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4 socially maladjusted orphans go to a mall, what happens next will shock you

Word count: 5649 Google Docs mirror: here! Summary: Literally what the title says. Strive and Nikki try to be good older siblings to their asshole little brother Tails Chronos who's trying to be a good older sibling to his asshole little brother Kit. Crack taken seriously. Crude humor, Kit with abandonment issues, cheesy cringe. Wonky perspective, it jumps to the inner thoughts and feelings of each character at some point.

ft. @hiswrlds, @sorrowfulsidekick and @vandalizedheart. Merry Christmas.💙 Notes: Characters may be OOC, I don't have a completely accurate grapple on Strive, Nikki or Kit yet, but I tried to ask as many questions as I could to get a good study.

Sorry if it's not that good. I worked on it for about 3 weeks because I really wanted it to be decent. I hope this is something! Or maybe it's just nothingburger... but I had fun writing it.

There are some vague allusions to each character being traumatized and having emotional issues, so you don't have to read it if you aren't comfortable with that!

Swinging open callously enough to threaten spiderwebs onto its adjacent window, illuminating those in the nearby vicinity to wafting pomades and clacking gears from within, the shop’s front door reveals the third member of the afternoon’s impromptu party. Grumbling about something or other, straightening out the creases in his ratty pilot’s jacket. Inky circles that line clear sky eyes accentuate the proverbial “I really wish I weren’t here right now!” button that might as well be slapped onto the antecedent lapel as they turn to face their company.

“Hi,” insipid as ever, Chronos only gives the simplest of greetings.

Wholly unfazed by his lack of joie de vivre, however, Nikki hops to her feet from the curbside she and the accompanying Strive had been lazing on while in wait, speeding over to wrap an arm around his neck and pull him into a mirthful headlock, delivering a well-overdue ruffle of the hair since their last meet.

“Heyyyy, lil’ bro!” Oozing a moxie obverse from the other, a grin spread wide across her face, she holds nothing back in greeting him with the warmest arms possible. Cracking the tiniest of smiles, Chronos (surprisingly) allows the display, although it goes unreciprocated.

“Brought a friend,” she adds coyly as they separate, pointing over her shoulder with a thumb, “hope you don't mind?”

Quiet for the majority of the greetings, Strive makes his way up behind Nikki. “Hey, buddy.”

“Oh,” creasing brows seem to annotate a train of thought towards the last-minute addition, but only briefly, as he shrugs his shoulders. “He's around here all the time as it is, I'm more surprised he actually got invited instead of crashing things.”

Scoff. “Hey, c'mon! What's that supposed to mean?”

“Three days ago I woke up in the middle of the night to you in my kitchen eating our cereal directly from the box. With your hands.”

Mouth hanging open, creasing into a wide smile, Nikki roars with laughter of which only gets deeper as she notes the way Strive's ears twitch and his face tinges with the slightest hint of a rosy hue.

“Can we go?” Hastily speaking over his mirror's uncontrollable guffaws, he tries to change the topic as fast as it had been laid out.

“Just a minute,” waving a hand, aloof as ever whilst laughter dies down, Chronos goes to light up a cigarette, “we're waiting on one more person.”

Noting the way they ogle him at the statement, he folds a rising brow, taking a long drag. “What, you can invite someone without asking me but I can't do the same?”

“Touché.”

Mimicking its oscillation from minutes before, albeit much more mellow, the door opens again, and seeing the individual who emerges, Strive sucks in a breath through clenched teeth. Shorter in height than the initial triage by a notable amount, cerulean fur standing out against the achromatic surroundings, tiny hands grasp at the xanthos backpack strapped around his shoulders. Immediately rushing towards Chronos, a wobbly, pencil-thin smile on his lips.

“Ready to go…!” He utters, intonation barely above a whisper.

Allowing a smile, completely genuine, to take over his consistently phlegmatic expression as he tosses his cigarette, Chronos crouches down and ruffles his hair. Compassion he's decidedly rarely capable of. Turning to look at Nikki and Strive as he keeps a hand placed on the other’s head, he stands up.

