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The party last night was insane.
Pezzy groans a little as he moves, the hangover making his head pound mercilessly.
He remembers all the drinking, all the drinking his friends did, then they all decided to walk home, passing by some guy doing magic tricks on the side of the road.
To their drunken minds, it was the funniest shit they'd ever seen.
He'd done card tricks, shit with fancy smoke and lights, and then Pezzy’s not sure how, but he left in a puff of smoke after throwing some kind of glitter bomb at them, the bomb catching Puffer square in the head, then bouncing onto Grizzy.
They'd all shuffled back to Droid and Pezzy’s place after that, Puffer and Grizzy deciding to just crash… where had they crashed actually? He's not sure anymore…
Pezzy remembers that he decided to take the couch now, as he rolls over, deciding to sleep more.
A little later, he can hear quiet whispers, and he feels a tug on his hand. Pezzy groans, but doesn't roll over.
Another tug, and Pezzy snaps his head over, coming face to face with a small child.
Pezzy’s squinting, trying to see if he recognizes the child (it's not his nephew, or Droid's niece, so who's kid is this? Did they kidnap a child?)
Pezzy’s too hungover to try and process this, so he rolls back over and starts snoring again.
…
Thirty minutes later, he's awoken by a thump hitting him in the chest. A pillow.
“Pezzy. Get the fuck up. We have an issue.”
Pezzy wrinkles his nose as Droid's serious tone, turning over and jumping at the sight.
Droid looks tired as well, but he's holding the same kid from earlier on his hip. Pezzy notices that the kid's shirt is way too long on him, and he's biting on his fingers anxiously. The kid has black curly hair and darker skin.
Pezzy rubs his eyes, as he realises there's apparently a second child, their hand loosely grasping at Droid's sleep pants.
The other kid is older and more on the skinnier side, with slightly lighter skin then the other's, but this one was poking his tongue out at Pezzy with a sneer. This kid was a troublemaker, he could tell. This kid would have bullied him in primary school.
Pezzy already dislikes this kid.
“What? What? I'm up…” Pezzy groans, as he replies to Droid, rubbing his eyes, hoping the kids would vanish. “What did we do last night? Why did we kidnap someone's kids? What the f- fish… What the fish…” he curses, censoring himself.
Droid just lets out a disgruntled groan, as the older kid stomps forward, poking his finger towards Pezzy, looking annoyed.
“Fuck you Pezzy. I didn't think you were this fucking dumb.” The kid sneers, his voice too high pitched for Pezzy to really take him seriously. He has to stop himself from laughing.
“Chill kid, I have a hangover, and also, I don't think you should be using words like that… What would your mommy think….?” Pezzy grumbled, rolling his eyes.
The kid stomped his feet in front of him, his hands balling into fists as he puffed his cheeks up, whipping around and yelling; “DROID!” in a whiny voice.
What a baby…
Droid just sighed, repositioning the other kid on his hip as he shook his head. “Yes….? What do you want me to do?”
Pezzy’s brain was working very slowly, but he looked at the kid, wearing Puffer's shirt, the other kid wearing Grizzy’s shirt, and the lack of the two other people being here.
“Tell Pezzy to stop being such a dumb, fucking bitch!” the kid complained.
Pezzy snorted, before leaning forward into a full bellied laugh, struggling to breathe. “Puffer? Is that you? Holy fucking shit! This is hilarious. I can't …”
The kid - definitely Puffer, whipped back around, glaring at Pezzy, trying to sound intimidating, and failing miserably with his voice all squeaky and odd. “What, Pezzy? This is not funny.” He growled, clenching his jaw.
Pezzy stood up on wobbly legs, using his hand to measure where Puffer reached roughly the middle of his chest. “Height check? Face it squirt, you gotta admit this is funny.” He snorted, teasing him, “You're barely 4 feet tall.”
“I-”
“What are you gonna do? Stand on a stool? Suck shit!” Pezzy sneered back, smirking at the kid.
“S-Shut UP! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!” Puffer screeches, his eyes welling up with tears as he falls to his knees, screaming. “FUCK!”
“Pezzy!” Droid scolds, setting Grizzy(?) down carefully on the couch, where Pezzy had slept overnight. Droid then carefully leaned down and pulled Puffer in for a hug at the child's height. The boy sniffled a bit, covering his face, embarrassed.
“Okay, whilst they have their memories intact, they're still kids first and foremost! You don't go making fun of kids, bro! That's like basic shit!” Droid snapped, picking Puffer up and rubbing his back, gently shushing him, calming him.
Pezzy does actually feel slightly bad for causing that type of reaction, but he just doesn't really know what to say. Instead he turns to kid Grizzy, who just looks tired, and already over this bullshit.
“Uh… How are you going there… Grizzy?” Pezzy asks awkwardly, Grizzy blinking slowly as his small brain processes everything.
“Dis stupid…” he whines quietly, frowning a bit to focus, trying to move his hands in front of himself. “I… cannnnd… Talk vewy well…” he mumbled, using his chubby toddler hands to almost paw at his mouth, getting frustrated.
Pezzy does a sympathetic grimace, imagining the hell of wanting to yell and scream and swear, but suddenly his body has regressed too far back…. “That fucking- uh I mean, that really sucks buddy.”
Grizzy nods, sighing. “Also walllking um.. bad…. No fun.” he says bluntly, crossing his arms, pouting angrily.
Pezzy has to not laugh, because he doesn't think Grizzy would appreciate that right now. He settles for a cough.
Droid gently places a now red faced Puffer down next to Grizzy, sighing, before gesturing to Pezzy.
Pezzy realises Droid wants him to apologise, so he scratches the back of his head awkwardly. “Sorry Puffer… I didn't mean to like… be too mean or anything… I was just bantering… I'll go easy on you for now..”
Puffer looks away, scoffing a bit. “S’okay… This shit kinda stoopid anyway.” he mumbled, pouting as well.
Pezzy locked eyes with Droid, seeking explanation. Droid sighed, stretching out a bit.
“I know about as much as you do! I woke up only a few minutes ago to Grizzy pulling on my arm, asking for help to open the bathroom door. I did it, and then Puffer asked me why I grew so much in my sleep, and it hit me like a train… Puffer, Grizzy, what do you know?”
Grizzy shrugged, not moving to speak. Puffer sighed, knowing he would need to be the one to explain.
“Went to sleep… Uh.. My skin. My skin was so freaking itchy. Like burning a bit. It was so bad.”
Grizzy nodded in agreement, pouting a little. “it hurted.” he sniffled a little, wiping his eyes.
Puffer looked back over. “It umm… After that, the room went all spinny. Like when you're falling from a big height…. Then Uh..” he placed the hands on the side of his head, trying to focus, struggling because his glasses were slipping off again. “For me, it's like… all the air in my body got um… forced out, and I just got weally small. I had to umm.. like suck in the um air again, and I was dis size. Small.”
“Was that the same for you Grizzy?” Droid asked, Grizzy nodding.
“Mmmm. Whoosh… no more airya… bye bye.” he mumbled to himself.
Pezzy looked back at Droid, worry on his face. “What do we do?”
Droid pinched his forehead, sighing. “I don't fucking know man! Obviously, we gotta cancel all recording sessions they're in, but not with a reason so crazy that people try to come over and help.”
Pezzy frowned, thinking out loud. “Okay.. Which of you has more upcoming shit?”
Puffer held up 7 fingers, Grizzy just held up two.
Pezzy sighed, pulling out his phone, going into group chats. “I'll tell everyone Puffer has a family emergency, as for Grizzy, we can say he got sick for a while, and he wants one of us to do the sessions for him.”
Puffer perked up at the mention of his friends. “Oooh. Can we say hi to Smitty and all of dem? During a session, pwease???”
Pezzy and Droid both looked at him like he was insane. “Dude. Do you think that's a smart idea?”
Puffer nodded, clapping his hands. “Just say I'm his nephew or something. Let me scare them a little. Please??”
Pezzy sighed, already over this. “Only Smitty… maybe Matt or John, and only AFTER the session is over. But… you're getting a bit ahead of yourself now.”
Droid hummed as he studied the smaller men.. “Dude… We have to get you guys clothes too… You can't fucking wear large ass shirts everywhere. One fucking… nosy-ass karen and Pezzy and i are going to jail for child abuse.”
“UGH… I do not wanna go to the mall…” Pezzy whined, knowing they would need to go to the mall…
“Car trip!” Puffer cheered, clapping his hands happily.
Pezzy and Droid coughed awkwardly. “So… remember how Droid and I… how we both only have bikes?” Pezzy reminded Puffer, who froze.
Puffer's eyes narrowed. “W-wait. No…. NO…..”
“Your house is closer.” Droid said with a shrug.
Puffer stomped his tiny foot again, clearly angry.. “Fuck. Noooo…. Okay… Fine.”
“Grizzy might need a booster seat or something actually… He's a bit short....” Droid mumbled to himself, walking away to the storage room. “I think my aunt left one around here, last time she was over here.”
Grizzy deflated, crossing his arms. “Poo.” he mumbled sadly, clearly upset at the news.
Pezzy’s head was already spinning.
=====
The lie they went with was: “Oh, yeah, these kids? Family emergency, and they got left with us, but they spilled food all over their outfits, so we lent them some of our clothes, and ran to grab a couple spares.”
It was partly true. They were both wearing some of Pezzy’s old shirts, some clothes his chat had gifted him in a smaller size as a joke, somehow being small enough to not slip down too much on their smaller bodies.
Pezzy and Droid slapped dark glasses on, to reduce the risk of them being spotted, and they reluctantly decided to use Puffer and Grizzy’s real names in the store, just to avoid suspicion, despite it feeling weird.
