Chapter Text
Pim flinched as the bandage wrapped across the palm of his hand a bit too roughly, but he covered the discomfort behind a thankful smile. While most of his cuts and scrapes were left to the mercy of open air, a choice few gashes had advocated for the office's first aid kit. Pim sat at the table, while his yellow friend had knelt to tend his injuries.
"Thanks Charlie. I'll be alright though, it was just a little glass from the shop."
"You were attacked by like a zombie, dude. I'd call that more than a little glass."
"They're not zombies, they're just sick with that illness that's going around," he frowned, grateful as he was for Charlie finally tying off the bandage. It wasn't neat work, but it would keep the wound protected for now.
"Uh, no I think I've seen enough movies to know what a zombie invasion looks like, and that's exactly what we saw back there."
Pim regarded his certainty with concern. "They're still people, Charlie. No matter how sick they are."
"See, that's-- That is exactly how this stuff gets out of hand, Pim. We have to face what's happening head on. Right, Allan?" Charlie looked to his coworker for affirmation, but was met with a single dismissive wave from the critter's free hand.
"Be quiet, I am trying to read this doc-u-ment."
"What've you got there, Allan?" Pim inquired with genuine curiousity, while Charlie stood with an irritated frown. Allan held up the piece of paper he had been studying.
"A note from the Boss."
The other two critters blinked, and an inquisitive groan from Glep's beanbag spoke his interest as well.
"So? What's it say?" Charlie pressed, hands in his pockets.
Allan hummed, "It says he apolo-gizes for not being here for his boys. And that he left us some blankets." His eyes directed them to the conspicuous pile of bedding left in the corner of the room.
"Blankets? Wha-What good are blankets going--"
But Pim cut Charlie off with an excited gasp, "Oh my gosh! We can make a blanket fort!"
"Am I the only one taking this zombie thing seriously?" Charlie asked with flat affect.
"Oh, come on, Charlie!" Pim nudged him lightly, "I'm sure the doctors will find a cure soon enough. In the meantime we should try to relax like the news said."
"Fine. I'm just glad none of us are infected yet," Charlie relented, despite a lingering bitterness in his tone.
"See? It's not all gloom and doom. We're going to have a great time tonight!"
"Yeah. Yeah a great time, I'm sure that's what Glep is having."
Pim's cheer diminished at the words and the pessimism they were spoken with. "Allan, how is Glep doing?"
Answering for himself, the gauze-wrapped Glep mumbled, punctuated by a single cough. It brought frowns to all the Smiling Friends, but Pim was the quickest to recover.
"Well, don't you worry, Glep. In the morning I'm sure you'll find yourself on the mend," came the sincere encouragement, though one glance around the room told him his cheer alone wan't going to be enough to keep spirits afloat. "I know! Why don't we pick out a nice movie to watch together?"
"Pim, the office has like, four DVDs and we've watched them all a dozen times." Charlie kept his frown, which deepened when Allan spoke up.
"Actually, we have five now. The Boss just bought us a new one."
Pim smiled, "That's perfect! Which is it? Oh I hope its a romantic comedy!"
Allan reached for the cupboard that housed their meager stash of media, sliding stacks of paper cups and plates out of the way. The newest DVD was stacked on top and easy to retrieve. He read the title aloud, "It's Seán of the Deceased."
Charlie perked up, "Now that's perfect. We could learn a thing or two from that film, let's pop it in."
The reveal had the opposite effect on Pim. "Wait- Isn't that a zombie movie?"
"It's not just a zombie film, Pim, it's- It's a straight up masterpiece, it's a work of art, man, have you really not seen it before?"
"No, I.. I usually try to stay away from that.. whole genre, you know. Too violent."
"Dude just watch it as a romcom then. It totally works, trust me."
"I don't know.. Allan, Glep? What do you think?"
"I don't really care," Allan cracked open the case to examine the disc, and Glep murmured his like opinion from below.
"Oh, well. Seán of the Deceased it is, then, I guess."
Allan placed the case on the counter and slid the disc into the player. A nervous Pim drummed his fingers on the table as the menu loaded, and just as Allan was about to push play, Pim interjected. "Wait! Uh, maybe we can make something to eat, first?"
Allan turned around, "Hm. I did find us a pizza for din-ner."
Charlie blinked before setting a skeptical gaze on him. "Whoa, you did? When did you have time to do that?"
"While I was look-ing for your chips-uh. A passer-by had dropped it."
The yellow critter opened his mouth, but again found himself cut off by Pim's exuberance.
"That's fantastic news, Allan!" Pim slid off the chair and scurried to the fridge to collect the pizza. "I'll go put it in for us!"
"Uh, okay."
"Yeah, alright."
"Feel free to start without me!" With pizza box in hand, Pim left the room in a hurry.
"Hold up, Allan, what're you doing?" Charlie gave the tall critter pause just as he had turned to do as Pim suggested.
