Chapter Text
Cody woke in the middle of the night and blinked muzzily. On the TV screen, Netflix asked if he was still watching.
“Yes I’m still watching!” he groaned and fumbled around for the remote, turning it off.
Limbs stirred around him, and Baron’s pale face looked up. Loose Duke twitched and whimpered in his sleep. Cody elbowed him softly in the side and he stifled a scream as he tried to jump up but fell over his feet.
“Shit, man. Sorry. You good?”
“Y-yeah. Yeah.” Loose Duke exhaled, slowly returning to the edge of the futon. “Sorry.”
“Mm. Nah, ‘sokay. I get nightmares too.” He cracked his neck loudly. “Fuck. Shoulda put the futon down before.”
“Shall I take care of it?” Baron whispered.
“Oh, uh… yeah, man. Thanks.”
Long arms snaked out in the darkness and began to push and pull at the futon frame while Cody stretched and Loose Duke slowly relaxed into the cushion again. The frame snapped and fell down into a bed suddenly and all three cried out, grabbing for each other as they braced.
“So sorry, Cody Walsh, Loose Duke! I apologize, there was resistance that led me to believe that it would come down in a slow motion!”
“Ugh. Don’t worry about it, these things are as bad as my fucking triple sword,” Cody muttered. “You guys good?”
“Fuck man, I almost shit myself,” Loose Duke breathed.
“Just almost? I got some Jack Skellington sweatpants somewhere.”
“N-no, I’m good. Almost.”
“Cool.” He patted around for Loose Duke until he found his shoulder, and squeezed. “Baron, you good?”
“I… believe so.”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing bad, nothing,” Baron said quickly. “Previously I was trapped in my large form of many long arms. I… appear to be changing back.”
“Mm.” Cody reached out his free hand and felt a bony torso, a shoulder. “Oh cool, you’re a skeleton puppet again?”
“Perhaps not entirely the same. I am… taller. Larger. But I retain my long arms.”
“What, like – oh wait, it’s like a slinky or something?” Cody asked, feeling along one thin arm.
“A… slinky, perchance,” Baron agreed uncertainly.
“You okay though? It sounds like you’re not really okay.”
“It is only a change,” Baron whispered, but when Cody pulled they tucked themselves into his side. After a moment Loose Duke squirmed closer to press into his other side. Baron’s long arms slowly wrapped around the other two. They lay there together in the darkness, listening to the sounds of traffic outside.
“Um. Are you good, man?” Loose Duke asked cautiously.
“Yeah, I’m great.” He yawned.
“With all of this?” Baron murmured. “With the two of us, each here separately?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? I knew it was our destiny to be together from the moment I saw you.” Cody paused thoughtfully. “Maybe we’re better apart. …But together. Like Roronoa Zoro kicks ass with three swords, but my triple sword is a fucking menace. We’ll watch One Piece some time. Put it on the list. You get me, though?”
“I… understand, though I do not know the reference yet,” Baron said slowly. “But to understand is not to… accept”
“I didn’t understand any of this,” Loose Duke offered, and paused for a huge yawn. “But nobody’s tried to kill any of us since we got here… and it’s… good. It was fucking weird quangling with Baron, but it felt right. We didn’t know if you’d want both of us separately.”
“That’s – hey.” Cody shifted and felt around until he grabbed Loose Duke’s stubbly face. “Hey. Dude? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. And I worked retail.”
“Oh.”
“You’re fricking awesome and I’m the luckiest guy in any universe.” He didn’t let go, but he turned on his back to grab Baron’s mask, which had grown into almost a head. “Baron, you’re so kickass and I can’t believe I got to marry a skeleton and a space bandit.”
“Oh,” Loose Duke mumbled again.
“Anyway, you guys are like… the best ever, and I’m not giving you up. Either of you. Creepy and freaky, right? That’s what that buff high schooler said.”
“You are the freaky and we are the creepy,” Baron breathed in his ear.
“Hell yeah.” Cody squeezed them both tightly.
“You’re so damn cool,” Loose Duke sighed, clinging tightly to him. “I’ll get better at this shit.” He gestured vaguely into the darkness.
“You will, because you’re rad as hell. But you’re both awesome either way. Okay?”
“O-okay…”
“If you believe it, Cody Walsh, we will make it so for you.”
Cody frowned. “Okay, I’ve gotta come clean.”
The other two stilled. Cody took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
“I’m… not super popular. I’ve got like…” He paused, counting on his fingers. “I guess two really good friends. And a few other friends, but they’re like… I mean lots of them are great but they’re hella old. It’s hard to talk to them. Until I got into the whole Magic New York thing I only had one friend, and that was just because we worked at the mall together.” He paused, pushing aside the urge to jump up and grab a sword to start slashing around, and hugged the others tighter instead. “I kinda suck. Just as a person . And I'm trying to do better but fuck if I know how. I don’t get the whole… small talk, networking, professionalism… God, that’s like a whole different world, I dunno how to do that shit. I don’t understand anything and shit keeps… changing and every time I get into something good like the mall, it ends and I don’t know how to stop it. I… I guess I’m kinda a loser.”
“Fuck, man, I’m the biggest loser on the planet,” Loose Duke said, pulling him close. “…On New Texas, anyway. Probably on New York too. I get caught every single time I try to do a job. I’m broke as hell, I owe way too much money to people who make me wanna piss myself, and I can’t even get anybody to work with me more than once.” He sniffled and wiped his face on Cody’s sleeve.
Baron wrapped their arms tighter around both of them. “I also have lost at every turn, and have never gained anything I have sought despite following all instructions. I have failed in my life’s purpose.”
“Man, fuck purpose.” Cody hugged them both as tight as he could. “Don’t you guys see? We’re the same. Three sides of the same coin.” He paused. “It’s okay if we’re not cool. It’s fine if we’re losers, if… all of us are losers, because… who are we trying to impress, anyway? I fucking love you guys anyway, I don’t care.”
“And we love you, Cody Walsh,” Baron whispered, pressing their bone-white face into his shoulder.
“Love you,” Loose Duke breathed. “So fucking much, man.”
“Fuck yeah.” Cody yawned hugely. “…Shit, it’s so fucking early.” He paused. “…I dunno if I wanna go scream on the roof or if I wanna go back to sleep for like ten hours.”
“Is screaming acceptable?” Baron asked.
“…No,” Cody muttered resentfully. “Nasir said I had to stop. …But we should go upstate some time. Out in the woods. We can scream all we want.”
“I would like that.”
“Rad, me too.” He yawned and lay back. “I guess sleep, then. For now.”
Loose Duke yawned widely and hummed tiredly.
“Sorry, I guess we could’ve slept before.”
“I found this conversation very helpful,” Baron whispered.
“Mm, ‘s all good, man,” Loose Duke mumbled.
“Okay. Nice.” He shifted around to get comfortable, an arm around each of them. “G’night.”
“Night.
“Good night.