“I’ve told you guys about Kit, right?”

Noticing the additive of bodies, especially their appearances, Kit clings to Chronos' leg tightly, half-hiding behind him with a deep scowl lining his face, practically burning through their skulls with the sheer amount of disdain alone.

Clearing his throat, glancing away to allow his eyes to be anywhere but on the broiling glower willing him to drop dead, Strive lets his shoulders shrug up a bit. “...We’ve met.”

“Dunno him,” coolly swaggering up to the little fennec, crouching with hands on her knees, Nikki looks him over with a red-lipped smile. “You got yourself a little sidekick of your own, huh? I guess that checks out.”

Closeness prompting Kit to retreat further behind Chronos, he clasps on tighter, fuscous fuchsias unrelenting. “Do they have to come?”

Realization hitting him like a ton of bricks, he makes the palm of his hand the home of his face, groaning into it. “Right… you have a thing with Sonics too.”

Turning to face the boy, knelt on a single leg to get to eye level, he clasps one of his in both of his own larger ones. “If this isn’t something you wanna do, I won’t force you, lil’ buddy. I’m gonna go on ahead, but you can hang out, and I’ll be back.”

Relinquishing the grip slowly, wide-eyed dread blooms over Kit’s expression as he watches. Watches Chronos start to stand, watches him prepare to turn away, to disappear with Strive and Nikki, to leave him behind.

Two-handedly clutching onto Chronos' wrist, he squeezes tight.

“No!”

Jolted by the usually meek voice raising into a desperate cry underlying the spiraling attachment festering within the boy, Chronos looks down at him with open-mouth consternation, brows knitting together. Casting a wayward glance back to Strive and Nikki, who stare back somewhat awkwardly and with concern, he clears his throat and gives something of a vague smile, attempting to lasso in the precarious situation.

“O-Okay,” nodding his head slowly, he offers a pitch with benefits to sell the idea, “how about we all go, and then you and I can go solo for a bit? We can grab lunch, and then— you can pick whatever store you wanna go into and I'll come with? Just the two of us?”

Contemplating, grasp still not loosening, Kit looks down at the ground. “...W-Where are we going?”

“Ever been to a mall before?”

“Mm-mm,” the smaller fox shakes his head, which Chronos takes as a cue to scoop him up, holding him to his chest as he starts to stride off.

“You'll love it, lil’ bro! The variety this one has is crazy— tons of different kinds of stores, I can't even name ‘em. And when you walk in there's this huge fountain—”

“A water fountain?”

“You know it! Thing shoots up like 10 feet in the air or somethin’, and it's got all these levels…”

Rounding the corner, with Chronos raving over the experience to entice Kit, Strive and Nikki follow side-by-side, abaft to the pair. Fists latent within denim pockets, she observes the two with smiling eyes, a certain warmth pooling in her chest that travels down to her tummy. Induced by a kind of wistfulness at the display of siblinghood, she fights back a few forming tears.

“He's different,” she notes in a hushed voice, “around the kid. Kit.”

Strive nods, “kinda like…”

“Us?”

“Mh.”

Hardships and painful traumatic memories aside, the last few months had allowed Chronos the necessary room to grow, to open his heart a little. Surly and unapproachable as he'd been initially, recently the faintest of sunlight had moved in, finding ample reason to spread its golden rays to make something good out of the seemingly eternal rainstorm that raged.

Hopefully, a rainbow could bloom one day, even if its array of iridescence was only tangentially visible.

Still, the mystique of the specific events that led him down such a dark and lonely path are mostly unknown. Perhaps he'd be ready to tell them a ways down the road.

Peregrinating the vestigial trek to the mall is done mostly in comfortable silence, aside from Chronos hyping up the trip to Kit. Glass doors, illustrious under the winter sun, automatically slide open to greet the group, the sounds of vivacious clientele and their footsteps from all around filling their ears. Piqued immediately by the display of spritzing aqua, Kit tugs on Chronos' hand, pointing towards it.

