Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The beginning of Hector Hordak's junior year was marked with a number of world shaking events.

For one, he was no longer under the control of his father. Hector had imagined the moment he'd finally be free many times. Most of them involved graduation or running away. Sometimes he fantasized that his father would be taken to jail for what he'd done to Hector and his brother. Of course, he could have made that happen if he weren't such a damn coward, afraid of the uncertainty that would come after he reported his father. Afraid of not being believed.

The car accident had finished off Annillis Prime. And Hector couldn't bring himself to feel anything about it.

So that meant he and his brother had to move. Though Hector was sixteen, almost seventeen, he couldn't look after himself and a five year old. At least that's what the state thought. So they were taken in by an old lady very well known in the neighborhood and the whole town of Bright Moon.

Maddie Razz was most likely crazy in Hector's opinion. Her door was open to any kid who wanted to come in for a piece of pie and a talk. Half of her backyard was rows and rows of berry bushes, and she ventured out into the woods for other kinds. She kept an insane amount of house plants and somehow kept them all alive. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, she would sit on her porch and look out into the backyard. Just sit and look.

She'd tried to get Hector to go berry picking with her several times over the past month he'd lived with her. He adamantly refused.

The third notable event but decidedly the least world shaking was his new partner for Biology. He was the only junior in the class. His attendance had been less than stellar last year, and he was being forced to retake two of his classes. He hated the looks the sophomores gave him when he thought they couldn't see.

(He could kick their asses. They should be scared.)

This girl was the only person who seemed willing to partner up with him, and Hector was suspicious as to why. He knew her name. Entrapta Dryl. She'd run with the popular crowd last year, the group headed up by that blonde jock, her sparkly friend, and the kid with the crop tops.

Though, by the end of the year, she'd started hanging out more with that wannabe biker girl and Scorpia, the most sweet and gullible kid in this school, who was seriously crushing on wannabe biker girl.

They didn't speak to one another. Not on the first day. She just moved to sit by him, in the back of the classroom. They didn't even make eye contact. He expected her to move away, especially when the teacher warned that pairs would be staying together for the entire year, with the exception of moving away or prolonged absence. But she stayed.

This was fucking suspicious. He didn't say a word to her on his way out. He didn't say a word to anybody, all day long.

On his way home from school, he had one stop to make. To the preschool for his brother. The teacher eyed him with suspicion at first.

It made sense. He looked probably too young to have a child preschool age. Hair dyed blue. Heavy eyeliner. Three piercings in his left ear and one in the right. (He was proud of those. He'd done them himself.) Intimidating height. Resting bitch face. Dark skinny jeans, beat up converse, and his favorite black hoodie with the red wings symbol. He knew the guidance counselor thought he looked like a delinquent. He liked that he could still scare some people with things as simple as these. It brought him satisfaction.

He gave his name, and spotted Imp in the classroom. His brother had a real name, but never used it, and didn't like other people to use it.

His little brother ran to one of the short little tables, grabbed a paper with macaroni glued all over it, and ran to his brother, grinning.

"Get your backpack buddy. We're ditching this place."

"Ditching this place," Imp echoed. That was what he did. He echoed. He knew how to talk, but he barely used his own words. It had frustrated their father to no end. Hector had done a lot to keep his father off Imp's back. He didn't regret any of it.

Hector carried the macaroni art in one hand, and held Imp's little hand with his left. They walked in comfortable silence. Like they always did. Hector felt three small squeezes, and smiled. He gently squeezed Imp's hand back. I love you.

Their route ended at a small blue house with odd yard ornaments out front. Imp ran right up the steps and eagerly waited for Hector to unlock the door with his copy of the house key. Razz was in the kitchen, putting a pie in the oven. She turned around and smiled when she heard them come in. Her glasses made her eyes look huge.

"Hello! How was your first day back at school?"

Hector grunted and shrugged. He set the macaroni art down on the table.

"Oh, this is beautiful! Did you make this, Imp?" She knelt down to Imp's level. The little boy nodded.

"Make this," he echoed.

"It's so pretty, I think I'll hang it up right here." The picture was stuck to the fridge with a magnet. Hector started to retreat to his room, but Razz called him back. "Why don't you tell me about your day? Did you meet anyone new?"

"No."

"Was it fun?"

"No."

"Do you have anything for me to sign?"

Hector pulled three papers out of his pocket. They were all folded up and creased. He handed them over, refusing to look the old woman in the eyes.

"They always hand out syllabuses on the first day. I'll get these squared away for you. Oh look, you've already signed on your blank. How helpful." She moved to the counter and signed all the papers with a flourish before handing them back. "There you go, put them somewhere safe."

Hector stuck them back in his pocket.

"In about thirty five minutes, the pie should be ready. Mara and her friends will be over."

"Her name is Adora." Hector didn't know who Mara was, but Razz always mixed her up with Adora, the jock girl, who was over all the time. She was apparently having some sort of identity crisis? Whatever. It wasn't any of Hector's business.

"Ah, yes. Adora. Maybe you would like to sit down with us. And talk." Razz had that look on her face again. The pity and confusion one.

"No thanks."

"Alright. Let me know if you change your mind. It's not good to be shut up in your room all day."

Hector had to leave his room for tape. That was a mistake. Jock, Sparkles, and Crop Top were all sitting at the kitchen table with slices of pie. They were probably talking about their days. They probably had good things to tell. Imp was sitting next to Sparkles, eating pie too.

"Have you decided to join us?" Razz asked. The table had gone quiet. They waited for his response.

Imp grinned. "Eat pie!"

Hector opened a drawer and pawed through its contents until he found the roll of masking tape he'd been looking for. "I just needed this."

Razz handed him a plate with his own slice on it.

"I'm not talking to them," Hector said quietly.

"I know. You don't have to sit with us. You seem like you need some pie today though."

Hector swallowed. His vision was swimming. He went back to the small room he occupied at the far end of the house. He set the plate down on the desk, by his work. The plans he no longer felt like finishing. Then he curled up on the bed. He pressed the pillow over his head. It was dark. He could still breathe, but not as well.

Why did this always happen? He'd be fine and normal, but a few seconds later, struggling not to cry in front of them.

He pulled the sheets over his head as well, and didn't leave. Not for talking, not for dinner, not for anything.

Chapter Text

When his alarm went off the next morning, he almost didn't hear it because his head was still under the pillow.

The end of the first day of school often brought a sense of relief. A sense of relief that was completely false because the very next day, you had to drag your ass right back to school and do it all again.

Lots of things in life offered false senses of relief. Hector was sick of it. He'd fallen asleep in the clothes he wore yesterday, but nobody would notice if he wore them again. Nobody cared. He ate the cold slice of pie now that he could look at it without nearly bursting into tears. Then he redid his eyeliner, brushed his teeth, grabbed his bag, and was ready to leave.

Imp was nearly dressed, one shoe on and his shirt unbuttoned. He poured himself a bowl of Lucky Charms. Razz poured the milk. Hector sighed, and sat down at the table to wait for his brother.

"Aren't you going to eat too?" Razz asked.

"I'm fine," Hector muttered. She didn't make any comment, but he felt her stick something into his backpack.

When imp was done with his breakfast, he went to the bathroom, dragged the stool up in front of the sink, and brushed his teeth. Hector located Imp's other shoe, and did up the buttons of his shirt.

"Come on," he said, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. "We've got to start walking if you want to get there on time."

On Imp's way out the door, Razz leaned down and planted a kiss on the top of his head. "Have fun!"

She turned to Hector. He looked down at the floor, hoping she wouldn't try to do the same to him. Instead, she just said: "Smile at someone today. Small acts can make a world of difference!"

Hector gave a noncommittal grunt. All sorts of small acts made differences. Not just the good ones. Every single cutting remark and humiliating punishment his father had doled out made a difference.

But as they set off down the sidewalk, what Razz said brought something else to mind. That day last year, when he'd opened his locker at the end of the day and found the little package. It looked like a party favor bag, with a note attached. He shoved it in his bag and got out of there, retreating to his room before opening it up. The bag contained little candies, band aids, and a small jar. He unfolded the note.

It's one part cayenne pepper and five parts Vaseline. Use it on those bruises so they'll hurt less. You seem to keep acquiring more. I was going to just hand it to you, but your locker didn't shut all the way when you left and I didn't want to embarrass you.

The handwriting was peculiar. Hector didn't think he'd ever seen it before. The letters were thin and slanted. It looked as if it had been scrawled in a hurry. Whoever wrote this put loops and flourishes in odd places.

The whole situation was odd. Why had they decided to help him? Who were they?

Needless to say, Hector had been a little more jumpy for a few days after that. He made sure his locker was completely closed. But the candy was good. The solution worked. The band aids came in handy soon after.

No one ever came forward. It didn't seem like anyone else in the entire school knew that this had even happened but him and the mystery person. He'd never found out.

Would he want to find out? Would he want to thank them for what they'd done during one of the most difficult times in his life? Actually, the thought of coming face to face with the person who had looked hard enough to see how vulnerable he'd been made him shiver. Either way, it didn't look like he would ever find out. And he was fine with that too.

Someone slammed a paper down on Hector and Entrapta's desk. Hector looked up to glare at them. It was Catra. "What're you looking at, you prick?"

"Nothing. What are you doing over here?"

"No need for any of that," Entrapta cut in, setting her stuff down and taking her seat. "Oh, that's the homework I did for you. You're welcome."

"Why did you get so many wrong?" Catra asked.

"I had to make it convincing. I thought the point of me doing the homework was just so you could get out of the work."

"Yeah. But I also kind of wanted to bump up my grade."

"Oh. It would be nice if you specified that."

Catra sighed. Hector rolled his eyes. "For someone who just got out of two pages of work, you don't seem very happy."

"Shut up."

"Don't be mean, gatita. " Entrapta sat down and pulled out one of her sparkly pens. She kept stuff in her hair when she wore it up, and tucked writing utensils behind her ears, so she was never without one.

"I told you to stop calling me that." Catra crossed her arms.

"Double Trouble gets to call you kitten all the time. Why can't I?" Entrapta wore a mischievous smile.

Catra huffed and stalked away.

"She's not in a very good mood today," Entrapta commented to Hector.

"Why do you let her take advantage of you?"

"She's- she's not taking advantage of me. We're friends."

Hector snorted. "Oh, really? Such good friends you've got her handwriting down pat."

"Well, yes." She didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm. "I couldn't do her homework in my handwriting, could I? Friends help each other."

"Huh. What is she helping you with?"

"I- I don't keep track. Friendships aren't supposed to be based on transactions. That's what I read."

Hector raised one eyebrow. "You read about this? Is all you know about friendship from books?"

"Not everything." Entrapta seemed to be getting a little uncomfortable. She let her bangs obscure part of her face. Hector started feeling bad. He tried to change the subject.

"Catra used to run with Adora, right? Do they still hang out?"

"No. Adora found a new friend group and Catra didn't like them." While she spoke, Entrapta pulled out an English writing she'd started earlier that day.

"Oh. I'm really behind. I thought all you popular kids were together in one big group. Turns out there are factions or whatever."

Entrapta glanced over. "'All you', like, including me?"

"Yeah." Hector avoided eye contact.

"I'm not popular," Entrapta laughed. "I mean, people know me. But Adora's group doesn't want much to do with me nowadays. Mermista doesn't even come to me for help with math."

"By 'help with math', do you mean you were doing that for her?"

Entrapta ignored Hector's question. "They haven't talked to me since freshman year. A lot happened between the whole going missing thing, and Frosta's birthday party-"

"Come again?"

"Frosta's birthday party? She's Glimmer's younger sister. We-"

"No, who went missing?"

"I did. I thought everyone knew about that." Entrapta crossed out the last sentence, and restarted it.

"You were kidnapped?"

"I mean, technically. It wasn't the whole candy and white van thing that comes to mind with most people. Although there was candy at some point. My grandparents on my dad's side went AWOL with me. I can't remember why exactly... They had a few reasons. We were two states away by the time I realized they had no intention of bringing me back to my uncles'. I actually stole their puppy that day."

What the fuck? Entrapta told the story so nonchalantly, Hector wondered if she was being sarcastic for a moment. "Are you serious?"

"They kept kicking her. I couldn't just leave her behind. I put her in my backpack and named her Emily. I'll have to show you a picture sometime." She finally made eye contact and grinned. "So, have you ever been kidnapped?"

"...No, I can't say I have." That was a unique ice breaker.

"I don't think anyone here knows much about you. Except for you of course. Who do you live with?"

Hector hesitated. He'd nearly answered right then. This girl was a whirlwind, and the fact she'd given so much information about herself made him almost feel like he could trust her...?

"I'm not going to talk about you behind your back," Entrapta reassured him.

"Weren't you just telling me all about Catra?"

"The fact that Catra doesn't like Adora's friend group isn't a secret at all. She complains about it every chance she gets, to anyone who will listen. You're just out of the loop. If you want me to not talk about you, I won't." Entrapta put down her pen and stuck out her hand, little finger up. Hector stared, unsure. "It's a pinky promise. If you don't keep a pinky promise, your finger falls off."

