Prompt fill for @eagefree, who asked:
:3c “This is my favorite picture of us.“ (Vivi)
“This is my favorite picture of us!” she declares, yanking it out of the box- and then frowning at it. “Wait, no it isn’t.”
Arthur shakes his head at her. Her memories have returned with a vengeance, and she seems determined to take a trip down memory lane as often as possible, as though settling something inside her.
Arthur combs through his allocated box, photo after photo amassed over their cases together. Most of them are businesslike snaps of their investigations- he hastily stuffs one back that shows the edge of a circle, daubed in red- and unearths another one of their group shots. “This?”
She casts her eye over it, then smiles, taking it and tilting it toward Lewis. “Remember this?”
“Oh, I wonder what happened to that shirt?”
“Um, I think I’ve got it…” Arthur admits sheepishly, earning him a knowing smile from both of them and a gentle pat from Lewis.
“Nice, but not the one I’m thinking of,” Vivi says, setting it aside into the ‘frame’ pile and going back to her box.
“Maybe if you tell us which one you’re looking for?”
“It was all of us together- I think Lance took it. We’re at the Mechanics and we’d just finished painting the van-”
“Oh,” says Arthur. “I …know where that one is.”
He passes his box to Lewis, leaving them to track it down. He knows exactly where it is, after all, they’d only pulled it out recently…
In a drawer in the living room he finds the small stack, set aside for a particular purpose. He retrieves the photo and heads back into the kitchen to hand it to Vivi.
She beams at it. “Yes! This is it! Wait- where was it?”
Arthur glances at Lewis. “It was in the stack you put together. When we were… uh, making Lewis’ new locket. Remember?”
Vivi looks the photo over again. They’re all holding paintbrushes, even Mystery holding one in his mouth, the four of them covered liberally in splashes of orange paint. Lewis leans his elbow against the van, Arthur scolding him for mussing the fresh paint, while Vivi cackles at them both and Mystery winks at the camera. The ‘Mystery Skulls’ symbol shines above them, fresh and sparkling and so full of hope.
She runs her finger along the edge of it carefully, tipping it toward Lewis as he looks over her shoulder. “That’s right. I nearly decided on this one to use, but… I don’t know. Part of me just couldn’t bear to cut it up.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” says Lewis. “It’s my favorite too.”
“Framing pile then?” Arthur says, gesturing to it, and Vivi nods.
“Framing pile. Although… it’s not as big a pile as I thought it’d be.” She frowns consideringly.
She couldn’t have set it up better for him if she’d tried. “We-ellll, it’s a good thing I’ve been working on a ghost-proof camera.”
They both swivel to look at him in delight, and the box topples, a handful of joyful moments in time splashing across the floor.
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