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•.°.•
Quackity Island Private Highschool, the most esteemed high school of the state. Sought out for its successful students and high funding brought to it by its community. Every kind of student goes there, it’s an incredibly common place for transfer students to learn and grow in. Some say its diversity is its success, others say the administration is just strict enough to tame all kinds of people around the globe.
Enter Katie B, an esteemed shapeshifting-hybrid American girl known for her popularity and ability to get along with just any face in the crowd. She’s captain of the basketball team and a part of so many afterschool clubs that people's heads spin whenever they hear them all listed at once. Really, she’s both constantly busy and never doing anything all at once. Her family owns a bunch of businesses, but she swears modesty by it and definitely doesn’t adore the praise she gets for keeping up with all of them. Or, her father owns a bunch of businesses. Katie gets incredibly upset whenever someone mentions her mother.
One thing about her, though, is that she’s friends with everyone. Everyone. Ultimately meaning she isn’t anyone’s closest or dearest friend— held dear, for sure, but she belongs to nobody in particular. She trusts too easily and gets walked over; but she's Katie B. The, ‘you know that one girl,’ girl. For every token good person she’s acquainted with, there’re two people everyone hates that she happens to deeply cherish.
Enter Multi, (AKA Michał Rychlik) an infamous nerd known primarily for his sketchy science projects in the laboratory/science room. Most of his life is shrouded in an enigmatic cloud of mystery. Despite his initially threatening appearance, he can be a friendly ally to those who he considers his friends— and being originally from Poland, most of those he holds dear are also Polish. He has his nose dug in textbooks and other materials of the like most of the time. People often speculate that he’s an orphan given lack of known origin.. but it’s in the air. Multi leads an ambitious and highly obsessive outlook on whatever work he figures needs doing.
One thing about Multi is that his familiarity with people who’ve done very many others wrong is.. palpable. He often gets by with his threatening behavior and knack of giving people things they can’t handle themselves. Whatever he cooks up in the laboratory gets around like wildfire, and when people come to take it from him without permission, he doesn't feel guilty when they suffer the consequences. Even if everyone else points fingers at him. Another thing is; he hates greedy people.
Sunlight filters throughout the mostly blank, white colored house, and Multi shivers quietly as he pulls his thick sweater further over his arms. The house is always freezing. Walking down the hallway connecting the upstairs and downstairs, he hears the noise of a drawled out yawn, comically loud and effeminate.
“Katie.” Multi deadpans, watching the girl stretch drowsily across the couch like a cat. Which, pretty ironic considering she’s woken up a dog. Sleepovers at his house are pretty common these days— especially with Cucurucho, the principal, having taken him in. Katie seeks refuge in the wonderful subtlety of a house nobody knows about. “Is that my shirt?” He sighs, socked feet chilled against the marble floors as he walks over to the front of the couch.
Katie grumbles, ginger hair splayed across the cushions like rays of orange sunshine. “You’re wearing my sweats.” She replies with a grunt, pushing off of the armrest lethargically. Even despite getting more sleep than Multi’s entire family combined, she manages to always cry of exhaustion. “Don’t start this argument again, I always win.”
Rolling his eyes, he begrudgingly watches as the girl uses him as a propeller upwards so she can tiredly slink away into the kitchen. Multi’s shirt on her shoulders dips low enough he can see her collarbones, the hem just beneath her hipbones. Wearing each other's clothes is some sort of routine/ritual they’ve fallen into without a word. On the other hand, Katie’s sweats are a little tight on his waist, but they’re soft and slip just past his heels, dragging on the floor if he doesn’t care to pull them up. “How are you already kurwa hungry, Katie? You just woke up.” Multi mutters, not bothering to look at her as she navigates sleepily through his kitchen. If she feels gracious enough, she’ll probably make them both something she can easily microwave.
“I go to sleep hungry and I wake up starving.” She chirps, lively as ever. “Don’t judge. Girls can have an appetite, y’know, Multi, not that you're around very many.” -With a crane of her neck so she can look back at him with a wide, toothless smile.
Multi gives her a kiss of his teeth, lifting a hand just to flip her off. She smiles and goes back to sifting through his fridge.
“We have that.. ehh.. party today, yes?” Multi asks instead, wiping the leftover spit off of his lips with the back of his hand, leaning his hip against the counter and crossing his arms.
Katie bats a dismissive hand at him as she pours some premade coffee into an ugly green mug she’d plucked from the cabinet. “It’s not even a party. Aldo invited you to hang and you're forcing me to hangout with a bunch of boys.”
His face screws up, offended, embarrassed by the notion. “I am not forcing you, Katie! I asked if you wanted to go last night, and you said ‘duh.’” Multi mocks her voice as she chuckles and plucks a pink mug from the cabinet, pouring more coffee into it. As he’s complaining about the time they're going and strategizing a plan to evade the hang out completely, Katie is pouring and stirring more cold brew into the pink mug. “And Nacho will be here alone.”
“Mhm.” Katie hums, handing him the pink mug. Multi raises an eyebrow at her but takes it gratefully, pulling it to his lips and taking a long drink. “I know you like it hot, but that fucking machine doesn’t work properly, I swear.”
He shrugs wordlessly, not minding the cold coffee. Katie knows how to make it taste worth it. She takes his silence as acquiescence— smiling at his furrowed brow as he quietly enjoys the drink.
Drinking her own sugar bomb, Katie’s short, albeit fluffy tail thumps against the counter behind her as she gets lost in thought. It’s an interesting habit of hers. Whatever she must be thinking is clearly provoking, her blue eyes vacant yet full of an unmistakable light. And she’s been in her dog form for awhile now, Multi notes. Maybe a full day. While he's lost in his thoughts about her, she resumes to consciousness, eyes immediately flicking over to him. “Oh, hey, can you check something for me?” Katie asks, setting her mug down, one canine peeking over the slight pout of her bottom lip.
Multi ashamedly drops his gaze to the ground for noticing such a thing. “Eh.. yes. What is it?”
“Since.. my surgery,” she attempts, the words trailing and falling flat on a voice typically devoid of vulnerability, “agh. This is stupid, but I feel..” being verbally open seems to be an issue. As it always has been with Katie.
One of her hands tentatively reaches up to her own eye. The one afflicted by the surgery; removed and replaced with something artificial, and then the process repeated when they found that.. bug. All of the details had been blurry, seeing as even Katie herself has never really spoken about it aloud. And as requested by Katie herself, Cucurucho didn’t tell anyone about what went down during the procedure. For that matter, it isn’t exactly something someone mentions over coffee. Multi never pushed, and he won’t now, but there’s a clinical curiosity that blooms in his mind whenever it becomes topical. “It feels weird.” Katie mutters, gesturing with her hands, running her fingertips over her shut eyelid.
From his spot across the room, he can catch the raised scar on her eyelid, typically covered by the hoods of her eyes. Cucurucho had done wonders sewing her face back together. More than that, as well, apparently.
“Weird?” Multi prompts, adjusting his grip on his mug as he straightens his posture. He watches curiously as she nods slowly— looking off somewhere in the distance. Seems she always had that sort of faraway look in her eye. Even in the beginnings of her time at the highschool, a staple of hers, that sparkling, yet dull eye. Uncomfortably adjusting her weight from the balls of her feet and then her toes, Katie sighs. “I don’t know how to fucking explain it. You’re.. a doctor, right? Kinda?”
It’s a weighted question. Is she requesting an exam of some sort? Because that requires more preparation, more information than ‘weird.’
Before he can further try to understand, she speaks again. “Nevermind. It’s stupid.”
“No,” he says, or rather it’s his curiosity taking over. “It isn’t stupid, Katie.” And he doesn’t add any gentleness to his tone, doesn’t tiptoe around her carefully constructed walls. He doesn’t have to. It’s simply a fact; simple and as plain as it gets. “Tell me. Maybe we can talk to.. Cucurucho about this, yes?”
“Oh. Yeah, that sounds good. Someone licensed.” There’s a tilt to her voice, a tease of sorts. Multi rolls his eyes. After a moment of quiet, she adds, “I dunno. They changed nearly everything, and as grateful as I am.. It's weird as shit. Sometimes I don’t even register my own reflection as myself.” Katie elaborates, looking at the ground. All of it’s a shock to Multi.
Nearly everything, weird, possibly derealization…
Not any of their shared history has been of vulnerability, not in beginning nor present. Hearing Katie speak so openly of her own experiences is new. Not to mention this is certainly Multi’s first time hearing about it in detail. “Near everything?” He says softly, finessing some gentleness into his tone. Above all else, he wants her truth; her coverage on the matter. Because he could go ask Cucurucho or even search through her files.. get an exact answer. Just, he won’t, because Katie wouldn’t ever look at him the same.
And it’s something that isn’t worth losing, her gaze upon him.
Quietly, she nods her head again. “Yeah. I can’t tell if.. I’m.. still me, y’know? Ha-ha. Probably sounds dumb to you.” Katie laughs, the self deprecation something Multi doesn’t find himself appreciating. And so, bringing his mug along with him, he walks over to stand by Katie. Her eyes watch him carefully as he approaches, eyebrow raising.
Given their relative height distance, her being a couple of inches taller than he is, long legs, he has to crane his neck to look at her. It’s quiet for a heartbeat, and he isn’t sure why he's so warm all of sudden, but he reaches for her face. “No. It isn’t dumb, Katie.” Multi decides, firm albeit coaxing, “let me see. I’ll ask.. ehh.. Cucurucho about this later.” Katie blinks at him as he pulls her head closer, tilting it this way and that. A prompt examination. Her skin is soft beneath his touch, it feels as if he’s tainting each inch of it he holds.
Well, all he can really see is that she’s a bit disheveled from sleep. Aside from the scar on her left eye, he reels her in closer, nothing notable. “From what I can see, um.. nothing's changed. Unless you had any scars or moles before.” He says, as he’s still pressing his fingertips into her jaw, dipping right where her ear is introduced to her head. She’s quiet. Multi glances up at her, regrets doing so because of how close he’d gotten them, and her eyes are trained on his. “No. Uh.. not that I spent a lot of time counting, I guess.” Katie eventually blurts, remembering to answer from whatever trancelike state she’d been in.
“Okay. Nothing physical, then, I guess.” Multi concludes, his hand lingering right over her pulse for a moment before he steps back. Katie exhales when he does, like he’d been stealing all of the air in their proximity. He’s never seen her so quieted. Really, he expected a joke or tease, even an attempt to hug him.
“If you wanted to hold me, you shoulda said so.” Katie huffs, face retreated behind her mug.
Well, he knows Katie as well as he thought he did. “When Cucurucho examines you today, I’d like you to say the same thing to him.” He retorts, rolling his eyes and walking back over to where he’d left his mug. Even from there, he could hear Katie’s tail thumping against the counters. Huh. Katie laughs at his rebuttal, and then neither of them bothers to pick up after that.
They allow the silence to cover them like a blanket, resting easily atop their shoulders and becoming an accessible place of comfortability. Mornings like these are commonplace for the pair nowadays. Tucked away from society in the most gentlest and secretive manner possible.
And, eyes always falling towards one another, they don’t mind quiet— so long as it’s with one another.
.•°•.
°•.•°
Later on in the day, when they've met with their friends and taken their respective roles in everyday life, Multi’s mind drifts over to Katie.
Katie, tucked in the backseat of his car with Nacho as they drive to school.
Katie, who knew he wouldn’t eat unless prompted and then practically tossed a lunchbox at his head during lunch.
For Katie, Multi’s face as he glares at her after she throws him the lunchbox is priceless. His eventual smile he naively thinks she doesn’t notice that adorns his face as he opens it.
In class, she fusses over Ash being incompetent with his, hers, and Don’s group project. Or rather she just gets into a petty argument with him over the group slides. Ash focuses on the information, she focuses on making them look presentable. Don just does the research— the most vital part, without saying anything. Seems he’s always sweeping over the dust the other two unknowingly leave behind.
“Don, please, tell Ash that we cannot present an ugly slideshow!”
“Don, tell Katie that without organizing the information, we won’t have anything to present anyway!”
Don glances between the two, a sigh escaping his lips as he leans his head on one hand. Before he can pick anyone’s side, though, Ewroon pops up behind him.
Ash and Katie both look up at the red-panda with varying looks of discomfort. While Ash seems sorely unbothered, more surprised, Katie looks done with whatever Ewroon has to say before he even says it. Smiling anyway, Ewroon presses his palms onto Don’s desk and leans in. “Hello, friends!” Greets the Polish boy, fluffy tail swishing slowly behind him.
Wanting to smear the smug smile off of his face, Katie rolls her eyes and uses Ash’s distractedness to continue her decorating. “Hi.” Is what she settles with, acknowledgment in its lowest form.
Ash offers a kinder approach, his offhand appreciation for Ewroon, even despite their tangled history, very apparent. “Hi, Ewroon.” He says, waving a hand and then attempting to resume his focus on the project.
Ewroon smiles at Ash, and he starts spinning his wheel of chatter almost immediately at the given attention. This boy, the audacity, could talk anyone’s ear off. But of course he chooses work time to do so. And of course he chooses Ash as his victim, greedy little paws grasping at any and all energy he can take from the trio.
Especially Katie, who gives him no more of her mind than she already has in the past. A pretty penny of hers had been thrown in the fountain of Ewroon’s tapestry of lies; wishing for truth. And even if she dug in, wet as she kneeled in the water, she could never retrieve her penny. There’s far too many pennies already in there. Not even if Ewroon decided to coax her in with gentle words.
Well, he’s doing her some good. At least she can work at the project without Ash nagging her. Since Don is actually doing work, as well, they end up doing the entire project without Ash. Only his name on the first slide offers proof that he was ever even involved.
“Wow. Your slides are so.. Katie.” Ewroon comments over Ash’s shoulder, considering they're all pink and occasionally outlined in a different color to emphasize the topic. When Katie sends him a questioning look, he waves his hands in front of him in surrender. “In a good way!”
Ash doesn’t say anything about the fact they’d done it without him. Maybe he figures it doesn’t matter as long as they’re done.
Katie doesn’t really bother with what Ash thinks of her anymore, because she already knows it’s relatively low. Even if it’s good intentioned, she’s probably even weaker than she thinks in his eyes. Don, too, but at least he tells Katie straight up.
When the bell rings for the final time of the week, she makes a beeline for exit, tired of everything to do with school as a whole. School tires her out beyond what’s verbally comprehensible for even her own mind to handle. Which, when she wants someone to listen without really hearing it, or so she thinks, she goes to Multi. And today has particularly bothered her. Ewroon.. always lingering in the back of her mind like some sick obligation. Like he manages to be both unimportant and important to her very way of living at the same time. Despite the short amount of time they'd been together.. if one could even call it that, she knows the consistent stares she gets from Ewroon don’t mean nothing. They mean a certain commitment, one that isn’t healthy in the slightest, one to use her for all of what she’s worth.
And it really does get to her. Not because she knows what he’s doing, but because she knows that he knows.
Walking out of school, one hand gripping a strap of her backpack slung over her shoulder, she looks about.
Some random person, someone she doesn’t care for, a person she interacts with, and more people she won’t remember in five minutes.
Really Katie thinks she knows just about everyone in this school. Whether it be by characteristic or general knowledge on them, she’s great at faces. Not names, per se, but her sense of remembrance when it’s about a distinct eye color or even cheekbone is pretty great. For people. Otherwise, her memory is absolute shit.
It probably comes with being able to make friends so fast.
She ends up at the bus stop before she ever spots a familiar black-to-faded green hairstyle. Tips of his hair an almost nuclear green infringement, the roots pitch black to the rate only blue light ever seemed to pick up on it. It familiarizes her surroundings and she immediately puts a pep in her step as to get to him.
But as she’s approaching him, Multi, she notices he's speaking with someone else. Not usual of her to do, of course, she isn’t some obsessive friend who keeps track of everyone he's acquainted with. It’s his business entirely. This time, however, it’s Quackity. Someone she knows is important to Multi.
Also someone she, too, will have a conversation that never ends with.
Someone she probably couldn’t really.. compare to. Not in that strange sense where logic defies every common concept, anyway. Like she’s probably stayed over at Multi’s house more times than all three of them could put their fingers together and count on. But Quackity? It’s like he lives in the realm of Multi’s mind and doesn’t ask to pay to do so, and so Multi doesn’t make him. Meanwhile Katie knocks on the opening whenever she wants to so much as bother the guy.
Comparison is the absolute thief of joy, she realizes with a small start, looking around for anyone else she likes enough to speak with. Why does she even want to be closer to a guy she tells the details of a bad night out to? There isn’t any getting closer platonically with a guy like that. Bitterly biting her lip anyway, she decidedly heads towards the bus. Someone on there will be worth talking to. For sure.
Getting onto the bus, she scans the already sitting students as she hands the driver her money. Kid who won’t talk to her unless Batman-style tortured into doing so, kid she won’t talk to unless the aforementioned, random, (unknown enough she doesn’t have a name to put to their face) and.. Tina! With a smile and a prompt wave she walks on over to the other girl.
“Hey, Tina!” She greets, sitting in the open aisle-seat beside her. Tina’s wired headphone probably stunts her general sense of everything else around her, and so she jumps slightly.
Her eyes are just barely widened, lips pulling into an unsure smile. “Katie?” Tina tests, like she’s sure it’s just a figment of her imagination, Katie sitting there. “Hi. Hello!” She then waves back, plucking an earbud out the ear favoring Katie’s presence.
Nodding, Katie leans comfortably against the seat. “Hello! How’ve you been, girl?” She pokes. Emphasis on pokes, basically prods, because Tina, despite being a completely friendly and sweet girl, unfortunately does not actively trust her. Probably because she’s friends with someone Tina hates. Which is regrettable, sure, but Katie can’t please everyone and then some. “Haven’t seen you around in a while.” She crosses her legs.
Playing absentmindedly with the wire she took out of her ear, Tina chuckles softly. Of course Katie hasn’t said anything meant to be funny— but she’ll take someone's laugh like a jester if it means acceptance of her presence. “Yeah! Um.. I haven’t been in school for a couple of days. Pretty busy week for me.” Says the girl, meeting Katie’s eyes for a moment before her eyes drop back to her hands. “Just been trying to catch up with all the schoolwork and.. y’know.” Tina shrugs her shoulders, then she’s fixing her bangs already situated neatly on her forehead.
Watching her do all of this, Katie hums. “Oh! I didn’t realize you weren’t coming at all.. must be why the student council is so lame these days.” She offers a lazy smile, taking her backpack off so she can hold it in her lap instead. Tina grants her a little chuckle at her inquiry, and so she continues. They have a nice conversation. Idle chatter that can bounce between the two and not land completely awkwardly, something one can't achieve with everyone. Except maybe Katie. She’s not too humble to herself about her social skills. Almost all of it isn’t very notable until, somehow, someway, Multi is entangled within the carefully curated strings of a smooth web.
It all crumbles in the instant he's even insinuated about, Katie knows. “There are dangerous people, Katie. And I just.. I want you to be careful with who you trust.” Tina says, tone sincere. Of course she wants Katie to be careful. She also probably would like it if Katie went and dropped everyone she holds dear this instant. Nearly everyone wants that outcome for her these days. “I won’t say it’s not your choice on who to love or date.. it totally is, but if you’re dating someone everyone else hates, it’s a bit..?”
Dating? That makes Katie’s ears perk up, her tail’s flicking coming to a halt. “Dating?” She echoes her thoughts. Like Tomate? He’d been gone a couple of months now— is everyone really hung up on it still?
