rhys and vaughn during halloween ?
aka vaughn is lowkey depressed and rhys wants to hang out with his no homo bro. college au and trans vaughn
ao3 link
Rhys slicks back his hair, fluffing it a little more before spraying yet another layer of hairspray. His hair had to be perfect – if it was bad, then could he truly even call himself Handsome Jack? What he would really be doing is tarnishing Jack’s image. And he would never try to do that.
He turns his head, biting his lip before popping his head out of the bathroom.
“Vaaaaaaaaaaaughn. Vaughn, help, is my hair okay? I want to look good if I’m gonna call myself THE Handsome– Are you even awake right now?”
Vaughn rolls on his side, tugging the blankets over his head. Vague muffled groans can be heard from under the covers.
Rhys frowns and stomps over, pulling the sheets off him. “Oh, no you don’t. You’re going to this Halloween party, bro. I’ve been talking about it for weeks!”
Vaughn slowly sits up and hangs his feet over the side of his bed, pushing Rhys’s hands off him before rubbing his eyes. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, man, you know what happened with the last party we went to… you can go by yourself if you want, Rhys. I mean, you have friends who’ll be there.”
Rhys hauls him up, prosthetic hand pressed against Vaughn’s side. “Nope, nope. Not happening. You’re coming with me, bro, you can’t skimp out on me again! Come onnn, it’ll be fun. It– Why do you have an empty bottle of Nyquil next to your bed?”
Vaughn slumps against him, forcing Rhys to practically drag him into the bathroom. “I couldn’t get to sleep,” he said, cheek smushed against Rhys’s chest.
Rhys makes a face. “You’ve been sleeping for like 20 hours, dude, and that’s not even an exaggeration. You should, like, go on a walk or something. Play video games. I will buy you video games.”
Vaughn doesn’t respond, and Rhys sighs before closing the toilet seat and dumping Vaughn onto it. He sets his hands on his hips. “What do you have as your costume?”
“My wha– my costume?”
“Your costume! This is a Halloween party, you need to have a costume.”
Vaughn looks to the side, beginning to push himself up, “I don’t really have anything planned so I should probably just stay home–”
Rhys pushes him back down. “No. We can whip something up, trust me, I used to do this all the time when I was younger. One time, when I was like 16, I went as a stressed college student who hadn’t slept in two days, but I feel like you’re dressed as that all the time. But the over-sleeper version. With nonstop sleep.”
Vaughn glared at him as Rhys continued, “But, I’m sure we can think of something. Worse case scenario, you go as a sexy bunny rabbit. Or a calculator. Or accounting nerd.”
“You could go as a jackass who won’t let his roommate get his beauty sleep,” Vaughn says, looking at him pointedly.
Rhys crosses his arms. “You, Mister Grumpy Pants, are going to the Halloween party. I’ll buy you, uh, one of those Reese’s peanut butter things in the shape of a pumpkin or ghost or something. With my own money. Probably my own money.”
Vaughn sets his head against the wall, snuggling against it and murmuring, “More like Rhys’s peanut butter things.”
“Ha ha. Original. Now wake up and go through your clothes to find something to wear.”
Vaughn slowly stands up and waddles out the bathroom, disappearing into their bedroom again. Rhys, momentarily satisfied, looked back at his reflection in the mirror. He adjusts his jacket and pats the shoulder pads. Man, he was one sexy Jack. He winks at the mirror. He is so gonna get laid.
Rhys pats his face before glancing over his shoulder. Huh. Not seeing Vaughn by the dressers, he turns around and steps back into the bedroom before immediately sighing.
He stomps over to Vaughn’s bed and bends over, dragging him out from underneath his bed while Vaughn groaned. He shoved Vaughn back on the bed before stomping over to their drawers and picking out tiny Nike gym shorts and a little tight tank top.
He turns on his heel and tosses the clothes on the bed, where Vaughn had curled into a ball again. He puts his hands on his hips, “You’re going as a sexy track runner now. Can you dress yourself or are you just gonna go and hide under your bed again? Or my bed, for that matter. Any bed!”
Vaughn peeks at him through one eye. “I feel like Handsome Jack is yelling at me.”
Rhys huffs before pulling Vaughn up and tugging off his shirt. He looks around before grabbing a sports bra off the floor. He tosses it at Vaughn for him to put on. Vaughn catches it and looks down at it.
“Won’t I – binder?” Vaughn looks up at Rhys nervously.
“Relax, nobody’ll notice there’s any difference. That one has a ton of compression as is, it’s one of those kinds. Besides, you still have a little goatee, so nobody’ll pay attention to it. And everyone’ll be drunk or humpin on someone.”
Vaughn looks down at it before nodding and pulling it on, wiggling and tugging at it before it sits comfortably. He then pulls on the tank top, wiggling off his pajama pants and replacing them with the gym shorts as Rhys feels around for sneakers. It’s quiet for a moment before Vaughn speaks up.
“You know you don’t have to do this, right?”
Rhys kneels in front of him and looks up at him. “Bro, I want to. Halloween is, like, my favorite holiday. I wanna spend it with my best bro. I wouldn’t want to go to this place without you.”
Vaughn smiles and looks down, embarrassed. “Your Jack costume is pretty sweet.”
Rhys slides the sneakers on Vaughn’s feet, tying them before tugging Vaughn to his feet. “I know, right? I’ve been working on it since September. Now, how sexy are you wanting this track outfit?”
Vaughn looks in the mirror and laughs as Rhys hikes up the tank top to show off his tummy. “I’m not sure I should make everyone look at my chub.”
“Aw, come on, that’s what Halloween is all about!” Rhys says, pulling the fabric back and tying a rubber band around it to keep it showing his midriff. “We can put your hair in a ponytail too since you haven’t cut it in like a year. Ooh, and, and, we can get little sweatbands! Aw, this is gonna be so sweet.”
Vaughn smiles, “Whatever you want bro.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make you the sexiest runner on the block.”
“Oh, I trust you.”