“Chronos! There’s the fountain!”

Chuckling, he uses his free hand to ruffle the top of Kit’s head. “Wanna go see it, lil’ buddy?”

Ardently nodding, looking up at his surrogate brother, Kit allows himself to be led towards the watery apparatus. Obviously, Strive and Nikki keep their distance, although the sight ameliorates the experience all the more regardless.

“We should go into the back of Spencer's,” abruptly, Nikki suggests, piping up as she turns to stare at Strive, whose brows crease in confusion.

“Why? What's in the back of Spencer's?”

Simpering silently instead of offering an explanation, it takes every ounce of self-control to keep her expression for the bit as his own face contorts into something uneasy and awkward.

“Miss me with that shit,” he murmurs, shaking his head. Wheezing, she slouches forward a bit, hanging her head.

“No, no! Listen,” she starts, hands in front of her, “listen. I can't tell you, but—”

“Why not?!”

“S-Stop—” Increasingly growing more tickled by his reaction, Nikki slaps a hand over her mouth, “I'm trying to say you just gotta experience it blind!”

“What are you guys bitching about over here?” Making his reapproach just then, Chronos joins the pair. Behind him with a slight, and previously unforeseen bounce in his step, Kit also frolicks up. Seemingly reasonably content, clasping onto his big brother's hand, he allows his eyes to roam the surrounding areas.

“The back wall of Spencer's.”

Chronos snorts.

“I don't get it!” Strive cries. “What's the joke?!”

“You've never been in a Spencer's before?” Smirking amusedly at Strive's belligerent confusion, Chronos rests a hand on Kit’s head. The sight is too funny, but he'd rather not explain it to his little brother.

“No?!”

“We gotta show him,” Nikki states, “he has to know the lore.”

“What lore?! Just tell me already!”

“Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy,” Chronos answers, somewhat ominously, as he turns tail to start off further into the mall. Toddling after like a duckling, Kit trails his heels.

“I would! Come on!” Dashing after, he joins the pair, with Nikki not too far behind.

Thankfully those pleas for knowledge to spread and be shared don't go unanswered for much longer, the antecedent location being the first stop on the trip. To the grand merriment of Nikki and Chronos, Strive makes a beeline for the back of the store before they so much as even step through the entrance.

“Oh my God,” carried by the general lack of other presences in the shop concurrently, his voice reaches their ears. Whilst Kit has lost himself in the chromatic display of lava lamps, mouth open in astonishment, the remaining pair scuttle into the back.

“There it is,” Nikki states, faux-galvanized by the sight as she wipes away a single, nonexistent tear, “it's beautiful.”

Chronos, the mature teenager he is, begins snapping photos. “The place of legends. Only told in stories.”

“A fucking dildo wall?” Strive puts his hands on either side of his head, seemingly initially distressed by this information.

“Take a pic of me with them!” Jumping into frame, Nikki strikes a pose. Obliging, Chronos takes another photo.

“What… how am I supposed to feel about this?”

“I mean, happy? You are the fruitbowl blue bastard. This is your home.”

Turning wide-eyed befuddlement onto Chronos after his comment, Strive proceeds to lock an arm around him, holding him down.

“ACK! MAD BECAUSE I'M TELLING THE TRUTH!” Flailing and punching, struggling, he tries fruitlessly (pun intended) to escape his older brother's grasp.

“Don't fight the gravitational pull of Spencer's. Just accept it, get your picture taken in front of the dildo wall.” Chiming in, arms slung around Strive's shoulders from behind, Nikki starts wrastling him back, effectively freeing Chronos from the brotherly hold.

“I mean,” glancing towards the lascivious wall, then back, he finally shrugs his shoulders.

“Yeah, aight. Lemme get in on that.”

Getting into a stance in front of the wall, he strikes a pose of his own, causing Chronos to wheeze as he takes the photo. Proceeding to have an entire photoshoot with the dildos, the three rotate between photographing and being photographed for at least 3 and a half minutes, ignoring the workers staring at them.

