Howdy and Barnaby sharing a milkshake, all romantic like? (Plz and thank you)
Sure! Btw sorry if it looks off, I pretty much never draw either of these two lol. I only looked up Barnaby references and barely looked at them, but hope u like it! (Tbh I don’t exactly love how Barnaby came out but whatever)
I know it's you sending those fat phobic hate Anons to laughingstock shippers. But why?
Alright, I was made aware that there was anon hate going on within this fandom in the laughstock blogs and knew I'd be immediately suspected but let me make a few things clear
While honestly I don't particularly like laughingstock, believe it or not it's actually far from my least favorite ship, you're not the first to assume I sent the hate, I can understand the accusation but on my life I'm in my 30s and have have better shit to do than waste my time harassing a bunch of children and blogs over a ship and bullying a fictional fucking puppet dog. Cause like why?
Even if I jab at Barnaby it's a place of fun I don't hate him and am also a fatass, secondly I ship Barnaby with Wally so why would I do all of that?
Also even with the fact I made comments joking about Barnaby why would I go about using anon while making comments that can be publicly seen? Stupid if you ask me
I've seen the posts and they have been brought to my attention and I actually think they are quite insane myself, I have not that much energy to spread THAT amount of hate towards anyone anyways, nor am I THAT crazy
Anyways, I have my reasons to not like laughingstock but I can promise you Barnaby is far from the issue. I can't blame you if you don't believe anything I say, but I swear y'all jumping on the wrong person I hope you understand and hope this wasn't too much rambling this is all kind of strange and y'all got me all wrong
(Read the full story below, or here's AO3 version if you prefer to read on there!)
Chapter 11: Mistletoe Incident
🐛 Howdy x Barnaby 🐾
Howdy looks at himself in the mirror. He doesn't often wear short sleeves because it's unprofessional, but it's the holidays, after all. He flexes his arms. They're muscled, partly because he lifts so many boxes, but also because he lifts weights, but he doesn't tell anyone that.
He splashes his face with water. The party got rowdy quickly. It was a culmination of long hours and rude treatment by the higher ups. But it had fizzled out just as fast, like a cheap fireworks display. Frank and Eddie already went home. Poppy is tending to Sally and Julie back at her place. Wally is passed out in a crate of apples at the front of Howdy's store. Only him and Barn remain.
Howdy returns to his ravaged storefront, pushes glitter and streamers off a stool, and sits down on the side of the lunch counter opposite where he usually stands. He feels behind it and cracks open a beer for himself.
Barnaby sits down heavily beside him in his usual spot. "Everyone here's a lightweight, ain't they?" He takes a long draft of beer. They aren't allowed to have it on set, but Howdy stashes it in back for the cast to enjoy after work.
Grateful for the company, Howdy nods. He takes a sip of his own. "They're tiny. Wally can't drink a more'n thimbleful without falling asleep." He glances over his shoulder to make sure the small man hasn't left his comfortable spot among the apples.
Barnaby laughs. He's wearing soft blue pajamas, as if he's going to a sleepover after this. That would be fun, Howdy thinks. He looks cuddly.
Howdy snaps his fingers. "I know. It's nearly midnight. We deserve something special to celebrate."
Barnaby watches with interest as Howdy reaches behind the counter, pushes down on the bottom of a cabinet, and pries open a secret panel. He produces a bottle of clear liquid with a crudely-drawn butterfly on the side and two shot glasses.
Barnaby's eyes pop out of his head. "Whoa, that's the good stuff. Where'd ya get it?"
"Latter, if you can believe that. He mixes it up in a keg in his cellar each winter. He's absolutely nuts." Howdy pours a shot for Barnaby and one for himself, then tips his glass to him. "We could be cured of every disease known to man, or be dead by morning. Cheers."
"God bless your crazy brother." Barnaby knocks back his drink and winces. "Whoo, that smarts."
Howdy does the same, then holds his chest and coughs. "Jesus, that's stronger than usual!" He shakes his head and pushes the bottle towards Barn. "Another?"
