Chapter Text
When the Bad Kids, Tracker and Sklonda Gukgak landed in the upside down Mordred Manor, they almost immediately froze up in fear, and Adaine spoke to the group, saying “Ok. We’re here for Riz, that’s it. As soon as we get Riz we can get out of here”
The bad kids nodded feverishly in agreement, as Tracker glanced around and said “woah- this is- freaky.”
Sklonda quietly agreed, saying “Yeah. It seems almost real-“
“Yeah. That’s how they get you.” Fabian replied, glancing at her.
Sklonda nodded, as they continued walking around quietly, trying not to be heard, but still needing to know necessary information. “What’s the enemy layout-?”
Fabian paused for a moment, before replying “it was that there was like 4 or 5 enemies and then Baron, who could possess any of us. But, I don’t see any of the other enemies- so I gue-“
Fabian was cut off by the sound of a large crash coming from somewhere in the house, and Fabian immediately took off running, using multiple entire actions to run, using 2 actions then action surging another 2 dash moves while also casting kinetic jaunt on himself so he was faster moving.
Fabian didn’t know Mordred Manor like the other Bad Kids, while he had spent a lot of time there, it hadn’t been long enough to know all the intricate pathways, especially not as well as the girls who literally lived there, but at the moment, he didn’t care about anything but trying to find Riz.
He was vaguely aware that he had massively outrun the rest of his party, and that if they all were behind him, they were far.
Eventually, after crashing through many other doors and rooms, he entered the main staircase room bursting through a set of double doors, and was immediately met with a flash of green and a gun facing him.
He stumbled back when he saw the gun, and with his momentum, that led to him falling backwards, as he finally looked at his assailant, Riz.
For half a moment, Fabian thought Baron had taken over him again, that was before he had seen his partner’s— wait, were they partners? certainly not romantic ones, but was there a name for a not romantic partner? he didn’t know, Fabian figured he would ask Riz later if they got out of this— yellow eyes, slightly glowing as they typically did in the dim light of the room.
For the first time since he had entered the room a moment ago, Fabian took a second and accessed the situation. As much as it scared him to say, Riz looked terrible. He was leaning on one leg, as the other had massive shards of what looked like broken mirror pieces sticking out it, and was bleeding heavily. Fabian didn’t want to look at it for too long or he’d be sick. He had what looked like claw scratches on the arm extended out to him holding the pistol,
had a cut on his forehead that was leaking blood into a squinted eye, with bruises on his arms as well. His arcano-tech glasses had a crack in them, and his other hand was on the hilt of the sword of shadows incase of emergency.
The most noticeable thing for Fabian was that Riz looked terrified. He was breathing heavily, his eyes were wide but unfocused, and his pistol arm was shaking. Riz’s tail was swaying back and forth in fear and his ears were flattened and twitching at the slightest noise.
After what felt like an eternity of silence, combined with uneasy eye contact, Riz quietly said “… Fabian-?”, as he slowly lowered his pistol arm.
Fabian nodded with his eyes still wide in shock, and said “yeah- yeah it’s me- holy shit, Riz what happened-?!”
Riz stayed staring at him still scared, and asked quietly, “prove it.”
Fabian took a deep breath, and nodded, thinking for a second, before saying “we- we sleep in the same room. And when one of us gets nightmares, we sleep in the same bed”
The two had been figuring out how to be the most comfortable in their newly formed not-romantic relationship. It was strange, but with the amount of communication going on between the two and clear mutual boundaries, their not-relationship relationship had been perfect for the both of them.
They had started slow on physical contact, before Riz admitted that he really enjoyed it, and Fabian had confessed he really did as well, and the two became almost inseparable, small touches following wherever they went, and the pair’s mood had raised significantly.
Now look at them
Fabian stared up at him, still in some part of his mind fearing that he might shoot, before Riz exhaled in relief, dropping his pistol arm as Fabian hesitantly stood up, with Riz exclaiming “what are you doing here-? Are the others here? Are they safe-?!”