Droid carried Grizzy around, the younger quickly getting tired from walking, Pezzy was stuck holding Puffer’s hand, guiding him around the store.
“You would look so cute in this, Chris.” Pezzy snickered, pointing out some overalls. Puffer stopped moving, and Pezzy turned around to see the filthiest glare on the kids face. Puffer gestured for Pezzy to lean close as his little voice whispered;
“If you even try something like that Pezzy. I will go to security, and tell them that you hit me evewy night. Okay?” he said, Pezzy backing up and nodding at the threat.
“Chill lil bro… Okay, I was thinking, they got some of the branded stuff over here, let's get ya some pokemon shirts… That's harmless enough right?.”
“Oh! Pokemon?” Puffer's eyes lit up, as Pezzy sighed in relief.
Puffer managed to find a couple shirts he would be able to tolerate, along with some shorts, socks, underwear and a cheap pair of sneakers, in case they needed to go out again. Pezzy sighed, putting all the bits and pieces in the cart. He was already over it all.
They wandered around looking for the other duo when he saw Puffer pause in front of some plushies.
Pezzy was about to tease him again, but he remembered Droid's words from earlier, and choosing to be kind this time, he kneeled next to where Puffer was looking at the large plushies.
“When I was actually wittle, I wasn't allowed stuffies. Momma used to say that was money we could spend on.. on food or something..” Puffer's wistful voice mumbled, as he stroked the Pikachu’s fur, the yellow mouse closest to him.
“Did you want to get one?” Pezzy asked gently, no teasing in his voice.
Puffer froze, pulling his hand back as if he'd been burned. “I'm not actually seven, Pezzy. I.. I don't need one.”
Pezzy just chuckled lightly, a softer voice explaining. “That's not what I asked you though. I didn't ask if you needed one, I asked if you wanted one… Hmmm.. What do they have over- Look!”
Pezzy reached into the display of plushies, pulling out a rounded one. A Qwilfish.
“Look, Chris! It's a Qwilfish! A pufferfish pokemon!” Pezzy said happily, passing it to Puffer, whose eyes went wide as he grabbed it.
“Wow….” he mumbled, holding it with both hands, turning it around.
Pezzy smiled as Puffer gently stroked the Qwilfish, reaching back into the display and pulling out a Teddiursa plush too.
“Look, we've got one for Nelly too. Then it's fair.” he explained.
Puffer just nodded, holding the plush to his chest. Pezzy smiled, before bending and lifting Puffer up to sit in the child seat in the cart. (Puffer had protested loudly earlier.)
“Okay, let's find papa Droid and get the fuck out of here.” Pezzy grumbled, looking around.
Puffer snorted at that, while playing with the plush.
“What?” Pezzy asks, tired.
“If Droid is the papa… then are you da Mama…?” Puffer giggled, covering his mouth.
Pezzy's eyes narrowed, ready to retort back, but he kept it in, looking at how happy Puffer was with his little Qwilfish plushie and his oversized glasses.
“None of that… Now keep your eyes peeled for them.”
…
They find Droid, who's got his own cart nearby, Grizzy fast asleep in the child seat. Droid's busy chatting to some lady with her own kid, and it makes Pezzy feel something funny in his chest.
“Who's dat fucking bitch?” Puffer said quietly, Pezzy shushing him quickly.
“Chris! You can't be saying that stuff in public!” he hissed, making Puffer roll his eyes as he changed it up.
“Oh sorry… Who's that fishing dog?” he grumbles, glaring at Pezzy who shakes his head.
Pezzy catches Droid's eye, and Droid quickly waves goodbye to her, dashing over to them.
“Who was dat fucking bitch?” Puffer asks again bluntly, making Droid's eyes widen as he looks around.
“Language!” he says, clicking his fingers toward the smaller hispanic. “I just met her… she said my kid was cute… I didn't have the heart to correct her… We got talking, and she gave me her number! I got that pathetic, single dad rizz!”
Pezzy and Puffer both stared at him as Grizzy woke up, yawning and stretching.
“Aww fudge… I'm still hewer…like dis…” he scowled, crossing his arms, obviously annoyed. He started kicking his feet back and forth, tapping his hand on the cart.
“Okay… Let's get out of here before Chris gets us into trouble or something.” Pezzy suggested, Droid nodding in agreement at the statement.
They get through the checkout without any fuss, Pezzy shooting a look as he scans the multiple pokemon card packs Puffer chucked in the trolley, the child whistling innocently.
They've almost made it back to the car when Grizzy starts whining a little, squirming in the cart. He looks at Droid, who's pushing it, complaining.
“‘Mm hungwee…” he says, making Puffer pause as he thinks.
“Me too! Can we get McDonalds?” he says, flapping his hands in excitement.
Pezzy groaned, shaking his head, thinking about the nightmare drive through would be as he continues pushing the cart with Puffer in it. “We have McDonalds at home.”
“No we dont!!!” a whine replied, Pezzy about to retort, when he realises it was Droid who had complained that time.
“Dude? We can just order it in, remember? Holy…. Is that okay guys?” he grumbles, stopping the cart next to Puffer’s car.
“Yay!” Grizzy cheered, clapping his hands happily in excitement.
“Yay! Mama Pezzy letting us get food!” Puffer giggled, making Droid snort. Pezzy shoots the child a glare as he helps him out of the booster seat. Luckily Puffer just stands next to the trolley, chatting quietly to Puffer, allowing Pezzy to lock in and finish up.
Pezzy sighed, putting the stuff in the trunk, returning the trolley, before sitting back in the driver's seat. He listened to Droid clip Grizzy into the booster seat, (Grizzy protesting) as he pressed his head gently to the steering wheel, in a sort of tired frustration.
Grizzy and Puffer weren't even that much trouble! Why does he feel so fucking drained though?
It's probably just because he doesn't know how to act around kids… even if they're his de-aged friends… He's too impersonal and just… out of touch with them.
He didn't sign up for this.
“-he called you Papa Droid! So he's now Mama Pezzy!” Puffer's giggling comes from the back seat, as Grizzy and Droid join in.
“If you keep laughing, I'm going to drive us all into a tree on the highway.” Pezzy threatened, shooting them all a glare, only half joking.
“Sorry… It's just… ‘Mama Pez’. It suits you though… You've always been such a nurturing figure to like… your bike… your friends… even chat sometimes.” Droid replied, making Pezzy roll his eyes, annoyed already. He checked behind the cat before reversing out, shooting a side eye to Droid.
“One more word and you're in the back seat with the kids Droid. Shut.”
=====
At least the food order went easily enough. Pezzy let Droid handle it, while he went to ‘have a shower’.
In all actuality, he just stood under the water, staring at the wall blankly, until he heard someone knock on the door, announcing the food was there.
Grizzy didn't even bother with cutlery after trying to hold a fork steady. He had to take a few deep breaths, before calming down enough to eat.
Pezzy had to admit it was slightly funny watching a toddler try to calm down, and not throw an angry fit.
No, the problem came later, around bedtime.
They found out later that night that trying to get Puffer to go to bed at a reasonable hour for his new body was a battle in itself.
Puffer was currently yawning, his eyes drooping like crazy, but he insisted that he was staying up, because he's not actually a child, he's a 28 year old man.
Grizzy was already out like a light, the 3 and a half year old’s face buried in the Teddiursa plush, snuggled up in the guest room. He'd sleepily muttered; “Night Mama… Night papa…” before drifting off. Pezzy would deny his heart melting at that, until the day he died.
Puffer however was a lot more difficult. He insisted that it was only 8pm at the moment, and that he could stay up until ‘like midnight’. It seemed he was set on dying on this hill, a filthy look being shot at Pezzy, who was quickly losing his temper.
“You can't tell me what to do! I am legally 28! I can drink and drive! Even do both if I wanted to!!” he glared, stomping his leg at Pezzy, who was almost on the verge of frustrated tears, already done with this shit.
It's been a long day and kids stress him out. He knows, deep down, that this is Puffer, one of his best friends! The other part of his brain however, is still set on this being someone else's whiny, snivelling brat of a child, and he's getting angry. Unfortunately as Puffer was about to find out, Pezzy is still hungover, and he's getting more stressed and worried-
Puffer throws a pillow at Pezzy and that's enough to get Pezzy to snap, letting all his emotions out accidentally, catching the child off guard.
“FINE! STAY UP! I DON'T FUCKING CARE! I'M NOT YOUR FUCKING MOM, PUFFER! DO WHAT YOU WANT, I'M OVER IT! Fuck…” Pezzy snaps, a couple tears leaking out, as he covers his face, muffling a frustrated squeal.
Droid pokes his head around the corner, horror slowly morphing on to his face, watching to see how it played out.
Pezzy sniffles to himself, before he then hears a stuttering intake of breath. He looks up and sees Puffer, his lip wobbling and tears slowly dribbling down his cheeks.
Shit. He went too far…
Pezzy feels bad again…Worse than before.
He really sucks at this. Going closer, he kneels in front of Puffer sighing, voice a lot quieter now as he apologizes.
“I'm sorry… I shouldn't have yelled… I just… I don't know what to do… I don't know how to treat kids… I'm sorry Puffling….” he whispers, wrapping his arms around a now crying Puffer, who's trembling as he explains.
“‘M scared.” Puffer admits in a quiet voice, face hidden in Pezzy’s shoulder. “What if I don't turn back? What if I like… lose my memowies? What if I get stuck as a kid, and you and Droid have to raise me? I never see my friends again….? I'm trying to act normal… but it's so…hard…. Everything is so hard for me… I get weally emotional all the time, and it makes me act stupidly. I'm sowwy Pezzy… I'm sowwy…” he sniffles, words slurring as he begins to sound more and more like a seven year old. Pezzy’s taken aback by how young his friend really is at the moment.
