A Bouquet From The Man Who Never Loved Me (Switz) Part Three
Current tag list: @thesteelcat4 @sadb0tt @eileess @imjustmelving @ki-2146 @wanderbreadsworld @casehclosed @seppasanders @ezra-the-necromancer @milkbagio-03
Disclaimer: In case you do not watch/listen to the podcast, Toby has come out as a female and thusforth, I’ve changed Toby’s pronouns to the ones she prefers, as I feel bad for referring to her with He/Him pronouns. From now until the fic ends, Toby will be going with She/Her pronouns. Other than that, enjoy the third installment!
Through the two hours of new reveals and exciting updates, Fitz couldn't sit still. His mind was racing, was Swagger okay? Was he in trouble? Why hadn't they returned yet?
The panel concluded and Fitz jumped from his seat, bouncing anxiously as he waited for a long line of people to reach the exits.
"Dude, what's your deal?" Matt asked, "you're fidgeting more than Mason." Mason perked up at the mention of his name,
"Yeah," He chimed in. "And I've got two red bulls in my system, mate."
Fitz cast a quick look of worry toward mason before he shoved his hands in his jeans pockets, he scuffed the ground with his shoe, trying to give a good excuse.
"It's nothing," he said. Matt arched a brow and Fitz resigned, "okay, okay, so it's not nothing. I'm just a tad worried about Swagger."
"Now that you mention it, Toby left with Swagger in the beginning, and they didn't come back," Jay piped up. "Maybe they didn't wanna be here?"
"That's stupid," Fitz scoffed, "It was Swagger's idea to come to this panel, he was the most excited for it. It just—It doesn't make sense why he'd want to come so bad, and then leave before it starts."
"You think he got sick or someth'n?" Mason asked, mouth full of a handful of stale pretzels from a packet he had dug up in his bag.
"If he did, why take Toby as well?" Matt said turning, "and don't eat those; they're bad."
"M'why not, cunt?" Mason questions, "Expired doesn't necessarily mean bad,"
"Yes it—" Matt tried to protest, before he sighed. "Whatever, lets go find Swagger and Toby, they wouldn't just ditch us here." He stood on one of the folding chairs and craned his neck to survey the crowds. Fitz, growing even more restless, weighed his options; wait twenty minutes to exit properly with roughly one thousand other panel viewers...or...
"Fitz, what are you doing?" Matt questioned, with a tone of disbelief.
"Getting out of here." Was all Fitz replied with. He stood on one of the chairs, next to Matt. Stretching one of his long legs out, he stepped to the chair behind and gave a little hop, swinging his other leg over. Seven more rows to go, he thought.
Outside, Toby has taken Swagger to another bathroom. Granted this one was far cleaner, it still gave him an overwhelming sense of déjàvu. They had come in to clean out his helmet, chainmail and balaclava. Pink peonies and blue forget me nots coated in thick blood, now thrown into the garbage under a mountain of wet paper towels. Toby was trying to wash the inside of Swagger's blood spattered helmet, as he was shaking his chainmail dry.
"I'm sorry," Swagger said.
"For what?" Toby asked, her eyes not leaving the rusty helmet.
"For, y'know, dragging you into this, having to help me twice about this."
"It's alright, helping is what friends do anyway." Toby paused for a minute, the only sound shared between them was the faucet running, "you know what would make me accept your apology?"
Swagger turned to face Toby, a brow raised, "what?"
"If you tell me who the person is."
Eyes wide now, Swagger nearly dropped his chainmail, "N-no way!" He shouted. A man cleared his throat in the last stall, and he lowered his voice, cheeks turning pink.
"I can't!" He whispered. Toby scoffed, amused at the response.
"I figured, Eric," Toby said, "don't worry, I'm only fucking with you." She shut off the faucet, and gave the helmet a good shake. Stuffing the padding at the top of the helmet back inside, Toby turned when handed Swagger his helmet. Swagger, putting on his chainmail over his balaclava, gave a grunt as a thanks and reached for it.
Putting it back over face, Swagger gave the best nod he could in the clunky helmet, and turned toward the door. Once back in the hall, through the small slots in his helmet, he could tell that the panel was over. Damn, that was a fucking bummer. That was the main thing he was anticipating here...