"Start-ing the movie."
"No way, not without Pim. He hasn't seen it before."
"He said he doesn't--"
"Yeah, yeah, I know what he said, but that's just because he hasn't seen it yet. Besides, it's a classic, it's like, required viewing."
"Fine." Allan withdrew from the TV, and begun making his way to the corner of bedding while Charlie looked on.
"What're you doing?"
"Building the blanket fort," he answered with just a tinge of annoyance, and carried half the stack of bedding to the table. Charlie shot him a look as he went to do the same, though he found his arms could only hold a few pillows. Allan was already going back for the remainder when Charlie had set them down on the table with the rest.
The two of them worked in silence, though Allan beat him to the arrangement of chairs. He stacked one on top of another, easily though carefully, to form a support column. Not to be out done, Charlie dragged a spare chair from the adjacent storage room while Allan was preoccupied with ensuring the balance of his tower.
Quietly swearing to himself, Charlie soon discovered his set of chairs had a distinct wobble. It was a pain to stack them in the first place, and no matter how he adjusted them, they would threaten to topple. Frustration was steadily escalating to a point where he felt inclined to topple it himself, when he noticed Allan emerge from the storage closet with two more chairs. One was rested over his shoulder, while the other was effortlessly held off the ground in his other arm.
Charlie made and broke eye-contact as quickly as it had been made, and continued to struggle with his own chairs.
If Allan noticed, he made no show of it, and stacked the new pair he brought. Then, noticing an inconsistency with the leg length, Allan tasked himself with a detour to the office printer: A perfectly folded square of paper was all his tower needed to be complete.
While Allan quietly admired his own work, Charlie slipped a wadded up napkin into place as mortar for his own. To his chagrin, Allan's keen eyes caught the clumsy move.
"What are you doing, that'll never stay in place-uh."
"It's a perfect fit dude, it's fine." Charlie slid his hands into his pockets, stubborn but keeping his irritation in check.
If Allan noticed, it didn't seem to matter. The taller critter sighed and returned to the printer.
"I said it's fine, Allan."
"It isn't fine, it's going to fall-uh." The new paper square had already been folded by the time Allan came up and reached for the wad of napkin.
Charlie stepped in his way. Allan's long arms maneuvered around his interference, and for a moment, they shared a stalemate.
Allan feinted, and deft fingers traded the napkin for the paper square before Charlie could catch him. The red critter allowed himself a victorious grin and hummed. Charlie huffed.
"It was fine the way it was, man."
"Just help me set up the pill-ows and blankets."
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When Pim returned with the pizza, what might have been a frown was transformed to a bright smile. "Wow, you guys! That blanket fort looks Amazing!"
"Can we watch the movie now?" Allan cast a narrowed eye on Charlie, who was too focused on his phone to catch it.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever man."
Allan released his annoyance with a brief sigh, and tapped 'play' on the DVD player before entering the fort. Pim moved to follow, eager to see inside, though his attention lingered on the distracted Charlie for a moment.
"You coming, Charlie?"
"Yeah. Be there in a second."
The inside of the blanket fort was a cozy little cave lined with pillows, the blankets significantly dimming the harsh florescent lights above. The table was was placed on the stacks of chairs for a higher ceiling in the fort, and a well-measured gap in the blankets provided its occupants a little window to view the TV through. Pim noticed a flashlight on the blanketed floor, and Glep's beanbag had been moved inside. He also noted that the chair pillars had the benefit of their troublesome gaps being filled with squares of paper.
"You guys really thought of everything. It looks great in here, Allan!"
Allan hummed, his attention on fluffing Glep's beanbag for the little critter in preparation for movie time. Glep mumbled appreciation.
"Um, by the way, Allan." Pim placed the pizza in the middle of the fort, using the box it came in as a plate. "I wanted to thank you, for before."
"Huh?"
"Earlier, wh-when we were being chased. I hope it wasn't too much trouble, carrying me like you did."
"Mm. No trouble, at all." Allan acknowledged him without the sourness he'd entered the fort with.
"You're surprisingly strong, by the way! I didn't know you worked out."
"I don't."
The lights in the room suddenly switched off, and soon after, Charlie swung open the fort's flap using a flashlight. It blinded his friends for a second before he placed it upright beside the pizza, providing illumination to the small space.
"Movie's starting," he lumbered inside, mindful of the other critters despite his nose being in his phone. Without really looking, he chose the open spot beside Pim. It wouldn't be the best view at this angle, but it also wasn't the screen he was focused on anyway.
"This is so exciting! I haven't had a slumber party since I was a tadpole!"
The other critters groaned. Charlie voiced the reason, "Dude, dont-- Don't call it a 'slumber party', man. We're just grown men having a guy's night."
"During a pan-dem-ic lock-down." Allan added as he brought a slice of pizza to Glep.
Charlie shushed them as the movie begun, "It's starting!"