a movie.

But when he tried to cut back on it, the two only dragged him back in with their smiles and jokes, texting him when they were at Sapnap’s house to come over and hang out.

Quackity didn’t even lose his spot in Sapnap’s bed when they had sleepovers.

Karl just joined the cuddle pile.

Quackity’s two favorite people were each other’s favorite people, and he was still one of theirs, even if he weren’t in their relationship.

Sapnap and Karl were each other’s only boyfriend from freshman year, throughout the summer, and into the start of sophomore year.

And then one September afternoon, Quackity was putting his books away in his locker. He could hear the squeaking of their sneakers before he saw them.

Turning to glance over his shoulder, he saw Sapnap and Karl coming up to stand next to him, holding hands and faces flustered.

“Hey guys?” Quackity raised an eyebrow but smiled at them with a glint in his eye.
“What’s up?” He asked, watching their cheeks grow more warm.

Sapnap worried at his lip and Quackity could see Karl’s hands straining to keep from fidging.
“Hey Q” Sapnap smiled at him, but seemed almost nervous.

It only made Quackity turn more towards them, shoving the last book inside before turning to face them properly.
“What’s up with you two? You’re acting weird” Quackity said with a suspicious look.

“Nothing. Everything’s cool” Karl said rather quickly.
“We just wanted to ask you, um, something,” Karl said.

“Okay? Ask me then” Quackity said, a grin on his face as he crossed his arms and leaned against the closed lockers.

Both Karl and Sapnap seemed to be beaming on the spots and Quackity wanted to laugh.

“Guys you’re making me nervous with all this anxiety in the air around you” Quackity said, moving one hand in a circle in front of them.

“We, um” Sapnap cleared his voice, his voice cracking slightly.
“We wanted to know if you ummm, if you wanted to” Quackity doesn’t think he has ever seen Sapnap so flustered.

“If you wanna go to homecoming with us” Karl interrupted to spare his boyfriend from more nervous voice cracks.

Quackity blinked.
“Sure, is Dream and George joining us? I don’t mind going as a group” Quackity shrugged, and Sapnap and Karl shared a look.

“No um, we meant as like” Sapnap cleared his throat again
“As like, a date type of situation, like with all three of us. On a date. Alone” Sapnap tried to explain without passing out.

“Oh” Quackity said, feeling his face heating up as he looked at them, barely able to contain a smile on his face.
“I would love to, but um, is that like? Allowed?” Quackity asked.

“We don’t know, but who’s gonna stop us? The police? I doubt it” Karl shrugged with a nervous laugh.

“We just know we really like each other, and we really like you” Sapnap said and nervously held his hand out.
“So we wanna be boyfriends with you too”.

Quackity hated the giggle that bubbled in his throat as he took Sapnap’s hand.
“Okay cool, I’m cool with that. Does that mean you kiss me goodnight at sleepovers too”

“Yes. Yes it does” Sapnap grinned wide.

Homecoming was the best.

Quackity sat with Karl and Sapnap during the pep rally, holding Karl’s hand, and felt Sapnap’s arm over his shoulder.

They watched the parade together, holding hands and getting a few strange looks, but if anyone did look a bit closer, it might just have looked like a trio of friends standing together.

But judging by the fluttering feeling in Quackity’s chest, he knew it was no longer just as friends.

The homecoming dance was Quackity’s favorite part though. They did go to the dance itself with Dream and George, but they got split up after an hour or so.

The music was loud and Quackity felt like he could feel it in his body as he was dragged onto the dance floor by Karl.

He got flustered when Sapnap gave him a glass of punch and told him he liked his dancing.

Quackity sipped the fruity punch and told him he liked Sapnap’s hair long when he ruffled it. Quackity doesn’t know if that’s the reason Sapnap stopped cutting it short, but he likes to think it had an influence.

Because Quackity really liked Sapnap’s hair when it was long.

After the dance, they got picked up by Sapnap’s dad, Skeppy, and driven home to his house.

It was the first sleepover they had after asking him on a date.

And as Quackity laid between them, pressed between Karl and Sapnap’s chest, it had never felt more right. The fluttering feeling in his chest only grew and kept growing as Sapnap pressed a kiss to the top of his head and muttered a tired goodnight before kissing Karl as well.

It had been the three of them ever since.

When they told Dream and George, they immediately started calling Sapnap a simp and borderline bullying with all the jokes they possibly could. Whenever Sapnap would call them a pet name like babe or love, Dream and George would immediately start to put on the most simping performance, leaning against each other as they claimed to ‘copy’ Sapnap’s behavior by being clingy.

Quackity is pretty sure that’s how George and Dream ended up catching feelings for each other, but he’s not gonna voice that theory. It’s funnier to see Sapnap get all flustered and pouty when they tease him.

Everything stayed the same and yet changed completely.

They would still make assignments and study for tests together, but which now would sometimes lead to tag teaming while making out.

They would still sleep over as close to each other as humanly could, but now the door had to be open, or at least at jar depending on whose house they stayed at.

Sophomore year ended and junior year should have started in a flash, if it weren’t for their parents trying very hard to have ‘the talk’ with them.

Karl had shown up at the diner for their date before a movie and told them it was ‘the most uncomfortable situation he has ever experienced with his parents’.

They all knew what sex was.

But like all other teenagers, the school system failed them as well, on educating them about it.

It didn’t make having the talk any less weird.

Quackity and Sapnap definitely tried to avoid having the talk with their own parents, escaping every possible situation their parents might have thought were the most ‘appropriate of times’.

But at last, Quackity was the next victim, and he does give his parents points for outsmarting him. After all, you can’t exactly jump out of a moving car on the highway.

Quackity knew that his relationship situation was a very odd one for most people, but at least his parents tried to give him a sex talk catered more towards gay sex.

It was the worst conversation he ever had with his parents, but at least no eye contact was made while having it.

Sapnap managed to almost get through the summer without being alone with his dads. But you can’t run forever.

And apparently Quackity and Karl weren’t being spared either despite saying they already had the talk with their own parents.

Sapnap’s dad Bad had called them down for dinner during a sleepover and held them hostage at the dinner table for a good hour while he told anything from sexual illnesses to using protection, even going as far as handing Sapnap a box of condoms in the middle of dinner.

Sapnap had been completely red in the face.

Quackity did actually find Bad’s ‘talk’ a lot more pleasant and informative than the one his parents gave.

He even went as far as to ask questions. Shocker I know.

“How do you know when you’re ready?”

“Is it gonna hurt?”

“We haven’t really done anything, is sex a normal place to start or is there a build up kind of way to that?”

“What’s the difference being like, the one on top and the one on the bottom? Like um…”

“Does all sex have to be like… in the butt?”

Quackity did have a lot of questions, some very stupid and some very important. Bad answered them all calmly and very professionally.

When Bad finally let them leave the dinner table, he sent Sapnap a number of articles he wanted them to read either together or by themselves depending on what they preferred.

Skeppy and Bad didn’t bother them or opened Sapnap’s door once after dinner.

While laying in bed and cuddling, Sapnap apologized for their behavior, but Quackity told him he actually liked the talk. They stayed up till 2 am reading the articles together, all with flustered cheeks.

It was about four weeks later, in the beginning of the actual school year where Karl in the worst and also funniest way possible came out to them as asexual.

He had walked up to Sapnap’s locker after football practice, Quackity already being there. And then stopped and said,
“I don’t feel sexually attracted to either of you”.

It took Karl and Quackity a good 30 minutes to stop Sapnap from crying, the poor boy thinking Karl wanted to break up with him.

And another 30 minutes and a milkshake at the diner for Karl to explain that he still very much loved both Sapnap and Quackity, and still very much wanted to be their boyfriend.

He just didn’t want to have sex with either of them, or anyone else in the world.

“I don’t mind talking about it or like, being in the room if you two wanna, you know, do it. But I just don’t want to put my own thing anywhere or have anything in me”

“It makes me wanna cry when I imagine myself doing it” Karl confessed

Quackity and Sapnap did have a bit of a confusing time understanding the entire asexual spectrum thing, but they supported Karl nonetheless.

It also funny enough started their talk about boundaries when it actually came to sex.

Sapnap felt ready, but was unsure of how to approach them in fear of being seen as pressuring.

Quackity wasn’t sure he was ready for actual sex, but did wanna try a bit more beyond kissing and making out.

Karl wanted to stay where he was, making out and kissing was fine, he didn’t mind the idea of ‘watching’ if they were okay with that. Karl did say he felt weird and a bit like a creep when he said it.

Their ‘first time’ was during the Christmas holidays. They had discussed getting a hotel room, but one day they were home alone at Sapnap’s house, his dads out of town on a Christmas dinner.

It was snowing heavily outside, the darkness starting to fall over the afternoon and the street lights turning on. They were just hanging out sapnaps bedroom. Sapnap and Quackity played video games, Karl reading one of the new comic books they had given him for Christmas.

It didn’t really happen all smoothly, but Quackity didn’t want it to be smooth. He liked the clumsy way Sapnap kissed him after losing their game, and when they leaned back down to lay on the bed, they accidentally landed on Karl.

They laughed a lot that afternoon.

Karl scooted over to lay by the wall, kissing Quackity as Sapnap took off his own shirt, his head getting stuck in the excitement of it all. But like a hero, Karl was there to help their dumb boyfriend.

Quackity liked watching Sapnap and Karl kiss, cause they were both so pretty and it made Quackity so happy to see his favorite people in love.

It took a lot of trial and error, a lot of kisses and loving words and a lot of awkward google searches.

But in the end it was perfect.

A shower afterwards and fumbling to get clothes on that didn’t belong to themselves, they went to the supermarket to buy something to make for dinner and snacks for later like they originally had planned to do.

All while not being able to leave each other alone, having to hold hands or lean against each other as they picked out chips and pizza toppings.

Sapnap laughed and showed them their discord chat with Dream and George, calling them both a bunch of virgins.

In the frozen food aisle, Karl asked them to marry him, even if they were only seventeen. Sapnap brought them a ring pop with a promise to buy a real ring when he could.

Quackity could only laugh with rosy cheeks and say yes, popping the lollipop ring in his mouth as they walked back home through the snow.

Quackity doesn’t remember a time where Karl or Sapnap wasn’t with him.

When Quackity was ten years old. He knew he wanted to be a lawyer.

He, George and Sapnap had watched what would later become his favorite movie, Legally Blonde. And Quackity couldn’t for the life of him tell you what exactly about the movie that made him decide that.

But Quackity wanted to be a lawyer, he wanted to be smart, and to debate,

And he wanted to go to Harvard like the main character when he grew up.

It was a dream they all knew he had, and supported. They knew that they could never make fun of Quackity and that one particular goal.

Even before the summer of their senior year, Quackity was practically forcing their entire friend group to start college applications early.

They applied for pretty much every college together, with a few separate ones on the list.

People had different goals and dreams, after all.

But if they could all get into the same school, it would be heaven on earth.

Sapnap, Dream and George all played football, and had been offered scholarships to University of California.

Karl and Quackity had applied as well.

University of California was their back up plan if all else failed, easy enough for them all to get into and their grades weren’t slacking either.

It was their safety net if all else failed.

The five of them promised to open their acceptance letters together.

All applications had been sent out during the summer, and the fall had been so excruciating for them all, waiting and nervous with excitement.

The first letters started to pool in after Christmas, the beginning of January. It was Karl and Quackity’s letters to the University of California, the others letters arrived a week later.

They opened them together at Dream’s house.

They all got in, which was celebrated with wine coolers from Dream’s mom.

It did put a lid on the anxiety and nerves for a little bit. They had their plan B secured now, they could at least relax in that regard.

February was oddly absent with the letters, which did stress Quackity out to the max. But first of March they apparently decide to fill up their mail boxes.

By March eighth, they had gotten the letters from all their dream schools.

Princeton, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale,
Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania and countless other schools.

And of course, Harvard.

The door bell of the diner rang as Sapnap and Quackity ran in. Karl was already sitting with Dream and George in one of the cyan and pink leathered booths.

“Took you long enough” George said as he sipped a chocolate milkshake through a straw, a pile of letters in front of him.

“Sorry, dad insisted on driving us, but he kept arguing with Skeppy” Sapnap apologized as Quackity slided into the booth next to Karl, kissing him quickly and dodging down so Sapnap could kiss Karl as well.

“Ew, romance” George stuck his tongue out, despite the fact he was leaning up against Dream.

“You’re just jealous, I would be too if I was stuck with a piss baby” Sapnap said and slided his arm over Quackity’s shoulder, putting his stack of letters on the table in front of himself.

Karl smiled and slided two milkshakes over to Quackity and Sapnap,
“I ordered yours already, cause I gotta spoil my fiances” he grinned.

“Oh thank you, my sweet fiance” Quackity smiled and took a sip of his milkshake through the straw, the taste of strawberry hitting his tongue.

George pulled a face “Dream, they’re being gross”.

Dream just kissed the top of George’s head and shrugged
“Let them be”.

Sapnap grabbed the banana milkshake Karl got him and smiled,
“Shall we open the letters? My dad is probably blowing up my phone right now”.

“Please let’s, I will die if I have to wait anymore” Dream claimed dramatically, grabbing one of his own letters.

“Yale, here we…. Oh” Dream said as he ripped the paper open and his smile fell.

“Didn’t get in?” Sapnap asked.

Dream folded the letter and shrugged
“It’s whatever. Yale was a crazy dream anyway” Dream said.

George grabbed one of his own letters and the table all started to open letters as a group.

The surface of the table started to get littered with ripped envelopes as they went though one letter after the other.

Princeton, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology all denied them. The anxiety at the table started to build along with frustration as their letters grew fewer.

Stanford university offered George a spot on the waiting list

University of Chicago gave Karl a spot on their waiting list.

They only got disappointment, one letter after another.

Soon only one school letter was left in their hands.

“I didn’t get in” Sapnap sighed after he opened his last letter, the one from Harvard.

“If we can’t get into Chicago, there’s no way we’re getting into Harvard” George said and unfolded his own letter, groaning the next second.
“At least california is hot” he muttered.

Karl closed his own letter, moving to stir his straw around his chocolate milkshake,
“Well, at least we have our back up school, I heard that 30 percent of people don’t get in anywhere” Karl shrugged.

“Really? That’s a bummer” Dream muttered and rubbed his forehead as he leaned back in his seat.

“What about you Q?” Sapnap asked and looked at Quackity who had been quiet for a good minute now.

Quackity’s eyes were firmly planted on the letter, hands shaking slightly, with his jaw on the floor.

“Quackity?” George asked from the other side of the booth.

Quackity took a deep breath and started to read the first sentence.
“Dear Mr HQ. I am delighted to inform you that the Committee on Admissions has admitted you to the Class of 2023. Please accept my personal congratulations for your outstanding achievements”

Quackity looked up at the group, the first sign of tears and a smile breaking out on his face.

“I got in” he said, turning the letter around to show them.

“I got into Harvard law!” He then cheered and the table broke out cheering and yelling. All the other customers in the dinner turned to look at them with annoyed looks.

“Let’s go!” Sapnap hugged Quackity close, almost lifting him from his seat.

“That’s our boyfriend! The Harvard student!” Karl cheered loudly and giggled excited.

“I am a goddamn genius!” Quackity said, practically shaking and jumping in his seat, his hands were shaking with all the build up excitement.

And the others were just as wild as he was, forgetting for a moment their own disappointing letters.

A waiter hurried over to their table and asked them to quiet down, telling them there were other guests trying to enjoy their food.

“Sorry” Dream smiled sheepishly to her before she left their table.

“I can’t believe you did it” Karl half whispered in excitement and shook Quackity’s hands
“But I never doubted you” he grinned.

“I’m so incredibly happy, wait till my mom hears” Quackity was so completely lost in the euphoria of it all.
“She’s gonna frame this letter”.

“Cambridge better watch out with you running wild” George laughed and leaned back in his seat, grabbing his milkshake.

“What?” Quackity blinked and then the fog of euphoria in his brain seemed to stop to a halt.
“Oh shit, I’m gonna be in Massachusetts” Quackity said and looked back down at the letter.

The realization of it then seemed to fall on them all.

“Oh, yeah…” Karl said and looked down at his own letter again, almost as if to check if the text had changed in the past few minutes.
“Well, Massachusetts isn't that far away from California, right?” He asked.

“It's a coast state” Dream said.

“Great, so is California,” Karl smiled.

“No Karl, opposite coast” George shook his head.

“I’m gonna be on the other side of the states…” Quackity blinked.
“No, I can’t be that far away from you” he said almost in disbelief.

“Of course you can. It’s gonna be awesome” Sapnap said, trying to get their hype up and going again, leaning over and kissing the top of Quackity’s head.
“We are so proud of you, Q” Sapnap smiled wide.

“Yeah, let’s celebrate” Karl agreed on his other side.

During winter all Quackity thought about was how much he wanted to go to Harvard law school.

All he could think about throughout spring was how much he was gonna go there alone.

His parents were more than thrilled when he came home and told them, everyone they knew seemed happy for him, and he was happy.

He just didn’t think dread was gonna be there as well.

And normally when the school hours seemed too long and the assignments seemed too hard, they started to feel fast and easy.

The calendar pages turned and summer was coming closer and closer. All Quackity could think about was how he was gonna have to move over 4000 miles away.

Ten states between him and his boyfriends.

It all kinda seemed too close when prom arrived.

Karl had brought them cute boutonnières with their favorite colors. An orange daisy, purple limonium and a blue cornflower. Karl laughed as he told them the florist looked like they wanted to cry at the flower choices.

Because it was an odd choice, but it was why they liked it.

Sapnap managed to talk his dad into letting him borrow the car and they drove together to the school for their senior prom along with Dream and George.

The music was loud. Pink, white and purple balloons littered the entire room, on the floor, hanging on the walls and on the balloon arches.

As they walked into the gym, Karl had pointed to the photographer in the corner taking pictures of couples, telling them they had to get a photo before the night was over.

They voted on some random names for who should win prom king and queen.

They stole as many mini burgers and sandwiches from the food table as they possibly could.

They clapped at the speeches and watched the prom king and queen get crowned. The king was one of Sapnap’s football teammates and the queen was a girl Quackity had never seen before.

But all Quackity could think about was the fact that soon the year was over, and then summer would fly past them and Quackity would be on the other side of the country.

Quackity loved the dance the most, being squeezed so close between Karl and Sapnap was his safe space, no matter how embarrassed he was to admit it.

Karl’s chest pressed to his back, and Sapnap flushed chest to chest with Quackity.

Karl had always been the tallest of them, and Quackity the shortest. They used to joke that they always fit together like puzzle pieces when cuddling, Quackity in the middle, short enough for Karl and Sapnap to still have a conversation without being uncomfortable.

Karl’s hand covered Sapnap and Quackity’s own where they were joined, and his other arm sneaked around to hold Sapnap’s waist. Sapnap’s arm was placed on Karl's shoulder.

But even in that small bubble, all Quackity could think about was how this was gonna be over soon.

“I love this” Karl muttered as he placed his chin on Quackity’s head.
“It’s so romantic” he said with closed eyes.

“Careful now Karl, you’re being soft” Sapnap chuckled.
“But this is really nice. You two look cute in pink lighting”.

“We look cute in any lighting, you ass” Karl laughed, Quackity could feel the rumbling of it against his chest.

“Of course you do” Sapnap said and leaned over Quackity to kiss Karl.

“What do you think, Q? Are we hot in pink?” Sapnap looked down at him.

“Yeah… so hot” Quackity said and tried to hold back a sniff.

“Hey? Are you okay?” Karl asked and tried to look down at Quackity’s face.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I was just…” Quackity bit his lip, shrugging his shoulders and trying not to tear up in the middle of the dance floor.

“Hey, don’t cry. What’s up? Did I step on your toes?” Sapnap asked and looked down at the floor with all the balloons.

Quackity shook his head,
“No, it’s fine, I was just thinking about summer and… you know, Harvard” Quackity sniffed “and how you’re not gonna be there with me…”

“Oh, that…” Karl said and moved his arm from Sapnap’s waist to hug Quackity around his middle.

“There’s no reason to cry over that” Sapnap tried to cheer him up,
“We’re both so proud of you” he assured him.

“I know, but what if it’s a mistake? I still have my spot at California, maybe I should just go there with you?” Quackity asked and looked up at him,
“It’s just so much easier to think about”.

“What, no” Karl protested gently behind him,
“Harvard is your dream, you can’t give that up”.

“But then we have to be long distance, and everyone says that never works” Quackity said and tried to look up at them both.

“I know we already agreed on doing long distance, but what if we break up? Or you get bored of me? Or you think I’m needy?” Quackity started to voice his concerns.

“We could never get bored of you” Karl tried to help, the thumb he had over Quackity and Sapnap’s hands started to stroke along his knuckles.

“And we like when you’re needy, it’s cute” Sapnap said and kissed Quackity’s temple.

“If you say so” Quackity didn’t seem too convinced.

“Quackity, do you want our honest to god opinion on this?” Sapnap asked, and Quackity could only nod.

“You have to go to Harvard,” Sapnap said.
“It’s your dream school, of course you have to go”.

“But… long distance never works and I don’t wanna lose you..” Quackity sniffed.

“They say that about poly relationships too, but look at us” Karl tried to cheer him up.

“We won’t lie and pretend like it isn’t gonna suck so much, because we are gonna miss seeing your smile every day” Sapnap said, starting to sniff as well,
“And your cute hair, and the way you laugh” Sapnap’s eyes grew wet, lips quivering as he tried to keep his voice even.

“Why are you crying now?” Quackity asked.

“Because I just realized how much this is gonna hurt” Sapnap chuckled through a sniff.

“Oh god now I'm gonna cry” Karl said and buried his head in Quackity’s hair.

“We’re gonna miss you so much, but it’s gonna be great. And there’s still three months till we have to hug you goodbye” Sapnap sniffed.

“But if you think for a second we’ll let you ruin your dream for us, you’re mistaken” Karl sniffed and buried his head in Quackity’s hair.

“But long distance-“ Quackity started to worry

“Long distance can go eat a dick. We’ll be fine” Sapnap moved to hold Quackity’s cheek
“We can make it work, we’ll see each other on the breaks, and we’ve got discord, so we can chat whenever we want to” he said and stroked Quackity’s cheek with his thumb.

“You belong at Harvard. Besides, you need to be a successful lawyer, so we can afford to go to Paris on our honeymoon” Sapnap managed to joke as a tear slipped down and Quackity let out a chuckle and wiped at his own eyes.

“Yeah, and so we can afford to get a nice apartment in New York and live out our twenties in that 90’s sitcom dream we always talk about, and when we’re 30 it’ll be a mystery thriller, were me and Sapnap discover the mafia is on your ass, but everything works out through the power of our love” Karl said and let out another sniff.

“You two are such a pair of gold diggers” Quackity laughed between them.

“I already promised to buy you the ring” Sapnap kissed Quackity quick.

“Don’t stay for our sake, we’ll always be here for you, no matter the distance” Sapnap said.

Karl hugged them both close, squeezing Quackity between them.
“Yeah, besides you know what they say” Karl giggled slightly.

“I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 hundred more” he started to sing.

“Just to be the man who walks a thousand miles to fall down at your door” Sapnap sang along with a laugh.

“How about 4000 miles?” Quackity asked and rested his head on Sapnap’s shoulder.

“Well, we might be a bit late for dinner, but sure” Sapnap joked and managed to get a snort out of Quackity.

“You two are so dumb” Quackity shook his head.

“For you, we will be the dumbest dumb dumb stupid men possible” Karl said and kissed Quackity’s cheek.

“Thank you” Quackity said and brought their hands closer to himself,
“You’re the best” he said and kissed their hands.

They made the most out of their summer together, borrowing Bad’s car when they could and going to the beach. They spend a few days with George and Dream at Karl’s parents summer house to celebrate the fourth of July and watch the fireworks.

On the few days it rained, they played their video games and spent late nights talking and joking like they had for years.

They made plans, lists of date ideas they could have over call, promises to call and text everyday no matter the time.

Long distance was gonna be a challenge for them, but one they could overcome, Karl and Sapnap promised him that.

But by the end of august, Quackity’s room had been packed down, the bare minimum of his old room still remaining, framed photos and posters having left paled spots on the walls. His drawers were empty, his clothes having been folded and packed into a suitcase.

Down by the bottom of the stairs were two big suitcases and a duffel bag packed and ready to be moved out to the car and taken to the airport. Quackity had a backpack as well, that had been packed full with chargers, his computer and other games and books he might need on his flight.

He had tried to stuff a plush skeleton horse down into the bag as well, but to no luck. It had been a gift Karl won him at the county fair the summer before.

He watched from the sidewalk as his dad packed the suitcases into the car.

Karl and Sapnap promised to come say goodbye before he left. Dream and George had said their goodbyes the night before at a final hangout together before summer ended.

“Hey babe” Sapnap’s voice came from next to him. Quackity smiled as he turned to look at him.

“Hey” Quackity greeted him, peaking Sapnap’s lips.

Sapnap smiled back at him, putting his hand on the small of Quackity’s back. He held a plastic bag in his other hand.
“Are you ready? Everything packed?” Sapnap asked him.

“Yep, my room looks so boring now” Quackity said and looked up at his old bedroom window.

“You’re bringing Boner?” Sapnap asked as he noticed the plush in Quackity’s hands.

“Yeah, I wasn’t gonna, but I felt bad leaving him here” Quackity shrugged with a blush.

“Is it weird? Bringing a plushie to college?” Quackity asked.

Sapnap shook his head while chuckling,
“I don’t think so, I think it’s sweet. Besides, you need a cuddle buddy over there” he teased.

“I don’t need a cuddle buddy” Quackity glared at him.

“Says the guy whose the middle spoon”

“Because you kick me out of bed when I’m on the side”

“That was one time” Sapnap crossed his arms, the plastic bag swinging slightly.

“What’s in the bag?” Quackity asked and nodded towards it.

Sapnap’s pouting vanished immediately with a new smile as he handed the bag over to Quackity.
“Just a little something for when you get homesick” Sapnap winked.

Quackity looked into the bag to see red and orange fabric pooling at the bottom of it.
“You’re giving me your jersey?” Quackity asked and pulled it out of the bag, revealing Sapnap’s old football jersey, Sapnap’s name printed on the back along with the number three.

“Yep, I thought you would need it a lot more than me, and I washed it, but it should still smell like me” Sapnap said a bit more shyly.

“You sap” Quackity said and hugged him.

“That’s half my name, don’t forget it” Sapnap said and hugged him back, making Quackity laugh again.

“Are you guys making out without me, I’m hurt!” came Karl’s voice from a car window along with that perfect Karl giggle.

“Says the one who's late” Sapnap teased him back, not moving his hands from Quackity.

Karl stepped out of the car, Karl’s mom waving from the steering wheel.
“Yeah sorry, traffic was kinda heavy” Karl said, a wrapped up gift in his hands
“But I brought a gift, so you legally can’t hate me”

“What’s with you two and giving me gifts all of a sudden? I didn’t get you anything” Quackity said, feeling a bit bad now.

“We kinda planned it” Sapnap rubbed the back of his neck.

“You tag teamed me again. Bitches” Quackity swatted his chest.

“Your bitches” Karl laughed and kissed Quackity and then Sapnap quickly before shoving the wrapped gift into Quackity’s hands.

“I hope you like it, I used about ten glue sticks so I hope it’s good” Karl said and waited excitedly for Quackity to unwrap it.

Quackity smiled and started to tear the pink princess gift wrapping off the gift. It was flat and had a rectangular shape.

Quackity was worried he might start tearing up as he pulled out a photo frame. The picture in it was from prom night, the one taken in front of the balloon arches. In the photo, Sapnap’s hands were busy trying to tickle Quackity, the smaller man in the picture trying hard to get his hands off while laughing, and Karl was making bunny ears behind both of them. All three of them had the biggest grins imaginable.

The frame itself was blue, but it was clear Karl had made it more personal. Along the frame were small cutouts of ducks, mushrooms, comic bubbles and stars glued along the side. In the bottom right corner was a drawn candy ring pop.
The frame was also covered in blue glitter glue.

“Do you like it?” Karl asked in front of him with a hopeful smile.

“I love you guys so much” Quackity said a bit teared up.
“I’m gonna miss you so much” Quackity squeezed his eyes shut and hugged the frame and the bag with the shirt to his chest, the horse plushie bending awkwardly in his arms with the gifts.

“Awwww we love you too” Karl said and put his arms around him.

Sapnap hugged them from the side,
“You better call us, I will come to Cambridge if you don’t” Sapnap said.

“Don’t say that, then he won’t call” Karl giggled.

“Oh shit you’re right” Sapnap said.

Quackity laughed between them,
“You’re so dumb” he said and putted Karl’s picture in the bag along with the horse plushie.

Quackity’s dad then called from the house,
“Quackity! We gotta go soon if you’re gonna make your flight”

Quackity turned his head to face the door, but didn’t move out of the hug.
“Coming!”.

Quackity looked back at Sapnap and Karl,
“Guess it’s time” he said with a sad smile and dried the few threatening tears away from his eyes.

“Call us when you land”
Karl said and kissed Quackity.

Sapnap held Quackity closer,
“We’ll see you at thanksgiving, but I already miss you so much” Sapnap said before kissing Quackity goodbye.

They wanted to come to the airport, but they still had their own packing to get done, and Quackity’s parents' car was already crammed.

“I love you” Quackity said before they let him go towards the car.

“We love you too” Sapnap waved.

“More than you know” Karl said, waving with both hands as Quackity entered the car.

Quackity waved to them through the window as his dad backed out of the driveway, seeing the two holding hands as they waved him goodbye.

That was the first time in over a decade that Quackity was gonna be without Sapnap or Karl.

Chapter Text

“And here to our right, we have Dream’s unmade bed. What a caveman” Sapnap spoke offscreen on the call.

It had been two days since Quackity got to Harvard, and his boyfriends went to California. They knew the first few days with moving in and getting settled, as well as learning the campus area, would be busy with unpacking.

But at least now that the suitcases were empty and shoved under Quackity’s bed, he had time to sit down in a call with them, watching Sapnap show him around their new school and dorm rooms.

“I can't believe you actually got to dorm with Dream, I thought for sure George would have been his roommate” Quackity said, looking at Dream flipping Sapnap off on the unmade bed and the poster of a rock band that used to be on Dream’s bedroom wall. It looked a lot darker without the green painted wall behind it.

Sapnap rustled with moving his phone around, now showing Quackity his side of the dorm, along with Karl lounging it on his bed with a smile.
“Me too. But apparently they found out they were boyfriends and I got dragged into it” Sapnap said and laid down on the bed with Karl.

Quackity’s screen was a blur as Sapnap moved to flip the video camera to show him and Karl. Quackity smiled at the wide grins they send his way.

“How's your roommate, Q? Are they nice?” Karl asked, his head tilting so his cheek was against Sapnap’s shoulder.

“oh, I don’t have one” Quackity said, pulling a leg up onto his chair and hugged it.

“oh my god you are so lucky” Sapnap pretended to groan, but his smile betrayed him.

Quackity could only laugh at his antics.
“I guess. I do have a lot of space compared to you guys” Quackity said and looked around his dorm room.

“Show us, show us, show us” they both started to chant until Quackity rolled his eyes at them.
“Fine, wait a second” Quackity said, standing up and unplugging the charger from his computer and picking it up in his arms.

“so um, that's my dresser and my bookshelves” Quackity said as he showed the guys the left side of his dorm room, an old wooden dresser standing under two shelves with books and other trinkets from Quackity’s old room, such as a funko pop and the comics Karl had given him throughout the years.

“Oooh fancy” Karl chuckled from his computer speakers.

“And here’s my door” Quackity laughed as he turned and then moved to show them the right side of his room, showing them his bed, the blanket still ruffled, but covering the sheets. The plush horse, Boner, was placed by his pillow.

“And my nightstand, where the photo of my hot boyfriends is placed” Quackity smiled, holding his computer with one hand now, and grabbing the homemade photo frame Karl gave him, to show it off.

“I still love that photo” Sapnap said more to Karl than Quackity, but Quackity smiled nonetheless.

“And this is my desk” Quackity smiled as he put the photo down and showed them his desk. It was standing with its side against the wall, making Quackity face his bed when sitting in his chair.

“Why is it placed like that?” Karl asked, moving to lay on his side, placing his arm over Sapnap's chest.

“I don't know, but it kinda feels like sitting in an office cubicle” Quackity shrugged and sat down in his chair again.

“But the best part is definitely the view,” Quackity said as he showed his computer to the windows, showing off the grass fields towards the red school buildings.
“Top floor baby” Quackity chuckled and sat the computer back down on his desk, finally able to see them on the screen again.

Sapnap whistled,
“Big Q getting the luxury room I see” he joked.

“Of course, it’s what he deserves,” Karl giggled.

Quackity laughed along with them, shaking his head at them.
“you two are so dumb” he said fondly.

Karl and Sapnap grinned, as if Quackity couldn’t love them any more than he already did.

“How is Harvard?, everything you dreamed?” Sapnap asked him.

“It's big. I’m still trying to find my way around. It took me about an hour to find the cafeteria yesterday” Quackity shrugged, looking towards the buildings again.
“Which looks like a knock off hogwarts set by the way. You’d love it Karl”

“Not as much as I love you~” Karl winked at the phone and Quackity blushed slightly.

“So dumb” Quackity muttered.

“For you, my love, I will be a sixth gernaration incest baby dumb” Karl smiled as if his statement was supposed to be normal.

“Oh yeah? well, I’ll be as dumb as a rock for him. I want him to look at me and know not a single thought is going on behind these eyes” Sapnap looked at Karl, puffing to him slightly with his arm.

Karl glared playfully at him.
“Oh really? well, I will be as stupid as a panda, unable to even exsist without human intervention” Karl shoved to Sapnap playfully.

“How dare you insult pandas, they are the most superior animal to exist on this planet” Sapnap laughed, his offended tone dying out in it.

“Okay, boys, boys” Quackity chuckled,
“You are both very dumb and I love you so much” he said, like a parent talking to a toddler.

Karl ruffled Sapnap’s hair and laid down next to him.
“We love you too” he smiled up at the phone, Sapnap blowing a kiss to the screen.

“Are you excited for tomorrow?” Karl asked.

Quackity took a deep breath, pulling a bit on the sleeve of his shirt.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s my first official class in law, but I'm kinda nervous too,” Quackity admitted.

“You’re gonna do so great” Sapnap grinned.

Karl grabbed his phone and opened it,
“Oh, by the way, I was looking for cute date ideas for friday, and you’re gonna laugh at these cause it’s clearly made for 30 year old women” Karl laughed to himself as he clicked on his screen to find the list.

They had agreed early on that friday night was date night for them. They would obviously call and chat everyday if they could, do homework together, talk about their days or just listen to music. But obviously they knew they wouldn’t be able to talk everyday, so making at least one day into date night, was a good idea.

Karl giggled,
“Okay so, number one, take a bath together” Karl almost couldn’t say it before he started laughing.

Quackity chuckled and shook his head,
“I don’t think our housemates will appreciate that”

“Who cares, I'll watch you shower anytime. I’ll buy a rubber ducky for you if you want” Sapnap joked, biting his bottom lip and squinting his eyes to make that dumb fuck boy face.

“Of course you would, you perv” Quackity rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

“Says the guy who likes being watched” Karl chimed in, making Quackity get flustered.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up” Quackity covered his face and his red cheeks.

“Number two, watch a movie, which is like a duh, of course we are gonna do that” Karl shrugged as he listed off more from the list.
“number six is actually kinda fun, if we can make doordash work. It’s basically ordering food for each other, and I think you should order food for me, I order food for Sap, and he orders food for you, cause Sapnap always orders the spicy stuff”

“There's nothing wrong with my food choices, and I can pick none spicy stuff” Sapnap pouted.

“Yeah, but you would sulk the entire time if I didn’t let you order the food for Quackity” Karl poked his nose.

“And I love spicy food, so please order for me” Quackity smiled and leaned further into his chair.

“I will do my best for you, my love” Sapnap said happily, tilting his head to rest on Karl’s shoulder.

“I am screenshotting this” Quackity said and hit a button on his keyboard.
“What else is on the list?”

“I'm glad you ask” Karl said and turned his attention back to the screen.

A lot of the ideas sounded like fun, but would be hard to do in a dorm room. Cooking together on call, binge watching tv shows, play online games, play truth or dare, draw together, do a work out, a suggestion Quackity was not so excited about.

Sapnap seemed very much into the idea of planning their fantasy wedding.

Quackity smiled as he listened, coming up with a few ideas on his own, which Karl wrote down on the list.

It was gonna be good, they had a plan and a system.

College was gonna be good.

……………

Quackity got to the classroom earlier than he needed to, just so he was sure he wouldn’t be late in case he got lost on the new campus.

The doors into the class stood wide open, making it a lot easier for Quackity to find it.

Stepping inside, his feet were greeted by a couple of stairs. Rounded desks going down in a latter formation with chairs behind them. At the bottom of the steps stood the teacher’s desk, and a chalkboard bigger than Quackity had ever seen behind it.

Quackity went down to sit in one of the middle rows as people started to show up and find a seat.

Quackity pulled out his pencil case and his notebook. He laid his text book next to him, but kept his computer in his bag for now, unsure if the teacher would even want them to make notes on it.

That, and he didn’t wanna appear asocial.

Quackity looked around the room, seeing all kinds of people pulling out books and materials just like he had. A group of girls were chatting rather loudly, but Quackity tuned it out for now.

As he waited for the clock to strike eight, Quackity rehearsed his introduction line for when the teacher would ask them to say something.

Hi, I’m Quackity, and then a fun fact.

What’s a fun fact. He can’t say something childish, no mentioning the comic books and figures. He can’t just say he wants to be a lawyer, they all wanna do that, it’s a law degree.

Quackity turned it over and over in his head, trying to come up with anything that wasn’t boring or weird.

Then the doors were closed by a middle aged man, brown hair slicked back with Mutton chops running down his cheek bones.

“Alright people, sit down, shut up and pay attention” The man spoke loudly as he stepped down to the teacher’s desk. He dropped his leather bag on the desk, and without sparing the class a glance, he grabbed the chalk and started to write on the board.

Professor J. Schlatt.

“I am Professor Johnathan Schlatt. But you will refer to me as Professor or Schlatt only. I will be your business law teacher for this semester. And most likely also the rest of them” The teacher, Schlatt, finally turned around to face the 30 people sitting in front of him.

“Now, this is probably the part where you expect we do a name round. But we are not in kindergarten and I already have your names on a list. If you wanna introduce yourselves to each other, do that in your own time” Schlatt said holding the name list as he started the rundown to know who was absent.

Well, at least Quackity didn’t have to think about a fun fact anymore, now focusing on saying yes as his name was called.

When Schlatt was done he put the paper down and clapped his hands together rather passive aggressively.

“Now, before we begin you should all know that I am not here to be your friend. I am here to teach you the information you need to become the best of the best. Half of you are gonna hate my guts, the other half will think I hate their guts” Schlatt said, making Quackity frown a bit confused at this introduction.

“I do not give a shit about what you feel, I give a shit about what you know. I am not here to belittle you, or to take your feelings into consideration. My colleagues will tell you I am a mean but fair man” Schlatt grabbed the chalk and a sponge to wipe his name off the board.

“Study the things I tell you to, and you’ll be able to sue Bill Gates and pass my class” Schlatt said and then started to write on the board again.

“I would like for you all to give me your definition of what law is” He then said, the simple question ‘What is law’ written in chalk behind him on the board.

The room was quiet with only a few students daring to raise their hands.
“Come on people. You’re in Harvard law, at least more than three of you have a definition on law” Schlatt leaned back against the desk.

Quackity took a deep breath and raised his hand along with a few others.

“Beanie in the back. Give us a shot” Schlatt pointed at him and Quackity sat up a bit straighter in his seat.

“Law is justice. It’s um, it’s justice for the people who have been wronged” Quackity said, watching Schlatt nod slightly as he listened, not completely sure if the man liked his answer or not.

He was nodding but had a weird glare like look in his eyes.

“Law isn’t justice” Someone else cut him off, a boy across the room

“Law is a tool to keep peace and order in a society. It’s a set of rules created and enforced by the government to prevent anarchy and to regulate wrong behavior” The boy on the other side of the classroom said. He had a pair of round glasses on and brown curls that reminded Quackity of Karl. He also had a shit eating grin growing on his face.

“To say that law is the equivalent of justice is a naive expectation and one that should be reevaluated as well” the boy finished without sparing Quackity a glance.

“A good argument, Glasses. But refrain from interrupting in the future” Schlatt scolded him.

Schlatt picked out a few other students from among the sea of people to hear their definitions of law, all of which seemed to indirectly tell Quackity that he was wrong and an idiot for voicing his thoughts on the question.

Quackity wanted to get swallowed into the ground.

No one was looking at him and yet he felt like everyone was paying attention to how much of an idiot he had made of himself already.

Schlatt wiped the question off the board and began to go over the plan for the semester, what they could expect to learn before the finals in December.

Quackity wrote down all the things that were put up on the board, along with the verbal side notes Schlatt threw at them.

They would start off the semester with legal writing, giving them the ability to read cases and make briefings.

Fundamental things to survive a law degree.

Something Quackity needed desperately apparently.

…………

THE FERAL BOIS CHAT

MexicanDream : I think my business teacher is a psycho.
(Today at 09:31 am)

PandasPVP : lol why?
(Today at 10:14 am)

Retroman : did he make a ‘dead poet’s society’ and make you rip the pages out of your textbook?
(Today at 10:17 am)

MexicanDream : bruh with the money I paid for that book, he couldn’t make me even with a gun to my head
(Today at 11:31 am)

Mamacita : Then why’s he a psycho??
(Today at 11:33 am)

MexicanDream : man legit started the semester off by telling us he did not give a rat’s ass about us.
(Today at 11:34 am)

404notfound : so he basically went ‘only 10% of you will pass my class’. My teacher said that lol
(Today at 11:35 am)

MexicanDream : not really. He actually said the opposite I think. He was very hard to read, super aggressive in his teaching.
MexicanDream : I think he has killed before
(Today at 11:37 am)

PandasPVP : lmao. I can’t wait to hear about this on call XD
(Today at 11:38 am)

Retroman : same, my art prof is a hippie and I’m pretty sure he was high.
(Today at 11:38 am)

MexicanDream : LOL
MexicanDream : gtg, I’ll text you later
(Today at 11:39 am)

404notfound : don’t get murdered by your psycho teacher.
(Today at 11:40 am)

Quackity chuckled as he closed his phone and stuffed it into his pocket again. The cafeteria hall wasn’t that busy, but there were enough people to make the room hum with chatter.

He had about half an hour till his next class started, and wanted to grab something to eat first. The food was nothing like the cafeteria food at his old high school. It actually looked pretty good as he passed by the different options, burgers and fries, what looked like homemade square pizza, soup, salats and so much more was neatly displayed to the students. Quackity told himself he would try out some of the other dishes later as he grabbed a simple sandwich, taking a moment to make sure it was chicken and not ham, he hated ham.

He grabbed a bottle of water as he was leaving the food section, going to find a seat to by one of the many tables.

He should properly use lunch as an opportunity to meet some new people. He did spot a few people from his earlier classes. But for some reason he could not make his feet move towards them.

What should he even say? It kinda seemed weird to just walk up to a stranger and start talking. He didn’t wanna bother them either.

Quackity found a table that wasn’t as crowded, two people were conversing by the end of the table, but Quackity decided not to try and interrupt them. He sat his food down on the table before pulling out his notes, he might as well take another look over the lecture plan for the year as he ate.

he could try and start a conversation with strangers tomorrow.

The year was only first starting after all.

He had plenty of time.

……………

Sapnap was sitting at his desk, laptop illuminating his face as he suppressed a yawn and typed in another word on his essay. Dream hadn’t come to the dorm yet, so he didn’t care about putting his headphones on with the music.

Two weeks into the semester and he was already slaving away making essays and assignments. But it was worth it, as long as he could finish enough of it to have his friday free, it was fine by him.

A little notification popped up in the bottom left of his screen from his discord. He blinked as he saw Quackity’s username, glancing down to the clock.

22:17 pm.

Sapnap opened his discord and opened the message Quackity wrote.

Beloved Fiancés

Duckyboi : hey can I call? :]
(Today at 22:16 pm)

Firefly : sure babe
(Today at 22:18pm)

Sapnap paused his music and scrolled down their little server to see Quackity’s icon already in their vc. Sapnap didn’t hesitate to join.

As soon as it loaded Sapnap was met with the sight of Quackity laying in bed, hugging his pillow and blinking with tired eyes. It looked like his phone was being supported by something on his nightstand. His lamp was the only thing helping Sapnap see the mess of dark hair.

“Hey Q, aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” Sapnap leaned back in his chair, scolding him playfully.

“Hey Sap” Quackity yawned with a smile.
“Where’s Karl?” He asked.

Sapnap rocked from side to side in his chair, taking the break from his essay to just relax his back.
“I think he’s with George at the library, study session don’t you know” he shrugged.

Quackity gave a hum and closed his eyes
“What are you doing?” He then asked and snuggled into his pillow before opening his eyes again. Boner had been tucked under his arm and squeezed into the pillows.

“Working on the world’s most boring essay ever. It’s philosophy, bleh” Sapnap stuck his tongue out.

Quackity chuckled
“Philosophy can be fun” he mumbled.

“Yeah, if my teacher was actually decent. He’s such a jackass” Sapnap shrugged,

“You’d hate this guy, he’s ancient. He refuses to tell us what page we’re on, referring to it by ‘verses’, whatever that means” Sapnap made air quotes with his fingers.

“And me and Dream think he's lowkey sexist, he only picks the guys when asking questions” Sapnap said, seeing Quackity’s eyes drop closed again.

“Mhmmm, that sucks” Quackity muttered.

Sapnap then leaned forward and closer to his screen, resting his elbows on his knees.
“Why’d you call, Love?” He asked
“Isn’t it like one am over there?”.

Quackity moved slightly on the bed, the sound of sheets ruffling filling the speakers of Sapnap’s computer.
“I couldn’t sleep” Quackity explained
“I miss you too much”

Sapnap offered a sympathetic smile
“Aw, I miss you too, and so does Karl”.

“Can I sleep on call with you? I like listening to you work” Quackity asked, his eyes blinking closed again.

“Of course, if that’s what you need” Sapnap smiled,
“sweet dreams, Q”.

Quackity smiled that adorable dozy smile that always made Sapnap’s heart swoon, and buried himself further into his pillow.

Sapnap made the discord window on his computer smaller and dragged it up into the corner so he could still see Quackity while he worked on his essay.

It didn't take more than a few quiet minutes of breathing and typing till Quackity started snoring softly, a peaceful face on display for Sapnap to look at for motivation when he got stuck on a paragraph.

At one point Quackity had managed to get his blanket so far up to cover the bottom of his face. He looked so warm, cozy and peaceful, snuggled into his pillow, the blanket hiding him from the world, with Boner the plushie on look out by his chest. Sapnap had to take a screenshot, texting Quackity’s phone to let him know that he did it along with the photo.

By the time Karl came back with the others, Sapnap’s eyes were tired. He shushed them quietly and pointed at his screen. Karl came over and laid his arms around Sapnap’s shoulders as he whispered,
“Awww are you calling without me?”

“It’s on the server, you could just jump in, nimrod” Sapnap whispered back, leaning into Karl’s touch.

“He looks so cute” Karl smiled.

“Yeah, he does” Sapnap kissed Karl’s cheek,
“And so do you”.

Karl kissed him on the lips,
“Is everything okay? he texted rather late?” Karl asked.

Sapnap just nodded and smiled,
“He said he couldn’t sleep. I just kept him company till he fell asleep”.

“And watched him sleep like a creep” Dream’s voice spoke up as he entered the dorm and plotted down onto his bed.

“Ssshhh, you’ll wake him” Sapnap whispered and muted himself just in case.

“Not my circus, not my monkey” Dream yawned,
“I'm gonna go to sleep. If you’re gonna keep being stalkers, tone down the brightness please, Dream said and turned to face the wall.

“Ew, go brush your teeth at least” Karl stuck his tongue out at him.

Sapnap rolled his eyes, moving to type Quackity a quick good night message and that he loved him.

Like the good boyfriend he was.

He then jumped out of vc and made sure Quackity left the call as well. He grabbed his toiletry bag and stood up from his chair.
“I'll go brush my teeth, wanna come with me, Karl?” he offered.

“Sure, I'll get my bag” Karl said and walked to the door a bit faster.

“Gay” Dream muttered into his pillow.

“At least my breath is gonna smell amazing, you caveman” Sapnap laughed and closed the door after himself.

…………..

Quackity isn’t exactly sure what it is that happened, but he knows it’s not normal.

It happened in math class, or more specifically, his economics class.

Quackity is good at math, or at least he was in high school. But right now he’s struggling, and the semester only started three weeks ago.

He couldn't keep up, the teacher was using terms and formulas Quackity had never heard before, the text on the chalkboard was too small and hard to read even in the front of the class. He couldn’t take notes and keep up with the lecture, but if he didn’t take the notes, he’ll forget it as soon as the lecture was over.

He didn’t understand how the math worked with the science of economics and it was making his hands sweaty.

He felt like the collar around his shirt was too tight as he breathed, and he was getting hotter with every minute.

He managed to keep from bolting out his chair till the lecture was done. When the teacher dismissed them, Quackity wanted to throw up. He threw his things into his backpack, not caring that his notebook pages were getting crumbled.

Quackity just had to get out of sight and it had to be now.

He wasn’t even sure he had gotten his bag closed properly as his legs hurried down the hall full of people.

All the buzzing sounds of voices and footsteps were too much, creating a headache in Quackity’s skull, his poor brain unable to get enough air to it, was already making it worse.

Quackity took a sharp turn into the men’s restrooms, grabbing the door of the first unoccupied stall he saw.

He locked the door, turned down the toilet seat and sat down. His hands were shaking and the back of his neck was sweaty, black hair sticking to his skin.

Quackity moved his bag off his shoulder, placed it in his lap and hugged it close to his chest as he forced himself to try and breathe.

Even if tears were starting to form in the corners of his eyes with a burning feeling.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry” Quackity muttered to himself.

He didn’t understand why this was happening, or what it was. He forced his eyes closed as he tried to focus on anything else.

His fingers were drilled into the fabric of his bag in an attempt to stop shaking. He could hear the other stalls open and close, the squeaking sound of running shoes on the polished floors.

Quackity was gonna be late for his next lecture if he didn’t get out soon, but he couldn’t make himself move. The thought of going into another lecture hall, unable to understand the writings on the board, was making it harder to breathe.

Someone rattled with the door handle and Quackity had to force out a weak ‘occupied’ to make them go away. When the person left, Quackity pulled his sneakers off the floor, trying his best to hide and be quiet as the world outside the stall kept spinning.

Quackity didn’t know how long he was in the restroom stall.

He didn’t remember how he managed to even leave the stall.

He felt like he didn’t know anything.

Except for the fact that whatever just happened, was not a one time experience.

Chapter Text

THE FERAL BOIS CHAT

Mamacita : Quackity, I will fly you out here if it means you’ll fuck Sapnap.
(Today at 18:34 pm)

MexicanDream : I stopped mid bite for that. Wtf
(Today at 18:35 pm)

PandasPVP : DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM. IT'S ALL LIES. HE'S A SNAKE!!
(Today at 18:35 pm)

MexicanDream : ????
(Today at 18:36 pm)

Mamacita : Sapnap you have a fucking problem.
(Today at 18:36 pm)

MexicanDream : why? Is he addicted to porn or something?
(Today at 18:37 pm)

404notfound : you wish.
(Today at 18:37 pm)

PandasPVP : STOP.
PandasPVP : THEY ARE LYING
(Today at 18:38 pm)

MexicanDream : what’s going on over there?
(Today at 18:39 pm)

Mamacita : Sapnap he has to know.
Mamacita : I’ve walked in on you jerking off to his Instagram one too many times now.
(Today at 18:40 pm)

MexicanDream : wha
(Today at 18:40 pm)

PandasPVP : NO! I DO NOT!
(Today at 18:41 pm)

MexicanDream : Wait, so you don’t jerk off to my sexy ass?
(Today at 18:42 pm)

PandasPVP : do not turn this around on me.
(Today at 18:43 pm)

Mamacita : please Quackity. I will legit pay for your flight ticket if you just get him laid.
(Today at 18:44 pm)

PandasPVP : I’m gonna go dig myself a grave now.
(Today at 18:44 pm)

MexicanDream : Dream, you are currently in the middle of negotiating prostitution, which is illegal in all states except for Nevada. A sentence for a crime like this is anything from 30 days to a year.
(Today at 18:46 pm)

Mamacita : …
Mamacita : withdrawn
(Today at 18:48 pm)

MexicanDream : lawyered :]
MexicanDream : and Sapnap
MexicanDream : ;]
(Today at 18:49 pm)

Retroman : Sapnap just buried his face in a pillow and screamed. You’re killing him, Q
(Today at 18:49 pm)

MexicanDream : ;]
(Today at 18:50 pm)

Quackity shut off his phone with a smile and turned back to his dinner, his fork pushing around his pasta salad. You would think after having Bad as a dad, Sapnap would know how to lock a door or find a bathroom. Quackity could almost imagine the chaos over there.

Sapnap was probably chasing Dream down to strangle him, George was probably laughing his ass off and Karl was most likely taking pictures of it if he could keep up with the chase.

Quackity wished he could have been over there to see it too.

At least he could tease Sapnap later on call.

He shoved another piece of green pasta into his mouth before he tried to open his phone again. As he was entering his password, he heard some girls laughing loudly behind him.

Quackity had made it a rule to himself not to seem unapproachable, which meant don’t wear headphones while eating. That way, even if he was too nervous to actually walk up to someone, someone might walk up to him and ask to sit with him.

That was a very good plan and a very good rule.

But right now, he was almost done with his food and didn’t see the big deal of putting his headphones on now instead of in five minutes. Besides, the girls were being rather loud, and Quackity didn’t wanna get a headache.

He pulled out his headphones from his bag, an old pair that he should probably replace soon. A sticker was peeling off on one side and washed from walking in the rain too many times. There was also a rift on one side that Karl had fixed for him more than once.

He fiddled with getting his Bluetooth to pick up on them when he overheard the girls laugh again.

Quackity had a nagging feeling that they were talking about him.

Quackity tried to rationalize that they weren’t in high school anymore, that people don’t bully or backtalk others. They’re all grown, mature adults in a very high ranked college.

But, just three months ago they were high schoolers, or at least he was. He still felt like a high school student.

Quackity had already zoned out of trying to get this Bluetooth signal to work, trying to make out the words that the girls behind him said, moving his thumb back and forth, tapping the screen to make it look like he was still trying to make it work.

“He is so fucking weird. I swear something is wrong with his brain” he managed to hear one of the girls say. Who’s weird? Is it him? Is it the beanie? Does he wear it too much? Should he stop wearing it to class?.

“Yeah, I know, and like he looks sick all the time, I thought he was gonna puke when I talked to him” another girl said.

Quackity couldn’t see her face. What if it was the girl he talked to in class while doing group discussions? He knew he probably looked tired, but not enough to look sick.

“Oh come on, It’s not his fault if there’s something wrong with his brain” a girl tried to defend.

Quackity wanted to turn around, tell them to be quiet. There’s nothing wrong with his brain!

“Slime is actually very nice, he followed me home from the library”

Quackity’s thoughts came to a halt.

Slime? Who the fuck is named Slime?

Quackity frowned confused, but at least now the dread in his stomach was washing up a bit. They weren’t talking about him, cause even if he was somehow gross and ‘slimy’, Quackity knows he hasn’t followed anyone home from any of the libraries.

A ding sound was muffled by the headphones, signaling that they were finally connected.

Quackity shoved them on and put on a song from one of Karl’s playlists. He swallowed more than chewed the rest of his food, before getting up, grabbing his bag before hurrying out of there.

He wanted to get a bit more reading done before his vc date with Sapnap and Karl.

………….

Monday evening was weird.

It felt like it was dragging on forever, he had read the same line of his text book at least fifty times by now, but his mind kept going back to that text message Dream sent.

Sapnap was doing the deed while looking at his Instagram.

Quackity didn’t mind, he thought it was a bit funny that his boyfriend chose to look at his old photos instead of actual porn. And it’s not like Sapnap is some stranger or a weirdo stalker.

Quackity did not mind in the slightest.

But Quackity couldn’t help but think about it. It had been at least three days since that text. And Quackity had looked at his Instagram multiple times, looking at the pictures he posted months ago, anything from a funny photo of Karl and Sapnap to a cute date. He had scrolled down and down, wondering which picture Sapnap looked at, obviously he knew it was one of those with him in the frame.

But which one?

It’s not like Quackity posts anything sexy, there’s group pictures, a selfie he took with Karl in the arcade once, the prom pictures.
Maybe it’s the beach photo? He was only wearing his swim trunks after all so maybe that is what Sapnap used?.

Quackity had put more thought into it than he should. Why, he didn’t understand.

Quackity sighed as he closed his textbook and grabbed his phone, opening his google app, typing in ‘long distance relationship and sex’.

He found an article about being in a long distance relationship and feeling sexually frustrated. He read about why it happens, which was a given and didn’t need too much brain power to figure out. He read about how it negatively affects the relationship.

It’s only the beginning of October, a month into what is gonna be four years of a long distance relationship.

Sure they have the advantage of knowing they’ll see each other on holidays, but there was still a lot of time in between.

Quackity couldn’t help but think about if Sapnap had already started to get sexually frustrated with their situation.

Karl wasn’t that much of a concern in this matter. Sure he missed the kisses, the tickle on his back when Karl wanted to cuddle or hug him.

But Karl didn’t have the want for sex like Sapnap did.

Karl had often talked about how his asexuality worked. He liked the idea of sex, the intimacy and Quackity knew for a fact Karl had some freaky fantasies about him and Sapnap. But Karl didn’t want to participate in the act itself.

He’d hold their hands, kiss them and stroke their hair out of their eyes. But Karl didn’t have a need for sex like that.

Quackity kept reading, how to avoid conflict, about the need for open communication, about how it can often lead to cheating and fighting if avoided.

Quackity wasn’t concerned about cheating, he knew for a fact Sapnap nor Karl would ever cheat on him or each other. But what started the dreadful feeling in his stomach was the thought of what if they asked to open their relationship to a new person?.

What if they met someone new, who was more exciting and interesting? someone who was both hot and pretty, taller or just in general better than Quackity.

Someone who was over there with them.

They've never talked about it before. They know they are in a ployamours relationship, but Quackity doesn’t want to add anyone else. He just wants it to be the three of them.

But isn’t that a bit selfish of him?

Quackity doesn’t wanna label their sex life as wild or crazy. They’re still teenagers, but curious. They share fantasies and things they’ve seen on the internet. Sure, some might say a threeway is kinda wild for a teenager, but is it really a threeway when one of them isn’t participating in the act physically?

But Quackity knew full well they weren’t saints or monks. Whenever they got the chance to be home alone, they fucked. The closest Quackity would say they had to a wild sex story was the time they did in the jazzuis of Karl’s parents summerhouse.

Then Quackity started to think about if he was sexaully frustated. Which he wouldn’t say he was, not really. He missed them, and he missed seeing them all the time. But he hadn’t really thought about the sex they now weren’t able to have.

He just missed them in general.

Quackity tapped the search bar and typed in a new sentence.

‘Online sex’

The first many links Quackity got were porn sites and Quackity quickly tapped the search bar again and tried to be more direct.

‘Online sex long distance relationship’

This time Quackity got a new article with tips on how to ‘keep the sparks alive’ in a long distance relationship. Quackity leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs as he gave it a read.

It was very basic, only telling him what he rationally could think of. Sexting and jerking off on call together.

But how do you even start a conversation like that? Or direct a conversation over towards that?.

Quackity scrolled back up to one of the first suggestions.

‘Sending nudes’

Quackity turned it over in his head. It would definitely help Sapnap out and maybe spark their sex life a bit more than it was now. But Quackity was not someone who took naked pictures, or dick pics.

He doesn’t think Karl or Sapnap have either. They used to be glued together, spending days at a time together.

But that was a month ago.

They weren’t glued together anymore.

But could Quackity really take a photo of himself naked?

A picture at the beach, no problem.

A naked picture, no totally not. Nope.

All Quackity could think about was that woman who once came to make a presentation at their school. She told about her own experiences of getting her nudes leaked by an ex and how it ruined her teens. It was interesting, but it also came as an afterthought whenever he heard anything about nudes in the media or from his peers.

Quackity doesn’t think he could live it down or become anything professionally in the law business if a nude picture of him got leaked.

Not that he thought Sapnap or Karl would parade something like that around, but what if someone hacked their phone and found it.

But he could just make sure to crop his face out of it.

Quackity looked defeated at his textbook one final time before getting out of his chair. This wasn’t gonna leave his mind so he might as well try this out.

He put his phone down and locked his dorm door before he started to pull his shirt off. He threw it in the corner by his dresser, his jeans and boxers joining it a moment later.

Quackity grabbed his phone, found his camera and then looked around the room. He had to find a spot to put it on.

He tried to just take a selfie, but no matter how he twisted and turned his phone, it looked weird. He tried prompting it up against his computer and sat in front of the camera.

And Quackity wanted to cringe so hard.

Quackity closed his phone and grabbed his shirt and boxers before he started to cringe hard enough to actually get a stroke.

For a brief moment he considered sending a dick pic, but no one wants a dick pic. A dick pic is like the lowest form of a nude, they’re gross, pervy and unwanted. And as comfortable Quackity were with his identy as a gay man, dicks weren’t hot by themselves.

Quackity groaned and covered his face.

How the hell does girls do this?

Quackity did suppose they had a bit more to show than him.

Quackity was the definition of being built like a stick figure. He wasn’t strong and built like Sapnap from four years of high school football. Hell, it wasn’t like Karl was very built either, but he was tall and so pretty.

Sapnap was the hot one.

Karl was the pretty one.

And Quackity was… he was Quackity.

The funny one? The smart one? The cool one?

Quackity was every verb in the dictionary that didn’t describe his looks. God Quackity never realized how boring he looked. He was just a short guy who had a good personality.

Fuck.

He couldn’t even figure out how to take a dumb picture.

Quackity sighed and opened his phone as he sat back down in his chair, tapping the purple icon and started to type.

Beloved Fiancees

Duckyboi : I have a problem
(Today at 19:13 pm)

Karlos : what’s up?
(Today at 19:15 pm)

Firefly : something wrong?
(Today at 19:16 pm)

Duckyboi : don’t laugh
Duckyboi : but I'm trying to take a
Duckyboi : a naked photo.
Duckyboi : for you
(Today at 19:17 pm)

Firefly : I am engaged to a literal angel
(Today at 19:18 pm)

Karlos : Sapnap just went red in the face and hid behind his pillow
(Today at 19:19 pm)

Duckyboi : good to know.
(Today at 19:19 pm)

Karlos : But what’s the problem? you know me and Sapnap love seeing you naked, so you have our consent to send it if it’s that
(Today at 19:20 pm)

Duckyboi : it’s not that, but thanks.
Duckyboi : I can’t figure out how to take a pic
Duckyboi : I look all stiff and weird.
(Today at 19:21 pm)

Firefly : you don’t look weird, you’re so sexy it melts my brain
(Today at 19:22 pm)

Duckyboi : thanks sap <3
Duckyboi : but it feels a lot different from letting you see me naked, to having to see myself naked and act sexy.
Duckyboi : And what if I send it and we get hacked and everyone we know sees it. I can't be a big shot lawyer if the whole world sees me naked.
(Today at 19:24 pm)

Firefly : Quackity if you’re not comfortable, you don’t have to do it.
Firefly : don’t feel pressured to do it if you don’t want to
(Today at 19:25 pm)

Duckyboi : yeah but wanted to send you something so you wouldn’t have to keep getting off to my dumb instagram pictures.
(Today at 19:26 pm)

Firefly : Are you uncomfortable with it? I'll stop.
(Today at 19:27 pm)

Duckyboi : no, I'm cool with it. But I keep thinking about what picture you do it to and it’s stressing me out, cause none of them are that hot.
(Today at 19:29 pm)

Firefly : any photo with you in it is hot <3
(Today at 19:29 pm)

Karlos : what photo do you do it to anyway?
(Today at 19:30 pm)

Firefly : the one where Quackity is eating cotton candy at the carnival we went to last year.
(Today at 19:31 pm)

Duckyboi : …
Duckyboi : that one? really?
(Today at 19:33 pm)

Firefly : YOU LOOK CUTE
(Today at 19:33 pm)

Karlos : I would have picked the one where he’s cooking chimichangas for us
(Today at 19:34 pm)

Firefly : that’s a cute photo too
(Today at 19:35 pm)

duckyboi : WHY ARE YOU SO WEIRD?!
Duckyboi : none of those are even remotely sexy, I thought it was the beach photo cause I'm almost naked
(Today at 19:37 pm)

Firefly : I do it to a lot of you’re pictures, but my favorite is the candy floss one
Firefly : I am a simple man. I like cute guys and you are the cutest guy I know ;)
(Today at 19:39 pm)

Duckyboi : you guys are no help.
(Today at 19:40 pm)

Karlos : love you too ;)
(Today at 19:41 pm)

Firefly : wanna talk about it in vc?
(Today at 19:41 pm)

Duckyboi : yes please.
(Today at 19:42 pm)

Quackity joined the call a second later, Sapnap and Karl both jumping on moments later. Quackity could see Sapnap was in his dorm room, he must have been studying when Quackity texted them. Karl was in a very well lit up room, school tables covered in paint behind him along with ugly but detailed paintings in the background. At least Karl had headphones on.

“Karl, where are you?” Quackity asked

“Art studio. I’m finishing up some sketches while I keep my friend company” Karl smiled, tilting his phone to show Quackity a brunette girl who was painting on the other side of the table.
“That’s Tina” Karl said off camera.

The girl looked up and smiled.

Quackity waved through the screen.
“Should we wait with this conversation then? I don’t want to make her uncomfortable?” Quackity asked.

“Oh nah, it’s cool, she can’t hear you anyway” Karl shrugged.
“Besides this seems more like a discussion between you and Sapnap, I'm just here to watch, as always” Karl grinned smugly.

“So what’s up, do you miss us?” Sapnap grinned.

“I always miss you” Quackity rolled his eyes as they both started to tease him.

“Okay okay, don’t act like you're not the guy jerking it to my insta” Quackity shot at Sapnap.

“You will never let me live that down, will you?” Sapnap asked defeated as he leaned his head back against the headrest of his chair. The smile on his face was a clear sign that he didn’t mind the teasing.

“Live it down? I wrote it into my vows” Karl added and Sapnap covered his face as they laughed.

“Anyway” Sapnap then spoke up, to try and avoid any more jokes.
“Quackity, I didn’t know a smart and fancy harvard student like you could ever think to turn to pornographic “ Sapnap then started and Quackity turned red in the face.

“It's not porno. I just wanted to take a picture” Quackity started to defend.

“Where you happen to be nude” Karl added and chuckled.

“Yes,” Quackity said through his teeth as his cheeks grew hotter.

“What exactly is the problem again?” Sapnap asked.

“Well… I wanted to take a picture, but I felt gross doing it. Like why have you never told me how boring I look?” Quackity leaned back in his chair.

“Hey, how dare you speak about my very hot and very sexy fiance like that” Sapnap tried to lighten the mood.
“Do you not, like, love the way you look?” he asked right after.

Quackity shrugged a bit and started to rock his chair from side to side with his feet.
“I don't know, I mean, I like what I look like, but it’s just kinda boring” Quackity said.

“You don’t look boring” Karl chimed in.

“Yes I do. Sapnap is the hot one, you’re the pretty one and I'm the boring one, apparently” Quackity said and dragged one leg up onto the chair, resting his free arm against it and his head in his palm.

“You are not the boring one” Karl defended again.

“Then what am i?” Quackity asked.

“You’re the cute, sexy, cool and smart looking one” Sapnap said, counting the words on his hand.

“But why do I feel gross while taking the picture then? I just wanna send a hot photo to my boyfriends” Quackity sounded defeated and closed his eyes.

“Quackity, like I said, you don’t have to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with. I'd love a picture of you anytime, if it's a naked one or just you enjoying a sandwich, I'd love either. But I don’t want you to do it if it makes you feel insecure or uncomfortable, that’s the last thing I want “ Sapnap smiled softly to him.
“We take it like we always do, at the speed we’re all comfortable and happy with”

“Thank you, I just feel a bit bad about it” Quackity shrugged again.

“Quackity, if I really am on the brink of death from needing to see a naked guy, I have the internet. Of course the guy wouldn’t be nearly as sexy as you, but eh” Sapnap shrugged as he joked, smiling brightly to Quackity.
“if you’re happy, I'm happy”

Quackity smiled fondly
“Thank you, this helped a lot,” Quackity said, sitting up a bit straighter again.
“How was your day?” he asked, deciding to change the subject for them.

Sapnap started to tell him about his philosophy class and this one girl who blew up on their professor for belittling another student. He told Quackity anecdotes about his day and what Dream and George had been up to. Karl chimed in a few times with his own stories, about his current art project in class, and how he almost overslept for his first class that morning.

It helped distract Quackity.

But it didn’t leave Quackity’s thoughts.

Thursday night, he tried again.

He was sitting at his desk, the night sky dark and the stars barely peeking through the overcast sky. He was trying his hardest to focus on the assignment he had due on Sunday, but his brain wouldn’t focus on the practice case and the textbook.

He kept thinking about it, wanting to send a picture. Cause he genuinely wanted to send one, but it has to be a good one.

In a sigh of defeat he clicked off from the document on his computer and opened a new browser, his cheeks growing red as he typed.

‘How to take a nude photo’.

Of course the results were all targeted towards women, the articles and tips he read all seemed to enhance or cater to making the person more feminine looking in pictures.

Now, Quackity is not feminine. He’s short, sure, but he is not a twink or a femboy or whatever the Internet wanted to stereotype a gay guy like him as.

But Sapnap was bisexual. He liked both men and women.

So maybe the articles weren’t so useless after all.

He reads about lighting, what to leave in the photo and what not to. He doesn’t care about that. He wants to know how to take a good photo.

He gets up from his chair, stands in the room for a second before going over to turn on his lamp and turn off the ceiling light.

He tried taking off the lamp shield, then putting it back on, tilting it to try and control the lighting. It doesn’t work completely, but it was okay in Quackity’s brain. He goes back to his computer to read about poses.

It suggested laying on his stomach with a pillow under his thighs to ‘make the curves of his back and butt more flattering’. Quackity pulls off his shirt, unbuckles his belt and his jeans end up on the floor. He gets on the bed and opens his phone.

He tried hard to station it on his desk without falling. But as he pulled back and saw himself naked he immediately backtracked.

He couldn’t take a photo like this. It was too much skin and too much in his head.

He almost decided to give up when he spotted the jersey Sapnap gave him. It’s placed by his pillows, right next to Boner.

Maybe he could get away with not being naked in what was supposed to be a nude photo.

Quackity pulled the shirt over his head and sat on his bed, looking into the camera again. The jersey was pooling around him, at least two sizes too big on him.

Quackity tried moving the shirt a bit, lifting it up but pulled it down immediately after. He then tried to move the neck of the jersey a bit, trying to make it drop off his shoulder, but it wasn’t that big on him.

Quackity took a deep breath in through his nose and tried to lay down on his stomach with a pillow under his thighs like the article suggested. He turned his head to look at the screen, feeling a lot more comfortable with how this looked.

The jersey was long enough to cover most of his butt, but not his thighs. He pulled a bit on the shirt on the side that wasn’t facing the camera, trying to make his body look a bit more clear in the pool of fabric.

Then Quackity moved over and clicked on the timer to get the camera to take the photo.

He took a few, trying to bend his back more, which just made him lay uncomfortably on the bed.

Finally deciding to give the photos a look, Quackity sat up properly, grabbing his boxers and putting them on first. He grabbed his phone and looked through the photos, deleting a few that looked too sluggish or out of focus.

Quackity was not a person who edited his pictures before posting them. He might put on an Instagram filter if he felt like it and then call it a day with a three word caption.

But he wanted this to look nice. He wanted it to look hot.

He downloaded an app he knew Karl liked to edit photos in and tried his best to fix up the photo, making it a bit brighter and the colors a bit warmer, deepening the shadows slightly. He chopped his face out of the photo, because the fear of someone that wasn’t Sapnap or Karl seeing this was still present.

So if this ever bit him in the ass, his face was at least not visible.

He saved the edited photo and opened discord and their private server.

Quackity didn’t exactly know which of their channels were the most appropriate to send it in. Could he just send it in their general chat? They used that the most after all?

Quackity clicked on the photo and then had to stare at his cursor as he tried to come up with anything to type along with it. It had to sound sexy, but not like he was so horny it was weird.

Why was sending nudes so fucking hard.

Beloved Fiancés

Duckyboi : thinking of you <3
(Picture attached)
(Today at 21:46 pm)

Quackity closed his phone immediately and hugged his pillow.

He sent it. He sent his boyfriends a naked picture. Well, he wasn’t actually naked, so did he actually just send them a picture? What if they were disappointed that he wore the jersey? What if they didn’t think it was hot, what if the pose was weird?

What if they don’t like it?

Quackity was scared to look at his phone. His fingers were digging into his pillow case as he tried to breathe. He was starting to feel self conscious again, dreading their response.

It felt like a million years passed before he checked his phone again. He hadn’t gotten any texts from them yet.

He did get a text from George though.

THE FERAL BOIS CHAT

404notfound : Quackity, I don’t know what you sent Sapnap, but man is on the floor with a red face.
(Today at 21:52 pm)

MexicanDream : how do you know I sent him anything?
(Today at 21:55 pm)

404notfound : sap legit said ‘oh Quackity texted’ and then fell out of his chair.
404notfound : he just ran to his dorm and told Dream to leave him the fuck alone for the next hour.
(Today at 21:56 pm)

So Sapnap had seen the photo now.

Questions swarmed Quackity’s mind. Did he like it? Did he hate it? Was he going to his dorm to text a mad text at him? Call him?

Quackity’s questions got answered about 30 seconds later when he got a text on their private server

Beloved Fiancees

Firefly : that is the hottest thing I have ever put my eyes on
(Today at 21:59 pm)

Karlos : I am looking respectfully *eye emoji*
(Today at 22:00 pm)

Firefly : Q, love, the best thing to ever happen to me
Firefly : Can I please save that photo, I am on my hands and knees, pleeeeeaaasseee
(Today at 22:01 pm)

Quackity couldn’t stop his smile, all the anxious thoughts slowly disappearing. He started to type.

Duckyboi : if you promise not to show it around.
(Today at 22:02 pm)

Firefly : oh I am not sharing this with anyone, the world doesn’t deserve to see this artwork.
Firefly : I love you so much
Firefly : can I call?
(Today at 22:04 pm)

Duckyboi : I think I might be too nervous to do that
(Today at 22:05 pm)

Quackity honestly can’t process the thought of Sapnap and Karl calling, what they might say, or how he can possibly control his nerves if they did.

Duckyboi : but have fun with your new pic ;]
(Today at 22:06 pm)

Firefly : oh I defindely am ;)
(Today at 22:06 pm)

Quackity didn’t stop himself as he typed again, the dread was now slowly turning into a comfortable feeling, like he was trading jokes and having fun. Like butterflies fluttering around in his stomach.

Duckyboi : What are you thinking about?
(Today at 22:07 pm)

Firefly : you~ <3
(Today at 22:07 pm)

Duckyboi : what part of me?~
(Today at 22:08 pm)

Firefly : all of you, but your thighs especially~
(Today at 22:09 pm)

Quackity looked away from his phone and down at his legs, still bare except for his boxers. Quackity didn’t think about it as he grabbed the hem of the jersey, holding it up just to cover his boxers. He didnn’t waste time editing this photo and sent it immediately

Quackity’s screen immediately got covered in hearts and all kinds of colorful emojis

Karlos : AWOOGA
(Today at 22:11 pm)

Firefly : AWOOGA INDEED
(Today at 22:11 pm)

Quackity laughed slightly as he started to type again, he did kinda like this part of it. They kept sending him compliments and praises, making his cheeks go red.

Duckyboi : what would you do if I was there?
(Today at 22:12 pm)

Karlos : oh, do tell him what you told me hehehe
(Today at 22:12 pm)

Firefly : I'd kiss you senseless, I'd press you up against the wall and run my hands over your body, down you legs and I'd worship you like the angel you are.
Firefly : I'd make you feel just how much I absolutely crave to have you under me, I'd take my sweet time riling you up and pleasing you for hours on end till you wouldn’t even know what your own name is.
Firefly : I'd fuck you so good into that bed that people will be able to tell for decades that we made some major love making on it
(Today at 22:15 pm)

Quackity’s face was beet red as he read Sapnap’s words over and over again, more and more texts being send, describing how Sapnap would touch him, bending him over and make him scream into a pillow, wanting him on top of him and to hold Quackity’s hips as he'd let Quackity do anything he wanted.

Karl then started to chime in with his own ideas, reminiscing about how Quackity got flustered when Sapnap tried to give him head the first few times, how quickly Quackity turned into a moaning and whimpering mess as he squeezed Sapnap’s head between his thighs.

Quackity felt like lava was starting to heat up in his stomach and Quackity was hit with a sudden want. A want to be there, a want to be touched, to touch and be kissed. A want to feel Karl hold his hand as Sapnap’s chest is flushed with his and a want to see his favorite people kiss each other again.

But he knew it was at least gonna be another two months till he could be close to them again.

But Quackity chose to ignore that for once, just for tonight.

Sapnap and Karl kept texting all kinds of things, anything from fantasies to memories from past moments between them. All of it sounded so much hotter each time Quackity read them.

When Quackity closed his eyes he could almost feel ghost hands on his body, the roughness of Sapnap’s hands after football practice, or Karl’s slender fingers between his own.

He could practically feel every word they wrote in their chat, the picture long buried in the walls of text by now. The only times Quackity could make himself open his eyes was when his phone buzzed with a new text to ignite more of the want in his stomach.

But it was all over for him and his self control when Sapnap sent a voice message.

Quackity didn’t even think about it before he clicked play on it.

It was quiet at first, but Quackity could hear Sapnap panting softly, like he was trying to be quiet. And then he said his name along with a moan.

And if Quackity’s hand traveled under the fabric of his boxers, that was between him, his boyfriends, and whatever poor soul might eavesdrop on them.

…………..

Sunday was a long and boring day.

Quackity was yet to go eat dinner, wanting to finish the last of his assignment before he did.

They hadn’t talked about Thursday.

Or well, they did, but not really.

Friday night, when they entered the call for their date, they all were a bit redder in the face than normally, but they didn’t discuss it. Sapnap smiled and told Quackity he liked the photos.

As if Quackity didn’t already know that.

Quackity had chuckled and said if he played his cards right they might get more in the future.

And that was that.

Quackity had reread their texts from Thursday maybe a few more times than he should, but who could blame him when all he could think about was the two boys across the country.

Quackity’s phone buzzed with a new text and Quackity turned his phone around to see he got a photo from Karl. Deciding it was time to take a break, he opened his phone and was met with a very interesting photo.

On his screen was a photo of Sapnap and Karl.

Naked.

Sapnap was lying on his side facing the camera, his head supported by his hand, and the other resting on his hips, looking way too proud of himself. However, a pillow was covering the main attraction by his hips.

Karl was sitting behind Sapnap, one knee prompted up to rest his elbow on, and the other resting on the bed.

Along with the photo was a text.

‘It’s not that we can’t stop thinking about you. Oh wait, that’s exactly it <3’

Quackity blushed madly and smiled, typing back.

Beloved Fiancés

Duckyboi : Well how could I possibly focus now, when I have two hot boys needing my attention ;]
(Today at 17:43)

Quackity leaned back in his chair, knowing full well his plans of finishing his assignment before dinner had just flown out the window.

Chapter Text

“I’ve just had the worst day of my life” that’s how Quackity started their call.

They could see on the screen there’s a towel draped over his head and it was still wet, meaning he’s just gotten out of the shower.

He’s also wearing Sapnap’s jersey.

“Even worse than that day where you ripped your pants in front of the seniors?” George asked from his spot on Dream’s bed. The four of them had decided to get take out for dinner and eat on call with Quackity. Sapnap was sitting in his chair, Karl next to him had dragged Dream’s chair over to sit by him. Dream and George were out of frame and sitting on Dream’s bed, the taller of them trying hard not to spill sweet sauce on his bed.

Quackity’s annoyed frown only grew.
“Karl, slap George”

“Yes, my love” Karl says and moved out of frame, George’s scream and the noise of chaos being the only sign that he did indeed slap George.

“What happened?” Sapnap asked as Karl moved back to sit beside him.