"I don't think that's true."

"Of course it isn't. But still, they're binding."

Hesitantly, Hector put out his hand. Entrapta linked their fingers for a moment, then let go. "There. I promise." The bell rang, and the teacher came in to start the class, cutting their conversation short.

At the end of the day, putting all his stuff back into his backpack, he finally looked for what Razz had put in his backpack before he'd left. A granola bar. It took Hector a moment to wrap his head around the reason she'd done that. He'd come out of his room... and she thought he hadn't had breakfast. She was looking out for him.

Don't cry again, goddammit.

Chapter Text

"We got interrupted last time we were talking. Where did we leave off?"

Hector looked up from his work. Entrapta had scooted her seat a few inches closer to his. "You were making a promise not to talk shit about me."

"Oh yeah! So, who do you live with? I live with my uncles."

"I have a little brother."

"You do? How old is he?"

"Are you going to finish your work?"

"I have," Entrapta held up the vocabulary crossword that had been handed out at the start of class. "Do you need help? Fourteen was kinda tricky-"

"My brother is five."

"So he's in preschool?"

"Yep. We're living with Mrs. Razz. The lady who makes pies and keeps plants."

"I know her, she's really nice. Do you like living with her?"

"I guess."

"Anybody else?"

"Do you ever stop asking questions?" Hector sighed.

Entrapta fell silent. Hector started feeling bad. Maybe he'd come off a little abrasive. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when Perfuma came around with papers to pass out. "A rubric for you, and a rubric for..." she trailed off. "Entrapta?" She lowered her voice. "You know we could choose our seats, right? There was an open seat by Bow for a while, and I think he wanted to sit by you."

"I like the window seat," Entrapta stated at her normal volume, which was a tad too loud.

Hector resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Perfuma's terrible stage whisper, and started reading over the rubric. "Seems a bit early to be assigning group projects."

Entrapta turned to her paper. "Oh, I love designing slides! Can I choose the font? Please?"

"Yeah, whatever." Hector flipped the paper over, reading the back side. "I remember this one. We can just do the Gemini constellation like I did last year. I'll recycle my old slides."

"No," Entrapta protested. "We should do something new, and not cheat."

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know."

"Cancer, Aquarius, Pisces, Libra, Perseus-"

"Who?"

"Perseus. He isn't a zodiac sign, he's the guy who killed Medusa."

"You know a lot about stars. Yeah, we should do him. He sounds interesting. A monsterslayer."

"Medusa was... more complicated than that." Hector tapped his pencil absentmindedly on the desk. "She started out as a priestess. Then-"

"Hey," the teacher tapped on the desk. "Less talking, more working. You aren't even halfway done. You can't afford to flunk this class again."

"We were discussing the project," Entrapta said.

"The classwork due tomorrow takes priority right now."

When the teacher was gone, Entrapta slid a piece of paper over to Hector. "Here. Maybe we can talk later. And maybe meet up to work on it after school?" It was her number, scrawled in sparkly pen.

"Okay," Hector said. He wasn't sure what else to say.

"Do you want to come berry picking? Some friends from your school are over."

"I... don't think I will." Hector almost told her that he didn't have any friends at his school, but refrained.

"It's that wonderful girl Scorpia, and she brought a friend of hers with her. She knows you. I can't remember her name. Purple hair?"

Hector set his pen down and opened the door. "Who?"

Whoever this girl was (or could be), she'd gotten Hector's attention very quickly. "We were all going to go out to the woods to pick the last of the blackberries. But if you don't want to come, that's okay."

"M- maybe I will," Hector stammered. "I don't know."

Razz hid a smile. "Well, if you decide yes, come get your basket from the kitchen and let's go." She went and grabbed Imp's shoes, then went to find the little boy. He always wanted to go places barefoot, but that wasn't safe...

Hector peeked around the corner into the kitchen to see who Scorpia's friend was. It was Entrapta. Right there in the kitchen. Her long, waist length hair was up in pigtails, and she wore her baggy mauve overalls. Before Hector could decide if he wanted to go say hi or not, Imp made that decision for him by grabbing his hand and dragging him into the middle of the kitchen.

"You brought your brother?" Scorpia smiled at Imp.

"Brother!" Imp chirped.

"Hi Hector," Entrapta smiled up at him. He'd never noticed this before, but there was a dimple on the left side of her face if she smiled wide enough. "Are you coming too?"

"Where?"

"Berry picking."

"Oh, yeah. That. Of course," he stammered, not sure why he was so nervous. Scorpia handed him a basket.

"I didn't know you lived here. Are you and Mrs. Razz related?" Scorpia asked.

"No."

Before the questions could get too awkward, Razz appeared again, wearing her straw hat with the wide brim. "Let's go!" she announced, broom in hand. Hector awkwardly followed everyone else, staying at the back of the line. Entrapta fell into step with him.

"So... I haven't actually seen you here before."

"Scorpia asked if I wanted to come. It sounded fun."

It wasn't a very long walk into the woods before they found the blackberry bushes. "Remember," Razz reminded them all, "no red berries! Never pick any round red berries, chances are they'll make you sick."

"Yes ma'am," Scorpia replied. Hector glanced at his little brother and sighed. There was already berry juice all around his mouth. He would be a sticky mess by the time they were back inside. Entrapta noticed and giggled.

"Are you going to pick any, or just eat them all?" she teased.

"Eat," Imp answered, popping a few more into his mouth.

"They're very good," Entrapta agreed. "I might just end up eating more than I pick. Tiny foods are the best."

Entrapta was very good at holding up conversations with Imp. She was an expert rambler, taking into account all the words he repeated and using them to expand upon or change subjects. Hector listened to their nonsensical conversation as he worked.

"Your brother and I are working on a science project together."

"Stars!" Imp pointed at the sky.

"Yeah, it's going to be about stars. He knows a lot about those. He was going to tell me a story- Hector?"

"Yes?"

Entrapta was suddenly standing very close, her eyes wide and sparkly. "Can you finish the rest of your story?"

"It's not for little ears," he said, nodding towards Imp.

"Aw. How about a different one?"

"I dunno if I have any."

Razz peeked over the bushes. "You're very creative. I'm sure you have some stories to tell."

"A story?" He now had Scorpia's attention as well.

Now he felt pressured to tell them all something. "Once... I made this insane firework. Imp was too little to remember any of it. I took apart other fireworks and combined different pieces in the garage." Hector glanced at Entrapta. She looked fascinated. So he decided to elaborate, telling her which fireworks he'd brought, how he'd taken each of them apart, and the constant threat of everything going off in his face. The thrill of knowing it could all blow up every time he went to adjust something. Then he told them how he'd set it in the middle of the street at three in the morning, and set it off.

"I remember that!" Scorpia said. "I didn't know what you were celebrating, and thought I'd never know."

"Fireworks," Imp grinned, eating some more berries. "Can we?"

"My days of creating explosive abominations are over, bud. No more hybrid fireworks." Hector recalled the bruises he'd had the next morning. "Dad was furious."

Imp fell silent at that. He may not remember that specific incident, but he remembered how things got when dad got angry. He stuffed his mouth full of berries and kept them there so he didn't have to speak. Silence settled over the group again.

The time they had gone to the beach, and-

That had ended in a near drowning incident, and getting yelled at.

Maybe the time he'd-

No, that was pretty illegal, and he'd probably get called to the guidance counselor's office. He'd probably get called to the guidance counselor's office for any memory he wrote about for his stupid personal narrative assignment. Anything that would fill two pages was either an unpleasant memory, one involving him doing slightly illegal things, or too private to share. Like the locker incident.

The English teacher peered over his shoulder at the blank page in front of him. Hector hated English class because Mrs. Moon let Sparkles get away with murder just because she was her daughter. She claimed not to be biased, and she did try, but it was painfully obvious, at least to Hector. If he tried to pull some of the shit Glimmer did, he might have Saturday detentions all the way through next month.

Just his luck that this class was the other that he had to retake.

"You need to write something down on your paper."

"I'm trying," Hector growled.

"It doesn't have to be exciting. Or even that happy."

The knock at the door, moving into Mrs. Razz's house, seeing his father in a casket and not feeling a single thing. Waking up at twelve years old to a half an empty closet, a missing set of car keys, and a few holes in the wall where his father had punched it.

"I don't want to write about that," he said, before he even realized he was saying it.

"Alright." Mrs. Moon sighed. "It doesn't exactly have to be life changing, or perspective flipping. it just has to be something that happened. Meeting a friend? Or, meeting someone new? They don't have to be a friend."

"I think I might have something," Hector lied, so she'd leave him alone. Then it finally hit him.

Mrs. Moon moved on the Entrapta's desk, and frowned when she looked at her paper. "What are you writing about?"

Entrapta glanced up. "The time I got a puppy. Which happens to be that road trip I went on with my grandparents. Which was actually a kidnapping, but I didn't realize that until it was too late."

"Don't you have a... happier time to write about? One you'd be willing to share, since part of the grade is reading them out in front of the class?"

"We're what?!" Hector stood up, ripping his paper in half. "I'm not reading this out loud."

"Reading what? You had nothing down," Mermista deadpanned.

"I don't mind reading this out loud," Entrapta said. "It actually wasn't that bad. I'm just leaving out talking to the police, because that was mostly boring. "

Hector sat back down, silently fuming. His only good memory was the day Imp was brought home, but he wasn't reading about how he'd cried because his baby brother was so cute. He'd get laughed at. And Imp was his brother. For some reason, he didn't feel like sharing, even just in stories, their good days. Those good days belonged to him and Imp.

Maybe he should make something up.

Chapter Text

After the glass hit the floor and shattered, there was a moment of tense silence that seemed to last forever.

Hector finally looked up, and locked eyes with Razz. The boy looked terrified, and to Razz's alarm, his eyes filled with tears almost at once.

"Oh my," she got up and grabbed the broom. "Step back."

He seemed to snap out of whatever trance had his feet glued to the floor and scooted backwards a few steps. "I- I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I'll take care of it."

Razz reached out to reassure him it was fine, and he flinched, squeezing his eyes shut. Instead of pain, he simply felt a hand on his shoulder.

When he finally realized that there wasn't going to be pain, he opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. He prayed the tears wouldn't fall, this was embarrassing enough already. His heart rate was slowly returning back to normal.

"It was an accident," Razz said. "Can you fetch me the dustpan, dearie?"

When the mess had been cleaned up, Hector holding the dustpan steady while Razz swept, she patted him on the head.

"There. It's cleaned up now."

Hector was aware that he was still shaking. He nodded, tensely waiting for some sort of 'however'.

"You aren't in any trouble."

He could breathe again.

Hector finally got the courage sometime next week to text the number Entrapta had given him. He started with a hello.

Who dis?

He gave her his name, and was met with a row of smiley face emojis. That seemed like a good thing.

So... when were you thinking that we could get together and work on that project?

I'm free this weekend. And all the days next week. Entrapta replied. Except Friday.

That leaves a lot of options. I'm free on all of them, which one do you like?

Tomorrow? I'm really excited and don't think I'm capable of waiting any longer.

She was that excited... to see him? The thought made Hector's stomach flip. The only person he could think of that expressed that much excitement over him was Imp.

You left the story on a cliffhanger.

That made more sense. She wanted the ending to the story.

You can look it up yourself, you know. If you wanted to.

Yeah, but I kind of want you to tell it. :P

If you insist.

I insist.

At one in the afternoon, after touching up his eyeliner and making sure all the books were there, Hector arrived at the little white house across the neighborhood from Razz's. He was glad to get out of there. Sparkly Girl and her loud little sister were over, talking about some Halloween plans. He tucked his stuff under one arm and rang the doorbell. There was shouting from the inside, and barking that kept getting closer. He heard Entrapta's voice yelling over them all.

"Let me answer! Go away! Down, Emily. Good girl. Be nice, guys."

She opened the door, and smiled. "Hi!"

"Hello..." Hector tried to peer past her into the house.

"My cousins dropped by for a surprise visit. My aunt needed last minute babysitting." Something was launched through the air and landed in her hair. She pulled the Nerf gun dart out and tossed it on the floor. "They're five boys, ages eight to thirteen. You can come back another day if you want." She looked completely frazzled.

One little boy was shouting. Entrapta glanced backwards.

" Cállate!" she shouted. "Come, Emily." A huge doberman with floppy ears and one front leg missing bounded over the Entrapta, nearly knocking her over. The dog's head came up to her navel.

"This is Emily," Entrapta said, three fingers looped through the dog's collar. "The boys like to harass her sometimes, poor baby." The dog took notice of Hector and lunged forward to put her one front paw on his shoulder. This jerked Entrapta forward, and he caught her with his free arm before she landed on her face. When she was back on her feet and Hector had managed to push Emily away, he stepped inside and shut the door.

"Where are your uncles?"

"Trying to get Lorenzo out of a tree."

