Friend
Fandom/Shipping(s): Elsword; none Rating: K Word Count: 3,556
Summary: It started with Time’s black nails. Time became friends with Arc as he wondered when his dad would come home. MMLP Modern AU developed with @blazingsnark, where MM and LP are single dads to AT and PT.
Note: Rest of MMLP Modern AU can be found here.
The lights were off when Time turned the doorknob with one hand and entered the unlocked classroom. With the flip of a switch, light flooded the empty room and blinded him for a moment before he blinked to adjust his eyes. He threw his backpack on his desk near the back, where he could avoid the teacher’s judgmental sight and went to write the date and period on the whiteboard with a purple marker he always brought with him.
He couldn't pretend to be the student that said they loved school, it sounded too nerdy and uncool. It was hard to place his thoughts on what school was aside from what it was supposed to be: a place to go to everyday because it was his job and there was nowhere else for him, like it was Dad's job to go to work and come home if he remembered. Not too different from what he did every day.
Even though the optometrist warned not to, Time rubbed the patch covering his left eye. It was hard not to. They said it was temporary and that eye needed rest, but he felt ridiculous wearing it when it made him look like an anime character. He paused on that thought with amusement. Being an anime character sounded easier than going to middle school. They spent more time saving the world than studying or worrying about what other kids said about each other.
The clock’s big hand pointed to the number five when the door slammed open, hitting the wall adjacent to it with a thud. He jolted from where he stood, still at the board and gazing at the schedule written from last week. Standing at the door wasn't the teacher, but a student. They walked to where Time was and stared at his writing with disapproval.
“Morning,” Time greeted them.
“So you're the one writing on the board,” they mumbled, grimacing like there was something on his face. “Did you finish last weekend’s homework?”
“A little,” Time lied. Of course he finished it, and the reading too. “You're early today.” He gestured his hand over to the clock.
They grabbed his arm and raised it to reveal black nails painted on all five digits, “Hey, Halloween’s over.”
Time’s mind froze, wide eyed that this was happening. He threw his arm the opposite direction, ripping it away from them with shame and rage floating through his mind. So what if he thought black nails were cool after watching his cousin paint her nails before asking if he wanted to learn. He thought black nails would be better than the red nail polish his cousin wanted to apply on him.
“You're weird,” they commented while Time struggled to conjure something to say. He was never one to really talk back and he didn't want to deal with this person either.
Time shrunk away from their words and sank back his seat with dread. He should have spoken up when he had the chance, but something stopped him from even moving his lips. The student was already walking away and talking to someone else in the classroom, no point in trying. It would make him sound like he's trying too hard to sound tough.
“Are you okay?”
Time turned to see his neighbor look at him with concern, fluffy jacket ruffled as he slipped it off his back to reveal a boy with white hair. Huh...Arc was early today, an unusual gesture when he was almost always late to homeroom.
“It's nothing,” Time shook his head, although he glanced at his nails again. They were a little off and he could have done a better job with the coating, but he thought they were good for the first time.
“Did you paint your nails black?” Arc asked. Oh no, not him too… “Cool!”
Was this guy stupid? Time checked his face if he was joking, but saw the other smiling with that dumb fringe flopped over one side of his face. Arc usually talked to other people around them, why him today? He did well on tests, so it couldn't be to copy off him.
“Um...sure,” was all Time could muster, uncomfortable of being stared at. They sat next to each other in three periods, why was this awkward?
“Can you show me how to do that?” Arc asked, “Wanna hang out sometime?”
“For what?” That came out more blunt than intended. Time mumbled a sorry, but Arc wasn't fazed and laughed.
“I dunno,” he shrugged. “The mall? The arcade?”
There was an arcade close to his house, but he never went inside before. It was always dark when he peeked inside with neon lights flashing from the machines with teenagers shrieking. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go in.
“Don’t we have a test coming up?” Time asked.
“Gross,” Arc said with no sign of worry about said test.
What was he doing saying no to someone wanting to hang out with him? Test or not, he had more than enough time to study for it. Arc was annoying and talked a lot in class, but never intentionally bothered him or tried being snarky to him, although the occasional snide comments he made in class were worth a chuckle.