“Okay so, a little fun fact about Harvard girls. They are basic bitches. The kind that probably read buzzfeed for their news” Quackity started.
“And they also apparently love pumpkin spice” Quackity leaned back in his office chair, crossing his arms.

“So guess how my business law class went today” Quackity said.

“You accidentally drank a girl's latte” Dream suggested as he chewed on a fried orange chicken.

“You had to sit through the lecture with a group of girls next to you” Karl then asked.

“You uhhh you threw up?” Sapnap tried to come up with a new idea.

“Someone assumed you liked pumpkin spice” George chuckled from the bed.

“No, no, ew, and no” Quackity shook his head.

“I was sitting in my seat, waiting for class to start, pulling out my notes and everything I needed, minding my own goddamn business” Quackity’s voice was clearly irritated and angry.
“When a girl behind me, spills her freshly made pumpkin spice latte out over me, soaking me in coffee and almost burning my back”

“Holy shit, are you okay?” Karl asked, trying to see if Quackity had any burns through the screen.

“I’m fine. But my favorite sweatshirt, my jeans, my beanie, All of them are ruined. At least the girl offered to get them cleaned for me” Quackity muttered the last part.

“But do you wanna know the worst part?” Quackity asked, using his feet to rock his chair.

“There’s more?” Karl frowned, Quackity’s nod confirming it for him.

“Because I couldn’t leave the lecture and change in time, I have now been given the worst nickname of all time by my professor” Quackity groaned.
“He calls me pumpkin. To say I want to die is an understatement” Quackity covered his face.

“Aw Quackity, that sucks. Did you tell him to stop?” Sapnap asked.

“I can’t tell him that. I just hope he’ll forget it soon and I never have to see another pumpkin again” Quackity dragged the towel down over his face.
“Please tell me your day has been better than mine”.

“Well” Sapnap smiled proud of himself as he pulled out his phone,
“I know exactly how to cheer you up” Sapnap said and swiped his thumb across the screen.

Quackity got a ding on his phone. They watched as he grabbed his phone to check it.

“Sapnap, why did you just Venmo me 15 dollars?” Quackity asked.

“Cause guess who just got a job at the grill down the street from campus? Me!” Sapnap said proud, using his thumbs to point at himself.

“What? that’s great” Quackity smiled wide, his sour mood starting to lighten.

“I know, so you buy yourself something delicious for dinner tonight” Sapnap grinned and winked at him through the computer screen.

"Sap, it’s like nine pm over here” Quackity chuckled and leaned back in his seat.

"Then order yourself something nice tomorrow” Sapnap shrugged.

"He took me to lunch today when he got the call” Karl chimed in and leaned into Sapnap’s space.
"We got nachos” he kissed Sapnap’s cheek.

"Sounds like you had a lot of fun” Quackity said, his smile a bit more strained. They could see Quackity was fighting to not furrow his brow.

"Sorry, I didn’t wanna make out feel left out” Karl immediately moved off Sapnap.

"No, no you didn’t” Quackity shook his head.
“You guys can go out on dates, I'm cool with it. I just, kinda miss going out with you guys too” Quackity crossed his arms and shrugged.

"Well, look on the bright side, there's only six weeks till Thanksgiving” Sapnap said.
"And with our new jobs we’re gonna spoil you rotten” he made a finger gun at his computer.

"Your new jobs? plural? Karl, you got a job too?” Quackity asked.

"Not yet” Karl held up a finger to almost try and pause the conversation.
"I went to an interview for a small job at the library, but I haven’t heard back yet” Karl explained.

"How come you guys haven’t mentioned this to me?” Quackity asked with a relaxed smile.

"We wanted to surprise you” Karl explained simply.

"Well, I hope you get it. Who knows, maybe on Friday you’ve got the news and we can celebrate it big time for both of you” Quackity smiled wide, but soon noticed the way Karl and Sapnap looked at each other and kept up awkward smiles.

"What?” Quackity asked.

“So about Friday. I can’t make it” Sapnap said and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Because I’m new I need training, and I can’t exactly pick and choose what days I work yet, cause I don’t want them to think I’m unreliable” Sapnap tried to explain.

"Oh… It’s okay, I understand” Quackity said,
“Me and Karl can just celebrate together then” he suggested.

“I’ve actually been invited to go out Friday” Karl said, picking at his nails.
“Some of the girls asked if I wanted to go to this street art thing, and I’ve been meaning to check it out, so I said yes”.

“Oh” Quackity blinked.
“Well… We can just hang out on Saturday then?” Quackity suggested.

“Yeah, sure,” Sapnap smiled
“I have an early shift, and it should be done around four. We can eat dinner together” Sapnap looked to Karl who nodded.
"Saturday works great with me” Karl smiled to Sapnap and then to Quackity.

"Great. Do we wanna order door dash for each other again?” Quackity then asked, starting to plan their date a bit. They came up with a good time to call for dinner for all of them, planned what games they wanted to try out together and Karl went on a tangent about what movie they must watch together this weekend. They kept chatting like that till Quackity started to yawn and blink himself awake when he started to doze off.

"Are you okay?” Sapnap asked after the tenth time Quackity yawned.

"Yeah, I'm just getting tired. I have morning classes this entire week” Quackity rubbed at his eyes again.

"Oh, maybe you should go to bed then, isn’t it super late over there too?” he asked and looked at the clock, it was a bit past seven, meaning it was over ten where Quackity was.

"I don’t need a bedtime,”Quackity said with a pout.

"Yes, but we can’t have you falling asleep during class” Karl smiled.

"I guess. Can’t have my teacher calling me sleeping beauty too” Quackity sighed.

"It would be accurate though,” Sapnap winked.

Quackity rolled his eyes and smiled,
"Good night guys. I love you” Quackity said and reached over to his mouse pad.

"We love you too!”

"Goodnight! love you!”

They waved and smiled as they saw Quackity end the call. They both leaned back in their seats and smiled.

“He took that well, right?” Karl clapped his hands down on his knees.

“Yeah, I was a bit worried he’d be upset” Sapnap leaned back in his chair, grabbing his takeout box and eating a cold orange chicken piece.

“Why? Quackity Isn't that controlling?” Dream asked and swallowed a mouthful of noodles.

“Yeah but he hasn’t really mentioned any friends or people he hangs out with, and we don't want him to be lonely” Karl said and spun in his chair to look at them.

“Well, have you introduced him to your new friends?” George asked as he finished his food and threw it out in the wastebasket.

“He’s seen Tina” Karl said.

“Yeah but has he met punz?” Dream asked.

“No, I guess not” Sapnap shrugged.

“Quackity is a big boy. He can entertain himself on a Friday night. I bet Harvard has some cool hang out spots” George said and moved his legs over Dream’s lap.

“You’re right. Quackity was cool with it” Karl smiled.

…………..

Quackity was not cool with it.

But he told himself that he wasn’t a controlling boyfriend, and he does not care that his boyfriends cancel a date. He’s not insane.

His boyfriends can hang out with whoever they want to and have rational reasons to cancel and reschedule a date.

So yeah, Quackity was spending a Friday night alone. In his dorm room. Alone.

He tried to tell himself it was just like his Saturday nights instead. He’d do a bit of work on another assignment, try hard not to start crying when the terms started to swim in front of his eyes, watch a movie and then he could text the others later, when he was sure they might have time.

Quackity stared through the microwave glass to the popping popcorn bag spinning around in there. He focused hard on taking notice of when the bag seemed to be done popping most of the corn, the last thing he wanted was to be known as the guy that made the common area kitchen smell burnt.

He could hear voices on the other end of the common area, people chatting over what he thought might be a board game of sorts, a few others discussing a movie they were watching on the tv.

If he asked, he could maybe join them, play a game or discuss the movie he had already missed the start of. He could offer to share his popcorn to seem more friendly too.

But the groups all seemed to be having a lot of fun, and with very close friends.

Quackity didn’t wanna be a third, or fourth, or seventh wheel. He didn’t want to make it awkward for anyone with him sitting in on a bunch of strangers' conversations.

The microwave beeped and Quackity pulled the door of it open, thanking god that it didn’t smell burnt. He grabbed the bag, trying not to let the seam from it burn his hands as he closed the microwave again. He walked along the edge of the common area and to the stairs. He took two steps up before he stopped.

He looked back into the common area.

He could hear someone laugh loudly.

They probably wouldn’t mind if he asked.

Quackity bit his lip and looked down at the warm popcorn bag in his hands. He sighed and took another step up the stairs.

He didn’t want people to mind him. He didn’t want to risk being a bother.

Walking up the flights of stairs and to the top floor, he reached his door and unlocked it.

Once inside, Quackity dropped the bag of popcorn on his desk. He went back to his door and locked it.

He dumped himself into his chair and opened his computer. He read through a few of the emails from his teacher’s and through some of the assignments he hadn’t started on.

He clicked on one of the new playlists Karl had made, the title oddly specific, but that’s why he liked them. Because Karl liked making playlists with titles like ‘putting my hands in oil paint’ and ‘peeling carrots at 3 am’, and Quackity loved listening to them.

He didn’t notice when the tapping on his window started, but he did hear the loud joyful yell from outside. He looked over to his window, the sky already dark as they got closer and closer to Halloween. Quackity got up from his chair and looked out the window.

He could see a group of girls and a few guys running through the heavy rain. Their laughter was loud and Quackity was pretty sure one of the boys was singing some drinking song as they hurried through the wet grassy fields.

He watched them run towards the gates. It didn’t take much brain power for Quackity to know they had been pregaming before a party, and Quackity felt a bit jealous. He doesn’t really remember the last time he was proper drunk or had been to a party.

Bad used to buy vodka and let the Sapnap share it with him and Karl. Bad claimed he’d rather know what they actually drank than risk them trying to get their hands on it on their own.

And yeah, it was technically illegal, but Quackity had not been about to remind him of that.

Quackity moved back over to sit down in his chair. He grabbed the bag of popcorn and ripped the bag open. He sighed and looked at the time.

It was barely eight.

Quackity opened a new browser and searched for a movie he remembered Karl recommending him. He found a pirated site and fumbled with stopping the pop ups as he tried to start the movie. Quackity pulled his legs up on the seat of his chair as he leaned back and stuffed his mouth with popcorn.

He was barely ten minutes into the movie when he heard muffled moaning on the other side of the wall by his bed. Quackity paused his movie for a second. Maybe it was just the wind? but as he was about to start the movie again, he heard a girl call out a name and a string of curses and moans.

Quackity pulled a face and went digging through his school bag to pull out his headphones. Of course everyone in this world had people to hang out with. But why did he have to listen to it?.

Quackity plugged his headphones into his computer and leaned back in his chair again, turning up the volume till the girl’s moans were nonexistent in his ears.

he sighed.

At least he could talk to Karl and Sapnap about the movie tomorrow.

…………

They all wish they could say that was the only time they canceled date night.

But Sapnap was pretty busy with being trained up in the new job, school work and football practice.

And Karl actually got the job at the library, so they both seemed tired on their late night calls and Quackity didn’t want to seem needy.

Their discord chat got filled with more cancellations and apologizes.

I have a late shift today.

I need to focus on this assignment.

Sorry, I can’t make it.

Quackity understood. He knew it was hard balancing studies, work and free time activities. Hell, Quackity had a deal with his parents not to get a side gig to focus on law school.

But just because he understood, didn’t mean it didn’t still bother him.

It stung even more when they canceled and rescheduled their date again because of a Halloween party. Quackity wanted to tell them he wanted them to stay home with him.

But it’s not their fault Quackity had nothing to do.

And it was clear they didn’t even know.

Karl had asked if he had any plans with friends for Halloween, and Quackity had frozen and lied.

He lied straight to Karl’s face for the first time in their relationship. For the first time where it wasn’t to cover up a birthday gift surprise or joke that would be revealed moments later.

Quackity had lied straight to Karl and said he was hanging out with his friend Jeremy.

A guy that didn’t exist.

And he said that just so Karl didn’t have to feel bad for canceling again.

Because Quackity didn’t want to be the reason Sapnap and Karl were spending every Friday night on call with him. Not when they can go to college parties and make memories and new friends.

At least they wanted to call the day of the party.

“What do you think, Big Q?” Karl asked as he pulled a brush away from Sapnap’s face to show their boyfriend the face paint. Karl had insisted they dressed up for the party.

Sapnap wanted to be a vampire and Karl wanted to be a robot.

Not very matching, but they seemed to have fun as they got dressed up.

“It looks good,” he smiled as Sapnap looked at the screen. His face had been painted completely white, his eyes dark and fangs painted on his bottom lip along with fake blood.

“Yeah? Good enough for you to let me bite you?” Sapnap asked with a grin.

“If it means I get to spend eternity with you, sure” Quackity blushed.

Karl looked off camera and into a mirror as he started on his own face paint.
“What are you going as?” He asked as he tried to concentrate.

“Oh, um, I haven’t really planned on dressing up” Quackity shrugged.

“What about Jeremy?” Karl tried to paint a straight line from his eye and down to his jaw line.

“He hasn’t mentioned it. We’re gonna check out one of the parties here on campus” Quackity lied, looking down at his hands. He couldn’t really look at them when he lied.

He didn’t want to.

“I think you should dress up as an Angel” Sapnap bit his bottom lip and squinted his eyes. He leaned in close to the camera.
“Cause you definitely came from heaven”.

Quackity couldn’t help the laugh as he shook his head at Sapnap.
“You’re never gonna stop flirting with us, are you?”

“Nope” Sapnap said and popped the p.

Quackity smiled as he leaned back and watched Sapnap and Karl fumble to get ready. Sapnap was tying a red bed sheet around his shoulders to look like a cape, and Karl had begun to paint buttons on his cheeks.

He could watch them forever if they would just let him.

“You’re very quiet today. Everything okay?” Karl asked.

“Yeah, yeah everything’s fine” Quackity said and looked back down at his hands, picking at his nails. Should he mention that he actually wanted to have date night instead? He couldn’t ask them to stay home from the party, not when they were that excited for it. But he was getting tired of all the canceling.

“I guess I just…” Quackity started.
“I kinda miss date night. It’s been like three weeks where we didn’t have to move it”.

“Oh, we’re really sorry we’ve canceled so much lately” Karl finally looked at the screen again, he’s starting to look like a robot.

“It’s fine. I get it, I just… I really miss you” Quackity blushed.

“We miss you too” Karl said and Sapnap looked over his shoulder and smiled.
“More than you know,” Sapnap said.

“I know, I just. Can we not move it next Friday? I like that we have it scheduled, it makes missing you easier” Quackity said truthfully.

Sapnap smiled,
“Of course. Okay, next Friday is definitely date night. We’re not canceling or rescheduling it. It’s just us three, pizza and games, maybe a movie. I have a late lecture though, so I might first be free around six I think” Sapnap shrugged with a smile so warm the sun was envious.

Quackity smiled back, almost just as bright.
“Great, I already can’t wait” he winked.

“Anything for you, Q” Karl smiled.

Then it knocked on the door and Dream poked his head into the room.
“Are you two ready yet?”.

“Almost” Karl said and focused back on his face paint, moving much faster now.

“We gotta go, love you Quackity” Sapnap smiled and turned to the camera again.

“I love you too. I’ll see ya on Friday at nine. Have fun at the party”
Quackity waved to them.

“At nine, got it. Love ya, bye!” Karl managed to say before they disappeared from his screen.

Quackity sighed as he sank into the chair further. At least next Friday, he’d have them all to himself for an entire night.

Quackity left his room only to go get a sandwich for dinner again at the cafeteria. He went off campus to buy some snacks for whatever movie was gonna entertain him tonight.

The rest of his night he spent with a movie playing, a chips bag on his lap and scrolling through Instagram and watching Sapnap and Karl’s stories as they posted pictures from the party.

Quackity screenshot a cute picture Karl posted of Sapnap kissing his cheek and smearing their face paints together.

Quackity tried to ignore the stinging feeling in his heart.

Four weeks till thanksgiving. He could make that.

………..

With each day they got closer to Friday again, the more excited Quackity got.

It was the only thing he could think about during schaltt’s long lectures or when his parents called to celebrate his grandpa on the day of the dead with his grandma.

It wasn’t like there was a big occasion or a big celebration for their date, Quackity was just really excited to have them all to himself.

And when the Friday lectures finished and Quackity walked to his dorm, he could barely wait till nine. He dropped his bag off at the dorm before going off campus to pick up something easy for dinner and grab snacks for later.

After getting back and heating up a frozen dinner in the common kitchen, he went back up to his dorm to eat and change into a nicer shirt.

It was silly, dressing up for an online date, but it honestly felt nice to have a date.

Physical or not.

And when the clock finally came around to nine pm, Quackity jumped into the call.

He smiled as he looked at himself in the face cam, taking the moment alone to puff up his black bangs and mess with his beanie. He wanted to look great.

But unbeknownst to him, about 4100 kilometers away and three time zones apart, Sapnap and Karl were not in their dorms, or close to a computer.

The two were meeting up in the cafeteria to eat dinner.

They talked and chatted about their day as they ate, discussing movies they wanted to watch tonight and what games they thought Quackity would like.

They really wanted to make up for all the cancellations they had given him over the past few weeks.

They spend a good amount of time at the cafeteria. Only leaving once it seemed too crowded and felt like they were starting to be hogging the seats from other people with food trays.

Sapnap threw out their trash and Karl grabbed his hand as they made their way towards the doors.

"What time is it?” Karl asked, swinging their hands back and forth between them.

"I don’t know. My phone kinda died before I got here” Sapnap shrugged and pushed the cafeteria doors open for them.

“Damn, I forgot mine at the dorms before leaving” Karl said as they walked together down the halls.

Sapnap stopped in his step and craned his neck to look down the hall and spotted a clock hanging over one of the doors.

“Fear not. The old people are here to rescue us” he joked and turned to Karl again.
“It’s pretty close to eight pm. We’ve got like an hour till Quackity calls” Sapnap said and pouted.

"Aw, you miss him” Karl smiled.

“Yeah I do” Sapnap said as they started to walk again.
“What if he’s grown taller and doesn’t need our help reaching the top shelf anymore? He’s so cute when he tries to tiptoe while reaching for things” Sapnap asked.

“Sap, Quackity has been like 5’6 since we were 15. He’s not getting any taller no matter how much you two talk about it” Karl chuckled.

“Wanna go buy snacks to kill the time?” He asked then.

“You know I do” Sapnap grinned.

They exited the building and walked over the grassy fields and along the sidewalk of the dorm buildings till they exited the campus.

They could walk to Walmart in 15 minutes if they followed the street. But if they walked through the park, they could be by a Lidl in 10 minutes. And the park was also much prettier.

Sapnap sighed as he spotted a duck in one of the ponds diving under the water and reappearing. It then shook its tail feathers.

“Quackity would love the park” Sapnap pouted.

“Yeah, he would,” Karl smiled and tugged Sapnap along.

“Do you think we could go feed the ducks tomorrow?” Sapnap looked at Karl.

“You have a thing for those ducks, you know that right?” Karl chuckled and stroked his thumb over Sapnap’s knuckles.

“They remind me of him. And I miss him like crazy” Sapnap defended himself.

“So do I, but I don’t stalk the local birds because of it” Karl leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“Mhm, maybe I’m just a better boyfriend then” Sapnap teased. Karl puffed to his arm,
“As if. I proposed to him first”

“But I brought the ring pop first” Sapnap stuck his tongue out at Karl as they neared the exit of the park.

They continued to tease and playfully bicker like that all the way through the grocery store, while picking out chips and soda bottles, even by the register.

When they arrived back on campus, it was a bit past eight.

Karl let go of Sapnap’s hand and smiled,
“I’ll go get the movie ready. You pop the popcorn” he said.

“As you wish, handsome” Sapnap peaked his lips before grabbing the popcorn box from their bag of snacks and drinks.

“Wait, do you mind putting my phone to recharge in your room?” He asked and handed his phone to Karl.

“Sure” Karl smiled. He let Karl take it along with their bag upstairs to his room and Sapnap turned to find his own door.

Dream and he had invested in renting a microwave for their dorm room, one Karl and George took a lot of liberty in borrowing as well.

Sapnap thanked god there was no sock on the door handle as he came up to it. The last thing he wanted was to see George and Dream’s naked asses doing the horizontal tango.

He could hear them laugh and bicker inside. Opening the door he saw why. They were currently playing a video game on Dream’s computer but he was unable to see which one exactly.

“That’s not fair! I’m colorblind” George half yelled and caused Dream to wheeze.

“Hey guys” Sapnap greeted them and opened the microwave, ripping the plastic off the popcorn package and threw it in, setting the timer.

“Hey sap” Dream looked up quickly before returning his focus to his screen.
“How was Quackity?” Dream asked.

"Don’t know, we haven’t entered the call yet” Sapnap said and held up the box of popcorn before putting it down on his shelf of snacks and food items.
“We went to get snacks”

"Weren’t your date at like 6?” George asked with a frown without looking up.

“No, Quackity said he’d call at nine” Sapnap said and looked around to try and spot the clock.
"There should still be 30 minutes till”

George raised an eyebrow, giving up on beating Dream. He looked up at Sapnap.
“Sapnap, why the fuck would Quackity mean nine at our time? It’s like close to midnight over there right now”.

That seemed to stop Sapnap in his tracks. He blinked once. Then twice.

“Oh fuck” Sapnap cursed. He immediately ran out of the door and down the hall.
“Karl we fucked up!” They could hear him yell from down the hall.

Sapnap practically ran into Karl’s door with the speed he had going. The paper with their names and funny doodles almost fell off the door.
Karl opened the door quickly, confused as Sapnap ran in.

“Karl we fucked up” Sapnap said and looked around for his phone among the mess of clothes, papers, acrylic paints and brushes. When he finally found it, he grabbed it from where it was charging next to Karl’s pillow.

“What’s going on? You look like a demon is trying to murder you” Karl asked confused as Sapnap fumbled to unlock his phone.

“Have you checked your phone?” Sapnap asked as he finally got his phone to start up again. He paled as he saw the pings and calls from Quackity from a few hours ago.

“No, I just got back, I was setting up the movie” Karl frowned even more as he saw Sapnap’s face.
“What is it?”.

Sapnap turned the phone to show Karl the screen.
“Quackity didn’t mean 9 pm our time” Sapnap said.

Karl’s face dropped as he saw the texts and calls.

“Oh fuck”

“What should we do?” Sapnap asked, opening his phone and started to scroll down through the texts and pings from Quackity.

“What do you mean? Call him” Karl said and came over to look at his phone. Sapnap worked fast to get out of his discord and find Quackity’s number.

The air was tense as they watched the phone and Quackity’s id picture smiling back at them.

With each dial, Sapnap and Karl only felt more guilty.
And then the dials stopped, the sound of moving sheets making Quackity’s icon highlight on their screen.

“What.”

Quackity’s voice sounded firm, angry, and groggy with sleep.

“Quackity, we are so sorry, we thought you meant nine, in our time, and we completely forgot about the time difference. We are so sorry” Karl immediately starts to explain frantically.

“Yeah, we are so sorry, we were just busy and didn’t think. We are so sorry we made you wait” Sapnap added and looked at Karl, who nodded next to him.

Quackity was quiet on his end of the line, and Sapnap and Karl were both scared to say anything further. Feeling like kids having been caught drawing on the walls.

“Are you mad at us?…” Sapnap then asked, not able to take the tension for much longer.

“I am fucking pissed at you” Quackity said.

“I waited like three fucking hours in vc. I pinged you like twenty times and tried calling you, and you didn’t even fucking text me” they could hear Quackity moved in his bed.

“We know, and we’re really sorry. I forgot my phone at the dorm and sap’s phone died after class” Karl tried to explain.

“Stop. I don’t care, I’m honestly too mad to even have this conversation” Quackity took a deep breath.
“It’s fucking midnight over here. I'm going back to sleep. I’ll call you when I can be bothered to” Quackity finally said, his words stinging in both their chests.

“Okay, goodnight” Karl said.

“We love you” Sapnap tried, but Quackity hung up on them without saying goodbye.

That moment was the start of ‘Venmo week’.

Now, you might ask yourself, what is ‘Venmo week’?.

After that night, Quackity didn’t talk to Sapnap or Karl for a week straight.

Sapnap and Karl had seen Quackity mad before, but never had they been on the receiving end. They knew Quackity didn’t talk about his problems till he absolutely had to, and would absolutely ignore whoever he was mad at. He did it once to his parents after they threw out the comic book Karl had gifted him when he was 15.

And being on the other side of the country, also meant Sapnap and Karl couldn’t just show up. And Quackity didn’t answer their texts or calls, and if he did, it was only two word responses.

So with no other choice or idea of what to do, Sapnap and Karl accidentally started love bombing him.

It started with cute texts almost every hour of the day, praises, hearts and ‘I love you’ spamming their group chat.

Then they started to send Quackity money through Venmo with cute texts, saying sorry, that he could buy himself a good lunch or a new shirt.

Quackity just sent them back as soon as he saw the nodications.

George and Dream were the victims of Karl and Sapnap going on and on about how they could possibly get Quackity to talk to them, how to apologize and if they could talk to Quackity about calling them.

It all culminated Saturday morning, when Quackity went to get his mail from the post office on campus, where he was given a big package he did not order.

The guy behind the counter just shrugged, saying it had his name on it and to take it along with his mail.

When Quackity got back and opened the package in his dorm room, he was beyond pissed, grabbing his phone to send his boyfriends a very rude text.

Beloved Fiancés

Duckyboi : which one of you bitches sent me the White House lego set.
(Today at 11:23 am)

Karlos : we both did <3
(Today at 11:24am)

Duckyboi : VC NOW
(Today at 11:24 am)

Quackity was fuming as he turned on his computer, discord popping up almost immediately. He clicked on the voice call channel and waited. Sapnap and Karl popped up on his screen from Karl’s phone. Sapnap’s hair was still a mess and Karl was still in his pj, meaning they had just gotten out of bed.

“Stop sending me shit” Quackity said through gritted teeth.
“You two are unbelievable. Thinking you can manipulate me and buy my forgiveness. That is not how our relationship works” Quackity immediately blew up on them, violently tapping his finger on the desk.

“You are love bombing me, and it’s making being pissed at you even more hard. Stop it” he demanded with a scowl.

“But you won’t talk to us” Sapnap defended, grabbing the phone off the desk Karl had presumably placed it on.

“You’ve ignored us for a week and we just wanna talk, we’re trying to say sorry about not texting or calling you back, but you won’t let us apologize” Sapnap was tearing up now, out of the three of them, Sapnap had always been the cry baby, unable to have a fight without tearing up.

Quackity’s scowl disappeared as he saw Sapnap rub his eyes for tears.

Karl then grabbed the phone and turned it towards himself.
“We miss you so much already, and you ignoring us is only making it harder. Be mad at us, but please just talk to us” Karl almost pleaded.

“I’m not mad at you” Quackity leaned back in his seat with a sigh.
“I’m hurt” he admitted.

Karl placed the phone back down on the desk, tilted up so Quackity could see them both.
Sapnap was still fighting to stay composed.

“Yes, I was pissed you didn’t text me and I waited for three hours. But I was honestly more hurt, because it felt like you forgot me. You’ve canceled so much lately and I feel like you’re leaving me behind. And when you didn’t answer me I just lost it” Quackity pulled at the sleeves of his sweatshirt.

“We’re barely half a semester into this long distance situation, and it’s already so hard” Quackity muttered.

“Yeah…” Karl agreed.

“We’re sorry we didn’t call, we meant to. We didn’t realize you meant nine at your place and we forgot the time difference” Sapnap sniffed.

Karl chuckled awkwardly,
“We really are stupid, huh”.

“Don’t say that” Quackity frowned.
“Only I get to call you dumb, and that’s when you’re being cute. So don’t turn it around and into a bad thing” Quackity said and Karl nodded immediately along, willing to agree that the earth was flat if it made Quackity happy.

“Now. Sapnap, don’t cry” Quackity sighed and rubbed his own face.
“Take a moment and just hug each other for me” he told them, watching as Karl and Sapnap fell into each other’s arms, still looking at the screen.

Quackity drew his own arms up around himself to try and hug along with them.
“I’m sorry I ghosted you. That was a dick move”.

“We’re sorry for stalking you,” Sapnap said.

“And for love bombing” Karl nuzzled his head into Sapnap’s hair.

“It’s okay. I don’t like being mad at you, it’s fucking lonesome” Quackity smiled,
“And really hard, cause I missed you so much”.

“We missed you too. I saw a duck yesterday and started crying” Sapnap said, getting a chuckle out of both Karl and Quackity.

“Promise you won’t ghost us again?” Karl asked.

“I won’t” Quackity promised.

They sat in silence for a moment. Quackity reached out of frame, grabbing the lego box and holding up the set to the screen.

“You can’t send me expensive stuff like this anymore either. You’re college students” he said with a joking smile.

“So? Our rich lawyer fiancé is gonna pay our debt” Karl stuck his tongue out at him.

“Oh really? Am I now?” Quackity laughed along with him. Sapnap smiled and leaned his head against Karl’s shoulder.
“Do you want us to return it?”

“Nah,” Quackity shook his head, placing the box in his lap.
“No. Too much of a hassle. We’ll just say this is my Christmas gift this year” Quackity suggested.

“That works too” Sapnap smiled.

“Are you guys busy today?” Quackity asked after another moment.

“Not really. I have a report I need to finish, and some coding to do” Sapnap said.

“I have an art project that needs to get lineart. And some math homework” Karl said.

“Oh, well, would you like to call later? We could maybe eat on call, and we could build the White House together? Or watch a movie” Quackity asked, swiping nonexistent dust off the lego set as he moved it in his lap.

“We could also just… spend the day together on call? Do our things and chat?” Sapnap suggested.

“Sure. I’d like that” Quackity smiled at them.

Karl smiled wide and moved to get up, moving out of Sapnap’s hug.
“I’ll go get dressed and get my stuff. Sap, you get us some breakfast” Karl said as he moved out of frame.

Quackity smiled, grabbing the rest of his mail as Sapnap got out of bed as well to get dressed off camera.

They spend their morning in content silence. Quackity listened to Karl and Sapnap’s spoons scraping along their plastic cereal bowls.

Sapnap typed on his computer and Karl queued music in the discord chat as they worked. Quackity could see Karl working on his own computer on Sapnap’s bed.

There were a few times the music filled air would get interrupted by Karl asking Quackity a math question.

It was a breath of fresh air finally seeing some numbers and equations make sense to him.

Quackity studied a bit too, but his hands were edging with the need to start on the lego set. He managed to wait till Karl started on the lineart for his project. He showed off his artwork to Quackity and explained the color theory and symbolism of it and what the assignment itself was.

Quackity didn’t understand it completely, but he liked Karl’s art, and when Karl started to monologue and explain it in detail.

Quackity opened the lego set and pulled out the instructions as well as he started on his own little endeavor. Karl hummed along to the music. And Sapnap cursed a bit once he started on the coding.

Quackity miss days like this.

Days where they didn’t really do anything in particular, just sitting in each other’s company and doing their own thing.

There wasn’t a need to carry a conversation the entire time.

Like a Saturday morning at Sapnap’s house. Sandwiched between them and feeling Karl mess with his hair as Sapnap snuggled in closer and they just enjoyed each other’s presents.

And when they did talk, they chatted about the most random things.

Dream and George dropped in for a few moments here or there, but except for that, it was only the three of them. When dinner time came, Quackity ordered food and Sapnap and Karl moved onto one of their phones and they brought him along as they went to grab something easy for dinner at the cafeteria.

They were on call for over twelve hours that day, probably closer to sixteen even. The only reason they even ended the call was because Quackity was falling asleep in his chair, the White House lego set done hours ago and sitting on his dresser on full display.

Quackity preferred a day like this over any scheduled dates.

Chapter Text

Fun fact about Quackity, there's only three things he absolutely loathes beyond anything.

Being forced to run, thunderstorms and flying.

Quackirty was sixteen the first time he ever flew. Bad and Skeppy had let Sapnap invite him and Karl along to their family vacation to Florida, a very nice offer that they couldn’t refuse.

He remembers the first time very clearly, how on the trip there Quackity was practically crushing Sapnap’s hand to calm his nerves with how much the plane shook.

In the almost six hours that flight took, Quackity didn’t unbuckle his seat once. Everytime the plane shook he only pressed himself further into his seat. Bad tried to help him, ever so patient with the teens in his life, it properly helped that he worked with them on a day to day basis.

Bad tried to help reassure him that everything was alright and the shaking was nothing more than turbulence and was very normal. Karl tried to read to him and Sapnap, but that only helped for a little while. He couldn’t sleep, being unable to relax in the slightest.

But funny enough, Skeppy was the most helpful in the end. He offered Quackity about three pieces of strawberry bubblegum. At first Quackity declined, explaining that he didn’t like bubblegum.

Skeppy just placed them in his hand and said neither did he.

Quackity had reluctantly started to chew on the first piece, and it worked. He would chew and blow the bubblegum until it lost all taste to it, to which he added another piece.

And ever since Quackity always brought a package of strawberry gum before going on any flights. He hated it, he hated flying with all his being. But it was all worth it as he was walking down the polished floors of the airport, seeing thanksgiving decorations in the airport shops.

He almost couldn’t get his baggage fast enough and roll out of the sliding doors and into the exit part of the airport.

And for the first time in almost three months, he heard the best thing ever.

“Quackity!”

Quackity turned in the direction of the yell, smiling wide as he saw not one, but two boys come sprinting towards him.

Quackity let go of the handle on his bags as he opened his arms and was tackled into a hug. Quackity was barely keeping his balance when Sapnap rammed into him, but they ended up on the floor when Karl smashed into them, knocking over his suitcase in the process.

“Guys, you’re crushing me” Quackity laughed as they fought to kiss him first.

Karl won in the end and kissed him deeply before pulling back with a grin,
"Mhmm strawberry flavor~”.

Sapnap playfully shoved Karl off and pulled Quackity up and into a kiss.

"Boys please. Some PDA please. You are making a scene” Bad’s voice came from behind them.
"The security people almost came over” Bad shook his head at them but still smiled.

"Sorry dad” Sapnap apologized when he broke from the kiss and helped Quackity up finally. Karl took Quackity’s suitcase and raised it up as well, grabbing the handle.

"Sorry Bad” Quackity blushed, and was immediately pulled into a hug by Bad.

"It’s good to see you again, Quackity” Bad smiled and pulled back to look him over.
"You look tired? Was it a long flight?” he asked. Bad had always been like a dad for all of them. He was technically Karl and Quackity’s future father in law, so it made sense in a way.

"You know it was” Quackity sighed and yawned.

"Well, we have an hour’s car ride, you can get some shut eye on the way” Bad smiled and finally let go of him. But not a second later did Quackity have both his hands full of two clingy boys, each having taken a hand.

"So, me and Karl thought we should hit up the arcade this week? or maybe roller skating?” Sapnap suggested as they started to head towards the exit gates.
"Or maybe a trampoline park? That sounds like a fun date, right?” Sapnap grinned with excitement.

"Are there even any trampoline parks near us?” Quackity chuckled, swinging their hands back and forth.

"I don’t know? maybe” Karl said, looking back to check Quackity’s suitcase was rolling along behind him.

"We just really wanna go on as many dates as possible with you” Sapnap blushed.

“Honestly, going to the diner is more than enough. We don’t have to do anything fancy” Quackity smiled and fought back another yawn.

The late night air was chilling as they finally stepped out, they walked quickly over the street and into the parking lot. Bad led the way to his car, opening the trunk of it as they came up to it.

Sapnap opened the car door for Quackity, letting him get into the back middle seat before getting in after him. Karl got into the car from the other side after he handed Bad the suitcase to put it in the trunk.

"Can we talk about date ideas later? I feel like passing out” Quackity asked and leaned his head back on the small headrest of the middle seat.

"Sure, we’ll wake you if we manage to get dad to stop by mcdonalds” Sapnap peaked his lips quickly.

“I want nuggets please” Quackity spoke through a yawn and closed his eyes.

He nodded off quickly, letting the soft murmur of conversations and the radio lull him into a nap. We would drift in and out of sleep a few times, but never fully waking up. At one point Quackity’s head had tilted and rested against Karl’s shoulder, snoring and drooling as the car rode down the highway, rocking him further into sleep.

“Awwww” Sapnap cooed at the sight, opening his phone to snap a few pictures of them.

“If you wake him up, I am not buying you a Christmas present” Karl threatened.

Quackity didn’t realize how much time had passed before Karl was gently shaking him awake.
“Hey, Babe, we’re here” Karl smiled.

“Five more minutes” Quackity mumbled and hugged Karl’s arm. He could feel the rumble of Karl’s laughter in his chest.

“We brought you the nuggets” Karl bribed him and poked his sides to wake him up again.
“And cheeseburgers”

Quackity’s stomach betrayed him with a growl and Quackity groaned tired as he let go of Karl.
“Thank you” he said and unbuckled his seat belt with a yawn.

Sapnap was already dragging his suitcase into the house and up the stairs when Quackity got out of the car and started to walk up the brick path of the white house they spent most of their youth in.

“When were your parents returning home, Quackity? I want to wish them happy thanksgiving with some muffins” Bad asked as he started to pull off his jacket.

Quackity undid the knot of his shoelaces and blinked again to force himself awake. Rat, the little white dog was jumping up at their legs and barking until Karl picked him up and cooed at him.
“On Thursday I think. They were pretty pissed that I decided to have thanksgiving with you guys. But my aunt Sofia can fuck off with her veggie casserole” Quackity stretched his arms over his head.

“Language” Bad frowned but the smile remained.
“Something tells me a vegetarian casserole wasn’t the only factor in that decision though” Bad said with a knowing look.

“Well, when the choice is between two cute boys or being at the kids table with my seven year old cousins, it isn’t hard to choose,” Quackity smiled.
“Besides, you make the best pies” Quackity smiled wide in a clear attempt at flattering his boyfriend’s dad.

Bad rolled his eyes fondly.
“I suppose” he said.

“Hey dad!” Sapnap called from upstairs.
“Can we eat in my room?!” He yelled.

“Sapnap, inside voice, your father is sleeping” Bad said stern as he turned his attention to the stairs located a few feet ahead of them.

“Oh! Sorry!” Sapnap called back down and Bad could only sighed and shake his head.

He looked back at Karl and Quackity,
“Tell him you can eat upstairs, but he better throw the trash out. I don’t want it laying on his desk for the next five days” he said and turned to walk into the living room and disappear under the arch leading into the kitchen.

“We will” Karl smiled and took Quackity’s hand before dragging him up the stairs past numerous family and childhood photos on the wall.

Sapnap’s room was plainer than it was during the summer, most of his shelves were empty with the exception of some old books he hadn’t touched in ages and a few old photos and posters he left behind.

Karl and Sapnap’s bags were placed in the corner along with his suitcase. Sapnap grinned at them as he held up the brown McDonald’s bag.
“Who wants a late night burger?” He opened the bag and dumped down on his bed.

“Me, I’m so hungry. The plane food was basically just Mayo and bread” Quackity grinned as he moved towards the bed, letting Karl shut the door behind them.

Quackity was tired, his eyes were heavy and his stomach was growling as Sapnap handed him the ten piece McNuggets box and a sweet and sour sauce package.

And as Karl joined them on the bed and they ate their trashy junk food, Quackity couldn’t help but think this was the happiest he had been since summer ended.

It was good to be home.

………….

Something Quackity found out in the morning was that because of jet lag and living three time zones ahead of everyone else in California, he woke up awfully early compared to what he used to.

The first thing he registered was the soft fabric of Karl’s shirt on his cheek, the pressure of Sapnap’s arm around his waist and Karl's legs draped over them. He couldn’t help but smile as he snuggled further under the blanket between them.

He had no idea what time it was. It was light outside, the edges of Sapnap’s curtain lighting up by the edges. He couldn’t see the alarm clock or his phone for Sapnap, and he had no intention of getting out of his warm comfortable spot between the two boys just to check.

He didn’t want to wake them up, content to just be between them. Listening to Sapnap’s snores and Karl’s breathing.

Quackity turned quietly to face Karl by the wall, watching him with sleepy eyes. Karl was always a peaceful sleeper, his hair a mess and falling in his eyes as he drooled into the pillow.

Quackity moved one hand from under the covers and up to brush the brown curls out of Karl's eyes.

It was rare that Quackity woke up first when they had sleepovers, so watching them sleep was not something he was used to. He had woken up multiple times to Karl or Sapnap staring at him fondly and kissing him good morning. He never minded it, no matter how creepy George said it sounded.

He didn’t know for how long he was just staring and messing with Karl’s hair. But suddenly he felt Sapnap tighten his grip around him and kiss his neck with a soft muttered good morning.

“Good morning” Quackity whispered back to him, turning slightly to face Sapnap and get a proper kiss, feeling the butterflies in his stomach start to flutter.

“Have you been awake long?” Sapnap whispered.

“I don’t know. I’ve been too comfortable to get up” Quackity smiled and kissed him again.

“Slept well? You’re awake very early” Sapnap hand rested on his hip now, thumb going in shooting circles over his skin.

“Time zones baby” Quackity winked with a playful smile.

“Oh I missed when you wink like that” Sapnap smiled fondly down at him.

“What? Like this?” Quackity asked and winked to him again before chuckling.

“Yeah, like that” Sapnap grinned and leaned down to kiss him again, Quackity moved his hand up to rest on Sapnap’s neck.

The bed dipped slightly as they moved, Sapnap draped over him, Quackity moving his legs to lay more comfortably and enjoying the pressure of Sapnap against his chest.

Quackity didn’t realize just how much he missed this, the soothing weight and the soft kisses giving him butterflies.

Sapnap broke the kiss first.
“I’ve missed you so much~”

“I can tell” Quackity teased and rolled his hips up against Sapnap, catching his boyfriend biting his lip.

“You know, we can probably do it if we’re quiet” Sapnap whispered then, moving in to kiss Quackity’s jaw and moving down his neck.

“But Karl is like, asleep right there” Quackity said, trying hard not to focus on the way Sapnap was pressing against him.

“Oh don’t stop for my sake” Karl then said and Quackity turned his head to look at Karl watching them with a smug look.

“Karl, you’re awake?” Quackity asked. Sapnap even looked up from where he was busy sucking a hickey on his neck.

“You guys weren’t exactly whispering, or being very subtle” Karl chuckled and moved his arms over his head and stretched.
“But do carry on, I’ll just be waking up with a show I suppose” he smiled.

“Oh I certainly will,” Sapnap said and kissed Quackity again, the man under him huffing into the kiss before putting his arms over Sapnap’s shoulders before pulling back.

“Oh so now I have to sleep with you?” Quackity raised an eyebrow with a playful smile.

Sapnap pulled back immediately, almost sitting up.
“We don’t have to if you don’t wanna. I just thought you wanted to, but I was assuming and that’s not really a good-“ he started to ramble and Quackity had to place a hand over his mouth.

“Sap, I was teasing you. Of course I wanna do it, I’d make it clear if I didn’t” Quackity smiled and removed his hand.
“Now kiss me”.

“Your wish is my command” Sapnap smiled wide and leaned in to kiss him again, putting his weight back on him, their chests flushed against each other.

Sapnap’s weight pushed him back into the bed, his lips never leaving his own as he practically covered Quackity from the world.

The heavy weight of Sapnap on top of him was so grounding and calming. Quackity laid his arms around Sapnap’s neck again, fingers getting tangled in black hair, and smiled into the kiss. God he missed this.

Sapnap moved one of his hands to Quackity’s hip again, thumb rubbing a circle into his skin before tipping under his shirt and moving it up to his chest. Quackity could feel a thrill going down his spine and then,

“Boys! Breakfast is ready!” Bad called from downstairs.

Sapnap broke the kiss with an annoyed groan,
“Can’t believe I’m still getting cock blocked by my dad” he complained and buried his head in Quackity’s chest.

Quackity patted his shoulder,
“Me too” he sighed and rubbed Sapnap’s back for comfort.
“Anyway, I don’t want your dad walking in on us like he did last spring, and I’m hungry. Up you go” Quackity then said and clapped his shoulder.

Sapnap pouted up at him, but moved to get off him,
“Can we do it later then?” He asked.

“If you think I’m leaving this state again without us doing it, you’re mistaken” Quackity laughed and got up.

“Yes! Hot boyfriend sex” Sapnap cheered, making Karl burst out laughing as he got up from the bed as well.

………….

One of the things Quackity loves about staying over at Sapnap’s house, is that there’s always fresh baked goods.

Scones, buns, loafs, muffins, cakes.

Bad loved to bake and it was the absolute best.

Quackity has a lot of good memories of eating warm buns with jam as a kid, and a memory of him and Sapnap helping Skeppy bake a birthday cake for Bad, that never got completely baked and burnt on the outside.

Growing up it was honestly more weird if the oven wasn’t on and the sink wasn’t full of bowls and spoons covered in dough.

"So, here's the plan for the weekend” Bad started as he reached for the butter. Quackity looked at him while chewing on his own sweet buns.
"Thanksgiving dinner is tomorrow, so I expect to get a hand in cleaning the house today” Bad started, causing both Skeppy and Sapnap to start groaning and complaining.

"Hey, I don’t wanna hear it” Bad looked between them.
"Unless you wanna vacuum during the game tomorrow, you help today” he said and then looked at Karl and Quackity.
“Karl and Quackity doesn’t have any complaints about it”.

"You’re the father in law, they literally can’t complain to you” Sapnap defended.

"Nooooooo, we are just very happy to help” Karl chuckled and puffy to Quackity arm,
"Right Q?”.

"Oh defindly. I love cleaning” Quackity grinned at Sapnap’s frown.

"See” Bad smiled and leaned back in his chair to grab a noteblock.
"I have a list of chores here, you get to choose” he said and started to read off the list.
"Vacuum, washing the floor, clean the kitchen, clean the bathrooms, clean off mirrors, clean Sapnap’s room, set the table, season the turkey, water the plants”

"I wanna water the plants” all of them said at the same time.

"Whoever water the plants has to set the table and do mirrors as well” Bad looked up at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Can I fold the napkins if I set the table?” Karl then asked.

“Of course you can,” Bad smiled.
"I’ll put you on plants, mirrors and table” he said and wrote Karl's name out from the different points.

“Sapnap, you clean your room” Bad said and wrote Sapnap’s name down.

"Why do I have to clean my room? I haven’t been home in three months” Sapnap pouted.

"Exactly. It’s dusty and I don’t want Quackity and Karl to get sick from dust” Bad said.
"And if you do it without any more fuss, you can have the living room tonight”.

Sapnap worried his lip as he thought it over.
"Deal” he said and took another bite of his food.

Bad either kept assigning or offering the other chores till they all were assigned. Quackity managed to get off with only vacuuming and washing the floor if he helped with cooking tomorrow, something he definitely preferred to watching football.

The house was chaotic throughout the day, everyone doing their best to get over their chores and make Bad happy with their work as well. It took most of the day, Bad cleaning the oven, Skeppy scrubbing the bathrooms clean, Karl making flowers out of napkins with his feet raised over the floor so Quackity could vacuum under him.

When they were finally done, Bad offered to buy pizza for dinner, mostly to avoid having to cook in his now spotless kitchen. No one objected of course, and Quackity was so content as he sat between Karl and Sapnap on the living room couch, three pizza boxes on the table and a movie playing on the tv.

It was honestly the perfect way to finish a day of hard work and cleaning.

After Bad and Skeppy left them for the night, Sapnap sneaked into the kitchen to pop popcorn for them. The sky was dark outside the windows, the sound of the tv and Karl’s phone dinging with texts were bathing them as the hours ticked by and soon Quackity’s head started to bopped slightly throughout the third movie, his eyes getting heavier with every minute.

“Quackity?” Sapnap’s voice spoke and Quackity jerked his head up again and opened his eyes wide to force his brain awake again.
“Yeah?”.

Sapnap chuckled
"Are you okay?” He asked and put his arm around Quackity’s shoulders.

“Oh, uh yeah, I was just resting my eyes” Quackity blushed.

“Dude, that’s what old dads do at eight on a Friday” Karl laughed and grabbed a handful of popcorn.

Quackity pouted,
“That’s it, you lost your cuddle rights” Quackity tried to joke but was caught off by a yawn, moving closer to Sapnap while Karl protested and made grabby hand for Quackity which went ignored.

"Are you tired?” Sapnap asked, appreciating the way Quackity snuggled up to him.

“No, I’m fine. I guess the time difference is just fucking with me. I feel like it’s 1 am” Quackity said and blinked to stay awake.

“Do you wanna go to bed?” Karl asked.

“Nah, let’s keep watching the movie” Quackity shook his head.

Over the next thirty minutes Quackity moved around to get comfortable, fighting to keep his eyes open and struggling to keep up with the plot of the movie.
Quackity ended up sitting in Sapnap’s lap, leaning his head against his shoulder, face buried in Sapnap’s hoodie. Quackity’s legs draped over Karl’s, the other putting his hands on his legs, stroking up and down his pant leg in a soothing motionion.

“Take a nap, Babe, it’s okay” Sapnap whispered to him and Quackity couldn’t resist. Not when he felt this warm and comfortable.

Quackity was out like a light a moment later, snoring against his boyfriend’s shoulder.

…………

“Come on, come on, come on! No you idiot!” Skeppy yelled at the tv along with Sapnap.

Quackity could see the backs of their heads from the kitchen island, the tv hidden from view by the couch.

Despite dating a football player, Quackity has never understood football or found it very interesting. Of course he had seen all of Sapnap’s games in high school, cheering and yelling louder than anyone along with Karl.

But he never understood the rules or the game. He just knew that if they had to play it during PE, he just had to avoid getting the ball as much as possible or risk getting tackled.

Quackity chopped the sweet potatoes as he heard them cheer and yell at the tv as if their team could hear them.

Bad closed the oven after checking on the turkey again. It smelled delicious and the golden color through the oven window looked heavenly.

“How’s it going?” Bad asked as he passed behind Quackity to go check on the potatoes boiling on the stove. He grabbed a fork and speared one of them, the potato stayed on and Bad shook his head before sliding the fork over the edge of the pot and the potato plopped back in the hot water.

“Pretty good, almost done chopping” Quackity updated him and lifted his chopping board to fill the casserole pan with the pieces, before grabbing another sweet potato. Rat sat by his feet, the little white dog tilting and pawing in hopes it would earn him a treat, despite quackity having told the dog he wouldn’t want he potatos.

“Good, remember to pour oil, timian and salt on them before putting them in the oven” Bad smiled over his shoulder and went to the fridge to pull out a new pack of butter, setting on making garlic butter as he waited for the potatoes to finish so he could continue with mashing them.

“I will” Quackity smiled.

“Are you fucking blind?!” Skeppy then yelled.

"Language!” Bad shrieked over his shoulder.

"Sorry!” Skeppy called back over his shoulder.

"You would think after 20 years of marriage he would have learnt it by now” Bad sighed with a content smile.

Quackity looked back down at his chopping board, not wanting to risk losing a finger.
Bad walked past him again and over to the beautiful set table with seven gold rimmed plates.

Karl’s parents were joining them for thanksgiving, something Quackity couldn’t tell made Bad more or less nervous.

Quackity had always been a bit scared of Karl’s parents. They always seemed to be in a weird grumpy mood. Karl’s mom worked in finance, wore pencil skirts and seemed to embody the Hollywood stereotype of a business woman. Karl’s father was a divorce attorney, hair always slicked back with hair gel. Quackity had a feeling they only really liked him because he was pursuing law, no matter what Karl said.

They were also fancy as fuck, if you asked him. Their apartment looked like a minimalist’s wet dream. Like a dentist office if the dentist insisted on fancy new and weird looking furniture that cost an arm and a leg.

Quackity often wondered where Karl, the boy who made abstract detailed art works and ruined new jeans with painting art on the fabric itself, got his creativity from, it definitely wasn’t his parents.

"Oh, I can’t wait for in a few years when me and Skeppy are going to you boys place for thanksgiving” Bad said, drawing Quackity out of his thoughts again. He hadn’t realized Bad was right behind him.

"It’s gonna be so great, don’t you think so, Quackity?” he asked.

"Yeah, I think so” he smiled up at the man towering over him.

“And don’t let them bully you into cooking by yourself,” Bad said playfully and tilted his head in the direction of the living room.
"I’m ninety percent sure Skeppy doesn’t know football, but I can’t prove it” Bad said, looking at the back Skeppy’s head with squinted eyes.

"It’s fine. I have Karl and Sapnap wrapped around my finger. If it wasn’t because they can’t cook anything but a pizza and nachos, I could properly get them to do it” Quackity chuckled slightly.

"The prices we pay” Bad chuckled along with him. He walked back over to the potatoes and poked one with a fork again. This time it slided off the fork. Bad turned off the stove and took the pot over to the sink to drain for water. He put the potatoes into the mixer with a soft hum, placing the hot, but now empty pot on the stove.

Bad went back over to the fridge to get out the butter and milk, humming as he scanned the fridge.
"Muffin. I forgot to put the wine in the fridge” Bad then said and closed the fridge again.
“I'll be right back” Bad said and disappeared out of the kitchen.

"Take your time” Quackity said as he finished chopping the last sweet potato.

Quackity was pretty well known with the layout of Bad’s kitchen. He knew the plates were in the middle right drawer next to the dishwasher. The pasta and condiments in the bottom drawer under the stove, forks and utensils like it was in the top drawer over the plates

He pulled out the bottom drawer and grabbed the timian and the salt shaker. He stood in the middle of the kitchen for a moment, looking over the cabins to try and remember where the oil was placed. He knew it was in one of the cabinets, along with the cereal.

Quackity put the timian and the salt down on the counter by the casserole pan. He then turned around and opened one cabinet first. It was filled with cans and bake mixes, but no oil.

He closed it and opened the one next to it next. The bottom shelf on it was a wall of cereal boxes like he remembered, but looking up to the top shelf in the cabin, stood the bottle of cooking oil.

Of course it had to be the top shelf.

The one he can’t reach.

Quackity tiptoed up and reached for it, but he barely reached over the cereal. Why did Bad have to be so ridiculously tall?!

Quackity groaned annoyed as went back down flat on his feet. He looked at the counter. It was covered in spoons, spilled gunk from the turkey stuffing and utensils Bad had used. He couldn’t just put his knee up there and reach for it, that was gross.

“Sapnap!” Quackity called over his shoulder,
“Come out here and help me” he tried to reach for the oil again despite knowing it was no help.

“Moment babe!” Sapnap called back from the couch. Karl moved his arm from Sapnap’s shoulders to let him up.
“Tell me what happens,” Sapnap said as he walked to the kitchen.

“They throw a ball, it’s not that hard to predict,” Karl said.

“Oh shut it Karl” Sapnap said and walked around the kitchen island to Quackity.

“What can I do for ya, babe?” He asked with a smile.

“I can’t reach the oil” Quackity said and pointed up at the open cabinet.
“Can you get it-“ Quackity was caught off by Sapnap putting his hands on Quackity’s hips and hoisting him up in the air.

“Up you go” Sapnap smiled, very proud of himself. Quackity glared light hearted at him and grabbed the oil.

“You could just have grabbed it” Quackity said as Sapnap put him back down.

“Yes, but then my hands wouldn’t be on your ass and I thought that was unfair” Sapnap stuck his tongue out at him.

“Whatever you say” Quackity rolled his eyes.

He uncapped the oil and poured it over the sweet potatoes and then grabbed the timian, but looking to his side, he saw Sapnap was still standing by him, looking Quackity up and down.

But it didn’t feel like he was checking him out like he normally did.

“What?” Quackity frowned softly.

“Nothing, it’s just” Sapnap shrugged as he looked him in the eyes again.
"Have you lost weight? You’re a lot lighter”

“No? I don’t think so?” Quackity looked down at himself, despite the apron being in the way.

“Oh, well, it has been a while since I lifted you. I probably just forgot” Sapnap said and shrugged yet again.

“Yeah… maybe” Quackity said but it didn’t really stop him from looking.

Sapnap put a hand on his hip and kissed his cheek.
“The food smells amazing” Sapnap said, trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, thanks” Quackity said, still a bit distracted before he shook the timian out over the casserole pan and then the salt.

Quackity grabbed the pan and carried it over to the oven, Sapnap’s hand leaving his hip. Quackity opened the oven and placed the casserole under the turkey.

“I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry” Sapnap said.

“You didn’t, It’s cool” Quackity said and offered a weak smile.

“You sure?” Sapnap asked.

“Yeah” Quackity nodded.
“You should go back to the game. It sounds like you’re winning” Quackity said and moved onto grabbing a bowl so he could get started on the cranberry sauce.

“Okay, if you say so” Sapnap smiled and managed to get close enough to steal a kiss.
“I love you”.

Quackity smiled and kissed him properly.
“I love you too. Now get out of my kitchen” Quackity teased.

“Alright. By the way, you look hot in an apron~” Sapnap winked. His hands drummed over the counter before leaving the kitchen again.

Quackity grabbed the spoon and opened the first cabinet again to grab the can of cranberries.

He tried not to think about it, but his mind kept wandering back to what Sapnap asked. Had he lost weight? It’s not a big deal, no one is upset about losing weight, right? But what if he was too thin? What if it made him look weird? Quackity was a pretty skinny guy already.

He didn’t even think he had lost weight. He didn’t exactly eat all that healthy. He ate like a bag of chips and junk food when they were on call together. And yeah maybe he had stuck to the sandwiches from the cafeteria and he stopped eating breakfast because he felt nauseous.

But that wasn’t like a major diet change, right?

Why was Quackity even thinking over this? Why couldn’t he just focus on making the cranberry sauce in peace. Why did his head have to float over with everything that was wrong with him?!

He didn’t even notice when Bad came back in, or the loud noise of the mixer mushing the potatoes. He doesn’t really think about it when Bad asks him to put the corn in a pot with water.

It was first when it knocked on the door, Quackity seemed to get out of his own head for long enough to make himself stay out of it. Bad hurried to open the door and Skeppy turned down the volume on the tv.

Quackity pulled the apron off and hung it on a hook on the wall before he went out to greet them as well, along with the rest of the house.

Karl’s mom was hugging Karl, only pulling back to fuss over how unruly Karl’s hair was, while Karl's father was hanging their coats on the coat rack. Quackity waited by the door with Sapnap as the others greeted them, not wanting to crowd them.

He smiled as Karl’s dad finally stepped towards them, and Quackity had to prepare himself for the handshake now.

Karl's dad held out his hand to him, and Quackity dreadfully shook it. Ever since Quackity and Sapnap started dating Karl, Karl's dad always made them shake his hand. It wasn't too weird, but Quackity hated it because Karl's dad would go out of his way and squeeze his hand too hard.

When it first started, Quackity asked Sapnap if he did that to him too, to which Sapnap nodded and told how he had tried to get around it but with no luck.

Quackity did his best to keep his smile on as his hand shook Karl's dad's hand and the hard squeeze came. He almost wanted to sigh in relief when Karl’s dad let go of his hand and he squeaked out a hello.

Sapnap, the bastard, got a bouquet of flowers handed to him by Karl’s mom before he could shake hands with Karl’s dad.
"Thank you” Sapnap smiled at her.
"I’ll get a vase” and then Sapnap disappeared from next to him to do so.

Lucky bastard.

Quackity hugged Karl’s mom and made an excuse to go check on the turkey. He could hear them in the living room, Skeppy and Sapnap dragging Karl’s dad into their conversation about the football game on tv.

As the dishes were prepared and served, Quackity went about putting everything out and on the table, shoving spoons and utensils into the different plates and bowls of food. He didn’t trust himself to handle the turkey and asked Bad to do it.

Soon all the food, soda bottles and wine had been put on the table and Bad told Skeppy to turn down the volume on the tv, knowing full well neither his son nor his husband would wanna miss the end result of the game.

Quackity sat down between Sapnap and Karl, pulling his chair in to the table. Karl’s mom was going on and on with questions for both Sapnap and Karl and about how their school year had been.

Bad hadn’t sat down yet, standing by the turkey and cutting it out, asking the other guests if they wanted white or dark meat.

Quackity removed the folded napkin flower from his plate, tugging gently at the corners and to unfold it. He put it over his lap and smoothed it down. Karl was telling some story about that girl Tina he was roommates with.

“So Quackity” Karl’s father started, pouring himself a glass of red wine.
“How is Harvard treating you?”

“Oh um, pretty good. The classes are really interesting. And the teachers are pretty good” Quackity said, even though it was a complete lie. The classes were a difficult mess he couldn’t keep up with, and what used to peak his interests now made him dread going to class.
his teacher properly didn’t even give shit about him.

“Yeah? Have you joined any clubs?” Karl’s father then asked, pouring his wife a glass of the wine.
“I was in a chess club myself when I went to law. You create a lot of good connections that way” he noted.

“I uh, haven’t really had the time. Who would have thought law required so much reading” Quackity joked awkwardly.

“You do have your friend Jeremy though,” Karl smiled to him.

“oh yeah, Jeremy. yeah he sometimes drags me to clubs” Quackity lied without looking at Karl.

“Oh yeah, I suppose. Wine?” Karl’s dad then offered the bottle to Quackity.

“I shouldn’t” Quackity said.

“Why not? It’s not like you’ll get drunk” Karl’s father put the bottle down in front of him.

“I’m not 21” Quackity said.

"Are you telling me you never had a drink before either, then?” Karl’s dad raised an eyebrow.

“No, I mean, I have but” Quackity started.

“It’s illegal to purchase alcohol as or for minors, yes. But this is in the private home, you boys having a glass won’t hurt” Karl’s father said and raised his own glass.

"Adam. He doesn’t want to” Bad interrupted and turned to Quackity.
"White or dark meat, Q?” he asked.

"Um, white” Quackity said and handed Bad his plate. Bad placed a good sized piece of the turkey and handed it back to him. Quackity put it back down as Sapnap handed his plate to Bad.

Quackity looked back at the red wine bottle. Quackity didn’t like wine, defindelty not red wine. He had once gotten drunk off white wine mixed with sprite at a new years party, but it still tasted bad.

Quackity grabbed the neck of the wine bottle and poured himself a glass.

“Quackity” Bad started but Karl’s father cut him off before he could say anything.

“Bad, let the boys cut loose” he said and raised his own glass to Quackity.
"Cheers,” he smiled.

"Cheers” Quackity raised his own glass and took a sip of the wine, resisting the urge to pull a face at the taste. He put his glass back down and asked for the plate with corn on the cub.

Karl leaned into his space as he handed it to him.
"You don’t have to, I know you don’t like it” he whispered.

"I do like it” Quackity lied through his teeth as he placed half a cub on his plate. It must not have been very convincing judging by the way Karl looked at him. But luckily he didn’t press it further than that.

Quackity shouldn’t have poured the glass.

Now he was stuck with a full glass of red wine he didn't like, and he couldn’t just pour himself a new glass of soda. It would be a waste of wine and he would look childish in front of Karl’s dad. Quackity doesn’t really know why it matters so much what Karl’s dad thinks, Quackity had never really cared about that before.

He tried so hard to just focus on getting his glass empty, he forgot to actually eat his food instead of just picking at it.

"Is everything alright Quackity?” Bad asked him suddenly while Quackity was zoning out.

"Huh?” Quackity blinked as he looked over at Bad, not expecting a question.

"Is the food okay? you haven’t eaten that much” Bad asked, clarifying his question.

"Oh, it’s good” Quackity said and smiled as he took another forkful of his mashed potatoes.
"I guess I'm just really excited for the pie and wanna leave room for it” Quackity excused, looking down at his plate as he started to cut his turkey into smaller pieces.

Bad just smiled and went back to his conversation with Karl’s mom.

"Can I get the sweet potatoes please?” Karl asked, looking over the table to try and find it.

"Here” Sapnap smiled and handed the bowl to Quackity. Quackity passed over the bowl to Karl.

He felt like his thoughts were starting to spill out of his ears.

He should take another portion. He and Bad had so much fun cooking, and they had stressed and fussed over the food all noon.

Oh who was he kidding, all he did was chop potatoes and prepare a can of cranberries. Bad did the actual cooking. He couldn’t take credit for that, not when Bad worked so hard on this dinner.

Quackity could at least take some more of it. Maybe that would make them happy and Quackity could stop overthinking it.

Besides, if he ate more, then Sapnap wouldn’t think he was too skinny. Why did he care about Sapnap thinking he was too skinny now?

He really wanted his head to shut up.

He had never noticed how loud his thoughts were before.

Quackity reached across the table for the mashed potatoes and took another portion, the portion landing on his plate with a smush sound, making both Karl and Sapnap look at him between them.

Sapnap leaned over to him slightly and whispered into his ear,
"You don’t have to eat it if you don’t like it”.

"I do like it” Quackity whispered back, checking to see Bad was still in a deep conversation with Karl’s mom.

"You don’t have to pretend, it’s fine” Sapnap whispered again.

"Would you stop telling me what I do and don’t like?” Quackity whispered back at him through gritted teeth, a bit more bite in his voice than necessary.
"I like mashed potatoes. So let me eat it” Quackity said with a frown and smacked another spoonful on his plate, completely covering his meat and the corn.

"Sorry” Sapnap frowned at his tone and pulled back into his own space.
“I just didn’t want you to feel pressured,” Sapnap whispered.

"I don’t feel pressured, so will you get off my dick about it?” Quackity spoke a bit too loud.

"Language” Bad said from the other side of the table.

Quackity looked away from Sapnap to see the entire table was staring at him.

Quackity felt like the room was getting hotter. Stop looking at him. He was just trying to eat, why did everyone have to comment and stare at him when he’s only trying to be polite.

He just wanted to enjoy thanksgiving, but why did everyone insist on commenting on everything he did.

"You know what, I'm not really hungry anymore” Quackity said after a moment and pulled the napkin off his lap.

"I need to lay down” he excused himself and stood up, his chair pushing back over the floorboards. Quackity tried not to think about how quiet the room was as he left the room, the sound of his steps on the stairs being the only thing he heard.

He closed Sapnap's bedroom door and went to sit on the bed. He covered his face and tried hard to breathe.

Why did he have to be such an asshole?

Quackity laid down on the bed and buried his face in the pillow. He just wanted a good thanksgiving with Sapnap and Karl and he ruined it for himself with all his over thinking.

When Sapnap and Karl came up to check on him, Karl had a plate with a piece of pumpkin pie for him, but Quackity wasn’t hungry anymore. Karl just smiled and put it on Sapnap’s old desk for when he wanted it and kissed his head.

They didn’t ask any questions about why he left the table or got upset.

And honestly, Quackity didn’t want them to ask. He felt like an asshole for ruining their nice dinner, and Quackity was just tired. He just needed to lay down for a bit and he’d be better later.

Or at least that’s what he told himself.

Chapter Text

When Quackity said they didn’t have to do anything special date wise, he meant it.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t want to at least go on a date.

But so far the only thing they had really been doing was staying at Sapnap’s house, watching movies, playing video games and sleeping. Quackity was starting to feel a bit irritated. They said when he came home that they wanted to take him on a date.

But it’s Wednesday now, and Quackity had to go back to Massachusetts on Saturday.

He felt like they were stalling.

Or maybe they didn’t actually want to go out.

Quackity was cool with them not taking him out for the first few days, nothing was open anyway, but he kinda hoped they would ask if he wanted to go to the diner at least.

He was just so tired of watching movies and playing video games.

The game controller in his hands was hot, fingers clicking wildly to try and beat Sapnap in another game of Overwatch. Quackity never really liked shooting games. He preferred more sandbox like games, where he could do whatever he wanted, when he wanted, like Roblox or Minecraft.

But Sapnap liked shooting games a lot, and Quackity liked to see Sapnap with that big grin on his face as he got a good kill or was able to help Quackity.

“Yes!” Sapnap smiled wide as the victory banner ran over their screen.
“You’re getting really good” Sapnap turned to Quackity. The replay animation of some animated character shooting another player appeared on the screen.

“Thanks, but I think it was just luck” Quackity shrugged.

“Well, wanna put it to a test with another game?” Sapnap suggested and turned back to the screen.

“Nah, I think I’d prefer to watch for a bit right now” Quackity said and put the controller down.

“Oh, we can play something else if you want?” Sapnap offered.
“We can play ‘overcooked’?” Sapnap suggested then.

“Nah, I’m kinda getting a headache” Quackity said and looked over his shoulder and up on the bed at Karl, who had been lounging with a comic ever since breakfast.

Quackity pushed himself off the floor and up onto the bed from the floor. Sapnap joined another game judging by the sound of the game and the button clicking.

Quackity moved up and laid beside Karl, tilting his head to rest on Karl’s shoulder to look over the comic book panels.
“What are you reading?” He asked.

“Batman” Karl answered and turned a page.

“You don’t like Batman?” Quackity raised an eyebrow and looked at Karl.

“I’ve never said that” Karl said and looked at him.

“Yeah, you’ve always said Marvel is superior to both DC and X-men whenever I suggest we watch a superhero movie” Quackity said.

“Oh. Well, Tina suggested I give this one a try and I’m enjoying it so far” Karl said.
“There’s a change for anything I suppose” Karl turned back to look over the panels of Batman in a fight scene against a scarecrow.

“Hey, maybe we should watch the Batman movies tonight? I kinda wanna get into the fandom” Karl suggested with a smile, and Quackity honestly wanted to groan in annoyance.

Another fucking movie night. Of course. Great.

“Yeah, sounds good” Quackity said instead, sounding as dry as a dessert.

Karl looked back at him with a confused look in his eyes.
“Or we can watch something else” Karl said.

“Nah, Batman is fine” Quackity said and snuggled up to Karl, trying to get some cuddles as he watched Sapnap play over Karl’s chest.

Then Karl’s phone buzzed and Karl picked it up, opening his phone and typed a text before putting it down again.

Then not even a minute later, it buzzed again and Karl answered it again in a second.

It kept buzzing and Karl kept answering over multiple minutes. Quackity didn’t even think Karl had turned the comic book page yet because he’s so busy texting.

Quackity knew he shouldn’t peek at Karl’s texts. It doesn’t concern him and he has no business or reason to know who or what Karl texts about.

But he’s right next to Karl’s head, he can see the screen as clear as day and he wants to know why Karl is so into answering this person.

The username was Tinakitten followed by an insane amount of emojis. That didn’t really worry Quackity all too much, he knew Karl liked to put emojis after or in front of people’s names in his contact list.

He managed to skim read their last two texts as Karl typed his answer. They had been chatting about the comic book, Karl telling her how far he was and she seeming excited about his thoughts on it.

Her last text was a simple ‘what are you up to’.

Quackity looked at the text Karl was writing.

‘Not much honestly. Kinda bored ngl’.

Then Karl sent it and closed his phone.

So Karl was bored.

Quackity was bored.

And it didn’t take much brain power to see Sapnap was bored too, judging by the fact he was replaying the same map and trying to switch up his character choices and the roles.

They were all bored, but apparently not bored enough to actually take him out.

Quackity felt kind of pissed at that. He wanted to go out, he wanted to hold their hands and make some meaningful memory he could think back on that wasn’t about looking at a screen. Fucking Christ, going to the supermarket would be enough.

He just wanted them to ask him!

And Karl’s phone buzzing constantly was not helping his declining mood.

“Do you mind not doing that?” Quackity asked maybe just a tad too irritated when Karl picked up his phone again.

Karl looked away from his phone and to him,
"Huh? Oh, sorry, Tina just texted me” he said and looked back at his phone.

“Well, can you answer her later?” Quackity asked and sat up from his seat next to him.

“What’s your problem?” Karl asked, confused. Sapnap turned to look up at them from his spot on the floor, he got shot in the game but didn’t seem to care.

“I don’t have a problem.” Quackity crossed his arms.

“Well it doesn’t look like that? Why are you biting at me?” Karl asked with a frown and sat up as well, putting his phone down.

“Well, maybe I just don’t want you to be staring into a screen while I’m actually here” Quackity said.
“I just want some quality time with my boyfriends, who I haven’t seen in months, but god forbid Tina’s text goes unanswered” Quackity waved his hands around and turned to look away from Karl.

“It was just a text?” Sapnap chimed in.

“Maybe. But why can’t he just text her later?” Quackity asked with the same bite in his voice and glared at Sapnap.

“Why are you getting mad at me?” Sapnap frowned.

“Why can’t I text her now? We’re literally not doing anything” Karl asked with a pissed look in his eyes.

“You know Karl, you sure know how to show a guy he’s wanted” Quackity crossed his arms again.

“I don’t understand what your problem is? Are you horny? Is this a horny sex thing?” Karl asked, the phrasing of Quackity’s words not giving him much help.

“No! God. I just want you to show some fucking interest in me” Quackity moved to stand up from the bed, not really feeling like cuddling with Karl anymore.

“Okay, but you don’t have to be an asshole about it” Karl shot back at him.

“You know what? Maybe I should just go home then!” Quackity glared at them and went for the door. Karl and Sapnap got up as he turned the door handle and walked out.

“What? Oh my god I was answering one text?” Karl argued as he followed Quackity to the stairs

“Quackity don’t be like that, we were having a good time, why are you getting all pissy over this?” Sapnap asked from behind Karl.

Quackity stomped down the stairs and grabbed his jacket.
“You two don’t want my company, so I’m just gonna fuck off” Quackity fought with his jacket sleeves, Karl continuing to argue with him and Sapnap failing to pick a side or remain neutral at the same time.

“What is all this yelling about?” Bad asked as he came out of the kitchen, having heard them arguing.

“Quackity is acting like an immature asshole!” Karl glared at his smaller boyfriend.

“And you are acting like a bitch!” Quackity yelled.

“I’m not the one whose been a ticking bomb all week!” Karl yelled back at him.

“Boys!” Bad’s voice boomed over them with his hands on his hips.
“Dinner table. Now” Bad pointed into the living room, looking at them all with a stern glare till they did as he said.

Quackity and Karl glared at each other again before Quackity pulled off his jacket with a bit too much aggression and stumped into the living room, past the couch and over to the dinner table, Karl and Sapnap right behind him as they were forced to sit down. Quackity picked a seat on the other side of the table, not wanting to be next to or near Karl at all right now.

Bad sat down next to Quackity with a sigh and looked over them all as they sulked.

“Okay. Does anyone care to explain what this is about?” Bad asked them.

Quackity crossed his arms, and Karl glared at the table.

Sapnap sighed,
“Quackity got mad that Karl answered a text from his roommate” Sapnap said simply, putting a lot of weight on the word roommate, as if that was Quackity’s problem.

“It wasn't just one text. He kept checking his phone and told her he was bored” Quackity interrupted.

“You read my texts?” Karl asked with a disgusted face.

“One of them” Quackity glared at him.

“Oh well if it’s just one text, I guess it’s cool” Karl said sarcastically.

"Alright” Bad interrupted them before it could escalate again.
“Quackity, why exactly did Karl checking his phone make you angry?” Bad asked calmly and looked at him.

Quackity turned to stare down at the table, his legs kicking slightly as he tried to find any way to get out of this situation.
"It just did” Quackity shrugged.

"I don’t think it just ‘happened’” Bad coached him and Quackity hated the way the corners of his eyes started to sting.

“Anger is not a primary emotion, it is a side effect, or as I prefer to call it, a secondary emotion, most often out of sadness. What upset you about Karl checking his phone?” Bad asked again, his voice so warm and comforting.

"I don’t know, I just… I just kinda felt like…” Quackity tried to find his words.
"I felt like you didn’t care that I was actually here. This is the first time in like three months that I'm actually here with you, and we’re just doing stuff we did while I wasn’t”

Quackity picked at his nails, suddenly feeling too ashamed to look Karl and Sapnap in the eyes. .
"I know I said we didn’t have to do anything special, but I thought at least we’d go out…”

"Why didn’t you just say so?” Karl frowned.

"Because I didn’t wanna be annoying or demanding. But now it’s wednesday, and tomorrow my parents come home and they are gonna want me over, then it’s gonna be friday and we’ll be packing up our stuff and then saturday I'm going back to Massachusetts. I feel like we’re wasting our time together by watching movies” Quackity shrugged.

"I just… I'm sorry” Quackity said, his cheeks red now that he realized what an asshole he was being.

"So it’s because you wanna go out” Bad stated more than asked him, and Quackity nodded.

"So... You don’t have a problem with Tina?” Karl asked.

“No. Karl, you can text whoever you want, I just… I want attention I guess” Quackity shrugged, the stinging feeling in his eyes getting harder to bear, but he refused to start crying.

Karl’s frown softened slightly.
"I guess, I get that.” he started.
"But you can’t just read my texts, we’re not that kind of couple, are we?” Karl asked. Karl had absolutely nothing to hide on his phone that Quackity wouldn’t know about, and he would let Quackity check his phone if that's what he wanted.

He shouldn’t feel like he needs to.

"I know, and I'm sorry, I just…“ Quackity just wanted to apologize, but he shouldn’t make excuses for doing it. Quackity blinked as he felt tears threatening to form.

He was so caught up in his own head he didn’t even notice Karl had gotten up from his seat, before a pair of arms were wrapped around Quackity’s shoulders.

"Don’t cry, it’s not that big a deal” Karl muttered into his beanie and Quackity hugged him back. He wanted to apologize again, but it was clear Karl wanted to stop the discussion now.

"I’m sorry I called you a bitch” Quackity sniffed instead.

"I’m sorry for calling you an immature asshole” Karl kissed the top of his head and Quackity turned in Karl arms to properly hug him.

Bad let them have their moment for another minute before he spoke up again.
“Listen, I know fighting is not something you three do often but it’s a very normal thing in any form of relationship. But you have to remember that in a fight, it’s not you vs the others, it’s all three of you vs the problem” Bad said, ever the therapist for the teens that had been dragged into his life by his son.

He then smiled and clapped his hands together before continuing.

“Well. I do agree that you boys have been cooped up for too long now” Bad said and pulled out his wallet.
“Sapnap, take your boyfriends out for some fun, but don’t stay out too late” Bad said and handed him 30 dollars.

Sapnap blinked but took the money and smiled,
“Thanks dad” he said and then smiled sheepishly as he asked,
"Can I borrow the car too?”

"Nope. Have fun” Bad stood up from his chair.
"I will be in the kitchen if you boys need anything” Bad pushed his chair back in and walked under the arch into the kitchen.

"Thanks dad” Sapnap said again and then looked to his boyfriends.
“Do you guys wanna go to the arcade?” He asked.

“… Only if I get to beat you at dance dance revolution” Karl looked to Quackity.

“You say that as if I am gonna let you. I am the dancing queen” Quackity said with a sniff and smile.

“Not for long, you aren’t” Karl then grinned at him with mischief in his eyes. Almost like they hadn’t been fighting fifthteen minutes ago.

Karl takes his hands and pulls him out of the chair, this time to go to the hall to leave together, Sapnap right behind them.

They tied their shoes, zipped up their coats and walked out the door with smiles on their faces. Karl swung their hands together, Sapnap leading in the front down old childhood streets.

Quackity felt so dumb now, getting angry over a dumb text. It wasn’t even like he suspected Karl of cheating, he was just jealous and restless.

And he would have ruined a good day if it weren’t for Bad.

He would have spent the day angry, upset and alone in an empty house, instead of listening to Sapnap fill the air with suggestions for what they should grab for dinner.

He wouldn’t have gotten to laugh as they walked past a hopscotch drawing on the sidewalk with colorful chalk, and Karl hopped on one leg while holding his hand.

He wouldn’t have gotten to see Sapnap struggle to get fifteen dollars worth of coins into his pockets from the arcade register.

And Quackity wouldn’t have gotten the funny and random conversations as they played the arcade games, threw balls or air hockey.

But luckily he did.

"If you were a superhero, what power would you have?” Karl asked, completely unprompted, as Sapnap picked up a skeeball.

"Uhhhhh fire powers” Sapnap said, holding the ball up and aiming for one of the holes.

"Really? that's kind of basic, isn’t it?” Karl asked as Sapnap threw the ball and hit the hole for forty points.

"Maybe, but I think fire is cool” Sapnap shrugged.

"Spoken like a true, pyromaniac” Quackity chuckled and picked up a skeeball and handed it to Sapnap.

"I lit the school bathroom on fire one time” Sapnap took the ball and held his other hand up to show one finger, before turning to throw the ball again, getting twenty points this time.

“Still more times than us, Prince Zuko” Karl chuckled.

“Fine? What power would you want then?” Sapnap asked as the tickets started to pour on the floor and he pulled out another quarter to start a new game, now stepping aside so Quackity could play.

“Mhmmmm” Karl hummed, tapping his chin as he thought it over.
“Time travel- no! Teleportation! No, time travel. I’m going with time travel” Karl talked over himself excited.

“Isn’t that a difficult power? You could change history with a wrong move” Quackity asked as he aimed for the point holes.

“Yeah but I’d be the ultimate support role on the team” Karl said proudly.
“I’d make a rule to only travel a few minutes or hours, that way I can’t change anything so much it breaks time.

“What about paradoxes?” Sapnap asked and watched Quackity miss and land in the ten points ring.