Pezzy gently strokes Puffer on the back, letting him cry it all out, thinking of what to say, how to soothe his worries.
“I… Puffer..” Pezzy says quietly, holding him gently. “Look…. I don't think you're going to forget anything, because I feel like that would have been the first thing to go in this type of situation … but.. Droid and I are some of your best friends. We're going to be here for you, no matter how long it takes, okay?” he admits, making Puffer relax a little, knowing they're both going to be there for him.
“Okay…”
Droid finally walks over, kneeling next to Puffer, hugging him as well. “Pezzy’s right little dude. You're stuck with us for now, whether you like it or not. We're going to do our best to look after you, because we know that you'd do the same.”
Pezzy raises an eyebrow at Droid. “That's remarkably wise for you…” he jokes, getting a giggle out of Puffer at Droid's offended look.
“I can be wise when I want to be!” Droid protests, pulling back and crossing his arms.
“Sure you can, pa…I mean Droid… Sure you can.” Puffer yawns, correcting himself as he rubs his eyes under his glasses.
Pezzy smiled down at him, looking at his friend in the eyes, before gently lifting his too-big glasses off of his face. “If it's easier for you to cope by like…pretending to be or acting like a kid right now, then you can just… be a kid, man… I'm not, and I’m sure that Droid's not either… Like, we're not expecting you to act like the 28 year old Puffer while you're physically 7 years old. That's gotta be rough, emotionally, hormonally and physically. You're safe here. You can indulge your younger side a little bit more while you're stuck like this… No one here is gonna judge you.” Pezzy mumbles, reaching over and passing the Qwilfish plush back to Puffer, as Droid wraps an arm around Pezzy and Puffer too.
Puffer pulls back from the group hug after a few more moments, grabbing the fish and hugging it close to his chest. Pezzy gently strokes his hair, smiling softly as Puffer’s eyes seem to almost get younger, letting his walls down a little more.
“Okay, I just wanted to come in and let you guys know I'm gonna be in a recording session for the next few hours, I'll try and keep it down though.” Droid says, ruffling Puffer’s hair. “See ya later, honey. I'm off to work, look after the kids for me.” Droid jokes, blowing a kiss to Pezzy, who shakes his head as the other walks to his office. Pezzy then turns back to the child next to him.
“Want to sleep next to me in my bed? I'm kinda tired too, and I'll be there in case something happens and you need help.” Pezzy asks, catching Puffer off guard.
Puffer froze up, before deflating almost instantly, slowly nodding. “Yes pwease… Thank you… Ma- *cough* Pezzy…. I meant Pezzy.”
Pezzy pops in to say goodnight to Droid, who's just getting started with the session, explaining that he's going to sleep early as well, Puffer just waiting outside the door. Droid nods in response to Pezzy’s well wishes, waving back as he wishes Pezzy a good night's sleep.
Pezzy then takes Puffer's small hand and leads him back to his bedroom. He sees one of the bags of clothes from earlier, quickly laying out the pajamas they got for Puffer. Then, he goes into his adjoining bathroom to change, waiting for the all clear from Puffer before he leaves the room.
Then he helps Puffer up and into the bed, laying him carefully on the other side to himself, Quilly the Qwilfish tucked in safely next to him.
“Good night.” he mumbles to Puffer.
“I want a bedtime story.” Puffer giggles, Pezzy slowly turning and glaring at him, before he realises Puffer's joking.
“I swear to god-”
======
Pezzy blinks a couple times, studying the living room area, and then looks around. Puffer’s gone. He swears he only turned around for one second, to grab Grizzy a cup of juice.. (a plastic cup, because Grizzy’s little hands are apparently very shaky now… Something they all got a scare from the first time..)
“Where the fuck-? Griz… did you see where your idiot brother went?” Pezzy asks, groaning as he turns back to the smaller child, who shrugs, but also has a shit eating grin planted on his face.
“Dunno…” Grizzy says, sipping more of his juice casually, holding the cup with both hands.
Pezzy narrows his eyes at the toddler, popping his hip out. “Grizzy-bear. Where is Puffer?”
Grizzy hummed, before kicking his feet on the chair he was sitting on. “Give Gwizzy a cookie, and he may tells you.”
Pezzy groans, taking the empty cup from the child, before turning around to grab a cookie, not wanting to play these games. He holds it just out of reach as Grizzy tries to swipe it.
“Spill.” Pezzy deadpans.
Grizzy pretends to think, before reaching for the cookie. “He went out da front! He said not to tell you though!”
“Son of a bitch!” Pezzy swears, quickly passing the treat to Grizzy, running to the front door, exiting his house.
Looking around, he narrows his eyes, looking for the child. It doesn't take long to spot him, he's walking along the footpath nearby.
Pezzy runs over to him, Puffer turning around, eyes widening in horror, (obviously not expecting Pezzy to notice that quickly.)
Puffer takes off on his little kid legs, making Pezzy's mood somehow get even worse.
“Chris! Where are you running off to, alone!” He yells, running after the kid.
As he runs, he hears Puffer swear, the kid mostly focused on running away and not tripping.
Pezzy easily catches up to him, despite being crazy out of shape… Maybe he should be going to the gym with Droid and Grizzy after all this is over?
Puffer curses as Pezzy’s hands wrap around him, lifting him off the ground.
“Let me go! Mama! I'm an adult, I can go home if I wanna!” He squeals, thrashing around in Pezzy’s grip.
Pezzy glares at the seven year old, tired of this already. “Yeah, no. You could have just asked Droid, or myself to drive you! Instead, you decided to give me a HEART ATTACK, running off by yourself! What were you thinking? What if you got kidnapped! You might be 28 years old, but you are not fighting against some creep who's larger than you! How do you think we would feel, if we never saw you again!” He snapped, voice raised as Puffer slowly stopped thrashing in his arms.
Puffer’s eyes well up as he looks at the ground guiltily. “I.. I just wanted to go home… I wanted to sleep in my own bed… and this to have all been just a bad dweam..” he sniffles, hand coming up to rub at his eye.
Pezzy sighs, letting the kids feet touch the ground again. He kneels down, looking at Puffer.
“Puffling…. If you wanted to do that, you just had to say so. If you're going outside, you need an adult to be with you… and no, Grizzy doesn't count as an adult right now! We don't want you getting hurt or worse, stolen, just while you're… prey sized.” Pezzy says, as Puffer reluctantly nodded.
“O-okay… I'm sorry… Mama…” he mumbles, Pezzy not bothering with the name, because he can see Puffer actually feels regret for his behaviour.
He hugs the boy for a second, before standing back up, taking his hand. “Did you still want to go back to your house? I can come along with you, if you want?”
Puffer slowly shakes his head. “No… I think I feel safer being near you and Dada… I mean Droid right now…” he mumbles, yawning a little.
Pezzy sighs, as they begin to walk back to his house. When Puffer comes back in the front door, he's immediately tackled by Grizzy, who was laying in wait.
“Tol’ you it wouldn't work-” Grizzy mumbles, as Puffer rolls his eyes.
“Shutup…” he grumbles in response.
“Don't be rude to your brother, Puffling.” Pezzy replies automatically, freezing at the words, shocked at how natural it felt to respond with.
“Sorry Mama…” they both reply, as Pezzy shakes his head.
“I'm not the mom!” He groans, as the kids both giggle.
“Who wants to play Mario party?” Droid calls out, walking out from his office, having just finished another recording session, none the wiser.
“Meeee!” Both Puffer and Grizzy squeal, running over to him, jumping up and down.
Pezzy looks over at him, eye twitching a little, as Droid jolts at the dead expression. “What? What happened here?”
“UGH… I'll tell you later…” he groans, following the kids.
“Mama is maddddd….” Puffer giggles, as Droid snorts. When Pezzy glares at him, he tries to cover it with a cough at least.
======
Pezzy can't believe he let Puffer talk him into this. Why did Puffer somehow have puppy dog eyes now? He just turned the charm on and Pezzy’s resolve broke so fucking easily.
Honestly, he'd just been happy that the boy had come to him, asking politely for once in his life, if Pezzy would; ‘please come supervise him at the playground?’
Pezzy had frowned in confusion, as Puffer had looked at the ground, shyly explaining that he'd thought about it the previous day, but wanted to wait until Pezzy was free to take him. Pezzy had softened at the admittance, feeling slight pride at the fact Puffer was seemingly learning.
Pezzy had hesitated, before Puffer had literally turned on the charm, and before he knew it, he was walking along the footpath, hand in hand with a very chatty Puffer, talking about the pokemon cards he'd pulled just that morning.
They're now currently at a playground, (because Puffer claimed he used to be ‘goated’ at the monkey bars and the climbing walls,) and Pezzy’s sitting on a bench, watching his formerly-28-year-old friend throw a tantrum at the base of the climbing wall.
Puffer had slipped off the wall, yet again, and was currently stomping on the ground, flapping his arms as he grumbled to himself.
“SHIT!” Puffer yelled as he went to try again.
Pezzy sighs, as he hears a parent nearby complain about how Puffer was reacting.
“Who lets their child behave like that in public… absolutely disgusting.” she sneers, talking to another lady.
“He's just having an autism-fueled meltdown, woman… chill out..” he muttered to himself, not confident enough to say anything yet.
Pezzy's cheeks burn warm, as he silently prays Puffer will chill out and relax. He hopes that Puffer succeeds, or quits… Either one works.
Puffer does get the psychic message, managing to chill out rather quickly, as he instead runs over to the swing set upon his next mistake. He jumps on one of the swings, and Pezzy watches him swing back and forth. Over and over and-
Pezzy looks away to quickly reply to a check-up text from Droid, and then he hears loud… almost familiar crying, making him put the phone away and jump up.
