Chapter Text
It was another cold day in Winters. Tony laid in bed. He had the day off class, but he didn't feel he had it in him to face his classmates today, nor was he motivated to do any of his schoolwork. So he laid in bed, staring at the ceiling and sulking.
Tony was brought back to Earth by the sound of… something in the hall, followed by footsteps and a knock at his door. He didn't especially feel like being social at the moment, but in the name of politeness (and curiosity) he pulled himself to his feet and answered.
“Oh! Ness. Hi there. Uh, what can I do for you?”
“Hey Tony, I'm here to steal Jeff from you. Is he not here?” Ness looked past Tony into the room. If he noticed Tony's grimace at the mention of Jeff, he didn't comment.
“Oh… no. Dr. Andonuts called him to the lab unexpectedly. The monkeys got gum in the something-or-other.” Of course Ness was here to see Jeff, why else would he be? “Did you two have plans?”
“Aw, man. Not really, but I'm not doing anything, so I thought I'd see if he wanted to hang out. No getting him out of that lab though.” Ness rolled his eyes, then his face lit up. “Hey, how about you and me hang out? Are you busy?”
Tony still wasn't feeling his best, but the excitement coming off of Ness was palpable, it was… contagious, almost. He decided it might do him good to get out of his room, and maybe it would be nice to get to know Ness a little bit more. “Uh, no, I'm not occupied at the moment. There isn't much to do around here, though, unless you want to go Tessie-spotting.”
“Awesome! Don't worry about that, I know a great place to spend the day.”
Ness grabbed Tony by the hand and dragged him full tilt down the hallway. Tony screwed his eyes shut to brace for impact with the wall, but it never came.
“Welcooome to One- Aah! Sorry! Sorry! I forgot, that takes some getting used to. You alright?”
Tony had fallen backward onto the ground, and opened his eyes to Ness kneeling over him, brow furrowed. The sky above was unusually clear, and it was unseasonably warm. Tony realized belatedly what had happened. He knew Ness could teleport, but he had never experienced it firsthand. “I'm fine, just pretty dizzy. Give me a minute.”
As he pushed himself up into a sitting position, Ness took him gently by the shoulders and closed his eyes in focus. The air between them seemed to shimmer, and Tony felt his head clear and the pain from his impact with the ground ease.
Ness helped Tony to his feet. “Man, I'm REALLY sorry. Um, like I was saying, welcome to Onett! I've been all over, but there's nowhere like my hometown. The first time I brought Paula, Jeff, and Poo here, it was under attack, so I'm super excited to finally give someone a proper tour of the place. The arcade should be open soon, but I can just show you around until then. Oh, wait, are you hungry?”
Tony thought he should be annoyed, but there was that enthusiasm rolling off of Ness again. “I could eat, but I'm not starving. Show me around first.”
They had landed in the lawn in front of City Hall, which Ness said he picked because it was the most impressive building in town. Ness led Tony onto the sidewalk and around the city, giving his opinions on all the restaurants and pointing out all the places he had gotten injured as a kid (of which there were many). It seemed like a nice place, but Tony could not get over the heat. It never got this warm in Winters.
Ness finished rattling off his top 5 menu items at the burger place they were stopped in front of and turned to Tony. “Woah! You're sweating a LOT. I guess your uniform isn't really good for this kind of weather…” He rummaged in his bag a moment before pulling out a shirt and pair of shorts identical to the outfit he had on. “Here we go! I never leave home without a change of clothes. You can borrow them. I'll order for us while you change in the bathroom. This place has ice cream too. Jeff told me you like chocolate, and no pickles or onions on the burger.”
Tony had been too flustered to decline. He caught his reflection in the mirror as he was changing and told himself that he was probably so flushed from the heat that his embarrassment couldn't have made it any worse. Hopefully. Jeff talked about his food preferences? And Ness remembered it? When would that have come up? Did it… mean anything? No, it couldn't. Unless..? Whatever. Ness’ clothes were a little big on him, but much cooler than his own, and thankfully the shorts were snug enough to stay up without a belt. He decided to keep his hat on so it wouldn't get squashed in Ness’ bag.
When Tony exited the restroom, he found that Ness was waiting by the front door, food already in hand. “That better?”
“Yeah, thank you. And thanks for lunch, too. And for showing me around. This is a lovely town. I wish I could return the favor, but there's not much to show around Snow Wood, and even if there was, you've seen it all before anyway.”
“No problem! Thanks for coming out with me. Winters is nice, too, though. Oh, hey, I know a good spot for us to eat.”
Ness led Tony past the hospital, through some trees, and out onto a cliff with a lone house overlooking the sea.
“Is this your house?” Tony asked.
“Well, I own it, but I don't live here.”