Fabian frowned, and immediately hooked his arm around Riz’s so he could put weight against him and not his deeply injured leg, replying “We came in after we realized you were gone, all the Bad Kids came, along with Tracker and your mom.”
Riz looked up at Fabian in shock and horror “My mom is here-?!”
Before Fabian had a chance to respond, he heard a monstrous screech and one of the doors in the stair room crash open, as a giant monstrosity made of doll parts holding Baron’s mask came charging at them, as Riz drew the sword of shadows.
The creature had a lot of cut off doll limbs, and the mask had what looked like a bullet hole in it, emphasizing how much damage Riz had already dealt to it, making Fabian scared of how much health this thing had as Riz hissed and yelled at it “Why won’t you just die already-!”
The monstrous thing yelled back in a high pitched gross tone that made Fabian want to cover his ears, saying “Riz Gukgak-! I can’t die until your fear dies! And it never will! Your eternal Roëmænce Partnær will always be here for you-!”
As Fabian drew his sword to attack, he heard another door crash open as the rest of the group arrived, with general gasps of shock at the entire situation, from seeing that Fabian made it, to Riz’s condition to the giant horrifying doll part monster.
Quickly as they entered the Bad kids got into position, with Gorgug, Adaine and Fig standing infront of Fabian and Riz to fend off the monster, as Kristen, Tracker, and Sklonda tried to do damage control on Riz.
The three who were attacking slowly moved Baron’s focus of attack away from where the rest of the group was trying to take care of Riz, horrified at his damage, with Kristen and Tracker able to heal some of the smaller injuries, avoiding healing over his impaled leg, and as his mom went to take some of the shards out, Riz yelled “Don’t touch those-!”, before his mom had a chance to.
Fabian took a moment to look over Sklonda, and it was obvious she was scared, but had enough years of being in scary situations as a cop to be able to hide that fear to a level. But this was personal, too personal, she seemed to always have a hand on Riz, either for her own reassurance he was alive or for his. She held Riz’s face gently, as she asked quietly “Kiddo, why can’t we touch the shards-? We need to get them out of your leg”
Riz seemed panicked as he spoke in incomplete sentences in a daze of fear, “he’ll get you if- if you touch them- it’s- it’s how- don’t touch-“
Fabian understood immediately, his stomach dropping, as he replied to Sklonda’s confused and concerned look, “Baron can possess people, he does it by mirrors. If you touch them, you’ll get possessed too.” He made eye contact with Riz, and asked him “are you fighting it-?”
Riz nodded profusely, and Fabian realized why Riz was so exhausted and breathing so heavily, ontop of Riz’s physical injuries, Riz was having to control his own mental state to not let himself be taken over by Baron, who was attacking him physically and mentally.
Fabian was horrified.
Kristen and Tracker made eye contact, before nodding, and Tracker spoke up saying “If we can get out of here, you’ll be far enough away from Baron that it’ll be harder for you to get possessed, and we have more tools to take care of your leg back in Fallinel.” Kristen nodded, and Sklonda said “Okay then, let’s get out as soon as possible.”
Riz nodded, and Fabian helped him up and to his feet. Before Kristen could cast Plane shift, the Baron monster came at them, shoving Tracker and Kristen into a wall as it grabbed Riz and Fabian dragging them towards the main body, yelling in a distorted voice,
“Riz Gukgak-! Your friends are hurting your Roëmænce Partnær, don’t you think you should STOP THEM.”
Riz’s eyes widened, as the shards of mirror on his leg glowed white through the blood soaking them, and he struggled against Baron’s control. After a couple moments of extreme struggle from Riz, including hissing and thrashing against Baron and Fabian, Riz’s eyes started to go black.
For a moment, Fabian thought it was over, before he watched Riz jerkily swing his pistol arm up and towards Baron’s mask. Riz’s arm was shaking as Baron spoke both from the monster and from Riz’s own mouth saying “Riz Gukgak, what are yo-“ Baron was cut off by Riz managing to take over enough control to pull the trigger, hitting Baron in his left eye socket.