Until the softest call of, “Chronos…?” rouses them. Perking ears twitch and instantly Chronos is swept away, scanning the store to find the direction the utterance had come from. Right outside the store, Kit looks frantically every which way, tears beading those puce eyes as he looks for his brother.

“Kit,” coming up from behind, a hand stretches out to rest on his shoulder, “what are you doin’ out here, bud?”

Startled by the sudden touch, Kit whips around with wide eyes, immediately, he throws his arms around Chronos’ waist.

“Where did you go?!” He cries.

“Woah, woah, hey!” Returning the desperate embrace, he hugs Kit close. “I was just in the back of the store. I didn't go anywhere.”

“I-I didn't see you,” tears threaten to spill freely as he stammers softly, wavering the cadence of his voice, “I didn't hear you. I thought…”

“I would never,” cutting that train of thought in half before it finishes, he kneels down to get onto Kit’s level and hold him. “Not in a million years. I'm sorry I scared you, buddy. I won't do that again.”

Sniffling, looking at Chronos, he wipes his eyes. “Promise?”

“Promise,” lifting him into his arms, he sets Kit onto his shoulders, “now c'mere.”

Giggling as he's pulled up, arms wrap around his brother's torso and he clings. Reconvening once they've left the shop proper, Nikki holds a bag at her side, Strive with arms resting behind his head.

“Everything okay?” Nikki asks.

“Yeah. We're just taking a minute.”

Floppy ear drooping against Chronos’ head, Kit turns his eyes to glare at both of them. He'd be cute, sitting up there how he is, if it weren't for the way he stares at them as if to will them to drop dead.

“Tough crowd,” Nikki murmurs to Strive, who nods.

“Hey kiddo, how about we grab something to drink?” Chronos suggests, raising his eyes slightly as they all start walking again, “you ever had a slushie?”

“No… what's a slushie?”

Momentarily pondering the answer, he lets out a hum. “It's kinda like… flavored ice?”

“Sounds icky.”

“No, no! It's actually really good,” he assures, lifting a hand slightly amidst explanation, “basically, they make the ice real soft, like snow. Then they add sugar and flavor… like uh…”

“Cherry, Coke, blueberry… y'know, soda or fruit flavors,” Strive finishes, to which Chronos nods.

“Oh, if they have fruit flavors then it's the perfect drink for y—”

“Nikki.”

“Okay, but I had to!”

Snorting into a fit of wheezy chuckles, Chronos can't help but to snicker somewhat at the quip. To be fair, Strive should've seen it coming from a mile away. Poor guy.

“Um… okay, I guess I could try it.”

“Cool! Then we can grab some real food later.”

Seemingly satisfied by this, Kit nods, pressing his face into the back of Chronos’ head again, nuzzling into the soft fur. Aside from the shit-eating grin Nikki is giving and Strive staring back at her with endeared mild annoyance, things start to quiet down again, but only for a moment or so.

“Sorry,” Chronos pipes up suddenly, addressing his older siblings without looking behind him, “if this hasn't been super fun so far or anything. I'm not exactly the take the day off and have fun type.”

Quick to reassure Chronos’ rising anxieties, Nikki answers. “Hey, this has been plenty fun so far, little bro!”

“We haven't been here a long time anyway, and there's still the rest of the afternoon to do whatever.” Coming up beside him, Strive claps a comforting hand onto his shoulder.

“Mm,” turning his eyes to study the patterned marble floor beneath, it's clear there's still a level of thought plaguing his mind. The kid just can't seem to relax.

Clearing his throat, Strive tries to make idle conversation. Chronos may not have been his little brother, raised by his hand, but he can typically discern what Tails is thinking about.

“How's he adjusting?”

Ears perking a little at the start of the topic, shoulders shrug diffidently. “Dunno. He's been a little more open with me lately, which is good— but he's still so nervous. I just hope I'm making headway with him.”

Peering at the dozing fox, clung tightly to the older, he gives a soft chuckle.

“I'd say he trusts you, if the way he's huggin’ on tight is any indication.”