"Swagger!" Fitz's voice called. He spun around to locate the tall man, too fast for his head's liking. The helmet hit his cheek, leaving it swaying on his head. Days like this was where he wished four million would come faster. He tore off the helmet, eyes peeking over the balaclava.
"Hey buddy," Fitz said, giving him a small wave.
Stems branched up his air passage again. The leaves were poking at the inside of his tender throat.
"How are you feeling, mate?" Mason asked, jumping next to Fitz. "You left so suddenly, you missed all the cool shut they're releasing next year!"
Swagger rolled his eyes, "yeah I figured that out..."
"Bummer you missed it, Eric," Jay said, approaching to the left of Fitz. Swagger turned his gaze to the red and blue patterned carpet. If he even looked at Fitz right now, he'd probably spew flowers from every orifice in his body. Those kind, sad looking, puppy eyes Fitz had, made him absolutely weak.
"Swagger, buddy," Fitz said quieter, leaning down; he was trying to get him to look at those absolutely gorgeous sky blue eyes , but it wouldn't work this time!
No, it wasn't going to work not one bit!
Damn it! He cursed to himself.
"Hey, mate, you feeling alright? You don't look to good."
"I'm fine," He replied, a little to harshly. Swagger but his tongue. Taking a step back he shook his head. "Sorry, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little nausea that's all."
Matt turned to his American friend. "You wanna head back to the air b-n-b? The exhibitions are probably all closed by now."
"Matt I'm hungry though!" Mason piped, "can we stop at like a bar or something first?"
"We can just order something in off of Uber Eats," Toby said, before Matt could reply himself. Mason gave a silent reply, to which Swagger guessed was his approval with the suggestion, before he shoved his hand into his red hoodie pocket, pulling out a single cigarette.
"You can't smoke in here." Toby pointed.
Jamming the cigarette between his lips, he muttered and flicked open his lighter, "Didn't day I was gonna, cunt, just getting prepared."
Toby snatched the lighter from Mason. Who gave a grunt of protest, but didn't retaliate. "Anyway, lets call Ryan, he'll be able to get us in that shit minivan he rented," The four other boys agreed.
Swagger groaned, his head resting on the cold toilet seat. God damn it, how did he end up here again? Today was just a day for bathrooms, he supposed. The toilet water was dyed red, and flower petals bobbed up and down, floating and swirling around, mocking him. He grumbled and flushed the toilet. A satisfaction ran over his body as he watched the colorful petals swirl down the drain and out of his sight. It felt like a small victory to him. A knocking on the door made him jump slightly. Fitz walked in a moment later,
"You can come in," Swagger rasped. The taste of bile lingering in his tongue.
"Sorry," the lanky man said, reaching for the something on the counter. "Forgot to brush my..." they made eye contact for a friend second. Swagger was the one to break the silent staring, by turning and shoving his face into the toilet bowl.
Retching violently, the painful sound sent chills down Fitz's spine. Swagger groaned as his shoulder muscles relaxed, and he went to massage his throat.
"Eric, mate, you seem to be getting worse, are you sure you want to stay? We can fly back to Melbourne sooner, if you're feeling shitty,"
Swagger held up his hand weakly, "I'm fine, it's okay, probably just...ate something bad," Fitz caught a glance of the inside of toilet bowl. Flowers. Yellow flowers, spotted with blood.
"I don't think there were any flowers in the Pad Thai you ate earlier," Fitz said, teasingly, but his smile quickly turned into a concerned frown as he watched Swagger scramble to shut the toilet lid and flush it.
"Fuck! Shit!" He swore, "I didn't want you to find out this way, I swear!"
"It's okay, mate, it's all good!" Fitz replied, cracking another smile.
"No, it's not Cam," Swagger said quietly, fidgeting with his hands. Fitz went rigid, it was rare for someone to use his real name, let alone swagger using it. "You see I—"
Swagger snapped his mouth shut, and gave him such an incredulous look.
"Yellow, right? That's definitely Bee."
"You don't have to deny it man, we're friends! I figured you had a thing for Bee!"
Swagger found it impossible to protest this, wanting to hide true feelings, he just slumped his shoulders and sighed. "Sure, it's Bee," he said with a resigned tone.
Another flower choked his airway as he let those words slip from his tongue.
theartofmadeline
stormborns
discoholicmusic
tangentwithtanner
jacobvanloon
andulkaphoto