Puffer's now on the ground, holding his knee in shock, and some other kid is brushing his hands off, looking smug.
Pezzy doesn't even hesitate, jogging over to Puffer, checking for injuries.
“What happened, are you okay?” He asks, wincing at the sight of the nasty scrape on Puffer’s knee. “Yikes…”
Puffer's eyes are filled with tears as he wipes his face, moving his glasses as he explains what happened. “This fucking… asshole, demon pushed me off the swing! Fuck you bitch!” He spits at the actual child, whose eyes widen in horror at the language that Puffer’s using.
“Mommy? This kid is being mean to me! He's using those bad words!” He wails, and the bitchy mother from before storms over, eyes locking onto Pezzy as she tries making him feel bad.
“What the heck is going on here?” She asks, as Pezzy just sighs in frustration, knowing mentally how this would probably pan out. She seemed like a bitch, and he couldn't keep the disdain out of his voice as he explained.
“Your kid? Yeah. He pushed mine off of the swings, and mine was apparently rather upset by that, because he's now injured.”
The mother studies the scene, shaking her head quickly, eyes narrowing as she sneers at Pezzy. “My little Jason is an angel, he wouldn't do something like that. Your kid probably fell off himself, or something.”
Puffer glares at the lady, lashing out in pain. “Okay bitch, just say you're fucking blind. Your son is an evil piece of shit!” He scowls, making the mother's eyes widen in shock, her pulling out her phone to try and record them.
“What the hell type of language are you teaching that boy? I oughta call cps right now!” She squawked, as Pezzy groaned in frustration, trying to look away from the camera, not needing to go viral from this.
Twitch chat would not let him weasel his way out of this situation.
Pezzy checks Puffer’s face, making sure his glasses are okay as he replies to the woman, not looking back at her.
“Quite frankly ma'am, your son did push my kid off. Maybe he's not as much of a ‘perfect angel’ as you think he is.”
“How dare you-” she gasps.
“Come on buddy, let's go… They're too stupid to know what's right and wrong” Pezzy says, helping Puffer up, carefully reaching over to steady him when he wobbles on his feet.
They're walking away, when the kid out of nowhere decides the best thing he should do is commit an act of violence. So he throws a rock at Puffer, and Pezzy whips around, eyes blazing.
How convenient that the woman has stopped trying to film, not wanting to catch her perfect angel in the act of being a cretin.
Pezzy stares the child and mother down, fire in his eyes. “I'll fucking square up with a 9 year old. I'll fucking do it. I don't care… You don't just hurt my kid. ” He growls, rolling his sleeves up, about to storm over and slap the kid silly. Puffer is the one who saves Pezzy from getting arrested, (or cancelled), however.
“Ma-Max… My knee really, weally hurts… Can we fix dat…pwease..” Puffer says quietly, making Pezzy pause, his hard gaze faltering as he turns to the child.
“Oh… yeah.. let me help you..” Pezzy picks up Puffer, before beginning the walk back home.
It's not long before they reach it, Pezzy balancing Puffer on his hip as he unlocks the door, moving the child to sit on the kitchen counter.
“Okay… Where did I leave it?” He mumbles, looking around, before ducking into the bathroom cabinet.
He grabs the first aid kit from the drawers, walking back to where Puffer’s waiting, a frown on his face. “This might hurt a little bit… Sorry Puffling…” Pezzy mumbles, before he gently sanitizes the graze on his knee, before placing a band-aid on the area.
Puffer winces at the sting, before relaxing at the feeling of it being covered up, running his fingers over the texture of the covering. “Thank you…” he says quietly.
“No, thank you. You got me the fuck out of there before I threw hands with some stupid parent…. Or worse, their bratty kids and ended up getting cancelled or arrested.” Pezzy grumbles, driving them home.
====
“Your little family is so cute! When did you decide to adopt together? Was it hard?” The lady at the fairgrounds asks as they buy their fair tickets.
Pezzy gawks in shock, taken off guard by the innocent question, as Grizzy decides to be the little shit of the day, pointing at Droid.
“Papa stole me from my momma! We ran acwoss da country! I miss her!” he says earnestly, making the lady look over, slightly scared of the two men.
Pezzy groans, explaining quickly to the concerned stranger. “These kids? While they are related to my friend here, and they're his nephew and younger brother, only. We did not buy them or steal them. I'm just helping him look after them. Nelson, would you stop saying that to people, please?”
“Sowwy, Uncy Max.” Grizzy says, giving them all big sad looking eyes, as Puffer shakes his head.
“Hurry up, Jaime said we could get ice cream… We better, or I'm telling Mama when we get back that you were mean to me.” He pouts, really trying to sell the story that Pezzy’s claiming is the truth.
The lady quickly relaxes after Puffer and Grizzy both behave like normal children, and she's waving them through shortly after.
“Dude. You almost got me arrested, Griz… That's cold.” Droid grumbles, shaking his head at the giggling toddler.
“I just wanna know. Why did I even agree to this? Why did I think that a day out with two evil children was a fun way to spend my Friday?” Pezzy grumbles, as Puffer pokes his tongue out, looking considerably more happy than the older man.
“You agreed that Grizzy could pick something to do, and he picked the shitty fair! So suck it up, bozo.” Puffer smirks.
Pezzy groans, looking over at his other friend.
Droid's gone full dad mode today, with the backpack filled with snacks, a first aid kit, water bottles and various other things in case of emergency. Pezzy had seriously had to talk him out of buying some of those backpacks with leads, reminding him that it was Puffer and Grizzy, not actually some random 7 year old and almost 4 year old, and they probably wouldn't find it as funny as Droid.
Pezzy’s gone for more of his usual style of outfit, despite currently wearing Grizzy as a backpack, the younger insisting that he wanted to be carried around. Both the adults are currently wearing hats and dark glasses though, and praying they don't get spotted by any fans, or worse, any youtubers.
“I wanna ride on all of the rides!” Puffer says excitedly, making Pezzy raise an eyebrow in response. Puffer notices, immediately deflating. “What? So I'm not allowed to ride the rides now? This is fucking bullshit…” he grumbled, crossing his arms.
“If the ride looks safe enough, you can go on it. I think I saw a video of a child being flung from some of these types of rides.. We don't want that happening to you, Puffling.” Droid says, patting Puffer's hair, making him scowl.
“Okay, thanks for that, papa. Can we move then, and actually look around now?”
The group then moves around, browsing the various fair stalls, vendors and rides.
Droid reluctantly lets Puffer ride on the child roller coaster, the one that moves in a simple loop. Seeing that it requires adult supervision, Droid gets dragged along too. Grizzy said it would probably make him dizzy, so Pezzy watches as Droid rides along with Puffer, both of them surprisingly loving it.
Grizzy makes a noise, getting Pezzy’s attention, as he points at a sign with big pleading eyes, jumping up and down.
“Petting zoo… Is that where you wanna look next?” Pezzy asks, receiving an affirmative humming noise as Grizzy smiles. “Could be fun, I guess… Maybe I can feed Puffer to an alligator or something…”
Grizzy side-eyes his caretaker, taking a small step away from him, as Pezzy reaches over to grab his hand again. “Don't even think about running, Grizzy-bear. I'm only joking.”
Droid and Puffer finish up, and then Grizzy’s jumping around, dragging them all along to the petting zoo area.
Pezzy and Droid stay back a little, watching as the two children run around to touch everything they can.
There's a couple different areas, some typical animals like chickens and goats, but also some less typical animals. Grizzy squeals in childish delight as he pets a happy looking tortoise, and Puffer is beaming as he cuddles up against the fluffiest dog that Pezzy has ever seen in his life.
Droid and him both take a picture of Puffer with the dog, Grizzy with the tortoise, plus the two of them next to various other animals. Pezzy kinda gets why parents do this type of thing now, as he looks back at the photos, setting one to his phone wallpaper homescreen. He shows Droid, who makes a cooing noise, and then they look around at the real world, worry creeping into Pezzy as he sees only Puffer nearby..
Grizzy is gone.
“Um… Puffling… Where's your lil brother at?” Pezzy asks, making Puffer pause, as he tries to think, looking back at them.
“I dunno.. he was over there before.” Puffer says, pointing towards the area with the baby lambs. “I don't.. see him though…”
Pezzy and Droid both head over to the area, looking around for the youngest, not seeing any sight of him.
“Shit, shit… Where is he?” Droid mutters, already getting frantic. “What if he's hurt? Or someone kidnapped him, or-”
Pezzy placed a hand on his shoulder, also feeling a little shaky, but trying to calm Droid down. “Hey, it's okay… Just… Relax. We both know that Grizzy wouldn't wander off.. just like that.. He's also 25 years old… He wouldn't go far. Just take a deep breath…. And let it go…” he soothes, as Puffer watches the two of them worriedly.
“Okay.. Okay… You're right…” Droid mumbles, making Pezzy smile a little.
“Are you guys gonna kiss?” Puffer asks bluntly, forgetting to filter that thought from speaking, completely ruining the moment.
“What the-” Droid looks over, Pezzy’s cheeks lighting up in embarrassment.
Puffer giggles awkwardly, scuffing his shoes on the ground. “Sorry… I was just kidding!”
Unfortunately the joke doesn't help ease Pezzy’s rapidly building anxiety. He starts to cry a little, and then it's Droid comforting him.
“Oh my god… Droid… I really fucking suck at being a parent… *sniff* I… I can't do this… What if I never-” His words slurring off into something indistinguishable, as he starts to cry even more.
Puffer watches as Droid hugs Pezzy tighter, speaking to him more quietly.