Those words bring something of a relieved glimmer to his eyes, but he doesn't comment.

“How old is he?” Strive questions, noting the youngest’s small demeanor.

“I… actually don't know,” Chronos admits, brows knitting. “I'm not even sure if he knows. I can tell you that he's young young, though. Can't be older than 10.”

“10,” he repeats, voice softening a little, “God, that's awful.”

“It's wishful thinking,” the other starts as they all make their way into the food court, “but I'm hoping it'll all just start to feel like a bad dream the older he gets.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Most you can do is just try to be there for him. Let him know he's safe with you. He'll come to you on his own eventually.”

Surprisingly, Chronos actually cracks a smile.

“Thank you,” he replies, albeit rather impassively. Strive decides to count it as a win anyway.

Making their way up to the counter, Strive leans against it, elbow resting comfortably.

“What'd you say you're having?”

“I didn't,” Chronos answers with that same smile, now growing slightly, “cola.”

Like a movie, or a stageplay, with the pair firing off their lines rehearsed to the ear, picking up their cues so naturally. The flow of which they cut up together seems meant to be— a look into another life, with a happier duo.

“Hey, Kit, you can share with me. Give this a try,” Chronos urges, holding the cold drink up to the drowsy fennec. Lifting his head, he eyes the large cup with some hesitation, but accepts it, dwarfing his two little hands.

Reluctantly, but nevertheless obediently, he takes a sip. Immediately, those ears, appearing permanently pinned down in a meek way of being, prick straight up, and a moonstruck kind of expression paints his face. Tail wagging vigorously, a slightly open mouth plunges back down onto the straw, swiftly consuming the contents of the cup. Amused and endeared, the others share a chuckle.

“Or… I guess you can have it.”

“I-It's good,” murmuring abashedly, Kit shrouds his flushed face behind the cup, “sorry…”

“I'm more of a coffee guy anyway,” Chronos assures, reaching up to ruffle Kit's head again.

“Hot or iced?” Nikki quizzes.

“We usually only have hot coffee at the workshop, but I always vibe with a good peppermint mocha.”

“Interesting. And have you kissed a man before?”

Strive chokes on his cherry slushie, forcing down laughter. Chronos takes this in stride, however, barely emoting as he snatches Nikki's wallet from her pocket, combing through the available coinage.

“Well, sure,” he answers. He then fails to elaborate. This only makes Strive laugh harder, the joyful sounds fading as Chronos makes his way towards the coffee stand.

Strive sighs, “what a great kid.”

Nikki just pouts. He can't tell if it's because her curveball fell flat or because Chronos stole her wallet.

Coming hours prove just as comical and active. Between Nikki running up to every Victoria's Secret poster and throwing her hands over the womens’ thinly-garmented bosoms and getting scolded by Chronos (hypocrite he is, as everyone knew he'd be doing it too if Kit weren't present), to Strive having to drag everyone out of Hot Topic after 45 entire minutes of marveling and making excess purchases, to the ceaseless “top surgery at Claire's” jokes in the namesake store leading the group receiving a request to leave from making the other patrons uncomfortable. Now toting multiple bags and vociferating both tawdrily and jovially, they make their way through the long strip.

Pausing in their stride, Kit tugs on Chronos’ hand, who instantly turns his attention to the younger.

“What's up, lil’ bro?”

Staring into the window of the nearby shop, his trained stoic eyes fixate on one of the displayed attractions in particular; a larger, plastic water gun, coated in gaudy hues of lime and aqua and orange. The thing couldn't measure much taller than the boy himself standing up, he'd probably have to carry it two-handed everywhere— a mental image that makes Chronos’ ears flick and his heart leap. So cute…!

Despite his discernable desire for the toy, Kit makes no attempt to speak up to request it, merely pressing gloved palms against the glass longingly instead. Chronos feels his heart melt into a puddle, and quickly calls out to the others.

“Hey, I'm stopping in here real quick,” he announces, causing them to turn and gander at the sign.