“Okay, but it’s Friday.” Arc waved his hand, “Who studies on Fridays?”
Heat traveled up Time’s ears as he stopped himself from blurting out embarrassing things that could only mess him up further. Okay, so maybe he had too much time, but did Arc have to make it sound stupid? Pushing aside his pride from telling Arc to fuck off, Time rubbed his face to see that it was still hot. He needed to stop overreacting to stuff like this before turning permanently red.
Time said. “What’s so special about this arcade that I can’t do the same at home?”
“One, it has the newest, coolest, games, like that shooting game that lets you fight as a robot. Two, awesome prizes. They’re going to put up that new console when it comes out and there’s even a hoverboard! Glide to class in style and never being late to class again.” Arc demonstrated himself balancing on his seat with a stupid grin. “And three, they have the best fries.”
“I think you need that hoverboard more than me,” Time snorted. “The Switch isn’t coming out for another year and what game are you even going to get with that?”
“What I’m trying to say here is, you’re missing out.”
Time asked, “You’re not going to make me do stupid dumb like karaoke, are you?”
“What? No!” Arc laughed, “But if you want…”
Time placed his hand in front of Arc to shut up, “Tell me about those games.”
Arc had a jacket too big for his size thrown over his shoulders and his shoes half way done when Time caught up later that day. When they stepped inside, bright lights flickered from giant screens coming from different directions and packed with people.
The ceiling was decorated like the night sky with dim lights, packed with arcade games that would make any teen burn away their week’s saving on the whim. Shooting games, claw machines, rhythm games, and many untranslated games imported from a foreign country flashed in blinding colors, but that made Time as ecstatic as Arc, who was beaming.
“You haven't been here, right?” Arc led him through the rows of machines. “I have enough for some games, so we can use my card. I almost have enough tickets for the big prize.”
Oh, he wanted him to help earn tickets. Time thought it made sense, seemed fair since this was Arc’s money they were using.
“I’ve spent months trying to win this and Psych’s been helping me too,” Arc said as he led him through the side of the arcade that led to a room filled with prizes hanging off shelves and set behind glass cases. Tags hung over all of them with big numbers to indicate the tickets required to trade for them.
There were necklaces, stickers, plastic figurines on the lower shelves, stuff Time assumed to be the ones requiring less tickets. On the higher shelves were stuffed animals of standard size, star shaped lamps, even game consoles. Standing in the back was a black rabbit plush with pink beaded eyes, the size of a small child and easily taking up half of his bed if he was to measure it.
“What are you looking at?” Arc asked when he caught Time staring at the plush.
Time averted his eyes, careful not to look at Arc either, “So what’s the prize?” He scanned the shelves for what he thought Arc would have his eyes fixed on. What could Arc want that costed so much?
“There’s a steel metal frame bike back there,” Arc pointed to the one sitting behind the counter, “It can do tricks and it’s supposed to be fast.”
“Neat,” Time leaned over to see the black handlebar sticking out. It had silver linings too and the cushion seat didn’t look uncomfortable, better than the ones used for kid bikes. It was no surprise that it was one of the more expensive prizes. “You really think we can win enough for it?”
“If we play enough, yeah.” Arc waved his card around and flashed a grin, “Don’t bother with the claw machines. The real money comes from the shooters.”
“You mean that new game they just released?”
Giant robots, feminine looking men, and girls in skimpy outfits holding laser guns several times their size seemed to be the aesthetic when Time saw the posters. It didn’t take long to find the machine. It was the newest one with polished screens and it had a line. A pink haired girl with an energetic voice greeted them when they swipe Arc’s card to begin. It took another few minutes for them to get past the character selection page - no customizing, but plenty of characters pick and choose.
“We get two guns?” Time almost dropped his when he discovered it was two guns held together by a magnetic force. He glanced over his shoulder to mirror Arc, who separated the two and pointed at the screen to select the ready button. It was a shooting game, couldn’t be too complicated.
There wasn’t much time for talk because the game threw them head first into a city empty of civilians and filled with robots. The cheery voice from the title screen was back and throwing them orders in a language neither could understand. All Time could do was use the icons and green arrows for guidance as he and Arc attempted to follow the game’s cue to fulfill its demands.
