Chapter Text
Brock woke up the next morning with a migraine and his phone blowing up. He rubbed his brows and lifted his phone above his head, quickly regretting his decision as the bright light startled him. “Siri, facetime Shelly…” He muttered in an exhausted manner before tossing his phone to the other side of his bed. Rosa picked up quickly.
“Shelly forgot her phone at mine. What’s up?” Her British voice rang out loudly. Brock turned his head in displeasure, “Ow! Can you stop shouting into the phone?” Having just woken up, he felt like a dirty old rag. He sat up slowly and continued, “Shelly… wanted to play ranked today. You know where she is?” While speaking, he forced himself out of bed and fought to put his day clothes on.
“Oh!” You could hear Rosa's grin even through the separation of the screen, and Brock chose to pay no mind to it. “You can find her at Pipers Bakery, I believe. Have a good time!” Beep! Rosa hung up. As Brock was hastily getting ready, he pondered for a second on Rosa's quick hang-up. She sounded strangely happy, but maybe that’s just because Brock had mentioned Shelly.
After a short walk, he arrived at his destination, walking towards the bakery. The place was bustling with people, accompanied by the pleasant smell of bread. As the crowd grew thinner, he could finally see the benches outside the building. There was Shelly! But there was the other guy with a breakable pink guitar, an oversized sombrero, and a nasty yellow suit right next to her. Brock walked slowly towards them, facing towards Shelly, and very obviously only looking at her. Poco was very obviously being purposefully not acknowledged.
“Hey Shelly!” Brock greeted with a big smile. “We hopping on ranked?” Shelly would notice Brock’s tactic of ignoring Poco, sighing. “Yeah, of course. Poco’s gonna play too. Hope that’s okay?” she said, her voice laced with an unmistakable hint of sarcasm. Brock didn't even acknowledge the question—he was already readying up for the match. Sure enough, Poco was the last to join.
The game selected was gem grab in Rustic Arcade, one of Brock's favorite maps, being in the arcade trio after all. One of the issues with Rustic Arcade is that it almost isn’t bushy at all, which isn’t great for Poco and Shelly. The matchup ended them up against Edgar, Dynamike, and Piper. Edgar would be easy to deal with, but Dynamike might get real annoying.
With the game starting, everyone would speed over to the middle hatch of gems. Both teams fought for middle ground, but Edgar eventually completely teamwiped after getting his super, slamming everyone down and promptly killing everybody. Brock did end up killing Dynamike briefly after Brocks death due to the little fire pool he leaves after his missile shots, meaning Edgar and Piper were on middle ground, collecting five gems at that point.
Piper, Dynamike, Edgar: 5
Poco, Brock, Shelly: 0
After Poco revived, he headed up the map quickly, seeing Piper in middle ground with no gems in her possession. Dynamike had just revived, meaning he had no gems, so Poco began his search for Edgar, shooting in bushes until he had found the boy.
“Uh—I’m lagging!” Edgar would excuse lousily as he was getting violently countered, with Poco spamming his low damage attack from a distance so Edgar couldn’t smite the crap out of him. Poco kept pushing him, until Edgar charged up his super and jumped at him. “Woah!-” Poco would get Edgar ridiculously low and even away from him, but Edgar doubled down and slammed on Poco again, killing him. Despite the insistent kill, this put Edgar in a vulnerable area. Brock took advantage of this and shot him up, collecting Edgars gems.
Piper, Dynamike, Edgar: 2
Poco, Brock, Shelly: 5
“Nice, dude!” Poco would say briefly as he swiftly passed Brock, collecting gems from the hatch and continuing to hold middle ground. He noticed Shelly was low while fighting Piper, so he used his “Tuning Fork” gadget, healing Shelly up. Shelly used her super, shooting past the wall Dynamike was hiding behind, and it was wraps for Dyna, who dropped 2 gems. Shelly scrambled to pick them up.
Pocos compliment on Brock had caught Brock off guard. He thought they were supposed to be hating on eachother still..? Apparently, he had got a little too distracted, as Piper was sniping him up before he could do anything about it. After Brock was killed, She would use her super, sending herself to the gems.
Piper, Dynamike, Edgar: 5
Poco, Brock, Shelly: 2
As Piper was heading back to middle ground with her happy five gems, she was quickly bombarded by Shelly and Poco, who suddenly came out of a bush and spammed their attack on her. Poco had collected four gems and Shelly three— Poco would use his gadget again, healing them both up because Piper had got a couple shots on them.
They continued to keep middle ground, until Edgar pulled the same strategy. He would jump on Poco and Shelly, killing them quickly, and collecting all their gems. While they were all recovering, Edgar had managed to get ten gems. The pressure of the timer began, telling the losing team to clutch the hell up!
“We gotta go, dude!” Poco yelled.
Brock rolled his eyes, “Ya think?!”
Shelly grinned. She was so amused.