Fabian smiled as the shot went through, proud of Riz, before his expression immediately darkened again as Riz stumbled back almost in response to his own shot, covering his left eue in pain, with Baron and Riz yelling in a painful harmony, before Baron relinquished control over Riz, and Riz fell to his knees, Fabian managing to catch him before he hit the ground.
Riz wasn’t unconscious, but he seemed to be in an immense amount of pain, clutching his left eye in agony as he leaned his weight against the other boy. When Fabian tried to touch his arm with the hand covering Riz’s eye, Riz quietly hissed at him, and Fabian immediately let go with a small flinch. Fabian noticed in horror when Riz slightly moved his hand that there was blood under it, which made Fabian freeze in fear, before standing and glaring at Baron with the burning rage of a thousand suns.
The group attacking Baron had stopped using damage dealing attacks after Riz had gotten hurt, and instead was just trying to keep him away from the rest of the group, as Baron screamed “You are a MONSTER Riz Gukgak. An UNFEELING MONSTER-“
“YOU.” Fabian cut him off, “How DARE you call Riz a monster, you’re just a forgotten doll in a locked box, who’s the monster really-?!” Fabian spoke with an amount of hate no one had ever heard before, succeeding on his Vicious Mockery spell, with Baron yelling in anger.
Kristen cut him off again by yelling “SHUT IT. You don’t GET to talk about my campaign manager like that! Riz is the nicest person I’ve EVER met, AND the coolest, no offense Fabian”
Fabian smiled in response, trying to not let his fear show through, “Believe me, none taken, you’re right.”
There were loud cheers of agreement at Kristen’s comment, and Fig yelled in response “Now get the FUCK OUT.”
In one unbelievable moment, Gorgug knocked the giant monster prone, as Kristen’s twilight shards lit up and she casted Banishment on Baron, and Adaine’s eyes lit up white as she used her portent to make Baron fail, as the giant Baron monster let out an angry yell and disappeared.
For a couple of moments, everything was silent, all Fabian could hear was the pounding of his own heart, heavy breathing from everyone and that massive spell attack, and small whines from Riz to his mom, who had ran over to help him. Fabian immediately dropped down to help, as he yelled for Tracker and Kristen’s help as Riz started to fall unconscious.
Adaine casted plane shift as Kristen instructed Fabian to pick up Riz as Tracker made sure Riz’s leg stayed unflexed to cause the least amount of damage possible
As the group walked in the hospital with another brutally injured Riz Gukgak, Fabian had never felt more scared.
…
The next couple hours were a blur for Fabian, people were rushing around him, yelling orders and they were back at the hospital again, and Riz was hurt more, hurt worse.
It was the worst feeling of deja vu.
Eventually, after who knows how many hours, Riz was stable, and visitors were allowed in his room, and Fabian stayed there with Sklonda for a while, only leaving for a couple minutes at the time.
Everytime Fabian would come back, Sklonda, as hard as she tried to hide them, had tear stained cheeks and more bloodshot eyes.
He tried not to notice it.
The other Bad Kids came to visit often, staying the entire day with him, and parents joined them as well, Jawbone, Gilear, and Sandra Lynn stayed for a long time too.
At some point, Riz’s watch had lit up and a message from his dad had played, Fabian had answered.
“Are- you Riz’s dad-?” Fabian had said hesitantly.
There was silence over the line for a moment, before a reply of “Yes-? Sorry, who is this again?”
“It’s- it’s Fabian Seacaster, sir.”
“Good to hear from you Fabian, is there a reason Riz can’t respond-?”
Fabian inhaled quickly in surprise, before saying quietly “He’s- unconscious at the moment. We’re in a hospital in Fallinel, he was hurt badly.”
Pok was silent on the line before asking “What’s the status-?”
“Doctors said he’ll live. Don’t really know more than that.”
Silence again, and a response
“Thank you for being with him, Fabian.”
Fabian was surprised to hear that, and responded quickly “thank you, Mr Gukgak. I-“ he hesitated for a moment, figuring out how to word his statement to not out Riz “.. your son is- my best friend. And the greatest person I know.”