"Yeah, keep 'em coming."
Howdy didn't expect to be four shots deep and him and Barn falling over each other laughing one hour later. He raids his Santa display and adorns Barn with a festive hat. Barn ties jingle bells to Howdy's antennae and calls him cute. There's a strange feeling between them that Howdy cannot describe, but he likes it.
It makes a little more sense when Barn points to the cluster of green leaves and white berries hanging above Howdy's register.
"That's mistletoe, ain't it?"
"I dunno. Julie put it there." Howdy sloshes another shot of forbidden juice into their cups. "Who knows what it means."
"It means I get to kiss ya."
"Huh?" Howdy blinks and turns towards him, his eyes wide. Barnaby has his arm around Howdy’s shoulder. His face reads sincere.
Barnaby realizes what he's doing. He immediately lets go of him. "I won't if you don't want me to."
The door of opportunity is closing. Howdy catches it and throws it wide open. "No, no, I want to." The glass clatters onto the counter as he takes hold of Barn's collar, pulls him towards him, kisses him.
Howdy’s unsure how long the kiss lasts. It’s more than a few seconds, but less than a few minutes. Now Barn’s holding his cheeks and looking down at him with fondness. Howdy's never felt so open and scared and euphoric all at once, his head swimming in a soup of feelings.
Barnaby kisses him again, and Howdy braces one arm against the counter so he doesn’t fall over. Now Barn's unbuttoning his shirt, oh my god, is this really happening—
"Barnaby? I think I need to go home now."
Wally looks up at them, rubbing his large watery eyes. There's glitter all over his hair that Julie had dumped on him as part of a game three hours earlier.
Barnaby stares at him like a piece of furniture that’s just come to life. He runs a hand down his face. "Aw jeez. I gotta get this kid to bed." He reluctantly lets go of Howdy, brushes his fingers against the tuft of fur sticking out from his chest, looks at it mournfully. "Sorry."
It takes Howdy a moment to understand. He sits up, buttons his shirt, and starts to clean up the spilled drink. "Right. No problem."
Barnaby swaddles Wally up in his winter coat and balances him in the crook of his arm. "But I can come back."
Howdy gazes out into the darkness. He can’t even see the lights of the nearest house, it’s so thick. "Are you sure? You might get caught.”
"It'll be fine. Playfellow doesn’t check on us after the holidays."
"Playfellow?" Wally mumbles, his head lolling.
Barnaby pats him on the shoulder. "Ssh. This is all a dream, kid." He looks back at Howdy. "As long as he falls asleep okay, I'll come back in an hour."
Howdy nods dumbly and watches the two of them dissolve into the night. He sits back down and stares at the ugly butterfly on the liquor bottle. He starts a conversation with it, as one does when you don’t have many friends.
This is a mistake.
Is it?
No. Maybe. Guess we’ll see.
Once again, it's hard to tell how much time has passed. A few minutes merge into an hour, then two. It gets to a point where Howdy’s nearly sober, and he's worried. The landscape outside the window remains unchanged, other than it’s getting grayer as the hours inch closer towards dawn.
But then Barn shows up at the door like a prelude to the sunrise. He locks it behind him and yanks down the blinds that Howdy’s never had to use before.
"I finally got 'im to sleep." Barn grabs Howdy by the suspenders and picks up where they left off. "Feels like I've been waitin' forever to do this."
"Ya have?" Howdy's never thought of anyone like that before, but desire came on so quickly, he knows it’s right. “Same.”
"Sorry for the delay. Wally had a lotta questions." Barnaby kisses Howdy’s neck, then he stops. "Are you sure? Everything’s gonna change after this. We’ll have to sneak around like Frank n’ Eddie—if you even wanna continue.” He chuckles, shakes his head. “I’m already gonna hafta bribe Wally with all your apples to keep ‘im quiet.”
Howdy cups his cheeks and smiles. “I’m sure, Barn.”
He takes Barnaby by the hand and leads him to his room in the back. They wake up in the morning a few hours later, sore, uncertain, but at least not alone.