Poco, Shelly and Brock all charged forward, killing Edgar quickly when he was trying to run, but Dynamike would bomb and stun them. He would kill Brock and Shelly with that old, high pitch laughter, but Poco used both his healing super and gadget to get him to full health, collecting 10 gems and using his hypercharge to SPEED behind his teammates as they ran up the map. Even though the enemy team tried their best to attack, they miraculously won.
“Damn, Poco! Nice save!” Brock panted, almost instinctively. He was a nice guy, alright! Love thy squadmates or whatever Jesus said.
“Sure, thanks dude,” Poco laughed, holding his stomach.
“I owe you a drink for that,” Brock remarked, patting his back, not noticing Shelley’s absence. She had… taken a sneaky exit. Poco most definitely obliged, who was he to say no to a free drink?!
So they walked to Barley’s bar, making gentle small talk about the game, just on a total dopamine high. When they arrived, Brock was a bit slow to ask what he liked to drink, and Poco took up the opportunity to walk up to the bar, and order enough shots to make Brock’s rarely-drinking self die to alcohol poisoning (6).
“We’re splitting the shots,” Poco chirped. taking a seat at the bar, and pulling out the stool next to him while Brock pulled out his wallet to hand 60 bucks to Barley.
“I don’t drink tequila…” Brock was hesitant now. Why was he even hanging out with Poco?!
“Can you?”
“Well, yeah-”
“You’re drinking.”
“Ah-”
“You’ll be fine, I can pay for an uber.” Poco patted him on the back with an unmistakably condescending grin, and Brock didn’t even bother to fight. Poco’s pocket buzzed, and he didn’t seem to notice.
“Your phone is getting messages,” Brock murmured.
“Yep, some guy… we went on one date and he was… how d’you say it… plain self centered?” Poco rolled his eyes.
“...” Brock stared for a moment. “Guy?” The word came out sounding surprised enough to come off as rather offensive.
“And that’s a problem?” The shorter man set a hand on his seat, just about ready to up and leave.
“No! No, no! I’m- y’know! I just thought that you- like hated- errr…” Brock stuttered. His face was heating up. Was Poco not homophobic? Had he changed? How did he even come to that conclusion- gosh, Brock was embarrassingly flustered.
Poco raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “So, you’re queer?”
“Yes? Yes. Yes, I am,” Brock sighed, giving up on saving his just lost dignity.
Just then Barley came over with their shots, and Poco’s grin returned.
“You ever done shots?” He asked, rather excited now.
Brock’s cheeks shined a bright red. “I’ve had one… at a party. I wanted to impress some guy.”
“Seems like you were the life of the party in college,” Poco hummed, already picking up two shots and setting them in front of the two.
“It was actually Sophomore year of highschool,” Brock groaned, covering his face.
“Oh! So it’s been a second!” Poco laughed, patting Brock’s knee. “Regardless, you good for your first one?” Brock just nodded, picking up the small glass. “Alright, on 3! 3… 2… 1!” And then they both tipped their heads back, which ended in a satisfied Poco and a wheezing Brock.
Brock’s vision went blurry with water as he coughed and attempted to inhale.
“Shit- Brock! You good, bud?” Poco quickly gripped his shoulders and lifted his chin for eye contact. Brock just fumbled through his pocket. “Oh! You got an inhaler? Let me get it,” Poco instantly reached through his pocket, no awareness of any personal space. As soon as Poco secured it, he placed it in Brock’s hand, which was shaking.
Brock did his puffs, and slumped forward, breathing heavy. Poco was basically pressed against him.
“Personal space, man,” Brock huffed, gently pushing Poco’s shoulder back. Poco leaned back, uphased, he was just worried.
“You probably shouldn’t drink any more,” Poco immediately started “fussing” over him.
“No, no! Just gimme a second,” Brock scoffed, shoving his inhaler back in his pocket, mentally noting to maybe get a little bag for easier access to his things.
“There’s no rush, just cool down, dude,” Poco caringly told him. Brock just nodded and waved down Barley to get a water. After like 5 minutes of silence, Brock just picked up another shot and downed it, much more smoothly this time.
Poco stared for a second, then downed one himself, deciding that staring at Brock would come off as weird if he didn’t take one himself. Soon, Brock’s eyelids started drooping.
“Are you good, man?” Poco asked.
“I’m fine, just tired,” Brock sighed. “Lemme have another-” Brock picked up his third drink and downed it.
“Okay, Brock, buddy, let’s head out. I’m gonna call an uber, okay?” Poco gently explained, taking Brock’s hand and standing up with him.
“Let’s just go to your place, my apartment is like 4000 miles away,” Brock grumbled, following Poco blindly to the door. “Are you good with staying on my couch, then?” Poco laughed.
Brock leaned on Poco, humming out a sleepy approval.The uber showed up after 10 minutes of Poco nagging Brock, and they climbed into the backseat.
When the hum of the engine started, Brock just crashed, lulling to sleep against Poco. When they pulled up to Poco’s apartment, Brock just got slung over Pocos shoulder, walking up to his door. Poco laid Brock down on his couch with a blanket, and got himself to bed, making sure to take a few pictures (for Shelley, obviously) before hopping into his comfy covers.