Puffer feels kinda bad about causing Pezzy this much stress. The other guy's obviously struggling, trying to care for him and Grizzy, and it's gotta be taking a toll on him.
Puffer doesn't like seeing any of his friends cry, especially not one that he's come to appreciate in a motherly way.
Maybe he could help? He's always been good at picking up where Grizzy would be in the games they play.
Shooting a look over at the two men, who are both starting to cry a bit now, Puffer makes up his mind.
Puffer darts away, his little feet slapping on the concrete as he dashes here and there, looking around frantically for his younger friend.
After only a few minutes of searching, he spots him, safe and uninjured. Grizzy has his hands pressed up against glass, his chubby cheeks almost flat against the plexiglass barrier, watching various small baby birds run around in their own small habitat. Some are gathered right in front of him, picking at bits of seed, and his eyes are just locked on to the fluffy critters.
“Nelly!” Puffer chirps out, running over and hugging him close. He pulls away, before questioning the younger. “Why did you go and leave? You made Mama and Papa kinda… freak out….” He admits, voice trailing off.
Grizzy then turns to Puffer, looking guilty after hearing that. “Oh… m'bad… Where are dey at?”
Puffer carefully takes Grizzy’s hand, holding on firmly as he starts walking back towards where he last saw the adults.
….
By the time they realise Puffer’s gone too, Pezzy’s on the verge of hysterics. He nearly starts wailing like a child in the hallway.
Droid spots them both first, pulling away from the older and running over to them, Pezzy following close behind.
“Nelson!” Droid scolds, making Grizzy look even more sheepish. “Where the hell have you even been?”
Grizzy looks at the ground, before apologising as he tries to explain. “Oh… sowwy… I just…” he points at the birds again. “I like the birdies….”
Pezzy immediately scoops him back up, fluffing his hair as he speaks to him. “You got distracted.. it's okay… Just next time, grab one of our hands, okay? Remember, you're easily like… child napping size…” he grumbles.
Droid then turns to Puffer, pulling him into a hug too. “Thanks Puff, for finding him… We both had a little freak out.”
Puffer blushes, finally embarrassed with the attention on him. “It's… it's nothing…” he mumbles.
Pezzy sets Grizzy down, taking his hand. “Now, you show me what you were looking at… I need to know now..”
Grizzy happily leads them back to the area with the birds, Droid letting Puffer ride on his own shoulders.
=====
Later that night, Pezzy sits next to Droid on the couch with a sigh.
“I don't know how much longer I can do this…” Pezzy admits, rubbing his hands. “I suck at parenting.. I'm not cut out for this shit.”
Droid looks over, a fond smile on his face as he tilts his head. “I think you're doing a pretty good job. I mean, both of them are alive, right?”
Pezzy chuckles, but it's flat and hollow. “I guess… It's just weird for me.. You do it so well though..”
Droid's cheeks flush, as he looks away. “R-really? I'm just trying to copy how my family does it… Thank you though.”
Pezzy nods, shuffling over slightly, to gently lean his head on Droid's shoulder. He sighs, the feeling of one of his friends still being normal being very grounding for him.
Droid doesn't comment on Pezzy moving over, instead, he just wraps an arm around Pezzy, pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“What was that for?” Pezzy’s sleepy voice asked.
Droid chuckled, shaking his head. “Because I can? I don't know… I just wanted you to know that I do care about you..” he mumbled, shying away.
Pezzy smiled, kissing Droid on the cheek, pulling away. “I care about you too.”
====
Pezzy sighs, stretching a little. The recording session had gone well, and now he's just lingering in the discord call, double checking if anyone's going to need some of his footage. Yumi and Eli have already dipped, so it's just Smitty, John and Matt left in the call with him.
Smitty and John are flirting with each other, Smitty's practically giggling like a teenage girl at what John's saying, as Matt carefully checks the footage.
“Mmm… it's all looking okay…. I-,” Matt stops talking, seeing Pezzy’s door open and then a small child sneak inside.
Pezzy doesn't seem to notice the intruder, that is, until Puffer scares him. “Boo!”
Pezzy shrieks like a girl, throwing and unplugging his headphones, making everything start playing on the speakers. John and Smitty stop talking, too busy trying to take in the sight of Pezzy trying to calm himself down.
Droid pops his head in casually, to their shock. “That little shit… I turned around for one second and he was fucking gone!! What the fuck- Oh… Hi…” he cuts himself off, seeing that Pezzy’s camera is on, and his friends are staring, bug eyed at the child.
“When you said you guys were gonna like… keep living together, I didn't realise one of y'all was pregnant…” John snorts, making Pezzy blush, as he turns the volume up, letting the others hear them speak.
“Why is there… child..?” Matt asks, squinting at the kid. “Who child? How child?” He mumbles, “Nah, I'm going back to the first question. Why is there a child in your office?”
“Why do you look so dumb?” Puffer responds, snarky as all hell, making Smitty choke on his water.
“Who's kid is that, damn???” he chuckles, practically wheezing for breath.
Little Puffer is apparently out for blood, with an evil thought coming to him as he says. “I'm his kid! This is my Mama, Pezzy! And over there? That's Papa Droid!”
Matt and John's jaws dropped, Smitty turning his camera on, just to join in on the shocked looks.
“I am not the-” Pezzy groans, placing his hands on his face, screaming into it.
“Where… um… where you guys go? I lonely…”
Pezzy’s eyes widen, as his online friends see the door move again, Grizzy poking his head inside, freezing at the scene.
“Uh oh. Dis bad…” is all he says, freezing in place like he's been caught stealing or something.
“So…. Did you get them on discount? Buy one get a second one free? Brave, I gotta say,” John snickers, as Matt squints at the second child, studying him.
Smitty's shaking his head in something akin to shock. “Why didn't you tell us you guys were… like… together?”
Pezzy’s eyes bug out at that, and Droid turns away to pick up Grizzy, hiding his blush in the child. “Holy shit…”
“We're not together!” Pezzy protests, as Puffer giggles next to him, an evil grin on his face.
“You guys literally have two whole ass children!! What, you platonically adopted kids?? That's not a thing!” John yells, as Pezzy tries to think of a response to that, failing miserably. “So I…”
Puffer turns to Pezzy, a twinkle in his eye as he shakes Pezzy’s arm. “I wanna play on the pc now! Move over, bitch! Hurry up or I'll go live again.. Good luck explaining this to twitter..”
Pezzy rolls his eyes at Puffer. “You shouldn't be speaking to people like that…” he groans, hands once again muffling his face.
Matt snorts, catching their attention as he speaks. “Pezzy. Tell me I'm insane. Tell me I'm actually like… hallucinating right now.”
Pezzy tilts his head in confusion, unsure of what exactly Matt's implying. “What?”
Matt leans his head on his hand, as he gestures to the screen with the other. “Okay. Tell me that's not just a weird, small version of Puffer, and the other ones not just an itty, bitty Grizzy. Tell me I'm delusional. That I'm crazy…”
“Matt, you're delusional! You’re crazy.” Smitty says, but Pezzy doesn't reply, just groaning again.
John's eyes flicker to the two kids, snorting at the suggestion. Then he does a double take, and a triple take. “Wait… what the f-fuck-?”
“Sup fuckers! Did you miss me?” Puffer says, massive evil grin, pushing Pezzy out the way as he smiles.
“How the- What the-?” Smitty replies, cutting off his swears, unsure if he should be cursing in front of kids.
“Ok. Prove it! Prove you're the real Puffer and Grizzy then.” John says, crossing his arms, waiting.
“Hmmm. I don't gotta prove shit to you guys! Hey Grizzy, did you wanna say hi to these idiots?” Puffer asks, turning to Grizzy. Then he turns back to the screen, sneering a little. “By the way… Smitty, you look like a moron with your jaw like that… No offence…”
“That's.. yeah… That's definitely Puffer alright…” Smitty winces, rubbing his neck awkwardly.
Droid then brings Grizzy over towards the camera, the smaller kid glaring at him, crossing his arms.
“Why would ya do dis….” he whines, pouting a little.
“Awww… Nelly you make such a cute child! Come say hi to Uncle Matt!” Matt coos, making Grizzy hide in Droid's shoulder. “Aww he's hiding…he's a little shy guy!”
“Noo… stop…” he complains, muffled into Droid's shoulder, hiding.
John eyes Puffer with a judgemental look. “Dude… You look like a fucking… kid menace… I feel sorry for uh what was that…? Papa Droid and Mama Pezzy…”
“I am not ‘Mama Pezzy’!” Pezzy weakly replies, everyone ignoring him.
“Oh yeah John? Do you really think so? You know what I think? I think you look like a little fucking bitch.. Um… Earnings check?” Puffer says, poking his tongue out as he giggles.
“Alright you little-”
“John.” Matt says firmly, warning him.
“Fuck, Puffer kinda got you there…” Smitty winces again. “He's going for the throat…. Maybe leave Auntie John alone, Puff.. We don't need him losing his shit right now.”
“How did you..? Ok.. I just gotta ask. Matt. How did you fucking know?” Droid asks, shocked by the Arab-Canadian's insight.
Matt shrugged, spinning on his chair as he absent-mindedly explained. “Mmm…so… Puffer's got the same glasses on, the attitude, plus with how he would work himself to death, even during a family emergency.. There's the fact that Grizzy and I text daily and I ain't heard from him in a week, and no one seems worried over there, even though he's ‘supposedly’ sick? The fact that little evil gremlin there… he's got that weird Puffer look in his eyes still… Take your pick I guess.”
Pezzy just nodded, mind just shocked as Puffer starts yapping away again.
He really needs a drink.
…..