Her disregard of everything else she’d said gives Tina pause. “Yeah- um, you and Multi, right?”
What.
“What?”
They both stare at each other, bewildered in the other person's lack of understanding.
Katie and Multi? Dating? Katie wants to.. gag. She wants to personally disintegrate- Thanos snap, whoever put that thought into Tina’s head. Did people really think that of them? It sits in the air like a paperweight. And why is her heart racing?
Come to think of it, maybe it did come across that way to the naked eye. Katie spends so much of her spare time with Multi she’s sure if they.. did date— likethatwouldeverhappen— it wouldn’t change much at all. But still! “No! Wha- we are not dating. It is purely platonic.” She stammers out, realizing it’s been a moment too long for her words to have the effect they would’ve, had she answered sooner. “101% platonic.” Katie adds futilely, ignoring the involuntary thump of her tail against the seat. Her eyebrows furrow and she chews her lip, looking away from Tina.
Her charade gives Tina a subtle thrill, apparently. She’d probably tease Katie about it if they weren’t talking about.. well, Multi, of all the people. “Okay! Okay. Didn't mean to assume.” Tina innocently denies, waving her hands in a bout of surrender and then letting them relax on her thighs. “You guys are just always together so.. we thought you were, like, actually together.”
Katie pauses. “We? Tina, who the hell else thinks we’re dating!?” She leans in with a sharp whisper.
“Nobody, nobody..”
“Tina.”
“Really, it isn’t..”
“Tina..” she pleads.
Tina sighs. “Okay. The student council. Maybe more.”
“Oh my god.” Katie’s face is in her hands.
Tina winces. “Yeah.. uhm.. I can tell them you guys aren’t..?”
“No, then it looks like we are and im trying to cover it up.” The strawberry blonde tuts, running her hands down her cheeks. “I’ll have to tell them myself. Or- or make sure everyone just knows we’re totally, completely, platonic! Without question. Who would you say that.. knows?”
“Everyone, honestly.”
“Tina?”
“Uh- yes?”
“Kill me.”
°•.•°
As soon as Katie gets home, she bursts through the door with a new quest in her mind. Mission; make-everyone-aware-she-and-Multi-aren’t-dating is a go! Well, the name itself could definitely use some workshopping. Mission possible is what she plans on calling it. Cause there’s no way in hell she can fail it— especially when Multi and her are just friends.
Tomorrow, though. She has to get ready to go to Aldo’s. Multi’s picking her up in like ten minutes.
.•°•.
Multi, Roier, and Ewroon all get into Multi’s car. The passenger seat saved for Katie; specifically because she absolutely refuses to be in the backseat. Especially if it means she’ll have to sit next to Ewroon. Not that Multi told her he was coming. If he did, she wouldn’t want to go anymore. Or she’d insist on driving herself, which shouldn’t bother him.
But he’s perfectly capable of doing it. So..
Roier sighs, “Multi, man, I could just switch with Katie when we get there.” He complains— neglecting to buckle his seatbelt, glancing offhandedly at the boy to his right. With a roll of his eyes, Ewroon leans his head against his hand. “It is not that bad to sit with me, Roier.” Ewroon says, elbow propped up on his door.
Glancing at Multi pleadingly, Roier clasps his hands together. Multi rolls his eyes and starts the car. “Yes, Roier, you’ll be fine.” He hums, pulling out of his driveway. This isn’t really his car— it’s Cucurucho’s, but seeing as Multi is actually responsible about these kinds of things, he's allowed to take it now and then. Drivers licenses are overrated and if he’s really desperate; Katie somehow has hers, so.
“Why do you always pick up Katie, anyway?” Ewroon, the little shit, has to comment. Multi pauses, fingers thrumming against the wheel. “She has a car of her own, does she not?”
Roier leans back in his seat, either prepping for the worst or something else. But there’s an undeniable flicker of interest in his own eye that tells Multi he won’t be defending his friend's name. “Yes. She does.” Multi drawls, feeling cornered despite currently being in charge of both of the two people’s lives. “But it is just.. convenient. We are going to the same place, so I pick up Katie. Save her the.. un.. gas prices.”
Tail flicking mischievously against his lap, “yes. And that also explains why you two are always together? Y’know, people are.. getting the wrong idea.” Ewroon says. Multi can just hear the smile in his voice.
Roier pipes up, “yeah, amigo. Ewroon might be a kurwa liar, but he’s not wrong.”
Glaring at the road ahead, turning almost instinctively into Katie’s neighborhood, Multi exhales heavily. “No. It isn’t like that. We are 100% platonic, okay?” Why do people insist that whoever he's close with must be his romantic partner? Even with Quackity. He cannot comfort his friend without someone telling him he's in love with the guy. Which would be less annoying if it didn’t happen every time they interacted.
And with Katie.. he doesn’t know if it’s better or worse. People push about it less, he guesses, but it’s usually to avoid the confrontation with Katie rather than because they don’t want to be annoying or invasive. Just last week, Ewroon was chanting ‘kiss, kiss, kiss’ when Multi sat down to eat lunch with Quackity. Why must this boy be so predictably unpredictable?
“One-hundred percent platonic.. okay.” Ewroon snickers, leaning back in his seat with a slight creak. Which Multi immediately comments on, wanting to redirect the ugly head of attention someplace else, and then they break out into (mostly) friendly banter for the rest of the way there.
Katie’s house comes into view. In Multi’s mind, it somehow stands out. Like the brick and wood themselves are completely separate from the ones used on the rest of the block. Maybe it’s because he knows what’s inside of it. Maybe because he could stand to lose every other building in the neighborhood, but that one?
Her house has a beautiful apple tree in front of it, the one she used to climb atop of and cry when she’d scrape her knees. Then he’d go late to school because he stayed behind to bandage them. Back when scraped knees and broken promises were of the same weight— when ‘love’ meant something juvenile and sweet. Something impermanent but ripe; like the apples on the tree. Yeah, maybe back then, Multi loved Katie. But it’s different now. Difficult in every aspect. Love isn’t just a word, but a language Multi is sure he's not learned.
So, does he love Katie?
.. ah, it’s hard to say.
On cue, Katie bounces out the front door and saunters to the passenger seat like she expected nothing but for it to be empty. It is. Of course it is.
Ease settles in Multi’s entire body as Katie swings open the door.
“Hi, Multi!” She says, leaning down to poke her head inside as she’s getting in. When she spots Roier, she smiles. “Hello, Roier!”
Multi doesn’t have to look up to know that the immediate bout of silence as she gets in is because she spotted Ewroon. And probably wants to screw off his head for it. “Well, gentlemen, thank you for picking me up. I’d drive there myself, but the gas prices are insane.”
Ewroon snorts in the backseat at that.
Like clockwork, Ewroon and Katie manage to get into an argument as they drive. It never fails with those two; always falling in and out of love with each other. Really, Multi thinks they simply love to hate each other, and that's where that whole conundrum begins. And ends. On the same withered rope that's tethered to either one of their hearts.
If Ewroon wants to pick on anybody’s relationship with Katie he should think of himself.
Halfway through perhaps their fourth argument, Multi decidedly interjects. “Guys, come on. The car is too fucking small for you to be yelling like this.” He groans, glancing at Katie.
Something about her is different. It’s probably because of Ewroon. But her tail is folded into her stomach, ears tucked flat against her skull. Usually, she’s not that bothered by any of Ewroon’s taunting. Katie had told Multi before that she’s grown a strange resistance to his bullshit. Now, though, one might think she’s never experienced it before.
Ewroon chuckles underneath his breath, a sly hit at Katie, which she catches. “Tell him to stop being so fucking annoying, then.” She sends the red-panda hybrid a pointed look. Roier sits helplessly in the crossfire— his eyes flickering between the two while they'd been going back and forth. “Me? Annoying!? You are—“ begins Ewroon.
“Oh. It’s Ash.” He immediately deadpans, looking out his window.
Ash is walking with Tubbo and Don down the street, smiles plastered on their faces.
Well, it serves as some type of distraction. Multi isn’t at all upset by the redirection of his attention.
It’s only not so annoying until Ewroon rolls his window down and starts greeting them out loud. Katie slinks into her seat, both embarrassed and probably not wanting to be seen with Multi. Sighing heavily, Multi simply focuses on the road. Red lights take forever to change just as soon as he needs them to actually go faster. “Are you okay, Katie? You are.. very quiet.” He murmurs amidst the chaos, looking over at her.
Katie, arms folded around her stomach, expression sour. “No. I'm actually not okay. Why didn’t you tell me he was gonna come?”
“I didn’t know he was coming until he got into the car.” Multi sighs, feeling bad even despite it not being his fault. With Katie, it seems he's always trying to make amends. Shockingly, he doesn’t mind doing so at all. Katie makes an amused expression, one that speaks with volumes of annoyance rather than humor.
“Of course.” She scoffs, leaning against the door with her head propped on her hand like Ewroon had been, earlier. “Always somewhere he wasn’t fucking invited to.”
“What was that, Katie?” Ewroon, ever nosy.
Katie, probably tired of his shit. “Nothing! Just saying how glad I am that my bestie is here.”
“Aww, Katie..!”
“Yeahh.”
And with that, they're somehow back. Multi isn’t sure whether he’s confused or just used to their pushing and pulling. One thing, though, is he knows how much Katie really does dislike Ewroon. He knows she keeps up the whole ‘bestie’ thing with him because it’s convenient.
He wonders how much of their friendship is real.
Not hers and Ewroon’s.
The thought comes as a shock. Multi had never doubted their friendship— not even that summer when he truly despised Katie B for her selfish, greedy actions. But since then, when his phone rings and Katie’s name pops up, he’s sure that she’s one of the few people he trusts. So why does he want the closure of that feeling being reciprocated? Unlike himself, Katie openly acknowledges her trust that lies with Multi. All of the time. Never once has she lied unless it was necessary. That much is a stable point between the two of them.
Looking at Katie, her openly frustrated expression as she stares ahead, he knows she’s an open minded person.
Katie can lie, yeah, but she’s.. well, there’s no reason for her to lie to him. Right? Fingertips pressing into the wheel, Multi looks ahead again. Seeing her with Ewroon settles an unease in his gut. Probably because of how easy it seems to be for her to lie to him. Getting a closeup of just how agonizingly, similarly different the two manage to be is.. jarring, to say the least.
As Roier and Ewroon chatter in the backseat about some shit Multi can't be bothered to listen to, Katie looks over at him. Unlike Multi, she's unafraid of confrontation, always one to look at a problem and take it at only face value. In that sense, they're different. “Multi,” she mutters, an eyebrow raised. “Are you okay? You’re, like, all spaced out.”
Multi forces his grip around the wheel to loosen. “Yes, I’m okay.” He replies, because it’s true, he's perfectly fine. And his only problem is sitting in the passenger seat of his car.
Clearly, she doesn’t believe him. But Katie knows when to push and when not to push. Something seems to be itching at her mind as well. “Okay. Don't crash the car because you’re in your head.” She says, a smile at the corners of her mouth.
“I won’t, Katie.” He says, permitting the uptilt of her mouth to make his own do the same.
°•.•°
Arriving at Aldo’s house, Katie’s mind reels at the fucking sight of it. It’s humongous— and to put things lightly, three goddamn stories.
So much property surrounds it that it’s nearly one of those midwestern farm houses; where there’s just acres of land that they have to upkeep. Aldo’s ass does not work on his own garden, though, Katie knows that for certain.
“Is this the right place?” She asks everyone, looking at Multi and then back at the castle they've pulled up to. Roier chuckles and leans forward, palm on the center console. “Nope, that's Aldo’s house. We call it ‘is castle.” Katie looks at him as he speaks, huffing and nodding her head. ‘Castle’ is the right word.
Ewroon’s lips form an ‘o,’ “Crazy, right? Wow. It never gets less surprising.”
“Who the hell is this kids' parents? Fucking Elon Musk?” Katie grunts as she pushes open her car door, in an absolute rush to get inside of it. And people call her damn two-story house a mansion. It pales fully in comparison to the fairytale dream house she’s currently looking at. Multi laughs lowly at her comment, as does Roier and Ewroon. Only the one really makes a difference in how amusing she finds her own humor, though.
“Kurwa Bill Gates.” Multi snorts, patting his hands down his white jacket. “Clearly,” Katie grins, making a start for the building.
Ewroon manages to do anything but keep his distance. His presence is a damper on her mood, but Katie decides as long as she can drink his annoying face into a blur, it’ll be fine. All of the people here are her friends or friends of friends— so she can trust them not to do anything dumb.
Mostly. She, too, is at the end of her own pointed finger.
And she can’t have herself waking up with marker tattoos on her face of Zabka and other incriminating shit. Or be the one making that someone else’s fate.
“This feels like I’m trespassing.” She whispers conspiratorially, stopping at the doorstep with a childish amount of excitement. Katie isn’t really close with Aldo— he's been nice, but she knows nothing about him. Only that Multi and Roier think he’s cool. And that he’s fought half the school and always comes out on top.
So, scary dude, sure, but with a house this big; Katie is willing to fight him just to see the inside. What does someone even do with all that space?
Multi and Ewroon stop on either side of her as Roier says something in Spanish, looking dead in the eye of the Ring camera as he rings the doorbell. Really, she’s not close with Roier, either. But Multi says he helped him look for Katie the night she went missing. So, unbeknownst to her, she owes the guy one.
When Aldo finally opens the door, probably taking long because of the square feet he has to cover just to get the fucking front door, he’s smiling. Katie thinks he looks friendly enough.
“Hello!!” She immediately greets, smiling and waving a hand. Aldo smiles back, pleasantly surprised by the looks of it.
“Hola,” he chirps.
Multi pipes up, stepping just barely in front of her. “Aldo, you remember.. Katie, right? She’s my .. good friend.” He says, introducing her for no real reason, because Katie would willingly give this guy any ounce of information if it meant she could explore his house.
Also, Multi put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘friend.’
Not that it’s not true, they're just friends, but it’s strange. Katie’s never really heard him specify their relationship so.. eagerly. Huh. Why does that rub her the completely wrong way? It feels like dismissal and a slap to the mouth all at once. Like, why does it matter so much that they’re just friends?
Wait, why is she so bothered by it? Her mission is literally to ensure that everyone knows they’re.. just friends.
“Yes. That is my good friend.” Katie grins, taking Aldo’s hand as he offers his to shake hers. Multi looks at her with a slightly estranged look— but it fades completely before she can enjoy the subtlety of it.
Aldo nods awkwardly at their strange introductory remarks, stepping aside and inviting the company in. “Well, thank you two, best buddies, for coming.” He nods, letting everyone laugh it off.
Walking in, she nearly gasps at how spacious the place is. It looks like a palace— the stairways long and luxurious, the floor tiled and white marble. So.. pretty.
“What was that?” Aldo says, blinking at her.
Oh. Had she said that out loud?
“Your house is so fucking cool,” she says, grinning, spinning to look in every direction. Aldo laughs at her excitement, probably amused by the spinning. “Gracias, gracias.” He watched her for a moment before humming. “Do you want a tour? We have time before everyone else gets here.”
Katie can't help that her tail starts to wag, “yes! Yes. I mean, sounds good.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” Aldo nods, a pleasant look on his face.
Turns out, Aldo is actually a really chill guy. Nothing like what everyone describes him like. He even gave her a very thorough explanation of how the bidet in the bathroom works. Per request, of course. Katie will take anything. Everyone else flakes off as the tour goes on— even Multi, who probably goes and does his own thing like usual. Anyway, she’s sort of feeling weird about him at the moment so it’s a relief in its own way. It’s really obvious the moment Ewroon is gone because silence is able to persist for once.
Also, Aldo has a fucking theatre. In his house. Like, red, reclinable seats and black carpet and everything. It’s legit— he even offers to make everyone watch a movie in there for her later on. Which,
“Oh my god, yes? At home movie theatre. Literally, what don't you have?”
“People to use it with.”
“You have me, sir, don't you worry about that. You do not have to worry about that.”
“Hahah.. okay. Noted.”
Finishing up the tour, they walk back to the front entrance. Katie is astonished by how many stairs there are in the damn place.
Turns out, more people had arrived in the time they’d been gone. Quackity and Multi stand together at the front door, Nexe and Ewroon also meandering around that conversation.
Right.
And she’d honestly been a little excited to talk to Multi about the tour.
Why does she do that to herself? Multi’s already seen this house before. Why would he care about that? Huffing at her own patheticness, she stalks up to the ground and starts chatting with them.
Nexe is the sweetest, truly. So she opts to chat primarily with him— sort of ducking in and out of Quackity and Multi’s conversation. Quackity is a good friend of hers, and she hadn’t seen him in awhile, but Nexe shows his face to the public once in a blue moon. “Do you know who else is gonna come, Nexe?” Katie questions, hands casually in her pockets.
Nexe looks up as he thinks. “Ehhh… well, ehh.. I think.. a few more people, probably.”
She nods. “Hopefully more girls, am I right?”
That gets a chuckle out of him. For what reason, she isn’t sure. He's a very giggly person, it seems. “Yes, yes.” Nexe rasps, his natural voice a bit of a hoarse, sick-sounding tone. But in that sort of smooth way— why is she thinking about his voice?
More people get to the house, and she gets to talk with everyone who walks in through the door. They smile at her happy introductions; laugh when she prompts anything funny.
She likes making people laugh. It sort of shows that she had a positive impact on them in that moment, leaving a lasting impression that isn’t all her ditsiness she can’t erase. Yes, unfortunately even Katie is aware she isn’t the mastermind she’d certainly love to be. But playing with the world in the palm of her hand like she is is really fun. People let her play about their lives simply because she isn’t a threat. And if she can’t have a threatening demeanor or something to hold over someone's head, she has their reluctant trust. Even if it isn’t meaningful trust, just a simple trust in her lack of abilities to really cause them harm.
Is that wrong to think? Could being a good person ever entail these kinds of thoughts, selfish and as ill-intentioned they are? Once upon a time, Katie thought she could trust everyone. Hell, at one point she seriously thought she could make her way in life just by being nice. Now she fosters other people's trust until she’s grown like mold in their hearts.
She knows her place in their little community. Knows it’s both in the highest and lowest of the social hierarchy everyone unknowingly navigates in. But she’s also painfully aware that she doesn’t really belong anywhere. Her chest aches with an unpleasant longing whenever she sees the student council all banded together, huddled in a corner of the school. Enjoying themselves. Meanwhile she drifts between groups and oftentimes finds herself either alone or with Multi.
In other words, alone with Multi.
Well, it isn’t anything regrattable. She likes Multi. Yeah. She likes late night talking, Nacho settled in his or her lap. She likes the sound of silence when it’s their shared breathing underneath the stars.
But she doesn’t like Multi, no, not in that way.
Katie’s version of love is skewered and messy; not in any one way or in any specific form. It’s Ewroon’s sharp tongue and his rough, almost painful touch. The gap left behind when he’s absent, like a missing tooth in her mouth that he probably wrenched out himself. It’s Tomate’s cheesy poems and the intense pain of his leaving her. How she understood his poetry and the significance of it only after he left.
It’s Nacho. It’s maternal, it’s..
Hers. Painfully so.
And it’s not fair, she wants to perfect it— but it’s like untangling wires that’ve been tangled so much for so many years they’re indistinguishable. Like if she reels in for a kiss, she’ll pull that wire; and the one that makes her want to bite off her victims face all in the same tug.
She never even gave Tomate a real kiss. On the cheek, sure, corners of his mouth. Never closer than that.