“I know he is. When he wakes up, tell him to report back to me. Gotta know my favorite agent is staying safe out there.”
Fabian smiled slightly, saying “of course, thank you.”
Pok Gukgak hung up, and the room was dark again.
He slept that night against the medical bed, waiting for his partner to wake up.
He didn’t know what title he had with Riz, or if he’d be too scared to call Fabian his partner after what happened with Baron, but Fabian wanted to be there no matter what, no matter his title.
No matter what.
…
Riz woke up in the middle of the day, and had no idea what day it was.
His left eye was in burning pain still, and he couldn’t see out of it because there was still bandages over it
He looked around and tried to assess what was happening around him, he saw his leg, wrapped but seeming to be healing pretty well, especially in comparison to the last time he saw it
He shivered as he remembered looking down and seeing mirror shards sticking out of his leg, with Baron’s face reflected in them
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, Fabian was infront of him, looking exhausted, but thrilled. He started talking and Riz tried his best to keep up with what he was saying.
“Oh thank the gods you’re awake, Your mom’s been so worried, we all have been, your dad called? Also- what are we-? no sorry I didn’t mean to- no we’ll talk about it later- I really missed you-“
Riz blinked as he processed everything Fabian said, and responded quietly “Where is my mom-? My dad called-?”
“Your mom is I think grabbing snacks for the both of us- and yeah- your dad called- he was worried.”
Riz took a moment to process everything, and by the time he was going to speak, his mom had come back, and was rambling to Fabian, looking exhausted and saying “Hey hon, so I grabbed chips from the vending machine and bottled water, and I-“ Sklonda gasped as she made eye contact with Riz, who smiled slightly and just said,
“Hi mom.”
Immediately after he said that, she dropped all of her stuff on a chair and raced up to his side of the bed, holding Riz’s face like he was something fragile, and nearly broken. His mom started crying, which made Riz feel really awful, and she inspected his face carefully, rubbing his cheek with her thumb
“Oh hon- oh baby I’m so glad you’re okay, I was so-“
Riz leaned forward and hugged her tightly, and his mom was shocked for a moment, before hugging him back, and saying “you scared me kiddo. You scared all of us”
“Sorry mom.”
“Oh honey, you don’t have to apologize, it wasn’t your fault.”
Riz mumbled a small disagreement in response, but didn’t press the topic any further as his mom leaned away from him again and looked over him, saying “are you still in pain anywhere-?”
Riz nodded a little, “my eye and leg still hurt. It’s much better than it was though.”
Sklonda hummed in acknowledgment, and Riz quietly continued “Will- I be able to see out of that eye-?”
His mom flinched, and was quiet for a moment before saying “I don’t know, hon. The doctor said there was- so much- damage. They were worried about your brain because of the amount of damage, what happened kiddo? It didn’t look like anything hit it, you just-“ she didn’t continue, he thought he saw her shiver.
Riz glanced at Fabian, who looked concerned but also knew what had happened.
The not injury-injury he had suffered to his left eye was a reminder of how close Baron and Riz were, for half a second, Riz and Baron had become essentially one, before Riz had managed put a bullet through Baron’s eye, it felt like he had shot himself through his own eye.
The worst part was that a small part of him hadn’t wanted to do it, probably the part of his mind Baron had stuck like a parasite to, and his trigger finger had shaken as he had pulled the trigger.
It was all so vivid in his memory.
His shaking index finger pulling the trigger
The feeling of a bullet hitting his other body making contact in his eye
His left eye going dark.
Red hot pain
A scream from two vocal cords
A sudden feeling of control he couldn’t take control of, he buckled like a puppet cut from his strings.
He wasn’t crying, so why was his eye wet-?
He had pulled his hand away for a moment and saw dripping blood on his hands.
He felt a soft hand try to touch his arm, he hissed at them ferally.
It was just Fabian. That was good, Fabian was safe.
Something good was happening behind him, actions had happened and loud noises were made that he couldn’t pay attention to.
He was leaned against Fabian, he didn’t know when he did that.
His eye that worked was getting blurry, he wanted to sleep.