“Okay, they're in bed…. Fucking hell… I never pictured myself being a dad, this fucking early in my life.” Droid whines, looking over at Pezzy, frowning. “Dude, are you fucking drinking?”
Pezzy giggles, offering Droid the bottle, already tipsy. “Yeah, you want some? It's the good stuff… I stole it from Puffer’s house. He owes me after that recording session stunt last fucking week… Sneaking into my office like some gremlin.”
Droid's eyes light up, knowing Puffer usually bought the good shit.
“It's been a long two weeks… Maybe I could have just a little bit..”
…
A few hours pass.
Droid whines into Pezzy’s mouth. He's in Pezzy’s lap, and the shorter man is kissing around his neck, up his chin and pecking him on the lips again. Pezzy likes how shy Droid was, when climbing into his lap, and now he's loving how pretty the blush is, spreading across Droid's skin. Painting a picture of his love, and displaying it on the younger man.
“God… you're so pretty like this, Droid…” Pezzy mumbles, making Droid whine in protest, an embarrassed giggle falling from his lips.
“Shut.. shit up! Ha-ha… shit up…” Droid giggles, aa he messes up his speech. He’s then leaning back in to kiss Pezzy again. “Mmm you taste nice… Why haven't we done this before?”
Pezzy pauses, trying his best to think, but his alcohol riddled brain doesn't seem to be working. “I don't know!” He slurs out, pecking Droid on the lips again.
After some time they pull away. Droid gets off of Pezzy, slumping against the couch.
“I'm tired…” he whines.
Pezzy laughs. “Then sleep, idiot… I'm gonna… I'm gonna go to sleep too.”
Droid nods. “Okay! B-bye! Pez- Pezzy!”
Pezzy stumbles his way to his bedroom, tripping onto his bed, lying almost face down on the mattress. He's going to get changed in a minute! He just… he needs to close his eyes for a second…
…
“What the fuck?”
Pezzy gets a real sense of deja vu when he wakes up, realising he's hungover again. He groans, eyes fluttering open, to see Puffer standing next to the bed, a confused look on his face as he shakes Pezzy.
“Pezzy, look! I dont know what the fuck happened, but… I've grown! Overnight! I'm like… ten now.. or something!” Puffer mumbles in shock, looking down at how short the shirt is now on him.
“Oh my fucking… Thank God! I can speak properly again!!!”
Pezzy looks towards the door, seeing a taller Grizzy, an evil looking smirk slowly appearing on his face.
“Finally! I don't need anyone's help to walk around anymore! I can fucking speak to everyone again! Yippie!” he cheers.
Puffer looks back at Pezzy, confusion evident on his face. “What did you guys do last night after we went to bed? It's obviously the key to fixing us!”
Pezzy groans as he tries to remember, drawing a blank. “I don't… I don't remember to be honest… a lot of drinking was involved.”
Grizzy scowled, crossing his arms in mock anger. “Are you saying we need to go shopping for clothes again? I'm gonna fucking kill someone!”
“Just grow more? I don't know what to say man… I'm not cut out for this life…” Pezzy grumbles into the pillow.
“Says you…” Puffer sneers back at him.
“Mhm..” Pezzy just nods, before passing out again.
…
Droid runs out and grabs a couple shirts and shorts of varying sizes for the now slightly bigger kids while Pezzy sleeps off his monster fucking hangover.
He finally emerges, a few hours later, quickly studying Puffer and Grizzy, noticing the changes
Puffer stood at about 3”9 before, probably being around 4’4 or 4’5 now. Grizzy went from about 3’2 to about Puffer's old height, maybe 3’10.
“So… When do you actually get tall? You still seem kinda short…” Pezzy asks casually, leaning down to sit next to Puffer.
Puffer sneers back at him, a fire in his eyes. “I don't know, Pezzy. When do you start getting taller? Hmm?”
Pezzy sighs, quickly backing up. “I was asking out of curiosity, not to be an asshole this time… I'm sorry for the confusion.”
Puffer immediately deflates as he gets humbled. “Oh… sorry… Ummm… I think I was a late bloomer… Oh fuck.. Do I have to go through puberty, again? Oh hell nah… Pezzy, do me a favor, go and talk to Droid, maybe he remembers what happened before..”
Pezzy goes to leave, but a hand grabs onto his leg. Grizzy’s looking at the ground, before nervously asking. “Can… Can I have a hug before you go? Please?”
Pezzy's expression softens, as he kneels down and gently pulls the younger into a hug. “Of course Griz… Anytime.”
He kisses the younger one on the forehead as he pulls away, smiling fondly as Grizzy giggles at the tickle. He looks back over to Puffer.
“You guys cool to just keep out of trouble while we figure this out? You can go play on my switch or something. Go play mario kart or something.”
Puffer nods, grabbing Grizzy’s hand as the two walk away to Pezzy’s room.
Now, for Pezzy to find Droid, who's been avoiding him all day so far…
…
“Oh hey, I found you!” Pezzy says happily, making Droid freeze a little bit.
“Oh… hey… Pezzy…” he says, sounding slightly guilty, which confuses Pezzy.
“Can we like.. sit and talk about something?” Pezzy gestures to the couch, and Droid nods, before moving slowly to the chair.
Pezzy takes a seat right next to Droid when the other drops a bombshell that takes him off guard.
“Puffer thinks that what we did last-” but Droid's voice makes him pause.
“So uh… I just wanted to say, um… About the kiss last night I-”
Pezzy’s head snaps towards him. “The fucking what?”
Droid looks confused. “What? I thought that's what you… wanted to talk about? Did you forget- oh…. Shit…Your memory sucks when you drink..”
Pezzy just blinks in shock. “I wanted to say that Puffer thinks what we did last night helped them change back… But I'd forgotten, so I wanted to ask you… and..”
The two sit there in silence for a little bit.
“I mean… It's easy enough to tell if it is connected…” Droid mumbles.
Pezzy looks confused. “What do you mean?”
Droid sighs, going red. “Do I… Do I really need to…”
Pezzy catches on. “Oh.. You mean…”
“Yeah… and we see what happens.”
They both sit in silence again.
“I mean… I would be down… Just to test it for our friends… that's all.” Pezzy clarifies, as Droid nods.
“Yeah… anything for… our friends.”
The two men shuffle closer together, fingers gently touching.
“How do we… Do this?” Pezzy mumbles, more to himself.
Droid gently cups his cheek, making him blush. He breathes in quickly, eyes fluttering closed as Droid gently presses his lips to Pezzy’s.
It's perfect.
Unfortunately, as soon as Pezzy realises how much he loves it, Droid pulls back away, looking in the other direction. He coughs, before speaking. “Um.. now we wait and see if they wake up taller tomorrow…”
Pezzy nods. “Uh… I suppose so…”
……
When Puffer bursts into his room the next day, around 5 feet tall, Pezzy’s heart sinks. He nods politely at the teenager, before pushing him out the room. He locks the door, before heading over to have a cry in his bed.
The universe wants to mock him, for his crush on Droid, so it's decided to make him unattainable in the worst way. If he kisses the man too many times, what? Are Grizzy and Puffer going to drop dead of old age? What?
Pezzy doesn't like being messed with. He's gone his whole life being bullied and picked on, and now it just feels like the universe wanted to throw one more cruel joke at him. He would have been fine, not knowing what Droid's lips felt like, but now he's addicted.
And even if Droid felt the same, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
He doesn't think he can deal with any of this today.
Pezzy just lays down and cries.
—----
Droid knocks on Pezzy’s door.
Well. It's weird that Puffer and Grizzy’s curse thing is solved by him and Pezzy kissing, but…
The idea isn't unpleasant to Droid, to say the least. This whole experience has really opened his eyes to how caring and kind Pezzy can be. There's been more than a few times that he's caught himself staring at the other, caring for their friends, and gone; ‘What if they were our kids…?’
Not to mention the other night. The memories are hazy, but he knows that he enjoyed making out with the smaller man. He knows he really enjoyed it.
Droid knows that he wouldn't be opposed to doing it enough times to fix his friends… and then maybe more so..
Maybe they could try going on a date, just the two of them, after all of this is sorted? Going out for a nice meal, and then let Pezzy talk about the lore for some video game…
He could listen to the other talk for hours.
Droid shook his head. That wasn't important right now! What's important is getting Puffer and Grizzy back to normal!
Pezzy finally opens the door, frowning when he sees Droid. “What?” he grumbles, voice coming out strained.
Droid pauses, worry flickering through him. “A-are you okay? Have you been crying?”
Pezzy flinches away from the hand he extends, making Droid pause. “Sorry, I-”
“I'm fine..” Pezzy mumbles, turning around.
Droid follows him into his room.
“So, uh… they grew overnight and-”
Pezzy lets out a hollow laugh. “How.. fucking wonderful.”
Droid's confused by how… hostile Pezzy seems to be acting right now. He tries to continue anyway. “So… I came to see if you wanted to… Do it again?”
“No.”
Droid's eyes widen, as Pezzy looks away.
“W-what? Why? Don't you want our friends to be back to normal? Don't you want that?”
Pezzy laughs, a loud, almost manic laugh. He turns to Droid, with a weird expression on his face. “Of course if fucking want my friends back? You think I LIKE having to parent people? NO! But the fact that some fucking stupid curse is linked to me and my fucking.. LOVE LIFE. Like that'd just fucking great! Just remind me of what I won't ever get to have! Show me what it's like, and then rip it away from me!”
Droid's confused. Is Pezzy talking about the parenthood experience? The fact that his ‘kids’ would be growing up so quickly? He doesn't really understand.
“I mean.. If you miss it that much, in the future you could-” Droid gets cut off by Pezzy whipping around, angry tears falling from his eyes.