Maybe her kiss will die on her lips, seeing as she can never run with the right crowd. Or even nurture a relationship enough for it to grow past footsies underneath the table and ‘I love you’s.’
Unless Tomate just shows up randomly, face intact, going; ‘let’s get married, Katie!’ Because apparently he's saving himself for marriage. Which isn’t bad. But maybe he was too pure for her, too.. loving. Doting, willing. Ugh.
They're two puzzle pieces from different packages. Katie can’t shave herself down to fit into his piece, because it would mean changing entirely. And she’d, unfortunately, never do that for a man. Or ask him to do the same.
Being a boss is just as hard as it is important.
Third drink in, she wishes this town wasn’t so small. Because maybe then she could have her first fucking kiss with some random guy and traumatize him— then move on. She’s that kind of person, at least she thinks. Love isn’t anything sacred. It’s versatile and can be used as much as it can be gentle.
Third and-a-half drink in, love is a painting and she can’t paint for shit. And she wants to be the Leonardo DiCaprio she knows she can be, but it’s just too out of her reach.
At some point she’s sitting on a couch with everyone else, playing charades with other kids equally as drunkenly dumb as her. She’s the only one who’s screaming out at first— but picking up after her, people start yelling out, laughing when they get it right first. It’s actually kind of fun.
When Ewroon has to pretend to be a cat, without noise of course, and he gets down on all fours and licks the back of his hand, Katie nearly dies.
“Cat.” She cry-laughs, head in her hands, hair astray from its typical bun. “Cat.”
“Katie got it,” Ewroon snorts, not at all ashamed, somehow. “Wow. You are laughing at me— and it is your turn. I hope you have to pretend to be a dog.” He chuckles, setting his card in the ‘already done’ pile.
Katie, strife with determination, stands up and wobbles her way over to the box of cards. “Wouldn’t have t’pretend there, buddy.” She mumbles, tail at a low hang behind her.
Someone in the crowd gets her joke, Nexe, and giggles. God, she loves that guy. Such a sweetie.
“I’m gonna do the first one I pick, actually.” Katie hums, since the option is drink or act it out, plucking a card from inside the box.
She flips it over, hiding the word on it from the crowd.
Dog.
Katie sends a glare Ewroon’s way.
“Never-fucking mind.” Katie sighs, walking back over to the couch. “Drinking for this one.” Anything but let Ewroon be right about anything. God forbid that, actually.
Everyone laughs, probably understandingly.
“What’d you get?” Asks Duncan, bless his heart, how did he get here? Multi at his side also leans in, wanting to hear whatever was so bad that she skipped out on it. Katie momentarily pauses, meeting Multi’s gaze, and then she looks away when it gets kind of awkward.
Since when were Multi’s eyes so.. blue? Or something. Kind of grey, littered with an almost glacial blue she finds really—
“Telling you in confidence,” she whispers, picking up her drink from his side on the coffee table. “Dog.”
He and Multi chuckle, and Multi pretty much immediately tells everyone as soon as she leaves. It doesn’t really bother her.
Katie stands in the center, finishing off her drink in one gulp. “Oh-Kay.” She grunts, setting it on the table.
On Katie’s fourth drink, the thing she has to play out in a game of charades is a bride. Like, lawfully wedded, bride. She laughs heartily at the word alone, “how the hell do I even do this?” Katie says in the expectant silence. “Like, can I have a-.. a prop or something?” She huffs, wiping the drink off of her lip with the back of her hand.
“Well, what do you need?” Asks Jeremy, sharing a seat with Quackity.
“Eehh..” Katie looks around, trying to think of what would make her a believable bride. “Wait, can someone join me in this? Like, it’s gonna be hard to do on my own.”
It goes quiet for a second, but then one or two hands are raised. But both of them are ignored, because Multi stands up. In some strange act of courage or something. Or maybe because Ewroon pushed him off the couch.
His ears are tinged a light pink as he sighs. “Okay, I’ll help, I’ll help.” Multi surrenders, kicking Ewroon’s shin before taking a long swig and walking to stand beside Katie.
“Thank you, Multi!” Katie chirps.
Wow.
What an awkward thing to act out with a guy she is actively trying to keep things platonic with.
Katie leans into his side, showing him the card. Multi’s face goes blank for a moment before he snorts, palming his face. “Oh my fucking god. What did you have in mind, Katie?” He asks, looking back up at her.
“Don't worry, Multi, nothing crazy. You just have to stand and look pretty.”
“Kurwa pretty? Am I the br—“ he trails off, looking at their audience. “A girl.” He coughs out.
Katie gives him an annoyed glance before she walks to the coffee table and picks up some napkins. “No.” She places them over her head like a homemade veil, ugly and probably stupid looking to the rest of the group.
“What the hell is that?” Quackity laughs, arm over his stomach. He laughs so much that Katie is deeply concerned for his throat. “Thats your prop?”
With a quiet giggle she can’t help, she positions Multi to stand closer to everyone else, his side facing them, whereas she walks further into the living room. “Okay, okay,” she smiles to herself.
With added grace to her posture, she walks down very slowly, chin up. Multi just stands there, laughing into his hand. Being drunk probably makes everything someone like Katie does funny.
“Model?” Tina guesses. Yeah. Random ass selection of people who decided to show up. Katie thinks she spotted Foolish earlier, too.
“What is that supposed to be?” Ewroon, gesturing to the napkin mess atop her head. Katie sighs and walks slower, taking a step once every five seconds.
“Oh- oh! I know,” Roier pipes up, “mailman- er, mailwoman. Multi is the customer! Napkins are the mail!”
“Why would they be on her head, pendejo?” Aldo scoffs, sitting on the floor in front of Roier.
Everyone laughs, including Katie, accidentally dropping a napkin or two. “No.” She snickers, trying to keep her composure. While she’s trying to fix the ones still clinging to her hair, she makes eye contact with Multi.
Playing her husband.
Something in her heart pauses. Wait. If people guess it correctly, and they realize she used Multi of all people, to play the role, wrong ideas will be fucking had. She groans inwardly, rubbing her eyes. Just of course she had to get the most incriminating charade to play of them all. And- and her mission, people can’t think that they're dating. It isn’t her fault! She was gonna pick Jeremy had Multi’s ass not stood up.
Maybe she should’ve just acted out being a dog.
Finishing her walk down the makeshift aisle, she laughs it off and turns to face Multi, avoiding his gaze at every cost. Seems he's recognized the irony of this whole situation, too.
God, if this is why her fucking mission fails, she’s gonna be so, so pissed.
“Uhh.. I dunno what else to do!” Katie stammers out, seeing as she’s already walked down the aisle.
“Well, why did you even need help with it? He's just standing there!” Laughs Tina, also sitting on the floor, pushing hair behind her ear.
Right. “Well-“ she looks at Multi, who looks back at her. Is his face red? Is it hot in here? Katie chews her lip. Multi’s eyes don't leave her face.
“You guys’d better hurry up and guess, or you’ll all have to drink.” Katie snaps, looking at her groaning audience.
“What is it?” Multiple people ask at once, everyone’s expressions varied forms of confusion and deep thought.
°•.•°
Multi’s cheeks burn with what he can’t differentiate embarrassment and the alcohol from. Fucking Ewroon, his biggest enemy now, had forced him up here. Like the annoying fucker he is. And of course this is the thing he has to act out with.. Katie of all people.
Really, it shouldn’t be that big of an issue. Like, they just need to stand here until the 2 minutes are up. Katie’s done the whole.. walking down the aisle, napkin-veil on her head.
Now what?
Looking at Katie, her hair down and soft over her shoulders, her pink shirt clashing with her hair color. It manages to look good on her anyway.
Wait, huh?
No. Nope. It’s just the drinks.
He doesn’t find her easy on the eyes. Multi doesn’t find one of his closest friends attractive, especially not at this very moment. Especially not Katie. But he can’t manage to tear his eyes off of her, his fingertips thrumming at the back of his sleeves. Why him? He’d rather be sitting on the couch guessing. At least he won’t have to drink or anything, make his head spin further in favor of Katie-fucking-B’s orbit.
When she looks back at him, it’s like she casts some strange spell with only her eyes. Which, have they always been that blue? Maybe it’s the lighting. She’s chewing her lip, her eyebrows slightly furrowing in thought.
This wouldn’t be weird if it were anyone else. Hell, he’d be overjoyed to play as.. say, Jeremy’s husband.
Everyone’s guessing, getting it humorlessly wrong, vying more for jokes than genuine attempts. Which only means he's forced to stand here as her prop for longer. Jesus.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Multi tries his very hardest to not fidget.
Just stand, be a statue. Act.
When the timer goes off, thank the heavens, Multi rushes back to his spot on the couch. It’s taken by Ewroon, who’s entire body takes up two fucking cushions, (not actually, hes just spread across it) so he settles on the floor between Tina and Aldo. Though he favors Aldo’s side a little more, seeing as he's no closer to Tina than he had ever been to Juan.
With a laugh, Katie smiles and holds up the card for everyone to see. “How did you guys not get it? I had the veil and shit.” She chuckles.
The light overheard illuminates her hair like a halo, the orange flyaways becoming a golden yellow behind her. She looks.. hauntingly pretty.
Like a ghost, ‘cause she’s so pale. He forces that joke into his mind.
Trying any and all means of getting these thoughts out of his head; he desperately picks apart the bad things about her.
She lies. But not to him.
Katie’s really loud, but it’s really nice when all he wants is to not speak and listen.
She’s arrogant.. but who’s to say that's bad at all?
God— what’s even bad about her? Why can’t he..
The group groans loud enough to somewhat drown out his own thoughts, annoyed with themselves for not guessing right. “I swear I guessed that!” One person scoffs, “I thought it but I didn’t say it;” another laughs.
“Seriously? It was so obvious.” Katie rolls her eyes, stepping forward to set her card down on the used pile already there.
Ewroon, ever loud and abrasive, “maybe we didn’t guess it because nobody can imagine you as a bride, Katie.” Which, funny, sure, but a tad mean-spirited.
Everyone laughs, figuring the two have banter like that all of that time. Tina’s quick to defend Katie, telling Ewroon to stop being an asshole.
But Katie pauses, hand hovering over the used cards. Her expression somewhat drops for a moment, like she’s deep in thought. Caught in the sharper canines of her teeth, her lip, pressing hard enough to bleed if there was any motivation to do so.
“Fuck you, Ewroon.” She rolls her eyes, frowning. “You’re who I can’t see getting married!”
“Oh, wow, Katie.” Ewroon raises an eyebrow, sitting up. “Really? You’re saying that to your bestie?”
“Bestie. Yeah, right.”
“More than? Aww, Katie!”
“More than? Ew, no,” she cringes, drink in her hand. Ewroon takes the initiative to stand up and walk over to her. “It isn’t your turn, you fatty.” Katie snorts, insultingly, juvenile and somewhat petty.
Multi watches in what he can’t recognize as Ewroon hugs Katie, arms neat around her shoulders. Katie glares at him as he does it. She doesn’t push him away, though. Why? “Maybe we can see each other marrying, bestie! Shall I propose?” Ewroon plauses, having a fistful of her hair.
At the display of sudden affection, everyone either laughs or groans in disgust. “You’re drunk.” Katie giggles, pushing his face away with her free hand.
Multi’s skin crawls.
“Who else would want to marry you? I'm your best bet, Katie.” Ewroon pouts, letting her go. Katie frowns further, throwing the empty can at Ewroon’s forehead with a thunk. “Only, and somehow not at all the fucking best!” Katie scoffs, rolling her eyes again.
And then, she schools her expression into something sad and pityable.
“Nobody even likes me! I swear; nobody could guess I was a bride because, who likes me enough to see me that way?” Katie then whines, drunkenly pacing the room like a woman gone mad. The group laughs at her antics, some coaxing her into sitting back down.
From his spot on the floor, Multi purses his lips and exhales quietly. “Me,” he admits softly, hidden behind a whisper only meant for himself. Watching the girl flit across the room, he runs his palm over his face.
Everything she’s saying drowns out. Only the sight of her smile and the way her tail wags, even if she’s trying to look sad.
…
When he glances to his side, trying to get the sight of Ewroon offering a fake-proposal to Katie out of his mind, he notices Tina. Staring.
Oh, shit.
He can feel the embarrassment crawl up his face and die there; unforgivingly dusting an angry red across his cheeks. Had she heard him?
Of course she had. Why else would she be staring?
Tina cups a hand over her mouth in shock, eyes wide as she looks at Multi and then Katie. “You-“ she stammers. Multi shakes his head, trying to get her to shut up.
But before he can tell her to say nothing, Aldo pipes up at his other side. “What? What did he do?” He asks Tina, leaning closer into Multi’s side. “Nothing!” Multi blurts, trying to push Aldo away.
Tina’s shocked expression breaks into something both disappointed and delighted. Of course, she does not like Multi at all, but she seems to be somewhat fond of Katie— and the thought of a possible romance for her must just be riveting. Multi thinks death is the only way out. Aldo pushes back, leaning closer as he whispers to Tina. “What’d he do, Tina? Why’s he blushing!?” He whispers enthusiastically, seeing as Multi certainly isn’t the kind of guy to flush for no apparent reason.
Tina looks at Multi, then at Aldo, the weight of Multi’s heart essentially putty in her palms. She can tell Aldo. Word’ll get out, and Katie will eventually be hearing of it.
Why? Multi feels like a generational idiot. God, he's so fucking stupid. He's gonna have to deny, deny, deny his feelings at some point tonight. And of course it has to happen during what was meant to be a good night out. Taking another long swig of his drink, downing it, he decides that he’ll never admit his feelings to Katie. Not if he can help it.
He’ll die, she’ll die, before an admittance ever leaves his lips again.
But Tina shakes her head. “He just spat out his drink and thought nobody noticed. Looked bad.” She fibs, smiling sheepishly at Aldo.
Multi looks at Tina, struck. What? Why hadn’t she told him?
Tina looks back at him with a sort of conflicted look in her gaze. Like she’s angry at him, but she’s too kind to give away his business to anyone.
Aldo buys it, the happy idiot, smacking Multi’s shoulder and laughing as he leans away. Multi plays it off, rolling his eyes like he’s annoyed. But he immediately looks back at Tina— confused, almost surprised she didn’t just.. snitch.
“Tina-“ he starts, unsure of what to say.
Tina interjects, whispering, “we probably shouldn’t talk about this here. If you.. if you want to talk about it, that is.”
Multi swallows.
Well, she already knows.
He pipes up, “I’m gonna go get another drink. You should, too.” With a grunt, he pushes off of the ground and walks out of the room.
The sounds of Katie’s voice and the group's chattering fade as he reaches the kitchen. Head in his hands, he leans heavily against the counter and groans. “Fuck. Fuck.” He grumbles, running his cold hands down his face and then looking down at the ground.
Why? He should’ve kept it in, should’ve been more cautious. Maybe these feelings he's having aren’t even.. like that. Katie’s the only other girl he's all that close with— maybe she’s right, he doesn’t see girls very often, maybe he’s confused. Love isn’t something he can.. force. But it can be confusing, right? Misplaced?
What about this morning? Her face, his, enough space between them to step in only slightly and diminish.
Waiting like an idiot for Tina to arrive, he plucks another drink from the fridge. No.
Eventually, she does come. Can in her hand, her expression careful, overly cautious.
“Look, Tina,” he immediately starts, hands moving on their own to explain.
“You like Katie?” She interrupts, walking further in the kitchen, looking over her shoulder to ensure nobody’s behind her.
“I-“ he stammers, Katie’s name alone enough to melt his alcohol-addled brain. Leaning against the counter again, he thinks. Long and hard. Katie B. Does he like Katie?
Love her?
“No, I-.. i..” he tries, but the denial sounds tender and croaky even to himself.
Tina’s expression is gentle, sparing his feelings, but she doesn’t care much for him and it’s obvious. More so for Katie. “No?”
“It is.. it’s not that simple, Tina.” He huffs, looking at her and then at the ground again.
“Isn’t it, though? I mean, it’s so.. obvious. You guys are so obvious.” The girl shrugs, smiling a little. She takes a small sip of her drink.
Multi’s head snaps up at that. “Obvious? Us?”
She runs a hand down her side, shaking her head like he's just told some joke. Maybe that’s why she’s here— to laugh at his expense. “Yeah, obvious.” Tina sighs. “It’s obvious you two like each other. I'm not one to be in people’s business, Multi, but.. what’re you scared of?”
It goes quiet. Still. The tension is palpable enough to practically feel like a fog in the air.
What is he scared of?
Katie.. likes him, too?
Even admitting he likes her in his own head is terrifying. That's what he's scared of.
Pulling at his sleeves, he bites his tongue. Frees it so he can mutter, “she doesn’t like me that way.” But hope pierces his heart like a needle. Does she? Could she?
Silence persists, and Tina looks like she’s contemplating something. “You’re a pretty smart guy, Multi. Even if I don’t like you.. I can admit that.” It doesn’t sound like a compliment, though. “Come on.” She tries, sounding awfully.. genuine. Like she wants him to get it on his own.
Multi looks at her.
A million thoughts surface, washing and gently pushing at his brain like an ocean would the sandy shore. Nights spent with Katie and Nacho, curled up on his couch until he's the only one awake. The things he’d done to Katie, the plotting that’d transpired against the girl before he’d really known her. Katie was like a fresh breath of air after any particularly challenging day— his peace amidst all chaos. Stars had to have aligned ever so perfectly the day Nacho decided to call her mama; because it’d been that very night that he found himself someone he could trust. Love, platonically, romantically, found him and he hadn’t even known he was searching.
Whatever they were, he decided, that was his ideal of love. All rough edges and bruised skin— smooth touches to soothe the staticky hurt.
“Likes me? Are you sure?” He asks. Really, Katie might be the only person who’ll force him to need Tina’s, of all peoples, advice. And he's drunk enough that being vulnerable about Katie with someone else isn’t the worst thing in the world. Even despite being perfectly balanced between romance and friendship with Katie; some form of solidarity for him to stand upon would be okay.
“I swear.” Tina nods.
“I’m.. I think I believe you,” he admits. “But I don’t wanna ruin what we have.” Multi feels like an open wound, peeled and unhealed. While Tina has the weapon, a shaker of salt or something worse, ready to use it at any given moment.
Her words sew together the last bit of relief Multi needs; stitched like a blanket of yarn. Served like coffee just the way he prefers it, worn like clothes that aren’t his. Stolen like space that doesn’t belong to him.
“Honestly? I don’t think you even could. I mean, you guys are literally Nacho’s parents.” Tina scoffs, looking away. “And you were just.. playing as her husband in charades.”
That eases him a little, the realization sitting fond and.. somewhat comfortable in his heart. “Yeah.” He says, one hand resting on his chest. It isn’t beating so fast anymore. “Um.. Thank you, Tina. Really. For not telling Aldo, and for helping me.”
She bites the inside of her cheek, looking away. “Yeah. For Katie’s sake.”
“For Katie.” Multi agrees.
Tina leaves the kitchen, giving Multi some needed time alone.
Okay, he thinks. He can tell Katie. He can do it.. tonight, actually. He’ll boot Roier and Ewroon, make them catch another ride. And when he and Katie are alone, he’ll.. Well, he’ll do it subtly. Try to worm it out of her and then he’ll tell her as soon as he feels good about it. Multi only waits a couple of seconds after Tina leaves before he decidedly heads back to the group as well.
He can do this.
It’s a totally strange feeling, actually stressing over confessing to someone. It’s the very first time he's ever felt this way.
And.. for Katie, he doesn’t mind it much.
°•.•°
.•°•.