“You two are thinking this over too much” Karl crossed his arms.

“Superpowers come with great responsibility” Quackity chuckled and picked up a new skeeball, threw it, missing again.
“Sapnap how are you so good at it, it’s not fair” Quackity grabbed another ball.

“Come here, let me show you” Sapnap said and stepped behind Quackity, putting one hand on his hip and the other on Quackity’s hand holding the ball.

“You gotta aim a bit to the left, you are all over on the right side of the machine” Sapnap instructed as he swung Quackity’s arm back and forth. Sapnap’s warm hands made him feel giddy.

Quackity took his word for it and tried to throw now, the ball hitting the twenty points now.

“Ayyy I’m getting better” Quackity smiled wide.

Karl picked up the tickets starting to pile on the floor and folded them up to join the other tickets they had gotten so far.
“What about you, Q? What superpower would you have as a hero?” Karl asked.

“Okay first of all, I’d be a supervillain, or at least a vigilante” Quackity said and picked up his last ball.
“Second of all, shapeshifting” he said and threw it, getting ten points again.

“What? Nooooo” Karl dragged it out,
“You can’t be a supervillain, how can we marry you then?”

Quackity laughed and smiled as the machine printed out his last tickets.
“But Karl, imagine the story. Two heroes, on a mission to take down a villian, but falling in love instead? The readers love a good enemies to lovers arc” Quackity winked.

“Plus, villains get the cool outfits. And my ass is not meant for spandex” Quackity shrugged as Sapnap slided an arm around his waist.

“Speak for yourself. The money I would give to see you in a Spiderman suit. Fuck man” Sapnap finsihed his sentence by biting his lip and squinting his eyes.

Karl and Quackity both bursted out laughing.

“You are such a simp, oh my god” Karl said through a wheeze.

“Spiderman is hot and so is my boyfriend” Sapnap playfully glared at him, Quackity losing breath through his laughs.

“It’s not that funny. Spiderman is hot and you can’t deny it” Sapnap said.

“It’s not that” Quackity smiled wide as his laughter finally seemed to settle.
“I just really love that dumb face you make” he said and kissed his cheek.

“Good, cause I’ll never stop making it” Sapnap blushed but tried to play it cool.

“Okay simps, I wanna beat Quackity at dance dance revolution before we get dinner” Karl said and grabbed Quackity’s hand to pull him further into the maze of machines and games.

“Why? Worried you’ll throw up trying to get to my level?” Quackity teased him as they approached the machine, a music video of a girl dancing on the screen and the arrows on the floor lighting up.

“You wish” Karl pulled him up onto one of the platforms, starting to pull out the ropes of paper tickets from his pockets and handed them to Sapnap.

“I’m gonna beat you today” Karl swore and turned to look over the same list of songs that had always been on the machine ever since it got installed.

“Seems like we’re getting a lot of tickets today then” Sapnap chuckled and leaned against the red handle pole behind Quackity.

“Karl just doesn’t know when to quit” Quackity shook his head for the dramatics.

“Shut up you nimrods” Karl rolled his eyes.

“Nimrod? Oh, now I’m definitely not gonna go easy on you” Quackity said and leaned in to look over the list.

All of the songs were random and loud techno music that Quackity was fifty percent sure you couldn’t even find on YouTube.

Karl selected one of the few songs they almost always played.

The machine’s voice was loud as it spoke the machine's name.
“Dance, Dance, Revolution. Get ready”

Karl grabbed the metal pole behind him, meanwhile Quackity didn’t. He always thought it was harder to do while holding the pole, and it was more fun when you lost balance on the hard ones.

That and it was just a general power move in his mind.

The music started and Karl and Quackity put all their focus into stepping on the colored arrows, Karl half leaning back against the pole while Quackity jumped over on his own pad.

Sapnap as always never picked a side, he cheered for Karl and Quackity just the same, blurring the cheers with pet names to make it harder to know who he was cheering for.

You can’t lose if you play both sides after all.

They played song after song, Karl and Quackity working up a sweat as prize tickets printed out of the machine between songs.

Karl got awfully close to winning a few times, but in the end had to admit defeat as he was 100 points from beating Quackity. Both boys were winded and almost sweating through their shirts.

"I will never understand how someone who hates exercise as much as you, is winning all the time” Karl said, trying to scratch his lower back through his sweater.

"What are you talking about? I am peak fitness” Quackity leaned back against the pole and pulled his beanie off to wave off.

"You’d beat him if you went on jogs with me like I offer you pretty much everyday” Sapnap noted behind him.

"Not a chance, you adrenaline junkie” Karl said and pulled their tickets from the machine and stepped off the platform.
"I don’t have PE in college, I'll be damned if I run for anything in my life again” Karl said, handing the prize tickets to Sapnap.

"If you like running so much, sap, why don’t you run over and get me a slushie then?~” Quackity hopped off the machine and grabbed Sapnap’s arm with a wink.

"Mhmmm, sure but only if you’re willing to teach me some color theory after, cause I seem to have forgotten how you mix purple~” Sapnap said back with a wink of his own.

"How about we look at prizes before you two start making out?” Karl suggested and turned to walk towards the entrance of the arcade and the register where all the prizes had been put on display behind a plastic window.

Candy, sticky hands, bouncy balls, knock off nerf guns, cheap plushies, coloring books, plastic toy planes and who knows what else.

Quackity tilted his head slightly to rest against Sapnap’s shoulder, his hand interwinding their fingers as they looked over the prizes they had looked at hundreds of times before.

Sapnap’s hand was so nice and warm in his own, and Sapnap’s thumb stroking over his knuckles wanted to make him melt at the knees.

“Yo, look Karl, you can get a holographic Charizard for like 2000 tickets” Sapnap pointed to a displayed pokemon card in a laminated plastic pocket.

Karl smiled but shrugged as he said,
“Eh, I already have one”.

Karl properly had every single pokemon card known to man. He brought multiple boxes of pokemon cards everytime new cards had been released, and they had all spent multiple sleepovers to unpack the cards.
Karl had properly donated over a hundred pikachu cards to goodwill or handed them out to other kids at school.

But his most prized card was his holographic Charizard.

One he had unpacked from an old package he got from his cousin when he was ten years old. It was Karl’s lucky card, now kept in his wallet next to a picture of Sapnap and Quackity from junior year.

"You’re the only guy I know who wouldn’t want the flex of having two holographic Charizards” Sapnap said.

“Well, I'm not collecting for the flex, I collect for the honor of it” Karl grinned, and struck a pose to make them laugh.

"Sure you do, babe” Sapnap chuckled and turned his attention back to the prizes and the tickets he had in his hand.

"Hey, if I give you an entire box of ring pops, will you marry multiple times?” Sapnap asked Quackity with a puff to his arm, pointing to the cardboard box of ring pops through the display window.

"Only if you pay for the wedding” Quackity chuckled and looked at the box Sapnap referred to, it was filled with orange packages with a cartoon orange ring pop.

“Damn, I hoped you would cover that,” Sapnap laughed under his breath. Quackity shoving his elbow into Sapnap’s side playfully as payback.

"Hey, how come you two only ever ask me about getting married?” Quackity then asked.

“Because, it's tradition” Karl said with a shrug, as if it was as simple as two plus two.

"Yeah, but don’t you wanna be asked though?” Quackity asked.

"Sure, but I think it's funnier asking. You always look so happy” Sapnap shrugged.

Quackity blushed and smiled as he looked at the box of ring pops again. He then looked at the tickets in Sapnap’s hands.
"Can I have ten of those?” he asked and pointed at the tickets in Sapnap’s hands.

"Oh yeah, sure babe” he smiled and ripped off ten tickets for Quackity.

Quackity took them with a smile, letting go of Sapnap’s hand and turned to go over to the register. A guy with a magazine sat behind the desk, he looked up as Quackity stepped up to the desk.
"Two ring pops please” Quackity told the guy behind the counter and put the tickets on the table. The guy took them with a bored expression and grabbed two orange ring pops.

"Have a good day sir” the guy said and turned back to read in his magazine.

Quackity took the packaged rings with a smile and turned back to his boyfriends.

"Marry me” he said and held it out to them.

"Yes!” Sapnap said with a wide excited smile, and kissed Quackity before grabbing a ring.

"I thought you’d never ask” Karl smiled and took the other one.

Quackity smiled wide as he watched Sapnap rip the package off his ring. His ring finger was too big and had to slide it on his pinky.
Sapnap looked so excited as he popped it into his mouth with a muffled thank you to Quackity.

"You’re right. It is fun to be the one asking” Quackity said and took Karl's hand in his own.

“Yeah, but don’t get any funny ideas. I am buying the actual ring” Sapnap said with a glint in his eyes.

"As if you’d say no to us” Karl rolled his eyes.

"Hey, I call dibs. Please respect that” Sapnap popped his ring out of his mouth.

"Oh let him, Karl. Engagement rings are crazy expensive anyway” Quackity said and swung their hands a bit.

"Hey, we have like 200 tickets. How about we get the knock of nerf gun and candy for the rest?” Sapnap suggested.

After exchanging the last tickets for the nerf gun and two packs of gummy worms, they stopped by the food booth before leaving the arcade.
Sapnap used the last of the money Bad gave him to buy them a hotdog and a slushie each, one of which was very counterproductive with the cold evening air outside.

The street lights had lightened up as they walked down the old streets again. The wind blew through the bare branches of the trees they walked past.

This was honestly the best way they could end their day, especially considering how awful it had started.

Quackity didn’t want to bring it up again. He was an asshole, and he kinda just wanted to bury that fact six feet under instead of having it screaming in his face.

“Hey, do you think on Friday, we could maybe swing by the dinner too?” Quackity asked after finishing his hotdog.

“I wanna say sorry for what I said… and did” Quackity’s face turned a bit red.

Karl looked to Quackity, the straw in his mouth dropping into its colorful ice.
“You don’t have to do anything to say sorry. Besides, we already did all that, we apologized so it’s all good” Karl offered a smile.

“Yeah, but I still feel like an ass” Quackity kicked at one of the small rocks on the sidewalk.
“And it was unfair that I wanted you guys to ask me out. I could just have done it” Quackity said.

“Yeah, but we did kinda put that thought into your head” Sapnap said and sucked some of his red slushie up through the straw with great effort.

“You know, me and Karl did mean it when we said we wanted to take you out too. But…” Sapnap shrugged after a moment.

“But what?” Quackity asked, stirring his straw through his own slushie.

“It’s nothing, it’s just,” Sapnap rubbed the back of his neck.
“You seem tired. And we didn’t want you to be uncomfortable if you were exhausted”

“Oh…” Quackity blinked at that.

He hadn’t really noticed anything different about his appearance. But then again, he hadn’t noticed losing weight either, so maybe there was something about it.

“Wait, shit, I didn’t mean to make you upset” Sapnap apologized quickly.
“You look great, but you fall asleep during movies and we didn’t wanna make it worse. You look great, you always look great” Sapnap fumbled through his words.

Karl put a hand around Quackity’s waist,
“Sap, you sound like every mom to every teenage girl ever” he tried to joke, making Quackity smile a bit.

“Do I look tired?” Quackity then asked Karl, making the brunette look at him properly.

“No, like Sap said, you look great, hot even” Karl said, and Quackity wished he found his word more reassuring.

“Trust me, I have an eye for art and fine things after all” Karl teased and tried to tickle Quackity through his thick jacket.

“Karl stop!” Quackity laughed and stepped out of reach of Karl’s hand and behind Sapnap, taking his free hand instead.

A breeze blew past them, Karl shivering through his jacket as they continued on their walk home, throwing out their half finished slushies in a bin by a bus stop as the drinks had become more ice than flavor.

But then Sapnap stopped in his tracks and smiled,
“I have an idea” he let go of Quackity’s hand and jogged over to one of the old oak trees.

“Sapnap? What are you doing?” Karl called after him and dragged his shoulders up to his ears to try and keep warm.

“Something cheesy as fuck” Sapnap yelled back over his shoulder. Quackity watched Sapnap rummaged through his jacket pocket and pulled out a bundle of keys.

Quackity took a step over towards Sapnap, pulling Karl with him as he watched Sapnap grab his old bike key and start to use it as a knife as he carved into the tree.

“Sap, you’re gonna ruin your key” Quackity scolded him lightly as he watched him carve a crooked K in the trunk.

“Eh, my bike lock is broken anyway” Sapnap just shrugged as he went on to start on a Q.

Karl shivered as they waited for Sapnap to finish whatever he had gotten into his head. Quackity smiled up at Karl and took both of his hands in his, rubbing over them and trying his best to warm up Karl’s hands.

“You should buy a proper jacket next time instead of a cheap one online,” Quackity told him.

“But I look good in this one” Karl defended, and Quackity had to agree, the long and very thin, cream colored jacket did look great on Karl, but it was still a very impractical jacket this close to December.

“Maybe, but you look even better without a runny nose” Quackity teased.

“If I get sick I have two hot boys to take care of me” Karl said and leaned down to kiss him. Quackity chuckled as their lips met and melted into the kiss.

“And done!” Sapnap finally said with triumph in his voice. Quackity and Karl pulled away from their kiss to look at their proud boyfriend showing off a messy carved heart with their initials in the middle.

“You were right. That’s so cheesy” Karl giggled.

“Say what you want. You think it’s sweet” Sapnap grinned and rubbed the remaining bits of tree bark off his key before shoving it back into his pocket.

“Yeah, it is” Quackity smiled and held his hand out to Sapnap.
“I think it’s really nice”.

“Nice enough to get a kiss?~” Sapnap asked as he took his hand.

“Mhmmm maybe~” Quackity teased but peaked his lips a second later.

“Let’s go home before Karl actually catches a cold. Then maybe you can get more kisses~” Quackity smiled.

“Oh I like the sound of that~” Sapnap hummed and kissed him again.

Karl groaned and started to pull on both of their hands.
“Can you please be hot at home, I’m freezing my ass off” Karl complained playfully.

They got home relatively fast after that.

Laughing and giggling as they exchanged kisses through the door, they struggled to get their coats and jackets off and put their shoes back properly.

The TV was on in the living room, Bad and Skeppy sitting on the couch with their arms around each other.

“Hey boys” Bad looked away from the tv and over to the hallway door.

“Hey dad” Sapnap said with red cheeks,
“Thanks for the money, again. Um, we already ate so we’re just gonna be in my room, watching a movie or something” Sapnap spoke with a strained smile, trying way too hard to seem innocent.

Karl giggled with Quackity, making Sapnap shush them up the stairs to avoid suspicion.

“So yeah, we’ll just be in my room, no need to call us down for dinner or snacks” Sapnap said, Karl and Quackity’s soft steps on the stairs sounded behind him.

“Alright” Bad said, clearly not buying Sapnap’s performance.

“Enjoy your ‘movie’” Bad said and turned back to the tv. Skeppy tried hard not to laugh beside him and snuggled up to Bad.

Sapnap blushed harder,
“We will, bye”

“Remember to use a ‘safe site’ for your movie” Bad couldn’t help adding as he heard his son disappear up the stairs.

When Sapnap opened his bedroom door, he was met with the sight of Karl trying to hold Quackity in his lap as he kissed hickeys and marks along Quackity’s naked shoulders, like he was a canvas and Karl held the brush.

Meanwhile Quackity was squirming and giggling at the ticklish feeling, making it very hard for Karl to do his job.

“Seems like you’re having fun without me” Sapnap said as the door closed and he turned the lock, not wanting to risk his dads walking in on them.

“Well, someone had to keep me company” Quackity said and looked over towards Sapnap, yelping as Karl bit the skin over his collarbone.

“Oh my deepest apologies, should I just leave then?” Sapnap joked as he pulled his own shirt off.

“Oh please don’t, we both know I can’t handle him alone” Karl joked as he pulled back and looked at Sapnap.

“Are you saying I’m a two person job?” Quackity asked as he turned to look down at Karl.

“Yep” Karl popped the p and kissed Quackity lovingly again.

The bed dipped as Sapnap put his knee down, moving over to leave light kisses on the back of Quackity’s neck.

They’re ganging up on him, kissing him from both sides and making it hard for him to keep his head straight.

And honestly, Quackity doesn’t even mind.

At some point, Karl moves his hands off Quackity’s back so he can fall back against the mattress.

They shuffle around on the bed, Karl laying down on his side by the wall, taking Quackity’s hand in his own and leaving soft kisses over his knuckles and down his wrist.

Meanwhile Sapnap fumbled to get his own jeans off, having to get up from the bed to get them off. But Quackity hardly noticed as he went back over him again, almost pinning him as Sapnap leaned down and kissed him passionately, their chests flushed with each other.

Quackity hummed into the kiss, moving his right leg up over Sapnap’s hip. He smiled as he felt Sapnap start to kiss his way from his mouth, over his cheek and down to his neck.

His hair tickled slightly against Quackity’s skin. He giggled softly at the kisses and moved his hand over Sapnap’s shoulders and over his back, closing his eyes. He could feel Sapnap’s hand trail down his sides and under his shirt. He loved the way Sapnap grabbed his waist and pulled him closer.

Sapnap’s hands eventually moved from his waist and hooked under the fabric of Quackity’s pants, about to start the struggle of pulling them off.

"Oh, a goldfish” Karl said excitedly.

And then Quackity heard a crunch.

Quackity looked over towards Karl, feeling Sapnap pull back from his neck as well. And they both saw Karl chewing on what they could only assume was a goldfish cracker he had found in the sheets.

Karl stared back at them with big eyes, like he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Sorry… did you want it?” Karl asked innocently.

Quackity couldn’t help but burst out laughing, Sapnap following soon after and buried his head in Quackity’s chest as laughter shook their frames. Even Karl started to laugh after a moment.

Quackity was pretty sure his cheeks were hurting and his eyes watering as he fought through one wheeze after the other.

Sapnap flopped off Quackity and onto the spot next to him by the edge as Sapnap tried to breathe.

“I’m sorry” Karl managed to choke out.

“Oh my god, your fucking face” Sapnap waved a hand over his head, he was completely red in the face from laughter.

“The fucking crutch, I’m dying” Quackity tried to take a deep breath before laughter over came him again.

Bad and Skeppy could probably hear them, but it didn’t really matter at that moment.

Whenever they seemed to stop laughing or showed signs of calming down, they’d just end up looking at each other and the laughter would start all over again.

Quackity had no idea how long it actually took for them to stop laughing, but they were all red in the face, cheeks hurting and smiling, and with wet eyes when they finally managed to breathe normally again.

“I don’t think we’re having sex tonight” Sapnap said and looked to Quackity and Karl.

“No shit, all I think about right now is Karl and the goldfish” Quackity chuckled.

“I’m so sorry” Karl buried his head in a pillow, smiling wide despite the embarrassment.

“I can’t believe I’m getting cockblocked by my own boyfriend” Sapnap chuckled.

“Hey, everyone has a type, mine is dumb tall boys, Karl’s type is apparently a yellow fish cracker” Quackity said, laughing again as Karl shoved him into Sapnap.

“Oh shut up” Karl blushed harder. Quackity sat up and crawled over to lay on top of Karl instead.
“Never. You love me and Sapnap, and now a cracker” Quackity poked his nose.

“Does this mean we have to marry the goldfish crackers too?” Sapnap asked and shuffled closer, putting his arm over Quackity’s waist and on Karl’s hip.
“Cause I’m more of a tuc cracker guy” Sapnap said.

“Yeah Karl. Listen, I’ll try to get along with your new boyfriend, but I only have love for you and Sap” Quackity teased Karl and messed with his brown curls.

Karl threw his head back into the pillow with a groan,
“I hate you. I hate you both so much” he whined.

“No you don’t” Quackity kissed his cheek.
“You love us” he grinned.

Karl sighed and tilted his head back to look at Quackity.
“You’re right” he laid his arms up around Quackity.
“I love you a lot” he said.

Sapnap smiled and sat up on his elbow.
“Wanna watch Batman instead?” He suggested.

“Yes please” Karl smiled as he tilted his head over to look at Sapnap.

“As you wish, fish lover” Sapnap grinned as he got up to get his computer.

“Oh fuck you” Karl threw a pillow at him.

……….

It was as hot as a sauna under the covers.

Working as a shield from the cold air outside their sleepy bubble.

Quackity slowly stirred awake, his brain feeling groggy as he blinked. Quackity looked up at Karl’s sleeping face, the mess of brown curls sticking up everywhere.

Quackity’s throat felt dry, parched almost as he sat up in bed. Sapnap’s arms moved down to pool around his waist and snuggled closer into his side for warmth.

He needed to get some water. His throat almost hurt when he swallowed his spit.

He moved Sapnap’s arms off him and shuffled to crawl over him, accidentally stirring Sapnap awake a bit.

“Quackity?” He hummed in his sleep barely awake.

“Sorry, just gonna get some water” Quackity said and pulled the covers back over Sapnap,
“Go back to sleep” Quackity whispered, and Sapnap’s snores slowly took over again.

Quackity stumbled through the darkness of Sapnap’s room and over to the door. Once he was in the hallway, he felt along the wall for the light switch, switching the lights on once he found it.

He grabbed a hold of the stair railing, knowing full well not to trust himself when he was half asleep.

With bare feet he walked over the cold floorboard of the living room and under the arch of the kitchen. He almost blinded himself as he turned on the light over the kitchen island.

He grumbled slightly as he rubbed at his eye. He stepped around the kitchen island, opening the cupboard over the sink, grabbing a glass.

Turning on the water, he closed his eyes for a moment as his glass filled with water. He opened them again as he turned the water off again.

The water felt nice and soothing on his dry throat as he sipped it.

“How are you doing, Quackity?” came Bad’s voice from behind him.

Quackity choked on his water from the shock and coughed as he turned around to look up at the taller man.

“Jesus fuck, you scared the shit out of me” Quackity said, holding his chest.

“Language” Bad said, but he held a gentle smile that for some reason put Quackity on edge.

“Do you want some tea?” Bad then offered him.

“Um, no thanks, I just needed a glass of water” Quackity said and took a sip of his glass again.

“Okay” Bad said and moved over to their electric kettle, pushing down a button. Quackity tried to ignore the cold stone floor under his bare feet as he watched Bad move around the kitchen.

“But how are you doing, Quackity? Are you guys still upset?” Bad asked in a gentle voice unlike what Quackity was used to.

“Nah, We’re fine, I apologized for being an idiot and they apologized back, so… We’re good” Quackity said and watched the few drops at the bottom of his glass.

Bad nodded slightly as he pulled out a pack of tea on the table and pulled out a lemon tea bag.
“You know, there’s nothing wrong with taking some time to yourself” Bad started.

“I don’t want time to myself. I wanna use my time home with Sapnap and Karl” Quackity frowned slightly.

“Of course, but… you seem very tired, and irritated” Bad said and looked over Quackity’s face, the younger boy suddenly feeling self conscious again.

Why did everyone have the need to comment on his appearance?

“And you still haven’t answered me” Bad said.

“Answered you about what?” Quackity furrowed his brow.

“How are you?”

Quackity blinked and moved his gaze off Bad, suddenly more interested in putting the glass in the dishwasher.
“I’m fine. Everything’s fine” Quackity shrugged and pulled on his sleeve.

“You don’t seem fine” Bad tried and Quackity just found himself getting more annoyed.

“Well, why are you asking me if you’ve already made an opinion?” He talked back. Bad looked genuinely surprised at Quackity, but didn’t say anything or scold him.

Quackity considered running back upstairs and back to bed to hide under the covers.

But he knew it was wrong.

“Sorry” Quackity said and moved towards the arch out to the living room.

“It’s okay. I just wanna help you Quackity. You know I care about you” Bad said, not an ounce of anger in his voice.
"You can talk to me. And if you don’t wanna talk to me, then I can refer you over to someone else”.

“Thank you. But I don’t need help” Quackity mumbled,
“I just need some time with my boyfriends” Quackity said and walked back out to the hall and up the stairs. Quackity opened and closed the door into Sapnap’s dark room quietly, carefully stepping through the darkness.

He found the bed, crawling over Sapnap and back into his spot between them. Sapnap still snored and moved his arm up over Quackity’s chest. He mumbled something into Quackity’s hair, but nothing Quackity thought was coherent.

Quackity closed his eyes.

He just wanted to be alone.

With the exception of Karl and Sapnap beside him.

He just wanted to be with them like they used to before summer. Before his thoughts seemed to overrun his brain.

Just the three of them alone.

……………

“Hey, where’s my hoodie?” Karl asked as he looked up from his bag.

Thursday had passed way too quickly for Quackity’s liking.

The three of them slept in, probably for the first time that holiday, Quackity wasn’t the first to wake up.

His parents invited Sapnap and Karl to come eat dinner with them. Quackity got almost interrogated by his mom about Harvard, how his classes were, if the other kids were nice to him.

All stuff Quackity couldn’t answer honestly to any of the people at the dinner table.

It didn’t help that she had pinched his cheeks and commented on how he was nothing but skin and bones.

Quackity was the one making an excuse for them to leave early after dinner. He doesn’t even remember what excuse he gave them.

He just didn’t wanna be put on the spot anymore.

It made him terrified that one of them would notice he had been looking at his plate all night and just shoved his food around with his fork.

And then Friday came.

And Quackity hoped that would be better, especially since they had planned on going to the diner for dinner.

But having to pack their bags and suitcases was a nightmare to him.

Quackity’s flight was at 12 pm tomorrow, and the airport was an hour away, but he had to be there earlier than that, at least an hour before, so they had to leave the house at the latest at 10.

Giving them no time to do anything but get dressed, eat and then out the door.

Quackity hated it.

“Dad said he had washed all our clothes already,” Sapnap said as he shoved a pair of jeans into his duffel bag. Sapnap frowned and then groaned as he got up.
“Forgot my boxers” he mumbled and went for the door to go grab them.

“I don’t even remember putting it in the wash if I’m honest” Karl muttered and looked through his bag again, checking he hadn’t packed it without knowing. But Quackity knew he hadn’t packed it yet, because the multi-colored hoodie was currently in Quackity’s hands, trying to sneak it into the suitcase next to him on the bed.

But then Karl spotted him on the bed, and the hoodie in his hands.

“Quackity. Give it” Karl said with a smug smile and held his hand out, making a grabbing motion at him

“No” Quackity said and laid down on his stomach, the hoodie under him.

“Quackity you can’t steal all my big shirts, I’m gonna freeze” Karl chuckled and tried to get closer, getting up on the bed and trying to turn Quackity over so he could get his hoodie.

“You live in california. And I need it for when I miss you” Quackity tried to reason as he squirmed to try and escape Karl.

“Q, it’s one month” Karl finally flipped him over.

"Exactly, I could freeze to death” Quackity hugged the hoodie to his body.

Karl raised an eyebrow.
“Q. It’s my favorite hoodie” he reminded him.

“It’s my favorite too” Quackity shot back at him with a pout.

Karl leaned back, looking down at Quackity with soft eyes as he took in the tight hold he had on the shirt.

“Is there a reason you won’t give it back?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Quackity turned over on his side, hid his face in the hoodie and mumbled into the fabric,
“It smells like you…”.

“I know, it’s my hoodie” Karl tilted his head as he joked.

“You’re bullying me now. I’m not giving it back” Quackity glared at him.

Karl only chuckled and flopped his weight down on Quackity and trapped him in a hug.
“If you want it, you have to spill the beans on why,” Karl said.

“You know why I want it. You’re just being mean now” Quackity protested with another glare.

“I know, but I wanna hear you say it” he kissed his cheek.

Quackity blushed and sighed as he finally gave up.
“I want it… because I'm gonna miss you, and it’s warm and cozy and it reminds me of you” Quackity said, feeling shy under Karl’s soft eyes.

“I’m gonna miss you too,” Karl smiled.

“And I am so jealous I don’t fit any of your shirts. But it’s only one month” he tried to reason with him, moving to lay on his side next to Quackity, the edge of the suitcase boring into his back.

"I don’t wanna go” Quackity picked at his nails, the hoodie now resting against his chest.

"I miss you” his voice sounded so small.

“And trust me, we miss you too, so much you wouldn’t believe it” Karl tried to reassure him. He leaned in a bit closer and whispered as he watched the door.
“Between you and me, I think Sapnap is going crazy because of it. He feeds the ducks at the park almost every day” he said with a smile.

It managed to get Quackity to chuckle.
“He’s so dumb” he said fondly, but the furrow in his brow was still present.

Karl sighed with a smile and sat up.
“Okay, you can keep it till Christmas” Karl said, smiling at the way Quackity seemed to immediately lighten up.

“Really?” He asked.

“Yeah, then it’ll smell like you when I get it back” Karl said and leaned down to kiss him quickly before getting up from the bed to continue packing.

“Besides, you need it more than me anyway” Karl decided as he grabbed his green froggy hoodie.

Quackity smiled wide as he folded the colorful hoodie and packed it into his suitcase.

…………..

It started in his fingers this time.

They’re not even sweating yet, but the dizzy stirring feeling in his fingers is enough to make him aware of the way his heart rate is picking up.

He just doesn’t understand why it’s happening now.

He wasn't in class, or doing homework. He's not even at Harvard.

He was just sitting on the couch, leaning against Sapnap as the third batman movie was playing on the tv. Karl was holding the bowl of popcorn in his lap, munching and snacking on handfuls of it.

And nothing else is happening.

So why is it happening now? Why did he feel dread fill his lungs? He couldn’t feel any safer than he did right there, but he still has the urge to run and hide somewhere, from something he’s not even sure is there.

The cold sweat is starting to form on the back of his neck and in the palms of his hands. He moved his hands under the blanket covering their legs, not wanting Sapnap or Karl to grab his hand and be grossed out.

"Are you cold?” Sapnap’s voice then broke through the wall of thoughts in Quackity’s head.

"What?” Quackity’s head whipped around to look up at him.

"You’re shivering” Sapnap noted and then furrowed his brow,
"And pale. Are you feeling alright?” he asked.

"I um…” Quackity’s throat went dry, trying to come up with anything to say. He could even feel Karl looking at him on the other side of him.

They were both watching him.

He wanted to scream.

"I just…” Quackity shot up from his seat, pulling the blanket off his lap.
"I need the bathroom” he excused himself and walked towards the hallway, not looking back to see Karl and Sapnap’s concerned faces.

Quackity closed the bathroom door a bit harder than he was supposed to, but he just had to get this under control. He turned the bathroom lock and got himself seated on the lid of the toilet, placing his hands on his thighs and hunched over himself

“Please not here” Quackity whispered to himself and tried to breathe. His fingers dug into the fabric of his sweatpants.

He tried to focus on the shower curtain covered in cartoon fishes, counting each one as he tried not to cry. If he started crying, then his eyes would be red and his cheeks puffy. And then he would either have to wait till that went away or come up with another lie to explain it away.

The knock on the door sounded louder than it probably was and Quackity jumped slightly.

“Hey Q? Are you okay? You’ve been in there for a while?” Karl’s voice came through the door.

A while? He felt like he had just sat down.

Quackity tried to will his voice steady, not wanting to cause Karl any more concern.

“I’m fine” he managed to squeak out.

“You sure?” Karl asked again.

“Yes. I think my stomach is acting up. Probably ate too much or something” Quackity tried to lie and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Oh, well, do you need anything?”

“No. Please just leave me alone” Quackity didn’t mean to sound so annoyed, but he just really needed to be alone right now and for Karl to buy his lie and leave.

“Oh… okay” Karl said, his voice sounding a bit taken aback by Quackity’s tone.
“Me and Sapnap are in the living room if you need anything” Karl reminded him. Quackity could hear the familiar sound of the floorboards squeaking as Karl left.

Quackity covered his face again.

Why was he such an asshole?

………

Like he expected, they didn’t get the chance to do anything the next morning.

Bad woke them up at 9, they shuffled out of bed to get dressed and brush their teeth. Quackity honestly considered just traveling in his pajamas if it meant he could stay in bed for another twenty minutes.

During breakfast Bad offered Quackity to take some muffins with him on the flight, but Quackity had to say no thank you, a bit worried they’d get caught in security.

Before they left the house, Quackity had promised to go say goodbye to his parents, something that took a bit longer than expected.

At 10:23, the car was packed, Quackity’s suitcase and backpack packed last to make it easier to get out at the airport. Bad would drop him off at the airport before they went on to get to Karl and Sapnap's campus.

Quackity felt like the car ride was their last chance to get any form of quality time together, and he enjoyed every moment of it. He listened to Karl ramble about the weird dream he had about racing a bunny in sports cars, and sang along to the radio with Sapnap when one of the better songs played.

Quackity wished they could come with him till he actually had to step onto the plane, but he knew their goodbye had to be by the drop off area.

They clung more to each other than hugged, as Bad pulled Quackity’s suitcase out of the back of his car.

Quackity was almost sure he was gonna cry as they kissed him and asked him to text them as soon as he landed. They even reminded him to buy bubblegum.

Quackity wanted their time to be longer, but Quackity was already 20 minutes late.

He looked over his shoulder multiple times to seem them all wave to him. He waved back right until he couldn’t see them anymore.

Getting through security was a hassle. The line was long, making him paranoid about missing his flight. At one of the check points he couldn’t find his passport in his backpack. At the metal detectors he forgot about his belt and had to be searched.

He had to hurry though one of the kiosks to get his gum, rushing to find his boarding area, only to get there and see his flight had been delayed for an hour.

As he sat down in one of the seats in the waiting area all he could think about was how he didn’t have to cut their goodbye short. He could have hugged them for at least another fifteen minutes and still be there in good time.

He even regretted not saying yes to Bad’s muffins now.

Once on the plane he tried to get one of the movies playing, knowing full well the next six hours was gonna be hell for him.

He listened to the stewardess go over safety rules as he popped a bubblegum piece into his mouth, buckled his seatbelt with no intention of unbuckling it before landing again.

And leaned back in his seat with a death grip on each chair arm as they took off.

When he finally landed in Massachusetts and got off the plane, his jaw hurt from chewing and his bubblegum was blant. Quackity felt sluggish as he stood by the conveyor belt and watched one black suitcase pass by another, music blasting into his ears through his headphones.

He didn’t really register how he got out of the airport and into the bus, his brain feeling fuzzy and tired despite it only being three in the afternoon. And as he rested his head against the bus window it felt like his brain was buzzing.

He dragged his feet as he stepped off the bus and onto campus. There weren't nearly as many people as normal, but most of them were carrying bags and suitcases. Quackity doesn’t doubt the rest of the school will show up over the next few hours, or tomorrow.

Quackity wished he could just have arrived tomorrow, spend just one more day with Karl and Sapnap.

He dragged his suitcase up the stairs, his backpack hanging off one shoulder as he got to the top floor. He swung his backpack around so he could fumble through it to get his dorm key.

Quackity unlocked his door and stepped into his dorm room, the silence greeting him as he turned on the lights. His bed was still made, the mess he left on his desk and on his floor was still there as well.

And as he let go of his bag to drop on the floor, it settled in that Quackity was alone again.

And he had never felt more miserable.

Chapter Text

Quackity hoped that it would be easier after Thanksgiving.

He thought seeing Sapnap and Karl again would be enough to keep him going till christmas.

But now he thinks it’s only made it worse.

The lecture hall is full, but not a single soul is speaking as Schlatt explained contractual laws and terms Quackity was supposed to know what meant.

But since he got back, he hadn’t really opened any of his textbooks, but he didn’t think it really mattered. He hadn’t understood anything in his classes for weeks now.

And don't even ask about his notebook. Before, Quackity’s notes were walls of text, highlighted and in an organized system he used to be praised for. Before Thanksgiving, they were just bullet points with a seven word sentence.

Now he doesn’t even bother to take notes.

Schlatt was writing down points in chalk on the board for no reason, cause Quackity wasn’t even paying attention. His pencil had been making lazy lines over the top of his page as he drew circles and swirls.

He wondered what Karl was drawing right now? Or maybe he was painting or sketching for his finals. Or maybe Karl was trying to sculpt something in clay.

Karl would be good at that, Quackity thought.

Karl had such talented hands, he could touch anything and make it into something amazing. And his fingers were so long and slender, Quackity closed his eyes and he could almost feel the ghost of Karl’s hand fingers intertwined with his own.

“Pumpkin” Schlatt’s voice broke through the fog.

Quackity opened his eyes to see Schlatt staring up at him from his podium by the end of the steps.

He didn’t look pleased, his arms were crossed behind his back and the same scowl he has worn all semester is still on his face.

"Wanna explain the importance of employment law? and how it differs from contractual law?” he asked him.

Quackity can feel the entire classroom staring at him. They know the answers, and Quackity swore he felt like they knew he didn’t.

Quackity looked down at his notebook, seeing nothing but a blank page.
"I um… I don’t know” Quackity admitted in defeat.

Schlatt huffed and turned back to the board.
“Employment law affects every aspect of the workplace. It determines your rights regarding hiring, wage and benefits, among other things” Schlatt walked over to the board where the things are listed, knocking against the it with his knuckles.

“Meanwhile contractual law is a branch of law which determines the circumstances in which a promise shall be legally binding on the person making it. An example of such could be dental or a certain salary” Schlatt said and gestured to the other end of the chalkboard.

“You would know that if you paid attention, Pumpkin” Schlatt said with a smug smile.
“Maybe writing it down would help”

Quackity had to force his hands to stay still as he nodded in response. Luckily Schlatt seemed to take pity on him and didn't grill him further, carrying on to expand on the terms.

Quackity sighed and forced himself to write down keywords from the things Schlatt wrote on the chalkboard. It didn’t make sense without context, but Quackity doubted he was gonna read his notes anyway.

Schlatt ranted on for another forty eight minutes. Quackity knew this cause he kept looking over at the clock hanging over the chalk boards.

He was pretty sure he spent five minutes watching the second hand go round at one point.

All Quackity could think about was how much he wanted to go back to his dorm room already, drop his bag on the floor and get under the covers for a nap.

“Alright. Before class ends, I have been asked by Mr Soot, to inform you on the new debate club starting up after the break” Schlatt said as he grabbed a sponge and started to wipe the text he had spent the last hour writing.

“I do not care if you do or don’t, but it is very much recommended given that debating will be one of the topics we will touch upon next semester” Schlatt said and stepped around his desk.

“It starts up in January after the break, you can sign up by asking Mr Soot to join” Schlatt said nonchalantly as waved his hand up towards one of the seats. Quackity saw a brunette with the glass wave his hand up and smiling to the rest of the class.

It was the same guy that humiliated him on the first day.

No way is Quackity gonna join his club and get even more humiliated. He sank down further into his seat.

“Alright with that out of the way. Finals starts up next week, you can reach me in the office after twelve and before four. If you have an urgent matter, write an email” Schlatt crossed his arms.

“I expect you all to pass. So don’t pull any bullshit. You can party at New Years” Schlatt said and then leaned back against his desk.

“Dismissed”.

Quackity shot up from his seat, and shoved his things back into his bag, not even bothering with closing his notebook properly, leaving the pages to get wrinkled among his textbooks.

Walking up the stairs, Quackity spotted the brunette with glasses standing by the doors, a list and pen in hand, some girls were seemingly joining the debate club already as they chatted to him.

The guy looked away from them after writing down their information, and turned to look at Quackity.
"Hey, wanna join the debate club?” the guy asked him with the kindest smile.

"No thank you” Quackity muttered and moved to step out of the way. He just wanted to get out of this building already.

"You sure?” the guy leaned into his space.

“Yes, I am. Bye” Quackity snapped back at him and marched out of the doors and down the hallway.

Quackity didn’t wanna do anything right now, but go back to his bed and stop existing.

………

It's December 10th, a peaceful Saturday morning.

Quackity could hear his hallmates chatting, walking up and down the stairs outside his door. The girl next door was being loud again, and Quackity could hear she wasn’t alone by the noises and creaking against his wall.

He rolled over in his bed to check his phone, one arm moving out of his cocoon of blankets and bedsheets to grab it and rolled back over. His phone was barely a few inches away from his face as he unlocked his phone.

It was close to one pm.

He should properly go get dressed, but sleep was still present in his bones and he couldn't find a reason to do so, it wasn’t like he had any reason to get dressed anyway.

He looked at their discord server first, Sapnap and Karl had both sent good morning texts about an hour earlier. He answered them with a simple good morning and a heart.

Then he opened instagram and the first post he saw was a picture of George holding the camera with Dream and Sapnap grinning over his shoulder with pretzels in their hands. The caption read ‘making sure I don’t get any dumb christmas gifts this year’.

‘Oh, Sapnap was christmas shopping’ Quackity thought as he liked the photo and scrolled down.

It was then that Quackity realized he had to find them presents, and he didn't have any ideas in the slights about what he should give them either.

He stares at his phone for another minute before he gets up, prying the blankets off to get dressed. He couldn’t believe he forgot to get Karl and Sapnap Christmas presents.

Christmas eve was two weeks away. He has like five more finals, and as soon as he is on his flight back to california, he won’t get a chance to find anything.

Quackity dragged the hoodie from yesterday over his head and grabbed his phone to type ‘mall near me’ in his maps. He'll just go find the presents now, that way it can leave his mind sooner and he won’t have to worry about it.

There's a mall about 15 minutes from here if he takes the bus. Quackity looked at the time. It's a bit past one in the afternoon, if he leaves now he can probably be back in the dorms again before dinner.

He’d just spend a few hours looking for two gifts.

How hard can it be?

…….

Turns out. It can be very hard.

Quackity doesn’t know the mall. He doesn’t know the layout or what stores there are.

It shouldn’t surprise him as much as it does, but he couldn’t find anything in the mall. He hadn’t been there before.

He hasn’t really been anywhere in Cambridge.

As he walked down long and crowded hallways, he tried to find anything that either Karl or Sapnap would like. The window displays were decorated with fake snow and Christmas elves. From the ceiling in the mall hallway, big light up snowflakes dangled over them.

There were so many people and so many loud voices mangled into the christmas music playing throughout the mall. He pulled the hood of his hoodie up over his ears, still freezing from walking outside in the heavy snow from the bus stop. His legs were still shaking in his sweatpants.

He had to find something good for Karl and Sapnap. They brought him a lego set, giving him a budget of like forty bucks each. He knew they didn’t care about prices, but Quackity still felt like he had to at least try and give them something good back in return.

But as he walked past one store after the other, he slowly realized he had no gift ideas.

It's never been this hard before.

A part of him is crying because he didn’t know what they wanted, what they liked, what they needed?

And he’s too embarrassed to text them and ask.

He’s never needed to ask before. None of them ever asked, because they liked to put thought into their gifts, something that says ‘hey I thought of you when I saw this’.

But the only thought Quackity could put into it right now, was how much he wanted to go back to his dorm and bury himself into his cocoon of blankets again.

He had been looking at clothes all afternoon, but none of them seemed like anything Karl or Sapnap would wear.

Sapnap liked jersey jackets and band shirts.

Karl liked patterned sweaters and old jeans he can havoc and tailor to his own style.

Neither of them would want a white boring dress shirt.

Maybe he should buy a pair of jeans for Karl then? No, then it’ll seem like a half assed gift.

He twisted and turned his brain like a wet washcloth, for any idea of what they might like.

Karl started liking Batman over the break, he could find something Batman related and call it a day. A figure or a shirt, anything would do right now.

What about Sapnap?

Karl mentioned Sapnap feeding ducks, and he’s constantly seeing ducks on Sapnap’s Instagram story.

He’ll get something with ducks on for him.

No. That’s stupid.

Quackity looked up at a red store sign, took a deep breath and stepped into an H&M. It was filled with moms pushing carts and blocking the walkways between clothing racks, he walked past teens younger than him looking at cheap jewelry.

And then he finally made it to a deserted men’s section in the back of the store.

As he stepped into the labyrinth of clothing racks, it calmed his nerves to be around less people. He could look in peace without any eyes on him.

He walked over to what looked like more teenage styled clothing, all the way in the back by the dressing room. It had racks of hoodies and t-shirts, along with mannequins dressed in skinny jeans and sweatshirts.

One of the mannequins was wearing a bordeaux red turtleneck, and the thought of Sapnap wearing it crossed his mind. Sapnap would look really handsome in that color, especially with his hair pulled back into a bun.

With a pair of dress pants it would make for a very good outfit for something fancy, like a christmas dinner.

When Quackity looked around to try and spot the sweater on a hanger, he made eye contact with a middle aged woman looking at him over the racks of jeans with a child sitting in the cart next to her. She gave him a strained smile, and Quackity looked back at the mannequin and walked to the racks behind it to look for the turtleneck.

He kinda wished he had taken his headphones with him, the amount of voices and pop christmas music was starting to give him a headache. He should have brought a backpack too, now he's gonna have to buy a bag and hope the snow doesn’t get into it.

“Hello, what can I do for you today, sir?” a woman’s voice spoke from next to him. Quackity looked up from the clothing hangers to the same woman from before. She stood over him with what Quackity can only describe as an annoyed smile, her wrinkles looked like they were being stretched out.

Quackity saw multiple red flags right then and there.

The woman was not wearing any nametag, but a cardigan with a panther print shirt underneath it. She had been staring him down from across the men’s section and now trying to make him think she was an employee of the store.

Not even to mention the short blonde haircut.

Quackity knew exactly what was happening, and he did not have the headspace for it. He had been stopped, insulted and called every slur under the sun for being hispanic before. He was a gay mexican guy in a relationship with two men, harrasment was guaranteed wether he liked it or not.

Quackity remembered one time where he had been in Walmart with Sapnap and a man started yelling at them. He tried taking a throw at Quackity at one point, but Sapnap pushed the guy, grabbed Quackity’s hand and they ran to the register and asked for security.

Quackity was fourteen when that happened.

He really could not deal with this right now, and just wanted to keep looking for that turtleneck.

“Uh… nothing really, just kinda looking around” Quackity tried to smile, turning around to try and look somewhere else till she decided to leave him alone.

"You sure? You look a bit lost” Quackity could hear her heels clicking over the floor as she followed after him.

"I’m sure. Just doing some christmas shopping, you know” Quackity said back at her, hoping she would get the hint as he took a sharp turn and walked between a slim walkway between racks of hangers.

He felt sweat forming at the back of his neck, and dread getting heavier and heavier over his head with each question this lady asked him. He almost wished she would stop pretending and just call him a slur. It was worse when they pretended to be nice when he knew what they thought about him, he can’t blow up on them when they’re pretending to be nice, cause then he looks like the asshole.

"Well, maybe I can help? What exactly are you looking for, mhmmm?” she asked him for probably the fifth time already.

“I’d really just prefer to look around by myself” Quackity snapped at her. Quackity’s hands were shaking and his throat felt dry.

"Well, I must insist” the woman would just not get the hint. Quackity stopped in his step and turned around to glare at her.
"If you’re so fucking insisting on helping, maybe go back to your fucking kid instead of stalking me” Quackity looked over at the cart with the kid playing on what he could only assume was her phone.

"Did you just threaten my baby?” the woman asked, and Quackity could see anger in her eyes as her fake politeness disappeared.
"Listen here you thief. I know you are stuffing your shirt with these clothes, and I am not gonna let you get away with it, just because you think it's okay to do in your country. I have to ask you to leave the store” she almost yelled at him.

Quackity felt himself tipping over his boiling point when she reached to grab his arm.

"Lady. You and I both know you don’t work here” Quackity stepped out of reach of her hand.

"I am a minor, and you are harassing me. If I get security here I can defindly get you banned” Quackity lied. He was eighteen and legally seen as an adult. But if she was gonna lie to make him think she was an employee to stalk him, then he and his babyface could play that game too.

The woman looked furious, but yet unsure if she should call for a manager or not. When she didn’t do or say anything, Quackity took it as a win.

"So fuck off!” Quackity snapped at her.

Quackity turned around on his heel and marched out of the store, giving up on getting Sapnap that turtleneck.

Quackity was practically shaking with rage and he felt like he was gonna throw up.

Where is the fucking bathroom in this maze.

Quackity spent a good thirty minutes trying to calm down once he managed to find the men’s room. He didn’t care about the people seeing him going in or when people knocked on the stall door.

He considered calling Karl or Sapnap and go on a rant about that woman. He wanted to be distracted and to hear about their day, hear them say I love you and joke about how that woman is gonna get a divorce for christmas.

But he doesn’t.

They’re having a fun day and he's not gonna ruin that for them.

Once he managed to pull himself together again, he was exhausted and decided to call it a day.
He was done walking in rings, trying to come up with any ideas for gifts.

On the way back to the exit, he passed by Target, and talked himself into grabbing something to eat before leaving. He grabbed a package of cup noodles and a bottle of soda.

He passed by the toy section on the way to the register.

With a sigh he walked over to a shelf of plushies, grabbed the first batman looking one he spotted.

Karl’s gift. Done.

He turned on his heel and walked over to the men’s clothing section, grabbed a vacuum package of yellow pajamas with light stripes. He checked it was a large, shoved it under his arm and went to pay.

Sapnap’s gift. Done.

Now he could finally go home in peace.

………..

Quackity wants to talk to them, but he’s not gonna be fun to talk with. So he makes up excuses, says he has an assignment, that he’s got a study group, that he can’t make the call tonight because of the finals.

All so Sapnap and Karl aren’t gonna have to deal with him.

He sleeps even more now, and he can barely make himself leave the bed for anything that isn’t necessary. There are nights where he wakes up with wet cheeks, he thinks he might be crying in his sleep, but doesn’t really care.

He only brushes his teeth in the morning, cause he just can’t force himself when he's about to go to bed, it's easier to just stay in it. He wears the same shirts and pair of sweatpants everyday, switching between the hoodie he stole from Karl, and the jersey Sapnap gave him.

He wears them until he can’t smell them on the clothes anymore, and it only makes it worse.

He sees the texts they send, and he answers them, but without the smiley face he’s known for in their friend group, without the jokes.

He answers with the bare minimum.

He didn’t eat breakfast in the mornings before thanksgiving, now he doesn’t even bother to go to the cafeteria to get dinner. He makes something in his dorm, a cup of noodles, a peanut butter sandwich, anything that doesn’t require him to make any form of human contact.

Hunger feels oddly similar to homesickness.

The lego white house on his dresser gets pulled apart and reassembled over and over again when he can’t sleep, and refuses to use his brain for anything that isn’t putting one white block over the other.

The framed prom photo is turned around, facing away from his bed now, because looking at it makes him want to stop existing.

It doesn’t help that he’s basically stalking his own boyfriends too.

Instead of studying like he claims he is, he goes through all their social media, rewatching their stories multiple times, even if it’s just a shared meme on Instagram. He looks through the couple photos on Sapnap’s Instagram and puts effort into noticing all the little details on the artworks Karl posts.

He’s ghosting them. They’re having fun over there, going to cafés and hanging out in snow covered skateparks, all while Quackity is buried under his duvet, putting the bare minimum of work into his assignments, just so he can turn something in.

He’s ghosting them, cause they’re having fun, and Quackity doesn’t wanna ruin it for them.

He doesn’t even know if they have noticed it.

He hasn’t talked on the phone with them in weeks, he hasn’t even asked for a date since the start of December.

He hoped they won't ask when he goes home on Friday. He really hoped they had just brushed it off.

The lecture room is dead silent, Schlatt is sitting with his feet up on his desk and reading a book. The only sound is the exam papers turning.

It was his last final of the semester, right before the winter break started.

He knew hadn’t studied nearly enough to pass this, he hadn't even tried to do any of the practicing exams, and somehow Quackity found didn’t really care.

And maybe that’s a good thing, that he already knew now that he was gonna fail before he had even written anything down.

But he still felt the sweat on the back of his neck and his palms, his stomach might as well be on the floor, and his writing was messy with how much his hands were shaking. But he can’t leave the room to deal with it, so he forced himself to toughen it out.

It's easy enough, he skimmed the questions, wrote down the first thing that came to mind and then carried on to the next question, not putting much thought into any question.

When his hands became too clammy, he wiped them over his sweatpants. He looked up now and then, checking the clock for the remaining time and if any one else looked as panicked as him.

He could hear one of the other students chew on something, most likely a sandwich, and another sipping on their water bottle.

Quackity’s stomach churned at the thought of eating.

He felt so nauseous whenever food crossed his mind, he hadn’t even bothered to bring a water bottle to the test. It was just four hours, and Quackity honestly just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

He turned the page he was on to start on the next, working his way through the multi choice questions quickly, writing down answers to essay questions he didn’t even think he understood to begin with.

He wasn’t the first one to turn his paper in, but as soon as he had answered all the questions with some form of answer, he got up from his seat quietly, grabbed his bag and walked down to place his exam on the small pile of papers on Schlatt’s desk.

Schlatt looked up once, nodded to quietly dismiss him and then Quackity was out of there.

On the walk back to the dorms, Quackity fantasized about being kicked out. The snow crunched under his shoes as walked over the snow covered fields.

He imagined getting his grade back, and a letter telling him he was now officially banned from Harvard for being the dumbest and biggest mistake they ever let onto their campus.

He wants that letter.

Then he can quit and no one would interrogate him for an explanation on why.

He stepped into the dorm building and started to assent the stairs as his brain gave him multiple examples of how unfit and stupid he was to think he could ever go here.

Quackity had not said one smart thing all year, and he didn’t understand anything anyone said in class. The teachers don’t make sense and his peers always seem to be laughing, and a tiny voice whispers it’s at him.

Quackity pulled out his keys as he got further up the stairs.

His grades are only gonna be proof that he’s too stupid to go into law. He shouldn’t have been accepted into Harvard, it should just have been a childhood dream that got crushed. He should just have accepted his spot in California with Sapnap and Karl.

He unlocked the door into his dorm room and closed it again, dropping his bag on the floor.

Karl and Sapnap don't deserve to deal with Quackity either.

Quackity stopped for a moment. He hadn’t thought about that before, but on some level he guessed it was true.

He’s so dumb, tempermantel, clingy and so unbearably annoying. Sapnap and Karl deserved someone better and smarter and someone over there with them. They shouldn’t have to deal with Quackity and his constant need for attention.

Quackity collapsed onto his bed, he didn’t care about the fact his jacket was getting melted snow onto his sheets as he tried to pull it off. His shoes got kicked off and landed across the room, far away from each other.

Quackity grabbed his duvet and buried himself into the pillows. He grabbed the red jersey tucked over one of his pillows and hugged it to his chest as tears started to form in his eyes.

He knew he laid there for hours, with memories of him being annoying, ungrateful and a bad boyfriend playing over and over in his mind.

Sapnap and Karl deserved so much better and so much more than what he could give them.

He didn’t understand why they even bothered with him. They should just cut all ties to him now that he’s on the other side of the country.

His face was red, cheeks tearstained along with the jersey on his pillow. His throat was dry, and yet the tears kept coming. His stomach is still churning and it hurted, but not as much as his heart did.

He needs to text them.

It's been written in the box on their discord chat multiple times already, sitting in there and then deleted so he could answer them with something else, an excuse or cancellation over the last few weeks. .

But he has to send it.

He has to gather the guts and finally send it.

The homesickness feels like an infection, slowly shutting down more and more of his body, and Quackity fears the strings holding his heart together are gonna break soon.

So Wednesday, December 21th, two days before he gets to go back home,

Quackity sent the text.

Beloved Fiancés

Duckyboi : hey.
Duckyboi : can we talk?
(Today at 18:38 pm)

Chapter Text

Saying goodbye to Quackity again was a lot more difficult than the first time.

“I hate to say goodbye” Karl sighed as he waved.

“You and me both. I hate to see him leave, but love to watch him walk away” Sapnap smiled as they saw Quackity disappear from view on the airport escalator.

“You horn dog” Karl chuckled as he took Sapnap’s hand in his own.

“Don’t bully me, fish lover” Sapnap shot back at him and swung their hands together as they turned to walk out of the automatic doors, the cold wind flowing over them as they walked outside to the parking lot.

Bad had walked ahead a few minutes earlier to wait in the car, wanting to give them some time alone to say goodbye before Quackity had to leave for his flight.

"I am not a fish lover” Karl muttered under his breath, shivering slightly in his jacket.

"Well, my vows say otherwise” Sapnap smirked at him.

Karl fake gasped as they waited for a car to pass them.
"You wouldn’t” Karl dared.

"If you have me doing it to Quackity’s instagram, I get to tell on you being a goldfish lover” Sapnap said as they crossed the street.

"Oh I see, this is a mexican standoff situation” Karl glared playfully at him as they walked past different colored cars.

"You bet your cute ass it is” Sapnap grinned.
"You keep it out of your vows, I'll keep it out of mine” Sapnap offered.

"Hmmm” Karl squinted at Sapnap,
"Considering… Alright, you win” he agreed.

"Pleasure doing business with you” Sapnap smiled as they finally reached Bad’s car, the humming of the radio could be heard from the outside. Sapnap opened the door for Karl before walking around to get to his own seat, prefering to sit in the back with Karl instead of the front seat.

“How did it go?” Bad smiled as he looked back at them in the rearview mirror.

"Pretty good, but you know, we’re gonna miss him like crazy” Sapnap said as he buckled up.

“At least we’ll see him next month instead of three” Karl smiled.

"Yeah, we can manage four weeks. With the finals, it’ll properly go by fast” Sapnap said and placed his hand on the middle seat, Karl moving his own hand over to hold it.

Bad nodded along to show he was listening as he put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking lot.

"I’m glad you boys are looking at the positive side of this” Bad smiled as they pulled onto the road and made their way towards the highway again.

"Well, what else can we do?” Karl asked,
"Cry about it won’t change anything, so we might as well just remind ourselves of the good things coming,” he smiled and turned his head to look out the window at all the speeding cars.

"You’re right about that” Bad chuckled, watching the road.

Sapnap bobbed his head as he mumbled the words to the music under his breath. Karl closed his eyes and stroked his thumb along Sapnap's knuckles.

“Quackity has been rather quiet this week” Bad noted after a few quiet minutes.
“Is everything alright?” he asked, casting them a glance in the rear view mirror before looking back on the road again.

"Yeah, we made up after the fight and we’ve had a pretty good time” Sapnap said and looked over at his dad.
"The jet lag probably just tucked him out, maybe?” Sapnap tried to excuse Quackity’s behavior.

"For an entire week?” Bad raised an eyebrow.

"You know how he is after flying” Sapnap shrugged.

Bad gave a hum, thinking over his next words.
"Is everything okay over in massachusetts?” Bad then asked.

"Dad I don’t know what to tell you, Quackity seems to be doing fine, he’s crushing it in class, and he and Jeremy seems to be having a good time when he talks about their hangouts” Sapnap shrugged,
“Quackity was just tired, that’s what he said when we asked him about it”.

“So you agree that he has been quiet?” Bad asked.

“Well, yeah, but I trust Quackity to tell us if there was any other reasons for it” Sapnap’s brow furrowed.
“Quackity tell us everything”.

Bad tapped his finger on the wheel, choosing to agree with his son and end their conversation there.

But as the car filled with music and soft conversations, Bad couldn’t help but feel the dark clouds starting to loom over the sky, were an ill omen.

……….

Sapnap didn’t mind his job, it was kinda good for an after school gig.

But closing hours always seemed to drag on.

The twilight hours is what Sapnap preferred to call them, cause time always seemed to lose its meaning at the end of his shifts.

It was close to 9 pm, the kitchen and grill had already closed for the night, leaving fries and hotdogs as the only viable options for any last minute customers.

Thirty minutes more, and Sapnap would be free to go. He’d swing by Karl to say goodnight before heading off to take a look at some last minute readings before going to bed.

But right now, he was busy packing away trays of cut onions and bottles of ketchup.

He was completely alone, the last customer had left long ago and the chef was outside the back door to smoke. Giving Sapnap a lot of time to daydream and mumble along to the radio playing over the speakers.

He got chills as he stepped out of the freezer room, brushing his arms over his long sleeves as the heavy door closed behind him.

He walked around to the register, looking out the glass doors to check for any people that might possibly be heading in.

It was vacant.

The sun had gone down hours ago, the streetlights highlighting the sidewalks that lead down the streets. It was about a fifthteen minute walk back to the dorms, Sapnap kinda regretted not bringing his bike along when he was home last time, especially when his feet felt sore from standing up and walking for so long.

Maybe he should ask his dad if they could bring it after New Years.

Sapnap turned around to face the grill pan, turning over the hotdogs and wieners so they wouldn’t split or get burnt.

Putting the tongs down, he sighed and looked around for anything he could possibly do. The dishwasher had been emptied and there weren't enough dishes to reload it. He couldn’t clean up the burger grill or the fryers, since he was still a newbie and there was no supervision.

Every surface had already been wiped clean more times than necessary, and he had already refilled the ketchup bottles.

Sapnap decided to pull out his phone, checking for any new texts he might have gotten since his lunch break. There was an entire conversation between Dream and George bickering about when they should go Christmas shopping, a direct text from Dream asking to borrow Sapnap’s notes and then a text on Instagram from Punz.

Punz was one of the guys on the football team, and a really cool guy to hang with in Sapnap’s books.

They had texted a few times about training or when to meet up at parties and such. Sapnap was pretty sure they could become really good friends soon.

Sapnap opened up Instagram, a post from Karl of drawing popping up first. Sapnap smiled, leaving a like and saved it before he swiped over to his DM’s to answer Punz.

Adidas_addict : Yo. Me and some guys are talking about hosting New Years. You and Karl up for it?
( today at 19:24 pm)

Sapnap thought it over. He and Karl hadn’t really talked about what they should do for New Years.

They knew they were gonna celebrate it with Quackity, just like they had the previous years. Usually they would get some kids champagne from his dad, and then watch the firework, sometimes Dream and George joined them.

Maybe a real New Years party would be fun.

PandasPVP : sure. Can we bring someone from off campus?
(Today at 20:38 pm)

Sapnap closed his phone and went out to the back of the grill’s storage room, grabbing a broom. He might as well finish closing up while he had the time. Then he and the cook could leave earlier rather than later.

Sapnap had just started swiping when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Looking over his shoulder to look into the kitchen, Sapnap found it was still empty. Looking outside it was still as deserted as before.

Sapnap pulled his phone out.

Adidas_addict : sure, you and Karl got that fancy boyfriend, right? Bring him, but I’m not being held responsible for him
(Today at 20:42 pm)

Sapnap smiled and sent him a thumbs up. He looked over his shoulder again, still no chef or customers.

Sapnap looked at the clock at the top of his screen. It was close to midnight where Quackity was, he probably wouldn’t answer him this late.

Sapnap opened his discord anyway and smiled as he typed a quick message, but stopped halfway through.

He deleted the already written in question, staring at his cursor.

He shouldn’t ask right then and there, right?. If Quackity was already asleep, it might as well wait. He could ask him over call.

It was about time they called again, or FaceTimed. Sapnap really missed seeing Quackity’s smile and hear his voice.

Yeah, Sapnap would ask him next time on call. That way they could plan it better too, making it a conversation starter.

Sapnap smiled, nodding with himself in agreement.

But now that he already had his discord open, he might as well send a text.

PandasPVP : thinking about you <3
PandasPVP : I miss you babe
(Today at 20:46 pm)

Sapnap heard the hinges of the back door open and he shoved his phone back into his back pocket, starting to sweep the floor again.

The chef called out to him and said he was gonna clean up the fryer.

After wiping off the counters one last time, washing the floor and locking up after them, Sapnap still hadn’t gotten a text back.

But that was okay, Sapnap would get one in the morning.

But when Sapnap woke up the next morning, the only response he had gotten was a single heart.

No I miss you too or good mornings.

Just a single heart.

Sapnap tried not to think too much about it

………

One of Karl’s favorite sounds in the world is a charcoal pencil stroking over paper.

Karl loved sketching, almost as much as he loved painting or shading. But there was just something so nice sitting there with all the opportunities to add more details, assisting lines and doodles.

And it doesn’t have to end in something big, a sketch can be just that. A sketch, a doodle for him to enjoy in the moment.

And right now, Karl was enjoying watching the round shape starting to form a dancing pair on his paper. Humming along to the music Tina was playing over a pink Bluetooth speaker on the floor as she sketched out an idea of her own.

"Hey, has Quackity texted you lately?” George’s voice broke through the focus, making Karl look over at his bed where George was lounging with his phone.

"I mean, yeah, but he’s pretty busy studying for finals” Karl replied, reaching for his eraser to clean up a few lines,
"Why?”

"Is he mad at me? he’s only send me like one text since the break ended” George asked as he moved to lay on his side,
“And it was a meme. I didn’t even see him during the break either. Is he pissed at me?” George frowned.

"No? I don’t think so? he's probably just stressed” Karl said as he grabbed his pencil again.

“He was a bit tense over the week, but you know how he is so close to exams, he stresses over them even before they start” Karl shrugged.

“So he’s not pissed at me?” George asked her again and looked back down at his phone with the sound of a notification.

“No, I don’t think he’s pissed” Karl offered him a smile before focusing back on his sketchbook, determined to draw the hands right.
“If it helps, he hasn’t really texted me or Sap either” Karl said.

“Okay for a second I felt reassured, but now I’m back to being worried he’s pissed” George raised his eyebrows at Karl,
“He usually texts you guys almost constantly”.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, Gogy” Karl said with a sigh.
“We kissed and hugged goodbye at the airport, he waved back at us. And me and Sap haven’t really done anything” Karl said and looked back at his friend.

“Besides, Harvard is like crazy high educational. He’s probably studying as we speak” Karl smiled.

“Ahuh” George crossed his arms, unimpressed.

“And you’re sure you and Sapnap haven’t missed a call or something again? He sure got his panties in a twist last time” George laid back down against Karl’s pillow.

“George. Everything is cool. Quackity isn’t pissed at either you or us” Karl said, deciding to end the discussion there.

“If you say so” George muttered and turned his face to look up at Karl as his friend turned back to drawing.

“What ya doing?” He asked.

“Warm up sketches” Karl said and grabbed one of his harder pencils to try and outline some of it.

“Warm up sketches? Why do you need to warm up for drawing?” George asked, holding his phone up to snap a picture before texting something on his screen.

“Same reasons you football heads do it. To achieve the best results” Karl rolled his eyes,
“You wouldn’t play a game without stretching first, would you?” Karl asked.

“Uh no, but it’s not like you can pull something while drawing” George said.

“Oh you definitely can” Tina chimed in, starting on a new sketch of her own.
“It helps prevent cramping in the hand” she said.

“And it keeps your hand from shaking, and gets you in a creative mind set” Karl smiled back over his shoulder to his roommate.

“Oh please, drawing isn’t a sport” George rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, it’s an art form. Above sports” Tina grinned.

“Excuse me? Above?” George put his phone down and sat up properly.

“‘Oh no, my hand hurts, cause I’m an artist who drew a line wrong’” George placed a hand over his forehead dramatically before slamming it back on the bed.

“I am willing to bet I have gotten more roughed up during one game then either of you ever have combined while drawing. I got a concussion once” George said with an annoyed frown.

“Oh so that explains your lack of braincells” Tina smirked as she glanced over at George.

“How, dare you!” George shriked.

Karl decided to leave them to their argument. He flipped his phone over and opened it to take another look at his reference photos. His phone opened up to his discord, in the server with Sapnap and Quackity.

there was no new texts from Quackity, the last one was just a simple good morning.

no hearts or smiley faces.

it stung a bit in Karl’s chest.

He wanted to know how Quackity’s day was going? if he had slept well or had any weird dreams? if he and Jeremy had hung out lately?

He wanted to hear his voice, but everytime he asked to call, Quackity declined.

Karl tried not to take it personally. Quackity was allowed to cancel or say no to calls, especially so close to the end of the semester with finals and everything.

But he missed his boyfriend.

Karl closed his phone again, forgetting about his reference photos and looked back down at his sketch book to start on a new doodle.

…………..

It sucks that they don’t get snow in california.

When Sapnap was a kid, he always wished for a white Christmas, but never got one.

He could count the amount of times he had ever gone sledding on his hand.

But at least it was somewhat warm, and he didn’t have to bother with all those layers to keep warm.

Dream had woken them up rather early to go Christmas shopping, something George hadn’t appreciated too much on a Saturday morning.

But once they brought some bretzels and started the day, it was really nice to walk in the sun.

Sapnap listened to Dream list off gift ideas for his siblings as he chewed on a bite of the salty treat, looking over the window displays of Santa and his elves on the beach. Sapnap never really liked those, preferring the more traditional snowy displays of Christmas decorations.

“I’m just saying, your sister isn’t gonna like it. Sapnap, What are you getting Karl?” George asked, bringing Sapnap’s attention back to the conversation.

“I thought I’d give him some new acrylics or paintbrushes. He complained about his supply running low” Sapnap said with a smile.
“But I don’t know what the best quality is, so maybe a gift card is better?” Sapnap shrugged as he finished his bretzel, throwing the napkins in a trash can they passed.

“Good idea, but you know he’s gonna drag you along” Dream said through a mouthful of salty bread.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing” Sapnap rolled his eyes,
“Unlike you, I enjoy being dragged around by my boyfriends” Sapnap grinned, fully knowing how that sounded out of context.

“Ew don’t tell us about your sex life” George pushed him on the arm.

“What are you getting Quackity?” Dream asked before Sapnap could push George back for revenge.

“Mittens” Sapnap said.

“Oh wow, one gets expensive acrylic paints and shit, the other gets mittens” George said unimpressed. This time Sapnap did shove him.

“For your information, me and Karl aren’t allowed to give Quackity a present this year. He chewed us out for buying him the lego set” Sapnap said as they stopped to look at a store window.
“So we decided to give him something small, anything else might make him flip his shit” Sapnap said.

“Still. Mittens?” George raised an eyebrow at Sapnap.

“He doesn’t have mittens” Sapnap defended,
“And Karl is gonna sow a K and S on them, so that way he can still hold hands with us when we’re apart” Sapnap smiled as he looked down at his own hands.

George made a fake gagging sound,
“Ugh, you guys are too sweet, it’s gonna make me sick” George complained as he moved closer to Dream, as if even being near Sapnap was gonna make him catch the plague of love.

“I think it’s a cute idea” Dream offered and looked down at his boyfriend.
“I think it’s actually a really cute idea to make something like that for your partner” he said.

“I know you do. And that’s why I’m out here with you to buy my own Christmas present” George poked Dream’s chest.

“It ruins the fun” Dream pouted.

“Don’t care. Not after you got me that ugly sweater last time” George said as he interlocked his arm with Dream’s, holding onto the bicep of his jacket.

"I genuinely thought you’d look good in it” Dream just rolled his eyes with a smile.

“Dream, I love you, but your favorite color is lime” George looked up at him,
"Your fashion sense is not a valid opinion”.

Sapnap laughed as Dream started to pout and sulk, but yet he didn’t pull his arm out of George’s grip.

Sapnap was so glad Dream and George were his best friends, he had no idea what he would do without those idiots. They were the first he told about his first kiss with Quackity, and his crush on Karl.

They were the ones that beat some sense into him when he started to spiral about the feelings he had for Quackity, and encouraged him to tell Karl about it.

And by god he’s glad he did.

Sapnap doesn’t know what his life would be without them.

Dream was his voice of reason, and George was his common sense.

Sapnap loves Karl and Quackity with all his being, but there will always be more than enough space for Dream and George in his heart.

Especially when George is dragging his boyfriend through the mud with one burn after the other.

They walked into multiple shops, Dream pointing at different clothes in windows, George complaining as Sapnap looked over art supplies he had no idea how to use, and they got their gifts wrapped at the different stores. Dream insisted he didn’t want to know what George was getting him, and he waited outside the store in the claim of true Christmas spirit.

And by the end of the day, Sapnap had picked out a pair of red mittens.

Sapnap was sure Quackity would love it.

………….

It was with his tongue straight, that Sapnap carried the plastic neon pink bowl down the dorm hall, trying hard not to spill on his way to Karl’s door.

His sock clad feet almost made him slide a few times since leaving his own dorm room with the microwave, but yet he had managed to walk the entire dorm hall without spilling once.

Leaving his afternoon class that day, he had received a text from Karl, asking him to get him some soup. His poor boyfriend had fallen ill over the night, and Sapnap took his duty as caring boyfriend very serious when he brought the can of soup, some hard citrus candies and a monster.

He grinned as he came up to the door with the paper with Karl and Tina’s names on, newly decorated to the festive theme of the holiday, snowmen, elves and a ton of glue that had been spilled on the floor underneath it.

"Knock knock” Sapnap smiled as he opened the door with one hand. He got a pained groan in return as he stepped into the messy and colorful room.

“Sapnap…” Karl whimpered with a rough voice, his face barely visible from where he was curled up under his duvet, shaking like a leaf.
“I am being boiled alive,” he whined.

Sapnap smiled and walked over, sitting down on the edge of his bed.
“Aw, that’s not good” he chuckled as he held out the bowl to Karl.
“But fear not, I made soup” he smiled.

"What kind?” Karl asked as he slowly moved to sit up, his face completely flush and his nose red. He pulled his duvet up to his chest as he leaned back against the pillows.

"Chicken noodle” Sapnap said, placing the bowl in Karls hands and making sure he wouldn’t spill all over his bed.

"Eh, I wanted tomato soup” Karl whined but grabbed his spoon nonetheless to start eating.

"I know, but they didn’t have it at the store” Sapnap said and put his hand on Karl’s knee to give it a pat.

"Eh, it’s fine” Karl sniffed as he dipped his spoon back into the soup.
"Not as good as Bad’s soup, though” Karl muttered, letting the soup warm his hand and lap as he ate.

"My dad’s a real chef, nothing can compete with that” Sapnap smiled.

"Too bad you’re not” Karl snickered to himself, stirring around his soup.

"Oh shut up” Sapnap rolled his eyes. He leaned forward, placing the back of his hand against Karl’s forehead, trying to get a feel on his temperature.
"Mhmm, you’re pretty hot” Sapnap noted.

"Thanks” Karl dipped his spoon again.

Sapnap chuckled with a smile as he leaned back again,
"How are you feeling?” he asked.

"My throat hurts” Karl said, letting his spoon stirrer lazily in the bowl.

"Good thing I got you these then” Sapnap said and pulled the bag of hard candies out of his hoodie pouch, and then fumbled a bit more to pull out the monster energy drink.

"You got me a monster” Karl smiled and reached for it, only for Sapnap to hold it out of his reach.

"Ah!” Sapnap held his hand out like a parent,
"You can have it, after you finish your soup” Sapnap said with a pointed look.

Karl would glare at Sapnap if it didn’t make his brain dizzy, so he settle to squint.
"Damn you for knowing how to trick me” Karl said and leaned back to continue eating spoonfuls of soup.

"I’m just great like that” Sapnap smiled and put the bag of hard candy and the energy drink down on the table next to the bed.
“Anything else?” Sapnap asked.

"My feet are cold” Karl said with a mouth full of soup.

“We can't have that now” Sapnap clapped his knee and got up from his spot on the bed to walk over to Karl's dresser, pulling out the sock drawer and grabbing a pair of socks covered in avocados.

Sapnap sat back down at the foot of the bed, Karl moving to put his feet in Sapnap’s lap as his boyfriend unfolded the socks. Sapnap moved the duvet off and grabbed one of Karl’s feet, which was already dressed in socks covered with crows.

Karl finished his soup and placed it on his desk, right next to the bag of candies. He shuffled further under the duvet again, but was careful not to struggle as Sapnap pulled the socks over his feet.

"Thank you Sappy. Kiss me?” Karl made a kissy face as Sapnap pulled the duvet back over Karl’s feet, tucking his legs in.

“Hell no, I’m not risking getting sick this close to Christmas” Sapnap said and sat further back on the bed so he could lean against the wall.

“You’re so cruel” Karl glared at him and turned to lay on his side.
“If Quackity was here, he would kiss me. Cause he truly loves me” Karl pouted.

“How dare you” Sapnap fake gasped and then laughed as he started to rub Karl's back.
"After I put socks on your stinky feet and brought you monster” Sapnap shook his head.

“You did that out of pity. Those are pity socks” Karl shoved to Sapnap’s thigh with his foot lighthearted.

It didn’t stop Sapnap from moving Karl’s feet back onto his lap, covering himself with the duvet in the process. Karl didn’t struggle against him, instead leaning back into his pillows and closing his eyes.

Sapnap smiled as he gently ran his hand over Karl's legs in a soothing manner, the room filled with pleasant silence except for the sound of Karl breathing in and out through his mouth and moving sheets.

Sapnap leaned his head back against the wall, careful not to accidentally bump against Karl’s posters or drawings.

It was nice just enjoying each other’s presence like this.

“What are you thinking about?” Sapnap interrupted the quietness.

“Quackity” Karl answered without opening his eyes.
“I’m wondering if he’s sick too” he mussed under his breath.

“I’m thinking about how he doesn’t have anyone to make him soup when his throat hurts, or get him tissues” Karl said and shuffled further under the covers, tilting his head slightly to look over at Sapnap with sad eyes.

“Hey, of course he does. He has Jeremy, right?” Sapnap reminded him, putting a bit more effort into comforting Karl.

“Do you think he’d put socks on Quackity’s cold feet?” Karl asked with a lifted brow.

“Who knows. We haven’t really met him” Sapnap shrugged.

After another quiet moment, Karl asked,
“Is it bad that I hope he’s sick?”

Sapnap frowned and blinked twice as he nodded.
“I’d say yes? Why would you hope that?” Sapnap asked.

“I don’t want him to be sick” Karl started.
“I never want that. But when he’s sick, Quackity sleeps like a rock the entire time, and it kinda feels better than thinking he’s just ignoring me…” Karl tried to explain.

“Is he mad at me?” Karl asked in a sad quiet voice.

Sapnap sighed and tilted his head slightly.
“I don’t think he’s mad. He’s just busy” Sapnap tried to smile.

“Like he says” Sapnap nodded, he didn’t know if he was trying to convince Karl or himself at that moment.
“He’s just busy with finals, studying and all that other book nerd stuff” Sapnap said.

“But I miss him” Karl’s bottom lip was quivering now.
“He hasn’t even called to say goodnight…”

“I know” Sapnap said, his voice dripping with sympathy.
“But look on the bright side. In less than two weeks we get to hug him again at the airport” Sapnap tried to tuck the duvet even more around Karl, completely trapping his boyfriend in a comfortable cocoon.

“Yeah” Karl’s eyes drifted closed again.
“And we get kisses” Karl muttered tired as sleep was tucking him under.

“Dips on the first kiss” Karl barely managed to say properly.

“It’s every man for himself in the battle of love and war” Sapnap joked and leaned back, letting his boyfriend fall asleep while trapping him under his legs.

Sapnap kept rubbing up and down where he thought Karl’s shin was, left alone in a messy dorm room full of unfinished paintings and clothes.

And even though the dorm bed was already too small, it still felt empty with only the two of them in it.

Sapnap missed Quackity too.

……………

Sapnap could hear his pulse in his ears, his heart thumping in chest and his legs burning as he ran along the pond.

Dream wasn’t far behind him, almost catching up to Sapnap’s speed. His best friend panting hard with red cheeks as he tried to keep up.

But in a sprint, the was no stopping Sapnap.

There was a reason he was the old high school team’s Running Back.

When Sapnap reached a park bench where the trail split in two, his shoes stomped against the dirt path of the park to slow down.

Sapnap wiped the forearm of his windbreaker over his forehead as he tried to catch his breath, the sound of Dream’s labored breath and sneakers on the dirt getting closer behind him.

Sapnap placed his hands on his hips and stretched his back.

“You are a beast, man” Dream leaned his hands against his knees and looked up at Sapnap with sweat in his eyes.

“I’m gonna puke, sprinting around the pond is never a bet I’m making with you again” Dream panted as he shook his head.

“You’re just a wuss” Sapnap chuckled through a breath.
“You owe me a box of pop tarts now, and it better be cinnamon” Sapnap smiled as they started to walk, Dream standing up properly to follow.

“You know those are so bad for you, right?” Dream asked.

“Why do you think I sprint so much” Sapnap chuckled, his heart still hammering away in his chest.

“Because you’re an adrenaline junkie” Dream grinned at him, shoving his shoulder.

Sapnap shoved him back with a laugh. It wasn’t untrue though, Sapnap loved to run, bike, swim. Anything to get his pulse up, he loved it.

He used to jog around his neighborhood back home, sometimes convincing Quackity to follow along on his bike if the weather was good. He even considered joining the track team in high school, but the thought of getting to tackle his classmates sounded like more fun.

It became extremely useful too outside of the football field. Sapnap realized in sophomore year that he always thought better and faster when he got his pulse up, the school topics and readings coming to him a lot cleared while out on a run.

It was perfect when writing assignments or studying.

"So? how’s Quackity?” Dream asked with a labored breath.

Sapnap almost thought he sighed through his labored breathing.

Sapnap always knew that he was the athletic one in his relationship. Karl and Quackity preferred to watch and cheer, and it made Sapnap’s heart sing to know he had his own two cheerleaders in a crowd.

He was just kinda starting to feel only one of them was cheering for him now.

"Good, hes really busy with finals right now, so we haven’t really called. But he seems alright” Sapnap said.