His mom was infront of him, she looked scared, he had taken his hand off his eye, he didn’t know when he did that. It likely just slipped down.
He was sad he scared his mom
His Mom was saying something he couldn’t understand in his daze. Maybe about staying awake.
Riz hissed quietly, that being the only oral response he could manage at the moment.
His mom seemed to understand, she always did.
She had run her fingers through his hair.
He had passed out after that, waking now.
Riz didn’t know what to tell her that she didn’t already know. She saw the entire thing, she knows how it happened.
“What happened before we got there, Riz-?”
His drifting mind snapped back into focus as his mom asked him that question, and he looked her direction in mild suprise, and Fabian gave his hand a gentle squeeze in reassurance. Riz inhaled sharply thinking about his mom’s question, and his tail flicked in unease.
He took a moment to gather his thoughts, before replying “well- it um- it wasn’t great.”
~~~
Riz had been deep into historical research about Ankarna when Adaine had asked him if he could grab a different book for her from his room.
He had quickly agreed, and run to his and Fabian’s room to grab it. After a moment of looking for it, he spotted the book he needed on the top shelf of his and Fabian’s closet.
As he went to walk away and grab a chair, he felt his foot hit something. Riz looked down and spotted his briefcase of holding, the one his and his friends had barely escaped from, and had been thrown over here to try not to think about what was still in it.
He kicked it further into the closet, in what he could only describe as a mix of a deep internal fear of it and pure annoyance.
Riz walked away for a moment, before dragging a stool back, climbing up it, and managing to just barely grab the book he was trying to get from the top shelf.
Could he have asked Fabian-? Absolutely. Did he want to? Not really.
As he hopped down and smiled at himself with pride in being able to actually get the book, he heard shuffling in the room and immediately became tense, spinning around to look at the room as a whole in fear, his tail swaying behind him and his ears flattened.
Everything was silent for a moment, almost to a point Riz could thing he was safe and had just imagined the noise in the room, until suddenly he felt a hand grabbing his ankle.
Riz tried to stumble away in shock, but ended up falling on the ground as the hand pulled his foot the other direction. Suddenly there were too many hands, all doll hands, overlapping eachother and climbing over him. Riz tried to yell for help, but suddenly there were hands over his face, covering his mouth, and all that could escape was quiet muffled struggling.
The doll hands weren’t gentle, they dug into his skin violently, and wouldn’t budge no matter what way he moved.
As Riz was dragged back into the briefcase, he desperately tried to get away, clawing into the floorboards, and hissing desperately.
Eventually he was dragged back in, and for a moment, it was all silent.
After a moment of falling, he hit the ground, cushioned by the hands as horrifying as they were, and was back in his worst nightmare once more, the upside down version of Mordred Manor. Even as they got there, the hands didn’t leave, continuing to drag him to whatever far room they needed him to be in. Riz tried to have a hand on his gun no matter what, even if he couldn’t move his arms, hoping if he got any leverage he could escape the hold he was in with the sword of shadows.
When they stopped moving, they were in Fig’s room, and he was thrown infront of the mirror, with Baron standing in it.
Riz tried to back away as Baron turned his head at him, and said “Riz Gukgak, why are you trying to leave again-? You left so rudely last time.”
Riz winced as the hands left his face and mouth, letting him reply but he chose not to, instead choosing to glare and hiss at Baron, and baring his fangs.
“What a rude thing to do to your Roëmænce Partnær, Riz Gukgak. Such a monstrous action, I thought you were better than that.”
Riz’s tail was swaying in pure anger, as he tried to pull away from Baron’s grasp, yelling “Well guess what, I’m not! Let me GO.”
Baron hummed in disappointment, before saying “it does hurt me to do this, Riz Gukgak, but it seems like it is time to make you ours.”
Riz felt the hands adjust to shove him into the mirror as Baron kept talking “I will miss our little chats, but it will be so fun to be a collective with you.”
He desperately tried to get away as he was slowly dragged closer and closer to the mirror, eventually managing to just get his arm out, without any weapons or spells he could really use in this moment, Riz did the first thing he could think of.