“Nobody even likes me! I swear; nobody could guess I was a bride because, who likes me enough to see me that way?” Katie cries, both disturbed by Ewroon’s actions and upset that, seriously, nobody guessed it. The group laughs at her antics, and she forces the theatrics a little more at it.
Ewroon rolls his eyes, seeing as he just (insultingly) offered to marry her because no one else would. “Wow. Am I so bad you won’t even take me as your only option?”
“Absolutely not, Ewroon.” Katie snaps, pointing a finger. “.. m’I that fucking bad? Nobody can even imagine me as a bride?” She faces the group, looking at everyone, trying hard to not slur her words.
People, of course, comfort her. She gets lots of compliments and reassurance that; no, she’s not terrible, her acting is just subpar. Which, okay. You can’t win them all.
“Okay. If I'm so great, then, everyone name three things they like about me!” Katie decides with a hum, taking a sip of Ewroon’s drink. Ewroon glares at her but he only swipes it back without a word.
As Duncan starts it off, she notices Multi leave the room. “Damn. He really didn’t want to name anything.” Ewroon drawls by her side, teasing, annoying as shit. Katie swats at his shoulder. But, she is curious, why did he leave?
He looked sort of embarrassed, too. Was the whole charade thing that bad for him? Katie feels kind of bad. She’ll go and apologize as soon as she worms more compliments out of everyone else.
It’s Aldo’s turn, and he finishes off with a, “your hair is very nice.”
“Thank you!” She smiles, even as that is the third compliment based on her hair she’s gotten.
Tina is about to get up, probably to move spots now that Ewroon’s standing up, but Katie stops her. “Aaandd.. Tina! Three things you like about me?” She grins.
With a surprised little huff, Tina pauses. “Mm.. I think you’re very pretty, organized, and..” she looks out at the hallway, “I was gonna say your hair is always done, but..”
Some of the group chuckles at that. Katie’s whole fiasco has turned into a group-wide affair. Tina’s fingers tap against her can as she thinks. “And your outfit is cute.” She finishes off sweetly, fully standing now.
Katie grins happily, turning to address the whole group. “Thank you, everyone, I'm feeling much better now.”
“Great.” Says Quackity, laughing a little. “Only after, like, fifty fucking compliments.”
Which, fair, that's true. Katie shrugs, cheeky smile plastered on her face.
When she looks back to give Tina a personal thanks, she’s gone. Katie catches a glimpse of her long brunette hair as it flows behind her, disappearing into the shadows of the dimly lit hallway. Huh.
After a couple of minutes, Katie goes out to find Multi. She hopes he isn’t taking a shit or something— that’d be an awkward time to apologize for making him pretend to be her husband.
Humming quietly to herself as she navigates the house, the group fading behind her, she finally catches someone's voice.
Tina! Oh, maybe she’d come to get another drink? Katie could use one. She’s approaching the kitchen, not really listening to what’s being said— until she hears something interesting.
“—like you.. I can admit that.”
Tina’s voice, awfully quiet and somewhat gentle.
“Come on.” Katie can hear her press, sounding genuine. It’s weird. Who is she talking to? And, with a bit of mischievous bravo, Katie thinks; who does she like?
Katie ducks behind the wall, listening in. Who, oh, who is she talking to? She feels a sick little giddiness. This is a conversation she shouldn’t be listening in on. But, still having an apology to make, Katie figures she’ll interrupt the conversation and pretend she didn’t hear anything.
She wants a—
“Like me? Are you sure?” Multi asks, his voice hushed.. and.. open. Gauging the situation, Katie’s heart sinks to her stomach. Tina and.. Multi? She could recognize that voice anywhere.
Tina likes Multi? But- why? Since when?
“I swear.” She hears Tina confirm, practically on cue.
Katie feels sick. Is that what this afternoon was about? Tina was just.. securing the deal for herself. Oh, Katie’s such a— why didn't she see it? Hand pressed against her stomach, she stares at the ground and wishes she could just sink into it. This is.. bad. Like, really bad.
And of course, Katie realizes the fundamental truth at that very point in time.
She likes Multi.
And Multi..
“I’m.. I think I believe you,” he admits, voice echoing like a drum in Katie’s mind. “But I don’t wanna ruin what we have.”
Oh. Oh.
So.. those two— they’re- they’ve been seeing each other?
They have something already?
How didn’t- why didn’t Multi tell her? He doesn’t trust her enough?
Katie doesn’t hear anything else, she doesn’t think she can take anymore of it. Before anyone can see her, she rushes back to the living room, feeling like she’s watching her life through a window.
She feels stupid, above all else. Why did she wait so long to try and understand her feelings for Multi? Because now, she doesn’t even have a chance. Tina’s a sweetheart. She made sure of it, that Katie really didn't like him, before she tried to seal the deal. And Katie said she didn’t.
It’s all her own fault. Katie feels a sob clawing up her throat, a real one, but she doesn’t want to just up and leave. She can’t tell anyone what she just heard— much less let anyone know it affects her so much. She settles onto the couch beside Ewroon, quietly scratching at her arm to minimize the pain in her heart.
Pain to minimize other pain, to distract her from the sorrow stabbing her heart like an arrow.
.. looks like her mission won’t need any help being completed, seeing as Multi is with someone else. Stupid. Fucking stupid.
Time moves without her. She feels like there’s a big spotlight shining on her, and everyone else is lucky enough to be outside of it. None of it makes sense. Tina didn't even seem to like Multi as an individual just.. today! And Multi hadn’t ever mentioned Tina being a part of his ‘alone time’ spent away from her and Nacho.
Practically folded into herself, she tries to let everything go. It doesn’t work. Of course it doesn’t. How is she supposed to go home with Multi, now, knowing he belongs to someone else? Was his house even hers to call home anymore?
“Katie,” Ewroon says, raising an eyebrow, his tail flicking at her side. She’s so genuinely distraught that the sound of his voice doesn’t even bother her. “Why are you curled up like that? Are you going to kurwa throw up?” Says the boy cautiously, erring more on disgust.
She doesn’t look up. If she does, she’s afraid she’ll just cry anyway. “Un-“ her voice is thin and strained, and she can’t help it. “No.” Katie answers shortly.
Just as she’s about to tell another lie, Tina walks in. Then, Multi, a couple of seconds later. They think they’re so slick. Katie wants to laugh at their obviousness, but she can’t. Can’t even find the humor in it all.
God, she’s a mess. “Ewroon, can you take me home?” She mutters, leaning into his side so he can hear her above everyone around. “I- I think.. Multi said- he..” Multi. Multi. Multi.
Fuck. “Fuck.” She winces, wiping her eyes and ducking so nobody can see.
“Katie- what- are you.. what’s wrong?” Ewroon asks, a hand on her shoulder. Being able to comfort her must be a fucking pleasure, the sick fuck. A grand thing he can eventually turn against her. But Katie’s desperate. “Multi said what?”
“He’s taking home more people,” she fibs, “I don’t.. I don't wanna wait the extra time. Could you just-“
“Of course I can take my bestie home!” Ewroon boasts, entirely too loud. Of course he'd make a show of it.
Well, great, now everyone knows. So much for ‘Irish goodbying’ the entire group. Katie’s somewhere between choking Ewroon and hugging him for agreeing. Maybe both, simultaneously.
“Oh, Katie, you're going home?” Frowns Tina, sitting on the ground in front of the couch.
She doesn’t know that Katie knows. In fact, none of this is even her fault. Katie feels her nervous system keel in on itself anyway. God, she feels sick. So agonizingly sick.
She bites her tongue really, really hard. Only letting it go so she can speak. “Ah- yeah, I think I drank too much.”
A line of ‘aww’s’ string out loudly in the room. Feeling at least appreciated by her friends, she smiles. “Unless you guys wanna see me hurl on Aldo’s expensive carpet.” Katie shrugs.
“That's okay. Ewroon, you get her home safe, yeah, amigo?” Aldo pipes up, making people laugh.
Ewroon wraps an arm around her shoulders proudly. “Of course! For my bestie.”
Katie rolls her eyes at that, but at least nobody is questioning her. Cause she could go for another drink; but any more proximity with Multi and she’ll burst. Not in a good way.
Multi catches her gaze, his expression confused, almost hurt. She didn’t tell him anything about the whole ‘going home early’ thing. And it probably comes off as her not wanting to get dropped off by him, specifically.
Which is exactly what’s happening, technically, but still.
Why didn’t she know she liked him sooner? Jesus, she’s psychoanalyzing even the most minuscule of expression on his face. Tail between her legs, Ewroon helps her off of the couch.
“Unfortunately,” Ewroon’s voice snaps her back to the reality she’d much rather be in. “Multi was actually my ride here. So, Multi, can I borrow your car, please?” Grins the boy, arm instead hooked around Katie's waist. Katie swats his touch away— they're still enemies, gross, and she doesn’t meet Multi’s gaze.
“I can just do it,” Multi offers, looking pointedly at Katie. “I drove Katie here, too.”
People’s attention drops away from their little circle, and everyone refocuses on their own lives. Katie’s grateful for that much.
“No!” Katie blurts, blinking at the sound of her own voice. “Um- I mean..” she coughs, avoiding the two boys’s shocked looks. “Clearly, you're kinda out of it, too. Ewroon barely drank anything. I’ll make sure he gets it back to you, swear.”
If she looks at Multi, she thinks she’ll die on the spot.
“Katie, it’s really fine-” Multi tries, sounding a little saddened by her reason. Because Ewroon has probably drank more than the two of them combined. So it’s obviously just a ploy for Ewroon to take her home and not someone else.
Katie interrupts him again, “no, no. You do your thing.” She swats a dismissive hand, nearly tripping over her own two feet. “Uh- you.. stick to, y’know, who matters most. Haha.”
Why did she say that?
Ewroon and Multi stare at her. Multi seems genuinely confused, Ewroon looks absolutely delighted to be the middleman in all of this.
“Who matters most? Katie, what?” Says Multi, arms loose at his sides.
“Nevermind. Just— please. Ewroon, take me home. Please.” Katie pleads, ashamedly tugging Ewroon’s arm.
Ewroon gives Multi an all-too smug little smile. It shouldn’t matter if Multi gets the wrong idea. He has his own ‘ideas,’ apparently, anyway. Multi hands Ewroon the keys and Katie immediately tugs him away and out of the house.
“Okay, okay! Slow down, tiger,” Ewroon remarks, trying to both stabilize Katie and himself.
They make it to the car and Katie just can’t hold it in anymore. She sobs, pathetic sounds of pure dismay ripping out of her throat. “Fuck.” Katie whines into her hands, leaning against the bumper.
“Oh. Katie? What happened?” Ewroon fusses, probably just as drunk and confused as her.
“Im so stupid.” Katie whimpers, wiping uselessly at her face.
Ewroon seems like he’ll agree for a moment, but instead, he leans against the car beside her.
“God- i just.. why? Why did I wait? Why didn’t I fucking realize sooner?”
“For what?” He gently pries.
Katie bites her lip, knees bent a little as she curls into herself. She pushes some of her hair behind her ears, her tail curled between her legs like a kicked puppy. “Multi.” She says.
That about does the trick. Ewroon knows, it’s clear. He blinks. “Oh. You.. you like him?”
“Well.. yeah! But it’s too late now!” Katie groans, piping up and throwing her arms above her head. “I'm such a loser, Ewroon. I’m a fucking bot and I didn’t even..”
“Why is it too late?”
“Because—“ she starts, but it dies on her tongue. Multi didn't even trust her with this information. He definitely wouldn’t trust Ewroon with it.
“It just.. it just is.” Katie settles, rubbing her face more, smearing the salty wetness of her tears everywhere.
“No, something happened, Katie.” Ewroon presses, standing in front of her. “I won’t judge.”
He will, they both think in unison. But at least it won’t be out loud.
Whatever. Katie needs someone, anyone, to hear how fucking outrageous this is.
“I heard Tina confessing her feelings for Multi in the kitchen,” she rushes, fighting the knot tying itself in her throat. Ewroon freezes. “And from the sounds of it.. he likes her, too. And they've been.. messing around, or whatever, for some time now.”
It’s out in the open, now.
And it feels good to get it off her shoulders, but it doesn’t soothe the carved out, hollow pit in her chest that's Multi-shaped.
“Katie, that's.. no, it’s definitely not like that.” Ewroon shakes his head, ears pinned back slightly, like he’s almost sure she’s just messing with him.
“I heard it with my own ears, Ewroon. I was going to get a drink, and— and there they were. It sounded really sweet, too.” Katie’s voice breaks, her head falling straight back into her hands, curling into herself.
“It doesn’t even make sense.”
“I know! And.. they left the room together, came back together. God, I hate him.”
Ewroon snorts quietly, hesitantly reaching out, fingers lifting her chin up. “Cheer up, Katie. Tina is a wonderful woman, but it is his loss that he didn’t snap you up when he had the chance.”
Katie sniffles, feeling smaller than her bones. Jesus. Belittling herself for a man is— yeah, Ewroon’s right, for once. This situation is stupid. Not her. “You’re right, Ev.” She sighs. “I’m amazing. He’s just my …platonic coparent.”
At the nickname, he smiles a little. Katie gingerly pulls him in for a hug, his head dug into her collarbones given the height difference. “Who you definitely did not have an hour-long crush on.” Ewroon teases, arms wrapping round her waist.
“Shut up.”
“You’re so bony, Katie.”
“Oh, so you think I'm skinny?”
“Unfortunately for me.”
“Fuck off.” Katie snorts, not feeling better, per se, but a little less sour about the night.
.•°•.
°•.•°
Multi is at a complete and utter loss.
Katie, for whatever reason she randomly conjured, is actively avoiding him. At first it was pretty subtle. A ‘im with Ewroon,’ there and a ‘told my dad I’d help him, I have to attend all 50 of the clubs I’m in,’ here.
He didn’t mind it. Not at first. Katie has a life, an eventful one at that, and he wasn’t always gonna be at the center of it. Multi isn’t a fool— being a part of her life is good enough on its own. Orbiting Katie B’s axis is almost as good as being on her planet with her. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, and Multi understands it completely now.
But it’d be easier to write sonnets for her in his fucking head if she wasn’t making things up just to avoid hanging out with him. She won’t even stay over anymore, which, sleeping in her clothes feels almost weird without her there to comment on it. It hurts, then it aches, seeing her run along to some other guy's side at the very thought of being even near him.
He doesn’t understand it. Not even a little bit. What went wrong? After Ewroon returned his car the night of the party, of the avoidance, he gave Multi a grim look and said, ‘you messed up, John Multi,’ before heading back into the house.
Like, what the fuck? What in the actual fuck? That bitch, Ewroon, is probably the reason for it all. Seems Ewroon lives to do nothing but make issues for everyone around him. Multi practically seethes with rage whenever he sees that asshole and Katie together. What does Ewroon have on him that would possibly make Katie want to stay away?
Could it be about Juan? Haiper? Any and all of the things he’d said or done to Ash? Multi paces his room late at night, Nacho in his hands asking for his mama, wondering what he could’ve done.
Even through messages, when he reaches out and asks her to hang out, she just says she’s doing something at every exact time and date he offers. Which, bullshit, because her location never leaves her house or the school.
Yes, he has her location. Because she trusted him enough at some point, apparently, to share it.
Multi’s pissed. But he wants to be considerate of Katie’s feelings, too, especially if he ever plans on confessing his own. It’s a big mess of ‘what’ and ‘when’s’ he can’t possibly answer all by himself.
There isn’t any lunch thrown at his head, no gossiping she thinks he isn’t listening to, no asks if he’s okay even if nobody else notices he's not been talking, and he’s devastated. He realizes that there was an entire sector of his heart carved by Katie— pink and open and absolutely beautiful.. but without her in it?
It’s empty.
He feels sick whenever he looks at his couch and doesn’t see her on it.
Physically feels the silence as it envelops him and Nacho without Katie to stitch it all together.
Nacho begs the question, over and over, “where is mama? Where is Katie?”
And Multi can't exactly say, ‘in her house, pretending she’s with friends so she can avoid me.’ So he just feigns oblivion every time Nacho asks. When he knows exactly where she is. Part of him even thinks he knows what part of her house she’s in at times, watching her icon flit around the simplified shape of her house on the map.
An entire week drags by before he gets the chance to be near her.
Class had just ended, science where he usually stays behind to do some research, and he makes a beeline for Katie’s next class. Yes he knows her schedule. She can’t avoid him if he’s where she needs to be.
He stands inside of the classroom just in case she sees him and suddenly decides to smoke in the bathroom the whole period. Multi is determined to get to the bottom of why he's being pushed out of her life.
Eventually, when she gets in, smiling with Don, he practically pounces on the opportunity. “Katie. Come with me,” he says, standing in her way. She blinks at him, surprised, and then her expression falls like he's just gravely insulted her.
“We have class, man,” Don tries.
“This doesn’t concern you, Don.” Multi snaps, then he looks back at Katie, stepping closer. “Please. We need to talk.”
Katie, probably enjoying the attention as much as she wants to avoid it, smiles at Don to leave them be. Fucking finally.
Without another word, he takes her by the hand and drags her toward the gymnasium. Katie stammers behind him, probably surprised at his forwardness, but he can’t bring himself to care. She’ll just have to deal with it— he’s confused, a little angry, and more hurt than he wants to think about.
They've never held hands before. Multi almost enjoys the warmth of her fingers intertwined with his own freezingly cold ones. Almost.
When they're alone, he lets her go.
Katie stares at him, guilt etched into the very lines of her face. She’s a cat today, her ears pinned back and her tail flicking restlessly behind her. And, oh, Multi never realized how much he liked her smile. Because it never left when she was around him. Not really.
Now, he feels starved of it.
Of her.
“Katie, I—.. I'm confused. Did I do something to you?” He spits, analyzing every microexpression she makes. Every move, every twitch of her body.
Her eyes flick off towards the side, hands coming to clasp together in front of her chest. “No. You didn’t.” Katie says, the amount of energy she uses is comparable to.. well, nothing. Is he nothing? Does he mean that little to her?
His hands clench into fists at his side. “You’ve been ignoring my texts. My calls. Nacho keeps asking about you and you just- you ignore me.. us.. completely. So I am asking you again; did I do something wrong, Katie?” Multi presses, eyes narrowing, stepping forward just slightly.
She steps back almost instantly— like she needs the distance as much as he needs the closed proximity. Multi’s heart feels like she’s ripped it out and stomped on it. “No, Multi, nothing is wrong.” Katie shakes her head, wrapping her arms around herself. “We’re all good. Good friends.”
Good friends.
Multi pauses, staring at her.
Is that what this is about? She feels like he’s trying to be more than friends, and it’s making her uncomfortable?
Oh. “Oh.”
He feels stupid.
Why didn’t he just assume that?
Tina lied. Probably to make him feel better.
Katie wants nothing from him.
He looks at the ground, vision uncomfortably blurry. “Uh.. okay. Yeah, we’re friends.” Multi picks absently at his uniform tie. “I guess I was just.. wondering, since Nacho keeps asking and you're so busy.” He sighs.
It gets quiet. Multi, for the first time in a while, feels genuinely uncomfortable in Katie’s presence. While he's hurt, sure, he at least figured this out before he stupidly went and told her how he feels. He can hear people outside the gym. Soon enough, this class will probably be full.
Then, Katie speaks first. “Um.. Multi? Hey, I actually do have something I wanted to.. ask you.”
He looks up at her. Katie’s still his friend. His good friend. She deserves an ear, at least. Even if part of him wants to go home and tell Nacho she isn’t ever coming back. “Yes?”
