Chapter Text
One, two, three, four.
"You're doing great!" Aero celebrated, clapping their hands excitedly as they watched Looey toss one juggling ball up into the air, then another. "Then you throw the last one up in the air... you're doing it, look at you honey!"
Looey looked up and beamed at Aero, still managing to hold his juggling rather well before promptly screaming.
"HI LULU!!!!" Yatta squealed, ruining his very well-done juggling streak, causing the juggling balls to tumble to the floor with a solid thump before following suit, letting her tails unwrap from the vent of which she came. Best her descent wasn't too bad. They'd definitely need to get someone in to repair the vents one of these days, the day she slipped up. "Guess what DAY it is!!!"
Looey stared at her, glancing momentarily at his discarded juggling balls on the floor. One would cry if not for reputation. Best not to cry over spilled juggling balls, even if it was your best shot at such an activity. "...The day you finally manage to get me annoyed?" He inquired with a sigh. "You're doing a great job, if that's the case."
"NO! It's only the best day EVER!!!!" She jumped joyously and threw her arms up excitedly, her shadow etching itself between the advertisements for their shows upon the pastel orange wall in the morning light. "Tied with 2 other days. Guess again!"
Looey blinked. What would Yatta see important? Sure, she valued parties, but there weren't 3 important parties in a year. There were, however, 3 troupe members including herself. Looey would remember if it had to do with him, as one does, of course. Yatta talked about events for months before they occurred, so it couldn't have anything to do with her. It was best to ask anyways, though. "Debut Day? Your Debut Day! Am I right, am I right?"
"NO!!!" cried Yatta, still incredibly and concerningly excited over the whole situation, her tails swaying around her legs in an incredibly bored-looking manner. This was why nobody kept Yatta long; she'd get bored, and you'd never get a thing done if you didn't explain with haste. "But you're really close!!!! One more guess!"
Looey hummed. What else was important? Who else was their best friend? There he goes, doing that children's show thing again. "OH!" Looey yelped, embarrassed by how long it'd taken him. He pointed at Yatta excitedly. "BLOT'S DEBUT DAY!"
Yatta screamed, her voice echoing throughout the room despite the furnishings and causing Aero and Looey to hurriedly cover their ears for the slightest quantity of quiet. "YEAHHH!!! We gotta plan a party!!"
"Oh, don't worry 'bout that, sugar," Aero chimed in as they adjusted their yellow and green vest, making Looey jump. He'd genuinely forgotten the handler was there. "Me, Aerial, and Pierrot are going to do a little party, invite some of the other handlers and toons, just a little get together in the staff room like Blot likes."
"LITTLE???" Yatta huffed. "They deserve MORE for their FIRST EVER ANNIVERSARY!!! We'll plot the most giant, awesome party; they'll love it!" She took Looey's hand with a little jump of excitement. "Lulu, are you in or are you in?"
Looey glanced concernedly at the only trusted adult in the room, who looked just about as terrified as him. "...am I going to be in danger if I say no?"
"Will my response change your answer?" queried Yatta, raising a single eyebrow. Looey slowly shook his head. "GREAT!!! We're going through the vents then!!! See you Airy!!!!!"
Aero watched as she pulled the boy away from his juggling practice (to his mild dismay). "BE CAREFUL WITH HER!!!" They yelled after them both, but the duo was already gone. To their dismay, they realised nobody would be stopping them - not when Blot was a topic of discussion. It really wasn't up for debate, was it?
Yatta speed-crawled through the vents by her tails while she sat back, Looey still holding on for dear life to one of her tails. "Are you okay???" she asked, offering a hand.
Looey blinked up at her, his ears hitting the top of the vent loudly as if you were hitting someone with a balloon. "...You just kidnapped me from juggling practice," he said, taking her paw and letting her tug him up to sit next to her on the tail he'd just been clinging to, watching the vents behind them. "What do you think?"
"Well, it's for a good reason. It's for Blot!" she cheered, before lurching backwards and dropping down a vent Looey certainly hadn't seen coming, making him screech for the second time that day.
Thankfully, he was greeted with an equally terrifying yell. "OH MY GODS!" Cosmo yelled, pointing his spatula like a sword as he spun around. "...Lu? Yatta? Why... how???"
Sprout was frozen on the counter, leaning back and breathing heavily. "...Any reason, or..."