Riz punched the mirror.
Immediate consequences followed this choice. Baron screamed as the mirror shattered, and the doll hands let go of Riz. He immediately stumbled back and held his hand in pain, before immediately running out of the room, a freshly recovering Baron, taking over his monstrous doll-parts form, following after him quickly.
“Riz Gukgak-! You cannot escape this easily-!!”
Riz ran through the halls of Mordred, running into and through multiple rooms, before eventually Baron ended up landing a hit on him in the Kitchen, leading him to stumble onto the ground, and clutch his arm.
Riz flinched and cocked his gun, aiming it at the Baron monster and firing off multiple shots at him, and when he got up being able to cut at multiple of Baron’s limbs.
It wasn’t enough though, there were too many limbs, too many things going on that Riz couldn’t handle on his own, especially not without his party.
By the time he managed to get out of the kitchen, he had bruises on his arms, and was limping from his leg being pulled in a bad way, still running, but struggling.
He only managed to make it to the next room before getting attacked again, making it back into Jawbone’s room, with the mirror shards still on the ground from his last visit.
A couple arms had managed to grab him, but he used his sword to cut them away, and fired one shot at Baron’s mask, leading to immense anger from the boy.
“You could have had a peaceful takeover, Riz Gukgak, but now you must suffer!”
Riz was confused by the statement, before he heard the sound of some kind of magic being cast, and as he tried to dodge, felt red hot pain in his right leg as mirror shards dug into it, and felt one cut his forehead above his eye.
Baron had managed to make the Shards levitate and attack him, only managing to hit his leg instead of what could have been his entire body.
Riz screamed in pain immediately, as his leg buckled from pain, and he collapsed as he tried to get up on his hands and knees, but any weight on his right leg led to absolute agony, so he couldn’t manage it.
After a long, painful, minute of struggling on the ground, Riz felt his mind starting to change.
It didn’t feel the same as before.
Before it had felt like fighting for control, like arguing who got a tv remote.
That’s not what this felt like
This felt like forgetting, like becoming a different person.
He felt his mind connecting to Baron’s terrifying mainframe
Apologies started spilling out of his mouth, ones that previously he would have never said out of hatred
He had hurt Baron, he should be begging for his own forgiveness like a dog
Something in the back of Riz’s mind was horrified at that sentiment.
After a couple of minutes, he had started to forget his own name.
When he tried to think about his mom, he could barely see her
His every thought was taken over by Baron’s face.
At some point he looked down at his hands, and was scared when he saw clawed green hands, and not ball-jointed pale white doll hands.
The pain in his leg had subsided as his mind had become less of his own.
It wasn’t his pain.
His pain was all of the pain he had caused Baron.
His pain in return was nothing.
Baron spoke to him, asking him “Do you feel much better now, Riz Gukgak-?”
He had nodded in response.
His mind was empty besides the thoughts of Baron, and it felt nice.
It felt nice not to think.
That ideal world broke the moment he heard talking a few rooms over.
He thought he could hear yelling-?
It was far away, but he could hear it.
They were calling for- Riz?
Fuck- that was his name- how did he forget that?
As Riz started to regain awareness, his pain came back, the red hot flashes from his right leg, the feeling of his bruises, his exhaustion, and his fear.
He was horrified how gone he had been. He could still feel Baron’s presence in him, but Riz had been trying to push him down. He had been completely at Baron’s will, and that was terrifying.
Riz stood, ignoring the burning pain in his leg, with his tail swaying behind him, and clutching the sword of shadows and his dad’s gun, in an unimaginable amount of pain, glaring up at Baron.
Baron looked down at him, and seemed disappointed, which somewhere in Riz’s gut made him want to cower and cry, but he stayed where he was, as Baron said “Riz Gukgak, was it not so much nicer when you let me take over-? Do you not want that feeling back-?”
Riz had to catch himself as he had a ‘yes’ response on the tip of his tongue, and Riz replied “get out of me.”