“About you and Ti—“ she’s about to say, but then a crowd of students run in through the doors. Katie flinches as people wander about, Multi steps back to let them walk through since the crowd has collectively chosen to walk right between him and Katie.
About him and who? What?
Katie didn't finish her sentence. Over the shoulders and bodies of the crowd, he looks at Katie’s face. She groans with each new rush of people, whatever she was gonna say clearly being important to her.
“Katie..” he tries, pushing against a few people to close the gap.
Before he can reach her, though, Katie is being dragged away by Mike. His neon-bright pink hair sorely stands out as he smiles and greets her very happily.
So, everyone gets Katie’s attention, and he doesn’t? Multi can’t help but to feel a sense of shame at his own inability to keep her eyes on him. It’s like no matter what he does, he's neither enough nor worthy of Katie’s time.
It’s frustrating. It’s addictive.
He’ll catch her again. At this rate, he has to, for Nacho's sake.
.•°•.
Katie’s been keeping her distance. She’s been doing it for a good reason, she swears!
It isn’t until Multi actually physically pulls her aside for a chat that she realizes she means something to him. And she shuts him down for it.
God, she’s horrible. When he’s trying to understand what he did or didn't do, Katie gives him a simple ‘we’re just friends.’ She feels anything but like she wants to just be friends with him, now, though. It isn’t like she’d gotten over the whole Multi and Tina thing around a week ago. Maybe she never will. But she wanted to talk with him about it.
Then again, if they swapped lives and she were him, she would not wanna talk again after that bullshit. What she pulled was definitely a little selfish. Katie knows he probably doesn’t deserve to be ignored because of an unrequited love on her end.
Her good reason is this; maybe if Katie isn’t taking up so much space in Multi’s life, he’ll have the time to actually pursue Tina. Putting more effort in his affection he clearly doubts Tina returns. Which, if he weren’t Multi, her Multi, that would be really cute to help with. Instead, she feels disgusted with herself every time she sees Multi with anyone else.
So she needs Multi to get with Tina. Needs it to be official and out there in the open for everyone to know— because she can’t keep letting him hold onto the key of her heart unknowingly.
Katie doesn’t even have gym class, so she skips class with Mike. Her actual best friend in life— a trustworthy person she can actually rely on.
They sit together at the park, smoking up a cloud. Both of them have problems they can help each other with. It’s why she enjoys Mike’s company so much, he’s the sweetest and yet he never, ever lies to Katie. He is actually probably the one person she couldn’t bear to lose. Even if they don’t talk everyday, and he probably doesn’t like Multi, she likes to think they’re besties.
And it doesn’t feel weird using that title for him like how it does Ewroon.
Okay, okay, she’ll stop comparing people to Ewroon. She swears.
“So, Katie,” Mike smiles, passing her the cigarette. He’d forgotten his vape, so they’re subjected to the miseries of the taste of pure tobacco. “How have you been, girl? I haven’t seen you in forever!” It’s funny, seeing someone take a drag out of a cigarette with the most focused expression ever, for him to be the most open hearted guy the next second.
She missed Mike. “Terrible, Mike. Terrible.” Katie admits, physically unable to curb her own problems in life. “But before we.. get into that, how’ve you been, Mike? It has been way too fucking long.” And she’d go in for a hug, but they've hugged like twenty times since they met up.
Mike blinks. “Oh, nothing, really. I got really sick. That’s why I wasn’t at school.”
Katie huffs. “And you're smoking with me? Mike! You cannot get sick, like, ever again.”
“Haha, I'm sorry, Katie.” He swats a hand, arms around himself as he walks over to the swings. The swing groans as he sits on it; the park is really old. Not even the elementary students really come up here. “You can have the rest, then.”
Mike is an angel sent down from Heaven.
Katie believes in Heaven or Hell, simply because Mike proves there are angels. “Thank you, Mike, my best freaking friend, bro.” She smiles, taking the pack from his hand and sitting down in the swing next to him.
“But, yeah.” Mike goes on, “nothing really happened. My parents made me stay home all the time.”
Katie nods, snorting. “Well, you aren’t still sick, though, right? I cannot get sick. I have a basketball game this Saturday.”
They both chuckle softly at that. Katie heels dig into the wood chips in the ground as she pushes against the swing, the metal protesting against her weight.
“So, what about you, Katie?” Asks Mike, getting a start so he can actually swing higher and higher. He’s not the kind of guy to be put onto a swing and not use it. Katie grunts and grips the chains holding up the swing tightly. “Well, for one, I screwed things up with Multi, I think.”
Mike stares for a moment, eyes following Katie every time he dips back to where she is. “Multi? Like, the principals kid?”
“Oh, my god.” Katie starts, smiling at Mike. “You haven’t been here for this entire.. well, you know about Nacho.”
“Barely. But okay.” Mike chuckles.
And with that, Katie explains the last month and-a-half of her life to Mike. Mike is very unhappy about the entire thing. In fact, on her behalf, he seems downright pissed.
“So, you're telling me..” Mike huffs, his swinging coming to a halt so he can look her in the eye, “that Multi is with Tina?! Like, our.. Tina?”
Katie shrugs. “Thats what I heard.”
The pink-haired boy scoffs, rolling his eyes and looking away, enraged. “What the hell, man?”
She smiles, looking at her shoes in the wood chips. Peeking through the slightly undersized gap her pants make are Multi’s socks she took one night and never gave back. “I.. yeah. Never would’ve fucking guessed it, but here we are.”
“Well, don’t beat yourself up over it, Katie.” Mike frowns. “He’s not that good of a guy, anyways.”
“Yeah.. yeah, still my friend, though. I think.”
“Well, okay.”
Katie groans. “Mike, it just feels like you're the only other person I can actually trust with this information. Like, you do not know how much I’ve missed you.” She frowns affectionately, looking at her friend. Mike grins widely and he leans forward, hands gripping the chains on his swing.
“Aww, Katie! I missed you so much, too.” Then, he pauses. “Wait. Only other person? Who else did you tell?” At her sudden silence, Mike leans back, giving her an unimpressed look. Both of them go silent for a moment. And, of course, Mike doesn’t know the full extent of the damage Ewroon’s had on Katie. Just that it would take an idiot to not assume that the red panda hybrid wasn't her very first pick when venting about something like this. Seems he's always right where he needs to be when it comes to destroying things in Katie’s life. “Ewroon.” She pops her lips, looking regretfully at the ground.
“Oh.” Mike purses his lips, probably not wanting to be front about it.
“Yeah.”
“You are a work of art, Katie.” He laughs, shaking his head. “Ewroon? Really?”
She shuts her eyes. “Yeah. But I think it’ll be fine. He wouldn’t tell anyone about that, right?”
“No.. no.. maybe it’ll be okay. Maybe.”
“Yeah. Maybe. He definitely hasn’t and won’t tell anyone.” Katie presses her palms against her knees, exhaling sharply. There’s some clarity in it all— she isn’t an Ewroon apologist, of course, but he isn’t all bad.
Still hope in everyone, or so Katie supposed. And that's a thought she has even after everything he's done.
°•.•°
“So.. you and Tina, huh?”
Multi almost thinks it’s a joke, seeing as there isn’t any world where he and Tina’s names slot together naturally. But as he’s looking at Roier, expecting the guy to laugh or some other shit, nothing. Not even a move.
Just a twisted, knowing little smile. Like he knows he knows something he isn’t supposed to.
A shiver crawls up his spine. Akin to dread, a sense of wonder that he can’t shake. He and Tina? Referring to their conversation in the kitchen? It’d been so short that Multi hadn’t even considered someone could’ve heard it. So brief.. barely an exchange of words, even if they were important.
Multi steers his entire body, twisting in his chair to face Roier completely. “Me and Tina, what?” He asks; hoping for anything but for Roier to say he overheard the conversation. Anyone else knowing about his feelings for Katie, before Katie herself, would be another failure on Multi’s part. Even if, seeing the way things are going regarding that whole situation, he’d rather not have the feelings at all.
Much less anyone else knowing about them.
Roier huffs, leaning in over his desk. “Someone told me you two were seeing each other.”
“Excuse me?” Multi deadpans, and he can’t help his expression falling as flat as it does. “Seeing each-.. what the fuck are you even talking about?”
With a tilt of his head, “oh. It’s not true?”
“Me- with Tina? Does that not sound crazy to you?” Hisses Multi, stamping a hand against his desk. “Who told you this?”
“Ewroon.” Roier says, looking surprised, despite the outrageousness of his own words. Does he not understand how little Tina even knows Multi, vice versa? And for the umpteenth time, the only girl Multi has any mind for is Katie.
Wait- Ewroon? Multi snaps out of his own miserable mind, and he leans back in his seat slightly, befuddled. “Ewroon.” He echoes, humorless laughter he just can’t stifle bubbling out of his chest. “That fucking bitch.” Fumbling with his things, Multi looks around. “Who else did he lie to? Who did he tell this, Roier?”
Clearly not having expected his friend to go all frantic, Roier stammers a moment. “Uh- I dunno, we were all at lunch- and he just mentioned that he seen you and Tina talking.. or something. At the party.”
So Ewroon overheard their conversation.
And instead of telling Katie, who the entire fucking situation is about, he went and twisted the story to his liking. God. He couldn’t do this one little thing.. and to think that Multi considered him family at some point.
No wonder Katie’s avoiding him! Multi wants to throttle Ewroon, the greedy little…
“Where are you going, man?” Roier asks, absolutely lost.
“That liar.” Multi bouts in a fit of rage, standing up, chair screeching against the floor. At this rate, he's not sure if he cares about anyone hearing. Just by the insult alone— he feels it’s obvious who he’s fussing about.
People stare. Multi can’t find it in him to care, not now. “Does- do you think Katie’s heard about this?” He leans over Roier’s desk, hushed now— at least trying to save some dignity. He’s already known as the ‘science kid.’
For the past week; nothing in his life has made any sense. Now it’s all coming together in the worst way possible.
Leaning away from Multi slightly, Roier nods. “No duh. She’s Ewroon’s bestie. Why?”
Shit. Why wouldn’t she have heard? Multi quietly reruns his life over the course of the week. Katie gets all weird around him after he comes back from the conversation with Tina, and after Ewroon comes back with his car he tells him he's messed up, and Katie avoids Multi after that like the plague.
It wasn’t his fault!
“Um- did you see where Katie went? I need to.. I need to talk with- with her.” He stammers, unable to help himself, mind spinning with all the information he's just processed. All he needs to do is tell Katie about what happened and explain himself. There’s no him and Tina, even in a friendly way, really. “No. I haven’t. Maybe you should ask her brothers, man.” Roier rubs the back of his neck.
With that, Multi sets off. This time, it’s his turn to pace like a madman. Around the school— Multi searches for Ash, for Don, fast as he can.
Eventually, he finds Ash and Ewroon. Together, as per usual. Ewroon bent, leaned over the water fountain. Ash watches him with an unamused expression, swiping his long braid over his shoulder and rolling his eyes.
“Tch,” Multi cant help but to scoff— Ewroon gets people he can trust in his life; and he ruins everything Multi has? No. If it’s the only thing he does in this scenario.. Ewroon won’t be getting out Scott-free like he usually does.
He storms up to the two, tugs Ewroon back from the water by his shirt, whirls him around so he can push him against the wall. “You bitch!” Multi spat, glaring unwaveringly at the boy. Ewroon blinks, caught off guard, but he clearly knows exactly what this is about. Wiping the water from his face from the sudden jostling around, Ewroon exhales, half-laugh, half-gasp. “What? What did I do?” His hands raise in surrender.
“Woah- woah, Multi, what the hell?” Ash intervenes, hands reaching out placatingly, watching the two. “What are you doing?”
Multi looks at Ash, someone he's wronged again and again, and sighs. Then again— it isn’t that they've always been on opposite sides of this school. “Ask your boyfriend here, Ash. What’s. Wrong?” He gives Ewroon a pointed glare, stepping closer.
Ash, both disturbed by the title and the situation, looks at Ewroon. Multi feels a sick sense of satisfaction at that. Figures; even the people who love Ewroon don't entirely trust him. “Look, Multi, whatever you're mad about, it isn’t my fault.” Says Ewroon, looking at Ash and then at Multi— he has something to lose here. A thing on the line.
Gritting his teeth, trying to collect composure in increments, Multi scoffs. “It’s all your fault! Every time Katie has something good, you walk into her life and screw everything up!” He throws his hand out to the side, gesturing at nothing. Ears pinning, tail thrashing low behind his legs, Ewroon huffs. His face is scrunched in thought, probably trying to find a good excuse.
“Katie? What could I have done to her?” Says the red panda, carefully, speaking in Polish as to avoid the confrontation being understandable to Ash.
“What haven’t you done!? And now, you are being greedy. You're always after her attention, and- and..” Multi stammers, palming his face. He needs to breathe. If he doesn’t collect himself now, he’ll inevitably erupt. “Why don’t you tell Ash what you did, huh? To finally tear away the very last person that I care abo… trust- that I trust!” He can feel his heart racing; thudding unnaturally hard against his chest. It’s an awful thing to feel. From time to time, Multi wishes he simply wasn’t human. That way he wouldn’t have to be so affected by these kinds of things.
If he couldn’t feel anything at all, this wouldn’t be so bothersome.
Ash stands to the side, heels grounded in case he needs to pull the two apart. Katie being his unbiological sister, more in great friendship than a real sibling bond, he has to pick here. Multi never liked that both of Katie’s ‘brothers’ were involved with Ewroon. Someone she's very openly been wronged by many times. “Multi, what are you talking about? What.. uh.. what happened to Katie?” He frowns, giving Ewroon a pointed look before looking back at Multi.
Multi cares for Katie more than any of the other people she holds close. He knows that for certain. He has to, because seeing as these are the options? By a long shot. “Nothing. Ewroon knows what he did. He’s a fucking liar.”
Turning his body to Ash, Multi steps back. “Where is she? I need to talk with her.”
“Uh. I don’t know- I saw her with Mike, I think.” Ash says, answering more out of concern for Katie than an obligation to reply to Multi. His shoulders are squared, hands balled into fists by his sides.
“Just so you know, Ewroon, you are completely wrong. And you are also hurting Tina by the things you’re telling people.” Multi says, looking sideways at the other boy before turning around on his heels. “Hope you’re happy— because you aren’t just losing Katie in all this.”
Ewroon is quiet. Multi doesn't know why, doesn’t stay to find out. Behind him, he can hear Ash asking what he means by ‘hurting Tina.’
Where is Mike? Where’s Katie? Hopefully, they're still together. He is so exhausted from constantly searching endless dead trails as to where Katie might be.
Just as he’s about to strand the two completely, Ewroon speaks up again. “You think you are ‘something good’ in Katie’s life? Multi,”
“Ewroon, let it go, man,” he can hear Ash say.
Multi freezes, not looking back, listening.
“You’re going to ruin her eventually. She’s lied to you before, she’ll do it again. Don't you realize it? Katie isn’t dumb— she might think you care now; but when she finds out the things you’ve done..”
“Shut up.”
“She’ll leave you.”
“Shut. Up.”
“And you know it.”
“Shut. Up!” Multi whips back around, and he recognizes the look of pure satisfaction on Ewroon’s face— the one that says he's won without trying.
No. No. He isn’t winning this.
Before he can think, he’s lunging at Ewroon, closing the distance he’d made in a few seconds.
Knuckles meet bone, blood is introduced to concrete, staining, seeping in his fingernails. A dull ache lingers over his cheek, stinging his scalp when Ewroon reaches to yank his hair and get him off of him. Claws in his arm, hands around Ewroon’s throat, hands around his. It’s dizzying in its pace. Multi isn’t thinking, he isn’t sure if he’s even in control of himself. All he can even register is the need to drive Ewroon’s face into the ground until it’s unrecognizable— until he's satisfied with the result. People begin to crowd around the two, and he can hear cheers and gasps throughout the crowd whenever either of them get a hit in.
Ewroon swings his arm upward, an unceremonious punch landing on Multi’s jaw that knocks him backward slightly. Stumbling, Multi grunts and loses his footing— then as he's about to step forward, Ewroon lunges.
Both of them crash onto the ground, in a heap of limbs and grunts. Multi swivels his body weight and twists them around so he’s straddling Ewroon’s waist. The red panda plunges a hand upward and seizes Multi’s eye, clawing downward, then holding him by a dread, he lands a punch somewhere on his cheek.
“Jesus!” Ash yelps, unsure of what to do. “Ewroon-“
Reeling back, ignoring the pull at his scalp, Multi slams his fist into Ewroon’s nose, cheekbone, not even really winding his arm back. Just mindless clobbering. Eventually, Ewroon gathers his wits and squirms enough so he can grab Multi’s arm, hold it to the ground and disarm him, then wind up a leg and kick him backward, square in the stomach.
He lands by Ewroon’s boots, chest heaving, breath spent. Multi isn’t an athletic boy, and Ewroon’s life is spent in random exerting activity. But before Ewroon can haul himself back to Multi, Ash is pulling him up and away. “Get- you fucking idiots,” grunts the boy, holding Ewroon by his arm. “Stop!” He shouts at Ewroon, then yanking him by the ear. With a frustrated growl, Ewroon retreats backward a little.
Multi wipes his mouth with the back of his sleeve. Everything tastes and smells metallic, his fists stained vermillion and one of his eyes shut in favor of the sharp pain he experiences when he opens it. His arms are shaking as they hold him up from the ground, head too heavy for his neck. A groan escapes his lips as he slowly heaves himself up onto his feet.
Someone's at his side, now, grabbing his arm, throwing it over their shoulder. Everything fucking hurts. Ewroon packs a punch, for sure, but Multi’s positive that he dealt some damage on him, too.
Ears ringing, mind reeling, he makes half a mind to look at whoever’s aiding him.
It’s.. Katie.
She’s yelling at someone, or maybe just talking. He can’t tell.
Katie. Katie. Katie.
When did she get here? Is she okay?
“He is about to fucking pass out, you assholes! No. I'm not waiting. One thing he's not gonna do is sit in an office, waiting for you to expel him!” Katie barks, pulling him closer to her side. “Fucking idiots.” She’s grumbling, helping Multi get away before anyone can say anything else. “You two should get out of here as well, before the staff sees you.” Her eyes linger on Ewroon, and she snorts slightly, turning the two of them around.
Her face is scrunched up, ears pinned. Hopefully she isn’t hurt. Multi hopes she wasn’t there the whole time, he got his ass beat for a moment there. The end was okay. His head is spinning, vision blurring further with each trudge forward.
For most of the journey, he blanks out. The mind-numbing pain is enough to keep him quiet.
Only does he open his eyes when he feels himself being settled down onto some mattress. Head lolling, he glances around. “Katie,” he manages, one of his hands aiming for her arm and ending up in her hair. With a grunt, Katie props him against the wall. The nurses office? Is that where they are? “Are you alive?” She whines, hands on his shoulders. “Stay awake. I- what the fuck even happened? Why were you and Ewroon fighting?”
Despite her fussing, she flits around the room, eventually stumbling upon a medkit.
“Katie.” Multi mumbles again, focusing his blurry vision on her. “Katie.”
“What!?” She snaps, walking over and placing the medkit down next to him. “I don’t know how to do this shit.. why did you do that? Man.. you’re gonna get expelled. Idiot.” Katie rummages through the contents of the box.
All he can think is of her. Pain. Pain. Katie. Katie.
Katie. “I l’v.. ou.” Every word makes his lip split a little further. His throat is hoarse from the pressure priorly forced on it.