Tony was puzzled at that, but decided he could ask some other time. Inside, the house was quite rundown. Wallpaper was peeling, the floorboards were coming up, and the furniture was falling apart. The entire back wall was also missing, providing little protection from the elements but a gorgeous view. The only mostly-intact piece of furniture was a small sofa turned toward the water. They sat and began to eat.
“This place is um… rustic.”
Ness laughed. “You don't have to act, I know it's crappy. The view is great, though.”
“Yeah, it is.”
There was a silence as they finished their meal. Ness broke it.
“Soooo. If you don't mind telling me, what's going on with you and Jeff?”
Tony shifted uncomfortably. He knew he was obviously upset, but he hadn’t expected Ness to come right out and ask, or to guess that it had to do with Jeff. “Uh, what do you mean?”
“You were really down in the dumps when I showed up earlier. And I can feel you get upset every time I mention him. Did something happen between the two of you?”
Tony weighed his options. Ness would definitely be able to tell if he was lying, but also probably wouldn't press the issue if he didn't want to talk about it. He decided it probably wouldn't hurt to tell Ness. Even if he decided to gossip, it wouldn't get around to the Snow Wood student body. “Well, you know Jeff and I are… good friends.”
“Yeah.”
Tony could feel the flush rising in his cheeks. “Well… The truth is… I actually have feelings for him.”
“Oh. Alright. So, what’s the matter, then?”
That was… less of a reaction than expected. That made sense though. Ness seemed like a pretty open-minded guy. “Well. A few days ago, I decided to tell him. And he let me know that he doesn't feel the same way about me.”
“Oh… I'm sorry, Tony. That sucks.”
Tony slumped down further into the couch. “Yeah.”
“Well, but he still cares about you a lot, you guys are best friends! He wasn’t a jerk about it, was he? I can’t imagine Jeff being like that.”
“Oh, no, he wasn’t mean, but he was… well, you know him. Really not the sort to let a guy down easy. And I know he cares about me in his own way, it's just... I wish he cared about me the same way I care about him.”
Ness didn't say anything, but reached out to Tony, then seemed to think better of it and offered him a sympathetic look instead. Tony found that he felt a bit better after sharing. He didn’t get the sense that Ness was taking pity on him, somehow. After a few moments, he rose to his feet. “Alright, that's enough feeling sorry for myself. Let's get back to the tour, yeah?”
Ness grinned at him. “Yeah, I think it's time Ness and Tony hit the arcade.”
The arcade was… not somewhere Tony would have gone by himself, that was for sure. It was dimly lit and there was a sickly smell, like something had been spilled and left to sit too long without being cleaned up. The machines were noisy, not to mention the kids using them. They were rowdy, but uniformly greeted Ness with deference, hardly giving Tony more than a glance, which he was grateful for. He looked around at all the games. “So, do you have the high score on any of these?”
Ness giggled and dragged Tony by the elbow to a pinball machine in the corner. The top score was maxed out at 99,999,999, with “NES” in bright red indicating the record holder. He threw his arm around Tony’s shoulder and leaned in conspiratorially. “I’m not that good at most of these games, and not even really this one. The thing is, the machine is bolted down so you can’t tilt it to cheat. But…” He waved his free index finger around with a smirk and the surrounding air twinkled. “That doesn’t stop me. Check this out.”
Ness fished some quarters from his pocket and fed the machine. Tony wasn’t sure why Ness gave himself so little credit, he seemed to be doing quite well. After a few minutes, though, he caught on. Whenever he was in a tough spot, Ness would jerk his head and the ball would swerve toward one of the paddles. Ness got the score up to 10 million and let the ball fall off the board, then shot his last few balls and let them go without playing. “Once I realized I could do that, it was super easy.” He fed the machine some more change. “Now it’s your turn.”
Tony swatted Ness’ shoulder playfully and took his place at the controls. “I’m shocked, honestly. You come off like such a nice boy, and here you are cheating at pinball.”
Tony managed to stay in play for a few minutes and get just shy of 500 thousand points before he lost his final ball. He didn’t think it was that impressive, but Ness evidently disagreed. “Hey, you’re a natural! It took me forever to get that good.”
Tony preened at Ness’ praise. “Oh, just beginner’s luck, I’m sure.”
Ness was unconvinced, and brought Tony to several more cabinets, showing him the basics and then getting trounced at each one in turn. Fighting games, racers, score competitions, Tony beat him at all of them with little issue. “Man, you were born to be a gamer! You sure you haven’t played some of these before?”
“Oh, come on, you must be letting me win.”
Ness scoffed. “I would never. I may cheat against the machine, but I believe in fair competition between friends.”
They exited the arcade to find the sun low in the sky. Tony was pleased that Ness considered him a friend already, but he decided against saying so for fear of coming off sappy. “It’s getting pretty late. It’ll already be nighttime in Winters. You should probably bring me back soon.”