Hector sighed, then marched into the room where the boys were romping and yelling at the top of their lungs. He drew himself up to his full height, put on his meanest scowl, and cleared his throat. They all noticed him one by one, and looked up in shock. "Qué?" one of them asked.

"We're going to work on a project. You're going to settle down. This is not open for debate."

"Who are you? Her boyfriend? " the boy who looked the oldest commented. He stretched out the last word in a sing-song tone.

Another boy ran in a circle around Entrapta. "Su novio!" She tried to catch him and he ducked away, giggling.

"No. We're working on a project."

The smallest boy turned, wrapped his arms around himself, and made obnoxious kissing noises. "Mm! Papi!" he said in a high pitched imitation of a girl. The others laughed hysterically.

Entrapta turned red, and pulled Hector into the kitchen. "Nice try. Nothing fazes them. You can go if you want, I would completely understand."

"No, I-"

The back door opened, and two men looking even more frazzled than Entrapta came in with another little boy. One man was short and stocky, with brown skin and dark eyes like Entrapta's. The other was slightly taller, with salt and pepper hair and and beard. Both did an almost comical double take when they saw Hector sitting with Entrapta.

"This is Carlos-" Entrapta gestured to the shorter man- "my mom's brother. And this is his husband, Dan." She turned to her uncles. "This is Hector. My lab partner, from science?"

Dan grinned. "We've heard so much about you! Sorry about... the chaos."

Carlos held out a hand. After a moment's hesitation, Hector accepted the handshake. "Nice to meet you," Carlos said. He had a somewhat heavy accent.

"Likewise," Hector responded awkwardly.

One of the boys ran into the room and launched himself into the air, latching onto Dan's back. Dan coughed, the wind somewhat knocked out of him. "Well," he said to Hector and Entrapta. "It doesn't seem like you'll get much work done here. You can try, but it's just going to be really loud for the next five hours."

There was a thud from the other room, and someone started crying. Carlos sighed. "Nobody can catch a break." He brought the youngest boy into the kitchen. He was sniffling pitifully and clutching his elbow.

"What's wrong?"

The boy explained how he'd jumped from the couch and hit his elbow funny. Dan inspected his arm for breaks. "You just bruised it. You need to be more careful. All of you."

"Lucky for you, we've got just the thing," Carlos said, searching the cabinets until he found what he was looking for. A small jar. "This clears up bruises in no time at all, I swear."

Hector felt as if his heart stopped. His mouth went dry. Dan playfully rolled his eyes. "Carlos and his cayenne peppers."

"You know it works."

This could not be a coincidence. There was no way this was just a weird coincidence. Hector grabbed Entrapta's binder and opened it up. She looked at him oddly, but let him flip through the pages. He thought back to the note. The odd, slanted, loopy writing. It matched. They were the same person.

A wave of shame crashed over Hector, so powerful he almost whimpered. His mind was reeling. Why why why why why?

"Hector?" Entrapta looked concerned. "Are you okay?"

He grabbed his stuff from the table and stumbled backwards. "I- I need to go."

"But you were just-"

"It was you, wasn't it?"

"Huh?" Her head tilted to the side so innocently. Of course, she was just the picture of innocence, wasn't she? Her grade-schooler pigtails, the cute overalls, the dimple when she smiled... It felt as if she was mocking him now.

"It was you. You were spying on me or something. You left that in my locker. Why? Why are you trying to be my friend, what are you trying to do? Huh? What was this all going to accomplish? Who else did you tell?"

Entrapta's expression gave way to shock. She knew what he was talking about. Hector's throat felt like it was closing up. He knew it. He knew it. It was harder to breathe.

"Hector, I promise I can-"

He turned and walked towards the door. She followed him, saying his name, trying to get him to listen. He refused. Tugging the door open, he turned to her. "If you want to know the end of the story, look. It. Up," he snapped, then went home without another word.

Razz seemed surprised to see him back so soon. She said something, but he couldn't hear her through the cacophony in his head. He shoved the project materials back in his bag. The book had checked out that he thought she would like...

He felt a hand on his arm. "Do you want to talk about it?" Razz asked.

"No," he choked out, feeling his eyes start to sting.

Chapter Text

On Monday, Entrapta didn't show up to Biology. Not on Tuesday either. On Wednesday, she came in for barely a minute, then complained to the teacher of girl problems and disappeared for the rest of the hour. Hector knew she was probably avoiding him, the way she dragged her desk to the corner of the room furthest away from him in English was more proof, but he didn't know what to do about it. He didn't want to talk about it, especially not to her. He felt... weird.

Double Trouble approached him at the end of the day on Wednesday. "Hey dipshit. I need to talk to you."

"What, asshole?"

"Entrapta never cries. It's not in character for her."

Hector slammed his locker shut. "So?"

"She did yesterday. What did you say to her?"

"I didn't do anything. She's the little stalker."

"What did she do?" Double Trouble crossed their arms.

"Last year she was spying on me or something. She left something in my locker with an anonymous note." The story spilled out. Hector felt pressured under DT's glare. He had to prove he wasn't in the wrong. "I guess I'm just some part of her dumb social experiments."

"What was it?"

"None of your fucking business."

"Was it the candy she wouldn't let me have a piece of? Cause I saw her putting that and something else in someone's locker when I was out skipping class. Is that what you're upset about? The fact that she helped you when you obviously needed it?" They had known more than they let on from the beginning of this conversation. They'd already known practically the whole story.

Hector growled. "I don't need anyone's help."

"Don't play dumb, dumbass, " DT snapped. "It's not like you were getting those bruises from playing a sport, one of them looked like a handprint."

Hector was somewhat taken aback. "Does everyone... know?"

"Know what? Nobody knows what to believe. Some people think it was your dad, or you were getting in fights, or you were part of a gang. But you know what? The only person I've met who didn't have some sort of theory was Entrapta. She wasn't experimenting. All she cared about was the fact that it looked like you were hurting."

Hector stayed silent as DT continued to glare at him. "What's your point?" he asked.

"My point is, as much as she pretends not to care sometimes, Entrapta has feelings. And as much as I seem like I don't care, I'm not going to stand by and watch my friends cry over douchebags."

"I have a right to be angry. She was spying on me."

"She loves you." With that, DT turned and stalked away. Hector huffed, and headed over to the preschool to pick Imp up. He couldn't sleep that night.

Why yell at me like that? Maybe they believe in the gang fight theory.

Was it really spying if everyone could see the bruises right there? And she was only looking at me because she was going to give it in person...

How did she know where my locker was?

Oh. Right. She's only nine or ten lockers away. Of course she would've seen me there before.

Now her perspective was making more sense.

And she isn't shy at all. She would gladly hand it over in person.

She really was just concerned about my feelings, then? Worried about me being embarrassed?

That Thursday, Hector made up his mind to talk to her about it. Surely she wouldn't skip more than three days in a row, so he thought he might get a chance to during class. But the bell rang, and she still wasn't there. Double Trouble shot him a glare from across the room.

The teacher was showing a boring video Hector had seen last year in this class, and hated even more this time around. In the middle of class, Entrapta managed to sneak in undetected without a pass, and sat as far away from him as possible. She was still just an arm's reach away, but today that seemed so far.

Hector quietly pulled a spiral notebook out of his backpack and flipped to a blank page.

Why did you decide to help me?

He slid the notebook over to her desk. He watched her nervously out of the corner of his eye. She hesitated for a long moment before picking up the pen. It took her an excruciatingly long time to write out her response. She slid it back.

Like I said then: You kept coming in with marks. It looked like they hurt. I thought it would be better to stay anonymous. I thought you might get embarrassed if you had to accept the help in front of someone. I guess I still did something wrong. I'm not good at reading between the lines. I'm sorry.

Hector swallowed.

You didn't tell anyone else?

About what?

Where I got them.

I didn't know. They just looked like they hurt.

He glanced over, and their gazes met. She looked completely sincere. There were even tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

I'm sorry. I freaked out about you possibly knowing too much. I got paranoid, thinking you considered me weak. I won't be stupid like that again.

You aren't stupid. I'm sorry it came off as stalker-ish. You know it's okay to ask for help when you need it, right? You're strong, but you don't have to hurt all by yourself. And I promised, remember? If you tell me something it'll stay between us.

Hector didn't respond to that. Instead, he wrote, friends?

He saw her smile when she read it. Friends, she wrote back. After a few more minutes, the notebook was slid back over to her side of the desk.

It worked, though. The gym teacher stopped being so suspicious after that.

They continued talking on their way home. Not about anything super important. Not about the bruises, not about notes. Soon enough, they stopped at the preschool. Imp was surprised to see someone else there with his brother. It was the nice overalls girl from blackberry picking.

He looked up at his brother and grinned. "Friends?"

"Yeah," Hector said. "She's my friend."

"I'm coming over to work on a project," Entrapta said, as they set off walking again. Imp walked between them, and Hector walked closest to the road.

"Stars project?"

"Yeah, that one. We haven't gotten much done yet. I still haven't heard the whole story."

"You didn't look it up?" Hector asked.

"It didn't feel right," Entrapta glanced over at him with a shy smile. "I still want to hear it from you."

For some reason, that made Hector's stomach flutter.

Chapter Text

That night, sleep came surprisingly easy, and Hector's mood was light the entire day. The usual weird dreams or nightmares that plagued Hector hadn't shown up. Maybe it had something to do with the way Entrapta listened to him tell stories. He told her the story of Perseus and Medusa, which they used for their project. Then she encouraged him to go off on a tangent, asking more questions about the stories behind the constellations. Hector was surprised she didn't know them already, but she'd always been more interested in the stars themselves rather than what people thousands of years ago thought they looked like.

She'd listened to him, leaning close and playing with the buttons on his flannel. He kept expecting her to lose interest any second now, and offered to change the subject, but she kept listening. Longer than anyone else ever had.

Maybe it was the fact that it was Halloween. Everyone was talking about the party at Glimmer's house.

Even Hector was excited for something that night. He'd made Imp's costume that year. Imp had never gone trick or treating before, and his class had been talking about it for days. He practically ran all the way home, and begged to try it on. Hector pulled the straps for the wings onto him, stuck the ears on his head, and attached the short tail to the back of his pants.

"There you go, little bat. Do you like it?"

Imp threw his arms around his brother's neck and hugged him.

Hector had conflicting feelings about taking his brother out to trick or treat. Some old instinct still told him that he'd get killed if he snuck out, and he didn't want dad to get mad... He had to keep reminding himself that there was no dad. There was Razz, who was stationed by the door with a bowl of candy for the trick or treaters who came by the house. He was allowed, even encouraged to go out.

He managed to shake off that old feeling, seeing Imp prance around in his little wings.

By the end of trick or treating hours, the little guy was exhausted and coming down from a sugar high. Hector had to carry him the rest of the way home. It was beginning to drizzle rain. For once, Imp went straight to bed. Meanwhile, Hector was ready to kick back for a couple more hours with a book after a warm shower.

He was seven chapters in when the doorbell rang. He ignored it. Razz and Imp were both heavy sleepers, so neither would probably even stir. Trick or treating hours were over, he wasn't going to hand out candy. Then it rang again, a few times. Hector checked the time. It was past eleven. Freezing rain pounded on the roof. He got up and opened the door, ready to chew out a group of kids or even find the house TP'd.

Instead, he found Entrapta standing there. She had dressed in a cute, sleeveless purple shirt and shorts, which were now soaking wet from the downpour. She glanced up at him sheepishly, arms wrapped around herself. "Can I come in?"

Hector stepped aside and let her in. "What happened to you?"

"It started p-pouring on me on my way home from Glimmer's party," Entrapta was shivering.

"Why didn't you get a ride?"

"My ride... forgot me. I also kind of left my stuff in her car. I didn't know anyone else there. The rain wasn't that bad when I left, but it got a whole lot worse. I don't think I want to walk for another half hour in that..."

"Was there alcohol at the party?"

She hesitated to answer. Hector sighed, and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah," she admitted. "Around nine somebody found or brought booze. My friend was drunk. I was stupid, and this is what I get. Being soaked down to my underwear," Entrapta grumbled.

"Here," Hector unlocked his phone and handed it over. "You should let your uncles know what happened." Entrapta dialed both of her uncle's numbers, but they both went to voicemail.

"I think they fell asleep. It is almost the middle of the night. They must think I'm staying over at someone's house. I usually stay at Scorpia's when I don't get a ride."

"How about you leave them a message and tell them where you are? Then you should probably get warm."

"I'm sorry about this-"

"It's not your fault."

"I can wait until it stops pouring and walk the rest of the way."

"If you go back out like that you'll get sick. Come here, you're shivering like crazy."

Entrapta was then ushered to the bathroom. Hector left for a moment, telling her to stay right there, and came back with a fluffy towel, a pair of athletic shorts, and a hoodie. "This should fit you pretty well."