"Oh, we're gonna do a DEBUT DAY PARTY FOR BLOT!!! We need a cake. Are you guys busy, or..." she trailed off, letting her paws fall to the floor and releasing her tails. "Oh, and the vents! We came from the vents, THAT's how Cos."
Looey blinked in a pretty traumatised manner. "I'm not involved in this, by the way."
"Okay, I'm genuinely rather scared to reject this concept. Cos, can we do gumball cookies another time?" Sprout asked. Cosmo nodded and slid the gumballs to the side before shoving their cookie dough in the fridge for later. "Lulu, how's juggling going?" Sprout inquired, likely to change the subject, as he pulled open a drawer to set to work on the debut-party cake. "Or did..."
"Yes, Yatta kidnapped me for this," Looey responded, leaning up against the side of the counter next to the drawer. "There's already a party being planned too... I think she just wants to be included."
Sprout sighed and clattered a collection of measuring spoons on to the countertop, pulling an apron over the top of his scarf reading 'keep away from the cook'. "Blot's favourite flavour... do you know what it is?"
Looey thought for a moment. "...I don't think it's ever come up in conversation." He hummed a little. "Yeah, no, I have no idea."
"We're doing vanilla then," Sprout replied, glancing up to the overhead cupboards. "Me and Cos can handle this, if you two want to go figure out other preparations? We won't tell Blot if they come by."
Yatta bounded over, her tails doing half the work as she tied her hair ribbon once more. "OKAY!!! Thank you for making the cake for us you're very awesome for that!!!!! Come on, Lulu!!!"
"Were you eavesdropping on our conversation, Yatta?" asked Looey as he was pulled along by one of her tails, taking notice of the slight inky stains riddling the ribbon. Blot must've been in the exact scenario he himself was at this moment.
"It's only EAVESDROPPING if you don't know I'm in the room, silly," she responded, sitting back and letting her tails do the work once again. "And you knew. Anyways, next stop is Teagan and Bassie's garden!"
He looked over, concerned, before falling to the floor next to Yatta, who sort of mildly missed catching him that time. He, like a proper balloon, didn't scream that time. No; that was Glisten.
"Oh my, what is it?" Teagan asked, watering a flower of Bassie's to hopefully keep it alive until next year, the shimmering walls impersonating a real greenhouse. She turned around, stumbling a bit at the sight of the two of them. "Oh, gosh! Hello, Lulu, Yatta. Um... what brings you both here?"
"We need your help, T!" Yatta informed them, holding her hands out wide expressively. "We're doing a debut day party for BLOT, and we need someone who can set up the table and give us good advice!!!! Are you in, or are you in?"
Teagan raised her eyebrows and set her pastel watering can down, a clatter echoing around them from the tin on the brick surroundings as she seated herself. "I know the handlers are plotting a small get-together. Their handler is very well informed, I'm sure their party will be just dandy... what would Blot say, do you think?"
"They'd say, 'don't scare people like that, Yatta'," Glisten cut in, crossing his arms and kicking a fake rock across the path then sticking out his tongue when it simply blew back with the artificial wind. "Gave me a heart attack! Hmph."
She shook her head, the streamers of her hair bouncing with the constant movement. "No, no," she retorted, fiddling with one of her tails. "No, they'd say, '!gnitseretni yletinifed er'uoy ,attaY'*."
*["...'Yatta, you're definitely interesting!'."]
"I still find it incredibly scary that you can just do that," shuddered Glisten.
Teagan, after a moment of thinking, finally answered Yatta's request. "We'll do it!" they agreed, giving the piñata two thumbs up. "Where and when?"
Yatta checked the timer around her wrist blankly. "Uuuuuh... hmmm..."
"You didn't even figure out where this was going to be held?!" Looey exclaimed, a twinge of concern worming its way into his thoughts. "I think we should really be leaving this to the handlers, Yatta."
Yatta pushed his shoulder with a vaguely ink-damp tail (she should really get a hair dryer or something). "Orrr, we can make a SUPER PERSONAL SUPER AWESOME SUPER HAPPY PARTY for their debut day! C'mon... Hm. Tea, maybe the circus room? My practice studio should be big enough, I think. And... 2 PM? Is that cool?"
The duo exchanged a handshake (Yatta's high five was rejected). "Yes, I can just take some chairs down and take the fold-up table, I think. I'm also a bit scared to decline. See you both then! You're doing decor, right?"
"Obviously!" she retorted, retreating back to the vents with Looey in tow. "We'll be going now, bye!"