“A toy store?” The query is more curious than judgmental, but regardless, he huffs and turns his nose up, revolving on heels with tails flicking as he makes his way into the store. Defensive in the telltale I’m about to do something nice, so don’t perceive me kind of way that he does sometimes. Toddling after like a baby duckling on its mama’s heels, Kit is of course, right behind.

Dramatically clutching his chest, Strive swoons in feigned distress. “So heartless!”

“A black hole where his heart is, exactly like he says!” Nikki cries, falling over the top of him, sending the two hedgehogs tumbling to the floor in a crumpled pile of azure spines. People stare at them before just stepping over and around.

“Get up,” insisting through a voice stifled by the floor, Strive blindly manhandles Nikki, limbs flailing to grasp her.

“Nah.”

“Get up!” Raising his head, he repeats himself. Firmer, but still playful.

Challenging his patience, she instead lounges on top of him, resting on her side with head propped up onto a hand, supported by the elbow driving into Strive’s calf. Brilliantly, the latter just begins crawling into store Chronos and Kit had gone into, instead of attempting to buck Nikki off himself.

“Carry me into battle!” She hollers, pumping a fist out.

Sneakers, hued a color similar to the two of them, obstruct their pathway a quarter of their jostle into the store. Akimbo, eyebrows woven together to complete a look of irritation, Chronos stands with two different freshly-purchased water guns under either arm. Noticing his stance, next to him, Kit quickly mimics his older brother, curled fists on his hips and a disapproving expression painting his face.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Looking for you,” Strive answers casually.

“Oh my God,” grumbling indignantly, he grabs Strive by the ankle, and starts dragging both him and Nikki along, ignoring the stares of those around them yet again in embarrassment as they leave the store. Seizing the opportunity, Kit snatches both the toy guns, clutching them to his chest in a hug.

“PLEASE,” practically shrieking in exasperation, helplessly flailing his limbs, Strive cries out, “THIS IS CRUELTY!”

Pausing, contemplating, Chronos slowly turns his head to look back at them both.

“Is this what they meant when they said Down With Cis bus?”

Nikki shrieks.

Continuing to pull them along whilst they’re both losing it in two different forms of the term, Chronos looks Kit’s way, smiling a little at how he bounds along after, the littlest bounces in every step. Noting the attention on him, Kit quickly becomes shy, half-hiding behind the boxed toys.

“Um… t-thanks,” he murmurs, “f-for the… water guns.”

Ineffably endeared by the sight, he has to resist the urge to coo and scoop the boy up, spinning him around. Instead, he opts to just chuckle. “Anything for you, squirt. What’cha hungry for, huh?”

“Ah, um…” Lowering his head, cogs turning in his brain as he attempts to discern an answer for himself, Kit falls quiet. Eyebrows clashing, eyes squinting, the thoughts all start to jumble together, and the expectation of being made to choose something on his own isn’t synonymous, and—

Resting on his shoulder, Chronos’ free hand pulls him close to his side, snapping him out of his intrepid trance. Instantly, he’d noticed the signs of panic and offered comfort; a series of motions he’d become quite eloquent in since the evening Kit found a place by his side.

“Or we can just let our appetite decide when we get back there?”

“O-Oh!” Nodding quickly, giving his prognostic agreement, he nuzzles against Chronos’ jacket.

Undeniably, he feels guilt deep down; being so consistently troublesome must be adding a whole new layer of stress for his older brother to deal with on top of everything else. Despite all of his issues though, his tantrums and screaming nightmares at all odd hours, his attachment issues and aversions, nobody had ever looked at him as patiently as Chronos had. Doting that he's still wholly unused to, but a type of loving kindness he's glad to have.

He just hopes that she isn't looking down on him for it.

“Excuse me,” piping up, a gruff voice from ahead catches their attention. Uniformed, trying far too hard to maintain the felicitous stance, one of the security guards stands in their way.

“We've received multiple complaints about the four of you disturbing the peace and acting as general nuisances during the last few hours. I'm going to have to ask you all to lea—”

Abruptly and without either thought or warning, in a single swift motion, Nikki chucks the remainder of her drink at the guard. She freezes.