"Thanks." Entrapta didn't know what else to say. Hector said he'd leave her alone to change, and use the shower if she wished. The door shut between them, and Entrapta took a deep breath. She hoped she didn't look as embarrassed as she felt, turning up at the doorstep like a half-drowned kitten after making a few stupid mistakes. Going to that party in the first place was a huge mistake.

Tears stung the corners of her eyes as she peeled off her wet clothes. That party had been one let down after another. She'd arrived with Catra and Double Trouble. DT had given her a bit of a pep talk, then they'd disappeared in the crowd. After that, it went downhill. She tried sticking close to Catra, hoping she'd lend a hand with socializing. But she lost Catra to the crowd, and ended up finding her old friend group. She hung around there for a while before realizing that she was probably making them all uncomfortable. Mermista wasn't referring to her as anything but Geek Girl, and Entrapta couldn't tell if it was a term of endearment or if she was being made fun of. What she could tell was that no matter how much Bow tried, he couldn't stop the passive aggression from several people.

Feeling dizzy and shaky, she'd searched through the crowded rooms, the vibrations from the music shaking her to her core, wincing at the harsh volume of the collective voices of all the guests. She found Catra in the basement, but she wasn't herself. Entrapta, nearing the end of her rope, had to go back upstairs or risk inhaling too much second hand smoke. When she'd gotten herself back together, she went back down to ask if they could leave. Catra was gone. Her car wasn't in Glimmer's yard anymore.

Glimmer herself had started to shut down the party. It had gotten out of hand, too much for her to control, and she needed time to clean up. Entrapta tried to talk to her, but wasn't able to get a full sentence out. She didn't have even a little bit of Glimmer's attention. Nobody was listening.

Head spinning, she'd headed out into the drizzle, that turned into a downpour. And now she was here, stripping off her wet clothes and shaking uncontrollably. She felt another pang of hunger. She'd decided she would eat at the party, but when she got there her stomach had hurt too much from anxiety.

Stepping into the warm water brought almost instant relief. Goosebumps formed all over her body for a split second, then she sighed, her muscles relaxing, and tried not to think.

She wasn't sure how long she was in there, but figured she'd better move along when the mirror started fogging up. After drying off, she grabbed the hoodie. It was the black one with the red wing symbol on it, the one Hector seemed to like wearing on his bad days, when his temper was shorter and he seemed tired. The one she suspected was probably his favorite. When she pulled it on, she discovered that it came almost down to her knees. It was kind of big on Hector, so it was practically a nightgown on Entrapta. It was soft and comfy, like wearing a hug.

Entrapta pulled up the sleeves a bit, and put on the shorts. It felt odd to not wear underpants, but... she glanced over at her clothes. They were still cold and wet. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she opened the door and went to find Hector again. He was in his room, nose back in his book. Hovering at the doorway, Entrapta cleared her throat softly. He looked up.

"Oh. Um, did you need anything else?" Hector marked the book and set it aside.

"No, I don't think so." Entrapta sat down next to him on the edge of the bed.

"I can drive you home if you want that. Or you can stay."

"I can stay the night?"

"Of course. Are you okay?" he looked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, a little too quickly. "I'm fine. Just tired."

She was starting to lean into his side, and he put an arm around her. "Long night, huh?"

"Yeah." The quiet patter of the rain on the roof and the dim light were both a relief after the deafening noise and overstimulating lights and colors of the party. Her head rested on his shoulder, and she glanced up at Hector. "Your hoodie is comfy. Thanks."

Hector felt heat rising in his neck and face, and hoped he wasn't turning red. "No problem," he managed to stammer, trying not to stare too long at any one spot. His gaze bounced between her lips and sweater paws. For a split second, he wondered if she might be receptive to a kiss, but immediately berated himself for even thinking that way. She was exhausted, and had been pushed out of her comfort zone during that party. She might not feel fully comfortable here. If he scared her, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

He pulled his gaze up to her eyes, only to find them closed.

He waited for a solid two minutes, frozen, before deciding she was probably asleep. Slowly, and carefully as he could, he stood up, and lowered her down. He tugged the blanket over her, shut the light off, and left the room to go sleep on the couch.

Chapter Text

Hector was gently shaken awake on Saturday morning by Mrs. Razz. "Good morning sleepy head. Why are you on the couch?" she asked with a confused smile.

Hector sighed and buried his face in the pillow. After a few moments, he managed to remember why he'd fallen asleep on the couch. "A friend turned up in the middle of the night, and stayed over. Their ride home was drunk and left without them, so they tried to walk, but it started pouring. Crap," Hector sat up. "I've gotta make sure Imp knows."

Imp had a tendency to sneak into Hector's room on weekend mornings and jump on top of him to wake him up. If he did that this morning only to find out that wasn't his brother, he'd scare both of them.

"Who was it?"

"Hm?"

"The friend. Who was the friend?"

Oh. Hector's mind was lagging worse than Internet Explorer. He was not a morning person. "Entrapta."

Razz raised her eyebrows and smiled. Hector got up quickly to go wake up his brother. He found Imp outside his bedroom door, about to go in. "Nuh uh buddy," Hector scooped Imp up and set him on his shoulders. "That room is being used."

"Used?"

"A friend stayed over. What do you want for breakfast?" Luckily, Imp was distracted very easily by food.

When Entrapta woke up, it took her a moment to remember where she was and why. When she remembered, she let her head fall back onto the pillow. Last night's events came flooding back to her, and she felt an equal mixture of embarrassment and happy butterflies, with just a dash of guilt for taking the bed.

She decided to go see who else was up, and hoped that Mrs. Razz knew she'd stayed overnight. About halfway down the hall, she heard voices. She peeked into the kitchen. Mrs. Razz was at the stove, flipping pancakes.

"Morning," Hector said.

"Did you sleep well?" Mrs. Razz asked.

"Um... yes. Sorry about kinda stealing the bed."

Hector waved off her concern. "It's okay."

The doorbell rang. "Hector, make sure the pancakes don't burn. I'll get that." Razz hurried to the door, and Hector started scooping up the pancakes onto a plate. Imp fidgeted impatiently.

"We can make the next batch tiny," Hector suggested.

Entrapta's stomach fluttered. Or maybe she was just hungry. He thought of everything. "That would be great!"

Razz reappeared with two new people in tow. Catra looked less than thrilled and obviously hungover. Scorpia looked worried. "We have two more friends over for breakfast!" Razz announced, setting out more plates at the table.

Conflicting emotions rose in Entrapta, and she scooted closer to Hector so she was partially hidden behind him. "Hi."

Scorpia immediately broke down. "We were so worried! Catra came over without you, and I was trying to reach you for hours! Then we realized that your phone was still in her car, and- well, gosh, you could have been anywhere! We were so glad when your uncles told us you were okay. They got your messages at like three in the morning."

"That's... nice of you," Entrapta said, with a wary glance at Catra, who still hadn't said anything. Hector stayed out of their conversation so far, concentrating on flipping tiny pancakes.

Scorpia elbowed Catra, who straightened her back and coughed into one fist. "I... didn't mean to leave you behind. I mean- I wasn't thinking straight." Hector fixed the girl with a glare. "I'm sorry," Catra stammered. "That's what I mean. I'm sorry I left you there." Her eyes darted, taking in Entrapta's attire. "How cute. You're wearing his sweatshirt," she said sarcastically, in an attempt to change the subject.

"Aw!" Scorpia gasped. "I didn't even notice that! That's so nice, it looks comfy."

"It is!" Entrapta brightened, coming out of hiding a little bit. She was still very close to Hector just in case.

Catra smirked and opened her mouth to say something. Hector cut her off. "I slept on the couch. No dirty jokes, my baby brother is right there," he hissed. He scooped the tiny pancakes onto a plate and handed it to Entrapta. She squealed.

"They're so cute, thank you!" She went to sit by Imp at the table, pouring a generous amount of syrup on top of the pancakes. Hector watched, with the softest look in his eyes, until Catra cleared her throat.

"So... where are my tiny pancakes?"

Hector scowled and handed over the spatula in a silent 'do it yourself'. Scorpia started scooping batter out, eager to help.

While they were busy with that, Hector found a hair tie. "Do you mind if I put it up?" he asked, referring to Entrapta's hair. "Just in case."

"You would?" Entrapta looked surprised. "I mean, if you want to you can, or I can do it."

Hector reached out, trembling slightly, and gently gathered all of her hair. She shivered when his fingers brushed the back of her neck, and hoped she wasn't blushing. Hector divided it into three parts, and started braiding. "I'm not pulling, am I?" he asked.

"No."

When Hector had finished and tied off the end of her braid, he felt a tug on his sleeve. Imp stood there with a scrunchie. Hector chuckled. "Your turn?"

"My turn."

He gathered his little brother's hair at the top of his head in a sprout. "There you go."

Entrapta giggled. "Pretty!"

"Pretty!" Imp echoed.

Hector fussed with the tie in Entrapta's hair one last time, making sure it was secure. "Pretty," he whispered under his breath.

Catra gave Entrapta her phone back, and Entrapta found dozens and dozens of messages. At least half were from Scorpia. There were a handful from her uncles, and the rest were from her old friend group.

"They must have known that Catra left drunk, but didn't know where you were," Scorpia said.

"And you told me you weren't popular," Hector teased. Entrapta stuck her tongue out.

A new message from Mermista made the phone ping. You'd better not be dead. I'd feel really bad if you died because you didn't ask for a ride home.

Entrapta sighed. I'm not dead.

You made it home then?

No. I stayed with somebody. It started pouring and was super dark.

Why weren't you answering? After Entrapta explained, Mermista asked: Who did you stay with? Are you okay?

I'm fine. I'm at Hector's.

Oh my god.

What?

Please tell someone if he's creepy. Couldn't you have stopped at a girl's house?

He's not creepy. He was actually very sweet.

... Okay. I guess I trust your judgment and stuff. Next time, just ask me for a ride tho, geek. Me and Seahawk will drive you. We were worried.

Entrapta smiled. Maybe Geek was a term of endearment.

"Ready to go?" Hector asked.

Entrapta clutched the bag containing her clothes from last night a little closer and nodded. "Yeah. Will we be walking?"

"Razz said I could take her car and drop you all off so you didn't have to walk."

"I call shotgun!" Catra yelled from the table.

"Nuh uh! Not if I have anything to say about it!" Entrapta bolted for the door.

In the end, Entrapta sat smugly in the front seat. Catra muttered something about her being Hector's favorite, and propped her feet up on Hector's seat. Scorpia had stuck a few pancakes in her pocket for the ride. Hector made sure to stop at Catra's house first. Then Scorpia's. Then he pulled over to the side of the street in front of Entrapta's house.

"Well... thanks again. For doing all of that. I'll give you your stuff back at school tomorrow." Entrapta unbuckled and turned to face him. She seemed hesitant to leave.

"Um- yeah. Okay."

Entrapta's head tilted to the side quizzically. "You seem uncomfortable."

"N- no, I'm not." Hector felt himself start to sweat. He wasn't uncomfortable, but he was something.

"Oh. Okay."

Hector dragged his gaze back up to her eyes. He didn't know what else to say. She didn't seem to know either, but kept studying him with that odd expression. "Do you want to kiss?" she asked softly. They were just inches apart. He hadn't realized it, but he'd been leaning in closer.

Hector pulled back into his personal space. "I- you should probably go. Inside."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I just thought- I guess I was wrong." Entrapta's hand reached the door handle. "See you on Monday, then?"

"Yeah. Monday."

Chapter Text

Imp slowly pushed open the door to his brother's room. He'd been in an odd mood when he came home. When the nice purple girl was over, he'd been a good different. He'd taken care of her, like he took care of Imp. He made sure she was okay, and made the pancakes tiny. What did that mean? Was she to be considered a sister now?

Even more perplexing was the way he'd come back home, and gone straight to his room. He didn't look very happy. Maybe he missed her? Imp peeked in and saw Hector with his face buried in his pillow. The smaller boy crept over to the bed and jumped up.

"What're you doing?" Hector asked, voice muffled.

Imp patted his back. Entrapta would come back. She liked coming over. And Hector saw her all the time at school. There was no need to miss her this badly.

Hector sighed. "I screwed up. I screwed it all up. All I had to do was say yes."

Imp didn't understand what he meant.

"I made everything weird, Imp. What am I supposed to say to her on Monday?"

"Hello."

Hector chuckled. "Sure. I guess I'll start with hello. Good idea."

Annilis Prime had pulled Hector out of every health class he was supposed to take. In fifth grade, sixth, and freshman year. He'd strictly monitored his internet access. Of course, you heard things in the back of the bus in middle school, but Hector had no close friends to tell him if any of it was true. According to his father, Hector wasn't going to be involved with anyone in that way anytime soon, so he didn't need to know. So Hector knew embarrassingly little about relationships, and he was willing to bet half of that information he'd heard was false.

He had no clue what was normal, or if anyone knew a surefire way to proceed when one knows they have feelings. (Which feelings? He had never experienced these feelings before, and he hated not knowing.) He didn't know if the way other people pursued their crushes and went about creating relationships was the right way. Was there a right way? If there was, he wanted to know it. 