"You must be super excited for christmas then” Dream said.
“You haven’t really chatted at all since thanksgiving” Dream looked over at him as they made it towards the gates of the park.

“We text” Sapnap nodded, like he was answering a question Dream wasn’t asking.

“Do you? Before thanksgiving you were constantly checking your phone, now you’re not” Dream noted and patted Sapnap’s shoulders,
“Let’s jog back to the dorms” he said.

Sapnap nodded as they stepped through the gate and set into a light jog.

“It’s finals season. We’re all busy” Sapnap managed to say, moving behind Dream as an elder lady with a dog walked past them.

“Still” Dream panted.
“It wouldn’t hurt if you checked in on him. Ask him to call for one night or read together, right?” They reached a red light, jogging in place to keep their pulse up.

“I try, god, you sound like my dad” Sapnap said as he watched the light.

“Bad is usually right. So maybe check in on him” Dream shot back at him, the light turning green and they jogged across the street.

“Why are you so concerned about it? I do check in on my boyfriend” Sapnap looked over at him quickly as they passed the seven eleven close to the dorms.

Dream stopped, holding his hand up to sign that he needed a break to breathe.

“I just think Quackity is acting weird. He hasn’t been online in a while and he’s your boyfriend so…” Dream stretched his back.

“I’ve checked in on him everyday, and he says everything is fine” Sapnap shrugged. He had tried his best to text and check on Quackity, and so had Karl. But he had to respect his boyfriend and the fact he was busy.

“But is it?” Dream asked.

Sapnap sighed for real and shrugged as he gave up on jogging in place.

“I don’t know. He says it is and I trust him to tell us if it’s not” Sapnap said and looked down the street. He could see the dorm buildings coming into view.

“But he’s your friend too. You’re allowed to text him yourself if you’re worried, you know” Sapnap said and walked over to smack him on the back.

“Let’s go” Sapnap said and went back into a jog, not waiting for Dream to pick up the speed again.

…………..

Karl’s head was spinning as he walked down the steps of their lecture building.

Four hours for an English exam test really knew how to leave you tired and groggy after.

Karl was pretty sure his brain was thumping inside his skull, but at least it was over now, and Karl would only have to worry about packing for Friday.

“Karl!” He heard Sapnap’s voice call. Karl spotted him over by one of the benches, two foam cups in his hands. He used two fingers off one cup to wave.

Karl smiled as he hurried over to him, peaking his lips as Sapnap handed him one of the cups.

“I got you hot chocolate” Sapnap smiled.

“My hero” Karl smiled as he took a sip, careful not to burn his tongue on the hot drink.

"How was the test?” Sapnap asked and took his hand.

"Long” Karl groaned, sipping again with a soft hum.
"But it was alright, but thank god it’s over” Karl said as they started to make their way over the grassy fields along with the other students. It was like watching a horde of zombies wandering.

"How was yours?” Karl asked.

"I think it went pretty good. I finished early” Sapnap smiled as their phones dinged with a notification at the same time. Sapnap let go of Karl’s hand to pull his phone out and glanced at the text.

Beloved Fiancés

Duckyboi : hey.
Duckyboi : can we talk?
(Today at 15:38 pm)

“It’s Quackity” Sapnap said with a smile,
“He’s asking if we can talk” Sapnap said and then frowned a bit as he looked down at the text again.

“He is? Yes, the perfect way to finish finals” Karl smiled wide. They had barely texted with Quackity all month, and Karl almost felt physically starved.

All month, all they wanted was to chat with Quackity and hear how he’s doing, but it had been hard to even have a conversation with him, if not impossible.

“Karl, I don’t think it’s good” Sapnap worried his lip and turned to show his phone to Karl.
“It’s never a good sign when it’s phrased like that, right?” Sapnap asked.

Karl read the text and his smile got a tiny bit smaller.

“Maybe somethings wrong?” Sapnap mussed to himself.

“Hey, it’s probably fine? Right? Maybe he just feels down after the exams? maybe his didn’t go too well” Karl tried to offer.

“You think?” Sapnap looked up at him.

“Yeah. I also think you should answer him” Karl said and nodded down at the phone before sipping his hot chocolate again.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure it’s not a big deal” Sapnap nodded as his thumb started moving over the screen.

Beloved Fiancés

Firefly : sure. We’re on our way back to the dorms. We’ll jump in vc in 5.
(Today at 15:42 pm)

Duckyboi : k.
(Today at 15:44 pm)

they made their way back to the dorms fairly quickly after that, finishing their drinks as they stepped in through the doors and threw them out. They went to Sapnap’s room first, luckily it was empty, so they wouldn’t be bothering Dream.

They dropped their bags by the foot of Sapnap’s bed, and Sapnap pulled out his laptop and started it up, leaning back in his chair. Karl pulled up the spare chair from Dream’s desk and watched as discord popped onto the screen.

Sapnap was quick to find the server, seeing Quackity was already in the call.

They joined it with big smiles as their webcam loaded and Quackity’s face popped onto the screen

It took them one look to know something was wrong.

Quackity’s eyes were red, his cheeks looked puffy and irritated, and he almost looked like he was shaking.

Quackity had been crying.

Why?

Did someone harass him? Was he hurt? Did he miss an exam, or fail?

“Hey, Quackity are you okay? What’s wrong?” Karl asked immediately, his smile long gone.

They watched Quackity sniff and fiddle with the edge of his sleeve, a pillow dressed in Sapnap’s jersey pressed against his chest.

“Quackity?” Sapnap asked with a concerned frown.

Quackity looked up at them, meeting their eyes through the screen as he took a deep breath and finally spoke up.

"I think you should break up with me…” Quackity said, his bottom lip quivering, his eyes squeezing shut tightly as he started to cry. Sobs wrecking through his shoulders.

“What?!” Both Sapnap and Karl blurted out at the same times.

What was happening? Why was this happening? Had this been the reason Quackity hadn’t called them? Or texted? Had they done something wrong?

A million questions ran through both of their minds as they watched Quackity sob into a pillow.

“Did we do something? If we did something wrong we can fix it” Sapnap tried to ask, but getting a response from Quackity was almost hopeless.

When Quackity managed to breath through hiccups and sobs, the words he spoke sounded like a mouse choking on a squicky dog toy.

“Quackity, love, we don’t know what you’re saying” Karl tired. Neither of them knew what to do.

They had seen each other cry multiple times over the years, over scabbed knees, dumb parents or mean words getting thrown in their faces. But only once had they seen Quackity cry like this before, and that was when his grandpa died.

They had no idea how to comfort him through a screen, thousands of miles between them. They couldn’t hug him or stroke his back, wipe the tears from his face or kiss it better.

They couldn’t do anything but offer their words for comfort.

“Quackity, you need to breathe. Let’s calm down and talk about the issue” Karl tried to offer their sobbing boyfriend for probably the hundredth time.

Then the dorm door creaked opened and Karl and Sapnap turned to glare over their shoulders at the unwanted intruder.

Dream stood with George at his side, one arm around the other’s back, and George had his arms up on Dream’s shoulders. It was clear on their faces that they had not expected this scene on the other side of the door.

With the door handle still in hand, Dream looked from the glare in Sapnap’s eyes to Karl, and then to the computer screen and Quackity’s sobbing face.

“... I think we’ll come back later” Dream said and took a step back as he closed the door yet again.

Sapnap and Karl didn’t waste a second before turning back to the computer screen, Quackity now hiccuping as he wiped the tears off his cheeks.

“Quackity, deep breathes” Sapnap encouraged him and they watched as Quackity struggled to breathe.

Quackity was pressing the jersey to his chest, now only sniffling as he hiccuped and tried to breathe. He wiped at his eyes again, trying to get rid of the wet tears pouring down his cheeks.

They gave him all the time in the world to try and calm down, trying to comfort him before they could ask all the questions haunting their minds.

“Q? You okay?” Karl asked. Quackity’s bottom lip still quivered, but he nodded, hiccuping a few times but no longer sobbing.

“Good. Okay, good” Sapnap nodded a bit, unsure of where to start.

Luckily Karl seemed to have an idea of where.

“Q, you said you wanted us to break up with you, do you actually want to break up?” Karl asked, almost like for confirmation.

Quackity shook his head and choked back another sob, but was able to breathe through it.

Sapnap felt relief rush over him. At least that was one thing off his mind. Now they just needed to know why Quackity would even suggest it.

"Then why did you ask us to do that?” Sapnap’s brow furrowed slightly as he looked at the way Quackity was practically strangling his pillow.

"I don’t know” Quackity choked out.

"I just feel so fucking…” Quackity waved his hands in front of himself before moving them up to cover his face.
"Terrible all the time. I miss you so much, I feel so alone here” Quackity tried to say between sniffles.

Then they understood, Quackity wasn’t dumping them.

He was trying the dump himself for them.

"What? But what about Jeremy? you always say you have so much fun together” Karl tried to reason, but Quackity only kept sobbing.

"Jeremy doesn’t exist” Quackity hit his pillow.
"I lied!” Quackity squeezed his eyes together again as a new wave of tears started to trail down his cheeks.

Karl frowned, blinking in confusion.
"Why would you lie about that?” he asked.

"S-so you wouldn’t feel guilty for canceling all the time” Quackity hiccuped.
"I don’t have anyone here”.

"I’m like two years younger than everyone in my class, I feel stupid whenever I open my mouth and I can’t make a single friend here…” Quackity cried, hiccups breaking though his words.

"I just wanna go home…” Quackity rubbed his face. His cheeks, face and nose were red from his tears.
"I wanna drop out…”

“Quackity, you’re not gonna drop out. Harvard is your dream school” Sapnap frowned, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

"But it’s not very dreamy anymore… I'm miserable here” Quackity confessed.

It broke Sapnap and Karl’s heart to see Quackity like this, bawling his eyes out and hugging a pillow so close to his chest it was almost puffing.

"Okay, I think we need to take a moment to calm down, okay?” Karl suggested, a comforting smile on his face.

Quackity wiped his nose in the sleeve of his sweater. Making a hum of confirmation in his throat as he hiccuped to stop crying.

"Let’s watch a movie, how does that sound?” Karl suggested, giving him the choice and Quackity nodded.

“Do you wanna watch Legally Blonde?” Sapnap chimed in. Quackity shook his head a bit too much, not helping the headache starting to form behind his eyes.

“Okay, is there another movie you might wanna watch?” Sapnap then asked. They were both so patient as Quackity tried to breathe, in and out.

"Can we- can we watch the movie Karl likes with the alien that yells the whole time?...” Quackity finally asked.

"Of course, I'll find it for us” Karl nodded and smiled, putting his hands on the computer, sharing his screen on discord so Quackity could see it too.

"You should get a snack too” Sapnap said, to which Quackity shook his head again.
"You’ll feel better if you do, Quackity. Do you have anything in your room? I can order some doordash for you?” Sapnap offered and grabbed his phone, wanting so badly to help.

Quackity sniffed again, looking over to somewhere off the screen.
"I have toast… and peanut butter” he wiped his cheeks, not saying anything further as he moved the computer off his lap and over to face what Sapnap assumed was the wall, the hint of Boner’s head poking out at the edge.

They could hear Quackity move around with the sheets, stopping for a short moment before the sheets moved again and Quackity turned his computer back to him. They watched as he leaned back against his pillows, opening a bag of white toast bread.

He grabbed two pieces before shoving the bag away, unscrewing the lid of the peanut butter jar. He didn’t have a butter knife, using a plastic spoon to scoop up and smear it over the bread. Sapnap didn’t see him screw the lid back on before placing it out of view.

Quackity placed the other piece of bread on top and started to eat it right as Karl finished getting rid of the last pop up windows and starting the movie.

They didn’t say anything at all for the next hour the movie played. Quackity watched a little green alien and robot taking over earth, and Karl and Sapnap watched him with sad eyes. Sometime along the movie Quackity had grabbed the jar of peanut butter again, eating it straight out of the jar with his spoon. There were a few times where Quackity would sniff or wipe at his cheeks again, choking on a hiccup.

But slowly and steadily the tears dried out and his breath got more even, no longer on the verge of breaking down again.

The end credits of the movie rolled over the screen when Karl tapped out of it and closed the browser.

"How do you feel?” Karl asked as he took a deep breath.

Quackity stirred the plastic spoon around the jar.
"Tired…” he answered and looked at them through the screen. His face was still red from crying, but the closer they looked, the more exhausted Quackity seemed, dark purple circles under his eyes, dirty hair and tired eyes.

"But a bit better I guess” Quackity admitted before placing the jar back on his night table.

"That’s good” Sapnap tried.

A silence fell over them, none of them sure on how to handle any of the things that had unfolded that afternoon.

"I’m sorry” Quackity said eventually, pulling at the sleeves of his shirt.

"For what?” Karl frowned.

"For being an asshole…” Quackity looked away from the screen.

"Hey, you’re not an asshole” Sapnap defended him.

"But I ruined your day with my dumb bullshit” Quackity sniffed slightly.

“Quackity, you didn’t ruin anything, and this isn’t some dumb bullshit. You wouldn’t be crying if it wasn’t a big deal” Sapnap protested and tilted his head slightly.

"Do you want to break up?” he asked, even if they already had when he was crying, Sapnap wanted Quackity to answer it again.

"No” Quackity shook his head slightly.

"I just didn’t want to be a bother…” Quackity grabbed the pillow again, pulling slightly at the corners.

"You are never a bother. Is that why you’ve been ignoring us?” Karl asked.

"I thought it would be easier…” Quackity’s eyes started to glaze over again.
"But it’s not. It's hard no matter what I do. I just wanna be with you all the time, but I can’t, because I'm here” Quackity said and took a shaky breath before he could work himself up again.

“Quackity, I'm gonna call my dad. I think you should talk to him when you come home for christmas” Sapnap said after another quiet moment, but Quackity only shook his head, not trusting himself to form any words while trying to stop himself from crying again.

“Quackity please” Karl wished he could reach through the screen and hold his boyfriend.
"We wanna help you, you know we do. And Bad is a really good psychologist”.

"Therapist” Sapnap cut in.

"We’re not getting into this now” Karl muttered to him through his teeth before looking back at Quackity.

"I don’t need a therapist” Quackity said.
"It’s not that big a deal, I don’t want to overreact” Quackity mumbled.

“Quackity, you just broke down crying and asked us to break up with you. I'd rather we overreact and its nothing, than we don’t do anything and you keep feeling like this” Sapnap tried to convince him, already grabbing his phone to find his dad’s number.

“... I don’t wanna bother him..” Quackity tried weakly, but they all knew he was losing this discussion.

"You won’t” Sapnap promised.

Quackity sniffed again and moved to lay down on his side as he faced the screen.
"Okay” he finally agreed.

Sapnap offered a soft smile before he began to text his dad.

"Is there anything we can do right now?” Karl asked.

"Can you just be on call with me? tell me about your day?” Quackity asked, a tired look in his eyes.

"Of course” Karl smiled and started to tell Quackity anything he might have missed, about his art project and how Tina and George got in a discussion about warm up sketches.

Sapnap joined in when he finished texting his dad.

He told Quackity about his finals, his day out with Dream and George, and how he had to take care of Karl after an old man sneezed in his face.

Karl went to grab him and Sapnap something to eat around seven and at one point Dream poked his head back into the dorm room, asking if he should grab his pajamas or if he was okay to sleep in his own bed that night.

By the end of the night, they had managed to get Quackity to smile a few times before he fell asleep. Karl was close to falling asleep as well on Sapnap's tiny bed.

They didn’t have the heart to end the call and let the computer stay on during the night as they slept.

Chapter Text

There was dread in his steps.

Quackity’s suitcase rolled over the polished floor along with the other passengers. His headphones were starting to make his ears hurt from being squished to his head over the six hours of his flight.

He walked through the sliding doors and through the rest of security, past small shops decorated with Christmas trees and snow, the murmur of Christmas music almost being heard through his own music.

Dreading every step until he was out in the pick up area.

He could see Karl and Sapnap stood waiting for him by the doors. Sapnap held a bouquet of flowers that Quackity guessed were for him. They looked concerned but Quackity couldn’t hear what they were talking about.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.

Karl spotted him first as Quackity walked closer.

This time they didn’t tackle him into a hug, instead they waited patiently for him. Karl opened his arms, held out for him and Quackity only stopped walking when he was close enough to lean his head against Karl’s chest.

“Hey…” Karl put his arms around him.
“How was your flight?”

“Fine… “Quackity muttered into Karl’s chest.

“Are you tired?” Sapnap asked. Quackity only nodded, he was so tired all the time.

“You can nap in the car if you want to” Karl smiled and let Quackity pull back.

“We brought you flowers. And dad brought us muffins too if you’re hungry” Sapnap said and showed Quackity the flowers.

Orange daisies, purple limonium and blue cornflowers.

Just like at prom.

Quackity let a small smile tug on his lips,
“I could eat a muffin” he said and took the flowers.
“Thank you”.

Sapnap only gave a smile before he moved to take the handle of Quackity’s suitcase. Karl took his hand, leading him out of the airport as Quackity looked over the flowers.

Quackity felt like a zombie.

A very embarrassed zombie.

Quackity regretted calling them. He should just have kept his shit together instead of being a crybaby. Not only did he break down into a sobbing mess in front of Sapnap and Karl, but Dream and George saw him too, and Bad knew about it too.

And he couldn’t help but feel like they were all staring at him, thinking he was an ungrateful pathetic wuss.

Quackity got into his dream school and here he was, crying about it like a spoiled brat.

It was dark and cold outside, and Quackity could tell Karl was freezing by the way he shivered once they stepped outside. They crossed the road with taxis and cars passing them, the head lights and street lights lighting up their path past the cars.

Karl didn’t drag or let go of his hand, even as Quackity was practically dragging his feet.

Bad was towering over the roofs of the other cars, as he stood waiting outside the driver’s door. When the sound of the wheels on Quackity’s suitcase got louder, Bad spotted them, stepping out of the gap between the cars and to the back of his own.

“Hey Quackity” Bad smiled and Quackity feared they were gonna talk about it here and now. He didn’t have the energy to unpack all of it right now.

Especially not in an airport parking lot.

He just wanted to go home and pretend everything was fine.

Just like he did at Thanksgiving.

“How was the flight?” Bad asked as he opened the trunk of the car, taking the suitcase from Sapnap to place it with the duffel bags of Karl and Sapnap's belongings.

“It was fine” Quackity looked at his feet, trying to walk around the car to the back seat. He let go of Karl’s hand as he opened the door and crawled into the middle seat, trying to physically leave the conversation.

He buckled up as he heard the trunk get smacked shut. He kept his eyes on his lap, where his hands were busy pulling on the rim of his sleeve. Sapnap and Karl shuffled into the back seat on each side of him, he scotched a little as they buckled up as well, but didn't say anything.

Bad got into the driver seat and looked over his shoulder,
“You boys want some muffins?” Bad asked.

“Yes please” Sapnap answered for them.

Quackity heard the crinkle of a plastic bag and he didn’t look up to see who handed him a muffin, but he took it anyway.

He peeled the muffin wrapper off and took a bite. He missed Bad’s baking, and it had only been a month since he last tasted it.

But the vanilla muffins were so good. He wiped his mouth and folded the wrapper into a tiny triangle to avoid spilling more crumbs. Bad backed out of the parking lot and sooned pulled up onto the highway.

Quackity felt an arm slide over his shoulder, and he closed his eyes as he leaned into Karl's side. Sapnap sneaked his hand over to rest on Quackity’s knee, his thumb stroking over the fabric of his jeans in comfort.

Quackity was so tired, and his eyes felt heavy. But he just couldn’t fall asleep. The murmur of the radio and lights from the other cars on the highway was so comforting and mesmerizing.

Quackity barely realized as Bad pulled off the highway and drove through uptown, getting out to the suburbs of their hometown.

Bringing them closer and closer to home.

And as they passed streets decorated with shiny christmas lights and fake snow decorations, Quackity started to feel the dread fill his stomach again.

and then Bad turned the corner down their street.

“You can just let me out here” Quackity said as they came up next to his parent’s house, only two houses from Sapnap’s.

He could just walk the last twenty steps, but he has to get out of the car.

He just needed to get out and home to his parents before they could corner him.

Quackity kinda felt like he was choking on his own tongue, and he didn’t know if Bad knew that.

But Bad pulled over to the sidewalk without a word, just smiling as he turned his head to ask Sapnap to help Quackity get his suitcase out.

Sapnap had a concerned frown on his face, but did as he was told. He unbuckled his seat belt first and stepped out, followed by Quackity.

Sapnap pulled the trunk door up and pulled out the case and down on the sidewalk.
“Here you go” Sapnap said and slided the handle up for Quackity.

“Thanks” Quackity said as he took a grip of the handle, but not before Sapnap put his hand on Quackity’s own, moving his eyes up to him.

“I love you” Sapnap said.

“I love you too” Quackity said and looked down again.

“You’ll come over the 25th, right?” Sapnap asked, even though they had done it every year.

“Yeah. I just…” Quackity looked up at Sapnap again and he just couldn’t make himself lie anymore.

Not when Sapnap looked that concerned and with so much love in his eyes.

Like he was desperate to make Quackity feel his love.

“I’m not ready to talk about it right now.” Quackity admitted
“I’m really tired”.

“That’s okay. You’ve had a long day” Sapnap said and leaned forward to press a kiss to Quackity’s cheek.

“Sweet dreams when you get to it” Sapnap offered and Quackity is grateful for it.

“You too” Quackity gave him a small smile. He turned around and started to walk up the small driveway to his house. The lights were on in the kitchen, his mom was properly still up wrapping some last minute gifts.

He heard the rumble of Bad’s car start up again to roll the last twenty meters down into their driveway.

He stepped into the house and called out to say he was home.

But not before he looked up to see Sapnap and Karl getting their bags from Bad's car.

Last summer, before Quackity left, they had promised to spend every possible night together over the breaks. He’s supposed to be over there with them tonight, but instead he closed the door and kicked his shoes off, walking into the kitchen where his mom was indeed busy wrapping last minute gifts for his younger cousins.

He got a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before his mom carried on.

Quackity still needed to wrap Sapnap and Karl’s gifts, but he was too exhausted to do it now.

He carried his suitcase up the stairs and went to bed.

……….

Christmas Eve was slow.

Quackity was stuck in an itchy sweater his grandma made last year and the drive was too long.

His family asked very few questions about Harvard, and Quackity appreciated that, since it meant he didn’t have to keep up the act and lie about how much fun it was.

He was practically left to his own devices while his mom, aunts and grandma slaved away to make dinner. His aunt insisted they had a traditional Christmas ham, while his grandma was going on and on about a lamb dish as his mom was assembling entremeses.

Meanwhile his dad and uncles were outside drinking beer on the porch and Quackity was forced to watch his cousins.

He texted Sapnap and Karl a few times over the evening.

They asked how each of their nights were going, any family drama that might be happening. Apparently Sapnap’s grandpa was dragging Skeppy to get him to cut their duck. Karl's aunt was fighting with his dad about art school.

Quackity didn’t know if they were trying to distract him, but he appreciated it.

It helped him get through the night.

But Sunday the 25th, Karl knocked on the front door.

For the past few years, they had always met up to exchange gifts after Christmas morning, and this year was no exception.

Karl had texted Quackity earlier, asking if he wanted to walk over to Sapnap’s house together.

Quackity didn’t know if it was to make sure he came over, or if it was simply because Karl was that sweet.

He hated that he didn’t know too.

Quackity opened the door to see Karl standing outside with a plastic bag around his wrist and a big smile plastered on his face.

“Hey babe” Karl said and leaned down to peak his cheek.

“Hey” Quackity tried to offer a smile back. The bags under his eyes were still casting a shadow on his face, and Quackity knew that.

His mom wouldn’t shut up about it.

“How was your family?” Karl asked as he watched Quackity grab his shoes.

“Like they always are. Nosy” Quackity said, leaning back against the wall for balance as he got one shoe on.
"But good. I got a new pair of headphones, so that’s nice” he said as he changed legs.

"Oh that’s good, your old ones have one leg in the grave already” Karl tried to joke, making Quackity smile a bit.

Quackity grabbed his jacket, taking a bit more time on zipping it up.
"Are you nervous?” Karl asked then.

Quackity turned to look up at him again, seeing Karl look at him with soft worried eyes.

“... A bit” Quackity admitted and turned to go grab the bag he had their gifts in. He almost wanted to leave it here, and pretend he forgot them at Harvard. They were poorly wrapped in Disney Christmas paper, and Quackity felt embarrassed.

“I just… I don’t wanna talk about it” Quackity turned to Karl again.
"I feel dumb” Quackity kept his head down, but it didn’t stop Karl from offering Quackity his hand.

"You’re not dumb” Karl reassured him.

"And there’s no shame in it. Besides, Bad is really good at this stuff” Karl smiled at him, Quackity grabbing his hand.
"You’ll be fine” Karl smiled.

"Okay” Quackity agreed.

Before they left, Quackity called into the house to inform his parents that he was leaving with Karl.

The walk was quick and quiet.

As they walked up the driveway to Sapnap’s house, Quackity noticed the car was gone.

At the doorstep, Sapnap opened the door almost immediately after Karl knocked.

"Hey” Sapnap smiled and leaned in to kiss Karl first and then Quackity.

"Hi” Quackity smiled back at him.

Sapnap smiled brightly and leaned back out of their space to let them in and take their jackets and shoes off.

"Dad and Pops are out right now. Dad forgot something he needs for dinner, so it’s just us right now” Sapnap said and leaned against the doorway, Quackity could see the Christmas tree over his shoulder.
"Oh, and I prepared hot chocolate for us,” Sapnap smiled.

"Yes!” Karl grinned.
"Are there any of Bad’s cookies left too?” he asked as he stepped into the living room.

"Yeah, I'll go grab them. You guys just sit down” Sapnap said, almost as if they were completely new to staying at his house.

As if they hadn’t spent almost a decade having sleepovers or dinners there.

Karl and Quackity settled on the couch, putting up their bags with gifts on the coffee table. There was a purple gift bag already on the table with a small card.

‘to Karl, from Sapnap.’

It was really pretty, gorgeous compared to the awfully wrapped packages Quackity had in his bag. He dreaded giving them his gifts almost as much as he dreaded talking to Bad. They were poorly wrapped in wrapping paper covered in Disney characters, with too much tape to hold it together.

"And there we go” Sapnap said cheerfully as he placed a plate of cookies on the coffee table before rushing back into the kitchen to grab the mugs of hot chocolate.
Sapnap sat down on the other side of Quackity, his arm moving up to rest on the back of the couch.

Karl leaned over and grabbed a cookie with a grin,
"It’s not really christmas till I've had one of Bad’s homemade cookies” he remarked and took a bite out of it.

"You just say when you’re ready for your gift then” Sapnap chuckled as he reached over to grab the purple gift bag.

"I’m always ready for gifts” Karl said as he chomped down the last of his cookie as Sapnap held out the bag. Leaning back in his seat, Sapnap grabbed two of the mugs, handing one to Quackity before sipping on his own.

From out of the gift bag, Karl pulled out three acrylic paints and a gift card for 20 dollars.

"I don’t understand paint, so I got you a gift card so we can all go look at them together” Sapnap smiled.

"That is like a dream date of mine” Karl’s smile was even brighter than the Christmas tree. Karl leaned across Quackity to kiss Sapnap, who had to lean in the rest of the way.

Quackity blushed as he sipped from his mug, looking away despite knowing it was more than okay for him of all people to watch.

Karl pulled back with a grin,
"Alright, now open your gift” Karl grabbed his bag, pulling out a box in red wrapping paper and a yellow bow.

That one was really pretty too.

Karl handed it over to Sapnap, who was practically unwrapping it before it even got into his lap. It was a shoe box, and when he opened it, it was revealed to be a white pair of white vans, costimissied flames painted along the side.

"Holy shit these are so cool” Sapnap exclaimed in awe as he pulled one out of the box to look it over properly.
"Did you make these? they’re so cool, I'm gonna wear them everywhere” Sapnap said, ready to run a mile in these out of sheer excitement.

"Well before you start bouncing on the walls, you gotta let Quackity on the stage first” Karl said and grabbed another cookie.

"Oh, no it's okay, you can go ahead” Quackity said, he really would rather not. It was embarrassing enough that his gifts were terrible, but having to follow after that.

Humiliating.

"What no, of course I wanna see your gift too” Sapnap smiled and put the shoe back into the box and placed it on the coffee table.

“No it's fine, really, it can wait” Quackity tried, putting his mug down.

"Nah, I can always go running later” Sapnap smiled, putting his arm around him.

Quackity bit his lip, about to push it further, but he knew there was no getting out of it. Not with how gift happy Karl was and how considerate Sapnap was in moments like this.

Quackity grabbed his bag, unzipping it. The gifts were squashed between his clothes. He could already feel the embarrassment setting into his stomach. He grabbed the one with Karl’s name first, handing it over to him.

"I thought you would like this” Quackity muttered. Karl started to tear it off the wrapping paper, bringing the batman plushie out in all its shame.

“Yo, I was looking at one of these a few days ago, thanks babe” Karl smiled wide before leaving a kiss on Quackity’s cheek. Quackity’s heart felt a bit more at ease now, at least Karl liked his gift.

"I’m glad you like it” Quackity stalled. Karl might like his gift, it was decent at best. But Sapnap’s gift was half assed and downright insulting.

"Alright, my turn” Sapnap smiled.

Quackity really didn’t want to, but what was he supposed to say? no? that he didn’t get him a gift?

Quackity handed Sapnap the other gift, but couldn’t make himself say anything positive about it.

He almost wanted to cry.

Sapnap smiled as he took it.
Quackity was almost too embarrassed to watch as Sapnap ripped the wrapping paper off to reveal the yellow pajamas.

There was a pause between them, before Sapnap turned to look at him with a smile that seemed a bit forced in Quackity’s mind.

“Pajamas, how did you know I needed a new set?” Sapnap said and looked back down at the gift.
“I literally had to throw out an old pair last week, this is perfect” Sapnap said, and Quackity couldn’t help but feel pitied.

He reached out to grab the pajamas.
“You hate it” Quackity said as he tried to take it back,
“We can just return it and buy something else” he muttered.

But Sapnap didn’t let him take it.
“What? No, I love it” Sapnap protested.

“It’s a yellow pajama set” Quackity muttered.

“And I really like it” Sapnap said, an iron grip on the pajamas.
“You got me these, I love them and I want to keep them” Sapnap said slowly, like he was trying to explain it to a child.

For a moment they just looked into each other’s eyes with stubbornness, neither one wanting to let go.

“Fine…” Quackity let go of the pajamas,
“But you don’t have to pretend to like it” Quackity said.

“I would never pretend” Sapnap said and pulled the pajama shirt over his head instead of unbuttoning it like he was supposed to.
“It’s really comfortable. I’ll wear it every night” Sapnap said as it fell into place over his shirt.

Quackity grabbed his mug again, hoping he could drown in the hot beverage just to get out of the embarrassment.

At least it was over now.

But then Karl pulled out another gift and changed the subject of conversation.

"So, I know you said we shouldn’t get you anything, because of the lego set, but we made you a little something” Karl said, pulling out a Christmas card and a small wrapped package from his plastic bag.

"What? no, Karl” Quackity started, putting his mug down again, but Karl just put the envelope and gift in his hands.

"I know, but just open it. You’ll love it, I hope” Karl smiled, Sapnap nodding along.

Quackity looked from Karl to Sapnap and then down at the card, opening it first to see a very long written card inside, but on top of the text rested a holographic card, the edges gold and the actual card were orange, with a Charizard pokemon on the picture. The edges of the card were roughed up with white lines from folds.

"That’s your holographic Charizard card?” Quackity looked back up at Karl, who wore a big smile.
"I can’t take your charizard card, this is your lucky card” Quackity said, trying to hand it back to Karl, only for his boyfriend to shake his head.

"It is, but I want you to have it” Karl said and scotched closer to Quackity.
"I think you need it more than I do right now” Karl said with a soft smile.

“Karl, I can’t take this” Quackity tried again.

"Then don’t. Let’s say you borrow it” Karl offered then.
"Just till you feel better” Karl said, and Quackity could see something in Karl’s eyes when he said that.

There was no way that a pokemon card could help Quackity’s situation or his mental health. It couldn’t fix the long distance between him and his boyfriends, and it couldn’t give Quackity the nerve to make friends. Quackity knew that, and so did Karl.

But he knew this was Karl’s way to show his support, to express that he was there even if he couldn’t physically be.

"I’m not gonna change your mind, am I?” Quackity asked.

"Nope” Karl smiled softly and leaned back into the couch.

"Okay. I'll hold onto it, but I'm giving it back” Quackity said and placed it in the card again, about to read it when Sapnap distracted him.

"Open the gift, it’s from both of us” Sapnap said excitedly, leaning forward in his seat.

Quackity placed the card in his lap and picked up the wrapped gift. It was soft, and not that big, only the size of his hand and flat. He felt both Sapnap and Karl watching him as he got the ribbon off and tore the wrapping paper off to reveal a pair of red mittens, one with a purple K and the other with an orange S embroidered onto them.

“I picked out the mittens” Sapnap said with pride.

"And I stitched in the letters” Karl smiled.

"We got this idea, that you propably needed gloves, since it cold as fuck in Massachusetts. And with the letters on them, we could still hold your…” Sapnap started to explain the idea when he looked up to see Quackity’s eyes were glossing over.
“Are you okay?” he asked.

"I’m not crying. Shut up” Quackity blinked quickly.

"Didn’t say you were” Sapnap exchanged a look with Karl before Quackity hugged him, Sapnap instantly hugging him back.

"Do you like it?” Karl asked.

"I love it. It’s so dumb, it’s perfect” Quackity spoke into Sapnap’s shirt. Karl smiled and leaned in to hug them as well.

Quackity didn’t know what he ever did to deserve Karl and Sapnap.

Then the front door opened.

Bad and Skeppy stepped into the hall and Quackity felt the dread and nerves start to turn in his stomach again. He didn’t want to talk about it, but now Bad was home, and he couldn’t just run out through the window.

Though the thought was tempting.

"Hey boys” Skeppy waved and then Bad poked his head into the living room.

“Oh hi, oh this looks so cozy” Bad smiled as he saw the plate of cookies, cups and the ripped off wrapping paper lying around.

"Yo dad, check out the shoes Karl got me” Sapnap said as they pulled back from the hug, grabbed the shoebox to show it off, and grabbed the pajamas as well.
"I got pajamas too, aren’t they cool?” Sapnap said excited.

Bad nodded with a smile,
"They look really nice” he agreed and then looked at Quackity, who couldn’t help but squirm under his gaze. Almost like he had done something wrong.

"Why don’t you and Karl go upstairs for a bit?” Bad suggested when he looked back at Sapnap.
"Unless, you’d like them to stay?” this time Bad looked to Quackity.

Quackity chewed a bit on his lip but shook his head.
"No, they can go” Quackity said.

"Alright. Boys, please go upstairs. Quackity, why don’t you join me in the kitchen?” Bad offered as he walked behind the couch and under the arch into the kitchen, carrying bags of groceries.

Sapnap and Karl looked to Quackity, as if silently asking him again if they should leave. Quackity just nodded in return and watched as they quietly left the couch and headed towards the stairs. Skeppy shrugged, and left the hall as well, Quackity didn’t see where he went.

Quackity took a deep breath, gathering his nerves before finally getting up from the couch. He walked around the couch and stepped into the kitchen, seeing Bad fussing around the kitchen to put away the groceries.

Bad looked over his shoulder and smiled,
"Take a seat Quackity. Do you want some tea?” Bad offered and opened the cabinet full of cups.

"Water is fine” Quackity muttered as he sat down by the table. He heard more than saw Bad grab a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with water. Bad walked over and placed it in front of Quackity before going back to the grocery bags.

Quackity didn’t know if this was intentional. If Bad knew how dreadful this was and was trying to give Quackity a moment to prepare himself mentally for this talk.

Quackity sipped his water quietly, Bad humming softly as he finished putting the things away in the fridge. Then folded the shopping bag and put it on the kitchen counter before walking over and sitting down in the seat in front of Quackity.

"So, Sapnap told me you haven’t been feeling well” Bad started.

Quackity kept his head down, his thumbs moving up and down the glass.
"Yeah..” Quackity nodded, but didn’t meet Bad’s eyes.

“Quackity. I am not here to judge you, I only want to help” Bad coached him gently, folding his hands on the table in front of him.
"So, let’s try and figure out what may have caused this” Bad suggested.

"Have you told my parents?...” Quackity asked instead.

"I have told them that I am worried about you. But it’s not my place to tell them about your mental health” Bad said.
"At least not yet”.

"Yet?” Quackity’s brow furrowed as he finally looked up at Bad.

"Well, I'd have to in case you might harm yourself” Bad said, a professional tone in his voice.

"What? like self harm? I wouldn’t- I don’t do that” Quackity shook his head.

“I don’t think you are, but I’m very glad to hear that. Let’s keep it that way, alright?” Bad smiled softly.

Quackity didn’t say anything, but let the silence be his agreement. He took another sip of his water, his throat felt so dry.

"So” Bad said after a moment.
"Let’s just take this from the beginning, okay? When did all this start?” Bad asked, trying to lead the conversation.

Quackity shrugged his shoulders, trying to find a suitable answer for Bad.
“I think around October, or maybe September,” he said.

“So at the start of the school year” Bad phrased it like a question, but Quackity was sure he didn’t need to.

“Yeah, around that” Quackity looked down again.

“What happened that makes you say that?” Bad then asked.

Quackity wanted to tell him about the moments where the room was spinning, when he felt like there wasn’t enough air to take in and his sweaty hands became clammy. He wanted to tell Bad about how he didn’t understand anything happening around him in class.

But he doesn’t know how to put it into words.

"I have these… episodes” Quackity tried to explain, focusing on the rim of his glass, the line the water made, cause looking Bad in the eyes was hard. And talking is even harder.

"Episodes?” Bad prompted him.

"Sometimes, I don’t know what it is, but sometimes I get… scared? no, that’s not the right word” Quackity shook his head slightly, moving a hand up to try and get the black hair out of his face.
"I feel like my body is filled with dread, and I don’t understand anything that’s going on around me. It wasn’t this bad at first, I could sit through the lectures, but now, when it happens I just need to leave immediately cause I don’t want to start crying in front of the whole class”

"Where do you go?” Bad asked.

"The nearest restroom. I just lock myself in there and wait it out. I Always get so hot, and sweaty and I can’t stop shaking” Quackity tried to explain, but his hands were starting to stir, close to shaking. He tried holding the glass a bit tighter to stop it, his knuckles turning white.

He hoped Bad wouldn’t notice.

“Have you told anyone about these episodes?” Bad asked

“No. I’m just overreacting” Quackity shook his head.
“I don’t understand my major and apparently I need to be a bitch about it” Quackity tried to joke, but Bad didn’t laugh.

“Quackity, I think these episodes of yours are anxiety attacks” Bad said instead, his voice still calm and professional.

"I don’t have anxiety” Quackity denied, shaking his head again.

"You may not have had it before, but anxiety can appear at any age” Bad started to explain, his hands moving gently across the table.
“A big event or a buildup of smaller stressful life situations may trigger excessive anxiety, such as moving across the country, starting college and this long distance relationship you have with Sapnap and Karl, all these changes and the stress of school can easily have accumulated into anxiety”

Quackity looked down into the table, his cheeks turning red with what felt like shame.
But apparently Bad was not gonna let that feeling stay.

"Anxiety is not something to be ashamed of” he assured.

“But I don’t know how to deal with it” Quackity said, blinking a few times in hope the stinging feeling of tears would go away.

“I know, and I’m here to help you with that” Bad promised, reaching his hand over the table to Quackity.

Bad wasn’t just being a therapist now. He was Bad, Sapnap’s dad that used to make them peanut butter sandwiches or chicken nuggets when they were seven. He had let them try drinking at New Years when they were 16 up in Sapnap’s room. He had helped them with homework countless times.

Quackity had not a single doubt in his mind that Bad could help him.

“Okay” Quackity took a deep breath.

Bad offered him a comforting smile,
“How about we make a list of things that might help?” Bad suggested.

“If it’ll work, sure” Quackity shrugged.

“Alright. Well, what do you do outside of school?” Bad asked.

“I talk to Sapnap and Karl,” Quackity said.

“And when they are busy?” Bad tilted his head slightly.

“I watch a movie?” Quackity shrugged again,
“Play video games, or study” Quackity was a bit worried Bad would judge him. His life at Harvard was a very boring one.

“You don’t hang out with any of your classmates?” Bad asked further.

“Not really. I don’t think they like me very much” Quackity took another sip of the water, empting the glass.

“What makes you say that” Bad furrowed his brow.

“I don’t know” Quackity admitted.
“Sometimes it just feels like they don’t wanna work with me in groups, like, they seem annoyed” Quackity bit at his lip.

“I see” Bad nodded slightly.
“How about any after school clubs?” He changed the subject a bit.

“I thought about joining the debate club” Quackity said when he looked up into Bad’s eyes again.
“But I don’t think I have the time” he excused.

“There’s always time” Bad smiled.

“I think a good place to start is by joining a club or two, getting some friends to talk to or go out with” Bad suggested. Quackity wanted to tell him that he just couldn’t do that. He had tried so many times to make friends if you asked him, but he just could not move his legs over to a stranger and start talking without a reason to.

"I know making new friends as an adult is hard, trust me. But it’s not impossible” Bad said, as if the man could read him like an open book.

"I just don’t wanna be laughed at” Quackity admitted.
"Or be annoying” he pulled a bit on his sleeves.

"Why do you think they’d laugh at you?” Bad asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because I'm stupid” Quackity sniffed slightly, fighting to keep himself together.

"Why would they think you’re stupid? has someone said that?” Bad asked, now more concerned if Quackity was being bullied at school.

"No one, it’s just…” Quackity looked down at the table again.

"At the first day of classes, we were asked to give our take on what law is, and practiaclly the entire class said what I said was dumb and naive…” Quackity’s eyes were blinking more and more, trying not to let the tears fall. He didn’t want to cry in front of Bad too.

“Quackity you’re not stupid” Bad tried to assure him but Quackity shook his head.

"Then why can’t I understand anything going on around me? or just talk to someone without my head screaming at me?” Quackity asked with a wobbling lip.

Bad gave him a sad look. He reached over to grab one of the Christmas themed paper napkins on the table and held it out to Quackity.

Quackity took it and blew his nose.

"You’re not stupid Quackity” Bad assured him again. Bad then stood up to go over to his messenger bag resting on the kitchen counter, he pulled out what looked like a small notebook, the pages colored pink.

“Quackity, what I am doing now is technically breaking the law, but I'm sure you know that” Bad said as he wrote something down on a pink slip while walking back over to the table, sitting back down again.
"This is a prescription for Quetiapine Sandoz. I do not want you to take these regularly, but when you start to feel these attacks or episodes coming, take one pill and drink some water” Bad said and handed him the pink slip.

"What does it do?” Quackity asked as he looked down at it.

"Normally it is used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depressive episodes. But I prefer to call them thought numbing pills. In simple terms, they slow down your thoughts so they don’t escalate into these anxiety attacks. Many take them to be able to fall asleep instead of traditional sleep medication”

"Is medication really necessary? it seems a bit extreme” Quackity asked as he read the words over and over again in his head.

"I know it sounds like that, but if it helps, I've given these to Sapnap a few times. Muffin, I gave him one before he got his driver's license to calm his nerves” Bad said.
"It’s harmless, and completely safe” Bad promised him.
"You might feel very tired and sleepy the first few times, so do look out for that” Bad warned him with a soft smile.

“Okay” Quackity muttered as he looked back up at Bad.

“Is there anything else we should talk about?” Bad asked.
“Anything else you might want off your chest?” Bad tilted his head slightly.

Quackity shook his head.
“No, I kinda just wanna go” he confessed. He felt drained, he just wanted to go bury himself in a hole and disappear.

Bad nodded, the smile ever present,
"Alright, well. If you change your mind, you have my number, or we can talk again later if you want. I'm always here for you” Bad said, giving Quackity the opening to leave.

Quackity took it.

The chair creaked over the floor as Quackity stood up, he grabbed his glass with the intent to put it in the dishwasher, but Bad stopped him.

“No need. I’ll do it, you just head upstairs. I’ll call you boys down for dinner later” Bad said. Quackity gave a short nod and let the glass stay on the table. He turned on his heel and left.

His legs felt heavy and his knees weak as he made his way out to the hall and up the stairs.

As he stepped closer to Sapnap’s bedroom door, he could hear the murmur of soft conversations though the door.

When Quackity opened the door, he saw Karl and Sapnap laying on the bed, watching a video of Sapnap’s phone. The video was paused when they spotted Quackity in the door. Karl sat up first, Sapnap putting his phone down.

"How did it go?” Karl asked.

"Alright” Quackity answered shortly, looking down as he fiddled with the pink note.
"He gave me a prescription for some meds” he muttered.

“Yeah?” Sapnap said, not sure whether they should ask into it or not.
“How do you feel?” He asked.

“… Sad” Quackity said truthfully and looked up at them again with a defeated look.

“Aw, come here” Sapnap opened his arms and Quackity took the last few steps into the room, the door closing shut behind him, before he collapsed into Sapnap’s arms.

Sapnap let them fall back to lay down, turning slightly so Quackity landed in the middle of them and Karl could wrap his arms around him as well.

Quackity was so sick and tired of crying.

He wasn’t a god damn crybaby, but so far the only thing he seemed able to do was cry and sob.

But this is where he wanted to be.

Between Sapnap and Karl, feeling the slow rise and fall of their chests pressed up against him, and their heartbeat against his ear.

All he had wanted for months was his old life back, his life before college where he saw them everyday, got to hug and kiss them, and feel their love up close all the time.

All he wanted was to go home.

And now he’s here, if only for a small period.

And his eyes started to gloss over and soon Sapnap’s shirt had tear stains.

Quackity sniffed and tried to breathe, he could smell the cologne on Sapnap’s neck, and feel the gentle stroke of Karl’s hand over his shirt. The tears started to trail out of Quackity’s eyes, down over his nose and into Sapnap’s shirt.

Sapnap didn’t say anything about the growing tear stain, none of them did. They just held him and let him cry, letting all the build up misery and exhaustion burst out of him like a volcano.

"I don’t know what’s wrong with me” Quackity whispered once he seemed to be able to take in deep breaths again.

"That’s okay” Karl whispered into his back.
"It’s okay to not be okay” Karl left a kiss on his shoulder.

Quackity’s hiccups and sniffles filled the quiet room.

"I wanna drop out” Quackity admitted and buried his head in Sapnap’s chest.

“You can’t drop out Quackity” Sapnap said, Quackity could feel him move to look down at him.

“Why not?” Quackity asked into his shirt.
"I’m miserable, I just wanna go home” Quackity’s eyes squeezed closed as more tears fell.

“Because Harvard has been your dream since we were kids. You can’t let a few bad months ruin your dream” Sapnap tried but Quackity turned his face up to look at him.

“But I wanna be with you guys… I’m so fucking lonely over there and you guys are so far away, I can’t live in that” Quackity sniffed as his lungs rattled to take in more air.

“Quackity, you can’t let us be the reason you drop out” Sapnap said, stroking his back softly.

“Why not?” Quackity hiccuped,
“It’s so unfair” he whispered.

“You wanna know what’s gonna happen if you drop out?” Karl chimed in, leaning up a bit so Quackity could see his face.
“You drop out and come back to California, you get a mediocre law degree at a college called California university, it’s literally just named after the state, doesn’t even deserve a fancy name” Karl tried very hard to joke, but Quackity’s tears were still coming.

"And in ten years you’ll be regretting that it isn’t a Harvard degree, you probably won’t get any really cool cases like you used to dream, you’ll get into a mid life crisis, and be even more miserable” Karl overexaggerated.

“You can’t drop out because of us, you’ll grow to hate us if you do” Karl frowned with concern.

“I could never hate you” Quackity moved a sleeve up to dry away his tears.
“I just wanna be with you”.

“And we wanna be with you too, more than anything” Karl said and leaned back down to hug Quackity.
“But you can’t drop out. You’ll regret it”.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Quackity sniffed through his question.

“Make friends, have fun” Karl said.

“You say that like it’s easy” Quackity muttered. He heard Sapnap sigh.

“Quackity, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way” Sapnap said, drawing Quackity’s attention back to him.

“I wanna spend every second with you and Karl, but I know that’s not physically possible, so I have friends” he started.
“I love you two so much it’s crazy, but if I didn’t have other friends I think I’d might also go crazy. Don’t you want someone you can go to and just hang out? Confide in when me and Karl being a pair of dumb fucks?” Sapnap kissed Quackity’s forehead.

“Quackity, you need to make friends of your own” Sapnap said.

“But I don’t know how” Quackity sniffed.

“Hey, you made friends with us, and Dream and George,” Karl reminded.

“No, you made friends with me. And I just followed Sapnap around like some lost duckling” Quackity said.
“I don’t know how to make a friend. It’s so scary” Quackity moved closer to Sapnap, scared they would disappear if he wasn’t touching them.

Sapnap stroked his back and held him closer,
"How about we make a deal?” Sapnap offered.

"What kind of deal?” Quackity asked.

"If you still wanna drop out when spring semester ends, you have Karl and I's full support to do so” Sapnap said and felt Quackity’s face scrunch up into a frown.

"But that’s another five months” Quackity sniffed and hid his face in Sapnap’s chest again.

"Yeah, I know” Sapnap said, his hand trying to stroke Quackity’s back further without pulling on Karl’s shirt. Karl moved slightly to let him, but his arms stayed wrapped around Quackity’s waist.

“I don’t wanna go” Quackity sobbed, the tears trailing over the bridge of his nose.
“I just wanna be in a bubble, alone with you…” he sniffed.

“Without all this bullshit” Quackity squeezed his eyes shut.

"We know” Karl said and leaned in to kiss his shoulder again.
"But it won’t be bullshit forever, maybe for a while it’ll be. Then it might be better and it’s only like dog shit. But at some point it’s not even gonna be shit” Karl tried to cheer him up.

“... What?” Quackity asked and turned his head up to try and dry his cheeks.

"I think what Karl is trying to say is that you might be lonely now, but once you get a friend at Harvard, you’ll love it so much” Sapnap tried to explain with a confused look in his own eyes.

"Yeah, that” Karl nodded and leaned his cheek against Quackity’s back, squeezing Sapnap’s arm between them in the process.

"But even if I get a friend, you guys still won’t be there…” Quackity sniffed again.

"Yeah, but maybe that’s a good thing” Sapnap shrugged,
"We’re always together, but maybe being alone for just a bit is good for the soul? letting you find out who you are by yourself and all that other identity stuff” Sapnap said, the way he said it made it clear he was repeating something someone said to him.

"Wow, never thought you could be so philosophical,” Karl teased.

"My dad said that” Sapnap blushed.
"I was a bit down and missed you, so I called my dad” Sapnap muttered out an explanation. Quackity smiled softly and dried his cheeks with his sleeve again.

"I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you two,” Quackity said.

“Quackity, we don’t know how to help you, but we want to, and we’re here for you” Karl said, leaning over to kiss his face.

“Why are you so sweet to me?” Quackity asked as if he didn’t know the answer, Karl’s kisses tickling his face.

“Because, in sickness and in health” Sapnap kissed the top of his head.

“For better or for worse” Karl smiled and took his hand, leaving a kiss on his knuckles.

“We’re a team, and we’ll always be here when you need us” Sapnap spoke against Quackity’s forehead.

Quackity couldn’t stop smiling.

“So here’s what’s gonna happen” Sapnap smiled, his thumb stroking over Quackity’s cheek, drying his cheeks for hopefully the last time that day.

“Tomorrow we are gonna go pick up these pills” Sapnap said and picked up the wrinkled prescription note and put it over on his night stand.
“Then we’ll go to the mall and have a good fun date with Dream and George, we’ll hang out like we always do and have a good time, and shower you in love” Sapnap said.

"You’re too good to me” Quackity relaxed between them, blinking the last few tears away.

“Quackity, baby, the love of our life, honey bun, our sweet potato, sweetie pie, apple of my eye” Karl started.
"Dumpling, cutie pie, pudding, jelly bean, muffin, cheesecake, we will do anything and everything for you” Karl kept calling him more and more pet names.

“Why are all the pet names starting to get food related?” Quackity asked.

“I might be a bit hungry,” Karl blushed.

"You ate like seven cookies not even an hour ago” Sapnap chuckled.

"You should know I'm always hungry” Karl winked at him with a cheeky smile.

“ Sapnap, if Karl tries to eat me, will you protect me?” Quackity asked and was immediately dragged closer to Sapnap.

“Of course my love” Sapnap said, an act of knightly chivalry, ready to protect him from any scary hungry dragons.

"Oh I'll eat you, alright” Karl said right before attacking, kissing both Quackity and Sapnap’s faces over and over again, making his boyfriends break out into laughter.

Two days ago, when Quackity got off the plane, he had been worried about how he was gonna get through the winter break.

But now, being crushed under Karl's body as he tried to kiss Sapnap, messing up the bed and their hair in the struggle.

Quackity knew he was gonna be okay.

Chapter Text

The wind blew in through the bus doors as they opened and Quackity stepped off with Karl and Sapnap.

They watched the bus pull back onto the street and disappear down the road.

They were supposed to meet Dream and George at the mall in under an hour, but Sapnap insisted they left his house earlier to pick up the meds Bad had prescripted Quackity.

Quackity had tried to protest, saying he could go on his own later, and that it wasn’t so important that they had to go out of their way for it.

But Karl and Sapnap wouldn’t take no for an answer.

So here they were, walking towards the pharmacy, the logo of a green plus sign getting clear the closer they got.

“Do you want us to walk in with you?” Karl asked, turning his head slightly to ask Quackity. He fumbled with the straps of his backpack, a thumb behind each strap as they walked. It was filled with a few gifts they needed to return because of wrong sizes or general disinterest in them.

“No, I think I’d prefer it if I went in alone,” Quackity said.
“I feel a bit embarrassed, and childish” Quackity said and kicked a rock.

“You shouldn’t” Sapnap said,
“We won’t ever judge you for needing help” he said and moved his hand to hold Quackity’s waist as they walked.

“I know, but I can pick up some dumb pills on my own” Quackity muttered under his breath.

“Of course, but that doesn't mean you have to” Karl said and stopped in his tracks as they came up to the pharmacy.

“I know. I just don’t want you to have this picture of me” Quackity mumbled.

“What picture of you?” Sapnap asked, stroking his hand up and down Quackity’s back.

“Just… Just wait out here” Quackity sighed and moved a hand up to move his hair out of his eyes. He walked up and pushed the door in, leaving Sapnap and Karl to wait outside.

The bell over the door rang out as Quackity stepped inside. The store was almost completely empty, except for the pharmacist, and three other customers.

Quackity stepped over to the number machine to grab a number.

17.

There were still two other people before him.

He stepped over to one of the shelves, looking at the white bottles of painkillers, vitamins, and cough syrups.

He pulled out the wrinkled up pink prescription Bad had given him, he read the words on it over and over again. What if the pharmacist called it bullshit? What if Bad got in trouble because of this? What if Quackity was the reason Bad lost his job?

The display by the desk changed number with a ding, making Quackity jump a bit.

He could feel himself starting to sweat, looking back down at the pink slip, it was clutched in his hands. Quackity could feel an anxiety attack starting to stir up in his stomach.

Quackity looked back up as one of the customers walked past him to leave the store.

There was one more person before him.

Quackity turned on his heel and headed out of the door with his hands shaking.

Karl and Sapnap looked up at the sound of the door, both looking surprised to see Quackity out so quickly.

“Hey, did you get it?” Karl asked with blinking eyes.

Quackity took a deep breath and forced a nod before he tried to take a step down the street and leave the store behind him.

“Yep. I got it” he lied, with no plastic bag or pills to show for proof.

He was barely two steps down the street when Sapnap grabbed his hand and stopped him.

“Hey? What’s going on” Sapnap asked as he took in Quackity’s sweaty face, and looking down he noticed how Quackity’s hand was shaking in his own.

Quackity bit his lip, tempted to lie further. But they knew, and they would know if he lied too.

“I can’t do it” Quackity said.

A person walked past them and Quackity felt his cheeks heat up. Why did it have to happen in such a public space? In the middle of the street no less.

“I can’t pick up the meds. What if I get in trouble? What if Bad gets in trouble?” Quackity worried.

“No one is gonna get in trouble, Quackity, it’s okay” Sapnap tried to reassure him.

“I don’t need the medication. I can deal without them” Quackity said, looking down at the sidewalk they stood on.

He felt a hand being pressed against his forehead.
“Is it happening right now?” Karl’s voice asked as Quackity tried to breathe.

“Kind of” Quackity admitted.

“Okay hold on” Karl said and pulled out his phone.
“Uhhh okay um, it says here you need to take deep breaths” Karl read up from his phone.

“No shit, I’m trying” Quackity muttered under his breath.

“Okay um” Karl scrolled over his phone.

Quackity moved a hand up to pull down the zipper of his jacket. It was getting too hot. Quackity feared he might just pass out.

“Okay, name five things you can see” Karl then said.

Quackity took a deep breath and looked up.

“I see… the pharmacy logo” he looked around,
“A bench, and… a garbage can” Quackity took another deep breath.

“And your jacket, and Sapnap’s hand” he said as he looked down at their hands again.

“Good. Now name four things you can hear” Karl read out loud.

Quackity felt stupid, and embarrassed, but tried hard to follow whatever instructions Karl had pulled up on his phone.
“I hear… cars… and birds” he started.
“And the wind, and… Christmas music” Quackity took another breath.

“Alright, name three objects” Karl said.

Quackity didn’t know what game this was or how that one was different from the first, but he followed along anyway.

“Um, a phone, an um, a tree” Quackity looked around him again to try and find new things.
“A mailbox”.

“Now two things you can smell” Karl said.

“Um…” Quackity got quiet and closed his eyes.
“I think I can smell… my shampoo?” He tried.

“ and?” Sapnap chimed in.

“Your awful breath” Quackity managed to joke before taking another breath, starting to feel more and more at ease.

Karl chuckled at that before reading up from his phone again.
“Now name something you can taste?” Karl closed his phone again.

“Toothpaste” Quackity said. Looking down at his and Sapnap’s hands, he was finally able to notice how his hands had gone still again.

“How are you feeling now?” Sapnap asked.

“A bit better” Quackity said, his cheeks still red.
“What was that game?” He asked instead.

“Oh, uh, just some method on dealing with anxiety I read last night” Karl said as he pocketed his phone again.

“You read about anxiety?” Quackity asked with a furrowed brow.

“Well, yeah, we wanna know how to help you” Karl shrugged but smiled at him.

Quackity felt his heart skip a beat at that. He couldn’t believe how sweet they were.

“You sure you don’t want us to go in with you?” Sapnap offered again.

Quackity looked between the two of them, both of his boyfriends looking like they were ready to move mountains and swim across entire oceans for him.

Quackity nodded as his cheeks heated up again.
“I think I’d like if you came in with me” he said.

"Alright, come on” Sapnap smiled, waiting for Quackity to take the first step, letting him set the pace.

Once they walked through the door again, and the doorbell rang out again, Quackity looked to the number display.

18.

He missed his spot in the line.

Before he said anything, Karl had already taken another number for them and smiled as they walked out of the way to wait by one of the shelves.

Sapnap still hadn’t let go of his hand, and Quackity was worried he was squeezing it too hard. But Sapnap didn’t let go, and Quackity focused on breathing again.

“Do we still have mouthwash at campus?” Karl asked Sapnap as they waited, looking at the mouthwashes on display and their prices.

“Bruh I don’t think I’ve used mine once” Sapnap answered with a chuckle.

“Gross” Karl rolled his eyes as he turned to look at the number display. Karl looked down at the number note in his hand.

The number display dinged again and Karl started to head to the register where the pharmacist waited, Sapnap and Quackity following after him.

“How can I help you today?” The pharmacist asked. She was a middle aged woman with her hair tied back into a bun. She looked tired and a bit mean if you asked Quackity.

“We’re here to pick up a prescription” Karl said as he dropped the note with the number into a small dish with other crumbled up pieces of paper.

“Do you have a prescription note I can see?” She asked.

Quackity fumbled to pull out the pink slip and handed it to her.
“It’s for me” Quackity squeaked out.

The woman took the prescription, reading the words and then looked up at Quackity again, her eyes bored, like they had handed her monopoly money.

Quackity was pretty sure he would have turned and ran if Sapnap’s hand wasn’t holding his, his thumb stroking over his knuckles for comfort.

She said something and Quackity didn’t notice despite looking right at her.

“Q” Karl looked to him.

“Huh?” Quackity asked.

“I need to know your name and see some ID” the pharmacist repeated herself.

“Oh um” Quackity’s cheeks went red.
“Quackity HQ” Quackity answered as he pulled out his wallet and let go of Sapnap’s hand. He fumbled to pull out his college ID and handed it to her.

She gave it a quick look, handing it back to him before moving out into the back and out of sight.

“You okay?” Sapnap whispered to him.

“Yeah, just a bit off I think” Quackity muttered back.

“Okay, that’s good” Sapnap said, probably trying to reassure him.

The woman came back and put a white box into a white bag with the pharmacy’s logo printed on.
“That’ll be 9,50” she said.

Quackity pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it to her. She handed him the bag and then his change back.

“Have a nice day” she said and clicked a button to change the number on the display again.

Karl opened the door for them as they left the pharmacy again, starting to walk down the street to head to the mall.

“Should you take one now?” Karl asked as he looked to Quackity.

Quackity shook his head,
“Bad said I’d be tired the first few times I took them. I don’t really wanna deal with that” he said and looked down at the bag.

“Still, you seemed really out of it before” Sapnap said as they turned a corner.
“Besides, I think Sleepy Q is adorable” he teased and swung their hands together.

“There’s a difference between being sleepy and tired, Sap” Quackity said and looked down at the cracked sidewalk.

Karl pulled one of the straps of his backpack off and unzipped it as they walked, pulling out a crushed water bottle.

“I really think you should take one, it’ll help you wind down” Karl said and offered Quackity the bottle.

“But…” Quackity but his lip as he took the water bottle.
“What if I ruin our date?” He asked.

“You could never ruin our date. If you get tired we’ll just take a break, or go home if that’s what you need” Karl said.

“Anything if it means you won’t be uncomfortable or anxious” Sapnap chimed in.

Quackity sighed and pulled the box of pills up from the bag. He opened the box and saw about ten rows of pill sheets. He pulled one of the gray sheets up and turned it around to see about ten small pink pills.

He pressed one out with his thumb.

“Do I just swallow it?” He asked Sapnap.

“Yeah, it’s just like painkillers” Sapnap nodded,
“They should start working in about 30 minutes. I didn’t feel that different when I tried them” he told him, trying to help Quackity’s nerves.

Quackity put the pill in his mouth, it had an earthy taste and he was quick to uncap the water bottle to chug it down. He handed the bottle back to Karl along with the white plastic bag to be put back into his backpack.

They didn’t talk about it after, Sapnap and Karl could probably sense that Quackity just wanted to move on with his day and get to the mall.

As they got closer and closer to the big building with different shop logos displayed along the sides of it, Quackity thought he noticed the change.

It was a lot more subtle than what he expected.

A part of him thought it would make him tired instantly, like he would be swaying on his feet and fall over asleep. Or that it would be some magic happy pill that would drug him up.

But it didn’t.

Instead he just felt his head getting lighter from all the thoughts leaving his brain. At first he was anxious about what George and Dream were gonna say when they saw him. Last they had probably heard was him having a full breakdown.

But with each step and breath he took it started to slow down. One moment he was trying to come up with excuses to say, then the next he looked up at Sapnap and noticed how long his hair had gotten.

Sapnap would be really pretty with space bums in his hair.

Then he looked back down the street and took in all the pretty Christmas decorations.

He didn’t feel like he was drugged up or tired.

He honestly just felt really relaxed. Like his body was finally untensing its muscles after months of pend up nerves.

It wasn’t really that bad. And he felt silly for being so scared of picking up the pills.

But before those thoughts could even get the chance to spiral, they were walking in through the big sliding doors and the hot air blew over them as they were welcomed into the warm building of the mall.

Dream and George were waiting by one of the trash cans, each holding a soda can as they chatted.

Sapnap called out to them and Dream looked up, and waved back with a smile.

Quackity thought dread would fill his stomach as they finally met up with them. But it didn’t.

But his cheeks still got a bit red from past embarrassment.

“Hey” Dream smiled to them, a big shopping bag in the hand not holding his drink, which Sapnap bumped with his own and got swatted at for almost spilling it.

“We were starting to think you guys stood us up to be gross and in love” George teased before sipping from his soda can.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to be late. I just got a bit… nervous” Quackity apologized, not really sure what to say. Dream and George were his oldest friends, but the thought of just parading around his mental health was simply dreadful.

“Hey, it's cool. I got Dream to buy me a soda so everything’s fine” George shrugged, then his eyes changed from the normally bored and teasing look they had, taking in the way Quackity looked.

“How are you though?” George asked.

Quackity moved his balance from one foot to another as he tried to come up with an answer.
“I think right now, I’m good” he nodded a bit to himself.

“That’s good” George said. It felt weird hearing George talk like that, all caring and concerned.
“We’re here for you and stuff. Sorry I’m not used to this” George tried.

“It’s fine. Thanks though” Quackity said. It was kinda good to know he wasn’t the only one out of his depth.

“So” Karl interrupted their conversation,
“What stores are we hitting first? I have gift cards that need to be used” he grinned.

And with that it seemed to break whatever awkward and uncomfortable spell that had fallen over them.

George lead the way to the first store, needing to return a shirt he got and some other things. Dream started to chat up about his Christmas and Sapnap interrupted with jokes at all times.

It felt just like their friendship always had, loud, chaotic and just on the edge of annoying strangers.

Quackity didn’t know if he was the one who was being clingy, or if it was Sapnap and Karl.

But there wasn’t a single moment where Quackity’s hand wasn’t held by at least one of them. Whenever one of them let go of his hand to go look at something, the other would slide up next to him and grab his hand, hold onto his arm or put an arm around his waist. At one point, Sapnap had his arms around him and leaned up against him from behind as they listened to Karl gosh and picked out acrylic paints.

they didn’t need to, but Quackity appreciated it.

It was grounding.

But then, they passed an H&M, and Quackity caught a glimpse of a mannequin wearing a bordeaux red turtleneck shirt.

Quackity didn’t realize that he slowed down or that he was staring at the shirt, but Sapnap did. He looked back at Quackity, hand still holding his.

"Hey Big Q? What ya looking at?” Sapnap asked next to him with a smile.

“Oh uh nothing, just” Quackity blushed slightly as he looked back at Sapnap. He then looked back at the display window with the mannequin.

“Hey Sapnap. What do you think about that shirt?” Quackity asked and pointed at the mannequin.

Sapnap turned his gaze on to where Quackity was pointing.
“Eh, it looks nice. Kinda classy” Sapnap smiled and looked back to Quackity only to see him frown.

“What’s wrong?” Sapnap asked.
“Do you wanna try it? It’ll look really nice on you” Sapnap tried to cheer him up again.

“No, it’s not that” Quackity muttered. He kinda hoped Sapnap wouldn’t have liked it, or just said it wasn’t his style. That way maybe Quackity would feel better about the ugly pajamas he got Sapnap.

“I wanted to get a shirt like that for you… not the ugly pajamas” Quackity admitted and looked up at Sapnap again.
“I thought you would look nice in it…”

“Oh” Sapnap said surprised and then looked back over at the shirt.

“Alright, let’s go get it” Sapnap smiled and started to walk towards the doors.
“Karl, we’re heading into H&M” Sapnap called over his shoulder.

“What- Sapnap no it’s fine” Quackity started to protest as they walked into the store full of women’s mannequins dressed in pretty dresses and accessories.

“Okay, see you at the food court!” Quackity heard Karl’s voice called back before he was dragged to the men’s section.

Sapnap started to look through all the hangers and folded clothes to try and find the turtleneck.

“Sapnap, we don’t have to get it” Quackity said with a furrowed brow.

“Of course we don’t. But I want to” Sapnap smiled back at him. Sapnap turned his head and spotted a rack of hangers full of the red turtlenecks.

“Do you think I need a medium or a large? I’m not gonna lie, I think I’ve put on a pound or two” Sapnap asked as he let go of Quackity’s hand and started to switch through the hangers and check the sizes.

“Sapnap, it’s dumb, let’s just go” Quackity tried again.

“It’s not dumb” Sapnap defended.

“Yes it is” Quackity pulled at his sleeves.

Sapnap stopped moving the hangers and looked to Quackity.
“Why is this such a big deal?” Sapnap asked him gently.

Quackity looked down at the floor, refusing to answer.

“Quackity, I like the yellow Pajamas” Sapnap tried.

“No you don’t. Sapnap, we’ve slept next to each other for the past 13 years. I know you prefer to sleep in your boxers” Quackity rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, but I like the pajamas because you got them for me. You put thought into it” Sapnap said.

“No I didn’t” Quackity covered his face with his hands.
“I just… I just wanted to go home…” his voice came small and muffled. Sapnap had to strain to hear what he said.

A moment passed between. Sapnap tried to find the right words to ask his questions without sounding ungrateful.

“Quackity, why didn’t you get the shirt? If that was the one you wanted to give me?” Sapnap asked.

Quackity sighed into his hands before moving them away to meet Sapnap’s eyes.

“I was trying to find it, but… a lady started to follow me around, and she started to harass me” Quackity told him, looking ashamed.
“She claimed I was trying to steal, and I snapped at her and ran away from the situation. I was so tired and drained that I just took the first thing I saw and called it a day” Quackity managed to say before Sapnap hugged him.

Quackity hugged him back.

“Why won’t you be mad at me?” Quackity asked in a small squeaky voice into Sapnap’s jacket.
“I got you an awful gift”

“I don’t care about the gift” Sapnap held him closer.
“Quackity, you could give me a hand full of dirt and I would treasure it forever” Sapnap said and pulled back to see Quackity’s eyes were brimmed with tears.

“I care about you being happy, and it breaks my heart to know some asshole ruined it for you” Sapnap moved some of Quackity’s hair out of his eyes. His thumb then swiped over Quackity’s right eye, trying to remove the sadness from his eyes.

“We’ll do it like this. I’m buying the shirt. We’ll say I brought the pajamas for myself, and you got me the shirt” Sapnap smiled sweetly to him.

“But the price difference is so big, that’s not fair” Quackity started to protest.

“Hey, it’s cool” Sapnap smiled,
“It’s not about the price, it’s about the thought. And I really like it” Sapnap said as he leaned over to bonk his head against Quackity’s forehead.

“Thank you for the shirt, Babe” Sapnap said, even if he hadn’t tried the shirt on yet.

Quackity sniffed slightly.
“Can’t I just pay?” He asked.

“Nope” Sapnap said and popped the P.
“Now let’s go see how this bad boy fits. You have to be the judge” Sapnap pulled back and grabbed a medium and a large size before taking Quackity’s hand and dragging him along to the changing rooms.

Sapnap didn’t let go till they found an empty stall.
“Wait here, and no peeking” Sapnap winked to him before pulling the curtain out. Quackity’s cheeks went red and he leaned back against the wall, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

He hummed a bit along with the Christmas music playing over the store speakers as he heard Sapnap rampage behind the curtain.

Then the curtain drew back and Sapnap smiled with pride.

“How do I look?” He grinned and spun around.

Quackity blushed even more, his face completely red.

Sapnap was even prettier than he imagined.

Sapnap started to pull different poses like he was some athletic star showing off, curling his arms to make his biceps bigger, still turning and showing off the sweater to Quackity.

“Very pretty” Quackity said as his eyes roamed over Sapnap’s body.

It suited Sapnap so nicely. It didn’t hide Sapnap's well built chest or the strong arms Quackity loved a bit too much.

But it was all over for Quackity when Sapnap turned his back to him, and then rolled his shoulders.

“My shoulders look great in this” Sapnap shot a knowing grin over his shoulder to Quackity, finally stopping with the posing.

“Yeah” Quackity agreed with a squeak.

Sapnap chuckled,
“Awww like what you see?~” he winked.

“I always do” Quackity shot back at him.

Sapnap smiled and looked back in the mirror,
“You have awesome taste, Babe” he praised Quackity before drawing the curtain back so he could change back into his hoodie.

“Thanks” Quackity said, still feeling his heart going pitta patta in his chest.

When Sapnap stepped out again, he had the turtleneck thrown over his arm, his jacket unzipped and showing off the hoodie underneath.

Sapnap took Quackity’s hand as they headed out of the dressing rooms.
“Let’s go pay and meet up with the others. I’m getting hungry” Sapnap said as they stepped into a very long line, going all the way past the jewelry stands and underwear section.

“You don’t have to get it” Quackity started again.

“Yes I do. It’s my Christmas gift from you” Sapnap smiled to him.

“Then at least let me pay for it” Quackity said and tried to take the shirt off Sapnap’s arm, but Sapnap held it out of reach, annoying a lady behind him.

“No” Sapnap said, a teasing glint in his eye.

“Fine, but at least let me pay for the price difference” Quackity tried yet again, even if he knew it was a losing battle.

“Absolutely not” Sapnap shook his head.

“Fine… but then you have to admit you hate the pajamas” Quackity demanded with a pout.

“I would rather be caught dead in them” Sapnap grinned.

“So you do hate them” Quackity squinted his eyes, looking for any tell Sapnap might show.

“Not at all, I just think death would be really comfortable in them” Sapnap snickered.

“You’re unbelievable” Quackity shook his head, turning to face away from him, only for Sapnap to peak his cheek.

“You know, you’re really cute when you’re annoyed” Sapnap said, his face still up close to Quackity’s.
Quackity pushed his face away with a chuckle.
“And you’re really dumb” Quackity said, a smile tugging at his lips.

The line moved and they stepped along with it.

The Christmas music played over them, and Quackity could overheard the other customers' conversations in the line, some complaining about how long it was and others gushing over their findings in the store.

“Hey” Sapnap spoke up again, the teasing and joking tone gone now.

Quackity turned his head to face him.

“You know” Sapnap started,
“We’re here for you. And I just wanna say, if there’s anything I can do to help, I’d do it in a heartbeat” Sapnap said, low enough for only Quackity to hear.

“I know” Quackity said and squeezed Sapnap’s hand.

Quackity bit his lip as he looked down at their hands linked together, just like they always were.

“Actually… there is something” Quackity said.

“Yeah?” Sapnap asked, waiting patiently for Quackity to continue. The line moved again, forcing them closer to the register.

“It’s dumb but um, I took your jersey with me home” Quackity looked up at Sapnap again.

“It doesn’t smell like you anymore, could you wear it for a bit?” Quackity asked with red cheeks.

Sapnap gave him the kindest smile.
“Of course” he said.

Quackity swung their hands together slightly, feeling flustered at his own request, and the devotion Sapnap would not stop looking at him with.

When they finally reached the register, Quackity let Sapnap pay for the shirt without any more protests.

The young woman behind the counter put it in a bag and wished them a merry Christmas.

Quackity was glad to be out of the store, his own stomach starting to rumble as they made their way to the food court.

They spotted Dream, George and Karl sitting outside of a McDonald’s, there was an untouched tray of four burgers, and a half eaten box of chicken nuggets in front of it.

“Yo guys, check out what Quackity got me” Sapnap grinned as they came up to the table. He started to pull the shirt out of the plastic bag, while Quackity sat down next to Karl.

Dream whistled as Sapnap held up the turtleneck against his chest.

"Wow, that looks so good on you” Karl said and looked to Quackity with a smile,
"Who knew you were a fashionista?” he grinned.

"I’m not, it just looks nice” Quackity said flustered.

"That color suits you” George said before slurping the last of his soda.
"You should wear it for the New Years party” George suggested.

"Party?” Quackity frowned confused.

"Oh shit I forgot to ask about new years” Sapnap smacked himself in the head and folded his shirt back up to put it back into his shopping bag.

“So… Karl and I have been meaning to ask you something” Sapnap started as he finally sat down.
“Some friends on our campus are hosting a New Years party, and we were wondering if you’d wanna come?” Karl asked before Sapnap could.

"Oh” Quackity blinked.

Normally, Quackity would love to go to a party, especially since he hadn’t been to one since 4th of July. And he wanted to see Karl and Sapnap’s dorms and spend as much time with them as possible.

But right now, he didn’t want to go anywhere.

Then again, he didn’t want to ruin Sapnap and Karl’s plans either, he could power through, just take a pill or two and zone out.

But he knew they would be more upset about that than if he said no.

“I don’t… I don’t think I’m up for meeting any new people right now” Quackity said truthfully.

“But you guys can go, it’s cool” Quackity shrugged and reached for one of the burgers on the tray.

“Hey, we aren’t going anywhere without you. We ring in the new year together like we always do” Sapnap leaned back in his seat.
"We’ll just do our own thing” Sapnap grabbed a burger of his own.

"But won’t your friends be upset if you don’t go?” Quackity asked as he pulled out the pickle from his burger and put it in the corner of the tray.

"Eh, who cares?” Karl said and put an arm over the back of Quackity's chair.
"You’re way more fun anyway” he tried to cheer him up.

"And there’ll be other parties. Being with you is more important” Sapnap said with his mouth full of burgers.

“You guys are being more stubborn than usual,” Quackity mumbled.

“They’re just being simps,” George chuckled and grabbed one of the chicken nuggets. Sapnap snatched up the pickle on the tray and flicked it at George, making the brunette shrike in disgust.

Quackity sat back and ate in silence, letting them all fall back into their old ways and jokes.

………

Sapnap and Karl meant it when they said they’d spend every moment they could with Quackity. Always being around him, chatting, playing games, watching movies, walking Rat after dinner and dragging him into cuddle piles.

The only time they weren’t all together was December 28th.

Karl had a Christmas dinner with his parents he couldn’t get out of no matter how much he complained. He’d be back the next day, but for then it was just Sapnap and Quackity together.

Karl had left early in the morning, he would be back tomorrow.

Bad and Skeppy weren’t home right now either, so it was just Quackity and Sapnap for the day.

They hadn’t really been home alone by themselves in a long time.

They were sitting on the floor of Sapnap’s room, playing another shooting game to pass the time. Sapnap had been really excited about some tournament he and some of the football players were gonna have after the break. He mentioned the prize was a large family pizza for the winner.

And Quackity was glad to help Sapnap practice, even if he was barely any support during the games. Quackity didn’t know how many times his character had died already, but he had put his controller down long ago.

Now he was just watching Sapnap play.

He spared the tv a few glimpses whenever Sapnap grinned a bit wider, wanting to see what got him so excited. It was nice seeing Sapnap happy, his smiles were always so warm and contagious, spreading to whoever he was with like a wildfire.

Watching Sapnap play was relaxing, seeing how he switched between weapons and dodged the other players. it was like white noise for his eyes, making his mind start to think and wander.

Quackity didn’t know how he came to this realization in his mind, but he did.

They haven’t touched each other in months.

They tried back when Thanksgiving break was happening, but that got ruined.

The last time they even said anything slightly dirty or suggestive to each other had been even before that.

Quackity was tired of rereading old texts and only being able to do it over the phone, unable to actually kiss or touch or just feel any of them with him. He was tired and frustrated by it.

And he didn’t doubt Sapnap was too.

Having only Quackity’s boring Instagram to look at.

They had never been very good at asking for anything sex related, Quackity knew this. Whenever they had sex, it just sort of happened, they’d share a look or kiss would last a second longer, a hand placed just a bit lower on their backs.

They had never asked before sex.

And Quackity knew Sapnap wouldn’t.

Quackity looked away from the screen and to Sapnap again, taking in his profile, the way his brow furrowed in concentration and focus, his eyes following everything on the screen. His jawline looked more noticeable than it had before, and his hair framed his face perfectly.

Sapnap was always so handsome.

“Damn it” Sapnap said as he was killed, dropping his hands into his lap,
“I died” he sighed.

Quackity leaned over and kissed Sapnap instead of answering, surprising Sapnap slightly. But Sapnap didn’t pull back, and Quackity took it as an okay to deepen the kiss.

Quackity grabbed the controller out of Sapnap’s hands and placed it on the floor, before he moved to straddle Sapnap’s lap, putting his hands on Sapnap’s shoulders.

Quackity pressed his chest up against Sapnap’s, trying to get as close as he possibly could.

They broke their kiss for air,
“Quackity” Sapnap tried but Quackity kissed him again.

Quackity moved his hands down along Sapnap’s arms till he got to his hands. He took Sapnap’s hands and put them down on his waist and tried to move them lower, but Sapnap pulled them back.

“Okay, hold on” Sapnap pulled away from their kiss, putting his hands up against Quackity’s shoulder, almost pushing him back.

“What’s wrong?” Quackity asked. Normally Sapnap liked touching Quackity’s butt, and Quackity thought that was what Sapnap would want.
“Do you not want to do it?” Quackity pulled out of Sapnap’s space.