“You don't fucking get it Droid! I can't move on like that! This is going to ruin me, and I just want a day to fucking wallow in my own shitty luck! The universe fucking hates me! Leave me alone… please…” his voice comes out close to a whisper at the end, as he turns away, crying again.
Droid wants to comfort him, hold him, but he does what Pezzy asks, first and foremost.
Closing the door, he sighs.
He doesn't understand why Pezzy is so sad about all of this changing again! Like… he could have a kid again, one day!
He sees Puffer watching him, as he sighs, moving away from Pezzy’s room as he gets cornered by the teenager.
“Did you do the thing?” Puffer asks, leaning in towards him.
Droid's cheeks flush a little. “No.”
Puffer glares at him. “Why not?”
Droid's mind flashes through the conversation he just had with Pezzy. He doesn't even know how to explain that to Puffer… and Grizzy, who's also apparently just been listening in.
“So.. We think we know how to fix it… and I want in, to see if Pezzy was like.. Um… Ready..” Droid explained. “He… He's having a hard time with it all… he said some things about it all being some cruel trick, and then he told me to leave. I didn't even get to ask him about it.”
Puffer groaned as he paced back and forth.
“So… let me get this straight. You think you know what it's linked to… but Pezzy’s tweaking out so bad that you don't want to even try it? So I'm stuck going through puberty for another day… Possibly multiple days, all because Pezzy’s having a sulk? This is buLLshiT-” Puffer's voice cracked, pitching up and down, as Droid and Grizzy tried not to lose it at the horrific noise.
“Umm… It's just.. really complicated… I think he's scared to lose the bond he had with you guys during this.” Droid explained, Puffer just groaned at that.
“Of course he's having some weird emotional moment… Dude… my brain sees him as like… my second mom now… That's gonna be weird as hell if someone ever implies we are flirting in a recording session after this. I'll probably vomit, and people will think I'm homophobic or something. How will I say, ‘nah, that man legit cared for me when I was small. He held me through nightmares and shit, don't make it weird!’ People will think I'm losing it!”
Grizzy nodded. “I agree.. It's even worse for me I think, because I went even younger than you… All I think when I see Droid or Pezzy now is just ‘uppies’. I want them to hold me and tuck me into bed, but I'm also a 23 year old man, so why should I fucking need that…” he grumbled, pacing around.
Puffer sighed. “Like, hey YouTube, here's the stuffed Pokemon that my momma figure brought me and it unironically made me a better person mentally, because I never received much kindness growing up and-” Puffer cut himself off, looking away.
Droid walked over, gently pulling Puffer into a hug. “It's okay man. Let's just let Pezzy have a day to let it all out, and then I'll try talking to him tomorrow… Let's just relax for today.”
Puffer relaxed in Droid grip, nodding. “I'm gonna miss this…” he mumbled.
“Miss what?”
Puffer pulled away. “Next time, I'll probably be taller than you… I really shot up in my mid teens.”
Droid looked aghast. “Dude, that's like.. one and a half feet.”
Puffer just shrugged. “What can I say?”
Grizzy snorted. “Skinwalker…”
“Fuck you!”
……
Pezzy doesn't come out of his room much for the next few days. He knows Droid's asked them to give him space, but he also sees the way Puffer’s eyeing him, looking hurt and betrayed.
Puffer wants to go back to normal, and Pezzy’s too busy selfishly stalling it out, because of his dumb stupid feelings. He's such a bad friend.
He gets up, and knocks on Droid's door. “Come in!” Droid muffled voice says.
Pezzy sighs, walking in.
Droid turns to look at him, smiling when he realises it's Pezzy.
“Oh hey man! Nice to see you out! What can I do for you?”
Pezzy doesn't say anything, just walking over and placing a quick kiss on Droid's mouth. Droid goes bright red, as Pezzy looks at the floor.
“I'm sorry.. about my freakout a few days ago… That was a lot to deal with.. but I don't want Puffer and Grizzy to deal with this anymore, so I'm going to get this over with.” he explains, as Droid smiles.
“Yeah, that's the spirit Pezzy! Do it for them!” he cheers, as Pezzy smiles at his silly enthusiasm.
Pezzy perches on the end of his bed, listening to Droid talk about what he's working on, nodding occasionally.
….
Surprisingly, he's not woken up by Puffer the next morning.
Grizzy wakes him up, more gently this time, with a hug, gesturing to the cup of coffee he's brought Pezzy, and left on his bedside table. Pezzy laughs at the young teen, ruffling his hair, before he gets ready for the day.
He walks out his room, and he has to hold in his snort.
“Never knew you had an emo phase, Puffer.” He snickers, as the aforementioned teenager gives him the middle finger.
“Shut the fuck up, Pezzy.” He glares, his long fringe covering the side of his face. Pezzy’s eyes widen as Puffer stands up.
“Holy shit, you really did just shoot up overnight!” He gawks, looking at the 6’1 man in front of him.
Puffer sighs. “Yeah… It's why I'm so fucking… emo looking… It fucking hurt like hell last night. Like I was put on a stretching rack or something. I barely got any sleep.” He grumbles, as Pezzy looks at him with sympathy.
“Okay, at least your own stuff from home should fit you now.. Why don't you grab some of your clothes we brought over, and I'll run you a nice warm bath, in the master bathroom tub… I think the warm water should really help your joint pain, then you can go lie down, okay?”
Puffer looks surprised, before a small smile forms on his face. “Oh, really? You'd do that.. for me?”
Pezzy smiled. “Of course man.. anything for my-” he pauses, hesitating at the word ‘son’. “You're the first kid I've ever raised, you deserve it for all that suffering you've gone through.” He says, making a joke out of it.
Puffer rolls his eyes, pulling Pezzy into a hug. “You're not as bad as you think.” He whispers, making Pezzy scoff.
“Okay, you sap.. Go grab your stuff.”
…
Pezzy sighs into the gentle kiss later that day, Droid surprising him after dinner with it. It leaves him blushing, as he can't help but think they only have three kisses left.
…
The next day, Pezzy ambushes Droid. Droid's just gotten back from a meeting, when Pezy darts over and kisses him, making Droid sputter in shock.
“You snooze, you lose!” He laughs, running away.
He runs past an almost fully grown Puffer and a snoozing, 16 year old Grizzy.
“Something's up with them..” Puffer grumbled to himself, wanting to follow him, but also not wanting to disturb Grizzy, whose head was resting in his lap.
….
Droid kisses him goodnight the next day. Pezzy can't help but cry a little after he leaves the room.
One more left.
….
Pezzy wants to be selfish. He wants to save the last kiss… but.
He looks over at Grizzy and Puffer, his friends that he's raised over the past month. They're almost back to normal.
Puffer's missing the slight wrinkles he has when he laughs too much. Grizzy’s missing all the muscle mass that he's been so proudly working on. They're adults again, but they're still slightly younger.
Maybe they should just leave it like this for now? And then Droid could kiss Pezzy on his deathbed, when Pezzy dies of a broken heart soon…
Pezzy groans. He's being pathetic and selfish.
He should just get this over with.
…
Droid walks into Pezzy’s room, immediately noticing the vibe in the room is… off.
“One last one, and they're back to normal!” he says happily. Pezzy just nods.
“One more…” he mumbles quietly.
Droid nods at that. “You know, I would be down… to like… keep going… after this one?” he says, hoping Pezzy gets the hint.
Pezzy’s cheeks go red. “A-are you asking me out?”
Droid's cheeks also go red. “M-maybe?”
Pezzy's eyes fill with tears, as his hand comes to his mouth, muffling a sob.
Droid's a little concerned now. Pezzy shakes his head.
“I would like.. nothing more… than that,” Pezzy starts.
Droid smiles wide.
“But.”
Droid's expression drops.
“I can't.. how could I do that.. How could I sit here, and do that to my friends? Make them suffer, make them miserable.. all for the sake of my own happiness, I-” Pezzy cuts himself off.
He steps closer to Droid. Droid gently brushes a tear away from Pezzy’s face, making Pezzy sigh.
Pezzy leans in, and Droid tastes the slight salt on his lips, from Pezzy’s tears. Pezzy sniffs.
“I think I love you.. But I also love them… I can't do this to them.”
Droid feels his heart break, as Pezzy dashes out of the room.
“Pezzy, wait- I-”
He races after Pezzy, who flees out the front door, crying. Droid's also close to tears as he lets out a very loud sigh, heaving in a loud breath. He doesn't realise Grizzy saw the whole thing, until he speaks.
“Why's mom crying?” Grizzy asks casually, jolting as he realises he said it out loud. “I-I mean.. Is Pezzy okay?”
Droid sighs, running his hands through his hair, staring at where he last saw Pezzy. “I.. I don't know.. I…” he swallows. “You guys should be back to normal tomorrow. I… I'm going to bed...”
Puffer passes Droid in the hallway, walking out to question Grizzy.
“Why did Da- *cough* Droid… look so… upset?” He asks, as Grizzy shrugged.
“I don't know… Ma-*cough* Pezzy ran out of here, crying just a second ago… Apparently we'll be fixed tomorrow….?” Grizzy mumbles, as Puffer spaces out.
“I know I was joking… and like.. around 10 years old when I said it, but maybe they *did* have to like… makeout to age us back.. What if Pezzy caught feelings and he just got rejected? Maybe Droid feels guilty…” Puffer suggests, making Grizzy’s nose wrinkle.
“I don't wanna think about my parents making out, thanks… but… Why would that be linked to our stupid curse?”
Puffer shrugs, as he groans. “I don't fucking know! I don't know shit! This shouldn't have been possible in the first place!”
…
He's so stupid. Stupid, stupid Pezzy.
Catching feelings for his friend, just like in the past. But instead of being rejected, or them moving away, this time he's locked out of pursuing someone because of some bullshit magical curse.