He wouldn't know where to start or how to word it in a way a search engine would understand. He knew nothing about girls . Two words circled around his head in his father's voice when he tried to work it out on his own. Abstinence. Self control. Abstinence. Self control.

Relationships were intimidating, and he always ended up pushing it to the back of his head. He'd work things out later, he'd explore later, he'd learn later.

And look how well that worked out for you, he thought sarcastically to himself. He didn't even know much about friendship much less anything more. 

He couldn't ask anyone at school. Not even the teachers. It would be embarrassing. The thought of asking Razz any of these questions made him die a little inside.

Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. The library.

God, he felt stupid. Now it seemed obvious. He had to go today, they would be closed tomorrow.

It didn't take long to find something that would cover pretty much everything he'd missed out on over the years once he'd gone to the parent's section. The last thing Hector wanted to do was check out the book, so he sat down on the ground in front of the bookshelf, hiding. As he read, the shame and nervousness started getting pushed to the back of his mind. He was mostly relieved now.

So that's not just me. Nice to know.

He skimmed through the pages, picking out the parts that seemed the most important.

Oh my god, that wasn't a myth. Periods really do last whole weeks sometimes. Hector shuddered. Those sounded horrific.

Then it got to the part he really needed. He skipped past corny pickup lines, and right on to the part about the feelings. Was it normal to really like the way Entrapta looked in his clothes? Or want to touch her hair? Or want to hold her for twenty minutes straight? He guessed it was more normal than he'd initially thought, even though he hadn't heard anyone talk about that. Usually, the conversations he overheard were about people's butts and the breakups that had happened over last weekend.

After that book, Hector picked up another. But before he could open it, he heard a squeaky book cart being pushed closer to where he was sitting. Quickly shoving the book back on the shelf and flushing deep red, he got out of there as quickly as possible.

Monday morning, she was approaching his locker. Hector took a deep breath. Remember what you read.

After the library, the list of things he wanted to know was narrowed down quite a bit. Narrowed down to one specific question actually. So he opened up an incognito tab and figured out how to phrase his remaining question. He knew it wasn't a bad thing to be looking up, but on the off chance Razz checked his history, he didn't want how do you know when to kiss someone popping up. That might have gotten him in trouble with his father.

It was hard to resent his father. He hadn't taught him anything but to 'steer away from any form of intimacy, maybe even fear it'. He wasn't kind to him or Imp very often. But he was dead. He was gone. And there was no point being angry now, was there?

He shook his head, and focused on the here and now. Entrapta held out the bag she'd borrowed, with his clothes inside. "Here you go, thanks again for lending them."

"It was no problem," Hector said, pulling the hoodie out of the bag and stuffing the rest in his backpack. As he was pulling it on, he realized something. It smelled different. It smelled like her. Heat flooded his face. "Um, I wanted to clarify, when I... I um..."

"When you what?" Double Trouble leaned on the locker behind Entrapta, grinning. Hector panicked and slammed his locker shut. Double Trouble's expression shifted. It almost seemed as if they could see right into his thoughts, which unnerved Hector.

"Nothing. Never mind," Hector shut his locker, face burning. "I- I can ask later."

Double Trouble grinned, winked at Hector, and said, loudly and clearly, "Entrapta, did you decide whether you're going to the Fall Dance? You can always join Scorpia and me if you don't snag a date, though it should be easy for you. I know a few people who would kill for the chance to go with you."

Entrapta rolled her eyes. "I'll probably end up 'stealing food and spying on people'. You know, like every time."

"Well, there's still plenty of time. Who knows, you may have to pick out of a lineup."

"You know that no one's ever asked me, right? Did you finish the science homework?"

"Yes. I did. And we're not done talking about you."

"Why? It's not important."

"Darling, it's very important." DT looked over at Hector meaningfully. Did they- did they expect him to just ask her out right here? Right now? Hector shook his head. DT nodded. Entrapta missed all of this, producing a piece of paper from her disorganized stuff.

"Catra mentioned she was struggling with her English vocabulary? I figured she might need a cheat sheet to study off of."

DT pushed the paper away. "Catra is going to figure out how to keep her grades up herself. That's what she told me. You can stop doing her work now."

"Really?"

"Really. What were you planning on wearing to that dance?"

"I might not even go," Entrapta said. "I mean, look how well that party went."

DT glanced at Hector again. But Hector stayed silent. He hadn't researched how to ask someone out. He didn't know what to say.

Internally, Double Trouble sighed. They would have to move on to Plan B. "You know," they lowered their voice, "Rumor has it that Brandon might ask you out during lunch. Just thought you should know."

Hector's heart dropped into his shoes. Maybe those glances weren't DT telling him to go for it. Maybe he'd misinterpreted.

"I don't think I believe you," Entrapta said, grinning. "You're teasing, right?"

"No, no," DT shook their head. "I heard from a very credible source. If he's brave enough, what would you say?"

"I'm not telling you," Entrapta said. "Because it's not even real. Nobody is going to ask me out. I'll be the one asking."

DT looked surprised. "Really? Who?"

"Maybe you'll hear from a credible source later," Entrapta said before the bell rang and she took off towards her first class.

Double Trouble walked away laughing, and Hector tried to process what he'd just heard.

He was too late. He'd missed his chance in the car when she'd asked him, and now she was asking somebody out.

As he was walking into English, feeling bad about the whole thing, Mrs. Moon said, "I hope you have your personal narrative finished. We'll be drawing names to see who gets to go first."

Hector froze. "That's today?"

"Yes."

Hector sat down and prayed to the universe he wouldn't get called today. He needed just one more day to bullshit something, anything. If he didn't, he might fail English. He could not afford to get held back another year.

Luckily, Bow was called up first. His was three pages long because he was a try-hard. Then Glimmer was called up. Kyle took twice as long as he needed to because he stuttered so bad. Hector checked the clock. They were only halfway through class.

Mrs. Moon went to draw another name. And then another. "Alright, we have time for one more before class ends."

Please don't be me don't be me don't be-

"Hector, please come to the front and read your narrative."

Hector let his head fall forward onto the desk, sighing. "Fine." He brought up two blank pieces of paper so it looked like he had something with him, and tried desperately to think of something to say.

Chapter Text

Imp tugged on his sleeve.

"What is it, buddy?"

"What?" Imp echoed, a look of concern on his small face.

"Me?"

Imp pointed at Hector.

"I'm just- today wasn't a great day." Hector sighed. "I might be flunking English again." It turns out, Hector wasn't a very good liar when put on the spot. He went to turn, but Imp grabbed his hand and tugged him to the left instead. "Hey, we're going back to Razz's house. You know where that is."

Imp shook his head. "Good day."

"I'm glad you had a good day."

Imp pointed at Hector again. "Good. Day." Oh. He meant him.

"Maybe tomorrow. Let's get back now."

" NO."

"Where else do you think we're going?"

Hector reluctantly let Imp drag him two blocks to the basketball courts. Adora Grey and her friends Mermista and Bow were with her. "I don't think this is a very good idea, Imp."

With a determined look on his face, Imp marched up to Adora and held his hands out. The girl paused, and stared at the little kid for a few seconds.

"Um... what do you want?" Mermista asked.

"Want."

"The basketball?" Adora suggested.

"Basketball."

Amused, Adora handed the ball over. Imp looked up at his brother. Hector sighed, scooping his brother up and holding him high enough so he could drop the ball in the hoop.

"There you go," he set Imp back down. "Can you give Adora her ball back so we can start walking home again?" A few moments later, he had the jarring realization that he'd slipped and called it 'home'.

"Again," Imp said. "Again."

"Go ahead," Mermista said. "He can go again."

"One more time, then we'll go?" Hector whispered.

"Again," Imp said.

Meanwhile, Entrapta was sprinting down the street, grinning. Everything was going according to plan.

After getting to dunk the ball five times, Imp dragged Hector along to the library, where he chose three books. Just when Hector thought they were finally finished, his baby brother stopped at the duck pond, pulling Goldfish crackers from his pocket to feed the birds. Very. Slowly.

An hour after they were supposed to be home, they turned the last corner. Imp tugged on his sleeve. Sucking in a breath, Hector kept his frustration out of his tone. "What is it?"

Imp made a covering eyes gesture, then pointed to Hector.

"You don't want me to see? You want my eyes covered?"

"Eyes."

And because Hector was weak willed when it came to his brother, he let Imp take his hand and lead him down the sidewalk while he kept one hand over his eyes.

"No peeking. No peeking." Hector was confused. Where had he gotten that phrase? "No peeking."

"I'm not."

They turned, and Hector knew they were in the driveway. "Can I look?"

"No peeking!"

"I don't understand the fuss."

"Peek," Imp commanded, pulling Hector's elbow.

"What were-" Hector froze. Entrapta was standing in the driveway, a smudge of pink chalk on her face and more smudges on her overalls. He glanced down, and his hand flew to his mouth. Tears sprang to his eyes before he could stop them.

Will you go out with me? The message on the driveway read in big bubble letters. There were two boxes, one labeled yes, and the other labeled no. Entrapta handed him a piece of chalk, grinning from ear to ear and fidgeting impatiently.

"You want- me?" Hector finally managed to get out.

"This is where you live, no?" Entrapta gestured to the boxes. "Yes, you. What do you say?"

Hands shaking, Hector knelt down and checked the yes box. Entrapta squealed, and when he stood up she threw her arms around him.

"I don't get it," Hector said, hating the way his voice wobbled. "Was the past hour-"

"Imp was distracting you so I could get here and draw. He has impeccable timing."

Hector glanced down at his little brother, who was beaming proudly. He laughed, hiding his face in Entrapta's shoulder so no one would see a few tears escape.

"Oh, wow. Look at him, he's falling to pieces!" Double Trouble came out from behind Razz's car, phone in hand.

"Hey, you said you wouldn't record," Entrapta said. Double Trouble hit stop and pocketed their phone.

"I'll just send it to you, don't worry. That was too cute!"

Hector moved away, hoping he hadn't completely ruined his eyeliner, though he didn't hold out much hope for that.

A few moments later, they were all sitting at the kitchen table, including Double Trouble.

"You're really sure you want to go with me? I thought- I thought you might ask out that guy they were talking about. Or Mermista."

Entrapta laughed. "Of course I want you. Who else did you think I meant when I said I was asking someone out?"

She was dropping a hint? Was that what that was? His vision blurred as more tears welled up in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Entrapta asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm great," Hector squeaked, wiping his eyes. "Something in my eye."

"It's alright to be emotional," Razz said. She glanced up at Entrapta. "Tell me again where you asked him out to? I can't seem to remember."

"There's a dance next week," Entrapta responded, reaching over to wipe a smudge of makeup off Hector's cheek. "But it doesn't have to be that."

"You two need to decide what you're wearing now, so you can coordinate," Double Trouble said. "I'm thinking a lot of black for you, since that seems to be your norm anyways and it's so your color, and for you..." they hesitated, looking at Entrapta. "A darker color as well, maybe purple or magenta? Or white. White would look stunning on you."

"I don't usually dress up, but I suppose since I'm going out for real this time, maybe I should."

"Oh, I don't think I've ever seen you dressed up!" Double Trouble clapped their hands. "You need to, darling!"

Imp tugged on Hector's sleeve. "What is it?" The little boy grabbed Hector's hand, and one of Entrapta's and pushed them together. Entrapta's fingers intertwined with his, and she didn't miss a beat in her conversation with Double Trouble. Hector felt his face growing warm. His little brother smirked.

When Hector woke up the next day, there was a lingering worry that the entire thing had been a dream. A lovely dream.

Then he got to English and felt a pair of arms wrap around his midsection, and heard someone giggle behind him. He recognized her, and couldn't stop himself from grinning. It was real.

"PDA is strictly forbidden," a voice reminded them. Mrs. Weaver, the vice principal, pulled Entrapta off of Hector's back, and he missed her touch.

"I hug Scorpia. I hugged her while we were dating last year, too," Entrapta mumbled.

"I won't explain this to you again, Ms. Dryl. If I see you do it again, you'll both get detention." The teacher turned on her heel and glided away.

"Buzzkill," Catra said to her back, as she came up behind Entrapta to put an arm around her shoulders. "She just can't stand that some of us manage to be happier than her. In a high school."

"Hi Catra!" Entrapta smiled. "How was that Bio exam yesterday?"

"Better than I expected. Maybe this whole 'doing my own homework' thing isn't so terrible."

"Well, it's good that you managed to take on the whole workload that abruptly."

"Um... not all of it. But most of it. So, you two are a thing now?"

"Yep!" Entrapta nodded excitedly. "He said yes yesterday, so now I've got a date to the dance!"

"No people watching this time around?"

"Oh, maybe a little people watching. Or maybe a lot. That depends."

"We can watch people, if that's what you want," Hector said.

"He's the best," Entrapta stage whispered to Catra. Then she switched back to normal volume to say, "So, are you coming with someone this year?"