Vaguely, Looey could hear Teagan and Glisten packing up from his placement of kidnapping. Well, it was sure to be a good party with Sprout and Cosmo making a cake and Glisten with Teagan 'furnishing' the event. Looey just hoped Blot would like it, really. They didn't have high standards, necessarily, but he didn't want to let their friend down.
"Yatta, why can't we just... walk?" asked Looey. "I feel like it'd be a bit less..." he trailed off before sneezing several times in rapid succession, making Yatta jump and cling to his arm to prevent any accidents. "Less dusty."
The girl looked at him in confusion, releasing her death grip on the balloon's wrist to touch a paw to the ceiling and, upon noting that it was vaguely... maybe... hypothetically dusty... she completely brushed off the concern with a snicker to rival Gigi herself. "Lulu, don't be silly! This method of transport is, like, a hundred and twelve times FASTER than if we'd just walked!!! Who should we get involved next?"
Looey sighed. "Hate to say it, but we should probably get to finding decor they'll like. Your closet exclusively hosts an abundance in streamers and balloons, right?"
"That it does, sister, that it does! Gotta fix my hair before events, you knowww?" she cooed, probably to her hair as she twirled a curly streamer around her claw. "So, to our bedroom?" she inquired, being met with a nod from Looey. "Well then, brace yourself!!! SORRY!!!"
Looey barely heard the sorry before the drop. Yatta's room was connected to Blot and Looey's, like a very small house; but her ceiling was scarily high so she could practice any trick she liked at any hour of the night without going down and activating the elevators for entrance her silks room. Thus, the vents were... very high up. While Yatta threw her tails at the barred rungs above her as they tumbled out of the vent, Looey fell to his hypothetical doom at the loss. Thankfully, as a balloon, he didn't exactly fall particularly quickly, giving Yatta time to loop around and scoop him up bridal style.
"Sooooorry," she giggled, letting him simply hold her hand tight (it's very hard to direct one's tails with your arms full, you know) as she descended. Looey didn't respond, simply staring ahead.
As they hit the floor, she immediately took off to the cupboard and tore open the doors, pouring an immense quantity of party supplies onto the floor. "Jeez, Yatta, you don't think you need more?" Looey commented sarcastically as she dug through the piles on piles for her supplies she needed.
"Yes," responded Yatta in a dead serious tone, her tails helping her multitask (6 arms to find her black and her white party supply boxes!). "Can you get down here and help a piñata OUT with finding these boxes!!! We've got to hurry, we only have 4 hours!"
Looey sighed as he dropped down to his knees to aide in the search. "It's already been an hour since you stole me from my tutoring? That wasn't very nice, you know," he commented, holding a box in his hands and trying to feel the indents on the front. "What do these party supply boxes even look like?"
"One is labelled black in big teal letters, and the other is labelled white in pink sparkly glitter pen!!!" she informed him. "Anyways, your astonishment in it already being an hour just shows you're having lots of fun!!! Sí?"
The boy chose to not respond to this question, instead opting to sort their work into what had been checked and what hadn't once he came across the same blue streamer back from 1983 seven times.
"Yatta, why don't you just file your boxes? Keep ‘em organised?" he queried, tossing a deflated weighted heart balloon behind him, shuddering as the echoes of its contact sounded through the room.
“I don’t WANT to!!!!” she responded in a complaintive voice, setting a box down carefully between them. “Here is our BLACK party supply box! We’re already half of the way THERE!!”
Looey sighed and focused on the piles in front of him, growing more and more intimidated by the growing mountain behind him consisting of party supplies and the occasional stray candy.
"Yatta, have you ever considered trying to have these... like... stacked, maybe, instead?" Looey suggested, placing a box neatly on the tall hill of balloons and confetti packs. "I'm not suggesting that you tidy it, but just some piles around, so that if this happens again we don't have to bother by dropping everything to the floor."
The girl hummed, and she topped for a second, though her tails kept on swishing through the air neatly. "Hmmmm... mayyybe. I guess I might pack it up a bit neater when we're done this. Speaking of, check your HANDS!!!"
Looey looked down. "Oh! Our second box! We can start now, right?" he asked excitedly, placing the box on top of the other, trying to lift the two with the expectation of them weighing decently less than him before absolutely crashing to the ground, his face making contact with the cold flooring.
"...Are you okay?" Yatta questioned, helping him up.
The boy nodded excitedly. "Come on, let's go!"