It's not fair!
Pezzy sobs quietly, sitting under a tree close to the house. He's going to need to move out after this. He can't be near Droid, without thinking about holding him, kissing him, loving him anymore.
It all just hurts too much.
His kids- No. His friends will all be back to normal tomorrow. They won't need him anymore, and Droid can move on easily enough. Anyone would be lucky to have him. He needs to just stop being so selfish, and focus on the fact he's doing this for his friends, for his kids.
Pezzy’s finally ready to admit that he didn't mind being called the mom of the family, but it's not like it matters anymore. All this experience has brought him is pain. It has only shown him what he can never have ever again. What he'll never get to experience.
It's shown him what it's like to love Droid, and be loved by Droid, before ripping it away in some unobtainable loophole.
Pezzy stays out half the night, under a tree, mourning what could have been, and greeting the loss of his children.
Maybe he's being overdramatic, but he wants to be a drama queen, for just a couple of hours.
=====
Puffer wakes up from the sound of the front door clicking shut. It seems Pezzy’s finally back.
He tries to go back to sleep, but he just tosses and turns for hours, before getting up to go piss.
When he's finished, he looks in the mirror and jumps.
He's not back to normal. He's shrunk again. Not too much, but enough for Puffer to notice. He's probably 19, if he had to guess.
He needs to talk to Pezzy, to find out what the two of them were doing to ‘fix’ them, because something's obviously gone wrong.
_____
“It didn't work.”
Pezzy’s eyes dart over to where Puffer's standing, confusion slowly washing its way over his features.
“What? But we- I…” He sputtered, unable to form a solid thought.
Puffer sits at the end of Pezzy’s bed. “Dude. What exactly were you and Droid doing to fix us? Because obviously, it's not the real solution. Whatever happened last night, has sent me back to being a teenager again.”
Pezzy freezes up at that. “You're joking, right?” He mumbles, studying the taller man.
“I'm not. I'm an inch or two shorter than yesterday.”
Pezzy sighs, sitting up. “If I explain what we… If… Just. Can you promise not to laugh at me? I'm still upset about it all.”
Puffer nods as Pezzy sighs. “Okay. The first time it happened, I didn't remember… But Droid did. Apparently, we kissed, and then you guys grew.”
“I fucking knew it…” Puffer grumbled, as Pezzy looked over, confused.
“What was that?”
“Nothing… So?”
“Um yeah… So… we decided to repeat it, just to see what would happen… and you guys aged up again… So we came to the conclusion that.. they were.. linked.” Pezzy’s voice trailed off.
“Okay… So you're saying that you guys… did the thing last night, and it didn't work.”
Pezzy nodded.
“That doesn't explain why you ran out of the house like someone had killed your pet or something.” Puffer reminds Pezzy.
Pezzy looked to the side, eyes welling up with slight tears. “I..”
Puffer wrapped an arm around him, making Pezzy shiver a little.
“I… I have a crush on Droid.” Pezzy whispered.
Puffer sighed. “I mean… I figured as much… Before you freak out, I don't think anyone else noticed… I was just.. really observing you. But, I don't see why that's a bad thing? Like.. For you both to kiss in the first place, means he feels something as well.”
“No.. The problem is that now I know what I'm missing out on. How am I supposed to get over him now?” Pezzy mumbled.
Puffer blinked. “I'm not following… Why would you need to get over him? Why wouldn't you just… date him?”
Pezzy’s eyes flashed as he turned back to Puffer. “I don't know? Why would I want to date my friend, but then every time I kiss him, I age my friends up! You and Grizzy would be fucking dead after a week. So no. I can't date him. Now please… Leave me alone.”
Puffer nodded, walking out of Pezzy’s room, closing the door and sighing.
….
*knock knock*
“Who is it?”
“Pezzy… It's me. I think.. I think we had a misunderstanding last night.”
Pezzy flinches at Droid's voice. He sighs. “Fine. Come in.”
Droid comes into Pezzy’s room, standing near the edge of the bed.
“Puffer told me… What you told him…” Droid says, making Pezzy's eyes fill with tears, yet again.
“I-”
“I just wanted to speak first, is that okay?”
Pezzy nods.
Droid then speaks. “When I suggested we enter a relationship, I wasn't under the impression that you thought we would be… killing our kids… I never… The thought never occurred to me that you might view it that way.”
Pezzy chuckles, low and flat. “We kiss, they age up. We can't be together.”
“Except, as Puffer pointed out, it's not that.”
Pezzy looks over, in shock. “What?”
Droid shuffles around. “Well. We kissed last night, and they aged back down… So it's obviously not that.”
Oh.
Pezzy hadn't even thought of that.
Droid grimaces. “He… suggested that maybe it was linked to… our emotions and feelings.”
Pezzy pauses, thinking it over. “So this whole time, we're getting closer and closer, and-”
Droid nods. “Puffer actually worded it right. He said it would probably be some bullshit, ‘love is the key needed to break the curse’ type shit… What if he's right?”
Pezzy’s mind is racing. “That would mean… Last night, when I pushed you away… Our….”
“Love?”
“Yeah.. that… the curse felt it, and that's why they got younger again.”
“Exactly!” Droid smiles, sitting on the bed next to Pezzy.
Pezzy’s brain processes everything. “Wait.. You love me?”
Droid blushes, looking away. “Uh, well shit… Yeah.. I guess I do.. Everything I said last night, I meant it.”
Pezzy’s face is just shocked. “And… And you really wanna go on a date?”
Droid nods.
Pezzy blinks. “I can kiss you, and it won't kill my friends?”
Droid snorts. “Yes. You can. Anytime you want, actually. I'm always down.”
Pezzy reaches for Droid, pressing his lips to the younger man. He pulls away, hands going behind Droid's neck. “Fuck… I love you too… Let's start a family together.”
Droid's eyes widened. “What the? We only just got together!”
Pezzy blinks. “Oh shit… I realise… No no! I meant like… Let's get a cat or a dog or something… Not another child… Not yet anyway.”
Droid laughs, wiping a tear from his eye. “Holy shit, I was totally prepared to go with it, if that's what you really wanted. Fuck man, I'm whipped.”
Pezzy laughs, pecking Droid on the cheek.
*bang bang bang*
They look over at the door, as Grizzy and Puffer storm inside the room.
“Guys, I'm back to normal- Wow. What's..” Grizzy pauses, taking in the sight that Pezzy’s almost in Droid's lap, and they're both holding each other.
“Just… normal parent stuff.” Droid replies, not even moving.
Puffer's wearing a smug grin. “I was fucking right! Hahahaha! I told you so! You both are gay as fuck!!”
Pezzy rolls his eyes. “Okqy, thanks captain obvious… Now, as much as I love you guys, now you're adults again, you really need to start paying rent if you're staying here still.
Grizzy shakes his head. “Oh hell no bro. Don't get me wrong, love you to bits Ma and Pa, but I think it's time I moved out again… Maybe tomorrow though… I feel a little tired.”
Puffer nods. “You cool if we crash another night?”
Pezzy nods. “Anything for my two favourite children…” He grumbles in fake annoyance.
“Yall better not be too loud up here…” Puffer says, side-eyeeing them.
Droid leans away from Pezzy. “Oh? For your sake, you better not tease us too much… Wouldn't want us to call it quits and then you're stuck back at 7 years old.” He teased, making Puffer pale.
Grizzy looks nervous. “You guys… you guys don't think that would actually happen though… right?”
“Bro, who fucking knows! How did it happen in the first place! I am not going to fight God over this shit!” Puffer grumbled, shaking his head.
“Mmm. That's a good boy. Now, you guys better go clean your room, and then we can order food in, for dinner.” Pezzy says, making everyone stare at him. “What?”
“I'm not saying it!” Puffer replied, putting his hands in the air.
Pezzy realised what he meant. “Okay… maybe I am the fucking mom! Whatever.”
……
“Hey Grizzy, how was your vacation?” Yumi asks, the next time he's recording.
“Oh.. crazy… You'd never believe the shit I did.”
“Bro got lost at a fucking fair.” Puffer deadpanned.
“What?”
“They had little baby ducks! Man! They were cute! Y'all just haters….”
….
“Hope your family is doing better, by the way.” Tyler says to Puffer.
Puffer chuckles. “Oh yeah.. My Mama yelled at me and made me cry a little, so I made her cry back… the usual..”
“What?”
…..
“Oh hey there Grizzy-bear!” Pezzy says, jumping in the call.
“Bro. They're already here, dawg!”
“Grizzy-bear?” Smitty teases, making Grizzy grumble.
“Only my Mama can call me that. You are not allowed.”
…..
“20 gifted if I romance with Droid's character in the game right now? I'm sorry chat, I'm not homophobic, but I'd rather saw off my own arms… Does Matt count for the gifted?” Puffer chuckles, holding in the disgusted look.
“My lips are ready for you Puffer!” Matt laughs out.
“Damn bro… Rejected… Pezzy, come date me!”
“I dunno man… What are you offering me?”
Droid scoffed. “Fucking gold diggers.”
“Mom and dad are fighting again..” Grizzy teased.
….
“Papa. Can we talk?”
“What's up, Puffling?”
“Sup. I'm still here by the way… nice nickname Puffer.” John snorts.
“Holy shit!” Droid jumps.
“Never repeat that to anyone, or I will go public with our group chat.”
….
“Would you be cool if the kids come over for dinner this weekend?”
Droid thought about it, nodding. “Yeah, that should be good.
Pezzy leaned into Droid's shoulder. “They really wanna meet Sly and Oso. They say they need to judge our new children.”
Droid laughs as he leans into Pezzy. “Of course… Of fucking course.”