"Probably not," Catra snorted. "But... I'm glad you finally snagged yourself a date, Traps."

"Thanks. I-"

With that, the bell rang, and the conversation was cut short.

Chapter Text

Hector stared at his worried reflection, fidgeting and adjusting the skirt.

Was it too much?

He didn't have enough time to redo his makeup, he'd just have to live with it and hope Entrapta didn't dislike it. After a few more seconds, he unbuttoned the top button of his blouse just to see what it looked like. Huh. Collar bone, or no?

Ugh, his hair didn't look right. It looked like it did every day, part of him knew, but the other part picked apart every aspect of his appearance until he couldn't look in the mirror, and he had to turn around.

She wouldn't like it. The colors, the length, the way the ensemble highlighted his hips, she just wouldn't.

He heard the doorbell ring. Somebody answered it, and he could hear her voice. Too faint to make out specific words, but it made his heart speed up.

"She's here," Razz was right outside of the door.

"I- I can't."

"You can't what? May I come in?"

When he didn't respond, Razz slowly opened the door.

"What's wrong?"

"What if she doesn't like it?"

Razz tilted her head. "What part? You look very nice."

"Any of it. The longer I look the worse it gets. I shouldn't go."

"Come on now, you've been looking forward to this for over a week. You were both so excited about it." Razz sat down on the edge of the bed. "You can't let your nerves get the better of you."

"But what if she hates it?"

"What if she doesn't? Come here," Razz gently pulled Hector out of his room and down the hall. "Go on," her hand pressed against his back, urging him forward.

Hector half stumbled into the kitchen, quickly pulling himself back up to his full height when he stopped. His gaze found Entrapta's. She was staring at him, wide eyed.

He waited with baited breath for her to say something. Anything. After too long under her silent scrutiny, he felt his face go red and he turned to leave. "There's something wrong, I knew-"

"No! No, there's nothing wrong," she reached over and grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry I stared. You're..."

"Huh?" Hector's eyes stung.

"You're beautiful. I like seeing you all dressed up." Entrapta smiled.

Just like that, Hector's vision went blurry.

"Did- did I say something wrong?"

"No," Hector said, clearing his throat, doing everything in his power not to cry. "Thank you. You're beautiful too."

Entrapta glanced down at her overalls and white shirt. "... Thanks?" She really didn't think it was anything special. She tried putting on what Double Trouble recommended, but she couldn't think, it clung to the wrong places, and putting something familiar on was a breath of fresh air. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah." Hector felt a tug on his sleeve. Imp was standing there, shoes and backpack on. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Going. With."

Hector knelt down. "This is an event for high schoolers. You're going to have to stay home."

"No! Go!"

"I'm sorry. I'll be back before ten, and I'll tell you about it tomorrow, but you can't come."

Imp sniffled dramatically, hoping to tug at his brother's heartstrings. Hector stood up. No, he wouldn't let the puppy eyes weaken his resolve. Imp hugged Hector, clutching fistfuls of his skirt. "Come with."

"Hey, listen," Entrapta knelt down and loosened Imp's grip on Hector's skirt. "They have cookies there. The good kind with frosting on them that you can get at the store."

Imp's eyes went wide.

"If you wait here for Hector, he'll bring one back for you."

"Cookie."

"Go to bed on time, okay?" Hector said. This would be the first night Imp was here without Hector, and while they'd been living there for months now, it suddenly made Hector nervous. "And make sure you brush your teeth. And- and please stay in your room if any other adults come over." Hector whispered the last part in his brother's ear. "Under the bed, like we practiced, right?"

"Under the bed," Imp squawked, bouncing up and down. "Cookie!"

"Yes. I'll bring you back a cookie."

On the way over to the school, Hector seemed preoccupied. Entrapta broke the silence with an unexpected question. "Why does Imp hide under the bed when adults visit?"

"You heard that part?" Hector turned to look at her.

"Yeah. You don't have to tell me, I was just wondering."

"Some of our dad's friends weren't very nice," Hector said, giving the most understated explanation he could manage.

"Oh. Did you- hide too?"

Hector hesitated before telling her. "...No." He could get through whatever was thrown at him as long as he knew it kept the adults distracted from his brother.

"You love him a lot, don't you?"

"Imp?"

"Yeah."

"Mm hm." Entrapta caught a soft smile crossing his face for a split second. Hesitantly, she reached over and tried to take his hand. He flinched, startled, and she pulled back. "Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. That was- that was weird. Sorry." Hector avoided eye contact.

"We don't have to if- I just thought it might be-" Entrapta fell silent again when he reached over and grabbed her hand, gently, as if she'd shatter if he squeezed too hard.

"There," he murmured.

"I'll warn you next time."

"Oh. Okay." Hector hated that he was jumpy. He liked it when she touched him, he really did. His reactions were making her start to walk on eggshells around him and he hated it. He'd failed before they'd even arrived.

Her thumb traced gentle circles on his skin, and those thoughts melted away. He hadn't completely failed, maybe it was just a little bump in the road. He was holding her hand. They were walking. It was fine.

He was holding her hand.

Oh my god, I'm holding her hand. Am I doing it right? What if my palms get sweaty? Are they? Stupid, they were fine until you thought about it.

Entrapta didn't let go of his hand until they were in the gym. First, she pulled him over to the corner where all the mats the cheer squad used during practice were stacked up. She climbed on top to use them as her vantage point and pulled out a little notebook and a pen.

"Look, there's Lonnie and Scorpia."

"Wait, Lonnie's interested in Scorpia?"

"No. Well, I don't think so. She asked Scorpia out because she knew Catra was going to ask her out to try to make Adora jealous, and since Scorpia likes Catra, that would have hurt her. So Lonnie swooped in and claimed her first."

This was already confusing.

"Wait, does Adora like Catra?"

"Evidence suggests she does."

"If they both like each other, why don't they just go out? Why are they making it so hard?"

"It has something to do with the whole friend group fiasco- Aw! I knew Kyle would pull through in the end!"

"Huh?"

"He worked up the courage to ask Rogelio out, look!" Entrapta scribbled down a note and drew a little smiley face by it.

Sure enough, there they were, by the punch bowl. Kyle kept lifting his cup to his face to hide his goofy grin. "Good for them," Hector said.

"Interesting... Perfuma is joining Scorpia and Lonnie. But I thought she was going with Bow?" Entrapta scribbled a quick note down. "Oh, you'd better get that cookie for Imp before they're all gone. That little guy seems like he can hold a grudge."

Hector chuckled. "Oh yeah, he definitely tries."

He crossed the gym, avoiding eye contact with anyone. He grabbed two cookies, one for his brother and one for his date, and then, after another moment of consideration, one for himself. He'd just taken the first bite when he felt a hand on his shoulder and he whirled around, ready to run.

"I haven't seen you at dances before," a girl half his height said. She had short hair, coming down just to her chin. "I would have remembered you."

"What- are you ten? Why are you at a high school dance?"

"I'm eleven and three quarters," the girl said, crossing her arms.

Glimmer ran up to them, pulling the shorter girl back a few steps. "Frosta! What are you doing?"

"He's never been here before. I've been to every dance you've helped organize, so I know."

"Who are you?" Hector asked.

"This is my sister, Frosta," Glimmer explained. "Frosta, that's Hector. Hector Hordak. "

A look of realization dawned on Frosta's face. "Oh, the guy you told me was-"

"In my English class!" Glimmer interrupted loudly, with a nervous laugh. "That's what I told you! Nothing else!" She squeezed her sister's shoulder.

"Oh- y-yeah, just that guy from your English class!"

"I'm going to go now," Hector said, not amused at all.

"Ah, I finally found you- oh my god," Double Trouble appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and looked Hector up and down. "I didn't know you had such a good fashion sense! Why don't you do this every day?"

"Entrapta's waiting for me, so I'm going to go." How did people manage constant socializing? It had barely been four minutes and Hector was already done.

Double Trouble took a cookie and followed Hector over to Entrapta's vantage point. Hector handed her the cookie wrapped in a napkin, which she tucked in her pocket for Imp because she was the only one with pockets, and then hers.

"Thanks," she said, taking a bite.

"Traps," Double Trouble grabbed the notebook and shut it. "This is your first dance with a date, and you're going to people-watch? What about dancing?"

"Oh no, I'm fine without dancing," Hector assured them. Double Trouble shot him a look. They handed Entrapta's notebook back, knowing that she would get antsy if they kept it for too long.

"I'm not much of a dancer either," Entrapta said. "And tall people's elbows tend to come dangerously close to hitting my head out there."

"Valid point," Double Trouble muttered. "But you two can't hide in a corner all evening. Come on. You're both coming with me."

"Can we grab more cookies?" Entrapta asked, tucking her notebook and pen back in her overalls.

"Not yet, darling," Double trouble grabbed Entrapta and Hector's arms, smirking.

Chapter Text

The next half hour with Double Trouble was a whirlwind of people Hector knew of, but never bothered to get to know. Most of them seemed awfully surprised by him being there, even borderline suspicious. He wondered how many of them believed in the gang fight theory Double Trouble had brought up. Or did people not really think that? Were they just messing with him?

One boy, Bow, was being especially nice. To everyone, it seemed.

"What are you writing?" he asked Entrapta. "People notes again?"

"People notes!" Entrapta confirmed. "I'll get less this time around because Double Trouble wants me to 'participate more' this time around, but I don't mind that much. I mean, I've got somebody to participate with!" She smiled up at Hector.

The music came to a halt, and the DJ, Sea Hawk, plugged a microphone in. "Alright everybody, get ready for the first slow dance! Have fun, but remember that Mrs. Weaver is watching, so leave some room for Jesus."

"What do you think," Entrapta looked at Hector. "Should we try it?"

"I dunno," Hector fidgeted with his sleeve. "I don't think I'm very good at it."

"It doesn't matter if you're good or not," Bow insisted. "All that matters is if you have fun."

Hector shook his head.

"Oh. Well, if you still want to dance, Entrapta, I'd be happy to-"

Hector took one look at Bow's outstretched hand and abruptly changed his mind. "I'll do it," he blurted, grabbing Entrapta's hand. "Let's go."

Looking surprised at his sudden change of heart, Entrapta allowed him to pull her to the dance floor. She let go of his hands to wrap her arms around his neck, pulling him close. It took Hector a moment of internal debate to decide where to set his hands. Right on her waist, not too high, not too low.

Entrapta pulled him down about an inch and lifted herself up on her toes to whisper in his ear. "Were you a little jealous?"

"What? No- I- no..." Hector stammered.

Entrapta giggled. "Are you sure that's not what that was?"

"Maybe a little. I won't be anymore, I just- I wanted... to be by you?" Hector sighed. "I didn't want you to go."

"I'm not going anywhere," Entrapta said.

"Am I doing okay?"

"You're doing great," she assured him, spotting his blush even though the lights were low. She pressed into him further, laying her head on his chest. "I don't want to dance with anyone else anyways," she said, "just you."

Shadow Weaver caught a glimpse of them and growled, "PDA," but that didn't stop them from getting even closer when she went to reprimand Adora and Catra for starting a rather loud argument on the other side of the gym. Entrapta stifled her giggles in his shoulder.

She'd initially been wary of trying to dance, because usually she didn't like to touch people a whole lot. And she thought that maybe she'd have to make conversation, maintain eye contact, and keep in step with the music all at the same time.

Dancing with Hector was different from dancing with her fifth grade classmates in gym when they were forced to learn how. It was different than in the movies. He didn't mind silence, and she didn't have to look at his face. She could just hold him. Eventually, it was less of a dance, and more of just a really long hug. It was nice. The material of his blouse was soft against her cheek, he touched her firmly, but not hard. Perfect.

He was even relaxing, forgetting his previous awkwardness. He was glad she didn't want to make conversation. He just wanted to hold her. Then the song ended, and suddenly the music was fast and wild again. They separated and moved back over to the wall. Hector checked the time.

"It's about time to start heading back," he said.

"I'm glad we got a dance in before we have to leave," Entrapta smiled. "That was nice!"

"Yeah," Hector agreed, not sure what else to say. It had probably been the best five minutes of his life, but how was he supposed to tell her that?

"Oh my gosh, it really is true," Perfuma gasped. "You two really did come here together!"

"Yep!" Entrapta chirped. "And now we're about to leave!"

"So soon? There's still another hour left."

"I promised my brother," Hector said. "Knowing him, he's not in bed, and waiting by the window."

"I think I'll be heading home early too," Scorpia said, taking off her heels. "Woah, that feels nice. When there's one hour left, it starts to get a little wild. Especially when Sea Hawk is DJ."

"I've collected some of my best notes during the last hour," Entrapta nodded. "But when you're actually participating, it's a little more tiring. You know, for my social battery."

"Would you guys mind having a little more company?"

"Of course you can come with us!" Entrapta grabbed Scorpia's hand, and then Hector's. "Let's go!"