“No, it’s not that, I always want to do it” Sapnap’s cheeks grew red,
“I just, I just want to check that you want to?” Sapnap said, brow furrowed.

Quackity frowned confused,
“I’m literally the one kissing you?” He stated.

“Yeah, but do you want to?” Sapnap asked again.

“I… I don’t understand the question? I’m literally in your lap” Quackity said confused.

“Quackity, I’m asking if you want to, or if you think you have to” Sapnap tried to clarify. He put his hands on Quackity’s waist.

“You’re going through a lot right now, and you’re really insecure in our relationship, and I just want to know that if we do it, it’s because you want to and not because you feel obligated to do it?” Sapnap said, his thumbs stroking over the sides of Quackity’s shirt.

Quackity moved his hands off Sapnap’s shoulders.
"I just want to be a good boyfriend and make you happy” Quackity said in defeat.

"And you are, you make me extremely happy” Sapnap’s hands left Quackity’s waist and moved to hold his face.
"But I would never want you to force yourself to have sex with me” Sapnap said, and Quackity could see there was hurt in his eyes.

"But we haven’t done it in months” Quackity mumbled.

"And so what?” Sapnap asked.

"I don’t want you to get annoyed or bored of me” Quackity looked down at the jersey Sapnap was wearing. Ever since Quackity had handed the jersey to Sapnap, his boyfriend had refused to take it off, taking his job of stinking up the jersey very seriously.

"I could never get bored of you” Sapnap said.

"But-” Quackity tried again, but Sapnap squished his cheeks.

“Quackity listen to me. We don’t have to have sex” Sapnap said.

"But I'm saying yes to it, it's fine” Quackity pulled Sapnap’s hands off his face, and Sapnap held his hands between their chests.

"Maybe, but I don’t want an ‘okay sure I guess’ yes when we do it. I mean, consent is like the bare minium of sex” Sapnap said, his cheeks getting flushed.
"You know, it’s also about the excitment, like it should be like going on a rollercoaster, with an ‘hell yeah, lets have sex’ yes” Sapnap tried to explain.

"Yeah, I guess. Sorry” Quackity nodded, getting up and out of Sapnap's lap.

Sapnap put his arm around Quackity’s shoulder and pulled him to his side.
"Hey, don’t be upset” Sapnap said with a peck to his cheek.

"Wanna play another game?” Sapnap asked and grabbed the controller off the floor and offered it to Quackity.

"Sure” Quackity said and took it.

They didn’t talk about it again for the rest of the day, they just carried on with their day like nothing had happened.

They continued to play video games well into the afternoon. When they heard the front door open, they ran down to help Sapnap’s dads with making dinner. Bad and Skeppy were arguing about getting the Christmas decorations taken down before new years.

But Quackity found his mind was other places.

He thought about what Sapnap said and about their sex life.

They don’t ask if they wanna have sex, they just do it. But as Quackity’s mind wondered during dinner, he realized they never asked for sex, because they were always excited to do it.

After dinner, Quackity started to ask himself if he wanted to have sex. His libido hadn’t been all that crazy in the last few months, and he hadn’t really been in the mood in a long time.

He thought about it while he helped fill the dishwasher, when he followed Sapnap back upstairs, when he scrolled through his phone. He thought about it while brushing his teeth.

But he knew the answer as he saw Sapnap reach out from behind the shower curtain behind Quackity and grab a towel. Seeing the water drip down Sapnap’s face and his hair, looking down to Sapnap’s chest. Then Sapnap turned his back to him as he tried to grab the towel off it’s hanger, showing off strong broad shoulders.

Yep. Quackity wanted sex.

"See you in the bedroom” Sapnap said as he dried off his hair and tied the towel around his waist as he stepped out of the shower.

Oh, Quackity would definitely see him in the bedroom.

Quackity scrubbed his toothbrush over his teeth with more force than needed, spat out the toothpaste and cleaned his face faster than he ever thought he had.

He marched from the bathroom, into Sapnap’s bedroom to see Sapnap was laying on his bed with his phone, already dressed in sweatpants and the jersey again. His hair was still damp against the pillow.

Quackity closed the door, moved over to the bed, but instead of lying down, Quackity sat up and leaned over Sapnap.
“I wanna have sex with you” he said almost like a declaration.

Sapnap’s cheeks immediately went red as he looked away from his phone.
“Quackity, we don’t have to. Like I said, it’s cool” he said.

“I know. And I thought about it and I really wanna have sex with you” Quackity nodded with as much conviction as he could.

Sapnap looked his face over one more time.
“You sure?”.

“Sapnap” Quackity put both of his hands on Sapnap’s cheeks and held his face.
“I wanna have sex with you, take a roll in the hay, do the devils tango, I wanna jump your bones. I want to have sex” Quackity said. Never had he thought giving consent to his own boyfriend could be this over done.

Sapnap blinked, Quackity could feel his cheeks growing warmer under his palms.

“Okay” Sapnap smiled with excitement, dropping his phone and putting his arms around Quackity, and then Quackity was laying on his back, Sapnap on top of him, making the smaller laugh as Sapnap blew a raspberry against his cheek, before continuing down to leave kisses on Quackity’s neck.

Quackity tried to stop the giggling pouring out of him, but Sapnap knew neck kisses were ticklish.

Quackity didn’t know for how long they just kissed like that, Sapnap’s weight on top of him. Quackity’s hands moving over the jersey on Sapnap’s back, clinging onto it.

Sapnap’s hands had already snuck under Quackity’s shirt, thumbs gently stroking over Quackity’s sides as they shared sweet kisses.

Quackity knew it had been months since he and Sapnap were intimate like this.

The last time was right before summer ended, when they were home alone at Quackity’s house and the summer air was starting to cool.

But it still felt the same.

They still fumbled around as they pulled their clothes off, and tried to stop laughing and giggling as the bed creaked under their weight. Sapnap still fell over his own feet as he ran over to lock his bedroom door.

It was a clumsy dance they both missed so much.

Quackity didn’t know if it was the way Sapnap was whispering his name against his lips between soft pants, the way their kiss drowned out the soft moans or if it was simply the way Sapnap held him.

But Quackity felt wanted in a way that was more than sexual.

He felt wanted in every sense of the word.

It was in every kiss and touch, in every muffled laugh and giggle as the bed creaked under them.

He felt wanted, excited and loved like he hadn’t in months.

The room reak of sweat and sex, Sapnap had opened his bedroom window to try and air it out while they cuddled up under the duvet. Their hair was messy from moving over soft bed sheets and sticking up in every direction.

“When we get our own place, I’m gonna spend a week breaking in the new bed with you~” Sapnap said as he stroked his hand up and down Quackity's shoulder, drawing circles across his skin with his finger.

“If you wanna have sex for a week straight, you gotta stop being a whimp about being on the bottom” Quackity panted softly, leaning his head against Sapnap’s shoulder.

“Aw, but my butt” Sapnap whined like a child.

“Your butt, my ass” Quackity smacked his chest lightly, a playful tone in his voice.

Sapnap snorted a laugh and kissed Quackity forehead.
“I love you so much” Sapnap said as Quackity moved to look back up at him with loving eyes.

“I love you too” Quackity smiled and left a soft kiss on Sapnap’s lips.

Sapnap’s phone lit up over on the nightstand with a new message. It had been tossed over there in the fumble of it all. Sapnap reached over to grab his phone while still holding Quackity.

“Who is it?” Quackity asked as Sapnap checked his phone.

“Karl” Sapnap smiled and showed Quackity his screen,
“He’s asking how our night is, apparently his aunt is drunk and bragging about her
wine cellar again” Sapnap said and started to type.

“Let’s send him a photo” Quackity smiled and sat up a bit.

“You sure?” Sapnap asked, still smiling as he handed the phone unlocked to Quackity.

"Yeah, if you’re okay with it of course” Quackity said as he found the camera.

"Always. Can I save it?” Sapnap held Quackity closer to his chest as Quackity held the phone up over them, making sure they were both in the picture.

"I swear, soon you’ll have an entire collection” Quackity chuckled and smiled as he took the picture. He brought the phone back down to himself to check if it was good. In the photo, Sapnap was winking and making a kissy face, while his free hand made a peace sign, and Quackity was smiling wide, his hair just as big of a mess as Sapnap’s.

"That’s the plan” Sapnap said and watched Quackity type a message along with the picture for him.

a message from Karl popped up on the screen a few seconds later. Quackity showed the screen to Sapnap.
"Don’t miss me too much” Sapnap read out loud with a chuckle.

"We’re trying” Quackity typed on the screen,
"But it’s hard. Heart emoji” Quackity smiled and sent it.

"Oh it’s defindly hard~” Sapnap moved to grab his phone again and kissed Quackity’s face again.

"You dirty horn dog” Quackity kissed Sapnap properly before his boyfriend put his phone back on the nightstand. Sapnap placed both hands on Quackity’s back and settled back down against the pillows. Quackity snuggled up to Sapnap, pulling the covers more snug around their bodies.

Tomorrow they would try and wash the bedsheets without Bad knowing, Karl would come home again and they would continue to enjoy their break together.

Quackity promised himself he was gonna kiss Karl senseless tomorrow.

But for now, sleep was calling his name and dragging him under.

…………

They planned their own little New Years party at home.

Skeppy and Bad were going out, so they had the entire house to themselves. Over movies, They discussed what they should make for dinner, if they should get their hands on fireworks or not, or if they wanted to ask Bad if they could have some of the vodka in the liquor cabinet.

Bad said no, but he gave them a bottle of champagne they could celebrate with.

But then Skeppy said they could take some of his beers if they made sure to hide it from Bad.

Quackity didn’t know where Bad and Skeppy was spending their new years, but they left the house a bit past noon.

Sapnap and Karl worked on setting the table and blowing out party streamers around the living room to decorate.

Quackity worked on cooking dinner in the kitchen.
They had brought steaks, potatoes, ice cream, chips and everything they could want for their own little party.

The tv filled the room with music, showing them all the new years specials and the countdown to midnight.

Quackity was preparing the potatoes when Sapnap proudly entered the kitchen, wearing his new turtleneck. He turned and spun around himself a few times just to show off.

It made Quackity laugh when Sapnap struck another dramatic pose.

All three of them helped with carrying dinner to the table and Karl struggled to get the cork out of the neck of the bottle. It was quite a show when Karl handed the bottle and bottle opener to Sapnap, who couldn’t get it up either.

They ate half of their dinner while laughing and struggling to open the champagne, sending pics and snaps to Dream and George to share their failure.

Quackity ended up going to the kitchen, getting a long sharp cutting knife. He decided the only way they were gonna get that bottle opened was with violence. The cork was cut and butchered till it suddenly gave way and they managed to pour themselves drinks.

Over dessert they reminisced over past memories they had made together, laughing at old jokes and mistakes they now looked back upon fondly.

But the best part of the night was yet to come.

Once dinner was done, dessert plates had been licked clean and they had put all the dishes away to be washed in the sink. They went to the front door.

They zipped up their jackets and headed out into the suburban streets of their childhood. Hand in hand they walked through old streets, took shortcuts between houses and made their way down to the creek.

It was small, barely a few inches deep.

When they were younger, they would pick up leaves and sticks to make races, or paddling through the water with their pants rolled up over their calves in the summer.

They walked along a stamped down dirt path, tall grass working as a railing almost. And the creek grew wider and deeper as they continued on, a few early fireworks lighting up the path for them.

Then they finally came to their destination.

The old wooden bridge.

As a kid, Quackity had often seen people bring their dogs here to teach them to swim. Quackity, Sapnap and Dream had once jumped in the water, but got scolded when they got home.

The bridge was old, the wood half rotten and would probably break in a few years. It was already missing a few planks, but it didn’t worry them.

Sapnap put a foot on it and stepped down to test it for good measures. It creaked a bit, but stayed steady.

Sapnap led them along to the end of it. They sat down on the end of the bridge, their shoes dangling over the water. A firework shot up from one of the yards and lit up the sky in beautiful red and gold glitter, the next that followed was blue.

Soon the entire sky was lit up in a beautiful inferno of colors.

Karl’s phone alarm went off.

It was midnight.

The next that ensued were a mess of them trying to get a new years kiss and failing when all three of them were actively getting in the way on purpose for the other.

They sat and watched the fireworks till less and less flew up into the air. It was cold, but when they all sat snuggled up together on the rotting planks of the bridge, and Quackity wore his new red mittens, it couldn’t be more perfect.

……….

It’s the night before January 2nd.

They’re going back to campus in the morning and Quackity is going back to Harvard.

Their last day together had been great, they’d packed their bags, helped pick up the leftover garbage from all the fireworks landing in the garden, gone out to eat at the diner and watched a movie with Bad and Skeppy.

It had been a perfect last day in paradise.

But as the moon moved over the sky outside the window, Karl was being roused out of his dreams by soft sniffles.

Karl blinked, tired and confused as to what was going on. He forced his eyes open in hopes of waking up more. He was being squished up against the wall, not uncommon when they slept together.

He then noticed the mumbled sound of whimpering coming from next to him. He looked over and saw the back of Quackity’s head, his shoulders shaking slightly.

“Quackity?” Karl yawned and sat up on his elbows. He got no response, but the muffled crying didn’t stop either.

Karl leaned in over him to try and catch a glimpse of his face, but it was useless in the dark room.
“Quackity?” He tried again.

Karl leaned over Quackity and Sapnap to turn on the nightlight, accidentally disrupting Sapnap’s slumber in the process.

Karl looked down at Quackity, only to see his shorter boyfriend still asleep, but tears creeping out of his eyes and over the bridge of his nose and cheeks.

“Quackity?” Karl whispered and cupped Quackity’s cheek, but still got no response from him.

"Hey, Quackity, it's okay” Karl whispered.

"What’s going on?” Sapnap muttered as he finally woke up, and sat up to rub sleep out of his eye.

“Quackity is crying, I think he’s having a nightmare or something” Karl whispered and then turned his attention back to Quackity, putting his hand on Quackity's shoulder before gently shaking him.
“Quackity, wake up” Karl tried.

Quackity’s eyes slowly blinked open, his cheeks still wet as he frowned confused.
“Wha?” He asked, still half asleep.

“You’re crying. Are you okay?” Karl asked and leaned back out of his space. Quackity tilted over to lay on his back.

“Oh, yeah, sorry, that happens sometimes” Quackity said, finally noticing the tears on his skin. He wiped his face with his sleeves.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Sapnap asked.

“Not really. It was just a bad dream” Quackity muttered and pulled on his sleeve.

“About what?” Sapnap moved onto his side to look at Quackity and Karl better.

Quackity got quiet, pulling the duvet up closer to his face.
“About Harvard” Quackity said.

“Oh” Karl said under his breath.

"Are you not ready?” Sapnap asked, putting an arm over the duvet and Quackity’s stomach.

"No… I don’t wanna go” Quackity admitted in a small voice.
“I just wanna stay home” Quackity said and turned to face Karl’s chest, hiding his head in his shirt.

“You’ll be fine” Karl tried and put a hand where he thought Quackity’s waist were.

“But I don’t want to” Quackity said again and sniffed.

“It’s gonna be fine, you’ll have fun” Sapnap said and leaned down to kiss the top Quackity’s head,
“You just gotta give it a chance”.

“I still don’t see why I can’t just have fun here in California” Quackity said and leaned his cheek against Karl’s shirt.

“Because California is too lame for you” Karl joked with a smile.

It didn’t cheer Quackity up, he pulled the duvet all the way up to hide his ears.

“You guys promise it’s only gonna be 5 more months, then I can drop out?” Quackity’s voice was muffled by Karl’s shirt.

“One more semester to give it a chance for you to love it” Sapnap confirmed.
“When you get some friends and start killing it in class again, you’ll see it’s perfect for you” Sapnap snuggled up to Quackity’s back, squeezing Karl further up against the wall in the process.

“You won’t even wanna drop out by summer” Karl chimed in and stroked Quackity’s side over the covers.

“Fine… if you say so” Quackity said and closed his eyes, wanting to escape the conversation with the excuse of sleep.

Sapnap and Karl let him, with their arms around him, fading back into dreamland.

When morning came, they drove to the airport just like they had at Thanksgiving. Quackity stopped by his parents house to say goodbye.

But this time, at the airport, Bad gave him a small plastic bag of the leftover Christmas cookies.

And Sapnap and Karl didn’t let go of their hug until it was absolutely necessary. They walked with him to the check in, getting his boarding pass and bags checked in.

By the escalators, Quackity looked back at them, both smiling bright at him and giving thumbs up to encourage him.

He didn’t want to go. But there was nothing he could do to argue with them.

He was pouting and moping all the way to his boarding area, while he watched the flights come and go.

And when the nerves started to build about the flight, Quackity pulled out the sleeve of pink pills he had packed into his carry on. It was mild enough to be accepted past security.

Quackity uncapped a half drunken soda and downed one of the pills, leaning back and looking out the window as the plane started to move.

Five more months.

That’s the deal.

Then he can come home for good.

Five more months.

Chapter Text

Quackity had barely been back for a week, and he already wanted to book a flight back home.

And he did not hide that want at all while on call with Sapnap and Karl. He practically did nothing else but say how much he wanted to go home.

He kinda wished his boyfriends would stop being so supportive and just tell him to come home. But no, apparently Quackity was so lucky to date two very supportive, kind, understanding and very handsome boys.

the universe hates him.

So now he was forced to sit through another one of professor Schlatt’s long lectures, with no notes to help him remember anything from last semester. He typed in whatever Schlatt was writing on the board without really understanding any of it.

In his pocket, were a sleeve of the pills Bad prescribed him. He had to take one earlier before class had started.

He did feel a bit more tired this time than when he took them the first time, but Quackity blamed that on being in lectures for so many hours.

Schlatt got caught off mid sentence by the bell. The man sighed and grabbed the sponge to start wiping the words off the board,
"Chapter fourteen is due till next lecture. Remember your books” he spoke loudly over the sound of the rest of the class packing their bags and computers.

“Pumpkin. Have a word with me” Schlatt’s voice stopped Quackity as he was packing away his books. Quackity pushed his computer and notebooks into his bag and stood up from his seat to head down the stairs.

Dread was already building in his chest as the last few students left the room. Quackity walked down the steps to meet Schlatt by his desk.

Quackity was about to ask his teacher what he wanted to talk about, but was caught off before he could.

“Where’s your head at, pumpkin?” Schlatt asked, folding his hands in front of himself as he sat down in his chair.

Quackity blinked, holding onto his backpack strap a bit tighter,
“I'm sorry?” He asked

“Excuse my french, but you look like shit, and you’re slacking” Schlatt leaned back, moving a hand down to pull out one of his drawers and then smacked three pages onto his desk.

It was Quackity’s last exam paper.

It had a C- written on it.

“Oh… yeah um…” Quackity decided that looking at his shoes was a lot easier than looking at Schlatt.

Schlatt sighed.
“I’m gonna ask you again. Where’s your head at pumpkin?” Schlatt asked again.

“I… I don’t know. Everything is just so” Quackity wanted to swear. He wanted to say that everything in his life seemed to be a fucking dumpster fire and so much more.
“Hard. I miss my friends, and I’m alone constantly. That and I’m too fucking dumb to be here, I’m honestly considering dropping out” Quackity frowned.

“Who says that?” Schlatt tilted his head, a puzzled look on his face.

“No one has to tell me. It’s so easy to see, I mean, everything I say is wrong and stupid” Quackity’s voice was quiet, the edges coated with frustration.

“Like what?” Schlatt asked and Quackity wanted to groan. Couldn’t the guy just tell him to read a book or something so Quackity could go back to his dorm?.

“Like the first day. When you asked us what our definition of law was” Quackity mentioned.
“Everyone basically told me I was stupid for even thinking what I said was right”

“Pumpkin. I don’t care how my students feel, or what they think” Schlatt started.
“But I would honestly be very disappointed to see you drop out of my class” Schlatt said truthfully, surprising Quackity.

“Why?” Quackity frowned confused.

“Because, you’re honestly the one here with the biggest potential to become something” Schlatt shrugged.

Quackity was too stunned to speak.

How or when Schlatt had gotten that impression was beyond him.

Not once had he said something smart or contributing to the discussions, and that was if he even raised his hand to begin with.

“Right now you are in rut, and you are clearly miserable, and it’s getting in the way of your studies, it shows” Schlatt said unimpressed, waving his hand slightly as he talked.

“But you have the potential, the brain and the will to become a top student in this class if you can work past it. Talk to a counselor” Schlatt moved the exam paper across his desk for Quackity to take.

Picking it up, Quackity could see notes written in red ink between the lines. He scanned a few of them over quickly before he folded the paper up, not a single line was degrading or harsh, only constructive criticism and things he needed to work on.

“Thanks” Quackity said, still a bit stunned from the praise. He turned to walk back up the stairs to leave the classroom, but he wasn’t more than a few steps up before he turned around again.

“Um sir?” Quackity looked back at Schlatt.
“Why exactly do you think I have potential?” He asked, his fingers ran along the edge of his exam’s paper, fidgeting nervously.

Until five minutes ago, Quackity didn’t think his professor was even capable of saying anything nice. He shouldn’t be fishing for more praise, he should just take what he got and leave.

But he wanted to know.

“Because, one thing is to tell me the textbook definition of law, the other is telling me why you drive to work in this profession” Schlatt offered him half a smile.

“Justice for those in need is a good reason. Go join a club or something, get a friend? Get laid, I don’t know what you need, but get your problems fixed, cause I expect something better on the next assignment, you understand me pumpkin?” Schlatt pointed at him with a raised eyebrow, but a smile that made it sound almost like a joke.

Quackity nodded and smiled,
“Yeah, I do. Thank you for your time sir” Quackity nodded and finally walked up the stairs, a new energy in his step.

Maybe he wasn’t so hopeless after all.

…………

"I don’t know what to wear” Quackity said, holding a floral dress shirt up over his chest, his other hand holding a normal peach colored shirt.

Quackity was going to a board game night he saw a poster for in the study hall. Apparently the board game club held game nights every friday.

When he mentioned it to Karl and Sapnap, his boyfriends immediately started telling him how much fun that would be.

It would ruin date night, Quackity claimed. But Sapnap and Karl didn’t seem to even be bothered by that if it meant Quackity would be socializing. So now Quackity was stuck trying to find a decent thing to wear for a game night.

"What do you guys think?” Quackity turned to face the computer, Sapnap and Karl watching from the webcam.

"I think you look hot no matter what” Karl offered.

"I think you look hot when you don’t wear anything at all” Sapnap joked, biting the corner of his bottom lip and squinting his eyes.

Quackity glared lightly at the screen.
"You two are no help whatsoever. George?” Quackity watched as the webcam turned off Sapnap and Karl and turned to show George sitting on Dream’s bed.

"Yeah?” George asked, looking up from his phone.

"Which shirt should I wear?” Quackity asked and held both shirts up.

"Are you really gonna go that formal? isn’t it just board games?” George asked.

"I was gonna wear a t-shirt underneath and keep it unbuttoned” Quackity said and snatched the black t-shirt from his desk and held it up to show George.

"Show me the shirts again” George said and Quackity held them up.
"Eh, the flower shirt will make you look gay, but the peach one is boring” George said.

“So which one?” Quackity asked.

"The flower one. Wear that” George turned his attention back on his phone, turning the computer back onto Sapnap and Karl.

"Thank you” Quackity said and turned his webcam off so he could change.

"Aw man, no show?” Sapnap joked.

"No help, no reward” Quackity chuckled as he pulled off his dirty sweatshirt, and threw it at his window where he could see the snow falling outside.

He changed quickly. He knew when the clock struck six, Karl was gonna force him to go to that board game night.

And Quackity wanted to spend as much time as possible with them before that happened.

Quackity pulled the black t-shirt over his head, fixing his beanie in the reflection of his phone screen.

“I don’t know if I wanna go. What if I say something dumb and they laugh at me?” Quackity asked as he inspected his own face. He looked tired.

“Then own it, make it a joke with them” Sapnap suggested.

“And you won’t say something dumb. Only smart things leave your mouth” Karl said next, trying to cheer Quackity up.

Quackity pulled the floral shirt on, leaving it unbuttoned like he said he would, before he turned to his computer and put his webcam on again.

“How do I look?” He asked.

“Beautiful” Karl smiled, probably having that answer ready and loaded for the last five minutes.

“Eeeeh, you could look gayer” Sapnap said as another joke.

“I don’t wanna look gay, Sap” Quackity sighed.

“Why not?” Sapnap asked a joke, a smile tugging on his lips.

“Cause I don’t wanna get beat up for being a gay hispanic twink walking alone at night” Quackity said, clearly not taking it as a joke.

Sapnap’s face fell.
“Sorry” Sapnap apologized.
“That lady really messed with your head, huh?” Sapnap asked. They had told Karl about the reason why Quackity got Sapnap a ‘new Christmas gift’. George and Dream had been told a bit, but not the whole thing.

Quackity didn’t like to talk about it.

Dream and George understood.

They had all experienced some form of harassment before.

But it was a bit harder to hide your ethnicity than your sexuality.

“She didn’t mess me up. She was just an asshole but..” Quackity ran his hands over his face and over his beanie.
“It’s just easier to deal with when I’m home. There I’m with people, like you guys or my parents. But here I’m all alone, and it’s scary” Quackity said and leaned back in his seat.

“Like, what if someone corners me because I just breathed wrong according to them? I can’t fight back, look at me” Quackity was working himself up and he knew it.

“Okay, Q, deep breathes” Karl coached through the screen.

Quackity closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath like his boyfriend told him to.

“Nothing is gonna happen. Harvard is a very elite school with a good reputation, they wouldn’t let some racist homophobo onto their campus” Karl tried to reason.

“For enough money they would” Quackity mumbled.

“Quackity, nothings gonna happen to you. Harvard is a safe place” Sapnap chimed in.
“Good security, right? And who knows, maybe you’ll find a group of queer or Hispanic kids to hang with? Birds of a feather and all that?” His boyfriends truly tried to help.

But Quackity still didn’t wanna leave his dorm room.

Where it was safe.

And lonely.

“Maybe you should take a pill?” Karl suggested.

“I don’t like that I’m taking them so much. Bad even said I shouldn’t take them regularly” Quackity looked at his screen again.

“He said to take them when I needed it” Quackity said.

“Exactly. And we can practically feel the paranoia radiating off of you” Karl said and tilted his head. Karl had been the one obsessing over Quackity taking those pills the most. He was the one asking if he had taken any, how many he had left, even though Quackity had only finished one of the sheets so far.

It made it hard to ignore the pills.

"I don’t need them” Quackity frowned, but didn’t meet Karl’s eyes through the screen, choosing to pick at his nails instead.

“Quackity. I love you with all my heart. But you really do need those pills, cause your mental health is shit” Karl said, Sapnap choosing to look away from the slow building argument.

"Make me then” Quackity challenged.

Karl raised an eyebrow at him.
"Fine, I'll stop pushing,” Karl shrugged, but it was clear that he wasn’t done with this battle.
"If you can tell me what you had for lunch today” Karl challenged back.

Quackity glared at Karl.

That was another thing they had talked about. Quackity needed to stop hiding away in his room, and that meant he was supposed to go eat at the cafeteria.

Quackity had sworn he would do it.

But he might just have… forgotten that promise since his flight landed.

Quackity got up from his chair, grabbing a half drunk water bottle, the box of pills on his nightstand. He sat back down in front of the computer, making a show out of fishing a pill sheet out of it, pushing out one of the pills, and uncapping the water bottle.

Quackity glared at Karl on the screen as he took the pill and swallowed it.

"I hate you” Quackity said with no heat behind it.

"I love you too babe” Karl said.

“Quackity, I thought we agreed you would start eating in the cafeteria again” Sapnap said with a sad frown.

"Why don’t you just do it then, if it’s so fucking easy” Quackity lashed out. Both Sapnap and Karl looked hurt, but didn’t say anything as Quackity crossed his arms and sank down into his seat.

They knew he wasn’t angry at them, he was angry at the situation. They just happened to be the only direction he could lash out at.

"I don’t wanna go. Why can’t I just stay in with you guys and watch a movie? Its date night” Quackity asked, his bottom lip wobbling slightly as he tried to mask his sadness for anger.

"Because we agreed you need to get friends on campus” Sapnap answered.

"And you can’t do that while on call with your boyfriends in your room” Karl added.

"It’s unfair” Quackity muttered.

"Hey, let’s make a deal” Karl suggested, trying to cheer up Quackity’s mood again.
"Board game night ends at like nine? right?” Karl asked and Quackity nodded.

"That’s like at six where we are, me and Sap are eating dinner by the time you get back. And if you still wanna watch a movie by then, we can” Karl offered.

That did sound nice, Quackity had to admit.

But then again, getting to spend time with his boyfriends sounded nice in general.

"Deal?” Karl asked with a soft smile.

"Deal” Quackity said quietly, still moping.

"I’m sorry I snapped at you“ He said next.

"It’s fine. You’re cute when you’re mad” Sapnap winked, trying to make Quackity smile.

It did.

"What’s the time where you are?” Karl then asked. Quackity glanced down at his computer clock.

17:57.

“... Like five thirty” Quackity lied. Karl raised an eyebrow.

"Or I guess it’s closer to six” Quackity looked away.

"You should get ready to go then” George voiced chimed in again from off the screen.

"But I don’t wanna” Quackity tried to whine again.

"Oh my god” George sighed, and Quackity watched as the webcam was moved around and George was in frame again.

"I love you buddy, but it’s friday, you have a board game to get to, and I need Sapnap and Karl to help Dream do my homework” George started out.
"So I'm gonna be the bad guy and hang up for you now” George said, Quackity heard two no’s being cried out and Sapnap claiming he hadn’t blown him a kiss goodbye yet.

"You will see your simps later, okay?” George asked, seeming to try and smack someone away. Quackity’s guess was Sapnap.

"Yeah” Quackity smiled a bit.
"Thanks George” he said.

"You’re welcome. Bye” George’s voice was caught off as the webcam moved again before turning black.

Quackity sighed.

He gave himself a moment before getting out of his chair and grabbed his jacket and shoes.

He was overreacting and he knew it, but at least his thoughts didn’t seem to spiral like they normally did. Quackity might not like the pills, but he had to admit, they helped.

Quackity was just gonna go to the library for an hour, try to play some games, then he could stop by the corner store and buy some chips and a soda for the movie, get some homework done and wait for the clock to turn nine.

He’d still be making some effort like he promised, and not fear dying out of awkwardness.

Quackity tied his shoes, grabbed his keys and headed out of his dorm room. He walked down the stairs and out of the common room quickly, trying to get out of there before he could change his mind.

He pushed the door open to enter the dark snowy grass fields separating the dorms from the lecture buildings.

Walking to the library was only about a five minute walk.

Quackity rushed through the snow covered paths and over to the lecture buildings. It was freezing outside with the snow falling around him. In the light of the street lamps, Quackity could see his own breath.

He shivered as he stepped in through the old wooden doors and headed down the old hallway.

He’d stay for an hour.

Just one hour,

Then he would head back and he could wait out the time in his dorm till he could call Sapnap and Karl again after they ate dinner.

Just one hour.

Quackity walked to the library, all the lights were on and it was unusually loud for a place meant for silence. It was so light in the room, making it look pitch black outside the tall windows.

As Quackity stepped into the room, no one seemed to notice him. He unzipped his jacket and pulled it off, holding it over his arm.

He walked further into the room, the air buzzing with conversation and laughter.

There were a lot of people.

Quackity walked past tables of people playing monopoly, go fish, hungry hungry hippos, chess and a lot of other games.

He stood on the sideline. Not close enough to look creepy for watching strangers play, and yet not close enough to be invited in either.

He should just walk up to them and ask if he could join.

His problem before had been that he didn’t know what to say if he walked up to someone.

Here, he had a reason. To play a board game.

But then what after? What would he say afterwards?

Quackity walked away and headed to a table, with more games than Quackity could count on display.

Maybe he should pick a game? Make conversation around that?

Quackity looked over all the boxes of games, reading all the titles and trying to settle on a choice.

If he could just make a choice that would be nice.

He just had to pick a game and go ask someone to play with him.

He just had to make a simple choice, he didn’t even have to like the game.

He just had to pick one.

Why couldn’t he just pick a game and get it over with.

"Excuse me”

Quackity was brought out of his thoughts and looked to his left, a guy much taller than him, glasses with an ugly lime green color rim and light brown hair stood next to him.

“Sorry to bother you, Quackity the law major. But I was wondering if you would like to play a game of Uno?” the guy asked him, holding up the bright red package of uno cards.

Quackity had never seen this guy before.

“Do you know me?” Quackity blinked.

"Nope. But I've seen you around. Wanna play a game of Uno?” the guy asked again.

Quackity looked the guy up and down, he wore plain jeans, sandals with socks, a green short sleeved button up that wasn’t closed and had a white shirt under it with a print saying ‘so yeah, I'm a human’ with three red hearts.

That was way too cold to be wearing at the beginning of January.

“Sure” Quackity said. If he got gutted tonight by a stalker he at least didn’t have to walk up to another stranger.

"Great. I'm Charlie Slimecicle. Dap me up” the guy, Charlie, held out his hand to him.

“Quackity HQ” Quackity said and hesitantly shook Charlie's hand.

Charlie Slimecicle, he had heard that name around campus before. Through passing rumors and stories. None of the rumors was that creepy, but Quackity thought they were mean still. Some said the guy was missing half his brain, others claimed he was a stalker for how he talked to people.

But one thing the rumors were right about, was that the guy was very sick looking, an almost greenish color to his cheeks and too clammy hands.

Quackity decided to ignore it as they shook hands.

"Nice to officially meet you, Quackity the law major. Let’s find a table, shall we?” Charlie smiled to him and turned to find a table, fully expecting Quackity to follow.

He led Quackity to a table where two people were already playing chess. They looked up when the chairs scraped over the carpeted floor. They took a look at Charlie and immediately stood up with their game and Quackity watched them move to another table.

Three weeks ago Quackity would have thought it was because of him and died from embarrassment he didn’t understand having. But right now, it made him pissed. He and Charlie hadn’t even said anything to them.

“What’s their fucking problem?” Quackity frowned and sat down in front of Charlie, who was already shuffling the cards together.

“Chess is a very challenging game. Maybe they just didn’t wanna ask us to move and moved themselves” Charlie suggested with a smile and a shrug.

This guy was either oblivious or weird.

“Yeah. Maybe” Quackity said and looked down at the way Charlie was shuffling the cards quickly. It was impressive, with high speed and no cards falling out.

Then Charlie started to hand them out between them.

“House rules or personal rules?” Charlie asked as he placed the stack of Uno cards in the middle of the table and slapped a red four on the table as their starting card.

Quackity took his cards and thought it over.
“No putting plus fours on plus twos to try and maximize the damage” Quackity said.

“Sure” Charlie smiled, not even bothered by Quackity’s rule

“And as long as the cards share the same number, you can put down as many as you want in one go” Quackity had gotten in a lot of fights over that one rule, George always claimed bullshit on it when they played together, once even sending the cards flying.

But he stood by it.

"Oh that seems like a fun rule” Charlie smiled. He held his cards up, not even looking at them once before saying.
“Would you like to start?”

"Sure” Quackity picked up his cards and looked down at his hand.

He had two green plus two cards, two green, a yellow and three red cards. The starting card was already a red, so it was best to just start there, get rid of the red first and move on from there. He took one of the red cards, a red five, and placed it down.

Charlie immediately put down two fives, a blue and a yellow. Quackity blinked, looking between Charlie and the cards. That guy didn’t even hesitate to put those down. Was he cheating? had he packed the cards? no, Quackity had watched him shuffle the cards, he couldn’t have.

Quackity looked back down at his cards. One of his green cards shared number with his yellow card, seven. He didn’t have much use for yellow, so he used it to change color, putting the two sevens down and making it green.

Charlie put down three sevens, ending it in green again.

Now the guy only had two cards left, and Quackity still had five cards to put down.

Normally, Quackity saved his plus two cards for when they were placed on him first, sending them back or to the next guy. But he was not gonna lose when he had two plus two cards on his hands. He picked up both cards and smacked them down on the table with a grin.

But Charlie just smiled.

And Quackity felt a new form of dread as he saw Charlie’s hand move up to his own hand instead of the cards on the table. No. Don’t.

Charlie put down two yellow plus two cards of his own,
"Uno” Charlie's voice said cheerfully.

“Well, that was fun” Charlie said and stood up as Quackity stared at the cards in disbelief.

"Again” Quackity’s voice stopped Charlie.

"Huh?” the guy honestly looked surprised.

"We play again” Quackity said and started to stack the cards together so he could shuffle them himself .

When Charlie didn’t sit down again, Quackity looked up at him, blushing slightly now that he realized how demanding he sounded.
"If you want to, of course”

A wide smile spread across Charlie’s face, it was so bright Quackity was surprised he didn’t go blind. Charlie sat down in his chair again.
"Sure thing, Quackity the law major” he grinned with excitement.

Quackity smiled back at him before he continued to shuffle the cards.

They kept playing round after round, Quackity winning some, Charlie with a bit more. But if you asked Quackity it was a close tide. Charlie was a funny guy too, making Quackity laugh multiple times with his weird comments and observations

"Do you play poker, Quackity the law major?” Charlie asked between one of their games, as Quackity was dealing their new hands.

“Uh kinda I guess. My uhh” Quackity looked up at Charlie quick, thinking over his next word carefully.
"My boyfriend’s dad taught me once. I know how to play, but haven’t done it that much, why?” Quackity asked, trying to skip past the first part of his sentence in case it was the wrong thing to share.

Charlie didn’t even seem to register it as he carried on with their conversation.

"You have a very good poker face, Quackity the law major” Charlie praised. Quackity had already told Charlie multiple times to stop adding his major whenever he said his name, but his opponent didn’t seem to listen.

Quackity had an idea it was to weird him out during the game, but a part of him knew it was just the way this guy talked.

"We should play it sometime” Charlie suggested, and Quackity found he didn’t mind that idea.

"Yeah. We should” he said and started handing out their cards yet again.

Quackity had no idea how long they had been playing, but at some point people were starting to clean up their games and leaving the library. Someone clapped their hands and informed the still playing people that the board game night was now over and they could come again next friday if they wanted to.

Had Quackity really been here for three hours?

Quackity helped Charlie clean up the cards and put them back with all the other games.

They left the library together, stepping out into slow falling snow.

"I had fun” Quackity offered before they had to part ways. A part of him was sad that their time had to end, but he did have fun.

"Me too, Quackity the law major” Charlie nodded.
"I will see you around” Charlie waved as he stepped in the opposite direction of where Quackity was heading.

"Yeah, see ya” Quackity said with a small wave of his own.

He didn’t know if he was gonna see Charlie again. Harvard was big, with a ton of students. But maybe Charlie would show up next Friday too? Quackity could only hope as he walked back to his dorm building.

He sent a quick text to Sapnap and Karl, letting them know he was gonna jump in a call soon.

When Quackity got back to his dorm room and opened his computer again, Sapnap and Karl were already in the vc on their server. Quackity unzipped his jacket as he clicked on the vc.

"Hey love” Quackity heard Sapnap’s voice through the speakers as Quackity pulled his jacket off and put it over the back of his chair.
"Hey” Quackity smiled as he kicked off his shoes towards the door.

"You seem happy” Karl observed with a grin.

Quackity blushed slightly
"I guess it wasn’t so bad” Quackity admitted. Karl smiled wide, pride in his eyes for his boyfriend.

"So, how was it? did you make any friends?” Karl asked, moving the computer so Quackity could see Sapnap and him were in bed, and based on the artworks hanging on the wall, Quackity guessed it was Karl's room.

"I met a really weird guy” Quackity said, sounding a bit baffled as he seemed to finally think over Charlie's weird behavior.
"He knew my name, but I had never seen him before. And he talked really weird” Quackity noted.

"Weird how?” Sapnap asked.

"Like, he kept calling me Quackity the law major” Quackity leaned back in his chair,
"He knew who I was and I have literally never met him before” Quackity said.

"You sure?” Karl asked,
"You could have passed him in class before?” he suggested.

"I would have remembered meeting this guy before. Trust me, he was weird as fuck” Quackity chuckled but smiled.
"But really nice. I hope he comes next time” Quackity said with a soft smile.

“Well, that's great at least” Sapnap said.

"So, you still wanna watch a movie or are you too tired?” Sapnap moved some of the pillows behind him around.

"Yeah, I'm still up for it” Quackity smiled, tilting his head back against his chair.

The rest of the night was spent watching and chatting through one bad movie after another, laughing and joking about some of the dumbest questions they could come up with to the movie’s logic.

They stayed on call till way out in the night, right until Quackity was practically nodding off at his keyboard and falling asleep in his chair. It was with much complaint and loving words that Quackity hung up and went to bed.

He didn’t think about Charlie for the rest of the weekend.

But monday afternoon, Quackity walked in through the doors of the dinning hall, exhausted from morning lectures. He hadn’t eaten in the cafeteria in weeks, the need to avoid people had been too big to ignore.

But he promised Sapnap and Karl to make an effort, so here he was, grabbing a sandwich and a soda before going to find a seat.

A lot of the tables were already filled up with people. Quackity should walk up to them, just one of them, but he didn’t want to interrupt.

Small steps. That’s what Quackity told himself.

Gotta take small steps.

Today he’s eating in the cafeteria, tomorrow he’ll walk up to a table, and the day after he might try to make small talk.

One thing at a time.

Quackity found a less crowded table and sat down on the other end. The other people by the table seemed too lost in their phones to even acknowledge Quackity had sat down.

Quackity unwrapped his sandwich and started eating, listening to the humming of conversation all around him.

Quackity was about to pull his own phone out when a figure walked up to him.

“Hi Quackity the law major”

Quackity looked up and was met by the blinding smile of Charlie.
“Oh, hey” Quackity said and sat up a bit straighter.

“How was your weekend?” Charlie asked, walking around the table to sit down in front of Quackity without asking.

“It was good” Quackity said and looked down at Charlie’s tray, a small pyramid of jello cups stacked on it.
“You sure like jello” Quackity chuckled as he pointed it out.

“They’re good. They had a great deal on them” Charlie said as he picked one up and peeled the lid off.
“Would you like one?” Charlie offered.

“Sure” Quackity said and relaxed into his seat. He ripped his sandwich in half and offered it to Charlie in exchange.

“You can have some of my lunch too” Quackity said, feeling a bit like a kid again, exchanging snacks and lunch boxes during recess.

“Thank you Quackity the law major” Charlie smiled, pushing two jello cups over the table and took the offered sandwich.

They ate lunch with pleasant conversation. Talking about assignments and how their classes had been so far.

Quackity quickly learned Charlie was an athletics major. Not the thing he would have expected, but for some reason anything else would have been just as weird.

They talked about their Uno game, which carried over to a talk about video games.

And then the bell rang and they had to part ways.

Quackity smiled to himself as he went to his next lecture, it was nice having someone to talk to again.

But he tried to remind himself that it was probably just a one time thing.

Except, Charlie was already at the table the next day, waiting for him.

And he was there the next again, and the one after that.

Charlie was at the table every day, waiting for Quackity.

And Quackity found himself excited for lunch everyday now.

And then Charlie asked Quackity if he wanted to go rock climbing with him.

And for some reason, Quackity said yes.

Quackity didn’t even consider saying no.

So here he was. Standing in front of a wall with colorful fake rocks screwed onto it, realizing what exactly he had said yes to.

He agreed to do exercise. Physical activities.

At least it wasn’t running.

But looking to Charlie, Quackity didn’t actually mind. Because Charlie looked so excited and happy as they got their harnesses and was shown how to put them on.

"So, do you come here often?” Quackity asked in hopes of making any kind of small talk.

"Yes. But normally I go alone” Charlie said as he pulled a strap around around his waist.

That was another thing Quackity had noticed over the few times he and Charlie had been together.

People avoided Charlie like a plague.

If Charlie sat down somewhere, other people would leave the table. If Charlie talked to someone, the person looked beyond uncomfortable. And they didn’t even hide it or tried to lie when leaving conversations.

They treated Charlie how Quackity had feared he’d get treated himself.

Like a freak.

And Quackity didn’t understand why.

Charlie was a little odd, but he had been nothing but sweet to Quackity.

Quackity refused to be the only one to see that.

"Hey um, Charlie?” Quackity asked, drawing Charlie's attention back to him.

“Yes, Quackity the law major?” Charlie tilted his head.

"I was wondering” Quackity started, trying to find a way to ask his question without coming off as an asshole.
"Is it just us today? like, is anyone else joining us?” Quackity asked, hoping that sounded innocent enough.

"Yep, everyone was very busy this weekend” Charlie said, as if Quackity knew who ‘everyone’ were.

"Oh okay” Quackity nodded, accepting that as his answer instead of digging into it deeper.

"I don’t really mind it either. Just it being you and me today, Quackity the law major” Charlie said as he turned to walk towards one of the colorful walls. There was a small line of people waiting to climb it, along with three employees holding the ropes to make sure the kids and people on the wall didn’t fall down.

"Why?” Quackity blinked, but followed along.

"Oh it’s simple really. I just wanted to hang out with you” Charlie smiled brightly to him.

Quackity wouldn’t say his heart skipped a beat at that, only Sapnap and Karl would ever be granted that achievement. But Quackity did feel his heart swell at Charlie’s words.

He didn’t know what to say to that, thanks seemed too small. Not enough to describe how much that actually meant to him.

“I like hanging out with you too” Quackity said.

Charlie just smiled more, Quackity almost feared Charlie's face was gonna split half open with how much his smile kept growing.

“You need to fasten your strap” Charlie said, changing the topic and pointing to Quackity’s harness. The straps around his legs were looser than the one around his waist.

“Oh, uh, yeah” Quackity looked down and started to fumble with the straps.

“It's important that the straps are tight. Else you could fall or get a wedgie” Charlie informed as Quackity fastened the straps around his thighs snug enough around his jeans. Quackity pulled down on the harness, it stayed put around his hips.

“Is this fine?” Quackity asked.

"Yep” Charlie gave a thumbs up.

Finally they made it to the front of the line, a man a few years older than Quackity helped get the loops and rope in place, explaining to him how it all worked and how there was nothing to be scared of.

And before Quackity knew it, he was on the wall, holding onto colorful rocks for dear life.

Now, Quackity might like being around Charlie.

But Quackity hated a lot at that moment.

He hated how short his arms and legs were, he hated how he was sweating through his shirt. He hated how he had absolutely no body strength to pull himself up.

And he hated how he was starting to feel embarrassed with his slow pace.

“Are you alright, Quackity the law major?” Charlie’s voice came from next to him.

Charlie didn’t even look like he was breaking a sweat, holding onto the rocks like it was nothing but ease. And meanwhile Quackity felt like he was gonna slip and fall.

"How the fuck are you not sweating?” Quackity asked through heavy breathing instead, forcing himself to reach up for another rock and pulled himself up.

"Oh, you gotta push yourself up with your legs” Charlie explained, showing Quackity how he climbed the wall. Charlie would grab one rock, push himself up with one leg, grab another rock and put his other leg on another rock.

Quackity watched as Charlie sped up the wall, reaching the top in no time. Charlie pushed himself up onto a platform. Leaning out over it, Quackity saw him smile down at him and just waved.
“Try that,” he suggested.

Quackity moved so he had a better footing on the colorful rock, and this time he tried to push himself up like Charlie showed him. He wasn’t nearly as fast as Charlie had been, but it was a much easier climb.

Charlie cheered for him as Quackity finally reached the top, not caring about the people looking over at them. Quackity pushed himself up onto the platform, panting hard.

"Great work Quackity the law major” Charlie praised.

"Thanks, but how do we get down?” Quackity asked, wiping his forehead and blowing his bangs out of his eyes.

"Oh, we jump” Charlie said, unclipping his rope.

"We what?” Quackity paled.

"This place has this really cool thing, where they have a pool filled with foam cubes that we can jump into. That or climb down, but jumping is funnier” Charlie explained.

"Why do they have that?” Quackity asked.

Charlie shrugged.
“It used to be a trampoline park, I think,” he offered.

"You don’t have to jump, if you don’t want to” Charlie said after a moment.

Quackity sighed and unclipped the rope from his belt. No way was he gonna make himself sweat more.
"No, let’s jump” Quackity said.

Charlie led him over to another side of the platform, getting out of the way for the next climber, and over to where a small line of kids and teens were waiting for their turn to jump into a hole filled with rainbow colored foam cubes.

As they waited, Quackity realized that this was the first fun thing he had actually done while in Massachusetts. It was the first time he had left the campus and actually enjoyed it.

And he was spending it with Charlie.

He really wanted to have something to remember this day, something to prove he had a great day with Charlie.

Something he could show to Karl and Sapnap.

“Hey Charlie?” Quackity pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked up at him.

Charlie turned to look him in the eyes again.

“Do you wanna take a picture?” Quackity asked, his cheeks heating up slightly.
“We don’t have to” he followed up quickly and looked down at his phone.

“I just thought it would be cool if we did, like a way to remember our day together” Quackity started to ramble, feeling nervous about what Charlie would think. Why was he even naming reasons in the first place for a picture?

“You want a picture? With me?” Charlie sounded almost surprised.

“Yeah, I mean we’re having a good time so” When Quackity looked back up he saw Charlie’s smile, wide and excited. He was practically beaming on the spot.

“Sure, Quackity the law major” Charlie said and moved an arm up over Quackity’s shoulder.

Quackity smiled and opened his phone to find the camera. He held it up in front of them. Charlie had to duck down a bit to be in the frame, grinning wide up at the camera.

Quackity smiled up at it as well, taking the picture and grinning.

It was the first actual post Quackity made on Instagram in months.

The picture of Charlie and him smiling wide on the screen. He added a video of Charlie jumping off one of the platforms and into the sea of pillow squares while laughing loudly.

They grabbed a burger together on their way back to the dorms, talking about whatever came to mind or the funny things they saw other people do. Charlie suggested other activities they could do together, and Quackity honestly felt like he’d be up for it.

Quackity didn’t know if they were friends yet.

But he thinks Charlie likes him, and Quackity knows he likes Charlie too.

Chapter Text

“We made something” was the first thing Karl said on their call Thursday night.

Quackity could see his boyfriends were practically beaming with excitement, waking Quackity’s own curiosity.

“Oh? What have you two now done?” Quackity asked with a chuckle.

Karl disappeared out of frame for a moment, Sapnap starting to grin excitedly, being able to watch Karl find whatever little project they both seemed so worked up over.

Karl then reappeared a moment later, holding a jar almost half filled with coins, the glass covered in glitter and stickers.

Quackity raised an eyebrow, confused as to what his boyfriends were doing.
“You made a swear jar?”.

“Nope” Karl said and turned it around to show a yellow sticky note saying ‘Quackity missing jar’.

“Originally we made it a ‘Quackity love’ jar, where we agreed to put a dollar in everytime we thought about you” Sapnap started to explain, rubbing at his neck,
"But we went broke in like two hours”.

Quackity laughed at that, snorting slightly.

"So we remade it, so everytime we miss you, we had to put a dollar in. That time we went broke in three hours” Karl butted it.

“So we switched to cents, cause we kinda need to eat” Sapnap blushed slightly.

“You two are so dumb” Quackity smiled.
“What’s the money for? Are you trying to condition yourself to miss me less?” He asked.

“What? No” Sapnap said and blinked,
"We’re gonna use the money to take you out on the best date ever when you come home again” he grinned wide.
"We are talking fancy ass candle lit lobster dinner with suits and everything” he winked to Quackity.

“I don’t really like seafood. How about pizza?” Quackity joked.

"Whatever you want, cutie” Sapnap winked again.

Karl put down the jar on the table in front of the computer.

"So, how’s your friend?” Karl asked.

"I wouldn’t call us friends yet” Quackity shrugged.
He and Charlie had practically spent every lunchbreak together, and Charlie would invite Quackity to try out the weirdest of clubs or free time activities.

Quackity said yes to a few that seemed fun, but some of the things Charlie seemed to do were just weird. Like when he asked Quackity if he wanted to join him at the ‘vegan life club’. That suggestion was weird for two reasons.

One, Quackity had seen Charlie eat meat on multiple occasions by that point. Two, why was that a club at Harvard??

But despite spending so much time together, Quackity doesn’t know if they’re friends yet. They’re definitely associates, if you can call a still developing friendship that.

"We eat lunch together, so that’s nice. We went to try the baking club together yesterday. I made a cupcake that looked like Cookie Monster high in crack” Quackity briefed them.

Sapnap and Karl were really excited about Charlie despite only knowing about him through Quackity. The only reason they even knew he was real was because of the photos Quackity posted online or sent them.

“He invited me to a party tomorrow night too” Quackity said.

“That’s great, your first actual college party, hurray” Sapnap smiled wide.

The door behind Sapnap and Karl opened and Quackity saw Dream and George’s bodies walk into the room, but couldn’t see their heads.

“Oh shit, are we interrupting something?” Came Dream’s voice.

“Not at all, Quackity was just telling us about his friend” Sapnap spoke over his shoulder to them. Quackity thought Sapnap and Dream were lucky to be roommates, cause no way in hell would a stranger be cool with all the discord calling they did.

“He’s not my friend” Quackity said, and hated how it sounded, because he wanted to be Charlie’s friend.

He really truly did.

“Why not?” George stepped closer to the desk, standing behind Sapnap and Karl before bending down so Quackity could see him.

“Because…” Quackity looked away from the screen. He knew what was slowing down their friendship, but he didn’t know how to fix it.

"I don’t wanna make him uncomfortable. Like what if he doesn’t see me as a friend? I don't know if we’re even friends” Quackity said instead of finishing his first thought.

"You need to use the mayo theory” Dream chimed in from behind George, sitting down on his bed and leaning forward so Quackity could see his head poke into the frame. .

"The what?” Quackity frowned.

"The mayo theory” Dream said again, as if those were completely normal words to Quackity.

"What is the mayo theory?” Quackity asked, not sure if he was gonna regret it or not.

"The mayo theory is the ultimate way of determining a friendship” Dream said proudly before he started to explain.
"The mayo theory goes as follows. You and the person you wanna be friends with, buy a jar of mayo, donuts and frosting. You fill the donuts with the mayo and put it out for everyone else to eat” Dream said, already making Quackity more confused and disturbed by every word.

"Then, you take the empty mayo jar, clean it and fill it with vanilla frosting. And then you and the friend eat it outside in public and watch as people try not to gag” Dream said with a proud grin.

"That… is the weirdest thing I have ever heard you say” Karl spoke up.

“I’m dating an idiot” George covered his face.

“I think he has a point” Sapnap muttered.

Quackity had no idea how Sapnap and Dream were managing to stay alive over there. Not with that kind of logic.

“As much as I think Charlie would love that, it doesn’t really fix my issue” Quackity said.

“I don’t see what the problem is, you like Charlie” Sapnap said, turning to look at Quackity on the screen again. .

“Yeah but… I haven’t really come out to him yet, and I feel like not doing so is slowing down our developing friendship. But what if he stops talking to me?” Quackity asked, looking visibly upset.

“You haven’t told him you’re gay?” George asked.

“I have, kinda. But he doesn’t know I’m in a poly relationship” Quackity said.

“… isn’t that like the easy part?” George asked, and Sapnap, Karl and Quackity all cringed.

“No. Not really” Sapnap said.

“A lot of people think poly is mainly a sex thing, and coming out is like bragging about having a crazy sex life” Karl started.
“Others think it’s unfaithful or cheating to be in an open relationship. They think poly people are just willing to fuck anyone” Karl said.

“Yeah, I was scared shitless to come out to Punz and the others when I told them about Quackity. A few of them did assume it was a brag” Sapnap said and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh” George said.

“Yeah, remember in junior year when we first got together? People were calling me a homie hopper and a homewrecker, while Sap and Karl got so much shit for ‘cheating’” Quackity said.

“I don’t want Charlie to hate me” Quackity muttered.

“He’s not gonna hate you” Sapnap tried to reassure him.

“And if he does, then at least you’ll know he wasn’t really a good friend anyway” Karl added.

“Yeah… but I really like Charlie. Why does it have to be so hard?” Quackity groaned and leaned back in his chair.

“You know, no one says you have to tell him. But if you think that’s the final step you need to take before you’re officially friends, then it’s completely up to you” George said.

Quackity rubbed his hands over his arms and sighed.
“Yeah, I know,” Quackity said.

“I'll tell him,” Quackity decided, nodding to himself.
"At the right moment. I'll tell him”.

"We believe in you” Sapnap held up two thumbs up with a big smile.
George rolled his eyes but smiled anyway.

“Anyway, tell us about the party you’re going to” Karl changed the subject.

…….

When Charlie invited Quackity to a party, Quackity didn’t know what he should have expected.

A part of him thought it wasn’t even gonna be a real party. Charlie might as well take him to a five year old’s birthday party for all he knew.

Funny enough, he did not expect to be at a frat house blasting music that Friday night.

Guess Charlie isn’t weird in everything he does.

Quackity had never understood what a fraternity house was, or why people joined them. They seemed just like normal dorm rooms, except with more rules and apparently alcohol.

Charlie let him up to the porch, a girl was already bent over the railing and throwing up, someone Quackity assumed was her friend was holding her hair back.

Charlie led him in through the hallway, a few of the people in there moving away as Charlie came through.

Quackity had no idea how Charlie got invited to a party like this, but no one was marching towards them to kick them out.

So Quackity didn’t care.

The house was full of people, drinking and talking loudly over each other and the music. The loud music was blasting out from the living room, which Charlie turned to look into with a grin, grabbing Quackity’s hand so he didn’t get lost in the sea of people.

Charlie led him over to the couch, a few people getting up as they spotted him, leaving a free room for Charlie and Quackity to sit down.

“I’ll get us something to drink” Charlie leaned down and spoke loud enough for Quackity to hear over the music. They hadn’t even been sitting for more than five minutes, but they had to get the party started somehow.

“Okay, I’ll hold our spots” Quackity smiled.

Charlie gave a thumbs up to show he heard him, before getting up and disappearing out into the sea of people around them.

The people surrounding the couch were like the trunks of trees in a forest, making it hard to see into the depth of it or any hopes of an end.

Quackity leaned back in his seat and looked around the room, to some of the other people. A few people were dancing, not very well, but who was Quackity to judge when he was no ballet dancer either.

Quackity considered pulling out his phone, maybe checking Instagram or send a text to his friends, this was gonna be his first party without them after all. But he decided against it. He didn’t want to look like he was already bored or tired.

He came to have fun, not be antisocial.

Quackity clapped the fabric of his jeans as he waited, trying to relax. He kinda wished he had brought a sheet of pills, or just taken one before leaving his dorm.

But when he first read through the instructions of the medication, it was very clear that it shouldn’t be mixed with alcohol.
And Quackity really wanted to cut loose a bit, especially after the last few months he had. Some fruit punch sounded really good too if he was honest.

Besides, Quackity was hopeful.

It was gonna be a good party, and he had Charlie.

Everything was gonna go great.

Quackity waited five minutes. And no sign of Charlie.

That’s cool, there’s a lot of people, maybe the kitchen is crowded.

Quackity waited another ten minutes.

Maybe Charlie was just in the bathroom. Yeah, that’s reasonable.

Quackity waited another ten minutes before he started to feel like he was hogging the seats on the couch.

Where was Charlie?.

Quackity got up from his seat, he’d go find Charlie and then they could find somewhere else to sit.

Quackity spoke one excuse after another, which no one properly heard over the music, as he marched through the groups of people and out into an open kitchen.

In the kitchen, Quackity found no signs of Charlie.

He did however find where all the alcohol and drinks were on display. A group of girls were mixing drinks on the other side of the kitchen counter. A few guys were yelling a drunk song as one of them chugged a can of beer.

Well. Quackity was in the kitchen.

He might as well grab something to drink.

Looking to the table, he saw a stack of cups by the vodka.

Quackity was going for a red cup when he spotted the other colors. A bag of blue, yellow, pink, red and purple cups stood on the table, yet to be put out. Instead of a red cup, Quackity decided to grab a pink one.

Because pink was Karl’s lucky color. His boyfriend claimed pink brought luck, having worn pink every time he went to an exam, the only exception being French, which he failed.

Quackity liked pink, and he could use some luck right now.

Quackity grabbed the bag and tore it open in the top, reaching down before pulling out a pink cup.

He mixed himself a rum and coke before leaving, trying to find his way back to the couch in case he and Charlie had just missed each other.

He wasn’t there.

Quackity spent the next two hours trying to enjoy the party and find Charlie at the same time. He walked through the different rooms, listening in on some weird circle conversations, watched people play drinking games, to which he actually got dragged into one and had to take a few shots for losing too many rounds.

A few different people had tried to hit on him, flirting with him, before Quackity either had to make it clear for the girls he was gay, or that he was taken for the guys.

For some reason most of them gave him a strange annoyed look before carrying on.

But Quackity couldn’t find it in himself to care, not when he had a buzz going and he still had to find Charlie.

He danced a bit as he walked through the living room, heading to the kitchen to mix himself a new drink and see if Charlie was there yet.

Quackity would admit. He got kinda drunk.

Not pretty drunk, not shit faced drunk, not a little drunk.

Kinda drunk.

Drunk enough to laugh at a joke that didn’t make sense, drunk enough to not notice if anyone stared as he mumbled out the wrong lyrics to the songs.

Drunk enough to relax.

Quackity mixed a new drink. Strawberry vodka and orange soda, making it taste like a soda pop.

Looking through the people in the kitchen again, he still saw no sign of his tall goofy friend and decided to go on the hunt again.

This time he found himself by the dinner table, two groups of people at the each end of it playing a war of beer pong. Quackity sipped on his drink as his eyes followed the ball and chuckled as it hit and missed different cups.

He still couldn’t find Charlie.

Maybe he should try and look in the laundry room?

"Hey~” a smooth voice spoke behind him.

Quackity turned around and came face to face with a tall brunette, his curls almost falling into his glasses. He was dressed in a yellow sweater and held a pink cup as well.

Quackity recognized him as that one guy from Schlatt’s class. The one that ran the debate club.

What was his name again?

"Hi” Quackity smiled back at him

"Fun party, right?” The guy leaned down so he could speak over the music.

"Yeah, it’s pretty fun” Quackity agreed with an exaggerated nod.

"Can I be frank?” the guy asked him then.

"Sure, frank” Quackity joked and it actually managed to make the guy laugh.

"I think you’re really cute. Wanna head back to my dorm and do it?” the guy asked and Quackity’s cheeks immediately went red.

"Um… no?” Quackity said with an awkward laugh. That was very frank and straightforward. Oh wow. Quackity had gotten compliments and flirting comments all evening, but none quit so forward.

"Sorry, um I'm not single” Quackity excused. He had never let another person down like that before.

God he felt awkward.

The guy didn’t seem offended or pissed, but he did look rather confused, looking from Quackity’s face, down to his cup and up at Quackity again.

“You got a pink cup” the guy said, nodding to the cup in Quackity’s hand as if it’s as obvious as two plus two.

“Uhhh yeah? So?” Quackity asked and took another step back from the guy, starting to feel incredibly uncomfortable.

“The pink cups mean you’re down to fuck” the guy said and sipped from his own cup.

Quackity grew completely red in his entire face at that, moving his hand immediately to place the cup on the beer pong table behind him.
“I uh, I did not-“ Quackity started to stutter.

“I did not know that” Quackity managed to say.

"Sorry for the misunderstanding. Excuse me” Quackity said and decided to run out of the dining room as fast as he could past all the other drunk people.

The fact Quackity was pretty drunk himself did it make it easier for him.

He felt embarrassed. All those people that had flirted with him, he had been sending them so many mixed signals and how god he came off as a prude or an asshole for wasting their time.

Quackity really wished he had a pill now. He needed to get out of all the crowded spaces, he needed a place to gather his thoughts and nerves.

Where the fuck is Charlie?!.

Quackity managed to find his way to the bathroom right as another person was stepping out of it. He stepped in and closed the door.

The music was dull in the clean white room, acting as a blessing on Quackity’s ears. But it wasn’t enough. It was too bright.

With shaking hands Quackity made his way over to the tub, sat down and pulled the curtain out to separate him from the lights.

He closed his eyes, trying to remember any of the exercises he had done before, but it was hard to focus when his brain kept making the room spin.

Quackity didn’t know how long he sat in the tub, it could have been five minutes, it could have been twenty.

Then the door handle clicked, and twisted open.

Oh no.

Quackity forgot to lock the bathroom door.

Quackity had been so caught up in his own head he didn’t think to check the lock. He just wanted a moment to himself, and he couldn’t even ensure that for himself.

Quackity didn’t know what to do.

He couldn’t say someone was already in here, not when he heard the door open and close again, this time hearing whoever it was, locking it.

Quackity covered his mouth, focusing all he could on not breathing.

Of course this had to happen. Right as he was on the verge of a panic attack.

He heard the toilet flush and the sink run as the guy hummed along to the music on the other side of the shower curtain.

Quackity squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t believe he forgot to lock the door. If that guy spotted him, he was gonna seem like a creep and total weirdo. Oh god, what if he got kicked out for being a pervert?!.

“Hello?” The guy asked towards the closed shower curtain.

Quackity wanted to cry, sinking further down into the tub.

Then the curtain was pulled back and Quackity was face to face with the guy, who was looking down at him with a surprised look in his eyes.

Quackity must have looked horrified.

“I’m not a pervert” was the first thing coming out of Quackity’s mouth.

“Okay…. Cool” the guy said and nodded slightly. He was practically towering over Quackity with how tall he was.

Quackity then covered his face, tears starting to form out of sheer embarrassment. Quackity squeezed his eyes shut, finally just letting himself break down and cry in the bathroom of his first college party right as a stranger caught him hiding in the bathroom shower.

“Hey? Are you okay?” The guy bent down to be at eye level with Quackity. Quackity could see his face properly now, short brown hair and tattoos around his biceps peaking out from the edge of his t-shirt. His smile looked like something right out of a toothpaste commercial, so white and bright.

He had the nicest smile Quackity had ever seen.

“No…” Quackity admitted and moved his hands from his face to talk properly.
“I lost my friend in the crowd and apparently I’ve walked around with a slut cup the whole night, and now I look like a creep spying on people in the bathroom” Quackity covered his face again.

“Slut cup?” The guy looked puzzled,
“Oh, the pink cups? Yeah they’re really dumb” the guy nodded.

Quackity just nodded and sniffed slightly.

The guy offered him a smile,
“I’m Foolish” he introduced himself with a hand out to Quackity

Quackity shook his hand,
“Quackity HQ”.

“Nice to meet you here in the bathroom, Quackity. Do you want some company? Some help finding your friend?” Foolish asked with a tilt of his head.

Quackity sniffed again and nodded,
“Yeah, that would be nice” he said and looked at Foolish’s kind smile again.

“You have a very calming face” he announced.

“Oh, thank you” Foolish chuckled and stood up again, holding his hand out to Quackity again, intending on helping him up.
“We better get out of here. There’s probably a line outside that needs the bathroom.”

Quackity nodded and took his hand, letting the other help him get steady on his legs.

“You seem pretty drunk. What’s your friend’s name?” Foolish asked as he saw Quackity’s legs wobble as he got out of the tub.

“Um, Charlie” Quackity answered.

“Charlie? You mean as in Slimecicle?” Foolish asked as they made their way out of the bathroom, and past a girl waiting for it to get unoccupied.
“A guy that talks kinda weird? Like he always mentions your major?” Foolish still hadn’t let go of Quackity’s hand.

“Yeah, he invited me” Quackity said, feeling a bit like a lost kid at an amusement park with the way they held hands through the sea of people.

“Oh I definitely know where he is. He’s been asking around for you. I think you two lost each other” Foolish said with a bright smile to cheer Quackity up.

It did help to know Charlie hadn’t ditched him on purpose.

Foolish dragged Quackity through the living room, past a football table and to the couch. Looking over the people was much easier for Foolish than Quackity with his height.

“I see him” Foolish then announced over the music and pulled Quackity with him into the kitchen again.

Quackity saw Charlie immediately, talking to a ginger guy with a worried frown on his face, his hands waving around as he spoke. The ginger guy didn’t look the slightest bit interested, but he nodded along to Charlie’s rant..

“Yo Slime, I found your friend” Foolish called over the kitchen island.

Quackity didn’t remember the last time he saw a guy look that happy to see him, Charlie’s worried face breaking out into a smile as he hurried around the kitchen island and hugged Quackity, an oof almost getting punched out of Quackity’s chest.

“Quackity the law major! I am so happy to see you, I am so sorry for leaving you alone, I was getting the drinks I swear” Charlie started to apologize as Quackity just awkwardly clapped Charlie’s shoulder and tried to pull back.

“It’s okay” Quackity muttered.

“I think you should follow your friend home, Slime. He’s had a rough night” Foolish said from next to them. How Foolish didn’t get neck pain from literally speaking down to them, Quackity didn’t know. The guy was so insanely tall.

"Oh, you wanna leave, Quackity the law major?” Charlie asked with a worried frown. Quackity was almost about to say no, they could stay. Charlie had been so excited for this party and Quackity didn’t wanna ruin it.

But Charlie wouldn’t be mad if they left. Right?

"I would actually prefer going back to the dorms. But I can go by myself, you can stay” Quackity said quickly.

"No, no, I'll follow you home” Charlie shook his head.

"Thank you” Quackity felt touched.

“Here, I’ll give you my Instagram. I wanna know you made it home alright” Foolish interrupted their moment and pulled out his phone.

“What? Oh no, it’s fine, you don’t have to” Quackity shook his head, starting to protest, but Foolish only smiled as he opened up the app.

“Nonsense. A friend of Charlie is a friend of mine” Foolish said.
"Now, are you gonna give me your username or do I have to stalk Charlie to find it?” He joked, making Quackity laugh along.

“Okay fine. It’s Mexican Dream HQ” Quackity said, getting a raised eyebrow at the name.
“It’s an inside joke… with some friends” Quackity explained and blushed slightly.

He should change his username soon.

“Okay, I gave you a follow. I’m FoolishGamers” Foolish turned his phone to Quackity, showing him a profile picture of a cartoon shark.

"Okay, I'll text you then” Quackity promised.

Foolish was about to say something else, but someone called over the music, a pet name like babe, and it drew Foolish’s attention.

“I better go. But it was nice to meet you, Quackity. I'll see ya around” Foolish smiled.

"Oh, you too. Thanks for the help too” Quackity blushed slightly, embarrassment still present in his stomach. But Foolish only smiled before turning to leave, following the voice that had called for him.

Quackity and Charlie pushed through the people in the living room, getting a few annoyed looks from a group of girls. Getting out into the cold night air was refreshing, waking and almost sobering Quackity up immediately.

The music was still pumping through the air as they walked away. They got past one house, Quackity stumbling over his own feet, before he grabbed a hold of Charlie’s arm to steady himself.

He had gone overboard on the alcohol, he could feel that now.

The walk back to the dorms was quiet, mostly because Quackity was focusing so hard on not slipping on the melting ice and following along with Charlie.

It was weird walking in silence, not because of any awkward tension or anything Quackity would normally fear. He enjoyed the silence, listening only to the snow crunch under their boots, leaning up against Charlie’s shoulder and holding onto his arm for balance and warmth.

But it was weird, cause not once had Quackity experienced Charlie being quiet. The other was always talking, about anything and everything.

But Quackity didn’t think too much about it, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and the cold night air.

They made it to Quackity’s dorm building, the shorter of the two boys pulled out his keys and let go of Charlie’s arm.

“Thank you for the walk home” Quackity said and fumbled up the stairs to the front door.
“It was a good party” Quackity said. Cause it was, Quackity had fun even if he ended up being embarrassed beyond repair and didn't get to spend any of the time with Charlie.

“It was, yes” Charlie nodded, the lamp over the door illuminating them both.

Quackity turned to fumble with the door, getting it up when Charlie spoke up again.

"Hey Quackity the law major” Charlie said before Quackity got in through the door, making Quackity look back at him, seeing the burrowed brow on his face.

"Yeah?” Quackity asked.

"I am really sorry about leaving you alone at the party” Charlie started.

"You didn’t have a good time and I feel bad about that. I understand if you don’t want to hang out anymore,” Charlie said.

"Charlie, you aren’t responsible for me having fun” Quackity told him, turning around to face him properly.

"I know, but I still feel like an ass for leaving you alone, Quackity the law major” Charlie looked at the ground.

“I know I’m not… normal in the head” Charlie gave a sad chuckle.
“I know people find me weird and loud, and that they don’t wanna be around me. I get if you don’t want to hang out anymore” Charlie said in a quiet sad voice.

It broke Quackity’s heart.

“Don’t you dare think I don’t wanna hang out with you anymore” Quackity said, surprising Charlie.

"Charlie, hanging out with you has really been the most fun I've had here on campus. And yeah, you’re not normal, you’re really fucking weird, but I like that about you. You’re fun and nice to me. It’s never boring to be with you” Quackity smiled, reaching a hand out.
"But if you insist on making it up to me, buy me a coffee instead. But you are not getting rid of me” he said, a determined look in his eyes.

"Now dap me up” Quackity chuckled at the way Charlie smiled wide at that, smacking his hand into Quackity’s waiting palm.
"You got it, Quackity the law major. I will see you at lunch” Charlie grinned.

“You better” Quackity smiled back at him.

Quackity watched Charlie walk over the grass fields, waving everytime Charlie smiled over his shoulder, right until Quackity couldn’t see him anymore.

Quackity smiled, and closed the door to the snowy night.

…….

Quackity hates thunderstorms.

ever since he was a little kid he hated them. They were too loud, big and the lightning was too bright.

It had started out small when Quackity woke up, just a drizzle making small puddles out on the football field. Over noon it got heavier, tapping on the window.

And then the first boom washed over campus, making Quackity jump in his seat and look up from his homework

Quackity fucking hates thunderstorms.

He tried to turn back to his homework, focusing on his assignments to try and drown out the thunder getting louder with each hit. When it became too hard to focus, Quackity pulled out his headphones.

another boom sounded and the light on Quackity’s desk went out.

It was starting to get dark outside, making it impossible to read. Quackity really wished his lamp would react when he tried to turn it on.

Quackity saw the lightning light up the sky outside his window. He grabbed his phone and turned it on, at least that wouldn’t go dead.

But it didn’t take long for Quackity to discover that the WiFi was down as well. When he went onto discord and tried to type, none of their chats or channels would load.

Quackity wanted to cry.

He took a deep breath and looked up from his phone and across his desk for his boxes of pills.

He’s not having an anxiety attack, he’s just scared. He didn’t know if it was okay to take one, but when he grabbed his water bottle, he said screw it.

Karl would want him to do it.

Swallowing the pill, he tried his phone again. Another thunder boomed and Quackity bit his lip as he kept trying to reload discord, but to no luck.

He gave up on discord and went into his phone contacts.

Normally, they didn’t use their normal phone contact to call, finding discord much easier, and cheaper now that Quackity lived across the country.

They only really used it for emergencies.

Quackity found Karl’s number first, dialing it and held it up to his ear.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up” Quackity pleaded under his breath.

He just wanted to be home.

“Hey Q” Karl’s voice greeted him, a bit of static on the line.

“Karl, Can I please talk with you guys for a while? There’s a thunderstorm here and I’m freaking out, the power and the internet is gone too and I just” Quackity started to ramble before Karl’s static voice interrupted him.

“Quackity? Hallo? I can’t hear you love, you’re breaking up on my end” Karl asked and Quackity wanted to scream.

“Karl? Can you hear me? Please” Quackity shook his phone as if that would help.

“Quackity, sorry but I’m not catching a single word you’re say-“ the connection broke and Quackity’s phone hung up on it’s own.

There was no phone reception.

Quackity tried Sapnap’s number next, but he only got a robotic female voice saying there was no service.

Quackity grabbed the pillow with Sapnap’s jersey on it from his bed and fell back into his mattress. He held the pillow to his chest as he tried to get any form of connection.

He had no doubt that Karl was probably trying to call him back right now, but no calls were popping up on Quackity’s screen.

Another bang rang out from the rain and Quackity jumped.

He wanted his mom. He wanted his boyfriends. He wanted to go home.

Quackity was gonna cry. He was gonna break down and bawl his eyes out if the power didn’t turn on and the thunder wouldn’t stop.

He could feel the tears starting to sting his eyes as he curled up into a ball on the bed.

It knocked on the door.

Quackity lifted his head off the pillow.

It knocked again, in a happy tune.

Quackity got up, putting his pillow down and sniffing before he unlocked his door and opened it up.

Quackity didn’t know if there was an angel looking out for him, but if there were, it was probably a green goopy one.

Cause there Charlie stood, smiling at him on the other side of the door, his face illuminated by the flashlight on his phone. There was still wet snow melting in his hair, and he was leaving wet footprints on the carpet behind him.

“Charlie?” Quackity asked.

“Hello Quackity the law major. Can I come in?” Charlie asked with a bright smile.

“… Sure” Quackity said and opened the door enough for Charlie to come in.

“What are you doing here? We’re supposed to stay in our rooms during power outages” Quackity asked as he closed the door again.

“I know, but something told me I should come here” Charlie said and unzipped his jacket.

“Something? What?” Quackity frowned confused, his hands still shaking.

Charlie just shrugged and hung his jacket next to Quackity’s own.
“I don’t know” Charlie said and looked at Quackity again.

“Are you okay?” He asked with a tilt of his head, his smile turning into a surprised face, like he first now noticed how awful Quackity looked.

That question was enough for Quackity’s tears to start to well up again. He tried hard to force it down, he was not gonna cry in front of Charlie.

But he still shook his head and started to hiccup through breaths as he tried to keep tears at bay.
“I’m not” he admitted.

“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked, concern in his eyes.

Quackity shook his head again.
“I hate thunderstorms” Quackity let the first tears break loose.

He felt bad.

Charlie had been so sweet to come and check on him, and now Quackity was gonna start crying in front of him.

Quackity had never been good at dealing with crying. He didn’t know how to handle when other people cried, and he hated crying himself. It was uncomfortable no matter what. It took a long time for Quackity to be comfortable with crying in front of Sapnap and Karl.

Then two arms strung around him and took him into a hug, Quackity’s face getting buried in Charlie's shoulder. Quackity’s hands moved up, and hugged him back, hiccuping slightly into his shirt.

Charlie stroked his hand over Quackity’s back in comfort. Quackity didn’t know how long Charlie hugged him, but he didn’t let go or pulled away from Quackity. When another thunder boomed, Quackity tightened his grip on Charlie.

"Do you wanna build a pillow fort?” Charlie’s voice broke into the chorus of rain tapping on the window.

"What?” Quackity sniffed.

“Let's make a pillow fort” Charlie smiled and pulled back a bit to look around Quackity’s dorm room.

Quackity has no idea why Charlie thought that a pillow fort would help.

But it did.

Charlie led the way of building it. They dragged Quackity’s duvet down on the floor in front of Quackity’s bed, putting his few pillows and hoodies from Quackity’s closet against the bed to support their backs. Charlie rolled Quackity’s chair to the other side of the duvet.

They threw a blanket over the chair and pulled it to his desk, using Quackity’s heavy law books to keep it from slipping down. Charlie put his phone in the corner of the pillow fort, lighting up their dark little blanket cave.

once inside, sitting with their backs against the maddress. Charlie lifted his arm, giving Quackity a silent invitation.

Quackity took it.

He leaned into Charlie’s side, feeling Charlie putting his arm around him as Quackity rested his head against Charlie’s shoulder. Quackity pulled his legs up to his chest as they heard another thunder and the floor outside their little fort lighting up by the lighting.

“Do you feel better?” Charlie asked.

Quackity sniffed,
“Yeah, it’s better with you here” he muttered.

"That’s good” Charlie smiled, letting them return to the quiet and the rain.

Another thunder rang outside the windows.

"How come you go to so many clubs? Do you even sign up for any of them?” Quackity asked, trying to start a conversation. Anything to get his thoughts off the storm.

Charlie hummed a bit, Quackity was almost able to feel it from his spot next to him.
"People can’t deny others from trying out their clubs, and many of my friends are a year ahead of me, so they don’t have a lot of time to hang out with me” Charlie explained before he smiled down at Quackity.

“But now I have you to hang out with” Charlie said, leaning back to get comfortable.

Quackity smiled up at him.

Quackity should tell him.

Charlie had come to see him, with no reason to, made a pillow fort in an attempt of comforting Quackity.

Quackity knew that he didn’t have to, but he had to admit, Charlie had earned his trust.

And Quackity wanted to take the last step in becoming friends.

“Hey Charlie” Quackity started.

“Yes, Quackity the law major?” Charlie asked.

“I have to tell you something. And I don’t want to make it a big deal” Quackity said, pulling on his sleeve.

“Oh? What is it?” Charlie asked, ever so cheerful.

“You know I’m gay, right?” Quackity asked, feeling Charlie nod next to him.