“What?” She gives him an unimpressed look, and then it falters into worry when she actually observes his face.
“I..” a shaky hand reaches out for her, “lo..”
“Multi, we don’t have time for this.” Nonetheless, she takes his hand, looking at the bruises littering his knuckles. “Shit. I got a look at Ewroon, he.. pretty fucked up. What the hell did he say that made you so pissed?”
Frustrated, Multi closes his eyes. So many hits to his head, he nearly lost consciousness on the way here. Let me talk, he thinks. “I don..” he mutters, “I don’li…ke Tina.”
At that, she pauses.
“What?”
Finally. He got her attention. Wiping his nose, the blood smearing further across his face, she winces. “Katie, I-“ Multi leans in, one hand on the table, the other successfully holding her face.
She recoils a little at the blood on his fingertips, but her shoulders relax as soon as he swipes his thumb over her cheekbone. “You what?” Katie prompts, her hand coming up to rest atop of his. Her hands are warm— as they always seem to be, replenishing some of the feeling to his own.
Multi leans in further. It isn’t just the metal of his own blood he smells anymore, it’s her, it’s the vanilla of her perfume. He inhales, it’s all Katie. “I lo—“
The door slams open. Katie practically leaps away from Multi, her hands slipping behind her back like she’s hiding something. Multi can’t help his eyes rolling, the frustrated tut that escapes him.
“Katie-!? Oh.” It’s Don, of course it’s Don. “Shit. What the hell happened to him?”
Multi feels a headache, that isn’t because of the fight, coming on. “Urgh..” he groans, plucking one of the pain-relief tablets out of the medkit himself. With shaky fingers he rips one of them open.
Clearly agitated, Katie looks between Don and Multi. “You mean you didn't see the fight? How did you find us?” She asks, fetching some water from one of the dispensers and hurrying back to give it to Multi. With an appreciative glance, he takes the water and uses it to swallow the pills. “No. What the fuck happened? Man, Ewroon looks like shit.” Grins lopsidedly, Don, as he runs a hand over his head, stepping further into the room. “Did he do that?” Don asks, pointing a finger at Multi.
Multi purses his lips, winces at the split it does his bottom lip.
Katie sighs, rubbing the blood off of her face left by Multi’s fingers. “Yup. Shockingly.” She chuckles, leaning against the bed. “Where’d they take Ewroon?” The girl asks, crossing her arms, trying to seem casual. At Katie’s concern for Ewroon, Multi can’t help his frown, hand subtly tugging at her sleeve. Why does it matter, he wants to ask, what happens to Ewroon?
Don clicks his tongue. “Dunno. Ash told me to leave him be, then went after him. Dude booked it outta the school, I think.”
Katie sighs, gently prying Multi’s hand away and setting it back on his leg. She gives him a sort of girlish grin and then she turns back to Don, stepping away from the bed. With her so far, five or four feet away, Multi feels even colder than usual. “Those two are close, aren’t they?”
At her observation, Don stiffens slightly. Of course the optimal answer would be ‘no.’ But they both know it isn’t the answer she’ll be getting. “Guess so, yeah.”
As was Don, Multi thinks about saying. Part of him wants to remind Katie that he’s the only one— well, exempting Mike, that's never wronged her. Maybe aside from the awful haircut Mike had given her sophomore year.. but that's about it. God. Just why doesn’t she see it? It isn’t that he’d like to isolate her, but she could seriously use a little help navigating her social life.
Even so, he isn’t really one to talk. People don’t like that she’s involved with him.
“Uh- well, I’ve gotta help.. him.” Katie picks up, gesturing a thumb at Multi. Yes. Yes she does.
Catching the hint, Don nods, “yeah. Yeah. I’ll leave you two to that. Call me if you need anything, Katie, yeah?”
“Yeppers.”
“Alright. See ya, sis. Multi.” With that, Don backs out of the room, dipping away into the hallways.
It’s quiet for a couple of seconds. Multi swallows another pill, dry since he’d finished his water. After a moment Katie whips around, eyes trained on him. “What were you gonna say?” She says, almost desperately so, approaching the bedside again.
Cup in hand, slightly less disoriented, Multi feels the words stunt in his throat. “It’s.. it’s not a good time.” He says as he meets her gaze. “I will tell you when we get home, Katie.” Because surely she’ll go home with him.
“Home.” Multi can hear her echo quietly, corners of her mouth lifting a little. Then, she walks closer again, going through the medkit. “Okay. You’ll tell me, though, I promise you that.” At her insistence, Multi smiles a little. “I wasn’t lying, I do have to help you.” She decides, taking out some antiseptic wipes.
“You dunno what you’re doing.” Multi states, words coming to him.
“Not at all.” Katie nods, ripping the pack open.
He sighs. Well, at least she’s here. Some things he just has to be grateful for rather than question.
Katie cleans the blood off of his face with a bunch of cloth, messily bandaging his hands, slapping a band-aid on all of the small cuts.
As for his eye, she stands close, looking at it. “I don’t wanna give you a fuckin.. stye, or something. Do I just put a band-aid? It’s a cut.” Katie asks, pushing a little closer, one of her hands on his shoulder, the other on his head, steering it this way and that. “No.” He mumbles, looking at the way her eyebrows furrow in concentration, the pull of her lips as they form a frown.
“I have to.. clean it with water. I’ll do it,” he mutters, shutting the scratched eye.
“Well.” Katie grumbles, “at least it’s done nothing to harm your pretty face, right?” She leans back, squinting. “Mostly.”
He’d be blushing if it weren’t for the blood necessary to do so currently soaking all of his band-aids. With a turn of his head, he rolls his eyes. “Shut up.” Multi huffs.
Clearly, his bashfulness is a reward, because she chuckles quietly and helps him onto his feet. “Anywhere else? I wouldn’t want you to have, like, a sprained leg and I only find out after we’ve walked home.” She walks over to the sink, leading him by his sleeve. Multi smiles at her subtlety and then coughs into his arm. “Ah, no. You’ve pretty much fixed it, yeah.” He grants, stopping over at the sink.
Multi turns on the sink and leans over it, head tilting so the water won’t run the blood and germs into his other eye.
°•.•°
Katie watches quietly as she watches Multi clean his eye, or so he says he is. She doesn’t really understand the process of cleaning wounds— seeing as hers are never on her face, but she thinks she’s done a pretty decent job.
What with all the band-aids on his face suggest, anyway— she did great.
Some of them are dampened by the water, dribbling over his cheek. Blood turns the flowing water into a melon-y pink. Katie winces when he does, his expression careful not to move, as it probably hurts when he does.
More than a million questions spin like gears in her mind; all pertaining to Multi. Why had he gotten into a fight with Ewroon? How’d he know she knew about Tina? Really, above all else, she wants to know what he was gonna say. Before Don came in Katie was about ready to kiss away the injuries off of Multi’s face, really. Alas, her composure was kept, even in the face of a very tempting man sitting on a bed in the nurses office.
No, she’s not ashamed of what she likes. An adoring look in a person's eye— whatever one might classify the way Multi was looking at her, while cradling her face, mind you; is practically the key to her heart.
Speaking of, where is the damn nurse? There are so many injury prone people in this school Katie would think she’d be getting paid overtime.
She’s really, really curious of whatever it was that Multi was going to say beforehand. It buzzes like static in the back of her mind, making her feel fidgety and almost nervous. What should she say? Normally, she’d probably just mindlessly jabber off and scold Multi for getting into a fight. For whatever reason she’s just.. scared. Scared of saying the wrong thing, scared of not saying anything at all.
So, probably for her own, selfish sake, she doesn’t think.
“Multi,” the name escapes her throat, probably derived directly from her mind. Because all she can think about is him. “I’m sorry.”
An apology. Okay, she’s winging an apology.
Multi pauses, his hand on the faucet slipping so he can turn off the water. Half of his face wet, he straightens up and looks at her. “Sorry?” Questions the boy, like he's both expecting some bullshit and gathering the patience necessary to deal with her. Katie winces, looking away from him. Ugh. This apologizing business isn’t something she can deal with at all.
“For earlier. I was kind of being an asshole, and I wasn’t really listening to what you were saying.” She manages, one of her hands resting on the countertop beside her. Cringing at the sound of her own voice, “for everything. I- I was avoiding you, and I do really miss Nacho, and I’m sorry I’ve been.. like, weird.”
It’s weird, stuttery, feeling strange and unusual now that it’s out in the air. Katie feels like she’s sucked up all of the air in the room with how stupid that apology was. Well, whatever, it was something. At least it was something.
“Thank you, Katie.” Multi smiles without his teeth, and he’s looking away as well when she looks back at him. Droplets of water fall from the scratched side of his face— further staining his already soiled shirt. Seeing him so gentled, covered in band-aids, kind of makes Katie want to audibly ‘aw.’
“Sorry I dragged you into all of this.” He says, one hand on the back of his neck. A tick of his that she’d filed away before.
Katie shakes her head, sighing, leaning her hip against the counter, facing him. “I really doubt you’re the one to blame for.. however the fuck that fight started.” She chuckles, the air loosening a little.
With a huff, Multi leans back against the counter as well, hands resting on it, his side to Katie. “Ehh.” He tilts his head, shrugging.
Smiling, Katie snorts and leans forward a little. “What? Don’t tell me you're the one who started it.” From what Katie knows, Multi isn’t really the type to go out of his way to provoke someone. At least not enough so that they’ll physically attack him. He can be an asshole from time to time, but it’s nothing that Katie imagines him getting beaten up for. Which, every time she looks at his face, she both wants to laugh at him and hug him. But then again he doesn’t ever really appreciate her hugs. “It was his fault.” Multi says. “He was talking shit, and..” he looked up at her, eyes searching, lidded. Katie looks at him with a tilt of her own head. What’s that look for? “I wasn’t gonna let him get away with everything.”
Ominous ass reply, but alright. Who doesn’t like a little mysteriousness in their man?
…
Who said that?
“And what’s ‘everything,’ Multi?” Katie asks, both curious and simply interested in the sound of his voice as it stutters, picking the right thing to say. She watches the ball in his throat move as he swallows.
He doesn’t sugarcoat anything, “he was telling people that me and Tina were.. together, I guess. And that isn’t true. At all. I couldn’t have you thinking it was.” Multi lets his arm fall to his side, and Katie can tell he’s examining her expression. Can probably practically hear the gears turning in her head as she processes that. “You didn't believe that, did you?”
A wave of shame washes over Katie, warmth pooling in over her cheeks. Her tail dips low behind her and the end curls around her thigh.
Multi doesn’t need her to answer to know that, yes, she believed it completely. He doesn’t need to know that she believed it so much she cried over it. Running her hand closest to the counter over the smooth surface, Katie tuts. “It just..” she tries.
“You believed him?”
Katie bites her lip— what does that mean? She’d been the one to find out about their.. apparent relation. Or lack thereof.
A new question appears in her mind; fervent and uninvited. What was that conversation about, then? The conversation she’d listened in on in an increment, hidden behind a wall.
Who didn’t Multi want to ruin his friendship with?
And, notably, why had Tina been the one to be helping him with it all?
“Ewroon wasn’t the one who told me about it.” Katie admits, the honesty tasting bitter on her tongue. Something in her mouth grew sour whenever she had no choice but to tell the truth. Not that honesty is something she actively struggles to upkeep; just being cornered into having no choice but to tell the truth grates her nerves.
Multi doesn’t say anything. So she continues, “if anything, I told him about it.”
His expression flattens, like he wants her to say something that’ll contradict that statement. She doesn’t. “The night at Aldo’s house, I..” Katie digs deep in the confinements alcohol had locked up her memory in, “I noticed you’d left the room after that stupid fucking charades game.” The heel of her palm presses into the counter, and she starts running that night through her mind. “And.. so I went to look for you, I wanted to say sorry, I guess? But what I found was you and Tina in the kitchen.”
Multi’s face changes, in color, in expression. His calculative stare morphs into something unsteady, almost scared. It looks like dread. She’d say he looked embarrassed, but it’s too caught, almost guilty.
“Katie-“ he chokes out, looking away.
“And- and I heard Tina saying she liked you. Or something. And.. you said you didn’t want to change anything between- well, now I don’t know who, but I guess then I thought it was about her.”
At this, he blinks. “You- wait, what? What, exactly, did you hear?”
The shake of his voice gives her pause. “I didn’t hear who you like, don’t worry. Left before I could.” Katie leaves out the fact that she’d left because it wasn't her. Leaves out the pain in her heart that’d been caused by the fact his interest wasn't in her. And, even now, looking at him, she wants it to be. “It’s really fucking weird that you trusted Tina with that and not me, though.”
What can she say? There’s a platonic way to be let into his heart; a way to print a key to the lock, but with trust.
Multi brings his hands up to his face, palms pressing into his cheeks, fingertips meeting by his glabella. “Oh my fucking god.” He exhales, and Katie perks up in interest. Who is it? Are they that bad, that they're stirring such a visceral reaction from Multi? “What?” She huffs, intrigued.
“You.. you really didn’t hear.. anything else, Katie?” He asks, and his eyes are filled with some sort of strange desperation. Like he both needs her to have not heard and sort of wants her to have. “At all?”
“No. Why? Was it bad?”
“Nothing at all?”
“No. Nothing else, I swear! Otherwise, I’d be able to tell who you fucking ‘fancy’.” She throws her arms up, frustrated with it all despite herself.
He has this expression— this fucking expression, that makes Katie want to beg to know. Or makes her want to demand it out of him. It turns up the radio static in her brain all the way up, twisting the volume until it’s all she can hear. “Who is it?” She asks, dropping the tease. It’s raw, the need to know. Who has Multi’s heart so enraptured, who is so much better than her?
Multi’s mouth opens, shuts, fish-like.
“C’mon, Multi, I’m literally dying to know.”
“I- I can’t tell you. Not now.”
“Not now? What, it’s a boy and you have some weird internal homophobia thing going?”
“What- no? What the fuck?” He exhales, and it’s almost a laugh.
“Are you offended by the thought of being gay or are you offended by- because of the internal homophobia thing?”
“Katie. What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know!” She groans, relieving herself of the sight of Multi, looking away. Katie faces her body away from him and mirrors his position. “Just tell me who it is.”
Multi makes a little sound— back of his throat kind of thing, a whimper if not for the grit of it. So quiet she almost doesn’t catch it, but there enough that it makes for an unpleasant pit in her stomach. “No. I’ll.. I’ll tell you later.” Katie feels her hands ball into fists at her sides, wondering what exactly made her so untrustworthy that he couldn’t tell her. How did Tina find out before she did?
It goes quiet for a few seconds. Katie doesn’t feel a rush to interrupt the silence, and she sure as hell doesn't want to talk.
What, did he want her to ask nicely? Get on her knees and beg for the information? It gets to a point, this curiosity, and she won’t degrade herself to get something from him.
She can only hear him scurry about as he finishes cleaning up his eye.
°•.•°
Multi feels warm all over. Not in a good way, in the way a sickness might overwhelm someone's senses.
It’s quiet, thick with tension he swallows when he opens his mouth. Katie wants to know who the object of his affection is, and rightfully so, but she doesn’t know that it’s.. her.
All of this had been about her. From the beginning, from the moment he’d given her access to his heart. God, does he want to tell her. But telling her means confessing his feelings— which he’d been near ready to do just a couple of minutes ago, baring his heart and whatnot. It’d been a mistake then. Multi has an inkling of a certainty that his feelings aren’t completely unrequited. ‘Platonic’ doesn’t quite properly title the look she’d given him, the insistence to know who he likes. Then again it could very well just be the part of him that’d been confident enough to confess the same night he could admit he liked her.
The dumb part.
‘Like’ doesn’t even graze the surface of what he feels for Katie. Doesn’t give grace to the emotion that she gives his heart, the pain she can cause with just a look. He wants her in a way that he can’t even quite classify himself. Katie has pure dominion over his heart, but she seems almost blissfully aware of the strings round her fingers whenever she pulls at them. It’s palpable, red-hot in a way that isn’t quite red for love, but for anger.
The frustrated expression on her face makes him want to ask her forgiveness.
He needs to know how she feels. And the realization that she’d overheard the conversation about her, somehow heard just enough to get the wrong idea, then went and told Ewroon of all people— is infuriating. Multi wants to be mad at her for that. But he can’t, because he’s more angry with himself that the misunderstanding has bloomed because of a five minute conversation. And she’s been watering it readily, feeding into it.
Ewroon wears the brunt of his mistakes on his face, the miseries Katie brings Multi etched in his skin.
And she doesn’t even know it’s all her. That it’s always been her.
Fuck, Multi barely discovered that much. How doesn’t she know? It’s strange. He’s never hugged Katie back, but now that he’s gotten a taste of what consistent touch from her feels like, he wants so much more. It’s almost selfish. Almost greedy.
And he hates greedy people, and so he’s mad with himself for it all. Frustrated.
He needs to get it off of his chest, but he wants to do it anywhere but school. “Katie.” Multi mutters, avoiding looking in her direction. “Let’s go home, okay?”
She gives an almost theatrically sad sigh. “Schools not over.”
“And? This doesn’t matter. Let’s go.” He huffs, surprised at her sudden rule-following mindset. When has Katie B ever been afraid to bend a rule? To use a perfectly drawn line as a jump rope?
Katie gives a hum. “So you wanna fucking get kicked out of school completely? Multi, you already got into a big fight-“
“I don’t care.” She looks at him. He forces himself to look at her. Everything else unfocuses, like a camera favoring the grandest object in its view. “Let’s go home. Please.”
Surprisingly, that much works. Katie blows some air, cheeks hallowing. “Okay. Fine. Let’s go, then.”
The walk there isn’t very eventful. Maybe aside from the fact Multi is hyper focusing on the girl beside him on the sidewalk as they walk the familiar route to his house, not much happens. Every time they get close enough to brush shoulders he feels like she’s set him ablaze. And it’s nice, until she worms just too close and gives him reason to close the distance.
The sun dances in her hair, the trees above them casting a sunny pattern upon her face. It’s nothing he hasn’t seen before. But it’s sort of that kind of thing you only notice after you've stared for long enough. Multi has seen her crying, knows exactly what expression she makes when she’s thinking. But he's never really sat to think about every pull. Every mind altering grin, skull-splitting stare.
It dawns on him that he’s not as smart as he thought he was.
How had he not known? This feeling has no remarkable beginning or end— it’s just there. Multi wants to put a pin on exactly the moment he started viewing Katie this way. He can’t. In a way, he almost thinks it’s always been like this. Maybe there’s no differentiating then from now because it’s never changed.
In some strange sense of awe, Multi pulls out his phone and snaps a picture.
The shutter sound is loud enough that she immediately notices, and she frowns. “Hey, delete that! What was that for?”
“Just because,” he explains. Or- doesn’t explain.
“You just love taking pictures.” Katie grumbles, walking a little faster, but she doesn’t seem totally bothered. Seeing as multiple more pictures of her are just a scroll away in his ‘Photos’ app, she isn’t wrong.
By the time they're home, he's rehearsed the conversation they're bound to have in his head over and over.
In some versions, Katie is disgusted. In others, she returns the feeling— but it ends there. Multi really has not a clue about how she’ll handle it. How she’ll respond. Katie is, by nature, awfully unserious. Sometimes infuriatingly so.
Confrontation and obligation both chase her constantly, but she’s fucking faster.
Much to his delight; Nacho is somewhere out with Cucurucho. So they have the house to themselves, whatever that’ll eventually entail.