Kit freezes. Strive freezes. Chronos freezes. The security guard freezes.

He moves first, baffled and soaked with cherry slushie, making to grab for his walkie-talkie off his belt. Instincts kicking in, Strive leaps to his feet, hoisting Nikki (who lets out a shriek of surprise) over his shoulder, chucking his own drink at the wall.

“SCATTER!”

Snatching Kit and Chronos, both held under the opposite arm, he races out, bursting through the front doors and maneuvering through the capacious parking lot. Sunshine gleams off stainless vehicles of reds, blacks, blues and whites, nearly blinding emerald eyes as they scour the metallic maze, following his fuzzied line of sight to the gateway exit.

Screeching to swift halt close to the streamside, he loses control of his compadre cluster as Chronos wiggles his way out and drops face-first to the ground. Nikki and Kit also go tumbling, the first cluttering painfully onto her little brother’s back and the latter landing in her lap with a gentle fwump!. Clambering up briskly, he tries to shove Nikki off.

“Get off— you’re hurting him!”

“Shit!” Toppling over, nearly tripping on her own feet, Nikki jumps up. “Sorry, sorry! You okay, bud?!”

“L-Let me help you! Don’t move…” Rushing to Chronos’ side, gingerly clasping one hand with both of his, Kit tries to lift him up. Face popping out of the ground, having left a distinct vulpine indent, he lets out a groan, allowing himself to be pulled up into a seated position. Crowding around, the three look down on him curiously.

“You alright?” Nikki asks again.

Soothing a newfound stinging headache with the pads of his fingers, Chronos gives a deep, vexed sigh.

“I’ll tell ya somethin’,” he starts, wobbling to his feet with Kit and Strive’s assistance, “I’m gettin’ pretty sick and tired of all the dumb things that go on around here…”

She smiles sheepishly. “Did you at least have fun before we got kicked out?”

Ludicrous! After the spectacle their collective presence alone had made? Imprinting permanently on the minds of others as that gaggle of stupid kids with no social awareness? Asking something like that in spite of how they had looked the whole time? Ludicrous! Absurd, so absurd that—

—That it’s funny.

Running fingers through bangs stained blue at their tips, the softest smirking chuckles turn into clamoring laughter. Ethereal, jubilant, a sound he’s not made in the presence of anyone, or even to himself, for a long, long time.

Within moments, he’s stricken with a pain deep in the gut, coiling arms over his stomach, tears from the physical exhilaration plaguing his squeezed eyes. Balance lost, he wobbles, swaying back to the ground.

Given pause, the triage stares in stunned silence.

“A-Are you okay?!” Kit asks, instinctively.

“Are you having a panic attack?!” Nikki cries.

Kneeling next to him, Strive tentatively holds his hands out, grimacing. “Hey, buddy…”

“You two are so dumb!” Chronos exclaims suddenly, voice loud but lighthearted, grinning wide at Strive next to him, “what’d you think— w-what’d you think would happen when you started crawling around on the floor?!”

Wheezing hysterically, forehead leaning against Strive’s chest, he fully collapses under the weight of his own cachinnation. Momentarily surprised, the other’s expression softens, allowing himself to be leaned into.

“And the slushies!” Thumbing tears from his eyes, he throws his arms up. “Why would you throw it at him?!”

Snorting, posture loosening, Nikki quickly counters. “Hey, I panicked!”

“So your first instinct was to throw something at him?!”

Now Nikki is laughing too, shoulders shaking in quick succession with the rhythm of her sounds, which prompts Strive to start chuckling too, rubbing a finger under his nose. Everyone with the exception of Kit has erupted into a fit at that point. Aggregating the discarded shopping bags from all around, he makes over to sit next to Chronos on his knees, who turns a lambet smile onto him.

“I’ve never heard you laugh before,” Kit states quietly. The others nod.

“It’s nice,” Strive notes, winking at him. Nikki just gives a thumbs up.