“Yes? You mentioned your boyfriend” Charlie offered into the conversation.

“Well… I’m also um… poly” Quackity said.
“I have two boyfriends. Not one” he clarified.

“Yeah I know. Sapnap and Karl” Charlie said, as if he had known it since forever.

“How did you…?” Quackity looked back up at him, confusion clear in his face.

“You gave me your social media information, Quackity the law major” Charlie answered.
“I saw pictures of them. You look very happy together” he complimented.

“… are you cool with that?” Quackity then asked.

“Of course. I don’t see what it has to do with me however” Charlie shrugged, moving Quackity slightly with the motion.

"Well, I mean, it doesn’t directly but…” Quackity blushed. For some reason it now seemed silly for being so nervous about telling Charlie.

Another bang of thunder broke out.

“How did you meet?” Charlie asked before Quackity could even flinch. It shook him up a bit, but Quackity powered through it.

"I met Sapnap when I was six, my parents moved into a new house on his street, he asked me to play with him, and we were inseparable ever since. And I met Karl when I was nine, we went to summer camp together” Quackity smiled, starting to go on a ramble, sparing no detail as he told Charlie everything about them.

He told Charlie about how Sapnap and Karl dated first, about how they fell in love, about all the weird and funny memories they had together. About how supportive they were about Harvard.

Quackity would be worried about boring Charlie, if the other didn’t ask so many questions about them too.

It was nice, and Quackity had almost forgotten about the thunder storm raging on outside the dorm building.

And then of course, Quackity’s neighbor had to ruin their moment.

Quackity had grown used to his next door neighbor being loud, especially when she had manly visitors. He had tried to ask her if she could be more quiet, to which she told him to fuck off.

So yeah. His neighbor was a bitch.

“Shit” Quackity cursed under his breath as he heard the first few moans, covering his ears.

Who could even think getting laid in the middle of a power outage was a good idea.

“What is it?” Charlie asked.

“The girl next door” Quackity covered his eyes as the moaning got more clear.
“Who the fuck wants to have sex during a power outage? It’s like the worst time” Quackity mumbled and looked at Charlie.

“I’m sorry you have to listen to that” Quackity apologized, clearly embarrassed about it.

“What? It’s not your fault” Charlie smiled back at him and looked at the wall by Quackity’s bed.

“Does she do it often?” Charlie asked.

“I hear her like five times a week. I tried asking her to keep it down but she just rolled her eyes at me” Quackity said.

“Mhmmm” Charlie hummed in thought and crawled out of their pillow fort.
“Come on” Charlie said and crawled onto Quackity’s bed.

Quackity frowned confused but followed Charlie out of the fort and up next to him on the bed.

“What?” Quackity asked, his cheeks growing red with the girl's moans coming through the thin wall.

“We’ll get her to quiet down” Charlie grinned with what Quackity could only describe as giddy mischief. Quackity was still confused as he watched Charlie cup his hands around his mouth and let out a Tarzan like roar.

The moans stopped for a moment, and Quackity was sure they were just as confused as Quackity was.

Then they heard bed springs creak again and moaning starting up again. Charlie yelled out another Tarzan roar, right up against the wall.

He turned to Quackity with a wide grin.

"Come on” he whispered, as if they didn’t know he and Charlie were on the other side of the wall.

Again, a moment passed before the moaning started again. Charlie didn’t yell this time, tilting his head towards the wall in quiet encouragement for Quackity to do it.

Quackity was still red in the face, but he looked to the wall, took a deep breath before he cupped his hands around his mouth and let out his own yell.

Charlie joined in again.

They kept yelling and roaring like mad men against the wall whenever they heard the girl and her partner trying to carry on. Quackity and Charlie ended up breaking out into laughter when they heard a thud against the wall, like someone hit it.

Quackity knew he was gonna get a noise complaint, but that was the furthest thing from his mind as he leaned against Charlie in a fit of laughter.

It was then, that Quackity realized he had been waiting for someone like Charlie to walk in through the door, but now he saw he came in through the window.

And Quackity couldn’t be more grateful for that.

Chapter Text

“Notice anything different?” Karl asked, posing dramatically and turning his head like he was a model for the web camera.

If that model was a dumbass that is.

Quackity looked a bit more focused at Karl and took in as many details as he could through the screen.
“You got a haircut?” he asked, noticing the missing curls on the sides of Karl's head.

“And colored” Karl said and pointed out the purple stripe waving through the curls by his forehead.

“That looks really cool. How come you got it colored?” Quackity asked, leaning back in his chair to get comfortable.

“There’s a girl in my class who is taking a hairdresser class and asked if she could cut my hair for an assignment” Karl started to explain,
“She said it was for free, but I couldn’t really decide what cut I got. I managed to bargain a coloring into the deal as well” Karl grinned.

“Of course you did” Quackity snorted.

“I wanted him to get neon green” Sapnap said and tried to mess with their boyfriend’s hair, only for Karl to shove a hand into his face.

"Purple is better. I like it” Quackity said and Karl smiled wide at the praise.

"Thank you Q~” Karl blew him a kiss.

"You’re welcome cutie” Quackity winked and leaned back in his chair, pulling a leg up onto the seat and put his arms around it
"So, what do you guys wanna do for valentines day?” Quackity asked.

Quackity knew it before they even said anything. Karl and Sapnap had the same look in their eyes as they had whenever they had to cancel a date. Sharing a look between them in quiet discussion of who was gonna tell him.

"You gotta be kidding me” Quackity was already pouting.

"We’re sorry” Sapnap broke first.
"We’re understaffed at work, and I really need as many shifts as possible,” Sapnap started to apologize.

“And no one at the library can cover me, I have asked everyone” Karl said right after.

Quackity only looked at them with a pout, crossing his arms.
“I'm really gonna have to spend Valentine’s Day alone. Two boyfriends, and I'm gonna be alone on the most romantic day of the year. Unbelievable” Quackity spun around in his chair.

"Sorry babe, and it sucks for us too, we can’t celebrate it with you either” Sapnap as Quackity’s face spun around to look at them again.

“Yeah, but when you get off your shifts you can go and kiss each other and cuddle and talk. It’s not fair” Quackity looked away from the screen.

"Hey now, don’t be sad. Valentine's day is on a Tuesday, right? So how about we just move it and celebrate it on Saturday? and we spend the whole day together, order some food, watch movies, plan our dream wedding?” Karl suggested, trying to cheer quackity up by blowing him a kiss again.

"That sounds like a great idea” Sapnap chimed in, and it was clear he and Karl had talked about that suggestion earlier.
"What do you think, Q?” Sapnap asked.

Quackity sank back into his chair.
“I guess that sounds good. But I’m still gonna pout about it for a bit longer” he said.

“You do that, love” Sapnap chuckled.

…………

You would think after trying out thirty eight different clubs, Quackity would have joined one by now.

But so far, he and Charlie had spent weeks jumping from one club to another, only really frequinting the board games club’s game nights at the library.

Charlie was always the one to find the clubs, and Quackity just tagged along. It was a great arrangement for them.

The cafeteria was buzzing with conversation.

Usually it was at lunch that Charlie would tell Quackity about the new and weird club he had found for them. But Quackity had spent the entire walk from his lecture hall to their table just complaining about Valentine’s Day and how much it was gonna suck.

Charlie had only nodded along and listened to Quackity ramble on about it, before Quackity changed the subject to something more fun.

“So, are we doing anything after classes this week?” Quackity asked before biting into his sandwich.

“Actually I was wondering, Quackity the law major, if you want to hang out on Valentine’s Day?” Slime asked.

Quackity stopped chewing.

Oh god no.

Quackity couldn’t believe this.

He didn’t even think Charlie was into guys.

“Oh um… Charlie I’m really flattered but you know I’m not single. I literally just finished rambling about my boyfriends” Quackity started, feeling awkward embarrassment creep its way into his stomach.

Quackity knew this was one of the annoying things about being out as poly. people would often just assume that meant polyamorous people would just date anyone. Quackity had lost count of all the girls who had tried to worm their way into Sapnap’s pants by asking him out.

Sapnap always said no.

But it was still annoying, and it could be quite troublesome.

“What?” Charlie blinked for a moment.

“Oh! No” Charlie laughed then,
“Sorry. I see what happened” Charlie smiled while shaking his head.

“I meant as friends, a platonic hang out” Charlie said,
“I thought, since your boyfriends are busy, you might want company? But it’s cool if you don’t want to” Charlie explained.

Quackity felt his cheeks heat up even more, embarrassment overtaking him.
Had it been anyone else, Quackity would have run away and hoped to die in a hole.

"Oh, oh yeah, um sure then. Sorry, for a minute my heart stopped” Quackity laughed embarrassed.

"Oh it’s alright, mix up happens Quackity the law major” Charlie only smiled.

Quackity cleared his throat, wanting to leave that moment as far behind in the past as possible.
“So, any ideas for our hang out?” Quackity asked.

“A friend of mine is trying to start up a poker club. You said you played, correct?” Charlie asked.

“I do, a little” Quackity nodded and took another bite of his lunch.

"Great! I will inform my friends” Charlie smiled wide.

…………..

Quackity doesn’t think he had ever stepped foot in the architecture department. Which he found surprising given that Charlie had properly dragged him all over the school grounds for all the clubs they had tried out.

Charlie was leading the way down new hallways, blueprints and building models put on display in a few sections of the hall, almost like a kindergarten showing off drawings.

Quackity was excited to meet Charlie’s friends. He didn’t know a lot about them, Charlie would only refer to them as a group, never as any individual or by name.

Quackity wondered if they were gonna be just as wild and odd as Charlie, referring to him by his major just like Charlie did.

“Here we are” Charlie stopped up and pushed one of the classroom doors open. The lights were on inside. There were already three other people in there. Pushing tables together and moving chairs.

Quackity spotted a familiar face first, making eye contact with Foolish and seeing the man smile wide as he spotted them in the door and put a chair down.

“Hey guys” Foolish gave a wave.

Charlie skipped up to the table and sat down next to a ginger guy trying to stack the cards in a tower with careful hands.
“Hallo Foolish the architectural major” Charlie greeted the tall guy, startling the ginger next to him and causing the cards to fall into a pile on the table.

“Charlie, don’t tell into my ear Jesus” the guy said as he started to gather the cards into a pile.

“Sorry, Fundy the programming major” Charlie said.

Foolish shook his head at them, seeing Quackity step up and sit down on the other side of Charlie. Foolish smiled to him,
“It’s nice to see you again, bathroom buddy”.

Quackity blushed slightly at the mention of the bathroom incident, but he could see on Foolish’s face it was all in good fun.

“Yeah, you too. Thanks for the help by the way” Quackity thanked him again.

“Oh don’t mention it, we all have moments where we need help” Foolish said and sat down on the other side of the table.

“Alright people” a new voice spoke up and Quackity looked towards the last person in the room. A well built guy that looked taller than Quackity but still a head shorter than Foolish, stood in front of the last seat at the table, looking over a piece of paper.

“Welcome to another meeting of the unofficial poker club, we are joined by a new visitor today” the guy looked up from the paper and made eye contact with Quackity.
"And we’d like to welcome you, I'm Sam, founder of the poker club. This is Foolish, and Fundy” Sam moved his hand to refer to Foolish and Fundy, the latter giving a small wave.

"Hi” Quackity said, feeling a bit shy from the sudden attention.
"I’m Quackity” he introduced himself.

"Yo” Fundy nodded to him in greeting.

"We hope you have a good time” Sam said and sat down in his seat.

"Now, Charlie, if you would be so kind and shuffle the cards for us” Sam asked with a smile. Fundy pushed the cards over towards Charlie.

“Of course Sam the architecture major” Charlie smiled as he started to shuffle the card, his hands moving fast and flawless as he shuffled and mixed the cards

In the meantime, Quackity watched Sam pull out what looked to be a bag of toothpicks and started to divide them among the players around the table.

“What are those for?” Quackity asked.

“These will be our chips. We don’t play for money, it discourages others from joining our club” Sam explained and Quackity nodded along as Charlie started to scatter the cards out among them

"Oh, that’s smart” Quackity complimented Sam as he picked up his cards. Sam smiled slightly at that, feeling proud. Foolish noticed and smiled fondly at Sam.

Charlie placed five cards out on the table, turning three of them over to show the rest of the table. Fundy and Foolish both threw in five toothpicks into the pool.
Sam threw in five as well, Charlie doing the same.

Quackity picked up five toothpicks as well and threw in.

Quackity tried his best to follow the game. But it had been a long time since he last played poker. And even back then Quackity had a hard time understanding the rules.

He watched as the people around the table folded or raised their bets. He folded and raised his own bets at random. He was unsure of his own cards, a six of hearts and eight of diamonds.

He knew that winning was all about playing his cards right, but he didn’t know if he was even doing that.

“Quackity?” Foolish’s voice broke him out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” Quackity blinked.

“Do you wanna fold or raise?” Foolish asked, moving his hand to refer to the table.
“You’ve been staring at your cards for a while” he noted.

“Oh, um” Quackity glanced down at his cards again.
“I just, I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really think I remember the rules” Quackity blushed.

“Would you like them explained?” Sam asked.

“No, no, I just need a minute” Quackity said and looked at his cards and his stack of toothpicks.

Fundy shot him a soft glare, unable to tell if Quackity was lying or telling the truth to throw them off.

Quackity looked at his stack of toothpicks.

He wasn’t betting money, so he might as well just raise and hope for the best.
“I raise with five” Quackity said and threw in the toothpicks. Quackity caught Fundy’s eyes again, the other studying him like a book.

Quackity just offered a bit too wide smile.

As the game continued, Quackity did not figure out how to play his cards. But what he did figure out was how to play the people at the table.

And he was fucking good at it.

He got an absolute kick out of it.

Raising and folding as he pleased, watching Fundy and Foolish try so desperately to read his poker face.

"You’re bluffing” Foolish stated for the sixth time since Quackity raised his bet again. Quackity just stared him dead in the eyes, fighting a smile or a frown. Just enjoying the way frustration grew around the table.

Quackity lost a lot of toothpicks throughout each game, but he won some back the few times he was lucky. Quackity had no idea how long they had been playing for, but by the end of it, the toothpicks had run out.

"Well, this sure has been eventful” Foolish smiled as Fundy threw his cards onto the table.
"Bro, I had such a good hand! I shouldn’t have folded” Fundy covered his eyes.

Quackity took a picture of his own cards, a six and a nine.
"Sucks to suck” Quackity chuckled.

"I hope you had a good time, Quackity the law major” Charlie smiled as he started to scramble the cards together to collect them.

"Oh I had a blast” Quackity leaned back in his seat.
"I have no idea how to win, but god it’s fun to annoy you guys” Quackity snickered.

"Really? Your poker face was so convincing. I could not read you at all” Foolish complimented him.

"Where did you learn to mask it so well?” Fundy asked.

"I have a boyfriend and two friends who love football” Quackity shrugged.
"I have no idea how to play that either” Quackity said.

"Well, would you be interested in joining us again another time?” Sam asked as Charlie handed him the now neatly put together stack of cards.

"Yeah, I'd love to. Maybe I could join the club too?” Quackity asked.

Sam smiled wider, somehow not expecting that.
"Of course. We always welcome new members” Sam said and pulled out a piece of paper to write Quackity’s name down.

“Great, now that we are five members, I can officially sign us up as a club” Sam smiled.

"Are they even gonna let us do the club?” Fundy asked
"Gambling is like illegal, that's why we didn’t get to make the club last semester” Fundy said

"A poker club in these conditions isn’t classified as gambling” Quackity spoke up again.

"Huh?” Fundy turned to look at him.

“Oh um, a game needs to meet three requirements to be classified as gambling. There has to be a prize, chance and consideration” Quackity counted the three things off on his fingers.

"There's no money involved, we bet with toothpicks. And we don’t have to pay in order to play, so already there, this isn’t considered gambling” Quackity explained and looked up to see them all blink and stare.

"Why do you know so much about gambling?” Sam asked.

"I don’t, I just know a lot about gambling laws” Quackity rubbed his neck,
"Law major, so” Quackity shrugged.

Sam and Foolish looked at each other before turning to Quackity again.
“Would you mind helping us make this an official club?” Sam asked then.

“Last time we tried, they heard the word poker and immediately said no” Foolish added.

“Sure. It shouldn’t be too hard” Quackity said.

"Great, Now we just need a name” Sam hummed, looking over the paper again.

“Las Nevadas” Quackity blurted out almost immediately.

"Like the state?” Fundy frowned.
"Why?” he asked.

“Um, we’re a poker club, poker is traditionally a gambling game, and gambling is often associated with Las Vegas and Las Vegas is in Nevada…” Quackity blushed slightly as he explained his idea.

“It’s dumb, nevermind “ he shook his head.

“Nono, I like it” Sam smiled.

“Yeah, it sounds original too” Foolish agreed as Sam wrote it down.

"Alright, I say we will talk further about the details and send in a request to the office at the next meeting” Sam said as he pulled out his phone to check the time.

"Meeting adjourned” Sam said.

They all helped put the tables back into their right spot, putting the chairs up and Sam turned off the lights.

As always, Charlie insisted on walking Quackity back to his dorm room. He took the liberty of actually explaining the rules of poker, using examples from their games. By the entrance to the building, Quackity caught sight of the bulletin board covered in pieces of papers and posters for events or clubs, seeing a flier for the debate club.

Quackity slowed down in his step as he tried to read the big words on the flier.

‘Learn new skills, gain knowledge, join the debate club today’

“Quackity the law major? Are you listening?” Charlie asked, following Quackity’s gaze to the bullion board.

"Oh, yeah. I just got distracted” Quackity apologized as he turned to open the door and held it open for Charlie as they walked out into the cool night air.

"Oh? by what?” Charlie asked, his curiosity being peeked.

"Oh just a flier” Quackity said and itched his nose.

"Oh the drama club one? that flier is so funny with the cloud letters” Charlie said, a jump in his step as the door swung closed behind them and they walked down the stairs.

"Um, no. I'm not really into drama” Quackity said as they started walking down the trail.

"Oh, okay” Charlie said, still smiling as they walked.

Quackity chewed a bit on the inside of his cheek,
“I’ve actually been thinking about trying out the debate club” Quackity admitted.
“I know it’s not like, crazy or anything, but do you wanna try it out with me?” Quackity asked.

“Of course, Quackity the law major. But I should mention I am not very well versed in laws” Charlie smiled.

Quackity chuckled and bumped to Charlie’s shoulder.

“You don’t need to know law” Quackity shook his head.
“You just have to have an opinion on a topic and defend it basically” Quackity explained to him.

Quackity watched as Charlie kicked a stone, sending it flying and hitting a trash can with a bang.

"You don’t have to go with me, if you don’t wanna” Quackity said. He knew not everyone was into debating controversial and topical issues as a club activity. Politics are not meant to be fun after all.

He knew Sapnap and Karl weren’t much interested in debating. Sapnap always felt like they were fighting and it upset him greatly. Karl just held very basic views, and agreed with anything Quackity said.

"I just really like doing clubs with you” Quackity blushed, seeing his dorm building coming closer as they crossed the grassy field.
"It’s just so much more fun with you” Quackity looked to Charlie, his friend smiling wide.

“Quackity the law major” Charlie said after a quiet moment,
“Would you like to join the debate club?” Charlie asked

“Will you be there?” Quackity asked back even if he already knew the answer.

“Yes” Charlie smiled.

"Then of course I will” Quackity laughed and held his hand out for Charlie dap. Charlie grinned wide and smacked his hand into Quackity’s. They were still getting the hang of the flow of their handshakes, but Quackity truly felt he was getting the hang of it, as they smacked the backs of their hands together.

Charlie made a big show of the fist bump exploding, making explosion noises and everything to make Quackity laugh.

Quackity waved Charlie off before he walked into his dorm building. He could hear the other students laughing in the common room as Quackity started to ascend the stairs up to the top floor.

But stopped as soon as he reached the top floor and turned the corner.

Quackity blinked, in front of his door stood a big bouquet of big headed red roses standing up tall in a black plastic bucket. A heart shaped card was placed on its side right in front of the bouquet.

Quackity walked over and picked up the card, it had two teddy bears pictured on it, one hugging and kissing the other.
Quackity opened the card and read it

"To our beloved Quackity,

Our love for you cannot be weakened,
No matter how long or how far we are apart.
Our hearts waits patiently and holds all our love for you tenderly.
We relive those wonderful moments, each kiss, each embrace,
As we await your return in hope for our future together.

Yours forever, Sapnap and Karl.
XOXO”

Quackity couldn’t help the smile on his face and he hugged the card to his chest. Of course Sapnap and Karl would send him flowers and a cheesy poem.

Quackity smiled and pulled out his keys and unlocked the door before he picked up the bucket of flowers. He wondered how long they had been out here or how Sapnap and Karle even got them here for him. He was even more surprised no one had stolen them.

He closed his door with his foot, walking over and placing the bucket on his desk. He admired the big headed roses one more time, wishing he had a decent vase to actually put them in.

Maybe he can find a cheap one or borrow one from Charlie? Charlie seemed like the kind of guy to have a random vase lying around.

Quackity pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the flowers before opening up discord and sat down on his bed.

Beloved Fiancés

Duckyboi : hey, look what I just came home to <3
Duckyboi : thank you so much <3<3<3
(Today at 21:38 pm)

Firefly : we hope you love it
(Today at 21:40 pm)

Duckyboi : I do, thank you <3
(Today at 21:41 pm)

Karlos : happy valentines day! <3<3<3<3
(Today at 21:42 pm)

Duckyboi : Happy valentines :] <3<3<3
(Today at 21:43 pm)

Quackity smiled wide at his phone.

He should get Sapnap and Karl something sweet too.

He swiped out of their chat and clicked on Geroge’s icon and started to type.

……….

Quackity doesn’t think he's ever been in the lecture hall after class hours before, and he was honestly surprised so many people were in the debate club.

Charlie sat next to him, taking the plain walls and the stair-like seats, almost like he had never seen a lecture hall before.

The room was filled with conversation, waiting for the clock to strike seven and the club meeting would begin.

And for the first time Quackity had someone to talk to while waiting.

Quackity was loving the change his life had taken.

Quackity had been talking non stop about Sapnap and Karl’s valentines day surprise, Charlie listening happily just to see Quackity smile.

"And yeah Sapnap really liked the chocolate box I got him, but I just hope Karl did too. I made sure to tell George to get Karl something that was more like a fudge box, cause Karl likes that more, but I just don’t know” Quackity rambled as he looked from the other people in the room to Charlie.

Quackity drummed his hands over the table as he looked around the room again and then froze. At one of the desks on the other side of the classroom, sat a brunette with glasses, meeting Quackity’s eyes.

It was the guy from the party.

The same guy Quackity had run away from out of embarrassment.

The guy gave him a smile and lifted his hand to offer a wave.
Quackity saw him get up from his seat.

"Oh fuck” Quackity blushed madly and started to scamble for his backpack and held it up to hide behind.

"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck” Quackity started to curse and Charlie looked towards him.

"What’s wrong Quackity the law major?” Charlie asked with a tilt of his head

"I forgot he ran the debate club” Quackity said, trying to make himself as small as possible.

"Who?” Charlie blinked.

“The guy with the glasses” Quackity whispered through his teeth.

"Oh” Charlie said as a shadow fell over Quackity’s backpack.
“Quackity the law major, your friend is here” Charlie smiled.

Quackity looked up from his hunched over position, completely flustered.

"Well hello again” the guy smiled at him with a chuckle, and Quackity felt embarrassment already floating up into his cheeks.

"Hey” Quackity forced a smile, sitting up right again.

The guy moved a hand up to rub at the back of his neck.
"Hey um, I want to apologize” the guy started, his own cheeks getting a bit pink.

"I shouldn’t have just come up to you and asked…” the guy stopped himself, blushing more.
"Like ‘that’ and I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable” he apologized.

"Oh, no it’s okay, I was literally sending you the wrong signals” Quackity pulled a bit on his sleeve, chuckling slightly as he pushed his backpack out of the way again.

"Still. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, and welcome you to the debate club” the guy said and then held his hand out to Quackity.
"Wilbur Soot” he smiled.

Quackity smiled back up at him, and took his hand hesitantly but shook it anyway.
“Quackity HQ”.

Chapter Text

Quackity really hoped his second college party would go better than his first.

It did not.

It all started out fine.

He had been invited to a chill hangout by Sam. Apparently Sam's boyfriend was having a movie night at his apartment across town. It was just gonna be a small party, a small get together, what could go wrong?

So that's how Quackity found himself in the hallway of a stranger’s apartment. Struggling to get his jacket off with five other people trying to do the same.

"Can I feed the fishies?” Charlie asked Sam loudly, already running out of the hallway to give the others space. With more space, Quackity kicked his shoes off and placed them neatly by the wall where the coats hung.

He walked out of the hallway, leaving Fundy to struggle with his shoelaces. It was a small first floor apartment. Quackity had a clear view over the living room, a big cream couch standing in the middle of it and taking up most of the space.

There were a few people already here. Quackity could see through a glassdoor some people were smoking outside in a small garden.

"Sure Slime, but don’t drop the lid this time” a stranger's voice spoke up and Quackity looked over and into a small kitchen to see Sam kiss a short tan guy with bleached hair.

"Hey Ponky” Sam smiled as he pulled back.
"I better check Charlie isn’t over feeding the fishes again” Sam said and the guy let go of him.

"I’ll drop the snacks on the counter” Foolish said and walked past Quackity and dropped some bags of chips they had picked up on the small kitchen island.

"Ay, you ain’t getting out of kissing me, get back here” the guy grabbed Foolish by the neck of his shirt and pulled Foolish practically half way down and kissed him.

Quackity felt a bit flustered to just stand there and intrude on them like that. And at the same time, he felt like he couldn’t look away. He had just seen that guy kiss Sam, and now he was practically about to french kiss Foolish right after.

"Better now?” Foolish chuckled as he pulled back from the kiss.

“Very~” the guy grinned as he let go of the tall man he just kissed.

Foolish smiled down at the guy before he noticed Quackity looking at them.
“Oh, Quackity, this is Ponk, my boyfriend. Ponk, this is Quackity, the new member of the poker club” Foolish introduced them as he grabbed a bowl from a cabinet and started to pour bags of chips into it.

“Oh, the guy that doesn’t know how to play and still beat your asses?” Ponk teased.

“… Yes” Foolish blushed slightly as he tried to mix the chips and carried it out into the living room.

“Nice to meet you dude” Ponk said and opened the fridge to grab a green ceramic plate with brownies on it.

“Nice to meet you too” Quackity said on autopilot, still not sure what exactly he had just discovered.

“Wait, you’re dating both Sam and Foolish?” Quackity asked as soon as it finally seemed to hit him.
“And they’re dating each other too?” Quackity looked over at Sam chatting with Foolish by the couch.

“Yeah, we’re poly. Got a problem with that?” Ponk asked, an edge to his voice and a sharp glare in his eyes as he closed the fridge door.

“Huh? Oh no” Quackity said quickly while shaking his head.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to say it like that, let me start over. I’m poly too, I’m just kinda surprised” Quackity shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ve never met anyone else whose poly” Quackity blushed slightly with embarrassment.

“Oh” Ponk‘s mood lighten just as quickly as it had soured.
“Boyfriend or girlfriend? or are you between partners?” He then asked.

“Two boyfriends, they’re back home in California though” Quackity said with a smile.

“Oh cool, you got pics?” Ponk asked and put down the plate of brownies.

“You wanna see a picture?” Quackity asked surprised.

“Of course, you’ve seen my hunks of meat, now show me yours” Ponk chuckled as he leaned back against the counter.

Quackity couldn’t have fought back the smile on his face even if he wanted to.
“Okay sure” he said and pulled out his phone. He went onto his Instagram and chose a photo to show.

The graduation photo was a really good one.

It had been taken on the football field by the bleachers. Sapnap was lifting Quackity off the ground, Karl having his arms swung around them to stop them from falling. They were wearing their black robes, high school diplomas in their hands.

All of them were laughing, so happy to be in that moment.

Quackity turned his phone around to show Ponk.

He whistled and smiled,
“You’ve got a type for tall guys I see” he chuckled.

Quackity chuckled along and blushed even further.
“I like my boys tall and dumb” he joked with a shrug.

“What are they studying?” Ponk asked.

“Karl is at art school, and Sapnap wants to be a programmer” Quackity said and pointed at the screen when he said their names.

“Doesn’t sound like they’re dumb if I’m honest” Ponk chuckled.

“They’re not dumb like ‘two plus two is five’. they’re dumb as in, they’d send me expensive legosets if I’m mad at them dumb” Quackity tried to explain.

“Ah, so they’re cute dumb” Ponk smiled and looked to Foolish,
“I see the appeal in that”.

"How did you meet?” Ponk then asked.

"Oh me and Sapnap met when we were like six years old. We live a few houses from each other. Karl and I went to summer camp together when we were nine. Then Karl started in our school, and the rest is history” Quackity smiled.

"Awww childhood sweethearts, that's so sweet” Ponk said and then turned to yell over his shoulder,
"Sam! why aren’t we childhood sweethearts? that cute as fuck” Ponk asked.

"We lived in different states as kids, Ponky” Sam answered from across the apartment.

"Oh yeah” Ponk shrugged.

"How did you, Foolish and Sam meet?” Quackity asked.

"Oh funny story” Ponk said and held up his left hand, showing him a black metallic prosthetic hand.
"I was in a car crash with Sam when I was sixteen. Something broke in Sam's car, making him lose control and then he ran me off the road” Ponk started, laughing at the way Quackity paled slightly.

"He felt so guilty, he tried everything to make it up to me. We ended up hanging out a lot and then I asked him out. Then last year, me and Sam were on a break, because college is hard and we agreed to pick it up again once we got settled into it. But then Sam met Foolish, and I thought Foolish was cute, and yada yada. We hooked up and we’ve been a poly couple ever since” Ponk shrugged as he rushed through the rest of the story.

"Okay wow. I did not expect that” Quackity admitted, and Ponk laughed.

"I love telling people that story, sorry” Ponk smiled and grabbed a soda.
“It’s hilarious how uncomfortable people get at the whole ‘arm thing” he said as he cracked it open.

“Yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean to stare either” Quackity said.

“It’s cool. Again, I find it funny” Ponk took a sip.

Then they heard a splash and Sam’s voice call.
“Ponk, can you grab a towel? Charlie dropped the fish food again”.

Ponk sighed and grabbed the kitchen towel.
“Anyway, enjoy the party, and take whatever you’d like, we have plenty of snacks” Ponk smiled before disappearing out of the kitchen.

“Thanks, and I will” Quackity said and turned to look at the snacks on the table. A few cans of soda had been put out on the small kitchen island, the opened bags of chips was still laying abandoned from when Foolish made the chips bowl.

And then of course the brownies.

That stood right in front of him in all their glory.

Quackity looked down at the plate of brownies, smiling as he grabbed one off the green plate in front of him.

Biting into the chocolate treat, Quackity thought it had a bit of a weird aftertaste, but he didn’t think too much of it. Quackity didn't really like walnuts, so maybe that was the difference. Quackity looked over to look through the drinks for a soda before going to join the rest of the party, taking another bite of his brownie, practically half way done with it already.

“Hey Quackity” Sam’s voice drew his attention. But when he turned to look at Sam holding a now wet towel. He was greeted with a smile a bit too wide for Quackity’s comfort.

“Just a quick question. You’re not on any medication, right?” Sam asked, glancing down at the brownie in Quackity’s hand quickly.

Quackity frowned as he looked at Sam concerned.
“That is a very personal question, um” Quackity shifted a bit on his feet.

“I know, but it’s important,” Sam apologized.

“I’m not on anything like, regularly. I do have some medication against anxiety” Quackity said.

“When’s the last time you took one of those?” Sam asked further.

“Why are you asking me this?” Quackity asked, feeling uncomfortable about being asked about his very private medical history.

“I’ll tell you in a moment” Sam promised, putting the wet towel down.

Quackity sighed.
“Like a week ago I think? I don’t take them often. Why do you ask?”

“Okay so, Quackity” Sam claps his hands together.
“Have you ever been high before?” he asked.

It went quiet between them for a moment, Quackity and Sam just staring at each other.

"Sam. Why are you asking me all this?” Quackity asked again very slowly. He looked down at the brownie in his hand.
"Oh my fucking god, is there pot in this?” Quackity started to panic.

"Yes, I should have told you that there's edibles before we came here” Sam said, trying to keep Quackity calm.

"Sam, what do I do? Sam, I'm freaking out” Quackity put the half eaten brownie down.

"Okay, relax. Just take a deep breath” Sam said and took Quackity’s hands in his own.
"Do you have an intolerance to marijuana?” Sam asked.

"No, I don’t think so” Quackity said, trying not to panic.

"Okay good. Then there's nothing to worry about. No one has ever died from eating a pot brownie” Sam reassured him.
"Lets just relax, sit on the couch, watch some cartoons?” Sam suggested as he started leading Quackity towards the couch.

“Okay. Yeah, I can do that” Quackity said and sat down. The tv was already on, showing off Cartoon Network at a low volume. Sam grabbed the remote and turned it up a bit.

“I’m gonna go tell Ponk and Foolish what happened, okay?. If you need anything, just call or ask someone to get me. Alright?” Sam asked.

Quackity just nodded and took a deep breath.
“Yeah, call or ask for you. I got it” he said. Sam nodded and left to find his boyfriends.

Quackity tried his best to actually relax, but his entire body felt stiff as he watched an old Ed, Edd and Eddy episode.

All he could think about was all the times his mom had said to never do drugs, about his uncles who once got caught with it and almost ruined their futures, and about all the documentaries about drugs and discrimination.

Quackity took a shaking breath.
“Everything is cool. It’s just an edible, no one dies from that” Quackity repeated Sam's words.
“Nothing is gonna happen, if I just watch the tv and sit still. It’ll pass” he said and leaned back into the couch.

Quackity doesn’t know a whole lot about weed, and he’s not quite sure if when or how the high was gonna hit him.

But as one cartoon episode ended and another started, Quackity found his body had gone completely soft, head resting against the top of the cushions as he laughed at the dumb kids jokes.

His mouth felt dry, like he had swallowed a whole bag of cotton, but he just couldn’t get himself to stand up.

He could sense there were other people in the room, but he was unable to register anything going on outside his little bubble.

“Hey Big Q”.

Quackity tilted his head to the left and looked up at Fundy leaning over the back of the couch.

“How are you doing?” He asked.

“I don’t know” Quackity said slowly and blinked.
“I’m watching cartoons” Quackity giggled slightly.

“Yeah? I see that” Fundy chuckled.
“Sam said you accidentally ate a pot brownie. How do you feel?” Fundy asked.

“Pretty good” Quackity nodded.
“I feel pretty good actually. I was scared before, but I feel so good right now. And hungry” Quackity noted.

“Yeah? That’s good” Fundy nodded along with him.

“Yeah, it is” Quackity chuckled and sank further into the couch pillows.
“This couch is so comfortable, and everything feels so… significant” Quackity tried to explain, rubbing his hands over the fabric of the couch.

“Okay yeah, you are definitely high” Fundy said.
“Do you want a soda?” He offered.

“Yeah. I’d like that” Quackity said.

“Cool, which kind?” Fundy asked and stood up straight.

Quackity blinked a bit.
“Purple” Quackity answered as he stopped moving his hands.

“I’ll see if they have that” Fundy said, trying not to laugh at how high Quackity had clearly gotten.

And just as Fundy had entered Quackity’s field of existence, he had left it. Quackity didn’t think he had a grasp of time anymore, the only thing that held any meaning for him right now was the cartoons on the tv.

At some point a soda appeared in his hand.

He giggled slightly as he opened it and felt the bubbles on his tongue pop like small explosions. He turned his attention back to the tv to see a new show had started.

At some point, the soda was not enough anymore.

Quackity was getting the munchies, and they could not be satisfied by grape soda alone.

Quackity managed to stand up and waddle his way back into the kitchen. He knew there were other people around him, but if they weren’t in his field of vision he honestly didn’t care. He stumbled over to the counter, soda and bowls of chips standing out for everyone to take from.

But in Quackity’s quest for something to clench his munchies, he found the plate of brownies again. Getting charmed by the fudgy edges and enchanted by how chewy it looked.

He grabbed a piece and started to eat it, savoring the sweet taste in his mouth. He could practically imagine the chocolate melting on his tongue.

God these brownies were good.

But not as good as Bad’s brownies.

Quackity should give Bad a call, ask if he could bake some brownies for him. And Quackity would definitely eat the whole tray on his own.

“Quackity, what are you eating?” Sam asked from next to him. Quackity looked up at him and then at his hand holding the brownie.

“Brownie cake” Quackity giggled slightly.

“Oh dear” Sam sighed and pulled the green plate of brownies over the counter and away from Quackity.

“Remember Big Q, green brownies are the pot brownies” Sam reminded him.

“Oooohhh” Quackity nodded and looked at the cake piece in his hand again before taking another bite.

“Quackity” Sam said with a chuckle and a sigh.

“I’m hungry” Quackity whined through a mouth full of chocolate goods before stuffing the last of it into his mouth.

“Okay. Q, what’s your favorite chips?” Sam then asked and Quackity had to stop for a moment, feeling like a computer trying to process a lag in his brain.

“Uuuhhh cheese puffs” Quackity then answered.

“Good” Sam gave him a nod and turned around, opening one of the cabinets and Quackity’s eyes slowly started to travel from Sam’s shoulders and towards the small lemon tree on Ponk’s floor by the kitchen counter.

“Here you go” Sam then said as he dropped an orange chips bag in Quackity’s hands, opened them for him and smiled.
“These are much better right now, trust me” Sam smiled to him.

Quackity nodded again,
“Thank you Sam” he said and went to go find his next entertaining view. Quackity stuffed three cheese puffs into his mouth at a time, the cheesy flavor soon overpowering the chocolate.

He stumbled through the living room and soon found himself staring into an aquarium in the corner, watching a tiny chest open and close to blow out bubbles. Quackity giggled as he saw a fish swim through the bubbles. There was a tiny blue fish and two larger goldfish in the tank, and a fourth, but that one was creepy. It kept sucking against the glass of the aquarium and Quackity preferred the other fish over that one.

Quackity sat down on the floor right in front of the aquarium, the cheese puff bag planted in his lap as he stared at the fishes. He tried to offer one of the cheese puffs to one of the goldfish, but it seemed uninterested.

Quackity had no idea how long watched the chest open and close for, but it was still as amusing as the first time.

“Hey Quackity the law major” Charlie’s voice suddenly came from next to him.
Quackity turned to look up at him with a smile, seeing Charlie sitting next to him with the same goofy smile Quackity had grown to love.
“Charlie, hey man” he giggled.

Charlie looked at the the aquarium in front of them,
“What show are you watching?” He asked.

“Fish family. The blue fish is the baby, and the two bigger fishes are the parents, but I think one of them cheated, cause why is the baby blue then?” Quackity pointed at the fishes before eating more of the cheese puffs.

“Ooooh you got a point” Charlie nodded and squinted his eyes.
“Maybe he’s adopted?” Charlie chuckled.

“Hey Ponk, is your blue fish adopted?” Charlie turned his head and called across the room to where Ponk was sitting, apparently watching them from the couch.

“They’re all adopted, Slime” Ponk said and took a sip of his soda.

“Oh my god, they’re found family” Quackity gasped as he turned to Charlie again.

The next that ensued were the world's worst voice acting, as Charlie and Quackity made their own little dramatic tale of the little fish family. They lost the plot line multiple times, going from an affair, a police chase, a day care and then now the fishes were in a disco.

Quackity was pretty convinced that his bag of chips were endless, cause whenever he thought he was about to reach the bottom of the bag, there would just be a new bag in his hands.

He didn’t really realize he had run out of cheese puffs long ago and was chewing down barbecue chips now.

“Charlie” Quackity whined suddenly to break the scene.
“I feel hot” he started to mess with his sweatshirt.

“Can we go outside?” Quackity asked as the bag of chips fell off his lap.

"Sure thing, Quackity the law major” Charlie smiled and got up, offering Quackity his hand, Quackity grabbing it and getting up on his feet.

Charlie opened the glass door to the small garden. There was a small bricked terrace right outside the door, a few weeds poking out from the cracks. There was a small old table and three folding chairs filling up the entire space.

But Quackity completely ignored the free seats and walked out onto the grass and sat down, feeling so much better out in the cool March air. The snow had long since melted, but it was still nowhere near warm enough to be outside without a jacket.

Quackity folded his arms around himself, hiding his hands in his sweater sleeves. Charlie sat down next to him, moving a blanket over their shoulders so they could huddle together for warmth.

“Hey Charlie?” Quackity asked.
“Why did you choose to be an athletics major? What can you use a degree like that for?” Quackity asked genuinely.

“I don’t know,” Charlie shrugged.

“Then why choose it?” Quackity asked again.

“I really like excitement,” Charlie smiled.
"If it was possible, I would want to be launched at high speed and just move like a parkour missile over rooftops” Charlie said, shooting his hand out like he was making karate moves.

"You’re so weird, Charlie” Quackity giggled, falling sideways and further into Charlie's personal space.
"And I fucking love you for it” he leaned back against Charlies chest, he moved Charlies arms in front of him so he could mess with them, running his own hands up and down Charlie’s arms and comparing their hand sizes.

“Would you still be my friend if I was a ball of slime?” Charlie asked, letting Quackity’s hands roam his own.

“Bro, yes. I would get you a little enclosure to make sure you were safe, and I’d feed you all the cheese puffs. And when we go out, you could sit on my shoulder” Quackity nodded, his hands moving up and down Charlie’s forearms and over his wrists.

“What if I was radioactive?” Charlie asked, letting Quackity do as he pleased.

“If you were a radioactive slime, you should take over the world. I’d get some fancy gloves so we can still dap each other up, and we’d have so much fun” Quackity giggled.

“Quackity the law major. I would take over the world for you” Charlie then said.

“Bro, that’s like the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me” Quackity giggled again, sounding touched by Charlie's words. He relaxed back against Charlie’s chest and smiled,
“But I have to share it with Sapnap and Karl, we’re engaged” Quackity said and waved his hand to show off a ring he didn’t have.

“Oh congratulations! Can I be your best man?” Charlie smiled wide.

“Bitch you better” Quackity giggled.
"You’re my best friend, Charlie” he tilted his head back and tried to look back at Charlie.

"I am?” Charlie asked surprised.

“Yeah, you didn’t know?” Quackity asked, blinking up at him.

“I’ve never been a best friend before. Am I good at it?” Charlie tilted his head slightly.

“You’re amazing at it” Quackity clapped Charlie’s hands.

Charlie's hands then moved and trapped Quackity in a hug.
"You’re my best friend too, Quackity the law major” Charlie said against his back, feeling Quackity hug him back.

"Yoooo, that’s awesome!” Quackity cheered.
"We are the best friends that has ever existed” Quackity laughed, making Charlie laugh along with him.

"I will do anything for you” Quackity wiggled in Charlie's arms so he could look at him again.

"I’d do anything for you too” Charlie said, sounding a bit more serious than Quackity.

"Cool, just don’t kill anyone, cause I can't hide a body. I'd be too grossed out to touch it. But I can defend you in court” Quackity said, looking up at the sky again.

“Alright, I will avoid committing homicide,” Charlie said and looked up at the stars as well, moving the blanket around them a little tighter to keep warm.

They spend a good while pointing out star constellations, giving them new names and making up their own origins for them. Their favorite star constellation was the hotdog.

All until Charlie had to get up.

“Quackity the law major. I am going to the bathroom. I will be back in a moment” Charlie said and tried to get up, Quackity leaning forward to let him. Charlie smiled as he got up and put the blanket securely around Quackity again, before he went to the glass door, leaving Quackity to stare at the stars alone.

Quackity laid back down on the grass looking up at the moon.

Then he felt something vibrate in his jean pocket.

Moving his hands to clap over his legs he found his phone, holding it up over his face to see a notification from Sapnap.

Firefly : Hey Babe, hope your party is going well, love you <3
(Today at 20:38 am)

That’s when Quackity got the best idea in the whole world.

Quackity should call them.

He smiled like an idiot as he opened his phone contact list and found Sapnap’s number at the top.

“Boop” Quackity giggled as he clicked it and held it up to his ear as he heard the phone dial.

“Hey Quackity” Sapnap’s voice greeted him.

“Hey Sappy Nappy~” Quackity smiled wide.
“I was just thinking about your butt” Quackity’s voice came out through a giggle.

“Oh yeah? Well now I’m thinking about yours” Sapnap flirted back.
“How’s the party?”.

“It’s so good, oh my god I’m having so much fun” Quackity said and held his free arm up and waved it over the night sky.

“Are you drunk?” Sapnap asked.

“Nope” Quackity popped the P.
“Where is Karl?” Quackity then asked.

“Bathroom, we were looking for a movie to watch and just chill in my dorm room- oh there he is” Sapnap said, and Quackity could hear two far away voices.

“Hey Quackity, I’m putting you on speaker okay?” Sapnap said and clicked a button.

“Hey Babe~ how is my favorite Harvard student doing?” Karl’s voice then asked.

Quackity giggled at being called his favorite,
“I feel amazing” Quackity dragged out the last word.

There was a short pause on the line.

“Quackity, are you high?” Karl then asked.

“Am I what?”

“High?”

Quackity stared down at his phone for a moment before smiling wide.
“Hi!”

Sapnap could be heard laughing on the other end of the line.

“Quackity, love. Can you send us a picture of yourself?” Karl asked, a smile in his voice.

“Why?” Quackity then asked.

“We just really want to see your cute face, that’s all” Karl said.

“Oh okay” Quackity said and then started to slowly tap on his screen as he tried to find his camera. The tapping could be heard on the other end of the line, Karl and Sapnap having to physically strain themselves from laughing.

“Karl, do you know where my camera is?” Quackity then asked and Sapnap had to bury his head in one of the pillows to drown the laugh.

“No, Babe. Sorry” Karl said as he watched the screen, biting his own knuckle to stop the bubbling laugh in his throat.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh” they heard Quackity, they could almost picture their boyfriend like a computer rebooting all programs.

“There it is! I found it, Karl” Quackity said proudly.

“That’s nice honey, very proud of you” Karl said and watched Sapnap sit up with the pillow and holding it close in case it had to strangle another laugh.

A minute passed and then a photo popped into Karl’s texts.

“Oh Jesus your eyes are red” Sapnap said as he looked over Karl’s shoulders.

“Yeah, I accidentally drugged myself” Quackity giggled, as if that was a completely normal thing to do.

“Wait, you what?” Karl asked concerned.

“Drugged myself” Quackity repeated.
“There were some really fucking good brownies and I ate one, but then Sam said it was pot and I got really scared, but now I’m not scared so it’s fine. And then I got Hungry and I ate another one” Quackity said.

“Brownies are fun” he giggled.

“Are you okay? Should we call someone for you?” Sapnap’s voice then asked.

“Nahhh, Charlie was just with me. But honestly I feel so good, like I’m floating in a pool” Quackity said and moved his hand in front of his face in a wonky wave motion.

“But my mom can never know about this” Quackity tried to sound serious but he was too giddy.
“She may be cool with the whole gay and two boyfriend thing, but if she hears about this? I can wave away to college, Harvard or not. She’ll force me to work for my uncle's business and then I can’t be a rich lawyer and pay for our wedding” Quackity said.

“You sure we shouldn’t call for anyone?” Karl asked again.

“Yes. Everyone I know here in Boston is already here anyway, and I am vibing” Quackity said and let his arm flop down on his chest again.

“Is anyone with you now?” Sapnap asked.

“Uhhhh” Quackity looked around himself, he was the only one outside, but he could see the party going on behind the glass door.
“Yeah… and also no. The party is inside, but I am star gazing” Quackity said.

“Charlie will be here soon” Quackity reassured them in his foggy mind.

“Maybe you should go inside? Isn’t it cold out-“ Karl started to suggest but was interrupted by Quackity gasping.

“Karl, give Sapnap the phone I have a secret for him“ Quackity giggled through the speakers. Karl and Sapnap shared a look, but Karl just smiled and shrugged, tilting the phone to Sapnap.

If they couldn’t get Quackity to go find someone, they could at least stay on the line till someone came back to him.

“What’s up babe” Sapnap said, trying to contain his grin.

“Sapnap, I have a secret “ Quackity said in a very loud whisper.

“Uh Huh? And what’s that secret?” Sapnap asked, kind of like how you would ask a toddler.

“I have a crush on Karl” Quackity giggled uncontrollably
“But you can’t tell him, sssshhhhh” he then hushed into the phone.

Karl had to slam a hand over his mouth to keep a laugh in his throat.

“That’s a very big secret, sure I shouldn’t tell him?” Sapnap played along.

“Yes. Now, give the phone to Karl” Quackity still sounded giddy.
“Alright, here you go” Sapnap said and handed the phone back to Karl.

“Hey love” Karl greeted him again.

“Karl, I have a secret” Quackity whispered poorly.

“Oh really? And what’s that secret?” Karl asked as he tried not to laugh.

“I have a crush on Sappy Nappy” Quackity gushed.

“Oh really? That’s cool “ Karl smiled.

“Yes, but you can’t tell him” Quackity said, moving the blanket around him closer and snuggling into it.

“Oh yeah? What if I do tell him?” Karl asked challenged him playfully.

“If you tell him, I’ll tell him you like him too. And if he tells you I’ll tell you that he’s in love with you, so I have blackmail, bitch” Quackity’s speech was slurred with giggling.

“Oh you are so right. We can’t have that now, can we?” Karl snickered.

“Do you wanna know a secret I have?” Sapnap asked.

“Oh my god, yes tell me” Quackity said excited.

“We have a crush on you too~” Sapnap looked down at the phone with a smile.

“Awwwww my Hubbies like me back, that's so cool” Quackity giggled and looked back up at the sky.

“Did you just call us hubby?” Sapnap asked, his heart melting as he blushed. Karl laughed at it. If there was one thing Sapnap loved, it was that one pet name.

“Yeah, you are my hubby one and two, but you get to decide who is who” Quackity laughed like a bad cartoon villain.

“Doesn’t matter, my life is complete now” Sapnap leaned against Karl.

“Good, cause I’m clearly hubby one” Karl teased him.

“Oh as if. I am the number one hubby” Sapnap leaned in closer and kissed Karl.
“I will fight you for that title,” Sapnap grinned.

Quackity listened to them violently flirt through the phone, laughing at all the weird cute threats they made that didn’t even sound like threats to begin with.

"Oh my god, guys, I can see a star move over the sky, god it’s so slow” Quackity then interrupted, sounding completely amazed.

"A shooting star? make a wish then” Karl said.

"No it's not like a shooting star, it's just kinda sliding over the sky” Quackity tried to explain, his voice slowly.

"Oh, that might be the ISS then” Sapnap said.

"The what?” Quackity frowned.

"The international space station” Sapnap clarified and then heard Quackity gasp.

"I’m looking at a spaceship? that's so cool” Quackity whispered in awe. He was quiet for a moment, watching the small dot in the sky fly until it disappeared over the skyline of the city.

"Do you guys, like, ever think about space? and how small we all are compared to it?” Quackity asked after a quiet moment.

"I mean, doesn’t everybody?” Karl shrugged.

"I don’t” Quackity admitted.
"I think… I think I'm the perfect size. I don’t really care about how big space is or the world or stuff like that. Because, all I really care about is you guys. And I think I'm the perfect size, like when we hold hands and cuddle” Quackity started to say and it slowly turned into a mumble.

"It's funny. Like… why are small things so big, and big things so small?” Quackity asked.

"Um, I think you have to repeat that question, Q” Sapnap said, confused.

"Like, love” Quackity tried his best to explain.
"Love is such a small word, but it feels so big” Quackity sniffed, and they could hear him tear up on the other end of the phone.
"Like, I love you so much, but I don’t know how to express it right. Everything just feels so small, and love is just not a big enough word, but it’s the only word I have” Quackity sniffed again.

"Aw Q, don’t cry, it’s okay. We love you too” Karl said.

"Yeah, dry those tears. There's no reason to cry, love” Sapnap tried to cheer him up.

"I just miss you so much” Quackity sniffed, moving his arm to dry his nose in his sleeve.
"Like, sometimes, when I think about you, I get this overwhelming feeling of love, and then I remember how much I miss you. And I just wanna cry. It's not fair” Quackity sniffed again and dried his eyes before they could form tears.

"Yeah, but it’s better now, right? you’re making friends” Sapnap reminded him.

"And you have Charlie” Karl pointed out.

"Yeah… I do!” Quackity said, the sad tone fading out of his voice.
"Guys, I fucking love Charlie” Quackity smiled again.

"Like, I love him. He's my best friend” Quackity gushed.
"You guys have to like him. If you don’t then uh, no kisses till after summer” Quackity threatened with another giggle.

"Oh that is a scary threat. But don’t worry Babe, if he’s your friend, he's got to be amazing” Sapnap chuckled.

"He is amazing” Quackity smiled wide. He heard the glass door slide open.

"Hey Quackity, who are you talking to?” Foolish voice came from behind him.

“Foolish! guys it’s Foolish, the bathroom guy I told you about” Quackity started to scramble excitedly on the grass to sit up.
"The one with the face” Quackity giggled.

"That’s nice Quackity. Can we talk with him for a moment?” Sapnap asked.

"Sure” Quackity held his phone up to Foolish,
"My boyfriends wanna talk to you” Quackity said.

"Oh, okay” Foolish said and took the phone Quackity was offering him.
"Hello? I’m not about to get yell at by two angry partners, right?” Foolish asked a bit nervously as he held it up to his ear.

“Oh no. But hey, I’m Sapnap, Karl is here too” Sapnap spoke into the phone.
"We just wanna make sure, like, is Quackity okay?” Sapnap asked.

"Yeah, shouldn’t he go to the hospital if he drugged himself?” Karl asked.

"Oh, Quackity is okay, don’t worry. Me and my partners talked about it” Foolish started to explain as he watched Quackity get up from his spot on the lawn and stare up into the sky, holding onto the blanket like a cape. .

"And Ponk, my partner, he's a medical student. He said we could either have made him throw up to lessen the high, but that would properly just give him a bad trip. And my other partner suggested the hospital, but Ponk said that would only get Quackity in trouble since he's like 19” Foolish said.

"So the best thing we could do was keep an eye on him and just make sure he didn’t freak out” Foolish said and chuckled as he saw Quackity following a frog that was hopping in the grass.
"We were a bit worried because of his non-existent tolerance. He's baked, but he seems to be doing really good, actually” Foolish noted.

"Oh that's good at least. So someone is with him all the time?” Karl asked.

"I mean yeah, Charlie was with him ten minutes ago or so, but he needed the bathroom, so I've been keeping my eye on Quackity. Don’t worry your boyfriend is completely safe and in a very controlled environment” Foolish promised.

"I saw him talking on the phone and didn’t want to interrupt. But we’re about to order pizza and watch some movies, so I had to get him” Foolish explained before holding the phone away so he could call out to Quackity.
"Hey big Q, do you want some pizza?” he called.

“Foolish! there's a frog” Quackity yelled back with a giggle and pointed at the ground.

"That’s nice” Foolish smiled.
"Do you want pizza?” Foolish asked again.

He watched as Quackity stared at him for a moment before asking,
"Can I get sweet corn on it?” he asked innocently.

"Sure. Do you want pineapple too?” Foolish asked and watched as Quackity got a disgusted look on his face.

"People who eat pineapple on pizza deserve to get their teeth boiled,” Quackity said.

Foolish blinked and then nodded.
"Noted. Come inside and we’ll order” Foolish said and opened the glass door a bit more.

"Okay” Quackity smiled and ran towards Foolish, almost like a toddler coming to eat dino nuggets.

Foolish closed the glass door after them and handed Quackity his phone back,
"Here is your phone. Your boyfriends are still on the line” Foolish said as he put it in Quackity’s hand and made sure Quackity was aware of it.

"My hubbies” Quackity gasped excitedly and held it back up to his ear.
"Hey~ any cute lads on the telephone?” he giggled in a bad British accent.

Sapnap and Karl laughed on the other end.

"Yep, two boys just for you” Karl answered.

"Aw, I love you so much” Quackity gushed.
"And I miss you” Quackity fell down onto the couch, Foolish walking over to get the pizza menu.

"We love you too babe” Sapnap said.
"We are gonna give you so many kisses when you come home again” he promised and made kissy noises into the phone.

"I can’t wait till you guys finish your degrees and you come out here to me. We’ll get an apartment, and we’ll get a big ass bed, and you’ll give me kisses all the time, and we’ll get married and never ever be apart again” Quackity said and relaxed into the couch pillows.

"That does sound like the dream, love” Karl smiled fondly.

"One day we are gonna get you that ring” Sapnap promised.

"Will you ask me together?” Quackity asked.

"Yeah, we need to be two people to plan the perfect proposal” Karl smiled to Sapnap,
"You won’t even see it coming” Karl grinned wide.

"I can’t wait. Do you think we can get Rat to be the ring bearer?” Quackity asked.

"Sure, we can ask” Sapnap said.

“Quackity, do you want some help with the pizza menu?” Foolish called from the kitchen.

"Yes please!” Quackity called over the couch back before turning his attention back to his phone.
“Guys I gotta go. There’s a pizza on the way and I’m gonna devour it” Quackity said.

“Okay, love you” Karl smiled.

“Talk to you tomorrow. Love you, honey bun” Sapnap chuckled.

“Love you too hubby one and two. Bye!” Quackity waved at his phone despite knowing they couldn’t see him as he hung up.

The rest of the night went by in a calm manner.

Foolish spent ten minutes helping both Quackity and Charlie pick toppings for their pizzas. Afterwards Quackity and Charlie found their way back to the aquarium, somehow ending up playing patty cake while talking until the pizzas arrived.

Sam deliberately put on the ‘Toy story’ saga to keep Quackity and Charlie entertained and contained in the living room to make watching them a lot easier.

The pizzas were devoured without any hesitation. Charlie and him shared both of their pizzas, exchanging slices until there was none left. And by the time Quackity’s box was empty, he was having a stomach ache.

It was during the third movie that Quackity felt his energy go down, his eyes starting to close and leaning more and more against Charlie. His eyes and legs felt so heavy and soon he was asleep on Charlie’s shoulder.

He didn't really know for how long he was asleep, but he remembers waking up a few times only to fall asleep again. The party was full of lively conversations and laughter, but Quackity just slept on in the middle of it.

He felt a nudge on his shoulder and someone pulling him up onto his feet.

“Let’s get you boys home” he thinks he heard Sam say.

He was not completely sure he was awake on the way to the car, and he didn't know who helped him tie his shoelaces or zip up his jacket. All he really knew was that he was holding onto Charlie’s arm the entire arm.

The next time Quackity woke up again, he was in the middle seat of a car, still leaning against Charlie. Fundy was scrolling through his phone next to him. Foolish and Sam' s voices were buzzing through his ears from the front seat.

He peaked his eyes open, seeing the lights from other cars driving past. He yawned and stretched as good as he could with the small space.

"Oh, you’re awake?” Foolish looked back at him from the passenger seat.
"How are you feeling?” he asked.

"I think I feel fine. Tired, but the floaty feeling is pretty much gone” Quackity said and rubbed his hands over his face.

"Hey Sam?” Quackity spoke up again with a yawn.
"Why would you put pot brownies out at a party, and not label them? or warn people?” Quackity asked.

“... Sorry” Sam said from the driver’s seat.
"But in my defense, green is like the code for weed” Sam mumbled.

“Sam?” Quackity leaned back into his seat.
"Never colorcode at parties again” Quackity said.

"Noted for future reference” Sam nodded, tapping on the wheel as he stopped at a red light.
"Are you mad?” Sam then asked.

"Not really. It was my fault as much as yours, and I had fun, so” Quackity shrugged.
"But I'm not letting you live it down. I will exploit it throughout the entirety of this friendship” Quackity chuckled.

"Fair enough, I can live with that” Sam smiled as the light turned green and the car continued down the road.

"How come you guys didn’t tell you were dating? or poly?” Quackity asked.

"I mean, we didn’t really hide it” Foolish said.
"Yeah, we are very open about our relationship” Sam said and turned a corner.

"Oh. Guess I'm just really oblivious” Quackity noted.
"Still, it's cool having other poly friends” Quackity said and closed his eyes.

“... Fuck, I called Sapnap and Karl” Quackity said right as the silence had fallen over the car again.

"Oh yeah, I chatted with them. They seem very nice” Foolish smiled.

"Oh god, I can’t believe I called them.”Quackity covered his face.
"Wait, I didn’t call my mom, right? right?” he asked himself more than the others.
"No, she would still be on the phone if I did. And yell at me” Quackity shook his head.

“Q, you’re working yourself up. Why don’t you look out the window and relax? sleep a bit more?” Foolish suggested.

Quackity nodded slightly, turning his head to look out the window.
"Okay, yeah I can do that” he mumbled. He felt Charlie move his arm and silently offer his hand for comfort.

Quackity took it and leaned against his shoulder again, together they watched the buildings slide past the windows as they drove by. Foolish hummed along to the soft music from the radio, Fundy snickered a bit at something on his phone, and Quackity closed his eyes to the sound of Charlie’s breathing, relaxing once.

But as they crossed the bridge, a siren could be heard behind them, red and blue lights lighting up the road.

Quackity opened his eyes and immediately felt a chill run down his spine.

"Are you speeding again?” Foolish asked.

"No? not after I got the last speeding ticket. That one was crazy expensive. It's properly just a random check up” Sam said and flickered on his turn signal to pull into the side of the street.

“Do not pull over” Quackity didn’t realize he was clinging to Charlie’s arm now.

“Relax Big Q. Both me and Foolish are sober, they’re just checking us” Sam reassured him.

“No. No. Sam I will get arrested” Quackity panicked as Sam turned off the engine.

“Quackity, it’ll be fine” Foolish tried to reassure him as well.

“Excuse me, but if you somehow haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly white, underage and am coming down from a high. If they run a test on me it can test positive for up to five days” Quackity said and hugged Charlie’s arm.

“… oh fuck I didn’t even think about that” Sam muttered.

“Okay, Quackity, just relax. Sam and I will take care of the talking. Slime, Fundy, you help Quackity stay calm” Foolish said as they heard the cop car door open. Looking in the back mirror, Sam could see a police officer come up next to the car.

Charlie gave a firm nod, still holding Quackity’s hand firmly.
"It’ll be fine, we just gotta stay quiet” Charlie tried to calm him.

Quackity saw a man walk past Charlie's window and up to Sam' s, tapping on it. As Sam rolled it down and greeted the officer, Quackity tried his hardest to keep his hands from shaking.

"Good evening boys, license and registration please” he managed to hear the officer say over his own heartbeat.

Quackity saw as Sam pulled out his wallet and found his driver’s license, handing it over along with a piece of paper to the officer through the window.

"What are you boys up to so late at night?” the officer asked as he looked over the information Sam had given him, most likely trying to make small talk.

Quackity’s palm felt sweaty, and like he was three months back in time, hiding in the bathroom while his economics lecture was still going.

But Charlie held his firm grip on his hand, squeezed it with a smile and Quackity felt his ribs almost rattle as he took in another breath.

"We’re just on our way back to drop some friends off after a party” Sam said truthfully.
"We had a movie night” Sam smiled.

"Sounds like a good time” the officer said.

"Can I ask why you stopped us, officer?” Foolish asked from the passenger seat.

"We’ve had a few drunk drivers at this hour. Just checking for safety reasons” the officer said and handed Sam his license registration back.
"But everything looks fine here, have a nice trip home“ the officer said, leaning down to give them a polite smile. But as he looked in the back, he made eye contact with Quackity.

Quackity wanted to cry.

"You alright back there son?” the officer asked him with a concerned frown.

Quackity had no idea of what to do. He not might be high anymore, but he was still pretty sure his eyes were red. What was he supposed to do?

"Um…” Quackity blinked, unsure of what to say.

“His girlfriend broke up with him” Fundy said from next to him, coming to his rescue.

"Oh” the officer looked surprised.

"Yeah she was a bitch” Fundy added.

"I'm sorry to hear that” the officer looked back at Quackity.

"I don’t wanna talk about it” was the only response Quackity could come up with, actually tearing up now for other reasons than the officer thought.

"Sir, if there's no problem, are we allowed to leave?” Sam asked.

"We gotta go pick up his stuff from their apartment. Bitch cheated on him and shit, it was bad” Sam added to the lie.

"Oh yes, of course. You are free to go” the officer stepped back.
"Good luck,” the officer said awkwardly.

"Thank you” Foolish waved to the man as Sam rolled his window up again and calmly turned the engine on again.

The car was completely quiet as Sam pulled back onto the street. Foolish looked over his shoulder and out the back window as they rounded the corner.
"We’re clear” Foolish said.

Quackity let a breath out he didn’t know he was holding.

"You guys just lied to a police officer for me” he said.

"Well yeah. You looked like you were gonna throw up” Fundy bumped his shoulder.
"Besides, we can’t let you get arrested. That's just a dick move” Fundy chuckled to lighten the mood.

“Still. That’s like a felony” Quackity mumbled.

“So? Las Nevadas stick together” Fundy smiled and held up a fist bump, the back hand turned towards Quackity.

Quackity smiled like an idiot, bumping his own hand against Fundy’s.

“Now chill. You are way too sweaty to sit next to” Fundy said and pulled his phone out again.

Quackity chuckled and leaned back into the car seat, focusing on getting his heart to stop racing in his chest.

So, Quackity’s second college party didn’t go any better than his first.

But Quackity didn’t really care. Cause if you looked past the accidental self drugging and almost arrest, Quackity knew he had fun.

And he hopes their future parties will be just as fun.

Less illegal, but still fun.

Chapter Text

“But do you know what really bothers me about supernatural movies and shows?” Fundy asked, leaned back in his chair with his biology text book open in front of him.

“It bothers me to no end, how whenever the main characters go to a scientist or professor of who knows what, they always ask ‘uh so how do we kill the thing?’” Fundy held his hands up as he asked the question in a fake voice.

“And the professor just goes ‘uh it’s just a fairy tale’, like bruh, are you serious?” Fundy groaned.

“Oh god, I hate that. They always say it like they don’t have an entire essay and thesis on how exactly to kill the chupacabra” Quackity agreed.
“And it would also be the first thing they’d ask about too! like, ‘do you have your own research?’” Quackity thumbed his pencil over his textbook.

"The best way to beat the chupacabra is beating it with a lamb leg” Charlie noted.

"They eat lamb and sheeps, Charlie, they’re not weak to them” Fundy rolled his eyes.

They had come to the library to study together, but so far that had proven unfruitful. They had spent most of their time chatting, and were barely able to focus on their homework and assignments for more than a few minutes.

And Quackity knew he would have to study again once he got back to his dorm, but for now he would enjoy the social interaction.

"I’m sorry Fundy, the programming major, but you eat lamb too, and I strongly doubt you’d survive being beaten with a lamb leg” Charlie said, completely unfazed and smiling.

Fundy blinked.
"I can’t even argue with that. Fine” Fundy gave up, making Quackity and Charlie laugh.

"Hey, cryptid talk aside, I'm gonna go get a monster. Do you want anything?” Quackity asked, pulling out his wallet, opening it up to pull out a dollar, seeing the holographic pokemon card stare up at him. He smiled slightly at it, getting reminded of the countless times Karl had ranted about pokemon to him.

"Yes please! Can I get a punch?” Charlie asked, clapping a bit against the table, earning a harsh hush by the librarian a few desks away from them.

"Snickers bar, please” Fundy requested and checked his phone.

"Got it” Quackity clicked his tongue as he got up.

Quackity made his way over to the entrance doors, two vending machines displaying drinks and candy to any passersby. Quackity clicked the number for his drink, paid and then clicked in the number for Charlie's drink.

"Hey Quackity” a voice came from behind him as he put another dollar into the machine. He turned around and saw a blonde girl smiling at him.

"Oh, hi Niki” Quackity smiled, jumping as the monster fell to the bottom of the machine.

"Do you have a moment to chat?” Niki asked. Niki was one of the people in the debate club that often sat with Wilbur. She was really sweet from what Quackity had been able to pick up, but he’d admit he hadn’t talked that much with her either.

“Sure” Quackity said and bent down to grab the two monster energy drinks before stepping over to the candy machine.
“Do you mind if we walk and talk? I’m grabbing snacks for my friends” Quackity explained as he selected the snickers bar for Fundy

“Oh yeah that’s fine” Niki smiled as Quackity paid and turned to look at her again, hearing the wiring of the machine push the candy bar out.

“So, what’s up?” Quackity asked.

“I was wondering if you want to assist me in a debate? I am not very used to it yet and Wilbur suggested I get a partner to help” Niki asked as the candy fell inside the machine and Quackity bent down to pick it up.
“And you haven’t been in the club for that long, so I thought it would be nice to ask you”

“Sure. But why not ask Wilbur? I thought you were close?” Quackity asked instead.

“We are, but he is my opponent, so” Niki shrugged.

“Ah, yeah that is a bit problematic then” Quackity chuckled and started to walk back towards the study table.
“But I’d love to help. What’s the debate topic?” Quackity asked.

“The ‘Me too’ movement and whether or not it has gone too far” Niki smiled.
“We are on the ‘no it has not’ side, so we’ll be defending it” she informed.

“Oh cool, it’s gonna be fun to watch Wilbur defend sexism” Quackity snickered, making Niki laugh with him.

As they made it back to the table, Charlie spotted them and started to wave with a lot of energy.
“Hello Niki, the Culinary major” Charlie gave a big smile.

“Hey Charlie” Niki gave a small wave back.

That was another thing Quackity liked about Niki. She didn’t seem to be put off by Charlie and his weird behavior.

“Whose that?” Fundy asked.

“Niki, she’s in the debate club. She was just asking if I wanted to join her debate on ‘me too’ for assistance“ Quackity put the drinks and candy down on the table.

“Oh, are you sure you shouldn't ask a girl to assist you then?” Fundy asked and turned to look at Niki.

“The ‘me too' movement is not just about women. It affects men just as much” Niki shot back at him.

“Okay, I’ll take your word for it” Fundy held his hands up in surrender.

“Anyway. Have you and Wilbur decided when it’ll take place?” Quackity sat back down in his seat, not seeing the way Fundy turned to look at him.

“We were thinking about the next club meeting. Is that enough time to prepare?” Niki asked.

“Yeah, that should give us like three days to research. Do you wanna meet up tomorrow after classes and start on it together?” Quackity offered.

“Sure. I’ll see you then, thank you Quackity” Niki smiled and waved again to Charlie before turning to leave.

“Bye Niki the Culinary major” Charlie waved with his arm over his head.

Quackity smiled and grabbed his monster and pulled the tab up to open it.

“You know Wilbur Soot?” Fundy asked as Quackity was about to take a sip.

“Yeah, we have the same classes, and he runs the debate club” Quackity shrugged and threw the snickers bar over to Fundy.
“Why, you friends with him?” Quackity asked.

“Ehhhh you can call us acquaintances” Fundy frowned as he caught the candy bar.
“He used to date my sister” Fundy informed them.

“Oh? Small world then” Quackity said and took another sip of his drink before grabbing his book and pulled it closer to himself.

“Would you say, you and Wilbur are close?” Fundy then asked, tearing his snickers bar open.

“Uhh I mean we text, and hang out a bit after classes sometimes” Quackity said.
“Why?”

“Ehhh it’s just that,” Fundy looked a bit uncomfortable.
“Wilbur can be a bit… entitled” Fundy chose to describe it.

“I mean, if you’re uncomfortable around him, I’m not gonna make you hang out together,” Quackity said, his brow furrowed.

Fundy opened his mouth and then closed it again. Quackity almost thought there was something more Fundy wanted to say.

“Thanks. I appreciate that” Fundy said instead.

Quackity smiled,
“Anytime, man”

………………

"And that's why Elle Woods could wipe the floor with any ace attorney character, but yet my boyfriend doesn’t believe me” Quackity said, smacking his hand on the table. Niki laughing hunched over.

"I have never met a guy who felt that strongly about Legally Blonde” Niki took a deep breath.

"It's a great movie, sue me” Quackity snatched one fo the cookies Niki had brought from her baking class.

"It shows great morals. Elle wasn’t a bitch unless someone was a bitch to her first, and even then she was nice. She's hardworking and determined. That, and she stood up for herself when that asshole professor groped her” Quackity said as he bit into his cookie.

“People really need to be taught about consent” Niki mumbled through a sigh, looking down at their computers again, a shared google doc up on their screens.

“I actually learned a really important lesson about consent last Christmas” Quackity said offhandedly as he finished chewing.

“Oh?” Niki looked up from her notes again, showing she was listening.

“Yeah, um, so I’m in a long distance relationship. And the physical parts of it have been very, virtual” Quackity blushed.

"And during Christmas I was trying to... Get it on” Quackity said, starting to feel a bit awkward as he looked at Niki.
“Nevermind, I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable” Quackity looked back down at his computer screen, shaking his head.

"No, no, keep going, I don't mind. But you don’t have to spill all the ‘juicy’ info if you don’t want to” she chuckled.

"Okay, well. Let’s just say my boyfriend could tell I was kinda ‘forcing’ myself, because I was worried he was bored of me. But we talked it through, and he made me realize something about consent. You see, we don’t really ask to have sex, we just do it. But he told me the consent and the ‘saying yes’ was in the excitement leading up to, you know, doing it” Quackity tried to explain.

“You know, that’s actually really well explained. Do you mind if we add it to the arguments? minus the personal info, of course” Niki asked.

"If we can find a fitting space for it, sure” Quackity said as Niki started to type on her computer again.

"Your boyfriend sounds really smart, what’s his name?” Niki asked after she wrote down the new argument in their bullet points.

Quackity bit at his lip. He didn’t exactly want to just come out to Niki about being poly. She was really sweet and Quackity was sure she wouldn’t care, but Quackity still wanted to keep the poly thing on the low.

Not everyone at their school needed to know.

“Sapnap, and thanks, I'll let him know” Quackity said. He could tell Niki about Karl if they kept bonding.

Quackity opened up one of his tabs to keep reading one of the many documents Niki had found for them.

"Have you heard the musical?” Niki asked after a quiet moment.

"Huh?” Quackity looked back up at her again as he finished his cookie.

"The Legally Blonde musical. It’s pretty good, Wilbur showed it to me” Niki clarified.

"Oh, I didn’t know there was a musical” Quackity said, surprised.

"The soundtrack is great, but I don’t know that much about it” Niki shrugged with a smile.
"You should ask Wilbur about it, he loves theater” Niki suggested.

And almost as if summoned by the devil himself, Quackity heard the telltale sign of Wilbur’s arrival.

“Quackity~" A high pitched voice dragged out his name before a body flopped on top of the table next to him.

Quackity tilted his computer screen down immediately.
“Wilbur” he looked up at the guy sitting unprofessionally on the table.

"What? no ‘Wilba’? come on, Big Q, I thought we had a thing going” Wilbur fake pouted.

"We do, when we’re not enemies on the opposite side of a debate” Quackity grinned up at him and leaned back in his seat.

"I better get that ‘Wilba’ later then” Wilbur mumbled before leaning into Quackity’s space and tried to gracefully open Quackity’s screen again before Niki reached over and smacked it fully closed across the table.

"Not happening” Niki laughed as Wilbur got his fingers caught in the keyboard.

“What do you want, Wilbur? You’re not gonna get any hints on our arguments if that’s what you’re fishing for” Quackity snickered as Wilbur pulled his hand off the computer and blew on his red finger tips.

“Actually I just came to ask if you two would like to join me and some friends next Friday for laser tag?” Wilbur smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"If you’re willing to play with the enemy of course~”

“Laser tag? I’d love to. Can I invite Charlie? He likes that kinda thing” Quackity asked, not even entertaining Wilbur's antics .

“Charlie? Sure, why not. The more the merrier after all” Wilbur nodded.

“Cool, who else is coming?” Niki smiled and started to write a bit more on her computer, pushing it out of Wilburs view as he leaned back to lay on the table to sneak a look.

“Just a few friends, my brothers, the guys from my band” Wilbur shrugged before Niki pushed her hand into his face.

"You two are starting to make me feel like I'm not wanted here” Wilbur said, his cheek squished against Niki’s hand.

"You make me happy, I like girls” Niki stuck her tongue out at him.

“Rude” Wilbur pulled himself back up.
"But it was two yeses on laser tag next friday?” Wilbur checked again.

"Yep. I'll check with Charlie” Quackity said and pulled his phone out.

"Good” Wilbur said and tried to peal Quackity’s computer open again, only for Quackity to smack his hands away, before continuing to text Charlie.

Wilbur pouted as he pulled his hand back to his chest.
"You wound me, Quackity HQ”

"Good. Now fuck off” Quackity laughed.

"Fine, I will see you at the stand. Prepare to get beat by a sexist Wilbur persona” Wilbur pushed himself off the table and hugged Quackity from behind before Quackity swatted at him.

"Don’t hug me after calling yourself a sexist Wilbur” Quackity swatted his hands at him until Wilbur finally let go.

"Okay, I get the hint. Bye Niki” Wilbur waved to Niki,
"Bye Quackity~” Wilbur pretended to blow him a kiss as he spun on his heel and waltzed away from the table.

"Bye Wilbur, see you wednesday when we beat your ass” Niki grinned.

"I will await your defense with excitement. Our debate will go down in the history books” Wilbur spoke over his shoulder, the librarian shushing him as he passed her.

"Oh, we will,” Quackity grinned.

………..

The classroom was buzzing with conversation, people sitting in groups as they worked on their warm up activity.

It was something Wilbur liked to do before starting the club activities, making people pair up and giving them weird scenarios that would often end in a small debate between the pairs.

Normally Quackity loved to join in on those activities, laughing at all the weird reasons as to why a deck of uno cards would be more important than a can of monster on a deserted island.

But tonight he and Niki had been excluded from the warm up activity to go over their notes one last time before their debate.

Quackity knew if he looked up and across the room to Wilbur's regular seat, he would see him do the same.

It had become second nature to look over towards Wilbur during Schlatt’s lectures. They often caught each other’s gazes, or rather, Quackity would catch Wilbur staring at him to get his attention, pointing down at his computer.

Which normally meant Wilbur had sent him a discord message. Most often it tended to be a weird gif with a caption in the text itself, or a poorly drawn mspaint photo of schlatt.

It was hard to keep a straight face sometimes, but if anything, it was good practice for the poker club.

Wilbur was so far the only friend Quackity had made in his actual class, but he was a great one at that.

For the past few days their texts had only consisted of playful threats and ‘your mom’ jokes, all leading up to this debate.

“Alright everyone” Wilbur clapped his hands and Quackity looked up to see him standing in front of Schlatt’s desk.

“Now as some of you know, we are in for a treat today”Wilbur started to speak as Niki poked Quackity’s arm and motioned for him to follow her.

They got up from their seats, hands full of notes and postcards with bullet points. Quackity looked back at his seat to see Charlie giving him the world's widest smile and thumbs up for support. Quackity held up a thumbs up back to him before he walked down the stairs with Niki as Wilbur managed to keep entire classroom’s attention on him.

“A few days ago, my good friend Niki challenged me to a debate, and how could I, president of our wonderful club, possibly refuse” Wilbur chuckled, Niki and Quackity moving to stand before two chairs that had been placed to act as a debate stand. A single chair stood on the opposite side of Schlatt’s desk.

Something Quackity had noticed since befriending Wilbur was how dramatic and theatrical he tended to act in front of large crowds, there were no silly jokes or teasing words, instead he spoke like knew exactly what would happen in the next moment. Like he knew the lines to a play, acting out every scene to perfection.

It was no wonder Wilbur was in the drama club.

“The topic for tonight’s debate is the ‘Me too’ movement and whether or not it has gone too far. Now, before we start, I would like to remind everyone that these debates have given us assigned views, so please no one go attacking anyone for something said under this debate” Wilbur said, like he always did before a debate would start.

“Now, Niki has asked for a partner to assist her, so joining her is our new member Quackity. However, I chose to debate solo” Wilbur grinned,
“Cause who doesn’t like a good challenge?”.

“You’re stalling, Wilbur” Niki teased him, straightening her cards and flipping through them one last time to make sure they were in chronological order.

“Through a coin flip, it was decided that Niki and Quackity will be the negative team, and I will be the affirmative team” Wilbur carried on, pretending he didn’t hear Niki.

“So without any further delays, Niki, take it away” Wilbur smiled and stepped over to take his own stand, picking up some note cards as Niki nodded and straightened her back.

"Evening everyone. Sexism is an umbrella term for everything from sleazy jokes and borderline flirting, to abuse of power and threats” Niki started out, holding her bullet point cards as she started their presentation.

“Sexism infiltrates our culture, our language and limits one's opportunities for expression as a human being. This is where the term 'everyday sexism' comes from, as it is so normalized and something all women experience, that it becomes a basic condition that you just have to put up with” Niki said, Quackity nodding next to her both to agree and support her argument.