“Do you want to go to my room?” Multi asks, setting his bag down by the door. Katie tosses hers on top of his. “Yep.”
And he can’t help watching her back as they walk up the stairs. Down the hallway, he’s familiarized himself with every line of her body by sight. If someone asked him to draw Katie he’d probably print a spitting image of her simply by how deeply it’s burnt into his eyes. Palms growing sweaty, air growing thinner, Multi’s already starting to doubt everything by the time they’re in his room. It’s messy— clothes strewn across his bed, papers all spread on his desk, books open and left unfinished. He’s painfully aware of every imperfection now that they’re visible for Katie to see.
Though, she doesn’t seem to notice. She pushes a pair of her own sweats to the side so she can sit on his bed, arms crossed. “Okay. Tell me.”
Multi swallows dryly.
How does he go about this?
“Katie,” he tries. And fails. God, why can't he think of anything but her, sitting on his bed? There’s something new about it. She’s been in his room, sure, but he’s always had a thing about outside clothes on his bed.
Now he can’t help but to want to keep her there.
It’s an uninvited thing, the warmth pooling in his stomach.
“Yes?” She huffs, eyebrows pinching in a little. “Come on, just tell me.”
Does she even know the weight that knowing the truth will settle on her shoulders?
Biting his tongue, freeing it to speak, Multi steps forward a little. Testing. Adjusting. “I.. I don’t know how to say this, Katie.” He presses a palm to the side of his bruised face.
Katie’s legs widen as she hunches forward, elbows to her knees. After a frustrating bout of silence, she groans and heaves herself off of the bed. She paces about. Circling him, going from one end of the room to the other. “Multi, whoever you like cannot be that fucking bad. Seriously- how many girls do you even know? I'm convinced it’s a boy, still. And even if it isn’t, when have I ever been unsupportive!?" She rambles, hands in her hair, face prettily pinched up.
Multi feels his face heat up more than he hears her words.
His fingernails press crescents into his palms, his head dipping low.
°•.•°
“It’s you.”
At first, Katie thinks she’s caught the end of a sentence— quieted to her ears beneath her incessant yapping.
She stops pacing the room so she can look at him. “It’s me, what?” Her pacing ends right in front of his messy desk. Through the window, strips of sunlight paint patches of Multi’s skin a light, glowing golden. His lips are pursed— expression that of a kicked dog, or someone who has what they want in front of them and is resisting taking it. What comes off as a strange desire directs the silence into an awkward tension.
Just that this awkwardness makes Katie’s body tense up. Makes her feel warm— but not fuzzily. Like the moment before she’s throwing a basketball and expecting it to hoop. Triumphant, confident in herself, but nervous to the point she can’t even think of anything else.
It’s.. distracting, that's for sure.
Multi dips a pink tongue over his lips, Katie doesn’t know why her eyes follow the action.
He exhales shakily, “it’s you. I was talking to Tina about you.”
Oh.
Oh.
Katie’s heart stutters, as does her mind. She can’t help the instinctive smile that appears on her face, the way her eyes dart away. Had she heard that right? No, no way. “You.. like me.” It’s more of a statement than a question, really.
He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to. In zero words, he confirms her biggest fear.
Katie inhales, steady as her overwhelmed mind will let her, “oh my god. This- you-.. when?” She feels panicked, almost. Can’t help but to smile in the face of her own nervousness. She picks at her fingers— resisting the urge to crack the stiff knuckles there. So he likes her.. in that way?
Multi doesn’t look any better than she does, his face dusted a charming flush. “I- I don’t know.” He croaks.
He doesn’t know? Katie swallows. Oh, god.
So literally everything is her fault. From the very beginning, the whole party incident and the entire week afterward. Had she just talked to Multi— none of this unromantic game of tag would’ve happened. Another apology, one that isn’t mindless, topples to the tip of her tongue, blocked only by the fact her lips are sewn together.
Guilt pricks at her conscience, emptying her mind. Katie’s never necessarily felt like a bad person. Never had anyone’s words managed to dull her sparkle, rather actions, but.. yeah. She’s admittedly been a little bit of an asshole. Couldn’t have been that bad for Multi, though, right? Not like he could’ve missed her much anyway. For the most part, Katie functioned pretty well without the guy. So, like, surely that was the case for him as well.
…
“Say something,” he whispers, voice nothing short of needy. “Anything.”
Katie looks back at him. The tension has grown so thick she can almost choke on it. What can she even say to that? Her confidence dies a shameful death in Multi’s palms. Or a blissful one. She’d do a lot for his touch right about now.
“I love you.” Is what she settles with. Why does that hurt to say? God, she’s pathetic. “It- I knew- holy fuck. Um.. I only realized it when I thought you liked Tina, at the party. But.. yeah, really miserable moment of my life.” Apologize. Apologize. Apologize.
Multi’s eyes widen a little, his mouth opening like he’ll say something, but he just stares. Like he’s afraid to touch on the silence in fear of shattering it in its fragility. Katie’s just as afraid, she thinks, to ruin what’s been made.
“I love you.” He eventually echoes, hands loose at his sides, expression blown.
It makes her wanna whimper, kinda. Everything. Whether that be by animalistic nature or something more personal, she doesn’t care to know.
Most of all, she’s weirded out by her own willingness to be in this situation.
Katie isn’t an emotional girl. Not really, not when it comes to being vulnerable. Crying in front of people usually meant theatrics, ploys to gain their sympathy. Or pity. She’s never been picky. She’s also never been careful with how she speaks to people— never picked pleasantries over honesty. Down to her core; she’s charming. But never had her charms really served her romantically, and in some ways they'd even stunted her in that department. Apparently Multi is somehow smarter and dumber than everyone else. Falling for someone who’s boyfriend just died is probably a little questionable, of course, but it’s more questionable that she is eagerly returning the feeling.
Falling for someone who chose to ignore you instead of fixing an easily solvable issue is also incredibly questionable. And dangerous. Katie wonders if he knows that she’s as imperfect as she is dedicated. He's smart, she knows. But love can make a person really dumb, blindsided in a way that can't be cured unless they find out things for themselves. She’s a good person. Right? Multi isn’t just.. blindsighted. There’s legitimate reasons to love her.
She’s horrible at these things, at vulnerability, at not acting or playing a role. During the long term of her life where she’d practically fill an entire hallway with just her sobs over Tomate— some part of her had been lost with those tears. The part of her that could love without question. The part that probably wouldn’t have questioned whether or not Tomate had a valid reason to love her or not. Love wasn’t expendable then. A void in her heart had been filled when she fell in love with Tomate. Katie had seen herself at the altar, in an actual not-charade-game veil, looking into his eyes.
He’s dead, though. Multi only looks the part, but he isn’t. Katie would prefer it stay that way.
Perhaps it’s wrong to think of Tomate at this moment. But it isn’t lost on anyone that she was certainly in love with him; and it definitely isn’t lost on her that she’s in love with Multi, now. Words.. couldn’t quite accurately depict how she feels for him. Not like they did so easily back with Tomate.
Stop thinking of Tomate, she thinks with a bite at her own lip.
Alas, words themselves don’t seem appropriate, now. Not at this particular point of time.
She takes her own initiative and steps forward. Multi stands so completely still that she’s almost worried she’s ‘Medusa’d’ him by accident. It takes a moment before she’s standing in front of him, maybe a foot away. His eyes don’t ever leave hers— holding scarily intense eye contact that gives even Katie a little chill.
Or maybe it's a thrill, quieting the static. They rhyme anyway.
What the fuck is she thinking? God knows she probably can’t kiss to save the world.
“Multi..” she mumbles, breathy in a way she can’t force. Even to her, her voice sounds broken. The boy in question keeps staring— drinking in the sight of her like a dog. Thank god he’s not angry with her about the whole thing. More so that he doesn’t know the full story.. but still.
°•.•°
His name on her mouth sounds devastatingly enticing. In that almost winded, erring on whiny, tone.
Multi doesn’t move, doesn’t usher her closer, closer, closer, even if it’s only his mind that's preventing him from doing so.
“Say my name again.” Greedy. It’s all so, so selfish. Spiraling in his chest like mold that he happily invites. If he could, he’d keep to this moment forever. Keep her within arms length and have her safe in his view forever. Doesn’t she know what she does to him? She has to. “Please.”
Katie grins, wicked and long across her face. This one is different from the coy little smile from before. One of her hands reaches out for his shoulder, tantalizing every part of him she touches. “Multi..”
If he’s going to keep his composure, he’ll have to do absolutely nothing but think. Think away the desire before it can further disease his brain. “Katie, I-“ his train of thought crashes tragically fast when her other hand rests on his other shoulder, and the one already there loops around to caress the back of his neck. He swallows.
Okay, well, it’s hard to deny himself when she’s this close.
“You what?” She asks, knowing every bit of the damage she’s dealing him.
“I really hate it when you leave.” He mumbles, eyes dropping to her lips, then up at her eyes again. Something clearly clicks for her in the moment he says that, hands pausing their journey over his clothes. “Don’t do that again.”
Katie blinks, gets a little closer. Any closer and he thinks he’ll…
“What do you mean?” She asks, fingernails grazing achingly slow into his scalp.
“You were.. eh.. avoiding me. For a week.”
“Oh. Right.” Katie sighs, and he catches her breath on his mouth. “I hated it. Nacho missed you a lot.” He whispers, leaning in a little closer. “I did, too.”
“Did you?” She chuckles, and he can practically feel the vibration on his skin. Closer. Closer.
“Yes. I did.”
“Sorry, I.. I was convinced you were secretly in love with another girl. You can’t blame me.” He can. They both know it.
Regardless, “You should’ve talked to me about it, Katie.”
“I am now.” She leans in, tip of her nose bumping against his a little bit. It’s awkward, it’s juvenile, it’s so Katie. Multi could get addicted to the smell of her perfume— or is it her hair? Body lotion? Does she just wake up smelling that way?
It’s distracting enough- she’s fucking distracting enough, that he’ll neglect to mention the whole situation that led them here. Because if he does blame her openly, which he feels sort of permitted to do so, he’ll risk this. Risk her in his personal space.
Part of him wants to be the only person who gets to be this close to her. The only one who gets to experience Katie like this. It’s ugly, a sort of adoration that has teeth. Gnawing at Katie, hoping to finish her off and savor her at all once.
But he doesn’t mind it, if it’s about Katie. “Yes.” He breathes, leaning into her touch.
Katie exhales, something akin to nervousness flashing across her features as her arms circle around his neck. This is happening. They’ve done more than admit a feeling, and now..
“I’ve..” she mutters, hesitant, “nevermind.” And with that, she reels him in.
Their lips meet in a tentative peck— her eyes lidding and his coming to a close. Multi’s never wanted for something so badly. It’s a desperate desire, fiery, being fed by the way she tugs at him. Perhaps too rough for such a gentle press of faces.
Finally, he allows his hands to reach up, making a gentle pause on her hips before pulling a little at her waist. Katie pulls away first, expression focused. But they don’t get very far from one another. “Are you okay?” He asks, given the hush the kiss had managed to give her. Fingernails feather-light over his head, she nods.
It’s quiet for a moment, and he gazes into Katie’s eyes, laps up the sight.
And then she’s chasing his mouth, and he’s following suit. It’s a little more exploratory— finding restrictions, still holding the air of carefulness that’d been there before. She tugs his hair one way and it elicits a hum. Hands running over her waist and essentially hugging her there, one palm pressed against the small of Katie’s back, he pulls back for air. “Katie,” he mumbles. Her name is like a promise on his lips, the taste of her present there as well.
“Multi.” Katie whispers, pressing further, testing. Really, all the power is in her hands here, and Multi doesn't know if she knows, but he’d do anything to keep her here. Anything. Her eyes only close after a few moments— their breaths mingling. Faces so close it might be impossible to imagine them apart. Now that he’s gotten a taste of her, both metaphorically and literally, he’s dully afraid that he won’t be able to let go.
Whenever she presses a little harder than usual, his lip hurts, seeing as it hasn’t even been given time to heal properly. But it feels right.
.. not that he wants to explore what that means.
She doesn’t seem too familiar with it, whether that be him or kissing, but he doesn’t mind. Playing behind the scenes has always been his thing. Doing just enough that he's a director but so little upfront he’s always reading the script for the very first time.
Eventually, after enough clashes of teeth and bumps of noses, she pulls backward with a huff. It’s something like frustrated determination on her face, her eyes searching his before they drop down. “What?” He says, a little worried, a little humored by the focus she’s putting into this. Is she not enjoying herself? Truly, if she isn’t, Multi will go pretty far to ensure that she does.
She’s always been a little hard to please. Not that it’s a noticeable thing, because she never tells someone upfront. But he thinks he’s mastered in his craft of recognizing every emotion as it plays out on her face.
With a small groan, she leans forward, hunched over a little so she can press her forehead against his shoulder. “Just.. this is my first kiss.” She says, unashamed, perhaps a little embarrassed. There’s an undeniable quiver to her voice.
Unsure of what to say, he snorts. “I could tell.” Multi teases, one of his hands coming to rest on her head. Beneath his touch, her ears twitch.
She lifts her head up to glare at him. “Oh, fuck off.”
“Kidding, kidding,” he laughs at her expression, hand from her head slipping so he can cup her face instead.
“Then why’re you laughing?” Katie snickers, shaking her head, giving an irritated thrash of her tail.
“I’m not laughing.”
“You definitely are.”
“Okay. But I didn’t mean it,” he offers, still smiling. Katie rolls her eyes and gives him a comically loud kiss on the cheek— pulling away with an audible ‘smack.’ Multi groans at the feeling of her saliva on his face, not at all bothered, but he’ll act as if he is. “Stop,” he shudders. She presses a few more kisses to his face.
When he wipes at his cheek, mostly out of an instinctual habit, she frowns. “It’s so disrespectful to wipe away someone's kiss, y’know.” She unbinds one of her arms from behind his neck so she can poke at his cheek.
He rolls his eyes. “I was wiping away the kurwa saliva, Katie.”
“You didn't seem so bothered by it when we were kissing.”
“That’s different.”
“How the- how’s that?”
“My cheek cannot taste anything.”
Katie stares. Multi gazes.
After a moment, “it feels gross.”
She laughs at him, “no, you can’t take that back.” Katie lets her hand fall to his shoulder, fits of giggles escaping her as she looks away. If the fact he stands by his words weren’t true, he’d be more embarrassed. “Real smooth, Multi.”
Can't a boy enjoy a kiss? Jeez. Admittedly, he is a tad bothered by the space between them. Multi playfully tugs at her face, nipping at her nose. She recoils a little, but doesn’t get far considering his grasp on her waist. “You talk too much, Kaska.” He hums, watching her eyes as he dips down to instead gnaw gently at her bottom lip. She gives a sharp exhale through her nose. “You love it.” Katie accuses; perfectly correct, and knowingly so. Her smile loosens a little as he leans in, closing the gap between them again.
All his senses speak Katie’s name, fingers digging into her hair, other hand centering the small of her back. He can feel her smiling into it— and it only manages to further encourage things. Of course, she’s never one to follow without some form of flair, so she tilts her head. Maybe he’s completely, entirely biased, but clearly the inexperience of a first kiss doesn’t affect someone as flawless as Katie B.
Perhaps not perfect, he thinks as he kisses at her lips, open-mouthed, but flawless. She exhales nasally into it— pulling him impossibly closer.
Only thing flawed about her are her morals. But, seeing as he’s not exactly deterred by anything, that slightly narcissistic personality of hers is just as alluring. Perhaps even more so than a normal one.
Air comes in short supply, hands start moving to find new and inventive ways of getting closer. He doesn’t realize that they're starting to tip over her way until she makes a noise. “Multi,” she breathes between kisses, “I am not that flexible, damn.”
“Mm.” Is all he can muster, barely removing his mouth from hers at all as he walks her backward. “Sorry..”
She bumps into the desk. He uses the new surface to then comfortably keep her still. They break apart to breathe, foreheads together, breaths interchangeable. “Jesus, Multi.” Katie mumbles, one hand leaving his back so she can wipe her mouth with the back of her hand. At the action, Multi’s eyes narrow accusingly.
“You get mad at me for wiping away your kisses, but when you do it, it’s fine?” He presses, simply to get a reaction rather than out of genuine accusation.
Katie grins, caught. “Fuck off.”
He could make a million jokes at that. However, his mind is too borrowed.
So he leans back in, easing into a gentle kiss at the corners of her mouth. “Hypocrite.” He mumbles. She laughs quietly, one hand supporting herself on the desk, the other arm looping beneath his arm and allowing her hand to ride up his shoulder blade.
In its wake, her touch leaves a trail of warmth through Multi’s clothes. He missed her. A lot.
Never is she getting away from him again, he decides, as she pulls him back in.
°•.•°
One thing Katie didn't expect at all is for Multi to be so damn eager. Like, of all people— Multi, a shockingly talented kisser. Even if his lips are a tad chapped, and she’s almost sure every wince he gives every now and then is out of pain. He doesn’t ever mention it, so she doesn’t, either.
It’s almost like he’s drowning out his own thoughts as well as hers. She doesn’t want to think he has any ulterior motives, of course, but she’s unfortunately too in her own brain not to do so. Not a single path in her life has been taken without someone or something having to be lost. Being weary of everyone and everything is a simple byproduct of that fact. Especially with something so gentle, so agonizingly docile.
Would he use it against her? Would she use it against him?
Katie hums into the kiss, their.. third one presently, and she hardly gets any time to ease into it. Multi’s arms encircle her waist— her back essentially arched to press her body into his as he happily returns the kiss. At least she knows she isn’t alone in this.. feeling. It’s direct, almost overwhelmingly so, but she isn’t complaining. Not even a little bit. They kiss like they have one another to lose, like it’s their last instead of their first. Everything else drowns out around them as Katie swipes her tongue at his lips.
Well, it might be her first time, but she’s watched too many films for it to be an introduction entirely. Multi, probably thrown off guard, pauses a moment. She’s almost worried she’s somehow pushed too far— until he opens his mouth enough for the invitation to be unmistakable. Almost as excited to learn as she is that it’s Multi she’s breaking the shell of, she coaxes her tongue into his mouth.
Literally, she has no fucking clue what happens after that.
Dizzyingly so, Multi reciprocates, pressing and pulling at her, fingers digging into her skin over her clothes. Not hard enough to leave marks, but definitely enough that it keeps her still. Katie returns his vehemence with an equal amount of grace.
In other words, absolutely none.
Every new press of their mouths is messy, slightly uncoordinated. Like they’re both vying for a certain amount of dominance and also trying to see where the other stands. Honestly, the fight is the exhilarating part of it all. Her nails slightly dig into his skin, his kisses become gentle, exploratory bites.
Like she said, words couldn’t capture how she feels for him. But actions could; and in Katie’s world, actions mean a million times more than any word could. Still— compliments are always entirely welcome.
She’s almost forgotten her name when she accidentally moves her hand on the desk too far, knocking off one of his books. Katie pulls away to look, startled by the noise that wasn’t their occasional vocalization.
Multi practically whines, chasing her mouth, but stopping just short so he can figure out what she’s fussing about.
Jesus. The guy had been so focused he hadn’t even noticed? “Dropped something,” she explains, more breathless than she’d accounted for. “Should probably pick that up. Might be important.” He’s panting a little more, stamina probably much lesser than hers. Katie’s always preferred a stronger man, of course; but his brain will simply have to do.