At that, Chronos pauses. Momentarily after that revelation being spoken into the air. Mimicking a gesture he’d caught from earlier, he rubs a finger under his nose, turning his gaze away to look out at the ruralish structures just across the stream.

“I can’t remember the last time I did.”

“Ah,” posture tensing, Nikki slowly nods, “same.”

“Yeah.”

Wrapping back around, just like that, a solemnly somber atmosphere plagues the present. Laughter dies down into giggles and hums, smiles wane into half-bright looks of sympathy, and a dawning remembrance of all that’s wrong in the world washes over everyone. They sit, silent, for the longest time, not much for speaking or otherwise offering anything further. Comfortable, but harrowing all the same.

Sensing the shift, a pang of urgency in his chest druthers Chronos to act. Repressed for a long time, a sort of social awareness that he hadn’t cared to preserve in all his days and nights of loneliness. Something that now felt tangible; precious, that would perhaps tick away like identical grains of ivory sand falling within an hourglass, becoming latent in the myriad of similarly dreary days.

Looping his arm around Kit’s shoulders, he pulls the fennec closer, nuzzling their cheeks together.

“I just realized, I never treated you to that lunch I promised,” he starts, resting the side of his face atop Kit’s head, “I guess we got into a little too much trouble this time around, huh?”

Kit doesn’t speak. Chronos swallows.

“Just like we always do.”

That triggers a small, wobbly smile— thin, almost drawn-on by sharp pencil.

“I-I guess so.”

Beaming, he jumps to his feet, holding the younger under his arms, high up in the air. “Tell you what! How about… we get all this crap back to the workshop, we kick Dr. FatFuck out for the night, and then big bro can make dinner for us? I’ve been told I’m pretty proficient in the kitchen!”

Looking into his eyes for a moment, that rattletrap smile grows, and between clenched teeth, Kit starts to chuckle. From behind, the others giggling along makes him jerk around.

“Wha–” head rapidly turning back and forth, he scoffs, “what’s so funny?! I can totally cook! It’s easy!”

That does it— this time it’s the others’ turn to burst into untamed, boisterous laughter all around him. Quiet, initially, an instinctive tongue-lashing at the ready to fall from suffused lips at the audacity, a particularly effervescent bubbling in his stomach hushes that urge. Memories of being surrounded by people he trusts most, cutting up and slinging playful insults at one another, flood in through his being, and he finds something familiar in being alive in that present moment.

The feeling of home.

Cupping his forehead with a hand, smiling and shaking his head fondly, Chronos puts a grin on his face, pointing back at himself with a thumb as he tucks Kit under an arm, playing into the apparent humor of the situation (which he’ll promptly rip into them about the next time it’s appropriate).

“I think we brought fresh salmon home from the market this weekend, could be good in the spaghetti I’m making tonight.”

“Wah?!” Squirming, wide-eyed, Kit’s hands rest on Chronos’ wrist, “fish in spaghetti?! That’s awful! Please don’t! Chronos!”

Strive and Nikki laugh harder, until the point Chronos slings his free arm out, toting each individual purchase from the mall in their respective bags.

“And I’ve got all my sick new threads ‘n’ shit to do it with!”

Gasping, Nikki teeters to her feet. “I JUST BOUGHT THAT EVANESCENCE T-SHIRT!”

Strive does the same. “Not my Snoop on a Stoop!”

“Your what—”

Turning tail, Chronos takes off down the road, Kit hollering under one arm and the bags ruffling audibly on the other.

“Bye!”

“Come back here!” Crying out, hands outstretched, Nikki gives chase, with Strive not too far behind.

“Chronos! Think about what you’re doing, buddy!”

Clouds having cleared up sometime during the afternoon, the evening gradient of twilight blankets the cold, vast sky, twinkling in vivid pinks, yellows and oranges. For just a moment, even amidst all the squawking and commotion, something about sempiternal reality feels welcoming again. Maybe it could always be like this.

Maybe, Chronos thinks to himself, chuckling tenderly, as long as you just stay close to me.

#vandalizedheart

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