“A survey from 2019 revealed that 81% of the women questioned had experienced sexual harassment and assults during their lifetime. Only 43% of the men questioned had experienced sexual harassment or assults” Niki switched cards.

“The further the ‘Me too’ movement comes, the more women and men come forward with their stories. Which only normalizes and puts much needed attention onto this problem” Niki shifted slightly on her feet. Niki carried on with presenting more and more of their statistics and research, trying to cram it all into their 5 minute presentation before Wilbur got his turn.

They had agreed beforehand that Niki would take care of the presentation, and Quackity would step in when the discussion went into place, a fair divide in the roles, and Niki would of course step in if she had an argument of her own.

Once Wilbur got his turn, he started to lay out all his info and presentation.

He mentioned how the ‘Me too' movement had filled too much in their politics, how it had called out too many politicians and slowed down the process of dealing with other major issues.

Had anyone else presented those arguments, Quackity would have called bullshit.

But Wilbur had a certain kind of… charisma to him.

Quackity was pretty sure Wilbur would be able to sell ice cream to a lacrosse intolerant soccer mom if he wanted to.

But charismatic talents or not, Quackity was gonna wipe the floors with Wilbur.

All Quackity had to do was find a crack in Wilbur’s well crafted defense.

Something that proved to be harder than first expected, Wilbur was very well versed in his research.

Too bad Quackity was convinced he was better.

They went back and forth between arguments, laying out more data and went further into the politics, bringing up encounters they had read or seen.

And that’s where Wilbur messed up.

He got personal.

“Okay, I understand your point, Quackity, but I mean, I cannot be the only one who feels a bit of pride when other guys find my girlfriend attractive? I mean, in a way it is a compliment to know that out of everyone you were the one that won” Wilbur said and as he looked over at Quackity’s smug face he instantly knew he fucked up, his grin dropping immediadly.

“So” Quackity started.
"You see your girlfriend as an object to make yourself feel better? To feel proud? She’s an object to show off how’ well’ you score? How do you think your girlfriend feels when she’s told that and you just stand there proud that someone harassed her?” Quackity asked rhetorically, loving the tint covering Wilburs cheeks. Niki grinned wide next to him. Quackity then turned to look at the rest of the classroom.

“I mean I see your point in the pride, but wouldn’t you still feel that pride if you stepped in and comforted her? or made sure some creep didn’t touch her without consent?” Quackity asked, tilting his head to the side as he turned to Wilbur, their opponent looking flustered and thrown off his feet.

Wilbur looked from them and out at the rest of the club, clearly trying to come up with any arguments to save his ass.

Then Wilbur leaned in over the desk, planting his hands on the top of it.
"If it pleases the court, I would like to say that my opponent is talking shit” Wilbur leaned in over the table,his voice dropping down low the further through his sentence he got.

The room was silent for a single moment.

But from how embarrassed Wilbur looked, red cheeks and lips pursed, Quackity couldn’t contain his laughter, buckling over and covering his mouth as he laughed.

Niki soon joined in on the laughter, the rest of the class starting to bubble up a laughter as well. When Quackity managed to look back up at Wilbur again, the brit looked less embarrassed, straightening his notecards with his head down as the class laughed.

Wilbur looked up again and caught Quackity’s gaze. Quackity smiled wide at him, Wilbur smiled right back at him, just as wide before tilting his head back down at his notes.

Once it seemed the class’s laughter was dying down again, Wilbur cleared his throat.
“Well, I think this is a good place to end the debate”, the rest of the class chuckled, knowing fully well that Wilbur was admitting defeat.

“So let’s open the floor for questions to both parties. And remember, this has been a debate with assigned views, do not harass anyone for anything that has been said during this” Wilbur reminded them before waving his arm out to open up the floor.

A guy raised his hand almost immediately,
“Question to Niki and Quackity. If we can’t tell a girl she looks hot, how are we supposed to compliment them?” He asked.

“No one has ever been fired for saying your hair looks nice. Give a woman, or man, a compliment that doesn’t sexualize them” Niki answered, putting her cards down.
“Saying nice boobs is not okay, but saying ‘that blouse looks good on you' is much better. The message that you like the way the girl looks gets across and she doesn’t get uncomfortable” Niki smiled.

The guy looked like he thought it over, but didn’t seem that satisfied with it.

Across the room, someone else raised their hand,
“If a girl doesn’t like a guy hitting on her, why doesn’t she just leave?” a girl asked.

“Not every scenario has that option, if it’s at work or on public transport it’s a hard situation to leave, and that’s not even taking into account that a guy might turn aggressive when turned down” Quackity answered this time.

"Or there is a power difference. For example, between a boss and let's say an intern” Niki offered from beside him.

They carried on answering questions for another ten minutes, Niki and Quackity got a lot more questions than Wilbur, apparently not a lot of their club members knew a lot about feminism to begin with.

After Wilbur wrapped up the last of the debate, they carried on with the rest of their club activities.

Niki and Quackity got to tease and playfully bully Wilbur for the rest of the hour, being the sore winners they were and rubbing it in his face.

After the club was dismissed, Niki waved goodbye as she had to go the opposite direction of them. Wilbur tracked along with Charlie and Quackity, something he had started doing, given that they were walking in the same direction as the parking lot.

"You really blew me away in there, big Q” Wilbur smiled as he pulled out a package of cigarettes once they got out of the main doors, the grassy fields in front of them.
“Would you be up for debating with me again? but as a partner?” Wilbur asked as he pulled out one of the cigarettes and put it between his lips as he pulled out a lighter.

"Sure, if you think you can keep up with me” Quackity said as he watched Wilbur’s chest move as he took a drag of his cigarette. Wilbur moved his head away, mindful to not blow the smoke in Quackity and Charlie’s faces.

"I like a challenge. Show me what you got” Wilbur grinned once he turned to Quackity again.

“Quackity the law major can do any challenge you throw at him” Charlie said on Quackity’s other side.

"I’ll take your word for it then” Wilbur chuckled as he pulled out a car key with a keychain of a blue lego sheep.
"Well, I will come up with a good topic to challenge you, big Q” Wilbur smiled, turning to walk towards the gates of the parking lot.

"Hey, aren’t you forgetting something?” Quackity called after him, Wilbur looking over his shoulder.

Quackity grinned wide,
"Wilba!”

He watched as Wilbur broke out into a grin of his own and giggled,
“Quackity!”

…………

It was just supposed to be a quick twenty minute run, to get some snacks before the poker club started.

Just a quick trip to the supermarket, one they had walked over a hundred times already, alone and by themselves.

They both knew better than to walk through the park after dark, but it would cut their walk short by five minutes.

Nothing ever happens anyway, right?

Those were the reasons Quackity and Charlie had as they headed under the gate into the small park. Quackity walked arm in arm with Charlie, a plastic bag swinging in his other hand, filled with chip bags and soda bottles.

“So I told Karl, if he wants to do the comic art class so badly, he should just sign up. Because I know the renaissance classes are boring him” Quackity rambled as they walked down a brick path, lit up by street lamps.

“How? The Renaissance is a very fascinating art period” Charlie asked as they turned to walk into the more tense part of the park, trees covering up the trail. It was really pretty in the daylight, especially as the leaves were starting to bloom again.

“Yea, but Karl has a more cartoonish art style. And he likes making comics” Quackity shrugged.

“Besides I know it’ll be more useful if he wants to make his own comics in the future” Quackity started to say as they saw a man stepped out on the path in front of them, holding a knife.

"Be quiet and no one gets hurt, fags” the man scowled at them. Just from the looks of this man, Quackity knew he was desperate.

He was dirty.

His clothes were racket, rips and tears in the fabric covered in grim. His nose and cheeks were red from more than just the cold. The hand holding the knife was shaking, but his grip was tight. He was bigger than them too.

On instinct the grip Quackity had on Charlie’s arm tightened.

The man was only a few feet away from them. If they turned and ran, one of them would definitely get a knife stabbed in the back.

Most muggers don't want to get physical, they just want the money. But Quackity knew if they did try and run, this man was desperate enough to use that knife to spill blood on the park path.

Quackity felt Charlie slowly itch in front of him, if only a little.

“Do as I say and nothing bad has to happen. Got it?” The man took a step closer, and Quackity pulled Charlie back.

But they both nodded.

“Good. Hands where I can fucking see them” the man spat at them.

It took everything in Quackity to let go of Charlie’s arm, the shopping bag dangling around his wrist as he lifted them. Charlie did the same, still trying to stay between Quackity and the man.

Between the two of them, Charlie had the best chance at disarming the man if he chose to swing the knife. Charlie was faster and stronger than Quackity by a lot, even if Charlie still dragged him rock climbing.

"Hand over everything you’ve got. Put it on the ground” the man pointed the knife at them swinging it towards the ground.

Quackity nodded, his hands shaking as he reached for his wallet and phone.
"Slowly!” the man barked at them.

Quackity’s flinched, his hands shaking with the items in his hands as he nodded slowly, as he moved his hand out to show his wallet before he bent down slowly and put his wallet on the ground along with his phone.

Charlie placed down his own wallet next to Quackity. The man looked pissed,
“I said everything. The fucking phone too” he glared at Charlie.

“I-I don’t have it on me” Charlie stuttered. The man stepped closer, making them both flinch and step back again.

“What else you got? What’s in the fucking bag?” The man demanded.

“Just some chips… soda” Quackity answered.

The man looked them over, clearly not happy with that answer. He looked at Charlie’s arm.
“Your watch. Take it off” the man ordered and Charlie nodded, moving his hands up to take it off, but his hands were shaking too much.

“Take it off, you dumb queer” the man barked at them, getting more and more agitated by the minute.

Charlie nodded and kept trying, but kept fumbling with the strap. Quackity had a bad feeling, he itched closer to Charlie, gripping the handle of their grocery bag tighter.

“Get it off!” The man almost yelled, stepping too close and Quackity acted on pure instinct. He pushed Charlie out of the way and smacked the man with the grocery bag.

One of the soda bottles must have hit him in the face, cause the homeless man stumbled to the side with so much force he fell.

Quackity jumped as Charlie grabbed his hand, and pulled him along as Charlie sprinted down the path they had just come from.

The only thing that they could think about was running.

Quackity was stumbling and would have fallen a few times if it weren’t for Charlie’s iron grip on his hand. They ran out of the park gate, not even looking back to see if the dirty man had taken chase after them.

They ran down the Street, scaring an old lady and ran past a few cars and got honked at, but they didn’t stop running.

Not until they made it onto campus.

Quackity and Charlie had no idea where they were going, but somehow they had managed to end up in the library, the room quiet and absent of people this time of the night.

Sam, Foolish and Fundy were sitting at one of the desks, frowning with concern about how winded, pale and shaky Quackity and Charlie looked.

“Where have you two been? We were getting worried” Sam asked.

"We got mugged” Charlie panted, finally letting go of Quackity’s hand.

"What? are you okay?” Foolish asked, getting out of his seat and hurrying over to look them over.

"We’re fine, but we lost our wallets, and m-my phone” Quackity tried to say without stuttering, dropping the bag of groceries onto the table. His hands were still shaking, but Quackity could clearly see a red ring formed around his wrist.

He had been so focused on running, he hadn’t even noticed the plastic handle of the bag gnawing into his skin.
"Are you sure you didn’t get hurt?” Sam asked, coming up next to him to look Quackity’s wrist over, clearly worried.

"Yeah, it was just the bag. I uh, I had to swing the bag at the guy, he was gonna cut Charlie” Quackity explained, looking up to see Sam nod.

"Should we call 911?” Fundy asked, his phone already pulled out of his pocket.

"With no injuries that won’t be necessary. But we should go to the police and report it” Foolish said, finally letting Charlie go after looking him over from top to toe.

"I’ll drive” Sam said, grabbing his jacket off his chair and pulling out his car keys.
"And we should get your credit cards canceled before the fucker spends any of your money” he said, but more to himself as a mental note.

"We’ll come too” Foolish said as he grabbed his own coat, Fundy pulling his own on and zipping it up.

Quackity was glad Sam was taking charge, cause he felt weird. His heart was beating too fast in his chest, his hands were shaking. He almost felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack, but the danger was gone. He kinda felt like his head was floating up to the ceiling, but his body was swaying on his feet.

He jumped as he felt a hand on his arm, looking up to see Foolish.
"Hey, you’re okay” Foolish said, almost like he was reassuring him. Foolish put a hand on Quackity’s forehead, clearly able to feel the cold sweat breaking out.
"Just look at me. ‘calming face’, remember?” Foolish tried to cheer Quackity up, managing to drag a chuckle out of him.

Quackity took a deep breath and nodded. Foolish held his hand as they walked to the car, Charlie on his other side. Quackity didn’t remember getting into the car, or putting his seat belt on. But almost on instinct his hand finds Charlie’s as soon as his best friend was beside him.

The trip was quiet for the most part. Sam asked a few questions just to refresh their memory before the cops would question them. Like what did the man look like?, if Quackity had a tracker in his phone or a GPS turned on?, if they remembered how much money was in their wallets?.

That was when it dawned on Quackity and his eyes started to tear up.

Quackity didn’t even realize he was crying till Fundy put an arm around him, the seatbelt keeping him from being fully hugged.

"Hey, what’s wrong, did you get hurt? are you in pain?” Fundy asked worried, even if quackity and charlie had already answered that about five times now.
"Do you need professional help?” he asked, getting Sam and Foolish’s attention from the front seat as they stopped for a red light.

Quackity shook his head and covered his face with his free hand.
"No it’s fine, it’s just… its dumb” Quackity sniffed as he tried to dry his face and stop crying. He felt embarrassed.

"Nothing’s dumb in a situation like this” Foolish offered from the front seat.

Quackity took a breath and closed his eyes,
"There was a holographic pokemon card in my wallet” Quackity said, as if that explained anything.

"My boyfriend Karl gave it to me at christmas, it was his favorite card, and now I've lost it…” Quackity covered his face again.

"Oh… which pokemon was it?” Charlie asked, slowly stroking his thumb over Quackity’s knuckles for comfort.

“Charizard…he got it when we were fourteen, and he fucking loves that card, and I lost it” Quackity hated how it buckled out of his throat in a sob.

"Hey, I'm sure he won’t be mad, it's just a card. He’s properly not even gonna think about it considering you got mugged” Sam tried to help as he turned a corner, the GPS on Foolish’s phone leading the way to the police station.

Quackity looked up at him through the rearview mirror,
"Of course he's not gonna be mad, Karl doesn’t have a single angry bone in his body. But that’s not the problem” Quackity sniffed again.

"Then… what is?” Sam asked.

Quackity sniffed.
"He gave it to me because I was in a really bad place last semester, and I missed him and Sapnap constantly, like it was almost making me sick. I thought about them all the time, I slept in Sapnap’s jersey and Karl’s hoodie everynight, but they’re both so fucking tall, I can’t wear them to class. So Karl gave me the card so I could carry it around when I miss him” Quackity explained in a strained voice, on the edge of hyperventilating, Fundy stroking his hand up and down his shoulder.

"Ooohhh” Foolish said.
"I get it” he said and Quackity hiccuped.

The car was quiet, the only sound was Quackity crying and hiccuping as Fundy and Charlie both tried to comfort him.

"How bad was it? your last semester?” Sam asked, breaking the silence.

"I wanted to drop out. I wanted to move back home just so I could be with them, because I didn’t know who I was without them. They mean so much to me” Quackity managed to say as he took a deep breath.

"I even tried to get them to break up with me…” Quackity sniffed and rubbed his hands over his face.
"I just felt so lonely. Everything was hard and I just… I didn’t want to exist” Quackity hiccuped, the entire car filled with concern.

"They talked me out of it… breaking up, I mean” Quackity said.
"And… they gave me these cute gloves with their enitals on them, so we could hold hands, and god they’re so dumb” Quackity tried to chuckle, but his lip wobbled too much.
"We made a deal that I would give Harvard another semester before dropping out if things stayed the same… and Karl gave me his pokemon card for good luck” Quackity’s voice was so small.

“... Is it still the same?” Charlie asked after a moment and Quackity looked at him. He could see ache in Charlie’s eyes, aching for making Quackity smile again, for Quackity to stay.

And Quackity doesn’t think he could ever leave Charlie.

“No. It's better now” Quackity squeezed Charlie’s hand.

Charlie smiled softly to him.

"But I still miss them so much, and I just… I know it’s just a pokemon card, but Karl gave it to me when he didn’t know how else to help me. He entrusted me with his favorite card, and I just lost it” Quackity whipped his cheeks again.

"Do you still feel like that? like you don’t wanna exist?” Sam asked, looking back at Quackity in the rearview mirror, seeing Quackity shake his head.

"No, not anymore,” Quackity said.

"That's good” Sam bit his lip, opening his mouth again like he wanted to say something more, but struggled to find the words.
"If you um… if you need someone to talk to, we’re here for you” Sam tried, not really knowing what else to say.

"I know, you literally lied to a policeman for me” Quackity smiled and sniffed.

"Speaking of which” Sam rolled up to a building, and parked next to the sidewalk, turning off his car.
"We’re here” Sam said.

Quackity noded and rubbed his face to try and get himself together. He felt Charlie let go of his hand and unbuckled his seat belt.

"How about tomorrow, we can go and buy you two new wallets, and a phone” Sam suggested.
"And when we get back to campus I'm gonna show you how to throw a punch” Sam opened his door and stepped out.

"Why?” Charlie asked as they all started to climb out of the car.

"To give you some self defense. You would have gotten stabbed if Quackity didn’t have the grocery bag” Sam said as they headed towards the stairs leading up to the entrance of the police station.
"I want you to be able to defend yourself in case something like that happens again. That means you too, Fundy” Sam looked over at the ginger.

"What? why not Foolish?” Fundy asked and looked at their tallest friend.

"We workout together. Sam was the one that got me into boxing” Foolish shrugged.

"You properly wrestle at home too” Fundy joked, making them all laugh slightly before stepping into the police station.

It took a long time to get their reports done at the police station. The location was written up and Quackity gave them any and all the info he had on his phone in case the police could track it.

The waiting time was long, the police wanted them to give a physical description of the homeless man to some artist. But at least one of the officers was really nice and helped them block their credit cards while waiting.

Charlie and Quackity also spent a lot of the waiting time calling their parents, Quackity borrowed Sam’s phone. Quackity’s mom was beside herself with worry, having Quackity send photos of his red wrist and reassure her over and over again that he was okay. Once his mom seemed calm enough, Quackity asked if she knew how to get insurance on his phone and such, and she promised she would take care of it and send some money for a new phone, which then turned into a worried lecture on walking alone at night, despite Quackity telling her Charlie was with him.

By the time they got back to campus, it was 1 am.

“Hey Big Q, me and Charlie talked and we wanted to know if you wanted to stay at our dorm for the night” Fundy offered once Sam parked his car.
“I just know I wouldn’t wanna sleep alone after a night like this” Fundy shrugged and Quackity agreed.

Quackity had only been to Charlie and Fundy’s dorm room a few times, mostly staying in the door just to go get Charlie for hang outs and dinner. Their dorm room was kinda uncanny, and he really wished he could have seen Fundy get used to Charlie in the beginning.

Their dorm room looked like it quite literally had been taped down the middle.

Charlie’s side of the dorm was somehow messy and clean at the same time. His clothes were folded, but on top of his computer. He had so many different sports accessories shoved in his closet. Over his bed there were tons of club posters taped on the wall along with tickets from the cinema and rides he had taken on the bus. Between all the papers were polaroids pinned up, Charlie always smiling in the corners and someone looking unprepared behind him.

Fundy’s side, on the other hand, looked like it had been through a hurricane. His clothes were just thrown around, socks littering the floor without their partner, shoved in a pile at the foot of his bed, a binder shoved under his bookbag. Cans of energy drinks covering his desk, and his walls were covered in big generic posters that all centered around coding.

‘Eat, code, sleep, repeat’.

‘Keep calm and stop coding’.

‘I'm a programmer, I make the computer go beep boop beep beep boop’.

Quackity didn’t know if Fundy had brought those himself, or if they had been gifted to him. He didn't really get the humor of it either, but Sapnap would properly find some humor in it.

Maybe.

Charlie lended him a shirt to sleep in once they got to their dorm. When Quackity’s head got pulled through Charlie's oversized shirt, he saw Fundy holding his phone out to Quackity.

"Me and Charlie are gonna go brush our teeth. You can call your boyfriend if you want?” Fundy offered, unlocking his phone and handing it to Quackity.

"Thank you, that’s really nice of you” Quackity said as he took the phone.

"You’d do the same for me” Fundy shrugged with a smile before clapping Charlie’s shoulder, telling Charlie to come brush his teeth so Quackity could have his privacy.

The door closed and Quackity sank down onto Charlie’s bed, laying down on top of the duvet. Looking at Fundy’s phone to see a drawing of a fox as his home screen.

Quackity found the phone app easy enough and typed in Karl’s number. It was one of the easiest numbers for Quackity to remember, it had so many fours in it.

He held it up to his ear and heard it ring a few times, unsure of whether or not it would be answered with the time difference.

He hoped Karl hadn’t gone to bed yet.

Then the beeping stopped.

“Hello?” he heard Karl’s voice come unsure and groggy, like he had just woken up.
"Whose this?”.

"Hey Karl, it’s me” Quackity said, fiddling a bit with the hem of the shirt and the washed off print of some summer camp he had never heard of.

“Quackity, hey, is everything okay? me and Sapnap were worried when you didn’t call us to say good night” Karl asked, sounding tired and Quackity felt a bit guilty for waking him up.

"Oh, um, sorry” Quackity tried to stifle a sniff and took a deep breath. He didn’t wanna start crying again on call.

“Q?... Is everything okay? you sound upset?” Karl asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine” Quackity looked up at one of Charlie's polaroids on the wall.
"I was um… I was mugged” Quackity admitted.

"Oh my god, are you okay? did you get hurt?” Karl asked, Quackity could hear the shuffling of covers being moved.

“Yeah, I'm okay. I was with Charlie when it happened, and I just got home from the police station” Quackity’s voice was small, his eyes glossing over.

"I’m really sorry Karl” Quackity apologized, trying to hold back the tears.

"For what? Quackity you have nothing to be sorry for” Karl said.

"I lost your pokemon card” Quackity wiped at his cheeks, feeling a few tears escape his eyes. .
"I’m so sorry”.

"Hey, it’s okay, don’t cry” Karl said, trying his best to comfort Quackity through the phone, and Quackity tried his best to just keep breathing.

“Quackity, I don’t care about the card. I'm just glad you're okay and safe” Karl said to him, and Quackity could hear both concern and relief in his voice.

"But it was your lucky card…” Quackity sniffed again.

“I don't need a card to be lucky. I have you, and Sapnap” Quackity could almost hear Karl's smile through the phone.
"And my pink socks, of course” Karl said, getting Quackity to chuckle weakly.

"Don’t stress about it, love” Karl said.
“Besides, you know what this means. We just gotta play a shit ton of dance dance revolution to get that other card from the arcade. That could be a fun date idea, right?” Karl suggested, trying to get Quackity’s mind on other things.

Quackity sniffed again, smiling slightly.
"Yeah. I'd like that”.

"Great, it's a date then” Karl smiled, letting a quiet moment last between them as Quackity breathed and whipped his cheeks again.

"Do you want me to stay on the line with you till you fall asleep? I can go find Sapnap” Karl offered.

"Nah, I gotta give Fundy his phone back again. Can you tell Sapnap what happened? I'm getting a new phone tomorrow, but he should still know” Quackity asked.

"That’s gonna be a fun breakfast topic” Karl joked.
"But yeah, I'll tell him- Okay so, Tina is giving me the death glare, I better go” Karl said, making Quackity laugh again.

"Okay. I love you, give Sapnap a kiss from me” Quackity smiled and sniffed before wiping the wet from his cheeks.

"I love you too, and I'm glad you're okay. Sweet dreams, Q” Karl said, lingering a moment longer before Quackity hung up for him, knowing Karl wouldn’t do it.

Quackity closed the phone and sighed.

His luck really needed to turn around, but at least tomorrow would be a new day.

Chapter Text

The wall looking out over the parking lot was covered in graffiti art of old video game fighting characters, a few weird monsters and explosions behind them. There were so many colors used in the wall mural that Quackity was surprised he hadn’t gained a headache yet.

Over the entrance doors was a sign reading in shining lights, Lucky Strike Fenway.

It was a pretty big arcade, a buffet and bowling alley inside along with old arcade games and a giant laser tag room.

Niki had been so kind as to offer a ride along to Charlie and him, saving the two boys from having to navigate the bus system.

It was close to eight pm by now. According to Wilbur, they had rented the laser tag room from eight to nine. But rather than going inside, the group had decided to wait outside for the last few people.

A rather big group had formed, there were a few people Quackity recognized from his classes, but still strangers. Charlie stood loyally by his side, having a good sense of how nervous Quackity could be around new people.

Quackity couldn’t help but notice how social Wilbur was.

It was like no matter where Quackity looked, Wilbur was carrying a conversation with the people in the group.

Quackity shouldn’t have found that as impressive as he did.

Quackity heard more than saw a blonde boy jumping and babbling around a taller guy with pink hair. The blonde looked like he was sixteen, but tall. He wore a red t-shirt with a spiderman spray paint logo on it.

the other guy’s brunette roots of the long pink hair was starting to peek through. The guy was taller than Wilbur, and he looked insanely strong even while wearing a hoodie with a pig wearing wings printed on it.

Where did Wilbur even know a sixteen year old and a buff pink haired guy from?

"Yo Quackity, let me introduce you to my brothers, Tommy and Technoblade” Wilbur appeared next to him, putting his arm over Quackity’s shoulder as he pulled him closer and started to walk towards the people Quackity had just been looking at.

The sound of Wilbur's voice was apparently enough to stop the blonde kid from jumping around and turning to face them.
"Wilby! tubbo just texted, they’re on the bus right now” the blonde smiled wide, full of excitement.

"That's great” Wilbur smiled, coming to a stop and nodded his head down at Quackity.
“This is Quackity from my debate club. Quackity, these are my brothers, Tommy and Techno“ Wilbur said, referring to the two guys in front of him as he pointed out their names.

"Hello” the younger guy, Tommy said in a gruff voice that sounded a bit fake, but he had a smile no less.

"Yo, that's the guy that bested you? bruh” Techno chuckled in a monotone voice. It was a lot deeper than Wilburs and it lacked the British accent Quackity had grown used to from Wilbur.

Quackity looked between Wilbur and Technoblade.
“I thought you were british?” Quackity said confused, Wilbur and Tommy laughing

"We’re step brothers” Technoblade answered and looked at Tommy for a long moment, before staring at Wilbur.
"Thank god”

“You love us, big man,” Tommy grinned, immediately starting to use Techno as a punching bag, hitting his fist against Techno’s shoulder and jumping.
Techno looked completely uninterested in entertaining Tommy's antics.

“Techno is american, his mom married our dad when we were thirteen” Wilbur explained, looking at Quackity again.

"Oh okay” Quackity nodded.

“You never questioned my accent before,” Wilbur noted.

“Well, I just kinda thought you were an international student for the longest time, then it got too awkward to ask” Quackity blushed and moved his hand up to rub at his neck.

Wilbur chuckled and pulled Quackity closer with his arm resting over Quackity's shoulder so they stood close. Quackity blushed even more. Quackity chose to look over at Tommy and Techno again.

Techno now had a hand on Tommy’s head, holding Tommy out of reach, while Tommy fought to hit him again.

"It’s almost eight, should we head inside soon?” Quackity asked and looked up at Wilbur again.

"Yeah, we just need Tommy’s friends to show up” Wilbur nodded, laughing as he watched Tommy flail his arms around.

Quackity nodded, looking up at the sign hanging over the entrance doors.

This was gonna be fun.

…………….

THE FERAL BOIS CHAT

MexicanDream : Hello friends of Quackity the Law major. I was asked to inform you that he is currently in the ER, being seen by a doctor, but he is alright and will text you soon.
(Today at 21:48 PM)

PandasPVP : WHAT!?
PandasPVP : WAT HAPPENED?!????
(Today at 21:49 PM)

Retroman : WHO IS THIS!!???!!!??
(Today at 21:50 PM)

MexicanDream : Charlie Slimecicle the Athletics and Sports major. I am a friend of Quackity the law major.
(Today at 21:50 PM)

404notfound : is this a troll?
404notfound : Quackity this isn’t funny
(Today at 21:51 PM)

PandasPVP : WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!
(Today at 21:51 PM)

Retroman : is Quackity okay?!
(Today at 21:51 PM)

Mamacita : wtf is going on.
(Today at 21:52 PM)

MexicanDream : Quackity the law major is alright. He was in a laser tag accident.
MexicanDream : the bleeding was minimal and immediately taken care of
(Today at 21:55 PM)

PandasPVP : BLEEDING?!?!?!?
(Today at 21:55 PM)

Retroman : HES BLEEDING?!
Retroman : QUACKITY
(Today at 21:55 PM)

MexicanDream : Hey guys, I'm so sorry.
MexicanDream : I just got my phone, and I'm on my way back to campus
(Today at 22:17 PM)

PandasPVP : QUACKITY ARE YOU OKAY?!
(Today at 22:17 PM)

Retroman : OH THANK GOD
(Today at 22:17 PM)

MexicanDream : it’s cool guys, I'm on a lot of pain meds right now, but my face is fine.
(Today at 22:19 PM)

Retroman : your face??!
(Today at 22:19 PM)

PandasPVP : you were bleeding from your face?? are you okay???
(Today at 22:20 PM)

Mamacita : what happened????
(Today at 22:21 PM)

404notfound : I hope you’re okay man
(Today at 22:22 PM)

MexicanDream : I'm okay, I went laser tagging with some friends, I got smacked and fell. I’m kinda dizzy right now and these pills are gonna knock me out soon. My friend Charlie is staying with me in my dorm tonight, so I'm not alone.
MexicanDream : I'll tell you more when I wake up. But I'm okay, I promise, sorry I scared you.
(Today at 22:24 PM)

PandasPVP : we love you, please texts us when you feel better <3<3<3
(Today at 22:25 PM)

Retroman : I love you Q! I hope you feel better tomorrow! <3<3<3<3
(Today at 22:25 PM)

404notfound : ew, Dream they’re being gross again
404notfound : feel better soon, big Q
(Today at 22:26 PM)

Mamacita : leave them alone George. See you tomorrow Quack, sleep tight
(Today at 22:27 PM)

MexicanDream : love you too <3<3
MexicanDream : I'll vc you tomorrow
(Today at 22:28 PM)

………..

To say Sapnap and Karl were glued to their phones for the rest of the night was an understatement.

Rationally they knew there was nothing they could do. Quackity was asleep and over 4000 miles away from them.

But that wouldn’t stop them from over thinking and reading about all they could on facial injuries. They had no idea how Quackity got hurt, how bad it was or what type of injury it is.

All they knew was that Quackity was bleeding from his face.

They worried to no end. What if Quackity had a skull fracture or a concussion? Everyone knows you shouldn’t sleep with a concussion, he could go into a coma or even die. Or what if the wound was infected? What if Quackity needed surgery? or got a deformed face?

That would not help Quackity’s confidence in the slightest, especially with his anxiety.

They stayed up till four in the morning reading up on anything that could be considered relevant. Anything from how to take care of scars to worst case infections.

The only reason they even went to bed was because George took away their phones and physically forced them to bed.

Being tucked into bed had never felt as aggressive.

Sapnap and Karl only managed to sleep about four hours before they’re concern became unbearable again.

Thankfully Quackity texted them around nine in the morning to call.

So now Sapnap and Karl sat in front of an open computer in Sapnap’s dorm room, waiting for Quackity to join their vc, while Dream and George loomed over their shoulders.

It took a minute but eventually Quackity’s icon popped into the vc.
"Hey guys” Quackity’s voice sounded tired and groggy, his icon lighting up slightly at the sound.

"Hey love. Are you okay?” Karl asked almost immediately.

“Yeah, I'm fine, I just woke up a bit ago and took some more painkillers,” Quackity explained, and they heard what they could only assume was a strained yawn.
"But I'm okay”.

“Oh thank god, we were so worried about you” Sapnap put a hand over his heart, like a small bit of concern and fear had been lifted off his shoulders, but his shoulders were still tense.

"You should have seen them. They were freaking themselves out with google researches” Dream said, putting his hands on the back of Sapnap’s chair.

"Aw, I’m sorry I scared you” Quackity’s little icon lightened up green as he spoke.

“It’s alright big Q, as long as you’re okay” Karl smiled to the camera.

"Can you turn on your face cam? I really need to see you, or my brain won’t shut up” Sapnap leaned closer to the computer.

"They’ve been a mess all night” George chuckled.

“I… I don’t know if it’s a good idea. I look pretty busted if I’m honest” Quackity said, his icon lightning up with each word.

“Quackity my love, I always want to see your pretty face, Please love” Sapnap pouted and clapped his hands together in a plea.

George groaned,
"You’re so gross”.

Quackity chuckled slightly through his mic.
“Fine. But you asked for it” Quackity said and then a moment later Quackity’s icon got switched out by a video cam of his bed and Quackity, leaning against a mountain of pillows.

When Quackity said he looked busted, he was not lying. His left eye was covered by an adhesive bandage, held in place by more bandages running around his head. His cheek was still swollen and red. There was a small rift on top of his lip by the left side.

“Ouch” Dream hissed as he looked it over through the screen.

“Dear god, you look like shit” George said truthfully. Sapnap turned around in his chair and hit George in the chest.
“Dude!”

“What! He does” George defended, rubbing the spot sapnap hit.

"It’s not that bad, is it?” Quackity frowned.

Karl shook his head,
"No! No, you look great. A bit tired, but it’s understandable. But when you get the bandages off, I’m sure it’ll be back to normal” Karl tried to reassure him.

Quackity’s smile strained a bit, from more than just the aching in his face.
“Normal, right”.

“Is something wrong?” Sapnap furrowed his brow, his voice full of concern.

“No, it’s fine, but umm…” Quackity bit his lip.
“I actually had to get stitches. And the doctor said my eyesight might be damaged” Quackity confessed.

“What? You got stitches?!” Karl exclaimed, gripping Sapnap’s arm.

“What kind of illegal laser tag place were you at???” George frowned.

“What happened?” Sapnap asked, even more worried than before.

“Jesus, okay so um. Don’t laugh” Quackity started, moving a bit among his sheets and pillows.
“So I got invited by my friend Wilbur to go laser tagging with his friends. And I thought, why not? What else can I do on a Friday night and it was a great way to like, make some more friends” Quackity shrugged.

“Anyway, we got there and it was really dark, and there were a lot of walls which were decorated with signs and graffiti art. It was actually a really cool place” Quackity smiled.
“Anyway, I went after Wilbur’s brother, Techno. He’s like a huge guy, a big ass monster of a guy, and I thought it would be funny if I managed to get a hit on him”.

“But uh, while I was in a badass duel with him, The guy tackles me, and I fell down some stairs” Quackity saw Karl and Sapnap’s face grow even more worried and quickly added,
"It was only like 3 steps and I barely hit my head”.

“But you hit your face?” Karl frowned.

“How?” Sapnap asked

“So in my fall I accidentally grabbed this one stop sign…” Quackity looked at his hands,
"And ripped it off the wall… which then landed in my face at full velocity” Quackity confessed.

“I was lucky Techno was there, cause over the music you could barely hear me scream, and he ran to the staff and they called an ambulance”

“Holy shit, that’s awful Q” karl worried.

“I guess, but it’s fine. Techno and Wilbur’s parents are apparently rich, like we talk insanely rich, and they offered to pay for the insurance and hospital bills, even though it was an accident” Quack shrugged and smiled.

"Guess I got lucky. I was honestly more worried about what you guys were gonna think of the new.. Facial features” he shrugged, looking a bit more nervous now.

“Oh Quackity, you know we love you no matter what you look like” Karl smiled to him and Sapnap nodded and moved closer, almost all the way into the camera now.
“You know it baby, and as long as you’ll plant those thighs on my shoulders, I’ll worship you any day” he tried to flirt, biting his lip and squinting his eyes, knowing Quackity always laughed at that face.

“Oh my god you are so gross” George groaned in the background.

Sapnap looked over his shoulder,
"Calling gay sex gross is homophobic, Gogy”

“Ow, don’t make me laugh, it pulls on my stitches” Quackity said through a chuckle, moving his hand up to try and keep his cheeks from pulling too far.

"How bad was the actual injury?” Dream then asked before Sapnap and George started hitting at each other like children.

"Well um, I got a small cut here,” Quackity pointed at his lip.
"The doctor said that it would fade away like any other minor cut. But it’s my eye that really took the blow” Quackity said and pointed at where his eyebrow was covered by the bandage.

"It’s kinda big. It starts like right over my eyebrow, then over my eyelid” Quackity moved his hand as he explained.
"And then it ends right under here” Quackity said and pointed barely half an inch under his eye.

Quackity put his hand back down in his lap.
"The doctor gave me this weird face cream to help with the healing process, and I'm getting the stitches removed next week. They said it would heal up pretty nicely” Quackity said.
"But it would leave a permanent scar” he looked down at his hands, pulling at his fingernails.

"I bet it’s gonna look badass” Karl tried to cheer him up,
"You’re gonna look like a cool main character” Karl grinned, making Quackity smile a bit.

“So you're sure you don’t mind it?” Quackity asked.

"If they did, I would kick their asses” George said and leaned in between Karl and Sapnap.

"And I'd let him,” Sapnap nodded in agreement.

"You’re so dumb” Quackity moved a hand up to physically stop his cheeks from smiling too wide.
"Fuck, my face is soar” he mumbled.

"Does the stitches hurt?” Sapnap asked.

"Nah, it's just really itchy. The doctor is gonna remove the stitches in a few days, but it’ll be red and sore for a few weeks” Quackity sighed and relaxed back against his pillows.

"Aw, that really sucks, and right before spring break too. But at least me and Sappy Nappy can play nurse for you then~” Karl winked.

“I knew those zombie doctor costumes you brought during senior year were for more than just Halloween,” George mumbled behind them.

"Oh, spring break… yeah…” Quackity gave an awkward smile, trying not to strain his face, but the furrowed brow gave him away.

Karl and Sapnap’s faces dropped,
"No, please no,” Karl pouted.

"You're not coming home?” Sapnap asked, getting close to the camera again.

“I'm sorry” Quackity sighed.
“My parents normally pay for my plane tickets, but because spring break isn’t really a holiday and I don’t really spend time at home anyway, they said they wouldn’t pay for it if they paid for my phone, and I kinda need my phone” Quackity tried to explain.

"Can’t you buy your own ticket?” George asked.

“I don't have money like that. I don’t have an after school job, my parents want me to focus on school work” Quackity said.

"God has forsaken me” Sapnap whined and slupted up against Karl.

“I’m sorry Sappy” Quackity pouted,
"But at least it’ll only be ten weeks before summer starts” Quackity tried to cheer him up.

"And then we’ll have you to ourselves for 3 months” Sapnap smiled a bit.

"Yeah, 3 perfect long months” Karl placed a kiss on Sapnap’s forehead before looking at the screen again.

"But are you gonna be okay with not coming home?” Karl asked

"I mean… I'm upset of course, but I think I'll be okay. I’ve got a few plans with my friends. We talked about going to the aquarium or maybe bowling. And I'll have Charlie to hang out with” Quackity said, trying to look on the bright side.

"And I'm going to a live performance at a music club. So I won’t be cooped up in my room” Quackity reassured them.

"That’s good. Sounds like a lot of fun” Karl nodded.

"I can’t believe a week ago you hit a mugger in the face, but got sent to the ER during a laser tag accident” George shook his head.

“Quackity is just built differently” Dream chuckled.

"You know it, baby” Quackity winked before moving a hand up to his head and closing his eyes.

"Guys, I think I gotta go. My head hurts and I need to lie down” Quackity said, rubbing his forehead.

"Okay, get some rest, love” Sapnap said.

"We love you” Karl blew him a kiss.

"I love you too” Quackity smiled softly and then waved at the screen.
“Bye” he said before he left the call.

"We should send him flowers” Sapnap immediately looked at Karl as he closed down his computer.

"Oh my god, you are so whipped it’s gross,” George muttered, but let Karl and Sapnap fuss over their phones as they tried to find any flower delivering service for the next hour.

But at least now they knew Quackity was okay.
…………

It started out as an idea Karl and Tina had during art class way back in February.

For some reason Tina and Karl had started talking about skateboarding, and about how Karl used to skate when he was younger. He still had a board from when he was fourteen tugged away somewhere back at his parents place.

That then turned into them planning to go to the skatepark, Tina letting Karl use one of her skateboards as he relearned how to skate properly again.

He had grown significantly taller since he was fourteen years old.

They started going to the skate park close to campus every Wednesday, dragging along a few friends whenever they got the chance, which ended up with Poki and Boomer joining their new little skate group. And of course Sapnap came along whenever he could, supporting his boyfriend and watching for any injuries as Karl tried to learn new tricks.

There had been a few times where Karl’s big eyes and smile had managed to get Sapnap to step onto the skateboard himself, holding his hands as Sapnap had both legs planted on the board with shaking knees, struggling to keep his balance on the board as it slid back and forth under his feet.

But in the end it was decided that Karl would be the skater boy in their relationship, and Sapnap would keep his feet planted firmly on the ground.

But slowly, the skatepark had become a regular hangout spot for their friend group. A few of the ramps were covered in big graffiti masterpieces. Not a lot of people stayed this late in the evening at the park, the streetlights had turned up well over two hours ago, and lit up the skatepark for them.

Right now Tina and Karl were some of the only people skating up and down the small ramps. Sapnap, George, Dream and Punz were sitting at one of the park benches, eating fast food Sapnap had brought from the grill after work, and drinking beers Punz had managed to get his hands on.

Looking over, you could see they were in a heated argument.

"Dude, you are fucking insane if you think anyone is gonna believe that” Sapnap yelled at Dream, pointing at his best friend.

“It is a valid excuse and it should be taken seriously,” Dream argued back at him.

"I don’t know man, it's a reach” Punz shrugged before taking a sip at his beer, not nearly as invested in the argument.

"It would never fucking work” Sapnap stated for the tenth time.

"Yes it would. You’re not fucking listening” Dream smacked his hand down against the table. George rolled his eyes and looked away to watch Karl roll up and down the ramps, trying out a few tricks he had been practicing.

“Okay, that’s it I’m calling my boyfriend” Sapnap threatened, pulling out his phone with more force than needed and dialed up Quackity’s number. He put the phone on speaker, held it up in between Dream and himself.

It rang a few times, a bit longer than normal before it was picked up.

“Hello?” A tired and slurred response came from the phone.

“Quackity, is it murder if you kill a guy dressed as Big Foot, because you thought it was the real Big Foot?” Dream grabbed Sapnap's hand and asked over the phone before Sapnap could greet his boyfriend.

“… Hello to you too Dream” Quackity then said after a moment. He sounded like he had just woken up.

"Oh did we wake you?” Sapnap asked, pulling his hand out of Dream’s loose grip and closer to himself.

"Eh, kinda, but it's okay” Quackity yawned, talking quietly. Sapnap looked at the time on his phone. It was close to ten pm here, meaning it was properly one am where Quackity was.

"What was the question again?” Quackity asked.

"Is it murder if you kill a guy dressed as Big Foot, because you thought it was the real Big Foot?” Sapnap repeated the question slowly for Quackity. He could hear Quackity hum as he thought it over on the other end.

"Well, The intent to kill was there, but you thought you weren’t killing a person. That would be an act of ‘mistake or fact’ defense” Quackity let out another yawn. They heard the shuffling of sheets, Quackity sitting up in an attempt to wake up more.

“But for that defense to work the mistake has to be both honest and reasonable, and no court would deem ‘thinking Big Foot is real’ as reasonable. You’d probably get charged for manslaughter” Quackity kept explaining.

"Hah, I told you” Sapnap stuck his tongue out at Dream.

"A better excuse would be you thought the person was a deer or something, so it sounds like a hunting accident” Quackity noted.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever” Dream crossed his arms and began to sulk.

Sapnap was about to make fun of him when his attention caught something on Quackity’s side of the line. It sounded like more sheets were shuffling around and then a stranger’s voice.

"Quackity?” the person sounded just as tired and groggy as Quackity, like they had just woken up as well. He heard Quackity shush and mumble something to the stranger, but Sapnap couldn’t hear what was said.

Sapnap frowned,
"Babe? Whose that?” he asked.

"Mhm? Oh, it’s just Charlie. His roommate kicked him out because of a date and he's trying to get laid. So Charlie's sleeping at my place” Quackity explained, before he seemed to say something to Charlie.

“Hallo Sapnap the programming major” came the stranger’s, Charlie's voice again.

"Oh, hey” Sapnap greeted back.
"I heard you’ve been looking after Quackity, thanks for that” Sapnap said, not really sure what else to say.

"Don’t mention it. I'd do anything for Quackity the law major” Charlie said again, his voice sounding more and more muffled again, like he was speaking into a pillow.

"Go back to sleep Charlie, I'll go outside and chat” Quackity told Charlie. Sapnap would have heard the sound of sheets moving and a door open and shut, if it weren't for the sound of wheels rolling up behind him.

He felt two arms slided around his shoulders, and looking down he saw the purple sleeves of Karl's sweater.

“I heard the sound of the world's cutest sleepy voice,” Karl said, resting his head on top of Sapnap's hair.

"I’m on the phone with Quackity” Sapnap tilted his head back slightly, answering as if Karl couldn’t see Quackity’s name on his screen.

"Hey Karl” Quackity’s tired voice come through.

“Hey love,” Karl smiled, then started to clap on Sapnap's shoulders.
“Facetime, facetime, facetime'' Karl started to chant under his breath, one foot rolling back and forth the skateboard on the concrete.

“Do you mind, Quackity love? Karl is holding my shoulders hostage“ Sapnap said, letting Karl clap on his shoulders over and over again.

"No, not your shoulders. I better save them then” Quackity chuckled.

A moment later a facetime request from Quackity popped up on his screen, and Sapnap accepted it immediately.

Quackity looked like he was falling asleep while standing, his hair was tousled and so comfy in Karl's multi-colored hoodie. His eyes were drowsy, blinking to try and stay awake.

“Hey, you stole my hoodie again, I've been looking for that hoodie since christmas,” Karl said with a playful pout.

"It's warm and comfy, suck it” Quackity said, pulling the hood over his hair, mindful of his eyepatch.
"And I'm not giving it back” Quackity stuck his tongue out at them.

"Aw, but it's my favorite,” Karl pretended to complain.

"Make a new one then” Quackity said before snickering, leaning back against the dorm hallway wall. He let out a big yawn, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Do you guys wanna see something cool?” Quackity asked, trying hard not to smile.

“Sure” Sapnap smiled, leaning his head back against Karl’s chest.

Quackity moved the camera closer to his face, then Quackity gave them the biggest, brightest smile they had ever seen, like he was a five year old told to smile for a family photo.

And there, in the left side of his mouth shined a gold plated tooth.

“Yo! You got a gold tooth?” Sapnap asked excitedly.
“Yep!” Quackity couldn’t stop grinning, the cut on his lip almost healed.

“I thought you wanted to wait with getting your tooth gold plated?” Karl asked amused.

“I had to get my tooth fixed cause it cracked in the fall” Quackity pointed at his eye and the eyepatch bandage still covering it.

“And like, do you know how much it costs to get a gold crown without insurance? Anywhere from 800 to 2,500 dollars. But with insurance it’s like half the price, and those Soot folks really want me to keep my mouth shut apparently, so I got it done now” Quackity moved his phone out of his face and shrugged as he yawned again.

"Free of charge. Only cost my eye” Quackity joked and winked to them.

"I like it, it looks cool,” Sapnap complimented him.
"How does your face feel?” he then asked.

"Better, these painkillers are making everything feel numb. It itches a bit sometimes, but the cream helps” Quackity closed his eyes, struggling to keep them open.

“What are you guys doing?” Quackity asked.

“Just at the skatepark, and Karl is refusing to wear a helmet,” Sapnap said.

“I can’t fit Tina’s helmet,” Karl defended himself.

“You should wear a helmet, it’s safer” Quackity mumbled with his eyes closed. He took a deep breath and forced his eyes open.

“Guys, I'm falling asleep where I'm standing” Quackity muttered.

"Okay, we’ll let you go back to sleep” Sapnap smiled, Karl leaned over his shoulder.

“Goodnight love, sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite” Karl giggled and blew Quackity a kiss.

“Goodnight dumb dumbs” Quackity smiled before he hang up.

Karl got off Sapnap and leaned down to pick up the skateboard, before sliding onto the bench right next to Sapnap.
“He looks better today, the swelling is almost gone” Karl noted and stole one of the fries from the tray in front of Sapnap.

“Yeah, but those painkillers sure knock him out” Sapnap said and shoved his phone back into his pocket. Sapnap grabbed three fries in one go and dipped them in his ketchup.

"Okay, I gotta ask. What's the appeal?” Punz's voice asked from across the table.

"What do you mean? fries are good, you're insane bro” Karl said and dipped another one of Sapnaps fries in ketchup before eating it.

"No, like your boyfriend. The one across the states?” Punz clarified.

"What do you… mean?” Sapnap asked again for them, looking at Punz confused.

"What's the appeal? like the whole polygone thing I get, the more bitches the better” Punz shrugged.

"Polyamourse” Karl corrected him.
"And he's appealing because we love him, duh” Karl snatched another fry.

"Yeah, but long distance? it just seems like more maintenance than perks. What's the deal? He gives good head?” Punz asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, and this is why I have a happy three year long relationship, and you're single,” Sapnap said unimpressed.

"I mean, does he give good head?” Karl asked with a chuckle as he stole the entire tray of fries, leaning up against Sapnap’s shoulder

“Karl, you know very well Quackity melts my brain with that mouth, but that's besides the point” Sapnap shrugged with a grin.

"Wait, why don’t you know if he's good?” Punz asked Karl.

"I don’t like sex” Karl said.
"I already told you I'm ace”.

Punz just blinked.
"I still don’t get why you bother with the long distance relationship. Is it easier not having sex when you’re gay?” Punz asked.

"I’m not gay” both Sapnap and Karl said at the same time.

Punz blinked, looking between them and then asking.
"What”.

"I’m bi. I like men, women, anyone” Sapnap reminded him.

"And I'm a demi asexual person” Karl rolled his eyes, now completely putting all his weight over on Sapnap’s side.
"I'm starting to think we forgot to come out to you” he muttered.

"All these labels are confusing. Do you like dick or not?” Punz asked, a bit agitated.

"Very much so”

"I don’t like anything”

Punz took a deep breath, moving his hands over his face and over his blonde hair. He took a deep breath as he tried to ask again.
"I just, why the long distance? aren’t you worried he's gonna find someone else? four years is a long time to wait” he asked.

"Okay, I get why you ask, but… you’re starting to sound like an asshole. We’re working on this long distance relationship because we love each other. We go far back, it’s not just some highschool fling” Sapnap started to explain.

"We don’t need any other reasons to be with him. We just love him” Karl smiled.
"So shut your trap” Karl pointed a french fry at Punz before eating it.

"Alright, I'll back off” Punz leaned his arms onto the table, using one hand to grab his beer,
“I was just asking” Punz sipped his beer.

"Oh my god, Punz you are literally asking for them to start simping for Quackity again. They’re already complaining about Quackity not coming home for spring break and my ears are bleeding. So stop” George groaned on his other side, Dream’s arm over his shoulders.

Punz rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything further on the subject.

"Thank you” George sighed.
"And you two,” George turned to Sapnap and Karl, watching them both perk up with their mouths full of fries.

“I don’t get why you don’t just visit him instead,” George stated.

“What?” Karl blinked, swallowing the fries he was chewing on.

“Go visit him over there. I mean, you both have jobs, and that money jar you made is practically already full. You should have enough for two tickets, right?”

“I mean, we have like 350 dollars in it, right? What does a ticket cost?” Sapnap asked, looking at Karl as if he knew the answer.

“350, wait what ”Dream looked up at them.

Karl pulled out his phone and searched up flights to Boston, typing and scrolling over his screen for a good minute.
"The cheapest I can find is like 250 per person” Karl looked up at Sapnap again

"I got 400 dollars on my card for the rest of the month,” Sapnap said.

“I have like 500, and my parents send me money every week if I need it” Karl said. They looked at each other like they were sharing one brain cell between them.

"So… we can go to Boston and still take Quackity out on a romantic date” Sapnap stated for both of them, Karl nodding next to him.

They spend the rest of the time at the skatepark talking to each other, looking into good cheap flights, romantic places they could maybe take Quackity, how they could get into Harvard campus without Quackity knowing to surprise him.

And finally, they booked the tickets

Chapter Text

“I just think we should stick to the view on public shootings and the problematic glorification of guns,” Quackity said as he typed on his computer. Once his sentence was done, he looked over the screen at Wilbur.

The taller guy laid lounging on Quackity’s dorm bed, one arm behind his head as he looked right back at Quackity.
“I just think it's important to prepare for the basic arguments as well. A lot of American gun owners love to drag in the declaration of independence to back themselves up” Wilbur said, waving his hand dismissively.

They had been working together on debate arguments all afternoon. It had taken them weeks to settle on a debate topic, with Wilbur often coming up with weird or unrelatable topics for a debate before Quackity suggested gun control.

Wilbur didn’t even consider protesting it before agreeing.

So here they sat, in Quackity’s room, on the Friday afternoon that started their spring break. Quackity had been typing away on his computer as Wilbur read through articles on his phone and lounged it on Quackity’s bed, trying more than once to distract the other.

“I know, but it’s been said so many times, it’s just gonna go in a circle” Quackity said and opened a new tab on his computer to do a new google search.

“How about I handle the repetitive things then and let you bring in the new arguments if it’s such a challenge for you” Wilbur snickered, looking over at Quackity with a smug grin.

“Did you just insinuate that I can't handle repetitive tasks? that is hardly a challenge” Quackity turned his nose up at Wilbur, clearly playing along with the other’s antics.

Wilbur closed his phone, putting it down and turning to lay on his side with his head prompted up in his hand.
"My apologies, how about you come over here and I give you a challenge then~” Wilbur’s grin turned soft and when Quackity looked up he met Wilbur’s hooded eyes across the edge of his computer screen.

“You'd love that wouldn’t you, twat” Quackity rolled his eyes as he laughed at his own awful accent, before turning back to his screen. He didn’t see the way Wilbur's face fell ever so slightly.

"Hey Big Q” Wilbur drew his attention back to him once again.
"Hey Wilbur” Quackity said back at him as he typed before he looked up at Wilbur again.

"I was wondering if-”

It knocked on the door.

"Hold that thought” Quackity excused and got up from his chair.

“Are you expecting someone?” Wilbur asked, flipping back to laying on his back, bouncing a bit on the bed.
"No, not really,” Quackity said as it knocked again.

"Coming!” Quackity called through the door as he opened it, but jumped as he came face to face with a bouquet of flowers and two loud boys yelling,
"Surprise!”

It scared Quackity so much he jumped back and held his heart, but despite that, he was laughing.
"Oh my god” he laughed as Karl moved in through the door, dropping his backpack before hugging Quackity and kissing his right cheek over and over again.

"Hi! oh my god, what are you guys doing here?” Quackity laughed and finally gave Karl a proper kiss as he hugged him.

"We came to visit you” Sapnap said, still holding the flowers as he dropped his bag onto the floor by the door. He leaned in and kissed Quackity, before he pulled back and noticed Wilbur on the bed, who was watching with a stunned look.

“Who's that?” Sapnap asked with a furrowed brow.

"Oh, uh” Quackity turned around and looked at Wilbur, having completely forgotten his presence for a moment.
"That’s Wilbur” Quackity said and turned his attention to the guy on his bed.

“Wilbur, this is Sapnap and Karl, my um… boyfriends” Quackity blushed.

“Yeah, I, uh gather so much” Wilbur said, still looking surprised.

"I haven’t told him about the poly thing” Quackity told Karl and Sapnap.

"No, you haven't,” Wilbur confirmed.
“I mean, I knew you had a boyfriend, I just didn’t think you had one for each hand” Wilbur chuckled and got up from Quackity’s bed.

"But it’s nice to meet you” Wilbur smiled and offered his hand out to Sapnap first.
Sapnap moved the flower bouquet to his other hand and shook Wilbur's hand.
"You too. You’re the guy from the debate club, right?” Sapnap asked.

"Oh so you talk about me, I'm honored” Wilbur chuckled and looked at Quackity with fond eyes.

“Quackity talks about all his friends” Karl said, kissing Quackity’s cheek again, still having his arms around him.

“I mean, I don't know why I would be surprised, especially with how we met” Wilbur said.

"Oh, and about that, I am so sorry about the cup incident” Wilbur said before he noticed how Quackity paled.
"Which I am now realizing you properly didn’t know about” Wilbur bit his lip.

"What incident?” Sapnap asked and looked at Quackity.

"Oh it’s nothing really” Quackity reassured them.
"Just the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me” Quackity rubbed at his neck.

"More embarrassing than the time your pants ripped in front of-” Karl started but Quackity slapped his hand over his mouth.
"Yes, more embarrassing than that. But no need to tell Wilbur about that” Quackity now blushed, bringing the color back to his face.

“Wait, no I wanna hear this. He ripped his pants in front of who?” Wilbur laughed.

"I’d much rather hear about the cup incident” Sapnap interrupted, looking from Wilbur to Quackity again.

Quackity only blushed more.
“Let's just say I’m never drinking out of a solo cup again” Quackity said.

“Quackity grabbed a pink cup that was code for ‘I wanna fuck’, without knowing that. And I hit on him and told him what the cup meant. He then proceeded to run off” Wilbur explained in minimal detail.

"You’ve never told us that?” Sapnap chuckled light hearted and looked at Quackity again.

"Yeah cause I was beyond embarrassed and don’t wanna talk about it” Quackity moved his hand off Karl's mouth before his boyfriend decided to lick it.

"You should have seen him. He was completely red in the face” Wilbur puffed to Sapnap.

"Right” Sapnap nodded, before he handed the flowers to Quackity.
"These are for you” Sapnap smiled.

"Aw, thank you” Quackity took them, happy to change the topic of conversation.
"You’re both so sweet” Quackity sniffed the flowers.

“I think I might still have the vase I borrowed from Charlie” Quackity muttered to himself and turned to look around his dorm room for it. Both Sapnap and Karl looked at each other before looking at Wilbur, smiling politely, unsure of what to say to a guy that just admitted to hitting on their boyfriend.

"Um, Wilbur, do you mind if we reschedule the rest of this session for some other time?” Quackity asked as he finally found the vase and turned back to the three guys.

"Of course, I can see you’ll be busy for the next few hours” Wilbur chuckled with a wink and grabbed his long coat from the foot of the bed.
"But you’re still coming tomorrow, right?” Wilbur asked as he pushed his arm through the sleeve.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world. Uh, can Sapnap and Karl come too?” Quackity asked and looked between his boyfriends and then at Wilbur again.

"Of course, the more people the better. Makes our chances at getting another show better too” Wilbur smiled and stepped towards the door and past Sapnap.
“I'll get them on the list for you” Wilbur said and turned to give a final departing nod to Quackity.

“Have fun you three” Wilbur snickered before closing the door after himself.

“He sure has character” Sapnap said after a moment and looked at Quackity and Karl.

"More than you would believe” Quackity said and walked over to kiss Sapnap again.
“Okay so, I'm gonna get these flowers some water, and when I get back, I think you two deserve a proper greeting,” Quackity grinned and turned to the door.

"I do love the sound of that” Sapnap smacked Quackity’s ass as he passed by him. Quackity shot him a smug and knowing look as he walked out of the door.

Karl looked around the room, looking over Quackity’s textbooks and the familiar figurines Karl had gifted him through the years. Karl spotted the photo frame of their prom photo, the star stickers were starting to fade, but the glitter was still secure.

"His room is a lot smaller than I imagined” Karl said and flopped down into Quackity’s chair as Sapnap shoved his duffle bag over to the dresser by the wall

"I mean it’s a dorm room for one person, which is already pretty great” Sapnap said and flopped down on the foot of the bed. Karl hummed in agreement and turned to look at Quackity’s still open computer screen, seeing the document with the debate notes before looking away again.

The door opened again as Quackity stepped in, holding the vase of flowers in his hands.
"You guys are so amazing, flying all the way out here just to visit me” Quackity smiled as he kicked the door closed again with his heel before walking over to his desk and placing the vase down.

"We just missed you too much to resist the urge any longer” Karl winked up to him, making Quackity snort a laugh

"Well, I better make the trip worth your while then” Quackity flirted back.

"Oh please, just seeing your smile as you opened the door was beyond worth it” Sapnap grinned to him.

They could see from how pink Quackity’s cheeks were growing, he was getting flustered.
"Oh shut up” Quackity mumbled and fixed the head of one of the flowers one last time.

“Now, who wants a kiss?” Quackity asked and laughed as Sapnap and Karl flew up and scrambled to get in each other’s way to reach him.

Karl fell into Quackity first and they landed on bed behind him, Sapnap soon bouncing a landing himself, and they both tried to shove each other off as Quackity laughed loudly.

“Guys, you’re gonna get hurt, come here” Quackity stopped them once he managed to breathe again, grabbing Sapnap’s shirt and pulling him in for a deep kiss first.

He could practically feel Sapnap melt as he put his hands up on his cheeks.
“Don’t hog him, I want a turn” Karl laughed next to them and Quackity pulled out of the kiss.

“You’re so impatient” Quackity said before Karl kissed him.

It was a bit of a struggle to fit on the small bed, there was barely enough space for two people, so three was a real tight squeeze. But in the end they ended up with Sapnap on his back, Karl next to him and Quackity laying on top of Sapnap.

The only thing harder than fitting on the bed was being able to breathe before he got another kiss.

“I can’t believe you two came all the way here just to visit me” Quackity said, playing with Sapnap’s hair.

“We told you, 500 miles and 500 more” Karl chuckled, making Quackity laugh in turn.
"Ow, stop being dorky, my face is gonna sore” Quackity said and had to put a hand on his left cheek to keep himself from smiling too hard.

"How’s your eye?” Sapnap asked and looked over the reddish scar running like a wonky thin line down Quackity’s eye. They both knew the few stitches Quackity had were removed almost a week ago, but it was still red and irritated.

"It’s fine. The doctor said my eye should be okay, but I might need reading glasses” Quackity said and blinked his eye slightly as he removed his hand.

"Does kissing hurt?” Karl asked. They hadn’t even thought about that, before they started covering him in affection.

"Not really, but don’t aim for it. I don’t think kissing it better is a good idea” Quackity chuckled and leaned over to kiss Karl again.

"Okay good, we will do our best” Karl hummed into the kiss and stroked a hand along Quackity’s back.

“So, what’s happening tomorrow?” Sapnap asked as Quackity pulled back from the kiss with Karl. They knew Quackity had made plans for spring break, and they didn’t wanna ruin those plans if they could just tag along.

“Mhm? Oh, Wilbur is doing a live show with his band. Charlie and I got invited along with some other friends” Quackity said and folded his hands on top of Sapnap’s chest.

"He’s in a band?” Sapnap asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, he writes songs and plays the guitar. It’s their first gig too, it’s gonna be great” Quackity said excited.

"Sounds like fun” Karl agreed as Sapnap nodded along.

"What other plans do you have?” Sapnap asked, holding onto Quackity’s waist.

"Oh well, me and some guys were gonna go to the aquarium on Tuesday, and then Charlie suggested we went sightseeing, or maybe bowling. Nothing is really set in stone” Quackity said and smoothed his hand over Sapnap’s shirt like he was brushing off dust.
“I actually had plans tonight with some friends, we were gonna play some poker” Quackity confessed.

"If it’s cool with your friends, we could come along and meet them?” Karl suggested, and watched as Quackity seemed to beam at the idea.

"I can ask them” Quackity shot up, knocking the air out of Sapnap's chest as he grabbed his phone and started to type on the phone.

And that’s how an hour later, they ended up on the bus.

Sapnap and Karl had no idea where they were, watching the houses and shops pass by outside the bus windows. It made them a tiny bit nervous, but Quackity seemed to know where they were going, so they must be on the right track.

Quackity checked the time a few times and what looked to be a map on his screen. But nothing seemed to be wrong, so they didn’t bother to worry.

And soon enough, Quackity tapped their shoulders and told them their stop was coming up.

The bus driver slammed the breaks, making them grap the poles and seats around them to remain on their feet. They hurried off the bus.

"Hey, um. I know I've joked about this with you. But, I really need you to like Charlie” Quackity said as the doors of the bus closed and it drove off.
"I’ve told you about his behavior already, but I really need you to give him a chance. It matters a lot to me” Quackity said.

"Of course, love” Karl said and sneaked his hand down to hold Quackity’s own.
"But if he’s your friend, I doubt theres any need for worry. You are a great judge of character” Karl reassured him and squeezed his hand.

"Yeah, but I just… I really want you to like Charlie. My other friends too of course, but Charlie is my best friend” Quackity said as they started to head down the sidewalk towards a block of apartment buildings.

“Q, we’re gonna like him. Don’t worry your pretty head about it” Sapnap said and grabbed Quackity’s free hand and swung it between them.

“Okay” Quackity smiled back at him. He led them off the sidewalk and over to a small apartment building. It had a parking lot out in front of the many doors of the different apartments. They followed Quackity up to one of the ground level doors. He pulled his hand out of Sapnap’s and knocked on the door.

They barely had to wait three seconds before the door was answered by a tall guy with short brown hair, they could spot the edges of tattoos around his biceps peaking out from the sleeve of his shirt.

"Hey, you made it. How was the bus?” the guy smiled wide and stepped to the side to let them in.

"It was good, I hope we’re not too late, I got unsure on which bus was right” Quackity said as he unzipped his jacket.
"Guys, this is Foolish. Foolish, this is Sapnap and Karl” Quackity introduced them.

"Hi, nice to meet you. We talked on the phone. During the brownie incident, remember?” Foolish offered his hand to Sapnap, letting him get his jacket off first.

"Oh, yeah. The guy with the face” Sapnap shook his hand, making Foolish laugh.
Karl whistled as he took off his coat,
“Quackity was right, you do have a calming face” Karl agreed.

"Yes, people tell me that” Foolish said, and moved his hand over to shake Karl’s.
"Well the nachos should be ready soon, and Charlie is already shuffling the cards” Foolish said.

"You guys better not have stacked my cards” Quackity kicked his shoes off and stepped into the living room.

"Hide the evidence!” Sapnap and Karl both heard someone yell. They followed Foolish out of the hallway and spotted Quackity and a ginger guy slapping at each other’s arms, cards laying scattered on the coffee table.
"You can’t prove anything!” the ginger yelled.

"Cheat all you want, I'll beat your ass in poker any day” Quackity said and gave Fundy’s arm a final slap.

A small group of people were sitting around the coffee table, sitting on the couch and chairs dragged over in front of the tv. The table had a dozen soda cans placed on it, along with a pile of toothpicks and a black potholder.

Sapnap and Karl watched as Quackity stepped over and bump his hand with a brunette they recognized from Quackity’s instagram pictures, Charlie. They watched as the handshake continued, smacking their palms together in what seemed like perfect synchronization.

A secret handshake almost.

"Wow, Quackity sure brought the eye candy tonight” someone whistled from the other side of the couch, having noticed Sapnap and Karl hovering in the doorway.

"Guys, this is Sapnap and Karl, my boyfriends” Quackity said and stepped back over to them, grabbing a hold of Sapnap’s arm and pulling him forward to the couch, Karl following along.
"These are my friends. The cheating redhead is Fundy, that’s Charlie” Quackity pointed them out as he said their names.

"Hey” Fundy waved to them.

“Greetings, Sapnap the programming major and Karl the art major” Charlie gave a short nod.

"That’s Sam and Ponk, Foolish’s boyfriends” Quackity said as pointed to the other side of the couch. Taking a free seat in the middle of the couch with Sapnap.

"Wait, are you guys poly too?” Karl asked and smiled to them, sitting down next to Quackity.

"Yep, got a problem with that” Ponk asked, leaning against Sam’s shoulder with a grin, clearly just trying to mess with him.

"Nope, it’s just the first time we’ve met another poly couple” Karl said, putting an arm over Quackity’s shoulder.

"So you two are the infamous Sapnap and Karl” Sam smiled, seeing Quackity blush between them,
“Quackity talks about you quite a lot”.

“No I don't. I'm very normal about it” Quackity said red faced, leaning forward to gather the cards Fundy had been stacking and handing them to Charlie so he could keep shuffling the cards.

“We checked on him after he got smacked in the face. He was so high on pain meds he kept mumbling about you two” Sam leaned forward to grab an open soda off the table.

"I was not” Quackity denied, watching as Charlie started to place cards out in front of all the seats

“Aw, you dream about us? That so cute” Sapnap teased.

“No I don’t. Shut up” Quackity shook his head again. Foolish walked around the couch from the kitchen, carrying a big tray of nachos.

“Careful, it’s hot” he warned as he sat down and put an arm over Sam’s shoulders.
“What are we talking about?” He asked with a smile.

“We’re embarrassing Quackity in front of his boyfriends” Fundy snickered and leaned forward to snatch some of the hot nachos, almost burning his fingers.

“Yes, and you can stop now” Quackity reached for two sodas, handing one to Sapnap and then to Karl, before grabbing one for himself.

“Oh, should we tell them about the drinking game we did then?” Foolish laughed.

“No, you definitely should not” Quackity grew flustered and picked up his cards to look over them before the game started, and to hide his face.

“What drinking game? What happened?” Karl asked before opening his soda, clearly intrigued by this.

“Okay so, I don’t know how open you are in your relationship, but one time they played poker as a drinking game and Quackity got shitfaced and flirted with Foolish” Ponk chuckled at the face Quackity pulled, like he had bitten into a sour lemon.

"Oh he does that. Once we got so tired of our friends George and Dream and their obvious crush on each other, that Quackity got drunk and flirted with Dream, just to piss off George” Karl said.
"George and Dream went home together that night”

“I don't flirt that often” Quackity mumbled behind his cards.
"I think he got confused about who Foolish was, what was it he called you again?” Ponk looked up at Foolish.

"Snappy or something” Foolish laughed lightheartedly.

"I apologized for that” Quackity said without looking up from his cards, his cheeks feeling so warm.

"Aww, you missed me” Sapnap leaned into Quackity’s space.

“Foolish have nice shoulders, and so do you…” Quackity defended himself.

"I liked the attention, so I didn't mind” Foolish reassured him.

"You didn’t like the attention that much when he threw up on your shoes” Sam chuckled.

"You promised we wouldn’t talk about that anymore!” Quackity squealed.

"Oh that is nothing. Two years ago for Halloween, he dressed up as a duck for a Halloween party. Got immensely drunk, and was convinced that he could swim like a duck and almost jumped in the lake” Karl snickered and Quackity threw his cards at him.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up” Quackity smacked his arm and Karl only laughed harder.
After Quackity deemed Karl’s arm had taken enough smacks, he bent down and picked up his cards from the carpet floor.

"You are all so mean to me. Here I am, wanting to introduce my friends to my boyfriends, and you’re all just trying to embarrass me. Shame on you” Quackity waved his finger at them.

“Charlie is my only friend from now on” Quackity said with a firm nod.

“Charlie?” Fundy dared and everyone turned their attention to the quiet brunette.

“Charlie, don’t you dare” Quackity warned.

Charlie looked like a deer caught in headlights, looking from Quackity to the rest of the table, before looking at Quackity again.

“Quackity the law major has an active crush on both of you” Charlie broke the silence.

“Charlie you traitor!” Quackity squealed once again before Karl leaned up against him.
“Aw, you have a crush on us? How embarrassing” he poked his cheek.

“You are my boyfriends! I am allowed to!” Quackity said and once again hid his face behind his cards.

Karl just laughed and picked up his own cards on the table.
"So what are we playing?” Karl asked.

"Texas holdem” Sam said and started to divide the stack of toothpicks to the different people around the table.

"I think I'm just gonna watch, I'm not the biggest poker player” Sapnap said and handed the cards back to Charlie.

"We can teach you if you’d like, Sapnap the programming major” Charlie offered before taking the cards.

"Nah, I wanna hold Quackity since he's being such a simpering mess, and I don’t wanna be accused of cheating” Sapnap shrugged.

"Alright, but the offer is always open, Sapnap the programming major” Charlie smiled wide to him before shuffling the cards in between the rest.

"Just Sapnap is fine” Sapnap tried but Quackity leaned into him and whispered,
"Don’t bother. He calls everyone by their major”.

"Oh okay” Sapnap nodded and relaxed back against the couch cushions.

Once Sam was done dividing the toothpicks among the guests at the table, he quickly explained the rules as he always did, and waved his hand towards Charlie for him to draw the first card.

Sapnap always pictured a poker club would be very quiet, reading each other's moves and quiet expressions. But the table was alive with conversation, sharing more embarrassing stories about Quackity, which then led to Ponk telling Karl and Sapnap the story of how he met Sam and Foolish, and of course he had to mess with them too by showing off his prosthetic arm.

They jumped from one conversation topic to another, folding and betting in between. Sodas were drunk and the nachos in the tray got smaller and smaller. A lot of laughter was shared around the table.

Quackity truly had made some great friends.

Somehow the conversation had shifted over to superhero movies, and Karl and Fundy was in a deep discussion on spiderman and popular fan theories.

"So, what are you’re thoughts on the trans headcanon of Peter Parker’s spiderman? I think it’s good, but I'd keep it more as a headcanon” Karl said as he threw in three tooth picks to the pile.
"Raise”.

"I like it. Honestly, I feel like it would make the bullying a lot more realistic. But don’t let the OG 40 year old fans hear it, god forbid people have creative thinking and opinions” Fundy shrugged and eyed the others as they threw in toothpicks or folded, clearly trying to read their moves. The ginger only had three toothpicks left, so he had to get his shit together.

"God I could really go for some popcorn right now” Ponk muttered and eyed Fundy,
"But I don’t trust a single one of you” he said and Fundy shot him a wink.

"If it’s cool with you, I could go make some. Just tell me where it is?” Sapnap offered.

"Oh that would be amazing. Theres a box in the cupboard over the sink, and our microwave is a bit old, but we usually give it five minutes” Ponk informed him as Sapnap stood up from amongst the couch pillows.

"Alright, and bowls?” he asked as he walked around the coffee table.

"The cupboard next to the fridge” Ponk called after him as Sapnap walked into the open kitchen.

With the clear instructions on where everything, was it didn’t take long for Sapnap to find it. He pulled out a package of popcorn and ripped the plastic off. He placed it inside the microwave and set the timer to five minutes like Ponk said, before he went to find a bowl big enough for it.

"Shit, I'm out of toothpicks” Fundy cursed in the living room, putting his cards down on the table.
"I’m getting us some more drinks” Sapnap heard Fundy get up from his chair and soon after heard the soft footsteps of socks against the tiled floor.

Sapnap shot him a polite smile before turning his attention back onto the microwave, focusing on the popping inside.

"Hey so, um” Fundy spoke lowly as he opened the fridge and pulled out a six pack of Pepsi that he placed on the counter.
“I don't wanna make any drama, but if I were you, I'd keep an eye on Wilbur” Fundy said unprompted, and looked at Sapnap.

"Why?” Sapnap frowned and turned his attention back onto Fundy.

"No reason, I'm just saying” Fundy shrugged, but it was clear from Fundy's eyes alone, that there was something he wasn’t telling. Fundy pulled one of the Pepsi’s free of the plastic.

Sapnap’s brow furrowed even more. He looked over his shoulder and saw Quackity and Karl laugh in the living room.
"What aren’t you telling me? is Quackity…” Sapnap almost felt sick even trying to voice that thought.

"No, I don't think so” Fundy reassured him, seemingly understanding where Sapnap’s train of thought was going.
"It’s just… Quackity is great, and I care about him. It’s Wilbur I'm worried about, he likes to play games and he seems very fond of Quackity” Fundy cracked his soda open.

"A bit too much according to what Charlie tells me” Fundy mumbled into the mouth of the can before he took a sip.

"It’s just a thought, from one guy to another that cares about Big Q” Fundy said, clapping Sapnap’s shoulder before grabbing the six pack off the counter and walking back into the living room.

Sapnap’s eyes followed him before landing on the back of Quackity’s head, leaning up against Karl's shoulder. He saw Karl tilt his head to rest on top of Quackity’s hair.

It was such a soft view, and yet Sapnap couldn’t get the picture of Wilbur on Quackity’s bed out of his head.

The way the brit had been lounging on it as if he owned the place.

The microwave beeped before Sapnap’s thoughts could spiral even further. He collected himself and opened the microwave door. He cleared his throat as he grabbed the bag and tore it open so he could pour it into the waiting bowl.

"Do you guys want me to put salt on these?” Sapnap asked and managed to convince himself to smile.

He was not gonna spend the rest of his night thinking about a stranger, when he had two loving boyfriends in the next room.

He was gonna enjoy his break.

…………

The blinds had been rolled up, sunlight pouring into the room.

Sapnap was slowly stirring away, twisting and turning as he blinked his eyes open. He held onto a pillow and snuggled further into the blanket as he tried to wake up.

For a moment he was confused as to where he was, taking in the still new setting, before he remembered he was in Quackity’s dorm room.

He looked over towards the dresser with all the trinkets he recognized from Quackity’s old room, along with new textbooks and pictures.

Turning his head, he didn’t see Karl or Quackity in the small bed. But before he could even get up to question where they were, Quackity’s door opened and Quackity slipped inside, trying to be quiet before he looked over to Sapnap and saw he was awake.

“Oh, hey, did I wake you?” Quackity smiled.

“No, I was just snoozing a bit” Sapnap said, sitting up on his elbows.

"What time is it?” Sapnap yawned.

"Like twelve” Quackity said and leaned back against the door.

"What? and you didn’t wake me?” Sapnap asked and looked at the window to see the sun was indeed in the middle of the sky.

“You looked too cute, I couldn't ruin that,” Quackity chuckled at Sapnap’s bewildered look.

"Where's Karl?” Sapnap then asked and looked back at him again.

“I just showed him the showers” Quackity informed, Sapnap nodding. His eyes moved down Quackity’s body, over the oversized sweater that clearly belonged to Karl, the blue pajama pants and sock feet.

He looked as wonderful as ever.

"So…” Sapnap looked Quackity up and down again with a coy smile.
“I traveled 4000 miles for some hot kisses, wanna give me some more of those?” Sapnap asked.

Quackity laughed and pushed off the door, walking over and sitting down on the side of the bed, Sapnap leaning up further on his arms.
"Well, I might as well take the last few steps for you then” Quackity smiled as he leaned in and kissed him, putting a hand behind Sapnap’s neck and intertwining his fingers into black soft hair.

It was a soft kiss, relaxed and comforting. It held such warmth, Sapnap thought he might actually melt in Quackity’s hands. Sapnap moved one of his hands up and behind Quackity’s back, gently stroking along his side, before sliding further down. He could feel Quackity hum into the kiss as he gently pushed Sapnap back down on the bed.

Slowly Quackity moved to straddle Sapnap’s lap, almost laying down on top of Sapnap’s chest as they kissed. Quackity felt two hands touching his thighs before they slowly trailed up his pant legs and to his ass.

Quackity giggled into the kiss before pulling back barely an inch.
“This is the most money you’ll ever spend on getting laid” Quackity joked, planting another kiss on Sapnap’s lips.

“Nope. The most money I’ll ever spend to get laid will be on our wedding night~” Sapnap winked and moved his eyebrows up and down.

“I’m not wearing edible cherry lingerie for you” Quackity laughed.

“Aw, why not” Sapnap pretended to pout before kissing Quackity again.

“Cause it’s gross, and it’ll upset your tummy” Quackity laughed between the kisses. Sapnap put his hands on Quackity’s hips and rolled them over to the wall of the bed, Quackity now laying underneath him.

“Fine, but you naked is a lot hotter anyway” Sapnap grinned, seeing Quackity roll his eyes and put his arms up over his shoulders.

“Just kiss me” Quackity said, and Sapnap couldn’t do anything but oblige.

Sapnap could kiss Quackity for the rest of forever and never get tired of it. He wanted to commit what Quackity’s kisses felt like to memory, to keep it stored in a little box in his heart for rainy days apart. He wanted to keep it close and everlasting, like a flame keeping him warm in lonely winter nights.

Quackity tilted his head like he always did, deepening the kiss to more than just soft attention. Sapnap felt Quackity’s hands gracefully move up and down his back, from his shoulders and almost down to his lower back before traveling up again.

They parted for just a moment, and Sapnap felt his heart beat faster as he heard Quackity breathe in.

Sapnap had quite literally stolen his breath away.