Hector was surprised at how drained he felt when he got outside and away from all the noise. It was chilly now that the sun was gone, but it felt nice after being in such a crowded, stuffy room. Scorpia still walked barefoot, with her shoes in her free hand. She and Entrapta were talking, and Entrapta hadn't let go of either Scorpia's or Hector's hands.

He was almost disappointed when they reached Razz's house and he had to leave. Entrapta handed him the napkin-wrapped cookie for Imp.

"Well... I'll text you tomorrow," Hector said. "If that's okay. Or I'll see you on Monday."

She wrapped her arms around his midsection and squeezed a little. "Bye, love you!"

Before what she said could sink in, she turned and ran back to the sidewalk, linking arms with Scorpia to head to her house next. Hector stood, frozen, listening to their conversation fade away.

"Did you do a lot of dancing?"

"A little. With Hector. He's good at it. You?"

"Oh yeah! Lonnie did too, she's probably the best dancer ever!"

"Really? I never thought she'd be the type..."

"Me neither, but she's jaw dropping good. She must practice."

"That's likely."

At last, their voices had faded away, and Hector forced himself to turn and knock on the door. When Razz opened it up, Imp dashed past her to jump up and hug him.

"You're supposed to be in bed," Hector said, trying his best to sound stern.

Imp nuzzled into his neck, and his heart melted. He hadn't told anyone at the dance, but he hadn't stopped worrying about leaving Imp here by himself at night. Hector picked the little boy up and brought him inside so they could shut the door.

"How was it?" Razz asked.

"Good," Hector answered, distracted, running his fingers through his brother's fluffy hair. "Hey, I got you that cookie."

Imp pulled back and grinned. "Cookie!"

Hector woke up on Sunday morning with forty pounds on his chest making it impossible to breathe, per usual. Imp grabbed his face and leaned in to whisper, "Pancakes."

"Pancakes?" Hector repeated, groggy. He pushed Imp off his chest so he could sit up.

"Pancakes."

"Is that the plan for today?"

He nodded. Hector yawned and checked the time. "Good lord. It's only seven-thirty. Give me another half hour?"

Imp leaned forward and gave Hector one of his sweetest hugs, his little face pressed into Hector's shirt. "Pancakes?" he asked.

Hector groaned. "You make it so hard to say no."

Five minutes later, Imp was sitting at the table looking very pleased, and Hector was pouring pancake batter out in little circles. He remembered the last time they'd had these, and smiled. It would be nice to have her back here some other morning. He would make the pancakes tiny again, and she'd borrow his hoodie and maybe now that they were kinda sorta maybe dating they could do other things like maybe he'd hug him again and he could touch her hair and comb through it with his fingers it looked really soft oh god that sounded nice-

"Hector?" Mrs. Razz interrupted his idle fantasy. "I just got a phone call from your social worker."

Hector's entire body went cold. "You did?"

"He wants to check on you two tomorrow." She saw how his grip on the edge of the counter tightened. "It will just be dinner and a short conversation."

"What does he want? Why does he need to check?"

"To see if you're adjusting well to all this change."

Hector flipped the pancakes before they burned. He and Imp's social worker happened to be the husband of the principal, Micah Moon. It wasn't that Micah wasn't a good person, he was very nice. But Hector didn't want to see him. Every time Micah was around, something bad happened. Something big. He refused to believe this would be a short, stress-free visit. That's what he thought.

"Okay," is what he said.

Chapter Text

"Hey? Earth to Hector?"

"Sorry," Hector looked up at Entrapta. "What?"

"We're up next for presentations today. You ready?"

She handed him his notecards with one of her gorgeous smiles, but Hector's stomach flipped, and not in the good way. He wouldn't be able to concentrate with everything else on his mind, and if he couldn't concentrate then he wouldn't do well, and that would bring their grade down, and she wouldn't want to work with him anymore and if she couldn't even trust him with this what could she trust him with-

"Hector? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"It's okay to be nervous," she said. "If it helps, half the class is zoned out anyways. Look, Catra is back there playing her DS. Nobody will even know if one of us messes up."

She was right, as always. It was oddly comforting.

Hector pushed the food around his plate. He didn't know where to look. Micah asked the first question.

"So, how is school?"

"It's good." Hector kept his answer vague.

"You got a wonderful grade on your presentation today," Razz said. "I'm quite proud of you."

"Stars," Imp said, matter-of-factly. It made Hector smile.

"Stars and Perseus."

"Perseus," Imp repeated.

"Have you made any new friends?" Micah had his clipboard out now. Hector wished he could read what was on it.

"I... there's Entrapta."

"She's your friend."

"She's... a little more," Hector muttered.

Micah smiled. "The two of you are dating?" Hector nodded. He supposed they were. Was the dance a date? It felt like one. She had even said she loved him, which he was still a little confused over. "What is the dynamic of your relationship like?"

"What?"

"Is there an equal balance of power?"

"We've only been together for about a week, chill out." Who held the power? Was there even power to hold? That word didn't come to mind when he thought of their relationship. He'd never actually thought about it before. Why was he asking? Was this about his self-esteem issues? Micah knew he didn’t like to talk about that. It wasn't like he would let a partner walk all over him just because his father had.

"No need to get defensive."

"I'm not defensive."

"Okay then. Moving on. Any other friends?"

He had to say something. There had to be someone other than Entrapta that he could tolerate. "Scorpia, I guess. But she's nice to everyone, so..."

"How has the adjustment been?"

Hector was quiet. Mrs. Razz spoke up. "I feel like he's gotten more comfortable around the house. He takes off his shoes at the door now, and unpacked all his bags."

"And Danny?"

Imp scowled. He didn't like his real name.

"He got used to everything very quickly, I feel. Having his brother with him really helped. He follows Hector's lead."

Micah smiled at Imp. "How's preschool going buddy?"

"School."

"Is it fun?"

"Fun."

"And your brother picks you up every day?"

"Purple."

Micah looked confused.

"Brother," Imp said, as if it were obvious, "Purple."

"What is purple?"

"Purple."

"Entrapta?" Hector offered, hoping that's what Imp meant. If it wasn't, he was at a loss too.

Imp nodded.

"So, she comes with you?" Micah asked, to clarify.

"Sometimes. Imp likes her," Hector shrugged.

"Sometimes. Some~ times~" Imp sang. The timer on the oven went off. "Ding ding ding!" he repeated.

"Pie's done," Razz said, getting up. Imp was right at her heels, like a puppy.

When she was gone, Micah turned back to Hector and cleared his throat. "There's one thing I really need to tell you." Hector's heart rate went up at an alarming rate. He could feel it pounding in his ears. "There's this wonderful family close by..." Everything got fuzzy. It was hard to breathe. "And they would be willing to take your brother in."

Hector's throat was closing up. He couldn't breathe. Micah was still talking but he couldn't hear anything he was saying. He couldn't get enough air, he was dying he needed to go throw up-

With the loud scrape of chair legs against the floor, he was gone. Razz emerged from the kitchen a moment later with the pie. Imp inspected Hector's seat as if it would tell him where his brother had gone.

When things were less blurry, Hector pulled out his phone with shaking hands. He went to Entrapta's contact.

Entrapta?

She responded not even a minute later.

Yeah?/

Hi hector :))

Once they'd started texting more often and gotten to know each other better, Entrapta had stopped being so formal, and her personality came through. She stopped rereading texts three times before sending them, because she wasn't worried anymore that he would stop liking her.

Can I call you? Please?

He counted the seconds. Did she think his response was weird?

Sixty nine, seventy, seventy one-

His phone started ringing, and he picked it up.

"Hey, you wanted to talk?"

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, I just- I want to explain and it's hard to type."

"Hard as in long and drawn out? Or are there words you're unsure of the spelling?"

"I- The social worker is here."

Entrapta realized how serious this was. She'd had to go through the exact same thing after her uncles adopted her. Every two weeks the social worker would drop by and she would have to talk to them about adjustment. "Oh. I know how much that can suck."

"I'm scared."

Entrapta paused. This wasn't like Hector at all. He never admitted to weakness or failure (even though there wasn't anything wrong with either of those things, he was human), it took lots of gentle coaxing to get things like this out of him. So he wasn't scared, he must be terrified.

"Listen, you'll be okay. I promise. Can you tell me why that's a bad thing?"

"He said- someone else might take Imp." Hector's voice cracked on the last word.

A shiver ran down Entrapta's spine. "Are you okay? Should I come over?"

"I don't think you can do anything. I can't do anything. They're going to take him. They won't know how to guess what he's saying, or what his favorite snacks are, or what time he wakes up in the morning or what he likes for breakfast-"

"Hector," Entrapta raised her voice a little to get his attention. "Hector, it'll be fine. This isn’t set in stone yet. You need to take it one step at a time. I'll be right here if you need me."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

The next morning, Hector was wearing his favorite hoodie and no makeup. He'd been too tired, and too teary eyed. The only thing that looked stupider than red eyes from crying was streaked and smudged makeup. It was even worse of a giveaway.

"Woah," Scorpia did a double take. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Hector snapped, pulling his locker open. "Nothing."

Stupid stupid stupid stupid-

"Hector?" A light touch on his arm brought him back down to earth. He'd expected pity or disgust or something along those lines when he saw her, but there was nothing but concern as Entrapta searched his gaze. "Are you okay? You still seemed really distressed when you hung up."

"I cried. Like some baby."

"You cried like a human being," Entrapta cupped his face in her hands and turned him to look at her. "We all cry."

Hector felt everything blur again, and not from fear, just from tears this time. "I cried in front of Imp. I'm not supposed to do that."

"Says who?" Her thumbs traced his cheekbones.

"I don't know, me?" Hector grabbed her hands, keeping them pressed to his face. "I couldn't stop. I knew I was freaking out, and acting irrational, but I couldn't stop. I shouldn't have let on that something was wrong."

"When's the last time you cried, before all this?"

Hector hesitated. He thought back. "I can't remember."

"It's perfectly okay to cry sometimes and let off steam."

"I haven't been able to stop. I feel like I might cry right now. It's stupid, I'm so-"

"Strong. You're strong."

Hector snorted. "Thanks. I needed to laugh.

Entrapta pulled her hands out of his grasp. "No, I mean it. I mean it unironically. I know how hard this stuff is to handle. Dealing with it is so, so hard, but you need to cry, get angry, and get tired. You need it out of your system or it festers."

"I am tired. I don't want to be here."

"Then maybe you should go home. Take a day off."

"I'm not allow- oh. I guess I am allowed? Now?"

"There is no shame in mental health days. Everyone I know has taken one at some point or another."

Hector sighed. It looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep.

"Do you want to talk about anything else?" Entrapta gently pried.

"No."

"If you insist."

Chapter Text

A weight on his chest woke Hector up. "Wha- Imp?!"

Imp pulled the pillow off Hector's head so he couldn't hide under it anymore. Then he scowled at his brother.

"Is school over already?" After second hour, it was too much. The thought of going through the rest of the day at school made him feel like tearing his skin off. So he called home.

"Over."

"C'mon buddy, you aren't mad at me, are you?"

"Imp?" A whisper shout in the hallway. "Imp! Don't wake him up I swear-"

Entrapta sighed when she spotted the wide open door. He'd already gotten there. She marched in and picked Imp up. "Remember what I told you about mental health days?"

Imp pouted, crossing his arms.

"I think you not showing up scared him. Look, he's right here. He just needed more sleep."

Hector felt guilt rising up in his chest until it felt like he would throw up. "I'm sorry, Imp. This is the last time-"

"Hector." Entrapta gave him a look.

"What else am I supposed to say?"

"Just go back to sleep. I'll take care of this."

Hector buried his face in the pillow again, muffling a frustrated groan.

"I know. I know this feels bad."

Hector felt Imp curl up next to him, latching on to his back. He reached back and ruffled his hair. The little boy batted his hand away and growled. It was such a tiny growl it made Hector laugh. And then the laughing turned into crying.

And Hector let himself cry.

Hector didn't come to school the next day either. People were starting to talk, but Entrapta shut down those rumors fast. Double Trouble helped, of course. They didn't let everyone know the actual truth, the story was that he was sick.

Double Trouble made it extra believable by making it 'embarrassing'. They said he'd eaten a taco from a food truck that gave him indigestion. Entrapta didn't think he'd be very pleased about that story, but it was still better than the theories that he was hiding from the cops or skipping school for a gang fight.

Entrapta picked Imp up from preschool again, and he looked troubled. "What's wrong, little guy?"

"Wrong."

"Is it about your brother?"

"Brother."

"He's just sad."

"Sad why?" Imp pointed to himself. "Sad?"

"You aren't making him sad, it's beyond your control," Entrapta reassured him. "In fact, you make him very happy."

Imp looked puzzled. Then he brightened. "Happy."

"Hector? It's getting cold. Why don't you come inside?"

"No thanks."

"They're going to get here soon."

Silence. Entrapta sighed. The family interested in taking in Imp would arrive tomorrow. The fact that Hector was on the roof sulking about it worried her. Grabbing ahold of the gutter, she scooted up, and grabbed onto the edge of the roof. With a little more effort, she hoisted herself up, and scooted over to where he lay.