Baron roared in anger of Riz’s disapproval, and went to crush Riz under a mountain of hands, but Riz managed to activate the Misty Step on his Sword of Shadows, and escaped to the stair room, hearing a loud crash from Baron in the distance.
Riz took deep shaking breaths as he tried to ground himself here in this moment right now, trying to go through everything important in his life through his mind, and trying not to think about the shards of jagged mirror sticking out of his leg, and the blood covering them, or he’d maybe pass out.
As he tried to collect his thoughts, he heard loud footsteps and noise coming from behind the door, and as the door slammed open Riz quickly swung up his arm at the intruder with a fearful glare on his face
~~~
“- and.. that’s when you ran in.”
Riz finished his horrifying story to silence as his mom and Fabian stared at him in fear.
After what felt like too long of more silence, Riz spoke up again
“Any- thoughts-?”
Fabian replied immediately, speaking in his typical very loud and angry cadence, saying “uh YES, The Ball, Are you okay-?!”
Riz was surprised by that question, and replied “Uh- yeah-? Mostly. I mean, my leg still hurts and- obviously- my eye still hurts but- it could be worse?”
“No- I mean-“ Fabian sighed, and held Riz’s shoulder and made eye contact with him “like- mentally. Emotionally. Are you okay inside-?”
Riz’s first reaction was to respond with yes, of course he was okay, why wouldn’t he be? But as he thought about it more, the more he realized he wasn’t okay.
He still felt skittish from being chased and attacked on his own, like any small thing could entirely set him off.
He could still feel the fear, the deep set fear of hurting Baron and BEING Baron. There was some deep trauma that came from the idea of looking at himself in a mirror and forgetting he didn’t look like a pale white doll.
The fear that came from aiming a bullet at what was essentially (at the moment) himself, and the internal fear that came with it.
“No- no I don’t… think so…”
Riz immediately felt his Mom’s arms wrap around him, and a gentle squeeze to his hand from Fabian. He squeezed his hand back in return.
“Oh baby.. that’s okay”
His mom ran her fingers through his hair, and Riz snuggled up against her, eventually, slowly, drifting into sleep
…
Fabian and Riz had gotten caught.
Obviously not doing anything… gross… but still, they were caught sleeping in the same bed, a real scandal within the Bad Kids. And even worse, snuggling together.
Honestly, the two of them had known it was likely to happen, since Riz had gotten back from the second briefcase situation there hadn’t been many nights where either of them didn’t have nightmares, so they had started exclusively sleeping in the same bed for comfort.
After a lot of conversation, the two agreed that while they still weren’t sure what their relationship was supposed to be called, but that it didn’t really matter. And following more careful conversation, they decided that they could be called partners. Riz was happy with calling Fabian his partner, as long as it wasn’t after the word ‘romance’. They had decided on it after realizing they definitely should have a title with each other, since they were more than just ‘best friends’ (though they still were) but DEFINITELY weren’t boyfriends in any sense of the word.
So, the two were partners. Who shared the same bed, and didn’t kiss or have sex or anything like that.
And they were happy as can be with that.
That was- well- until Kristen and Fig rushed in one morning to wake them up, and saw Fabian fast asleep wearing sweatpants and a thin white tank top, and Riz sleeping almost ontop of him in an oversized shirt with shorts on. Riz had his head on Fabian’s chest, rising and falling with the other’s breathing, and Fabian had a loose arm around Riz.
The two had woken up immediately after Kristen and Fig ran in, but with the precarious situation they were in, it wasn’t hard to tell what, in their opinion, they just walked in on.
So. Now they were here.
Locked in the Kitchen side by side with one overhead light turned on, and all of the bad kids and their families surrounding them on all sides, with just a table inbetween them, very much so like an interrogation.
At the front of the group was Sklonda Gukgak and Hallariel Seacaster, both moms intensely trying to read their son’s expressions, with the rest of the bad kids close behind with Gorthalax and Jawbone just behind them.
Fabian looked mildly embarrassed, and mostly annoyed at the fact this entire thing was happening, but Riz had a cold poker face on.
“So.. are you two dating-?” Gorgug asked apprehensively, seeming to be tired of the awkward intense silence.