Ness looked a bit disappointed, then his expression turned considerate, and finally resolute. “There’s one more place in town I want to show you.”
Tony was startled at Ness’ sudden change in mood, and not terribly eager to get back to his room. Jeff might be back by now. He decided to go along with it. “Um, sure.”
Ness took Tony’s hand and led him silently past the library and into a cave in the hill. Tony would normally not have gone into a place like that even if he was paid to, but Ness was radiating a confidence, like he belonged there, and Tony felt as if a similar boldness was flowing into him from where their palms touched. Ness finally let go when they came to a rope, which he climbed a short distance, motioning for Tony to follow. When he got to the top, Tony saw Ness standing at the mouth of another exit, seeming to have lost his nerve. “What’s the matter?”
Ness started, then regained his composure. “Nothing, it’s just… I usually come here alone.”
As they crossed the threshold into the open air, Tony felt the air around him come to life. He wasn’t psychic, but even he could tell there was some kind of energy here. An oversized footprint marked the otherwise pristine grass. Tony felt out of place. “Are you sure you want me to be here?”
Ness looked directly into his eyes. “I’m sure. Come sit and watch the sun go down with me. Please.”
Tony did. Ness removed his cap, and Tony felt moved to do the same. “What is this place?”
“It’s one of my Sanctuaries. There are eight of them. We had to find them all before we were able to defeat Giygas. The rest I found with the others, but this one I found first, by myself.”
“Thank you for bringing me here.”
“There’s something else, too. It’s like a… I don’t know how to explain it with words. Here.” Ness closed his eyes, placed his hand on Tony’s cheek, and pulled their faces together until their foreheads were just touching. Tony was startled by the gesture, but didn’t pull away. He felt his eyes close of their own volition, and as they did, a short series of notes played directly in his mind, without using his ears as an intermediary. Both boys opened their eyes, staying a moment before pulling away abruptly. Ness pretended to clear his throat. “So, yeah, um, each Sanctuary has a melody like that. They form a whole song. Maybe I could show you the rest of them sometime, uh, if you wanna.”
Tony was beyond flustered, and thankful the fading light concealed his blush, even if his stuttering gave him away. “Oh, um, that would be- that is, I’m very flattered, I would like that, I think- er, but I have to ask, why did you want to show me this?”
Ness looked down, considering. He pointed down the hill. “You see that house with the blue roof? That’s where I live. That house next door is where Pokey lived. We were neighbors for a long time. We were best friends for a long time. I never told him, but I had a crush on him when we were little, before… Well, he was always sort of like that, but it took me a while to realize. Not that I think Jeff is anything like him. Just that you might realize he’s not, uh,” He sighed, hiding his face in his hands while he collected himself. He let his hand fall and took Tony’s again, this time lacing their fingers together. “What I mean is, you like Jeff, and he doesn’t feel the same way, but maybe… someone else… would. If you liked them, that is.”
Tony looked into Ness’ eyes, matched his nervous smile. He tightened his grip. “I think that sounds nice.” He looked up at the sky, realized how dark it was, and sprang to his feet. “I really ought to be getting home now, I think.”
Ness got to his feet as well. “Oh, jeez, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you so long. Here.” He took both of Tony's hands, pulled him close so that he was standing on top of his feet, and started spinning in place, the centrifugal force pulling them apart. As they slowed, Ness pulled Tony into a hug to keep him from falling again.
“Thanks, Ness.”
“My pleasure,” Ness replied.
“Tony. There you are. You didn't leave a note. I was beginning to worry. Ness. It’s good to see you. Very precise Teleport. You landed right in the dorm. Your practice must be paying off.”
They sprang apart at the sound of Jeff's voice, startled out of their reverie. Ness collected himself first. “Jeff! Good to see you too! Missed you today. Well, didn't miss you that much. I mean, uh… Never mind, I oughta get going.” He was out the door and running down the hall before he finished getting the words out, and back in Onett before he could embarrass himself any further, leaving the two roommates staring at an open door.
“Tony.”
“Ah! Uh, yes, Jeff?”
“You're dressed like Ness.”
Tony's cheeks warmed again. “Oh, it's, he lent me these, and I guess he forgot about, aw man, I don't know-”
Jeff cut him off. “Knowing Ness, he'll realize sooner than later and be back to return your uniform. Probably in the morning. You should rest. It's quite late.”
“Oh, yeah, it is. You're right.” Tony changed into his pajamas and hopped into bed while Jeff kept working on his… Hair dryer? “Good night, Jeff.”
“Good night, Tony. It seems as though you and Ness had a nice day today.” Jeff pushed his glasses up by the bridge, the way Tony knew he did when he was satisfied with his work. “It makes me happy to see my two best friends getting along. I think you two make a good pair.”
“Thank you, Jeff. I think so too.”