"You shouldn't be up here. You could fall," he said.

She raised an eyebrow at him, curling up by his side. "Says the boy who was up here first." She looked up. "The stars are coming out. Which one is that one?" Entrapta pointed up.

"I don't know about that one. But the one next to it," he gently took her hand and moved it to the side a little. "That's the little bear's foot. And then it goes up the leg, and that's the head..." he guided her hand, "and there's his butt."

She giggled. "I see it now."

There were a few more long moments where neither of them wanted to break the silence. Hector didn't want to let go of her hand and leave this roof, he wanted to tell her about the stars until his voice didn't work anymore or they fell asleep or the world ended.

"We should probably go in," Entrapta whispered, letting go of his hand and turning her head to face him.

"Do we have to?"

"Yeah," she stood up, pulling him to his feet. "Show me how to get down, I don't think I can use the gutter again."

Hector slid off the roof, and onto the top of the recycling bin, then to the ground. "Okay," he held his arms out. "Now you can just jump."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm kidding."

Entrapta got to the edge of the roof and tried to lower herself onto the recycling bin. Her legs were too short and didn't reach. "Shit," she said, trying to pull herself back up. The edge of the roof pressed uncomfortably against her stomach. "I can't reach. Shit."

Hector grabbed her by the waist, laughing. "I forgot that you're short. Stop kicking. Let go, I've got you."

"Okay, now let me down."

"What's the magic word?"

"Put me down!" Entrapta laughed, trying to squirm out of his grip. "You can't hold me forever. I'm too heavy." She pushed his shoulders playfully.

"Is that a challenge?" Hector pulled her closer, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other just under her bottom.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Their noses were just inches apart. Her eyes caught the light of passing headlights and for a moment they shone gold. She smirked at him, glancing down at his mouth.

He leaned in without realizing it. She tilted her head to the side so their noses wouldn't bump into each other. Hector had intended it to be short and sweet, but once he started he couldn't stop, and she just kept kissing him back and encouraging him. She parted her lips slightly and he followed her lead. Her fingers ran through his hair, pulling slightly making him dizzy. Her chapstick tasted like strawberries (artificial strawberries that didn't actually taste like strawberries just tasted like pink). He felt her smile.

And it slowly kept getting darker, until every star was out.

Chapter Text

Hector froze.

Micah was talking to the two men, they were all smiling as if nothing was wrong. Everything was wrong.

And that boy with the curly hair who hung out with Adora Grey and Sparkles knelt down by Imp.

"Hey little guy!"

No. no no no no no.

"If they adopt you, I guess we'll be brothers!"

No.

Hector had been quiet during English. Entrapta wanted to ask him how it had gone, who wanted to take Imp in, whether he thought they'd be a good choice. But she didn't want to pry. So she talked about the assignment instead, until she was interrupted.

"Hey, you," Glimmer announced, standing in front of Hector's desk.

Mrs. Moon glanced up, but just sighed and ignored her for now. Entrapta had a bad feeling about this.

"What do you want?" Hector asked. There was no bite to his words. He just sounded tired.

"What do you have against Bow? You know his dads are trying to do what's right."

"What could you possibly know about the situation," Hector glared up at Glimmer.

"Glimmer," Entrapta whispered, "please don't."

"He's been intimidating Bow! All he'll do is glare. Bow isn't doing anything wrong."

"They're trying to steal my brother." Hector stood up, and suddenly this was a matter that concerned the teacher.

"Hector Hordak, sit down," Mrs. Moon said. "Glimmah, back to your seat."

"No," they both said at the same time.

"You know he'd be better off with Bow's family, right? They can put your brother in therapy so he'll learn how to actually talk," Glimmer said.

"Glimmer, don't-" Bow tried to interject from the other side of the room.

"He can talk perfectly fine," Hector retorted.

"He'll still live close, you're just being selfish. You're holding him back."

"Selfish?" Hector laughed. It was a scary laugh because he didn't actually find anything funny. "You want to go there? You want to go there? Do you know how many times I let my father hit me, to keep him distracted while Imp hid?"

Glimmer blinked. Hector leaned closer, shaking hands gripping the edge of the desk.

"Yeah, you don't know the half of it, Sparkles . I never hid from him. I never hid from my father only because I knew while he was busy with me, my brother could stay under that bed and stay safe. I never called the police because I knew they could separate us, and he needs someone to protect him. My selfishness is the reason Imp doesn't have old cigarette burns in the middle of his back or belt marks on his sides."

Glimmer opened her mouth, then shut it again.

"Do you have anything else to say?" Hector asked, voice hoarse.

There was an eerie silence. He sat back down, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. "Good," he said, voice cracking.

Entrapta looked at Glimmer, and Glimmer was surprised to see tears in her eyes too. "I thought you were a better person than that."

"I- I was trying to stand up for Bow-"

"You know what it's like to lose a family member. Or do you not remember when your dad went missing? You don't think before you act."

"Like you're any better, you have no filter!"

"Girls, sit down!" Mrs. Moon demanded. "Silence for the rest of class. That is enough."

For once, everyone listened. The last fifteen minutes of class were dead silent. When the bell rang, Bow tried to talk to Hector, but the older boy brushed him off and left.

"Please tell him I didn't want Glimmer to do that," Bow said to Entrapta. "I- she just-"

"Oh, I know what Glimmer is like."

"She's not a bad person."

"He isn't either."

"I know."

"Happy?" Imp looked up at his brother, waiting for some kind of reaction. This was the happiest thing he could think of, he was hoping hector would be cheered up.

Hector stared down at the crude drawing of the two of them at the duck pond. He didn't realize he was crying until a tear hit the paper. He quickly wiped his eyes and smiled. "Yeah. This is really good, you're really good at drawing," his voice cracked on the last word.

Imp looked confused. "Yeah?"

Hector went down on his knees. "I'm sorry. This isn't bad crying, it's- it's good. I think."

"Good crying?"

"Yeah." Hector took a deep breath. "Do you want to go home?"

Imp grinned.

Hector came through the front door and straight into the kitchen to be met with three confused stares and a bemused Mrs. Razz. He felt his face heat up. He'd put his backpack on backward so Imp could ride piggyback.

Glimmer, Adora, and Bow all sat at the table. Bow sank so low in his seat, his nose was level with the edge of the table.

"We have friends over for pie," Razz said. "This is one my Mara invented. She tried to make it by herself, and it was a mess. A delicious mess. Sit down, come on."

Imp hopped down and set his backpack by Hector's feet. He climbed up onto the chair between Bow and Glimmer. Adora elbowed Glimmer and nodded. They went through a few moments of that strange thing girls did with the miming and the lip-reading, then Glimmer sighed.

"Fine. I'm sorry."

Both of her friends gave her looks.

"I'm sorry I came after you in the middle of class. I- I didn't know." She looked down at the table.

Hector was still frozen to the spot. Bow pulled himself back up and spoke. "I'm also sorry. I didn't know Danny had any siblings, so I didn't know you would take the 'brothers' comment so hard."

"He likes to be called Imp."

"Oh yeah."

"You guys don't really know him. He likes waking up early on weekends and eating pancakes. His favorite fruit is strawberries, and his favorite color is red unless it's Wednesday, then it's blue. He doesn't like loud, sudden noises, he only likes to cuddle if he initiates it, he likes the duck pond and he can read way past his grade level."

Imp nodded. Yes, that was all true. He was pretty great. Then he ran to the bathroom, announcing "Pee". When Hector was sure he was gone, he continued.

"But I, at seventeen, can't- even if I managed to turn eighteen, get my own place, get a job- he probably wouldn't have it as good with me. Glimmer's right." Hector sank into a chair. "This is hard."

"Hey, even if he did come to stay with us, it wouldn't have to be forever. He could go live with you when you become stable," Bow said.

"And he'll be right down the street," Adora said, "You'll still see him all the time."

"What if he doesn't want to come back?"

"This might not even happen," Bow said. "It's just something they're considering. If you really don't want him to go, then I can tell my dads. They'll back off."

"You'd do that?"

"Of course I would."

Hector bit his lip. "Imp should choose. Micah needs to explain it to him, so he can choose. I don't trust myself with it because I know I'll be very biased. I just want him to be happy. If that's not with me I'll have to live with that."

Hector felt a hand on his shoulder. Razz smiled at him, a little sadly. "That's a very mature decision to make."

"Really? Because I feel like I'm going to cry like a baby." Entrapta's words came back to him. You cried like a human being. We all cry.

Adora laughed. Imp ran back in just in time and decided to hop into Hector's lap. "Pie?" he asked.

"It should be cooled off," Razz said.

"I'll get plates," Glimmer volunteered. While she did that, Adora grabbed forks.

And just this once, Hector stayed and listened to the conversation.

Chapter Text

Entrapta's room was organized chaos. The desk had homework and personal projects all mixed up, notebooks and loose papers and pens. Emily left chew toys on the floor when she came in. Several stuffed animals were floating around- she'd been self conscious about those the first time she'd let him into her room. Hector thought it was cute. The wall had plans and posters of her favorite bands.

Everything about this room screamed Entrapta. Hector moved a sweater so he could sit on the edge of the bed, and Emily hopped up there with him.

"Hey," Entrapta playfully pushed Emily to the side. "You're taking my spot. He's my boyfriend!"

The dog laid across Hector's lap dramatically. Entrapta stuck out her bottom lip.

"Are you jealous?" Hector teased. Emily tried to lick his face and he dodged. "Ew, no!"

Entrapta picked up a squeaky toy and squeaked it. Emily jumped down, tail wagging like crazy. "Go get it," Entrapta tossed it into the hallway. When Emily chased after it, she sat down in Hector's lap.

Emily brought the toy back. "My spot," Entrapta said. The dog all but tackled both of them, and Hector ended up on his back, barely able to breathe through laughter and their weight on his chest.

"There's enough of me for both of you, but if I suffocate-"

"Sorry," Entrapta scooted over to the side. She pressed a kiss to his cheek. Emily laid across both of them, stretching out to take up an obnoxious amount of space, and drooling on the sheets. Entrapta reached out to scratch behind her ears.

"So..." Entrapta turned her head to look at him. "How're you doing with the new arrangement?"

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Imp is spending next Saturday with me." He also got to walk him home from preschool every day like normal. It was a longer walk for Hector, going from the preschool to Bow's house and then to Razz's, but he didn't mind. "They're finally going to test him for ADHD. Micah says he's suspected something along those lines for a while."

"I'm glad it's working out."

"I miss him more than I should."

"Nonsense. Of course you miss him, he's your brother. But you're taking it well."

"Bow's not as annoying as I thought he was."

Entrapta smirked. "Maybe... he's your friend?"

"Don't get carried away," Hector murmured, leaning over to kiss her. One of Emily's back legs twitched, kicking him in the face and causing him to pull away. "What was that for? She's my girlfriend, you've gotta share her now."

Emily licked her nose and seemed to grin.

"I can't believe I never thought of that before," Hector facepalmed. "I'm such an idiot." All this time, he and Imp could've been communicating with sign language but for five years he'd been too stupid to think of it. They'd thought of the three squeezes 'I love you', but he couldn't have thought of sign language to communicate when words seemed to elude his brother ?

"Don't feel bad," Bow said, looking a little worried. "Here, there's this app I found. I'm not very far along, but it's super fun."

Entrapta glanced over, and started to download it onto her phone.

"You know, if all three of us are learning it, we should get together and practice!" Bow glanced over at Hector. "If... if you wanted to, I mean, we don't have to-"

"I think that would be nice," Hector said, trying to keep his expression even. He made a resolution to stop beating himself up about it, and just learn as fast as he possibly could.

Hector's phone pinged. It was a short, blurry video from Bow. They were in a pillow fort, 'they' being Bow himself, Sea Hawk, Imp, Kyle, and a kid Hector didn't really know, whose hair was dyed all sorts of bright colors.

"I WANT THE HORSE PIECE!" the kid with the hair yelled, right at the beginning of the video.

"Aw, you always get the horse piece-" Kyle almost finished his sentence, but got hit in the face with a pillow.

"I'm the banker!" Sea Hawk sang. Imp grinned, eyes wide, as he grabbed a handful of popcorn.

"Did someone say- SWIFTWIND?" So that was the crazy kid's name.

"Swiftwind?!" Imp echoed back, mouth full of popcorn.

The video ended there. Hector smiled, texted back I'm glad he's having fun. Then he pocketed his phone and turned back to the pie crust.

"Do I add more water?" he asked.

"Test it. See if it sticks together," Razz said, demonstrating with her bowl.

"It's... crumbly?"

"Add another half teaspoon. Patience is key."

Hector complied. Eventually, the dough started sticking together, and he was able to split it into half and roll it into balls. It felt satisfying.

"It's nice to see you smile," Razz said. Hector looked up, fidgeting self consciously. Luckily, she quickly changed the subject. "Ready for the next step?"

"Yeah. Definitely."