“Got it!” Arc cheered when he shot down a few robots and slammed the two guns together for a bigger shot, “Did you see that?”
Time looked over to see a cleared screen of enemies fading into the background before another wave showed up. He gasped in shock when he turned back to see his character was losing too much health and slapped his finger into the trigger to clear his own screen.
“Is that it?” Time frowned when there was a delay on both of their screens. How many kills did Arc have?
There was a loud sound coming from their screens when a bigger robot crashed in with a thud, only allowing giving Time a couple of seconds to move his character to narrowly avoid getting hit before shooting at it. He saw Arc follow suit, but he was less than lucky and had half of his health points lost. After they finished off the final boss, a smaller screen with red numbers popped out to display their scores, comparing their number of kills and health lost.
It was a tie.
Time wiped his brow, still in awe when he looked away from the screen. His eyes felt strange looking into darkness again after the rainbow flood his vision. He had to grasp the head of his seat when he got off to avoid falling over. They had to play that again.
“Look at how much we won,” Arc ripped out a line of tickets for show. “Seven tickets each, that’s fourteen.”
Time grabbed his tickets from Arc with a content expression, “How many tickets did you say you needed?”
As they jumped to the next machine, Time found himself lost in the midst of it all. There was no feeling of rush when they ran through the rhythm games or when Arc tried to pull something from the claw machine with no success. It wasn’t until he checked his phone did he realize how much time has passed.
“I should have been home an hour ago,” Time groaned, “Dad won’t be happy.”
“I can’t come over?” Arc sounded guilty. “We can study if you want, I have my stuff.”
“I guess you can,” Time said.
Well...if they were studying, maybe Dad would let it slip when it’s related to school. Time prayed that his dad wouldn’t mind having someone over when he didn’t warn him ahead of time. He texted him anyway when they left the arcade to be safe, but not before he stole a glance from the black rabbit at the prize shop. Maybe he could come back alone next time.
They were greeted by an empty house when they stepped into Time’s house with their backpacks on the floor. It was well furnished with a black sofa pushed against lavender painted walls and a chair to the side with a coffee table in the middle to match with the furniture. Books cluttered the bookshelves and the white carpet didn’t look past a day of its installment. The only signs of someone living in the house was a black cat using the scratch post in the corner when it heard its owner and started meowing. Ah...Paranoia was hungry.
After feeding the cat and fixing up a quick after school snack of cheese and crackers, they sat on the living room floor with their legs crossed and their backpacks on the opposite side of them. Textbooks and notes spread out with pens and papers scattered on the coffee table.
“Have you ever tried painting your nails other colors?” Arc asked as he flipped over to skim over the review questions at the end of the chapter, pressing his finger into temple in concentration.
“Black is a better color,” Time said without second thought, never mind that he knew Arc was trying to change topics to avoid studying his least favorite subject. He thought it was funny watching his friend make a face at the history book cover. “What answer did you get for the last question?”
“A person living under a king or dictator,” Arc checked his book to see if he was right and sighed. “Yeah, black is awesome, but what if you painted it blue or green? Or rainbow?” He asked with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
“No one is going to take me seriously,” Time complained. “How about I add sparkles to your nails and make it rainbow.”
“Ooh, scary.” The other laughed at his threat, “You don’t know how to do that.”
He painted his nails with one color before, but six? Time wasn’t sure if he had enough faith in his nail painting skills when he had only done it a few times, although painting Arc’s nails in bright neon colors wasn’t a bad idea.
“I can always watch videos to learn how,” Time grinned.
Arc turned to make a comeback, but his expression faltered when the door opened.
Walking into the living room was a man somewhere in his thirties, wearing a black turtleneck with a white labcoat in his arms. His face was as pale as Time’s when Esper saw the eleven year olds sitting on the floor.
“D-dad, you’re home early,” Time squeaked. There weren’t any texts from him mentioning coming home today, did something happen?
“Lab closed early today because the boss’s kid got sick,” Esper said. “Did I interrupt something?”