“No we’re not.” “Nope” the two boys on the other side of the table responded, Fabian popping the p at the end of ‘nope.’
Silence followed, before Sklonda said “Kiddo, it’s totally okay if you are, you know we’re all very accepting-“
“I know, Mom. But we aren’t.”
Kristen spoke up from the back and said “You two were literally like- snuggling. And it was a pretty giant bed, you definitely didn’t need to be“
Jawbone nodded and said “Look kiddo if it’s not something you want to talk about, that’s okay. We just got all together because we care about you two. And just want to make sure you’re.. being safe-“
Fabian and Riz blew up immediately, sputtering replies along the lines of ‘never!’ and ‘no way!’
Fabian sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose “look it’s not like that. We…” he glanced over at Riz to get approval, who took a second pause then nodded in response “we are in- a relationship but we aren’t dating. It’s- we love eachother but not romantically? Like, as much as I adore the ball, I have no urges to get my kisses in with him.” Riz feverishly nodded in agreement
“We.. don’t know really what our relationship is but, we’re happy with it. And there’s no need for concern because we don’t- want to do any of that.” Riz continued.
Most of the group looked mildly confused at the explanation, besides Kristen, who quietly went “oooohhh” and Jawbone who said “I think there is actually a name for the relationship you two have, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Riz and Fabian perked up at that, and Fabian said “really-?”
Jawbone nodded again, and continued “in the queer community, a Queer Platonic Relationship —or a QPR— is an intimate relationship that isn’t romantic. It sounds a lot like what you two have.”
Riz almost burst into tears right then and there, and nodded at him and said “yeah- yeah I think that’s it-“
Fabian smiled and squeezed Riz’s forearm quickly in excitement, before Sklonda asked “So no kissing, no romantic intimacy, just platonic-?”
Riz nodded again and Sklonda smiled and kissed Riz’s forehead and said “alright kiddo. It’s fine by me, I’ve seen how happy that weirdo makes you.”
Fabian gasped like he was insulted, with a smile wide on his face and said “how dare you-!”, as Riz shoved him back, laughing.
Fig smiled awkwardly and walked up to the two boys and said “sorry for ratting you guys out, we got excited-“
Fabian smiled and rolled his eyes, “it’s fine, Fig. We did the same to you with Ayda.”
Fig scoffed and shoved him, “yeah you did!”
Fabian scoffed back and replied “Everyone is hurting me today-! Ugh even my own partner”, he laid dramatically against Riz, who rolled his eyes but didn’t push him away.
Despite all of the drama, everyone seemed really happy, which made the boys incredibly happy.
Jawbone told them that his office was always open if they ever needed anything
Kristen told them that if they needed any help with figuring out platonic relationships, she was down to help research.
Sklonda and Hallariel gave Riz and Fabian their blessing, though Sklonda said they didnt need it, they thought that the two of them would like to know they’re safe and loved. Though Hallariel asked Fabian to explain it more to her later, as she was from a long line of elven family and didn’t understand many new things like this.
Riz was still recovering in every way from his attacks, with a wrapped leg, and multiple doctors visits for his eye, which had gone mostly blind after his visit with Baron, to make sure it wasn’t infected or gaining any more irritation. Fabian and his Mom were there through all of it.
After talking to his mom about being aroace, Riz had felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest, one that not even Kipperlily Copperkettle could ruin with her nasty comments about his new appearance, having to use a crutch while his leg continued to recover and struggling with his peripheral vision.
Because as always, those comments were immediately followed by intense glares from the other 5 bad kids who were following right behind him and a reassuring squeeze from Fabian.
As bad as everything had been for so long, it was all starting to feel good again, back to comfortable, despite the struggles.
When he did struggle, Riz knew that he had the entire force of the Bad Kids behind him, and his Mom and Fabian especially.
It was nice to have people always in his back corner, no matter what.
And somewhere, in a long forgotten briefcase, a doll created by the fear of lacking love was defeated by the most powerful magic of all, friendship. —no, not Chronomancy—