I need to finish this lsw Theo fic that has been haunting me for weeks now, but I'm thinking about a high school au with Theo, Parrot, and Wifies.
Parrot and Wifies have been friends since they were young. Wifies father is very absent, so Parrot parents ended up half raising him. The only reason they haven't tried to take custody is because the man isn't abusive, just not there.
On one half day in school, odyssey are waiting for (their) Parrot's parents to pick them up and decide to play chess just to pass the time. Suddenly, they feel eyes on them. It's the new transfer student, Theobald Rex.
Theo isn't trying to hide. Perched on a nearby table and just watching them. As the minutes go by, he slowly moves closer to them playing. Still just watching, still not saying anything.
They know that the cockatial hybrid isn't the most social person in their school, but they didn't think he'd not even try and talk with them after staring down their chess game for the better part of 10 minutes.
The first words he says to them, having migrated over to the nearest table and is practically leaning over their game, is "check in three" and huh, Parrot hadn't seen that set up from Wifies yet.
The three of them hit it off after that. No one expects it from them, with Wifies and Parrot being some of the "smart" kids, and Theo being a part of the sports teams and also friendly with people like Flame and Sarge. Everyone but Odyssey underestimates Theo's intelligence. No one understands that he's not just there as muscle or that he's not using them, no one gets that he's a part of them now. The duo has evolved into a trio.
Parrot starts noticing things in Theo, the same things that he noticed in Wifies that made him take the other boys hand and bring him home with him that first day, but somehow so much worse. The bird is hyper vigilant all the time. The only time Parrot had seen him put his guard down was when the three of them had found a baby cat, and Theo had held it so gently, had whisper and cuddled it for hours until the little thing had finally calmed down.
The way that Theo looks to every noise, looks for every exit when he enters a room. The way he watches any adult, like he's expecting something from them, something terrible, but he never reacts physically. All the emotion, the fear and the pain, all of it is trapped inside Theo's eyes for no one but the two of them to see and care about.
Then Odyssey meets Theo's older brother, Billy Rex, for the first time, and things start to make a horrifying amount of sense.
It ends with Parrot sitting down with his parents for dinner. Wifies, in a rare occurrence, is at his own house for dinner, and Parrot knows that he needs to talk to them. He asks them, "Do you still have your emergency foster placement license?" They tell him yes, they do. They update it every year and make sure that they have everything just in case.
Very carefully, they ask why he wants to know. And he tells them that he thinks a friend is in trouble, and that he thinks they need to do something.
pixelskylines
jacobvanloon
prguitarman
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ellievsbear