“No, we’re almost done.” Time shook his head, still getting over that his dad was home and it wasn’t a weekend. The next holiday wouldn’t be for another month or so and Esper wasn’t sick.
Esper nodded at Arc, “I’m Time’s father. And you are...”
“Arc, sorry for intruding,” Arc said with pink cheeks.
“You’re welcome to come here if Time invites you,” Esper said, but he looked like he would rather be somewhere else. He glanced at Arc’s features with an unreadable expression, eye moving over to scrutinize Time.
Time wished he yelled at Arc to stay a little bit longer because when he left, the house was silent again. He knew Esper was going to bombard him with questions because it has been years since he last invited someone his age to come over like this. The kitchen smelled of Esper’s amazing cooking, but it didn’t make up for the awkwardness between father and son.
“I bought you new nail polish,” Esper said when they were at the table. “It’s the brand you wanted.”
Time smiled in appreciation that Esper remembered, even if he only said it once or twice when he ran out of black nail polish.
“So, where is that from?” Esper saw a new addition hanging off his backpack. It was a keychain of a monster from one of those handheld games, a turtle with a plant sprouting from its back. “I don’t remember buying that.”
“Arc gave it to me,” Time said. In the end, there wasn’t enough tickets for the bike, but impulse fell over them and they agreed to get keychains from the prize shop. He had a turtle and Arc got the penguin. There was a third one, a monkey, but Arc took it and said he thought it was funny looking. As long as it went under one hundred tickets, no harm. “We went to the arcade and won them. We studied too, I’ll clean up-”
“We can clean up later,” Esper said, uncomfortable when Time gave him that wide eyed look at the word ‘we’. “Um... work gave me vacation next month and Christmas is coming up. We’ll have a few free weeks and plane tickets will be gone quick. Is there anywhere you want to go?”
Last year, they went to the tropical islands and he got to skip a few days of school early with Esper telling the teachers he was sick. The water was warm and clear unlike the cloudy river not too far from their house and the sand was as fine as silk. He liked the idea of going somewhere where work couldn’t call Esper away from him, but then he thought about Arc, who didn’t mention about going away for Christmas. If he went away, that meant being away from home and by the time they get back, he would have to worry about school again.
“We don’t have to go anywhere,” Time stared at his feet, away from Esper’s surprised expression. “Can we spend Christmas at home this year? And drink hot chocolate like we did with M-, the other year?”
Esper’s hot chocolate wasn’t the premade ones that came in packets from the supermarket, but homemade from years of experimenting and the cookies that came along with it always had the right amount of sugar. He used to let Time decorate them with buttercream frosting from a recipe they found online that no longer existed. With ugly sweaters and blanket draped, it was almost easy to forget it was snowing outside.
The man turned off the stove and went to grab two plates for them, not answering immediately with a stiff expression on his face while calculating a proper response. When he came back with food, he placed them at the table, biting his cheek with his eyes blinking.
“You want to stay home?” Esper handed the utensils from the drawer to Time for him to set up the table. “If that’s what you want…”
The man was startled when Time pulled him into a tight hug, arms wrapped around his thin waist with his head against his chest. Esper gave him awkward pats on the head, but didn’t wriggle out of the embrace and let Time stay there.
Esper relaxed when they separated from the hug. Today’s dinner was different for many reasons. For Time, it was sitting at a table with Esper instead of coming home to leftovers with a text from him that he was going to be late again. For Esper, it was harder to tell, but Time thought it was because he was having a good day to be away from work. Even though the holidays were still a month away, he wished for November to pass by faster so he could get to spending time with Esper and hanging out with Arc.
After he helped washed the dishes and brought his stuff back to his room. Time said nothing when he joined Esper in the living room to clear his books and learning material, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he should have said something. Perhaps he was wrong in thinking spending time with him was all it took to make Esper happy.
Author Notes: I have no excuse in writing this except I want happy Time to be friends with Arc and Psych so he won’t be lonely ; w;. I haven’t introduced Psych yet, but I want to in another fic. Please let these children be happy. I decided to write from Time’s POV because I realized I’ve never done that before, so I wanted to change that and practice writing from someone else’s perspective. Thank you @dezimaton and @zeloree for beta reading and helping me out with the details!