“Sapnap” Quackity said softly into his ear, as if he was calling for him to come back to his lips. Sapnap kissed him tenderly again, just to steal another breath from the other boy, before he started to leave pecks of gentle soft kisses over his cheek, mindful of the sensitive scar.

He nudged Quackity’s head to the side with his nose, slowly pressing his lips to the skin underneath his ear. Sapnap hummed into Quackity’s throat as Quackity’s hands traveled up to Sapnap’s shoulders again, one hand stroking through Sapnap’s messy hair.

They were both perfectly content to just lay there, the sun bathing the room in warmth. Soft breaths filled the room, slowly hitching as Sapnap started to move his hips against Quackity’s own.

Sapnap’s hands started to inch down under Quackity’s sweater, stroking his sides gently before moving the fabric up slowly.

Then Sapnap’s phone started to ring on the desk, but he couldn’t be bothered to pick it up. Not when he had Quackity in his arms.

“Sapnap” Quackity spoke in a whisper, eyes closed and relaxed against his pillow.

“Let it ring” Sapnap said and traveled his kisses further down to Quackity’s collarbone, intending on leaving as many marks as he could on Quackity’s skin.

“Okay” Quackity agreed and relaxed further into Sapnap’s embrace.

Sapnap’s phone stopped ringing, but not even a second later it started again.

"Sap” Quackity breathed, peaking an eye open to look towards the phone.

“It's just Dream” Sapnap reassured him again.
"He properly just misplaced the cereal again” Sapnap explained, pulling away to see three blue marks slowly blossoming on Quackity skin, from his pulse and down to his collarbone. He loved how flushed Quackity’s cheeks were already.

Finally satisfied with his work, he leaned back up to kiss Quackity properly again, dragging the sweater up over Quackity’s stomach.
The phone stopped ringing, and for a moment the only sound in the room was the sheets rustling as Sapnap moved against Quackity and their breath.

Then it started to ring again.

Quackity pulled away from the kiss.
"Sap, just pick up the phone. It’s starting to ruin the mood” Quackity said.

"Fuck” Sapnap hung his head as he broke away from the kiss. He sat back up on his knees and grabbed his phone. He accepted the call without checking the caller ID and held it up to his ear.
“Dream, this better be important cause I’m about to fuck my very hot and very far away boyfriend” Sapnap warned.

Quackity then watched as Sapnap’s face grew redder and his face fell slightly.

“Sorry dad…” Sapnap said in a small voice.

Quackity smacked a hand over his mouth as he struggled not to laugh. Sapnap was quiet for a month, no doubt getting lectured by his dad.

"Dad, I'm nineteen, and it's my own money” he heard Sapnap talk on the phone and Quackity swore he could hear Bad on the other end.

"You don’t just fly across the country without telling your parents! what if something happened to you?!” Bad screeched almost.

"Nothing happened, everything is fine. How did you even figure out I was here” Sapnap asked and leaned further back to sit on his heels.
"Did you put a tracker on my phone?” Sapnap asked.

"No, of course not. Karl was sweet enough to send me a snap yesterday, and I saw Quackity in it. You told me Quackity wasn’t coming home this break, and I could see Karl on that weird map thing on the Snapchat app” Bad argued against him, not happy to be accused of tracking Sapnap’s phone.

"Okay, but still. I'm allowed to visit my boyfriend” Sapnap defended himself, cheeks still red.

"You don’t fly across the country without telling us!”

"I’m nineteen!”

“Do not talk back to me young man” Bad warned him, and didn’t even let Sapnap say another word before he started to lecture his son. Quackity just saw as Sapnap moved to sit with his legs over the bed.

Quackity took a deep breath to stop the laughter. He would feel so bad if he laughed while Bad was scolding Sapnap. He pulled the sweater back down over his stomach, knowing the mood had been interrupted and killed.

At some point Sapnap held the phone away from his face, not because Bad was yelling, but simply because Sapnap knew every word his dad was gonna say. Sapnap just sighed, turned and looked at Quackity and mouthed silently ‘help me’.

Quackity chuckled slightly and sat up, stroking Sapnap’s back for comfort as his boyfriend slumped forward with a sigh before he moved the phone back up to his ear.

A few minutes later, Karl opened the door and sneaked inside, he looked up and took in the sight of Sapnap and Quackity on the bed. Seeing how defeated Sapnap looked.

"Hey? what’s going on?” Karl whispered as he closed the door and reached for his bag to put his things back, grabbing his toilet bag to pull the hairbrush out.

“Sapnap is getting his ass chewed out by Bad” Quackity whispered back to him.

"What?” Karl asked with a giggle as he started to brush his damp hair.

"Okay, I get it- no, I'm not talking back. I'm sorry I scared you” Sapnap finally spoke into the phone, it seemed like Bad was finally letting Sapnap speak again.
"Yeah… yeah I get it. I'm sorry” Sapnap apologized again.

"I should have texted you, but I'm an adult, I shouldn’t need permission to fly out to my boyfriend” Sapnap said, sounding like a kid who had been caught drawing on the walls.

"I know… I just didn’t think about it. I didn’t mean to worry you or Pops… “ Sapnap went quiet, properly listening to his dad again.

"Yeah. We’re going home again on Saturday… Okay, yeah, I'll text you… no, dad-... Okay fine. Yeah, okay, I love you too” Sapnap sighed, before his cheeks grew red again.
"Yes, we’ll be safe. Yes dad, I have protection” Sapnap said flustered, Karl and Quackity choking back a laugh.

"I love you, say hi to Pops from me. Okay, bye” Sapnap said and hung up, before he ran his hands over his face and sighed.

"How did it go?” Karl asked.

"Well. I'm not grounded, but I have to text him every night” Sapnap said and slided his hands up to his hair.

“I’m sorry I ruined the mood, Q” Sapnap turned and looked at Quackity.

“You didn’t ruin the mood, but yeah, it has passed” Quackity tried to reassure him. He sat up further and moved his arms up to hold around Sapnap in a hug

"Okay, how about this” Quackity started moving one hand up to run it through Sapnap’s tousled hair.

“We'll get dressed, get some lunch and enjoy our day. We’ll go to the show and have fun, and when we get home tonight, we’ll have some fun of our own~” Quackity leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"I like the sound of that~” Sapnap blushed and relaxed into Quackity’s arms.

Chapter Text

"Is it really legal for us to be here?” Karl asked as he looked up at the red building they were waiting to enter. It looked like an old movie theater, displaying the date and the name of tonight’s bands ‘Little Division’ and ‘Lovejoy’ in black letters, along a small round sign over the entrance door.

‘Paradise Rock Club’

“Yeah, according to Wilbur this place does 18+ liveshows. His band is playing the opening act for a bigger band” Quackity smiled as he swung Karl’s hand in his own.

"Just how big is Wilbur’s band?” Sapnap asked.

"Not that big. They have an EP out on Spotify and iTunes already, and they do a lot of cover songs, but this is their first actual liveshow” Quackity said and pulled out his phone to find his spotify and show it to them.

“Is that a lot?” Sapnap asked as he looked at the few different cover drawings next to the song name. He didn’t sound very impressed, but if anyone noticed, they didn’t pick up on it.

“Wilbur the law major is quite well versed in his craft” Charlie spoke up next to them, looking at the screen as well.

“He plays guitar, right? anyone can play guitar” Sapnap shrugged.

"Aw, is someone being jealous?” Karl giggled and poked Sapnap's cheek.

"No, I'm just saying. It’s not like he plays the violin like you tried to” Sapnap mumbled and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.

"You don’t have to be jealous, Sapnap” Quackity laughed softly.
"You’re very talented too,” he said.

"I’m not jealous” Sapnap muttered as his boyfriends kept teasing him.
But it didn't last long before it was interrupted.

“Quackity!~” they heard a fake high pitched voice call. They looked to the other side of the building, and saw Wilbur walking out of an alleyway and towards them with a jump in his step, hands in the long coat’s pockets as he held it open.

Quackity’s face broke out in a wide smile.
"Wilba!” he called back in his own fake high pitched voice and hurried down the sidewalk to hug him.

“Quackity!~” Wilbur repeated in the same voice as he trapped Quackity in his coat.
"Wilba!” Quackity laughed into his chest. It was clear to everyone this was some sort of inside joke.

And Sapnap hated it and all it indicated.

It indicated that Wilbur and Quackity were close. That they had spent time together alone. That they had a joke just for the two of them that made no sense to anyone else.

It indicated that Wilbur had his own way on how to make Quackity laugh.

And Sapnap hated how much he hated it.

He was completely fine with the weird handshake Quackity had with Charlie, he was more than happy to see the way Quackity laughed and joked with Charlie. But ever since that brief talk Sapnap had with Fundy, every mention of Wilbur left a sour and aching feeling in his stomach.

"Aren’t you supposed to be setting up?” Quackity asked as he pulled back from the hug.

"We did. Right now they are going over the last few details with ‘Little Division’, so we got a chance to get some air before the show” Wilbur smiled down at him and looked up to see Karl, Sapnap and Charlie there as well.

"I’m so glad you guys came along. I hope I can get a chance to get to know you later, you know, since Big Q decided to keep you so hidden from me” Wilbur chuckled and puffed to Quackity’s arm. He looked at Karl and Sapnap with an amused glint in his eye, and Sapnap was sure he wanted them to know Quackity was hiding them.

“I was gonna tell you, but you talk so much I hardly get a word in” Quackity laughed and shoved him back.

“Touche,” Wilbur said and put an arm over Quackity’s shoulder. Sapnap didn’t know what stung more, the fact Wilbur was comfortable enough to do that, or the fact Quackity didn’t shove him off.

“By the way, have you seen any of the others? I thought they would be with you?” Wilbur asked and turned all his attention to Quackity again.

"No, but Niki did send a text that traffic was holding up. They might be further down the line” Quackity said and tried to look past the line of people behind them. Wilbur only nodded as Quackity spoke, like he was lingering on every single word he spoke.

Sapnap hated how close Wilbur stood to Quackity, how he thought it was okay to have his arm around him like that. It’s not fair, it’s Karl and his job to put their arm around Quackity like that, not Wilbur. He hated and despised how much Wilbur and Quackity looked like a couple.

Sapnap might have doubted Fundy’s warning yesterday, but it was clear he wasn’t wrong.

And the worst part was that he didn’t know how to stop it without looking controlling and insane about it.

"Yo Wilbur!” someone luckily called from behind them.
"They’re opening the doors in five minutes. Get your lanky ass in here” a guy laughed and waved. Wilbur lifted his hand up and waved back to show he heard the message.

“Anyway, I better go. I just wanted to check you came. I'll see you after the show~” Wilbur grinned as he moved his arm off Quackity’s shoulder and stepped backwards, looking at Quackity one last time before walking away.
"Wish me luck~”.

"I hope you break a leg, Wilbur the law major” Charlie smiled wide and Wilbur laughed,
"Thank you Charlie!” he called over his shoulder.

Wilbur's laughter was a gnawing sound to Sapnap’s ears, it almost sounded like someone had pulled the tail of a cat.

"You two sure are close” Sapnap commented with a strained smile.

"Yeah, Wilburs great. We have the same classes together, it’s really nice to have a study buddy for Schlatt’s lectures, and he's so much fun to hang out with” Quackity smiled and turned to look at Sapnap.

"That's so great” Sapnap forced a smile. It must not have been very convincing with the look both Quackity and Karl gave him. But if they had a problem with it, they didn’t mention it.

Instead Quackity just reached out and took his hand, stepping closer and leaned up to whisper into Sapnap’s ear.
"You know, you look so hot in this shirt~” Quackity smiled.

That did help lighten Sapnap’s mood, making him blush.
"Oh really? I wore it just for you” Sapnap said with rosy cheeks, looking down at the burgundy turtleneck Quackity gifted him.

"Oh yeah? how sweet of you~” Quackity smiled before pulling back.

Finally a man stepped out of the door to the front of the club, opening it to the long line that had been waiting. On their turn Quackity showed his phone to the guy by the door, the stranger nodded and they were each stamped with some weird mark on their hand to show they had entry, before getting ushered inside.

The room was filling up with people, but Quackity quickly spotted a familiar face by the front of the scene.

"Yo Techno!” Quackity waved his arm to get his attention. Sapnap and Karl watched as a long pink haired head turned to look in their direction. The guy was tall, and wearing a hoodie with a washed print on it.

"Hello” he called back in a low monotone voice.

"I didn't know you were coming. Didn’t you say big crowds make you nervous?” Quackity walked over, Charlie happily trailing after him, and Sapnap and Karl could only really follow after him.

"I wasn’t gonna, but it was either come and film the performance for Tommy, or get pestered by that little demon child all night” Techno shrugged and held up a phone in his hand.

"I swear, Tommy is like their biggest fan” Quackity chuckled.

"Oh he is, and it's cringe” Techno said with his own chuckled before looking up over Quackity’s head and seeing the rest of their little group.
“So are those the boyfriends?” Techno asked.

“Wilbur told you about them?” Quackity asked.

"Yep. He was rather surprised, but it’s cool” Techno then looked at Sapnap and Karl.
"Hey”.

"Well um, this is Sapnap and Karl. Guys, this is Techno, Wilbur’s stepbrother” Quackity said and referred to them each as he said their names.

"Wait, Techno? as in the guy that tackled you during laser tag?” Sapnap asked.

“Bruuh, don’t tell me I'm about to get my ass kicked by a pissed off boyfriend. It was an accident” Techno groaned in annoyance, like he had been asked to empty ten dishwashers.

"Of course not” Quackity shook his head,
“Sapnap and Karl are just two worrywarts” he teased his partners.

"You landed in the ER” Karl reminded him.

"And I got a gold tooth out of it. I say a win is a win” Quackity snickered.

“By the way, how’s your eye?” Techno asked, a pink tint to his cheeks.

"It’s good, I can still see out of it, but I'm getting my sight checked soon” Quackity smiled. Techno just nodded, it was pretty clear to everyone he felt guilty about the whole situation.

But luckily a new interruption was just stepping in through the door.

“Quackity! Charlie!” They heard a girl call and they turned their heads to see a group of three. A blonde girl, a short guy with buzz cut hair and someone with shoulder length curly hair and sunglasses.

"Hey!” Quackity waved back to them as the group hurried over.
"Guys, this is Niki, Jack and Eret. We’re in the debate club together” Quackity introduced them before looking at the others.
"This is Sapnap and Karl, my um, boyfriends” Quackity blushed.

"Yes, Wilbur told us” the person with the sunglasses said in a deep voice, before holding their hand out to Karl first since they were closest.
“Eret, I go by they/them”.

“Karl Jacobs, he/him pronounces” Karl smiled and shook his hand with much excitement.

"Wow, so does Wilbur just talk about everyone's business like it's his?” Sapnap asked, feeling rot in his mouth. He didn’t fail to noticed the worried glance Quackity casted over his shoulder

"Oh, no. I think Wilbur just wanted to tell us so there wasn’t a big deal about it. It’s so nice to meet you” Niki smiled at him with a small wave.

"Hello Niki the Culinary major” Charlie greeted her from behind Quackity. She chuckled and smiled,
"Hi Charlie”.

"Yo so Wilbur really weren’t kidding, you do have two boyfriends” the guy with a buzz cut, Jack, said and held his hand out to shake.

"Yep, he sure does” Karl shook his hand. Sapnap sneaked a hand around to hold Quackity’s side.

"Man Big Q, leave some of the bitches for the rest of us, will you?” Jack laughed and held his hand out to Sapnap.

"Mhmm no I don’t think I will” Quackity joked back at him.

"It’s so nice to meet all of Quackity’s friends. He talks a lot about you” Sapnap said as he shook Jack’s hand, even if he hadn’t actually heard about these people before.

"We were planning on getting some drinks before the bar gets crowded. Would you like to join us?” Eret asked as they unzipped their jacket.

"Sure” Quackity smiled.

It wasn’t like Sapnap didn’t wanna meet Quackity’s friends. He really did want to, he had a lot of fun yesterday with Quackity’s poker friends, and these other people seemed really cool as well.

But he just had a rotten feeling in his chest ever since he saw Wilbur again. It was like a spore had grown attached to him, and was slowly overtaking his veins with an uncomfortable rotten gut feeling.

He tried his best to ignore it, drinking Pepsi from a glass bottle, listening to the conversations in the group and trying his best to smile and laugh along.

But it only got harder when Wilbur and his stupid band went on stage and started their set. Whatever conversation the group was having was forgotten about as they started to cheer for them.

Sapnap hated to admit they weren’t that bad, it was just generic pop music. They sounded like some band you’d hear over the radio without catching their name. Their music was pretty good, but he didn’t exactly want to admit that.
But Quackity seemed so excited, and he tried to be happy for that.

"Lets go dance!” Niki said over the music once her soda was empty.

Quackity downed his own soda quickly after that, looking to Sapnap and Karl.
"You guys coming?” he asked, leaning into their space to be heard.

"I’ll join you soon. I don’t wanna leave my drink unattended” Karl leaned into Quackity’s space. Quackity must have heard him judging by the way he nodded.

Then Quackity looked to Sapnap.
"I’ll wait with Karl. Charlie looks like he needs a dance partner” Sapnap said and Quackity gave him a smile and thumbs up before he turned and walked towards where Charlie had made his own little dancing spot, waving his arms around like there was no tomorrow.

Sapnap watched with a soft smile as Quackity took Charlie’s hand and they danced, kicking their legs and turning around each other while singing their lungs out to the lyrics of whatever song Wilbur's band was playing.

They hadn’t had the biggest interaction with Charlie yet. Both Karl and Sapnap knew about his quirks and weird behavior, and sure they had seen a little of it, but they expected it would have been a lot more.

They barely talked with him yesterday, but Quackity told them before leaving today that Charlie was very nervous and trying hard to get them to like him.

And just from looking at the two, it was clear to see Charlie and Quackity had a special friendship.

It reminded Sapnap of Dream, and how they were each other’s ride or die no matter what.

Meeting Charlie had truly been the change Quackity needed, and Sapnap was so grateful for that. So in Sapnap’s mind, Charlie had no reason to worry about whatever impression he gave them.

He was Quackity’s best friend, and they couldn’t be happier.

Sapnap smiled and lifted his soda up to his lips. He shouldn’t have turned his head. He should have kept watching Quackity laugh and dance and sing. He should have kept his eyes on Quackity or looked to Karl and tried to talk with him instead.

But he didn’t.

He just had to turn his head to the stage.

The lights were flashing in all different colors, a banner with the name ‘Lovejoy’ was hanging behind their drummer. They were all playing their hearts out, but that wasn’t what Sapnap focused on.

Even from the back of the room, Sapnap could see the look in Wilbur’s eyes.

A hunger for flesh.

Wilbur was playing the guitar in his hands with skilled fingers, and singing his lungs raw, but not once did Sapnap see his eyes close or move.

He looked like a predator watching a meal, waiting for the right moment to pounce.
Sapnap wasn’t the object of Wilbur’s lustful stare, but he still felt like he had been violated somehow, like he had seen something that wasn’t meant for him.

Sapnap moved his soda away from his lips. He followed Wilbur’s gaze over the sea of heads in the crowd and suddenly found himself looking at Quackity again.

Sapnap felt something ugly stir in his chest.

Sapnap was no idiot. He knew what jealousy was.

But Sapnap wasn’t a jealous person.

He wasn’t jealous when Quackity got into his dream school. He wasn’t jealous when Dream made it to quarterback instead of him. He wasn’t jealous when Karl and Quackity spent time on their own.

Sapnap is not a jealous person.

But by god he wanted to throw a fit right then and there.

He did not want Wilbur looking at Quackity, not like that. Not like an animal stalking its prey and ready to rip it off its fur at any moment.

Sapnap was not a person prone to violence or anger, but Sapnap wanted to split the entire room apart if it would just make Wilbur look away from his boyfriend. He wanted to beat the bastard so hard he lost that grating British accent for the rest of his life. He wanted to-

“Hey” Karl puffed to his shoulder, dragging Sapnap out of that ugly headspace.
“You done?” Karl asked and for a second Sapnap felt offended.

“Excuse me?” Sapnap frowned. Karl just smiled, taking Sapnap’s frown to be one of confusion and not annoyance.

“Are you done with your soda?” Karl clarified with a nod towards the glass bottle Sapnap had been holding so tightly he might just shatter it in his fist.

“Oh… yeah” Sapnap said over the music, feeling embarrassed at his tone. Why did he snap at Karl? There was no reason for him to be an asshole. What was wrong with him?

“Great, let’s go dance up on Quackity” Karl smiled and took one last swing of his own soda before he grabbed Sapnap’s hand and dragged him out among the sea of people.

They pushed past and spoke muted excuses as they tried to reach Quackity and Charlie. Quackity spotted them and danced towards them, grabbing Karl’s hand and put it up to rest over his shoulder and the two started to dance around each other.

Sapnap stood still as he watched them move with each other, and Karl grabbed Quackity’s other hand and made him twirl. He watched Quackity laugh without hearing it for the music, and saw Karl move in to kiss him quickly.

Whatever ugly feelings had been brewing in Sapnap’s chest disappeared in the skip of a heart beat. Karl and Quackity was the most perfect picture Sapnap would ever see, the colorful light dancing and shining down over them, the love Sapnap saw in both of their eyes and the dimples on Quackity’s cheeks as Karl made him laugh.

Their dance was no flawless act, but it was still the most beautiful sight Sapnap thought he would ever lay his eyes on.

And then Quackity looked at him with those shining eyes, and Sapnap felt breathless.

Quackity grinned as he held his hand out for Sapnap and slowly danced towards him, Karl giggling behind him as he saw Sapnap’s blushing face.

Sapnap took Quackity’s hand and stepped forward. Quackity pulled him closer and put his free hand on Sapnap’s shoulder, tiptoeing up to his ear and spoke over the music,
"Dance with me”.

And how could Sapnap deny such a request when Quackity looked at him like that.

Quackity and he danced around each other, laughing over the music as they spun around and around. Quackity didn’t let go of him before he was sure Sapnap would dance on his own.

Sapnap felt Karl’s hand grab the one Quackity just held and then Sapnap was twirled around with a laugh. Quackity and Karl grinned wide as they kept moving to the music.

Sapnap looked up at the stage again, seeing that Wilbur was nowhere near close to looking in their direction anymore, and it brought Sapnap just a tiny bit of satisfaction before he turned his attention back to dance with Karl and Quackity.

Being so close to them, and drowning in the sea of people, music and laughter made Sapnap forget all about the rotting feeling that had been blooming and withering in his chest.

They danced and swayed through one song and into another, and another after that, and after that. They danced till their feet started to sore and finally decided to step away from the dance floor.

"I’m thirsty, Karl buy me a soda” Quackity clinged onto Karl’s arm and kissed the brunette's cheek.

"If I get to go home with you later, you got a deal” Karl only giggled as he teased. Sapnap laughed and fanned his hand in front of his face, he was sweating through his jacket.

"I need some fresh air or I might just overheat, but you go ahead and I'll find you after” Sapnap smiled and kissed Quackity’s cheek and then Karl’s.

"Okay, love you” he heard one of them say over the loud music before Sapnap made his way towards the door.

The first few breaths of the fresh night air was already cooling down Sapnap’s beating heart as he stepped outside. He would just stand out here for a few minutes to gather his thoughts before he’d head back inside.

He took a deep breath and let the cool air fill his lungs, closing his eyes and letting himself relax.

He didn’t notice the footsteps walking up to him. If he had, Sapnap would have turned on his heel and walked back inside without a second thought.

“Did you enjoy the show?” Wilbur's annoying accent met his ears. sapnap opened his eyes and looked at the other.

"It was pretty good for a first show” Sapnap tried to act civil.

"Thank you, man, I was so nervous” Wilbur stood beside him and started to rampage through the pockets of his long coat.

"Smoke?” Wilbur asked as he pulled out a package of cigarettes, pulling out one and offering the package to Sapnap.

“I don't smoke. I made a deal with my parents that they’d pay for my driver's license as long as I don't smoke” Sapnap denied his offer.

"Ha, I have a similar deal with my dad” Wilbur noted and pulled out a lighter from the package, clicking twice before a flame came up and lit his cigarette.
"What they don't know doesn’t hurt them, right?” Wilbur chuckled and held his cigarette pack out to Sapnap once more, like he expected him to take one now.

Sapnap watched him with an unimpressed frown.
"I don’t really wanna spend over 30 bucks on a cancer stick” Sapnap denied his offer again.

Wilbur shrugged and shoved it back in his pocket.
"Suit yourself”.

A pregnant silence filled the air between them, despite the music still roaring inside the club.

Sapnap considered whether or not it would be rude of him to just go back inside. He might not like Wilbur, but he was Quackity's friend. The least Sapnap could do was act civil around him.

"So, an open relationship, huh?” Wilbur spoke up again, seemingly keen on forcing Sapnap to converse with him.
"That seems fun, how long has that been a thing?” Wilbur asked, and Sapnap really didn’t wanna answer.

"Since sophomore year of high school, but we go way back” Sapnap said, wanting Wilbur to know just how serious their relationship was. He always hated having to defend his relationship choices, but he especially hated having to explain it to this asshole.

"That’s so cute” Wilbur said, tilting his head with a smile, but Sapnap knew he was patronizing him. Wilbur took a long drag of the cigarette between his fingers, watching Sapnap like he was planning something.

"Has Quackity always been so enthralling?” Wilbur asked and blew the smoke out in front of Sapnap.

"Enthralling?” Sapnap coughed and waved his hand in the air to get the smoke out of his face.

"Oh sorry, it means ‘to capture and hold people’s attention’. You know, like ‘captivating’, ‘bewitching’, ‘hypnotic-” Wilbur started to explain before Sapnap interrupted.

"I know what enthralling means. Thank you very much” Sapnap frowned, not really wanting a grammar and synonym lesson from Wilbur.

"Oh, of course. Well, what I'm saying is Quackity has a very big personality, I suppose that’s why he and I get along so well” Wilbur smiled a bit too wide for Sapnap’s liking.

Sapnap didn’t entertain him with an answer.
Not that it seemed to matter as Wilbur carried on talking, mentioning and gloating about every single thing under the sun.

"I don’t like talking to you” Sapnap decided to say once Wilbur decided to take another drag of his cigarette.

Wilbur raised an eyebrow and blew out the smoke,
"Oh? well, not everyone has to be friends” Wilbur shrugged before taking another drag of the cigarette, flicking the ashes off it before speaking again.
"But we can be nice for Quackity’s sake, can’t we?”.

"I don’t like the way you talk about him” Sapnap shook his head.

"Like what?” Wilbur prompted, but the look in his eyes told Sapnap that he already knew the answer.

"Like he’s a game prize for you. He has feelings, you know” Sapnap spat back at him.

"Oh I know,” Wilbur grinned.
"And I defindly have feelings for him too” Wilbur put the cigarette up to his lips again.

“... Excuse me?” Sapnap clenched his fist, trying to reason with himself as to why Wilbur's nose was not broken yet.

“I have feelings for him. Romantic feelings, I actually wanted to ask him out before you and your third boytoy decided to interrupt” Wilbur confessed like it was nothing, like it didn’t matter if Sapnap knew.

“I mean, at first it was purely a physical thing. I just wanted to get a quickie and move on, but man, Quackity likes to play the long game, and I love a good chase” Wilbur chuckled.

Sapnap felt frozen with rage.

He should have knocked him out by now. He should have beaten him black and blue for calling Karl a boytoy, and he should have broken his wrists for sexualizing Quackity and their friendship.

"But then, I guess I got to know him, and Quackity is just so… enchanting~ you never quite know what he’ll say or do next, it’s so exciting. He keeps me on my toes” Wilbur dropped the butt of his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it.

“Quackity is a bit of a firecracker like that, you know” Wilbur said, a smug glint in his eyes.

“Watch your mouth, cause I will knock your fucking teeth out if you aren’t careful” Sapnap threatened through gritted teeth. He could practically feel himself fuming with anger, his fists shaking.

“I don’t think Quackity would like that” Wilbur said amused.

“I don’t like you.”

“But Quackity does~”

Sapnap grabbed Wilbur by the front of his coat, the other fist raised and pulled back in the matter of a second.
“Get his name out of your mouth” Sapnap ordered.

“Woah, easy” Wilbur raised his hands up in surrender, but the grin on his face seemed daring almost. Like he was daring Sapnap to punch him.
“God, you are a sensitive loaf” Wilbur snickered.

"Shut the fuck up or I swear to god I will break those glasses along with your nose” Sapnap spat between his teeth.

"You keep your fucking hands off of him. He is not for you to play with. I don't want you anywhere near him, do you hear me? I don't want you to even talk or think about him. He is my boyfriend, so back off” Sapnap warned him. A few people walking down the street started to stare, but he couldn’t care less.

"Easy tiger” Wilbur started, and oh god Sapnap just wanted him to shut up.

"I honestly don’t see why you’re so angry. You’re in an open relationship after all” a cheshire smile crept onto Wilbur’s face.
"I just wanna keep him company in a way you obviously can’t”.

And that was the last straw.

Sapnap pulled his fist back further, almost like a bow, ready to fire.

“Sapnap!”

Sapnap froze in his movement, his arm frozen mid punch, barely close enough to hit Wilbur.

And the bastard didn’t even look scared.

Sapnap turned around and saw the most heartbreaking thing in his life.

Quackity looked horrified at him, Karl right behind him. Through all the years Sapnap had known Quackity, he had never seen a more terrified and disgusted look in his eyes. It cut into his chest and made his heart bleed.

It made Sapnap want to crawl into a hole and die.

And yet his hand was still tearing into Wilbur’s coat.

For a minute the world stood still.

Quackity shoved a Pepsi soda bottle Sapnap had failed to notice, into Karl’s hands, before he marched over.

Sapnap didn’t fight it as Quackity pulled his hand off Wilbur and the brit stumbled.
"Go.” Quackity looked furious and pointed towards Karl.

Not knowing what else to do, Sapnap did as told and stepped over towards Karl, his other boyfriend looking confused and almost scared.

"I am so sorry, Wilbur. Are you okay?” Sapnap heard Quackity worry behind him, and it wasn’t fair. He looked over his shoulder and saw Quackity was looking over Wilbur's face.

And the bastard had the nerve to look rattled.
"I’m okay, I don’t know-”

"You keep your fucking hands off him!” Sapnap demanded and immediately got shot the most enraged look by Quackity.

"I’ll call you later” Quackity told Wilbur before he marched over and grabbed Sapnap’s arm. He didn’t stop his pace as he dragged his boyfriend down the street. Sapnap looked to his side and saw Karl was right behind them, awkwardly holding the soda in his hands.

He caught Karl’s eyes and saw him silently mouth,
‘what did you do?’.

And Sapnap honestly didn’t know how to answer that question.
He never knew he had anger like that in him.

Finally Quackity stopped once they were down the street. He threw rather than let go of Sapnap’s arm. He looked down the street and tried to flag down a taxi.

“Quackity-” Sapnap tried.

"Don’t talk to me” Quackity warned him. His frame was practically shaking with anger. Much like Sapnap had been just a moment ago.

“Quackity, I'm sorry” Sapnap tried to apologize.

"Don’t. I honestly can’t look at you right now” Quackity didn’t even spare him a glance as he finally waved a taxi down for them.

"I think we should do this privately,” Karl muttered.

"Agreed” Quackity spat out and opened the taxi door before stepping in. Karl looked at Sapnap again before he walked over to the open taxi door and squeezed into the middle seat, deciding to be the human barricade for now.

Sapnap got in last, Quackity giving the driver the address without trying to chew his head off.

The drive was uncomfortable to say the least. Karl was clearly anxious, Quackity’s foot was tapping the floor of the car as he tried to get rid of the anger, and Sapnap knew he should feel bad, but in all honesty he doesn’t.

He only felt bad he waited a second too long before throwing a punch.

"Are you fucking insane? what is wrong with you?” Quackity broke the tense silence, moving forward to slide the glass panel between the front seats, not wanting a stranger to listen to their argument.

“You have been acting like an asshole all night, what is your problem?” Quackity crossed his arms.

“Excuse me?” Sapnap frowned and leaned forward to look past Karl and over at Quackity.

“You are not. I don’t wanna hear a fucking peep out of you. Oh my god” Quackity shook his head.

He didn’t give Sapnap a chance to apologize or even explain himself as Quackity started to scold him. Lecturing him like he was a five year old, and not his partner.

When the taxi finally rolled up to the gates of Harvard, Quackity ushered them out as he pulled out his wallet, and aggressively pulled out his credit card and swiped it before unbuckling his own seat belt.

"Do you have any idea how important tonight was for me?” Quackity asked once he was out of the taxi.

"You were gonna meet my friends, people I talk to everyday, and I was so excited for you to meet them, and then you go and try to punch my friend?” Quackity sounded pissed as he started to march towards the dorm buildings.

Sapnap only hung his head as he was forced to listen to Quackity’s rant. He felt a bit bad about that, he hadn’t considered the aftermath, he certainly didn’t think this would happen.

Quackity pulled out his keys as they got to the dorm building. Quackity pushed the door open before he went straight towards the stairs. He didn’t even seem to consider the fact there were other people in the building as he continued to talk.

“I mean, what aren’t they gonna think now? They’re gonna think you’re some angry time bomb that explode at anything. They’re gonna think I’m bad at judging people. They’re gonna think you’re violent” Quackity’s keys jiggled as he walked up the stairs.

“Okay, it’s not that bad” Karl tried to step in.

“Not that bad? Karl, he could have gotten arrested for assault. Hell, he can be arrested for common assault right now. That’s six months in custody” Quackity turned around on the stairs and looked down at them.

“What if we were too late? What if Sapnap actually hit him? That would have been Actual bodily harm. That’s five years in prison” Quackity turned to look at Sapnap.
“You could have lost your entire future, you fucking idiot” Quackity turned on his heel and continued up the stairs.

Quackity was muttering curses and fuming as they reached the top floor and Quackity forced his key into his door.
"Unbelievable. I am not your goddamn mother, I shouldn't have to supervise you. And now I'm missing the rest of the show. Fan-fucking-tastic” he didn’t say it loud enough to be directed at anyone, but both Sapnap and Karl still heard him.

Quackity forced the door open and walked inside, pulling his jacket off and throwing it on his chair. Karl just kept his head low and hurried inside, not wanting to be out in the hallway as some of the other inhabitants of the building poked their heads out to snoop.

Sapnap grabbed the door handle and closed it after himself. Once inside he unzipped his jacket. He watched as Karl awkwardly walked over to the bed, sitting down and looking at the glass soda bottle still in his hands, not sure what to do with it.

Sapnap pulled his arms free from his jacket and looked over at Quackity again. Quackity was covering his face with his hands, like he was nursing a migraine.
Sapnap hung his jacket by the door.

“... Can I talk now? Am I allowed to defend myself now?” Sapnap asked.

"You are not the fucking victim Sapnap, Wilbur is” Quackity looked back at him with a glare, and that made Sapnap’s blood boil, why was Quackity picking Wilbur’s side over his? he didn’t even hear all the awful things Wilbur said.

"But by all means, explain why the fuck you would hit my friend in the face outside a public club, where he works” Quackity dared him almost.

Sapnap took a deep breath, trying his hardest to calm his nerves and convince himself Quackity wouldn’t be mad after he knew the context of the situation. He’d see Sapnap was in the right and Wilbur was a massive creep.

“Wilbur wants to sleep with you. He only became friends with you to flirt with you” Sapnap said and watched Quackity. Karl looked shocked from his spot on the bed, nearly spilling the bottle of soda before he caught it slipping.

There was a moment of silence.

"No he doesn’t” Quackity blinked.

"Yes he does” Sapnap insisted, but Quackity only shook his head.

“No he doesn’t. Wilbur is my friend” Quackity shot back at him, as if those words would disprove anything.

"A friend that wants to be a lot more. He literally said it to my face” Sapnap tried to explain.
"He was gonna ask you out and he called you names like ‘firecracker’ and shit. I just told him to back off” Sapnap tried to explain.

"I swear to god if this is about the cup thing that happened” Quackity muttered to himself.
"That happened months ago, and we didn’t know each other back then. And I said no” Quackity reminded him.

"Cup thing? no, he literally told me he wanted to sleep with you!” Sapnap didn’t mean to raise his voice, but it just happened.

"Months ago!” Quackity repeated back at him.

"Why aren’t you listening to me?! he wants to fuck you! he's actively trying to get in your pants and you don’t care?! or maybe you already know that, and you’re just waiting for him to ask again?” Sapnap yelled back at him. Never in his life has he wanted to hurt Quackity or Karl’s feelings. It's the last thing he would ever do.

And yet Quackity looked like Sapnap had just slapped him.

“... Why are you accusing me of doing something I didn't do?” Quackity asked after a tense pause.

"Well, did you?” Sapnap just asked back with a shrug, giving up on explaining his side of the story.

"We’re just friends” Quackity defended, and Sapnap huffed.
“This is not fair. I worked my ass off to make friends. You know how hard the last year has been for me, and now I finally have my own friends, which you literally told me to get” Quackity frowned.

"Oh, so all your friends are trying to sleep with you? not just Wilbur?” Sapnap lifted an eyebrow as he asked rhetorically.

“Me and Wilbur are just friends” Quackity repeated himself.

“Well, it doesn’t sound like it. In fact it's starting to sound like you two are a lot more than friends already” Sapnap glared.

Quackity blinked, too stunned to even say anything. He watched Sapnap with a hurt look. Karl looked between them, a concerned frown on his face.

"Okay, I think we all need to take a moment and calm down” Karl tried to diffuse the situation as he got up from the bed.

"Stay out of it Karl” Sapnap eyed him.

“… How dare you…” Quackity blinked again, his eyes started to gloss over.
“Sapnap, how many years have we known each other?” Quackity asked and crossed his arms over his chest, almost like he was holding himself.

“… Twelve years… Maybe thirteen” Sapnap said after another quiet moment.

“Thirteen years. And you think I would do that to you? To you and Karl?” Quackity asked, his bottom lip quivering.

“Do you realize how insulting that is? That you think I would cheat on you? Not once have I even thought that about you, because I trust you, and I trust that even if you met someone new, you’d at least tell me before anything happened” Quackity shook his head in disbelief.

“I have never felt more dirty and insulted in my life” Quackity said and turned his head to look away from Sapnap.

“It's not you I don't trust. It’s that asshole” Sapnap tried to explain.

"No, because if that was the case, you wouldn’t have tried to fucking hit him” Quackity cursed back at him.
"God, do you seriously have that little faith in me? in our relationship? I don't understand why you’re attacking and accusing me. You're twice more likely to cheat than me, and I never doubted your loyalty” Quackity ranted, not even thinking about what he was saying.

"What’s that supposed to mean?” Sapnap asked, feeling a part of his heart starting the crack and break.

"You feel threatened by Wilbur? how the fuck do you think I feel knowing you’re walking around over there with who knows. I have double the amount of competition you could ever have” Quackity uncrossed his arms and waved them around as he talked.
"I have to worry about women and men, and who knows what else! all because you’re bi, and willing to stick your dick in anything”

"You did not just say that” Sapnap’s eyes glossed over, blinking to try and get his tears to go away, but it only made them fall.

"Oh, so this arrangement works for you and your sex drive? nude pics maybe once a month and jerking it to my instagram profile? I am constantly worried you’ll text me to say you found some fuck buddy over there in Califonia and I just have to be cool with that” Quackity pointed at him.

"So because I'm bi, I have to want sex all the time? I was not the one forcing you into my lap last Christmas just because of insecurities. You did that, because you’re fucking awful at communicating and would rather be isolated and depressed than talk to us!” Sapnap would regret saying that once the anger was gone later, he knew he would. He regretted saying it the moment it left his mount.

But Quackity hurt him. And Sapnap just wanted to hurt him back.

"We’ve had sex once in the past eight months. I was worried you were getting bored of me!” Quackity yelled at him.

"That’s not my fault!” Sapnap yelled back, his tears now rolling down his cheeks freely.

Sapnap and Quackity kept yelling at each other, but none of them seemed to be listening. Karl tried his best to butt in, defuse their fight, but no matter what he said it was drowned out in their screaming match.

Never had they fought like this.

Never in their lives had any of them been in a screaming match against each other. They didn’t fight like this over toys as kids, they didn’t fight like this when they were preteens. They didn’t fight like this during Thanksgiving.

They have never fought like this.

"If I'm such a bad boyfriend, why don’t you just go home then?” Quackity yelled.

"Maybe I will!” Sapnap threatened.

"Good!”

"Great!”

A moment of silence fell over the room, Sapnap and Quackity both taking deep breaths, sounding like they had just run a mile each. They both glared at each other, neither wanting to break first.

Sapnap turned to grab his jacket.
"I need some fucking air” was all he said before opening the door, sniffling and rubbing his cheeks.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out” Quackity said before Sapnap slammed the door.

Not a moment later, Quackity choked out a sob. Karl looked at him, taking a step closer towards his crying boyfriend.
“Quackity?...” Karl reached out for him.

"Don’t” Quackity turned his back to Karl, clearing his throat and sniffling before running his hands over his face. Leaving Karl inches away from him, unable to comfort him or try to help.

“I need to go” Quackity sniffled again.
"I have to call Wilbur and make sure his parents aren’t gonna press any charges on Sapnap” Quackity grabbed his jacket and made sure he had his phone before leaving, not looking at Karl once.

He closed the door a lot gentler than Sapnap did.

And so, Karl was left alone in a dorm room that wasn’t his, unable to do anything.

Karl looked down at the still full Pepsi bottle in his hand, running his thumb down its side, then he looked up at the door again.

He didn't know what to do.

He didn't know where Sapnap or Quackity was, and he doubted any of them really wanted his company right now. And even if they did, Karl wasn’t sure he would know how to help.

Karl sighed, collapsing back down onto bed again and lifted the soda bottle to his lips.

Chapter Text

Quackity felt dizzy.

He had been crying his eyes out in the bathroom for a good hour before he called Wilbur. He didn’t mean to stay on the phone with him for that long, Wilbur had a show to celebrate and Quackity was just ruining it with all his problems.

Was it wrong of him to vent to Wilbur? Were they that kind of friends? Was he just making it worse to be seeking some form of reassurance and comfort from the guy his own boyfriend clearly despises so much as to seek to violence?

Quackity didn’t know.

Quackity didn’t even know what to do.

The only thing he knew he wanted was a hug, from the very person he had insulted and who was properly gonna break up with him as soon as he left this bathroom stall.

Quackity hated how that thought made him want to vomit out of fear. The sense of dread he hadn’t felt in months returning to his stomach and choking his lungs.

He should have called Charlie.

But he didn’t. He called Wilbur.

And Wilbur told him everything.

Told him how he approached Sapnap and offered a smoke.
That was a red flag, Sapnap hates smoking, he hates the smell, the little gross pictures on the cartons, the unhealthy habit of it, and the social peer pressure that surrounded it.

Then Wilbur proceeded to tell him how he tried to ask into their relationship.
again, might be a red flag for Sapnap if he already didn’t like Wilbur, which was very clear he didn’t.

Wilbur tried to compliment Sapnap on his taste in men, joking about the time Wilbur flirted with Quackity over the cup incident. Quackity fucking knew the cup incident had played a role in this. And he could also see how this might have looked from Sapnap’s point of view.

It was a miscommunication that got out of hand.

A misunderstanding.

Quackity insulted and screamed at the love of his life over a misunderstanding.

That only caused Quackity to cry harder, but thankfully Wilbur was there and talked him through it enough to eventually leave the bathroom stall.

It was with a runny nose and puffy red cheeks that Quackity said goodbye to Wilbur and wished him a good afterparty at the club.

Walking back down the hallway, Quackity’s head was throbbing, on the edge of a migraine with all the worries and thoughts running through his head like a highway.

He was met with the sight of Karl sitting on his bed when he opened the door, sitting with his elbows on his knees and holding a now empty soda bottle. By the sound of the door opening Karl looked up and met his eyes.
"Hey…”

“Karl?” Quackity asked, closing the door behind him.
“You’re still here?” he sniffed and started to fiddle with the hem of his sleeve.

“Oh yeah, um I didn’t want to leave in case one of you came back” Karl explained,
"And I didn’t know where either one of you were so…“ Karl stood up from his seat on the bed.

“… Are you okay?” Karl asked as he took in Quackity’s red face.

“Not really. I feel like I’m in the middle of an anxiety attack” Quackity sniffed.

“Maybe taking your meds would help?” Karl suggested and looked around to try and spot it on the table, as if he knew where it was.

“Yeah, maybe” Quackity said and moved over to his school bag, pulling it up and unzipping it to pull out the small cardboard pill box.

"You keep them in your bag?” Karl asked, not sure what else he could talk about. He grabbed a half drunk water bottle off Quackity’s desk and handed it to him.

"Yeah, I try to keep them with me everywhere… just in case” Quackity said and pressed a pill out of one of the sleeves and took the bottle Karl offered. Karl watched as Quackity placed the pill in his mouth and uncapped the water bottle before downing it.

"Do you feel better?” Karl asked.

“... No” Quackity admitted and screwed the cap back on the bottle. He didn’t meet Karl’s eyes, feeling the shame and self hatred pumping through his veins.

“... I went too far” Quackity stated more than asked Karl, finally looking up at him.

"Yeah..” Karl nodded.

Quackity’s bottom lip quivered as he dried his cheeks again.
“He’s gonna leave me, isn’t he?” Quackity choked.

“What? No, of course not. Sapnap might be an impulsive person and he might have almost hit someone today, but he’s not that impulsive” Karl said and stepped over to take Quackity into his arms, his boyfriend tilting into his arms and hiding his face in his chest. Karl placed his head on top of Quackity’s, stroking his back and rocking them gently.

“I called him a cheater… Because he's bi… He hates me and he’s gonna break up with me” Quackity sniffed. Karl gently tilted Quackity’s head up to look at him.

“He’s not gonna break up with you. Q, that’s your anxiety talking, let’s just breathe and take this one step at a time okay?” Karl suggested.

“But-“ Quackity tried to say but Karl shook his head.

“No buts. You were right to be angry, but you didn’t have insult his sexuality, you know how proud Sapnap is of his bisexuality, and that was just a low blow” Karl spoke softly, pulling Quackity into the hug again.

"I know… I didn’t mean it” Quackity sniffed, starting to tear up again, moving his arms up to wrap around Karl.

“I know, and I'm sure Sapnap knows that too” Karl put his head on top of Quackity’s hair.

"I didn’t mean it… I didn’t…” Quackity repeated through his crying.

"I know” Karl whispered.

"Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?...” Quackity choked slightly.

"Of course he will… But what you said was not okay” Karl said.

"I know…” Quackity sniffed and took in a shaking breath.

“Good” Karl whispered and kissed his forehead. Quackity buried his face in Karl’s shirt, putting his ear as close as he could to Karl’s heart and tried to focus on the rhythm of his heartbeat.

Karl held him close, stroking his hand up and down Quackity’s back in what he hoped was a soothing manner. They stood like that for a good few minutes, Karl just gently rocking them from side to side.

“We should probably go look for him. It’s like midnight” Karl muttered against Quackity’s hair.

“You’re right. What if he’s lost? Or what if he doesn’t wanna come back and he’s just gonna grab his bag and leave?” Quackity sniffed as he pulled away from the hug.

“He’s not gonna do that. And even if he would, I won’t let him leave till we’ve talked this out” Karl reassured him and turned to reach for Quackity’s jacket and handed it to him.

But before Karl could grab his own coat it knocked on the door. Quackity dropped his jacket and hurried over to the door to open it.

“Sapnap” Karl sounded relieved as he looked towards the now open door.

Quackity was met with Sapnap’s own tear stained face, his cheeks puffy and eyes red from crying. He held a plastic white bag in one hand, but Quackity couldn’t care less.

Because Sapnap came back and all Quackity wanted was to beg for forgiveness.

But before Quackity could even open his mouth Sapnap held his hand up to stop him.
“Can I please start?” Sapnap asked. Quackity sniffed and nodded, shifting from one foot to the other.

"So um… I called my dad, and I told him about everything that happened and um… We kinda had a long talk about trust and boundaries and communication... And…” Sapnap sniffed and moved one hand up to his face to wipe the tears away.

“I think we should discuss our relationship and our boundaries,” Sapnap stated after he took a deep breath.

"Are you breaking up with me?” Quackity didn't mean to interrupt, but his tears were already forming again.

"No, of course not” Sapnap reached out and took Quackity’s hand off his sleeve and squeezed it. He stepped through the door, letting it fall shut behind him.
“But what you said really hurt…” Sapnap admitted.

“I’m really sorry” Quackity’s bottom lip quivered.
“I didn’t mean it, I’m so sorry” Quackity squeezed his eyes closed.

Sapnap pulled him closer and into a hug, the plastic bag around his wrist hung down between Quackity’s shoulders as he held him close. He gently shushed him.

“... I'm sorry I said you were more likely to cheat because of you being bisexual” Quackity sniffed.
"I don’t believe that, I should never have said that” Quackity choked out between tears.

"Yeah, that stung… but we both said things we didn’t mean…” Sapnap said, rubbing Quackity’s back.
"I’m really sorry I accused you of cheating too. It wasn’t okay” Sapnap said and pulled back to look him in the eyes.

“I’m sorry for what I said… I was the world’s biggest dick and you didn’t deserve that” Sapnap held his head down, eyes now on the floor.
“I didn’t mean what I said. I should have trusted your word over a stranger’s that clearly only wanted to make me mad..” Sapnap said.

“It’s… it’s not okay” Quackity started, rubbing his arm.
“But I forgive you”.

“I forgive you too” Sapnap looked back up at him.

A tense silence fell over them.

They were over the fight, they apologized, but it still felt like there were things left unsaid. Things that needed to be said now, or it might just cause a bigger problem in the future.

“I um, I called Wilbur” Quackity spoke up again, and both Karl and Quackity could see Sapnap’s shoulder tense again. But Sapnap just took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“Why?” Sapnap asked through his teeth.

"He hasn’t told his parents what happened and he's not gonna, so we don’t have to worry about you being arrested or anything” Quackity tried to explain and Sapnap just nodded.

“And um… He told me his side of the story, he explained what he said and I can see where the misunderstanding is, and Wilbur said he was really sorry for causing any problems” Quackity said and Sapnap frowned confused.

“He did?” Sapnap asked with a weird look in his eyes.

“Yeah, he says you must have misunderstood what he was saying as him being into me now, when it was months ago” Quackity offered a soft smile.

Sapnap was about to deny that, he knew perfectly well he didn’t misunderstand anything. Wilbur was and is actively trying to fuck his boyfriend.
But looking up over Quackity’s head, the look Karl gave him was enough for Sapnap to hold his tongue. Karl looked at him with pleading eyes and shook his head.

Please don’t start again. Please just let it rest for now.

Sapnap looked back at Quackity and nodded.
“Yeah, I must have,” he said with a scowl on his face.

Quackity’s face fell.
"You’re still mad” Quackity started to pull on his sleeve again. He really didn’t wanna fight again, his head was hurting and still running wild.

"I'm not mad” Sapnap muttered, but didn’t meet Quackity’s eyes.

“Yes, you are. Why?” Quackity asked.

Sapnap bit the inside of his cheek, trying his best to find the right words. He was too harsh before, he had to hold his tongue. Was he really gonna start their argument all over again? he was tired, Quackity was tired, and it was clear to see Karl was too.

Sapnap sighed and looked up at Quackity again.
“I like your friends, I think they’re great and Charlie seems like a really great guy and a good influence on you” Sapnap started.
“But I don’t like Wilbur, so please don’t ask me to” Sapnap said.

Quackity bit his lip, but nodded.
"I won’t” he promised, pulling on his sleeve.

“Thank you” Sapnap said and offered him a small smile. Sapnap looked down at the plastic bag around his wrist.
“Hey Quackity?”

“Yeah Sap?” Quackity asked.

Sapnap shoved his hand into the bag and pulled out a big reddish foil bag, covered in ring pops, red crystals and cute drawings of unicorns.
“Will you still marry me?” Sapnap asked with red cheeks.

Quackity couldn’t help but smile, a flush covering his own cheeks as he asked,
“What flavor is it?”.

“Strawberry. Or maybe orange? I’m not sure, the bag is like an orange reddish color and it’s all in Japanese” Sapnap said and looked at the bag again, as if he could read the text on it. The only reason he even knew it was a ring pop was because of the picture.

“Good. I’d have to divorce you if it was blueberry” Quackity joked and took it once Sapnap offered it to him. He looked up at Sapnap again before leaning in and kissing his cheek.
“Kiss and make up?”

“Kiss and make up” Sapnap smiled and hugged him close again, feeling Quackity put his arms around his shoulders.
“I love you” he mumbled into Quackity’s shoulder.

"I love you too…” Quackity whispered back.

Karl let them dwell in the moment for a bit more, so happy they were not fighting anymore. It made his uneasy heart sing to know the screaming was over. But that did not mean the hardest part was over.

"So, about those boundaries… where should we start?” Karl asked, interrupting their peaceful hug

"Well… how about we define our relationship?” Sapnap asked as he pulled back from the hug and they walked over to the bed. Sitting down so they could talk about it, Quackity sat down next to him, still holding the red candy bag.

"I know we are in an open relationship. But I only want it to be open to us three. I don’t want to be with anyone else or share you two with others, especially now that we’re long distance” Sapnap started, watching Karl sit down in Quackity’s desk chair.

"Yeah, I want that too” Quackity nodded, fiddling with the edges of the candy bag to open it. He reached in and pulled out one for Karl and Sapnap each, before grabbing one for himself.

"I think that's best for us”. Karl agreed and opened the tiny wrapper on the ring pop. Quackity looked at Sapnap again, watching him get the ring pop free and popped it into his mouth.

“... Do you want me to stop being friends with Wilbur?” Quackity then asked, putting his hands in his lap. Sapnap didn’t look at him, more focused on the strawberry flavor on his tongue as he thought about it.

"I… I'd be lying if I said no” Sapnap confessed.
“But I don’t wanna be that guy… I don't wanna be the person I was two hours ago. I don't wanna be jealous or paranoid or angry. I don’t wanna scream at you because of my own insecurities” Sapnap looked into his eyes with a sorry look in them.

"You can hang out with whoever you want to, whenever you want to. I'm not gonna dictate that” Sapnap said and took Quackity’s hand into his own.

“... But please don’t hang out with him alone in private” Sapnap blushed, feeling like a dick for requesting it.
"Like, invite Charlie or something maybe, but I'm not gonna decide that for you” Sapnap suggested and shook his head to look away again.

"If that makes you feel better, I can do that” Quackity said. It only felt fair that Quackity honored that request when he knew how much Sapnap disliked Wilbur.

"What do you guys consider cheating? like where's the line?” Quackity asked and looked to Karl this time, trying to further the discussion.

“I mean… kissing, like a peak on the lips” Karl shrugged, but he couldn’t help but notice how Sapnap got quiet.
"Sap?”

“I mean, kissing obviously. But like, I'm not comfortable with flirting either” Sapnap said and stroked his hand over Quackity’s knuckles.
“Like the drunk flirting with your friend Foolish is fine. But like regularly, I just… I would be upset” Sapnap tried to explain.

"Okay” Quackity nodded.
"So kissing is off limits with anyone, that's a given. And no flirting. But how about cuddling or hand holding? Cause I have definitely snuggled with Charlie at least four times, and we walk arm in arm a lot” Quackity then asked, finally opening his open ring pop.

“... I'm okay with that. I cuddle with Dream too sometimes” Sapnap nodded.

"Cuddles are okay as long as it’s with the homies only” Karl leaned back in the desk chair, sucking on the ring pop.
"I might not be into sex, but cuddles are important me. Like, that's kinda my way of being physically intimate with you” Karl tried to explain, but something else seemed to be troubling him more.

“... Can we please never scream at each other like that ever again? or brush each other off when we try to help?. I felt like my feelings were not important to you at all, even though it wasn’t my fight” Karl confessed.

“I shouldn't have snapped at you, I'm sorry” Sapnap apologized.

"We shouldn’t even have screamed at each other to begin with. We really let it get out of hand. Sorry” Quackity said, feeling ashamed.

"Hey, its okay. Its just… We need to be better at communicating, first there was the fight at Thanksgiving and now this. We never fought before college” Karl shrugged, looking down at the ring pop in his hand.

"What do you guys want for the future?” Sapnap asked before putting his own ring pop in his mouth again.

"What do you mean?” Quackity asked.

"What do you see happening in the future for us? like, we always joke and say we’re gonna get married, but we’ve never talked about stuff like kids, or like how our dreams might collide with each other?“ Sapnap asked.

"Oh wow, we are really discussing the heavy subjects tonight” Karl chuckled.

"I mean, we’ve been together for over three years. We should probably talk about it” Quackity agreed.

"Well, what do you two wanna do?”

They spend hours like that, discussing their dreams, their beliefs, their wants and wishes for what kind of family they want, their political views and values, and personal goals.

Throughout their relationship they had many deep conversations, but this was a conversation they had never had before. This time they weren’t joking about getting married or living their twenties out as a wacky sitcom. They talked in depth about everything and anything that was important.

They could have gone on til morning, if it weren’t for Quackity practically falling asleep on Sapnap’s shoulder. The combination of crying, fighting, talking, the anxiety attack and his medication was making sleep set into his bones fast.

"I think it's bedtime. We’ll keep talking tomorrow” Karl said and stood up from the chair, grabbing Quackity’s hand to pull him up.
"Lets go brush those teeth” Sapnap smiled, and Quackity could only nod and yawn as he grabbed his tooth brush.

"Oh, by the way, someone stopped by while you two were gone and told us to shut up because she was ‘busy’, or she was gonna complain about you” Karl said as he opened the door for Quackity and walked out in the hallway.

“Was it a brunette? Looked like someone called Jennifer, but spelt wrong?” Quackity asked, blinking his eyes to stay awake.

“Yeah, she kinda did look like a Jennifer” Karl nodded.

“That’s my dumb neighbor, she’s always bringing guys back to her dorm and being loud. Just ignore her, she's a bitch” Quackity yawned and stretched his arms.

……………

Karl’s arm was asleep.

The way his body was laying was uncomfortable, resting all of his body weight on his arm and numbing it.

Slowly he sat up in the little bed, moving his sleep paralyzed arm into his lap and trying to wake it up.

The nerves under his skin felt like they were sizzling and bopping, like pop rocks popping on his tongue.

His hand was unresponsive when he tried to lift it.

Karl was far too used to his arms or legs falling asleep, having to deal with it often after sleeping in a pile of bodies through years of sleepovers.

Karl yawned and grabbed the wrist of his sleeping arm and shook it, almost like it was a person. He then let flop down in his lap again and waited for his nerve to wake.

He tilted his head to the sound of soft snores and smiled at the sight.

When they had gone to bed, Sapnap had been facing away, with his back to Quackity and Karl, and Quackity had to snuggle up to Karl to fit.

But it seemed that through the night the two had found each other.

Now Quackity laid snug up against Sapnap, his hands trapped against Sapnap’s chest with his head on Sapnap’s shoulder. Sapnap’s arms were holding on tightly to Quackity, keeping him close and safe.

Karl smiled at the domestic view, the messy way Sapnap’s hair was falling in his eyes, and the rise and fall of his chest as Quackity drooled on his shirt.

Karl looked back down at his hand, closing and opening it to test his nerves.

Karl grabbed the duvet over their legs and tugged it up over them again. He tugged it over Quackity’s shoulder and made sure Sapnap was covered on his side.

Karl smiled and leaned down to kiss Sapnap’s forehead, the other moving in his sleep and snuggling down closer to Quackity, almost like a teddy bear.

Karl chuckled quietly and laid down again, putting his arm up and around the duvet and cuddled up to them.

“I love you more than anything” he whispered over the top of Quackity’s hair, closing his eyes and falling asleep again, feeling Quackity’s heartbeat against his chest.

………

“Charlie, no! no! That is disgusting!” Fundy shrieked as Charlie chased him with a wet hand around the aquatic petting tank area.

Quackity was leaning in over the railing of the touch tank, watching Karl's hand in the water gently glide over the back of a small stingray. Sapnap was crouching down by the side of the glass watching a star fish more over the sandy bottom of the tank. The touch tank was full of star fishes, tiny hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, sting rays and a very grumpy catfish.

Upon arrival at the New England Aquarium, Charlie had made it his goal to touch as many fish and sea life as possible, much to his roommate's dismay. Quackity chuckled as he watched Charlie hunt Fundy down.

He spotted Sam on the other side of the touch tank, a hand around Ponk’s waist as he and Foolish looked in the tank, but Sam seemed a bit busy with making sure Fundy and Charlie didn’t trip on the floor. Sam turned his head and made eye contact with Quackity, giving a smile and a tired sigh, like a dad who had taken his toddlers to the zoo.

Quackity chuckled and smiled back, before looking down at Karl's hand again, watching him gently stroke along the side of the cat fish.

“Charlie! I will kick you in the balls, don’t try me!” Fundy yelled, and that seemed to be Sam's que to step in, his hand leaving Ponk’s hips and hurrying over to them before they got kicked out for disturbing the other guests.

Ponk just snorted as he looked over to see Charlie had gotten Fundy up in a corner. Foolish chuckled and looked over the petting tank to Quackity again.
"Hey” he called over the tank to get their attention.

"Hey” Quackity said back at him. Sapnap stood up right, and Karl looked up from the tiny crab he had been watching to look at Foolish.

"If you three want some quality time together, now is your chance to run off” Foolish tipped them off, looking over at Sam dragging Charlie over to the sanitizing station.
"We’ll tell Sam” Foolish promised.

Quackity felt Sapnap take his hand, a clear sign he wanted them to take the offer.
“Thanks, Foolish. See you at the cafeteria“ Quackity grinned, turning to Karl so they could sneak over to one of the other sanitizing stations and run off without being seen.

It wasn’t that Quackity didn’t want to tag along with his friends, they made the plans as a group after all.
But given the opportunity to be alone on a cute aquarium date with his boyfriends, he would take it.

They slowly walked through a thick glass tube under the water, a school of sharks swimming over them along with a bunch of smaller tropical fish. Karl pulled out his phone and pointed it at Sapnap and Quackity.
"Say cheese” he chuckled. Quackity felt Sapnap pull him to his side and smiled wide as Karl took the picture, tilting his head back on Sapnap’s shoulder.

He looked up at Sapnap and felt his heart melt at the wide grin on his boyfriend's face. Quackity couldn’t help but lean up on his toes and kiss Sapnap’s cheek, leaving him blushing.

"Aw, I caught that” Karl cheered and walked over to show them the picture. Quackity couldn’t help but laugh at the smitten face Sapnap made in the picture.

“It's not fair. I wasn't ready” Sapnap blushed madly.

"You’re right. It's not fair. I want one now” Karl laughed and got in between them, holding his phone up to take a picture of all three of them. He took one where they were all smiling before he demanded a kiss on each cheek from them.

"I’m making this my new lock screen. We look so cute” Karl giggled as he looked it over, tapping on his screen to set it up just right.

"Send those to me, I want them too” Quackity said and peeked down at Karl’s phone.

"Of course, dear” Karl teased with a grin. Out of the three of them, Karl was the one that liked to take pictures of their dates. He would always send them to Sapnap and Quackity later.

Quackity would call it an art form the way Karl took pictures.

He always seemed to know beforehand when the perfect moment would happen, what angle was perfect and how the light would fall and cast colors over them depending on how he stood compared to them.

And the funniest thing was that Karl didn’t even care for the art of photography, only when something he cared for happened. Karl's true artistic love would always remain with comic books and painting.

Quackity adored that about Karl, his imagination and creative mind. How skilled his hands were given any tool, as long as he had the determination to make something, then by god it was gonna get made.

Quackity loved to watch Karl work on a project, watching his hands get covered in paint or chalk, watching him concentrate on all the tiny details to reach perfection. It was no secret Quackity liked hands, he loved how firm and strong Sapnap’s hands felt in his own, and how slender and precise Karl’s own were to watch.

It sometimes made Quackity envy the brushes when Karl painted, to be handled by such careful and still hands, to feel them grip and stroke over the canvas. Sometimes Quackity wished Karl wanted to handle him like that, but Quackity would never ask that of Karl.

Karl had made it clear for them where his boundaries lay behind closed doors, and should any of those ever be pushed, it would be by Karl himself.

But that didn’t mean Quackity could have his own little fantasies.

He watched Karl’s fingers zoom in and out on his camera, standing in front of the giant jellyfish tank.

"Wow, it's so pretty” Quackity heard Sapnap say next to him, making Quackity finally look away from Karl’s hands and up at the tank.

"Yeah, it really is” Quackity agreed with a smile.

"It's almost hypnotic, isn’t it? just watching them float upwards” Sapnap said in amazement. Karl snorted and looked over Quackity’s head and at Sapnap.
"There is not a thought behind those eyes, are there?” he asked Quackity more than Sapnap.

"What? I can’t enjoy a romantic date with my loving partners?” Sapnap retaliated back at him, looking over to meet Karl’s teasing look.

"Sure you can. But I know what you’d much rather enjoy~” Karl teased and puffed to Quackity’s shoulder, earning him a swat to the chest.

"I mean, you’re not wrong” Sapnap snickered, trying to play the tiny pink color in his cheeks off. But it did not go unnoticed to Karl, judging purely from the cheshire smile that slowly spread across his face.

He sneaked his arms around Quackity’s chest and rested his head on Quackity's shoulder in a hug, eyeing Sapnap up and down.
“What’s the hottest thing Quackity has ever done?” Karl asked, knowing full well that it was unfair to ask Sapnap that, especially since it’s been four months since Christmas break.

"Don’t ask me that when you know fully well how pent up I am” Sapnap sighed in defeat with a chuckle.

"Why I think it's the perfect question to ask you” Quackity laughed and tilted his head to rest against Karl’s temple.

"Come on Sapnap, what is the hottest thing Quackity has ever done?” Karl reached a hand out and puffed to Sapnap’s chest.

Sapnap's cheeks immediately went pink, he looked away and at the glass to look at all the jellyfish again.
“There’s this thing you do” Sapnap started, knowing he wasn’t gonna escape the question.

“Thing?” Quackity prompted.

“Yeah, um” Sapnap looked over his shoulder as two kids ran past them.
“Like, when you and I are together. You know, in the way Karl isn’t into. In bed” Sapnap blushed as he talked.

Quackity nodded, encouraging him to continue.
“Yeah?”

“… When we start… moving” Sapnap was completely red in the face, refusing to meet their eyes.
"You do this um, you make this cute kind of small gasp, like it’s almost breathless, and then you smile at me and it’s just… it makes me go crazy” Sapnap admitted, flustered and looking down at his shoes.

"Aw, are you shy now, Sapy Napy?” Karl teased him.

"Shut up, you were the one that asked the question” Sapnap protested and shot Karl a light hearted glare.

“What’s the hottest thing Karl has ever done?” Quackity then asked, loving the way Sapnap looked when he was blushing.

“Oh, it was definitely the time he asked to paint me naked for an assignment” Sapnap chuckled, finding that one easier to answer.

“Listen I have two hot boyfriends, I gotta use that fact” Karl shrugged and left an innocent kiss on Quackity’s neck, knowing it would tickle him and make Quackity giggle.

“Can I see that?” Quackity asked as he squirmed in Karl’s hug.

“Oh definitely” Karl smiled wide, and with hooded eyes then asked,
“How about when we get back, I can draw you while you two get tangled up in the sheets?” Karl suggested and wiggled his eyebrows, making both Sapnap and Quackity burst out laughing.

Sapnap loved their laughs. He loved how Karl's laugh always sounded more like a giggle, and it went high pitched when he tried to talk through it. He loved how Quackity’s laugh was loud and always seemed to bubble up before it went loud, head thrown back as he laughed.

It was one of the best things Sapnap had ever heard. Combined they sounded like an odd melody, but it was Sapnap’s favorite.

He just wished he could enjoy it without the thought of Wilbur making Quackity laugh so clear in his mind. He hated how even now, days after their fight, and not even in sight or mentioned, Sapnap was still bitter over the fact Wilbur knew how to make Quackity laugh.

"Hey, what's wrong?” Quackity asked as he noticed the face Sapnap must have pulled, furrowing his brow in concern.

"Nothing, doesn’t matter” Sapnap tried to brush it off and looked back at the tank again.

"It doesn’t sound like it doesn’t matter” Karl tried.

"It’s just… it’s dumb. I was just thinking about your laugh, and then Wilbur popped into my brain and I know we already talked about it, but it just sucks” Sapnap explained briefly, trying to get it out of the way.

Quackity’s own brow furrowed and reached out to take Sapnap’s hand.
"Are you sure you’re okay with me being friends with Wilbur?” Quackity asked him for a second time since their fight.

"Yes. I don’t wanna be that kinda boyfriend. You can be with whoever you want to, but I just wish… I just wish he didn’t get on my nerves this much” Sapnap said, and looked back at them. He caught Karl’s eye and it was clear as day that Karl knew there were things Sapnap wasn't saying.

"Sapnap, I get to see you 91 days out of 365 in a year if I'm lucky, and I don’t wanna spend them with you being upset. What can I do to fix it?” Quackity asked, trying his best to find a solution Sapnap would like, wanting his boyfriend to be comfortable with the friends Quackity surrendered himself with.

"You keep count?” Sapnap chose to focus on instead.

"Of course I do” Quackity gave a soft smile, his cheeks turning pink as he asked,
“... Is that creepy?”.

“I think it's cute” Sapnap smiled softly back at him.

"Sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up again, let's just go ahead to the next tank” Sapnap offered and held Quackity’s hand as they headed towards the turtle tank. It was clear Sapnap wanted to move on from the conversation, preferring to watch a bale of turtles swim in the water and eat lettuces on warm rocks.

It broke Quackity’s heart to see how bothered Sapnap still was with their fight. He didn’t want to reopen the discussion, it didn’t feel like it would help. But Quackity wished he could remove that paranoia and insecurity from Sapnap’s shoulders, show him there was nothing to worry about when it came to Wilbur.

Quackity looked over his shoulder and caught sight of the aquarium gift shop across the crowd of people. It was as if the shop itself knew it was needed at that exact moment. From what he could see, it offered shirts covered in sea animals, plushies and all kinds of expensive and useless trinkets.

Quackity knew just what he needed to do.

"I’ll be right back, stay here” Quackity squeezed Sapnap’s hand before he let go and walked towards the gift shop with a quick pace. Sapnap and Karl looked after him, watching him disappear behind the rack of shirts outside the shop.

"What do you think he's doing?” Karl asked Sapnap.

"I don’t know” Sapnap shrugged.
"Maybe he's thirsty?” Sapnap suggested.

"Maybe” Karl looked back at the turtles and took another picture.
Five minutes later, they spotted Quackity appear out of the store, a brown paper bag in hand and a happy grin on his face.

"Okay, what are you scheming?” Karl asked as soon as Quackity was in earshot again.

"The most romantic gesture to date” Quackity beamed as he came up to stand in front of them again, Sapnap and Karl both turned to fully face him, giving him all the attention he would need.

"Okay so, I know you guys want to be the ones to propose, when that time comes” Quackity said and opened the paper bag in hand.
"But it’s only right that I do this for you” he said, out of the bag and into his hand, he poured three black mood rings, covered in blue and green spots with a note card. He picked up two of the rings from his palm.

“I promise you both that I will love you even after death do us part. We have a lifetime ahead of us, and I don’t wanna waste any of it. We all knew going into this that the next three and a half years are gonna be hard on us, and I know I haven’t been easy to be with lately” Quackity started.

“Quackity-” Karl started, but Quackity didn’t let him cut in.

"And you’ve both been so supportive of me, that somewhere along the line I forgot support and reassurance go both ways” Quackity said.

"I love and cherish you both with my entire being, and I trust you with my life. And I want to promise you our future together” he held the hand with the rings up further.
"I want to promise you everything”.

Quackity blushed and smiled,
"So here, in front of the turtle tank in the New England Aquarium, I promise you my heart and soul, my entire being”.

"Please stop, I'm gonna cry” Sapnap said, sniffing with glossed over eyes, his bottom lip wobbling as he tried to keep it together.

"Oh Sapnap” Quackity chuckled and moved his free hand up and stroked Sapnap’s cheek.
"I didn’t mean to make you cry” Quackity said.

"I’m not crying, it's just allergies” Sapnap said and blinked to try and get rid of the tears, tilting his head back as if the water would move back into his eyes.

"Of what? fish?” Karl chuckled.

"Romance, please just put the ring on me” Sapnap held his hand out to Quackity, making both of his boyfriends laugh. Quackity smiled and slided the ring on Sapnap’s finger, tiptoeing up to kiss him. Then turning to take Karl’s hand and putting the ring on him, Karl leaned down to give him a kiss of his own.

“I love you so much” Quackity smiled as the ring on their fingers slowly started to turn a nice forest green.

…………

The plane cabinet was crowded, and Karl was gonna pop a blood vessel if the baby a few rows in front of them didn’t shut up soon. At least he sat in the back row, safe from any toddlers to kick the back of his seat.

Karl looked up to watch Sapnap struggle to put their bags in the overhead bin, he chuckled as Sapnap pushed the bags in and tried to close the bin quickly.
"Finally, I almost broke a sweat” Sapnap joked as he finally sat down in his seat and strapped his seat belt in, pulling out his phone to check the time and turn on flight mode.

Karl had noticed Sapnap seemed more tired once they parted with Quackity at the airport check in area, and he had a sneaking suspicion as to why. Scratch that, he knew why. Sapnap had held his breath plenty of times where he could have brought up their fight or Wilbur again.

Sapnap and Quackity weren’t fighting anymore, they apologized for the things they said and did, and their break together after had been magical. But it was clear to see Sapnap wasn’t over it.

And he definitely wasn’t okay with Wilbur being close to Quackity, despite what he told Quackity.

But Sapnap was too proud and kind to voice that thought again, not when the dust of their fight had settled. Karl knew Sapnap well enough to know it was to avoid rubbing more salt to a healing injury.

Too bad Karl didn’t have the same pride as Sapnap.

“Okay, what happened?” Karl finally asked.

“What?” Sapnap looked up from his phone. The tone in his voice made Karl aware he heard him, but not sure what he was referring to.

“With Wilbur. What happened?” Karl clarified, ignoring the way the plane started to move.

“Karl… I don’t wanna fight” Sapnap shook his head and looked back down at his phone, a sad look in his eyes clear to anyone that would look towards him.

“I’m not trying to pick a fight with you” Karl said and placed his hand on top of Sapnap’s own on the arm rest.
"If that asshole is trying to steal our Quackity, I wanna know” Karl reassured him, needing Sapnap to know he’ll believe what happened to be true.

Sapnap was quiet for a moment, biting his lip and glancing up at Karl again.
“Why wouldn’t Quackity believe me?” he asked instead.

"He's lonely” Karl answered.
"He spent a lot of time miserable and alone at Harvard, and now he has friends that wanna spend time with him, he doesn’t wanna lose that” Karl pulled Sapnap’s hand over in his lap, holding Sapnap’s hand in both of his.

"And the way you told him wasn’t exactly the best phrasing” Karl admitted and Sapnap nodded.

"I know Quackity’s side of the story. Now I wanna hear yours. What happened?” Karl asked again.

“... I don’t know if I should. I don’t want to hurt your feelings with what he said” Sapnap looked down at his lap.

"What did he say?” Karl dug further, leaning into Sapnap’s space.

Sapnap looked up and into Karl’s eyes.
“... He told me he only became friends with Quackity to fuck him, and then he called you my other ‘boy toy’” Sapnap said in a small voice.

Karl took a deep breath and nodded.
"What else?”

Sapnap spent a good hour explaining everything to Karl, what Fundy told him that first night, how aware it made him of Wilbur’s behavior during the show, how their conversation had made Sapnap boil over and how it escalated to what happened.

Karl just sat quietly and nodded, taking in everything Sapnap told him.

They weren’t gonna demand Quackity end his friendship with Wilbur, they weren’t gonna bring this up to Quackity again unless necessary.

But at least now Karl knew what happened and what was going on. And he could assure Sapnap that he wasn’t wrong or going crazy with his behavior.

Karl just hoped for both Sapnap and Quackity’s sake, that Wilbur would step back and keep his nose out of their relationship.

But Karl had an awful feeling that he wouldn’t.

Chapter Text

To Sapnap’s credit, he tried to hide his sour mood to the best of his abilities. And he almost had their friends fooled.

Everyone, but George and Dream.

They knew something was up the moment Sapnap and Karl stepped into the dorm building with their bags. They could see the grogginess in their eyes were from more than just jet lag.

They didn’t get a chance to ask about their trip, busy unpacking their own bags and people kept stopping by to chat with them. Somewhere in the chaos, someone had asked about dinner plans.

The cafeteria would be closed till tomorrow evening, and no one had been at the dorms for the break, leaving every fridge either empty or gross and out of date.

So they ended up going as a big group to the grill Sapnap worked at, sitting outside and taking up almost all of the picnic tables, all lively with chatting.

"So? How was Quackity?” Dream asked as he sat down with his food on the other side of the table, sitting in front of Sapnap. He watched as his best friend just poked at his fries.

“He was great, we had a good time” Karl answered for Sapnap, smiling as he bit into his burger.

“Oh yeah? Is that why Sapnap looks like someone kicked his puppy then?” George asked and stealed one of Dream's fries despite having his own burger in front of him.

Sapnap’s shoulders went up to his ears as he lowered his head.
“It’s that obvious?” Sapnap asked as Punz and Antfrost walked up to their table with their own food.

“Is what obvious?” Antfrost asked.

“That Sapnap is sulking like a child” George said and looked at Sapnap again.
“What happened?”.

Sapnap looked down at his fries, picking up a single fry and dipped it in his ketchup.
“We had a good trip, Quackity’s friends are great” Sapnap started, not looking up at any of them.

“But?” Dream prompted him to continue.

“We had pretty bad fight” Sapnap admitted.

“A fight?” George asked in disbelief.
“You and Quackity had a fight?” George asked, finding it hard to believe Sapnap, the same guy who would dance in the rain with Quackity and Karl, the same guy that always made it obvious to blow kisses up to the bleachers where his boyfriends were cheering for him, the same guy that couldn’t say their names without smiling, the same guy that loved with all his heart, had a fight with Quackity.

“About what?” Dream asked with a frown.

“It’s fine, we talked it through and everything’s good now. I’m just pissed about the situation” Sapnap leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes and took a deep breath.

"There's a guy” Sapnap sulked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Wilbur.” he said with as much venom in his voice as possible.

"Okay? and?” George asked.

"Hes trying to fuck Quackity” Sapnap tilted his head down till his head was on his chest.
"He was practically undressing Quackity with his eyes, right in front of me”

"He was not undressing him with his eyes” Karl sighed. Since their talk, Karl had tried to act as a voice of reason for Sapnap, reassuring him that his feelings about the situation were valid, but he still had to act like a mature adult. But since then, Sapnap’s bitterness towards Wilbur had only grown.

Now it wasn’t just Wilbur's role as friend in Quackity’s life that got on Sapnap’s nerves. It was everything. The way Wilbur talked, the way he dressed, his jokes, his music. Things that didn’t have anything to do with the situation could make Sapnap so unbelievably pissed.

Cause at the end of the day.

Wilbur was the one over there with Quackity, and Sapnap and Karl were all the way across the states.

"Excuse me, I live with Dream, I know what undressing with one's eyes look like” Sapnap defended.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about” Dream blushed and stared down at his fries with red cheeks.

"Well, what did Quackity do?” George asked with a frown, ignoring his boyfriend.

"That's it. He doesn’t see how horny that brit is for him. He doesn’t believe me” Sapnap talked with his hands before moving it over his hair.

"How do you know this Wilbur guy is into him?” Dream asked.

"He literally told me. And just watching them interact is enough to know” Sapnap explained.
“That Wilbur guy is like, lingering all around Quackity’s personal space. He loves the sound of his own voice, and don’t get me started on his dumb band that sounds like every 2012 song ever. He put his arm around Quackity, while knowing me and Karl were there and who we were. He took our spot” Sapnap glared at the table, looking close to smash something. It was so unlike Sapnap to be this pissed.

"You’re making too big a deal out of this” Karl interrupted Sapnap’s angry rant, but moved to stroke Sapnap’s back to comfort him.

"But you agree the guy is an ass” Sapnap looked at him, their other friends at the tables around them looking over to see what was going on.

"I mean, yeah” Karl shrugged, as if Sapnap didn’t already know Karl's stance on Wilbur.

"And he’s hotter than me too” Sapnap groaned, covering his face in his hands and tilting forward, his hair almost landing in his ketchup.

"Okay I gotta see this guy” George said, having seen enough of Sapnap’s temper tantrum. Karl pulled out his phone and found instagram, clicking on the screen to find a picture of Wilbur. Karl turned his phone around to show the rest of the table, everyone leaning in to get a look. It was a picture taken from the live show, Wilbur holding a guitar with wet hair and half open shirt.