He gives an unimpressed glare at the book. As if it had been the inanimate objects fault that it fell. Quietly, he mutters something in Polish before looking back at her. “Let’s move, yes?” Completely disregarding the book, lightly reaching at her hand on the desk and pulling at her wrist. “Uh- right, okay. Where?” She huffs, attempting and failing to suppress her laughter.
Multi glances around his room. Katie likes to imagine she can somewhat make sense of his thought process. Which, in her brain, goes a little something like..
A glance to the nearest wall; ‘well, no, I’d hurt precious Katie’s back!
A glance at the door- leaving is stupid. Katie will be upset if that's his idea.
It isn’t, luckily enough, but he doesn't look around anymore. So she’s a little clueless as to where he plans to take this. “My bed?” He offers, biting a little at his lip, the word dying on his tongue as it leaves.
Oh.
Well, okay.
She grins. He winces, probably knowing why. “Not for that, kurwa, just so you aren’t.. uncomfortable, y’know?” Multi explains, rolling his eyes.
Finding words that aren’t pure mockery, Katie sighs. “Such a gentleman! Well,” she gently guides him a step backward, “allow me, beautiful.” Grabbing his hand, she pulls him along with her to his bed.
“Beautiful?” Multi scoffs, not at all fighting her guidance. Katie finds herself filing that away in the back of her brain.
It’s a little shocking, honestly, his utter compliance. Katie initiates one thing and he’s almost immediately up to the task. She’s a little wary of how far that obedience goes— seeing as how it doesn’t quite dignify him in any way when it happens in her own mind. Never does. Part of Katie just can’t imagine herself in a position where she’s begging. For anything. Ever. At least in this context. Otherwise, she’s certainly had her own set of pleas for random shit. Even from Multi, seeing as he conjures most of the ‘random shit’ she has in her possession.
Katie’s mind is no harbor of good.
She wonders if he knows that. And if, knowing it, he loves her the same.
Pushing away the thoughts training her to act as if she’s at threat of being tossed away, she sits on the edge of the bed, holding his hand still. Multi watches her face for a couple of seconds. “What,” she hums, “you don’t like being called beautiful?”
Multi tilts his head, cocking an eyebrow. “What am I, a girl?”
“Boys can be pretty.” Katie grins.
He wears a thoughtful expression, something akin to appreciation adorning his features as he looks at her. “If you say so, Kaska.”
That nickname.
Katie doesn't know where it originated from, seeing as he's the only person who calls her by it. It sounds endearing, almost, fond in a way that makes zero room for anyone else. Maybe from the Polish version of her name. She figures that's the only way it makes sense, anyway. “I do say.”
With that, he smiles down at her, bringing his free hand to push her bangs back. Leaning down to her level, cupping her face, he doesn’t ever lose eye contact. Multi has always been great at that. Even when he was saying something harsh or vulnerable. Always looking, always trying to analyze her expression. There’s something deeper in his gaze, unfamiliar to Katie in its newness, but there. “Of course you do,” he says, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. She smiles into it as well. What with how gentle he is— how could she not love it? Love him?
It’s more gentle than it’d been by the desk. Katie finds it strange, how she doesn’t mind any kind of affection she gets from him. Even before, when he wouldn’t so much as return a hug; she always just liked the idea of hugging him.
Actually she isn’t sure if he just suddenly likes hugs.
Deciding it’s worth the risk, Katie reaches out, grappling her arms around his waist and pulling him in.
He loses balance and gasps, yelping as he lands on top of her on the bed. Katie laughs at his expression, at the way he doesn’t pull his hand from hers even if it’s to hold himself up, which he’s doing with only one arm.
From this angle, she can make out the paleness in his skin, the scars littering the corners of his face like miniature bolts of lighting. His eyes are a perfect dull blue— practically grey, nothing like her own. Bruises litter across his face and his lips are a little redder from all the kissing. She’s always known of his every imperfection, every little detail, but it’s never been something she figured needed cherishing. Now, looking at him, there’s never been anything more worthy of it. One knee on the bed between her legs, other leg supporting his weight on the ground, he exhales. “What was that for?” He huffs, not seeming too bothered anyway.
“Nothing.” She chirps, her hand not clasped in his moving to the nape of his neck. “Nothing?” He murmurs, seeming more intrigued rather than genuinely curious.
Katie shrugs. “Nothing,” she echoes.
“Right.” He deadpans, looking at their intertwined fingers for a beat before back at her face. Above her, his arm begins to shake a little, rattling imperceptibly from the strain of holding himself up. She raises an eyebrow at him— he looks away. “Okay, okay, you can lay down. No need to beg.” Katie grants, smirking knowingly.
Torn between proving her wrong and relieving himself, Multi glares down at her. “I did not even say anything!” He frowns, erring more on pouting, shuffling so he can flop down on the bed beside her anyway.
They turn their heads to face each other, and with a small laugh, Katie turns over so she’s propped on one elbow, leaning over him. “You didn't have to. You were literally shaking.”
And of course, his expression softens as soon as she’s up close. His hand comes up so it can cup her face— they're calloused, his fingers, his hand. Probably from all that work he does in the lab. Seems any bit of space between them bothers him greatly. “Oh, yes, thank you for worrying.” He drawls, sarcasm tinting at the lifts of his accent. Katie always really enjoyed the way he spoke— it stood out, even beyond the accent. The cadence of it, and especially the way he enunciated her name.
With a smile, she leans in, “mm, of course.. wouldn’t want you getting hurt.” She mumbles between soft kisses pressed to his lips, her eyes fluttering shut. “Mhmm.. thank you..” he playfully mutters back, pulling her closer by the back of her head.
Obviously enough, kissing might be her new favorite form of affection.
She wonders.. What's Multi’s favorite?
°•.•°
“Dada? Dada?”
Multi hears Nacho long before he sees him— the little boy's footsteps thumping against the floor, his rambunctious voice ringing throughout the house.
Katie is laid back against his pillows, he's sitting at his desk, picking up a book from the ground.
When they hear their son's voice, they both perk up. Multi knows for a fact that Nacho will be overjoyed to see Katie after so long— he’s a little glad he hadn’t told Nacho about their prior situation. It’ll probably be less confusing for him to.. see his parents, typically unaffectionate and relatively friendly, this way. He watches Katie pull her hair down and flip it over to the front so it’s covering her neck.
Nacho bounds into the room, already wearing a chipper expression. When he sees Katie instead of Multi on the bed; his smile only grows bigger. “Mama!” He says, scurrying to the bed and into her arms. Katie smiles, expression soft as she cradles the little boy in her arms. “Hey, sugar plum..” she coos as he settles in her lap.
“I missed you, mama.” Nacho says, finally noticing that Multi is also inside of the room. “Hi, dada.” He smiles, waving a paw. Multi smiles and stands up from the desk, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed. Katie rocks Nacho in her arms a little and presses a kiss to his hair. “Hello, Nacho.” Multi hums, scooting a little closer.
“Missed you too, baby.” Katie then murmurs, hugging him a little tighter. Nacho sniffs, little bear nose twitching. “Y’smell like dada.” He comments, looking up at her wounderously before glancing back at Multi.
Multi snorts, bringing a hand to ruffle Nacho's hair. “Katie has been on my bed, Nacho. That’s all.”
Well.
Katie gives him a pointed little look, to which he looks away, and then she chuckles. “You have a good sense of smell, don't you, Nacho?”
“Mhm!” He nods happily. “Dada smells like mama, too.”
At that, it’s Multi’s turn to give Katie the sly little glance. Katie rolls her eyes— only to shuffle a little so Nacho is more comfortable. “Does he? Wow,” Katie offers as she smiles down at him. Seeing his family together like this, all smiles and docility, Multi doesn’t understand why he hadn’t realized it before. His family is really all he has. Even through ups and downs, at the end of the day, he has Nacho. He has Katie.
They’re all he has left that he truly cares about.
Especially after what happened to Quackity.. he doesn’t wanna think about it. Not now.
And it’s going to stay that way, he thinks, no matter what he has to do. No matter who he has to come across.
As Nacho and Katie are animatedly discussing Nacho’s day, a boring exam to make sure his voice is working properly, Cucurucho walks in, standing in the doorway. It was already ajar so it’s not really like he was snooping.
Still, Katie gives a slight, nearly imperceptible, startle. Multi doesn’t address it. But it’s filed away— is she afraid of him?
Cucurucho’s hand is fixing his mask as he speaks. “Hello, Katie.” He greets, only giving Multi a nod. Nacho doesn’t need anything more from him, that much is apparent. The child curls further into Katie’s arms.
Katie blinks. “Oh, well, hello.”
Right— Katie really hadn’t been here for awhile now. Her presence is an expected thing in this household. Seems it wasn't only Multi and Nacho who noticed it, too. Cucurucho remains quiet for a moment. “Multi mentioned to me that you requested an examination?” At this, he gestures a gloved hand toward the aforementioned boy. Katie has to think— giving Multi an estranged look. “From that morning before the party?” Multi gently reminds her.
“Right, right. Yes! I would like a little check-up, if that is okay with you.” Katie immediately chirps, tail lifting from where it’d been curled at her side.
Cucurucho nods. “We should begin right now,” he decides promptly. A man of very few words. Multi looks over at Katie, as does a very disappointed Nacho. Katie pops her lips and then looks down at Nacho. “I’ll be back, my son.” She smiles, tapping a finger to his little bear nose and then gently ushering him off of her lap. Nacho immediately crawls over to Multi, standing on the bed to only be at face-level with him.
“Okay- where will we have the exam?” Katie asks, stretching her arms above her head as her legs swing over the side of the bed. Which- strange, they've done this a few times. She really does have a bad memory.
Never one to outwardly show impatience, Cucurucho begins to walk off, expecting her to follow. “Follow me.” He says.
Katie huffs, limbs sore from having laid down for such a long period of time. She looks back at Nacho and Multi and smiles. “Be right back.”
“Love you, Nacho.” The girl says, waving a hand, already starting to walk out.
“Love you, mama.”
“See you, Multi, love ya.” She’s out the door.
Multi starts to reply before he thinks about what she’d said, “bye, Ka-..” he pauses, hand mid-wave, the words dying on his tongue.
It goes quiet. The two left both watch the door where Katie had been, Multi’s hand curling in and lingering dumbly in front of him.
“Mama said she loved you.” Nacho comments at his side, looking at Multi.
Multi swallows. That was something he’d have to get used to. “Yes, Nacho. I heard.”
“Shouldn’t you say it back?”
“… yes.”
°•.•°
Katie sits on an operating table in the center of the mostly white, sterile ‘examination’ room. She never questioned why Cucurucho had access to all of this. Being so powerful over their town, maybe these things come naturally.
And ever since her surgery.. Katie isn’t sure she’s capable of addressing such things, anyway.
Cucurucho isn’t quite too scary on his own. Just an adult version of Nacho, pretty much. But his ominous presence and enigmatic demeanor give him this.. aura. Something she can’t ever seem to get past, no matter how often Multi reminds her that he’s essentially his dad and he’d never harm her. (Unless necessary, he also says, which, not comforting at all.) Arms wrapped around herself, she watches Cucurucho replace his black gloves with those typical doctor-y blue latex ones. It’s quiet, only the hum of the blindingly bright overhead light really giving her any comfort. And that's even if someone could call it comfort.
Katie sighs, her hair managing to act like a blanket. For her shoulders, at least—it’s fucking cold in here. She’s half convinced that Multi’s entire family is cold blooded. “What did you want me to look at, Katie?” Cucurucho asks, voice clipped and clinically distant as per usual. Whenever she speaks with him their conversations are really brief. Not that she wants them to be any longer, but she’d be a bit more comfortable with the guy if he wasn’t so cold.
“My..” she trails off.
“Just to see if anything’s.. y’know, different. Like my eye.”
‘Everything’ is more accurate. Since the surgery, those god awful fucking surgeries, she can’t look at herself in the mirror. Every reflective surface brings her a jolt of fear. Like, she’s looking at her, seeing Katie, but she doesn’t feel like it’s.. her. Maybe a clone. Maybe a completely different entity.
It’s like her mind has been sewn up and stuffed into someone else’s body. Or someone's taken body parts from around the world and sewn them together to make whatever she’s constantly wearing.
Wearing feels a disturbing way to describe it, making her skin feel more like a suit rather than an organ.
Cucurucho spares her the details of what he really did to remove the ‘bug’ or so he calls it. Maybe she is wearing some sort of sick fucking suit, and there’s a zipper somewhere she just hasn’t bothered to check yet. “Okay.” Cucurcho nods.
If she is, she thinks, nobody’s noticed. Nobody noticed a change in her behavior or the littler things like her wardrobe becoming mainly full-coverage items, because any patch of visible skin feels wrong. Even Multi.
Or maybe nothing's changed. Above everything, she trusts Multi. And if he hadn’t noticed anything worth mentioning.. it really could be that she hasn’t changed. Just her mind— her view on things that isn’t wrong but misplaced. Cucurcho walks up to stand close enough so he can examine her face closely. Katie shuts her eyes as he shines a flashlight along her skin, probably searching for anything unordinary. Jesus he’s cold.
“Anything?” She asks, hating how similar his hands feel to Nacho’s, because they hold none of the same warmth.
Cucurucho pauses. “Did you always have these marks on your neck?”
Katie sighs. “Those.. don't you worry about that, okay?”
Multi’s favorite thing is biting, apparently.
If he didn’t have the voice of an A.I, Katie would think Cucurucho sounded weirded out. “.. okay.”
“Hey, you wouldn’t say your son is a vampire, would you?”
“Nacho?”
“No. Multi.”
“… no.”
“Mkay. Good.”
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason. He's pale as shit. Gets it from you, probably.”
“We are not related.”
“.. I beg to ‘fuckin differ.”
With this, he narrows in on Katie’s eye. “Nothing is out of the ordinary. You seem functional, there’s no discoloration anywhere, temperature is warm, and there’s no other notable health concerns.” He lists, stepping back with a tug at his latex gloves. Katie watches him retreat with a small frown. “Nothing looks different?” She asks, though the hope that something is actually wrong is minuscule. More so, she just wants to be sure that she isn’t being dramatic.
“No. Must just be your mind playing tricks on you.” Cucurucho concludes, giving her a stern look before tossing his gloves away in the trashcan.
That's what she’d feared most of all. Great, so she isn’t being possessed or some weird crazy shit— she’s just.. anxious? Melodramatic? Katie’s always been aware that the world will find cruel and unusual ways to punish her, but this? She thinks she’s bitten off more than she can chew. It isn’t even just that she feels funny, it’s that it’s so hard to hide. Because maybe she’s this weirdly apathetic person who’d stand awkwardly if someone asked her to actually express herself.. but she isn’t fucking invincible.
She tuts, looking away from Cucurucho. “Right. Well, thanks for your f—.. thank you for your help, sir. I’ll be on my way.” Katie pushes herself off of the bed and stands on her own, walking toward the door.
“Katie.”
Why does that sound so wrong? Katie turns anyway, not bothering to verbally respond.
“You aren’t experiencing any issues with your.. hybrid changes?”
She blinks. With a twist of her spine, she looks over to see her tail. Funnily enough— she’s a bunny right now. “No. Not really.” She swats a hand, "they've always been out of my control.”
“Okay, then. You're dismissed.”
“Kay.”
Katie doesn't have to be told twice. She walks away and down the same long hallway they’d come in through. Up into the actual house via ladder basement, which, creepy as fuck, and back into the familar house.
Before she sees either of them, she can hear Nacho and Multi upstairs. Maybe neither of them know it, but she doesn’t really care for anything more than she does them. Everyone she physically couldn’t live without is in this house.
Minus Cucurucho.
Katie looks down, realizing her stomach had been growling for whoever knows how long. She’d probably neglected to eat in favor of spending more time with Multi. Then again, she doubts that guy had eaten anything, either. Despite being so nerdy about things he certainly doesn’t know to count a damn calorie.
So she helps herself to his kitchen, snooping around the fridge. Nacho mainly eats sugary shit so there’s two fucking cakes in there. Wonderful. Multi eats like once or twice a day, and Cucurucho could be eating pencil lead for all Katie could know or care. Really there’s no knowing or figuring out whether or not they’re eating properly. If she asks, Nacho will swear he's eaten healthily, and Multi will probably be right there with him. They're both idiots.
At least they're hers, though.
Katie eventually finds out that it’s too late to cook something extravagant. Even microwaving something feels like an overuse of her muscles. Stretching her arms above her head, she slinks away from the kitchen and she heads over to the stairway instead. Maybe they can just order something.
“Katie? Katie?”
Oh. Multi. At the top of the stairs, Multi turns the corner with Nacho in his arms. He looks adorably exhausted— having to hold the little guy. Katie pathetically notes away the softening of his face when they meet each others gaze “How did the exam go?” He asks, leisurely stepping down the stairs, watching his feet as to not trip and hurt Nacho.
“He told me I’m dramatic.” Katie clicks her tongue, stepping aside so there’s room for them to both stand at the foot of the stairs. With a small huff, Multi leans against the railing of the stairs, Katie leans against the wall. “Did he? Or is that just what you heard?” Multi smiles, letting Nacho carefully slip down to the floor.
Katie rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, grinning anyway. “Are you doubting me?” She presses, leaning in a little without her hips leaving the wall. Invading Multi’s personal space has always been a fun thing to do. Watching his face as he both gets uncomfortable and intrigued about whatever it is she’s gonna do, it’s funny. Even before today; getting all up in his face was just a thing she’d do to grate his nerves.
“Never,” Multi hums, looking down, “of course not. Of course not.” He tilts his head slightly and then he looks back up at her. While the sentiment is very sweet; Katie can never tell whether or not he’s being sarcastic about certain things. Closed book, this guy. “Was anything.. unusual? You're okay, yes?”
She sighs, nodding. “Yeah. I guess so.”
“You guess?” He questions, raising an eyebrow.
“Just-“ she glances down at Nacho, who is looking curiously between his parents. “Y’know, I’ll tell you later. We should get food! Im starving.” Katie gives Multi a look, nodding her head toward Nacho. Understanding enough, Multi shrugs. “Maybe.. Popeyes.”
“Don’t fucking start with me. If you want chicken, we should get KFC.”
“Popeyes is- is better, kurwa! KFC.. it’s so bad.”
“No it literally isn’t. You're a hater, and that's okay, but I won’t have you shitting on KFC.”
“I am not a hater. You’re a hater, Katie.”
“We aren’t getting Popeyes.”
“Okay, and so we aren’t getting fucking.. KFC.”
“Fine!”
“Fine.”
Despite their bickering, Katie and Multi are both wearing identical little grins. Katie rolls her eyes at his face and they go quiet for a couple of moments. This is nice, she realizes with a start. And she’s had all of it this entire time. She’s had these stupid little conversations with Multi, the bickering, the relative closeness. And now..
Multi leans in, so does Katie. They meet more leaned against Multi, seeing as she was already close to him. It’s nauseatingly sweet, a kiss shared between, well, lovers. Katie doesn’t bother with the logistics or titles— they're just.. them. Multi and Katie, Katie and Multi. Two names that mean a lot when mentioned simultaneously.
Nacho makes a face, “gross! Ew.” He huffs. “Stop it!” Fusses the little boy, pushing between the two.
Katie laughs, leaning right back against the wall with a small thump. Multi does, too, pressing the back of his hand to his mouth. “Why do mama and dada kiss now?” Nacho asks, gripping Multi’s sleeve.
“You should be happy, Nacho. You have a loving family.” Katie huffs, affectionately ruffling Nacho's hair. Her hands get swatted away and the little boy giggles as he steps backward again.
Of course he doesn’t think she notices, but she can feel Multi’s gaze fixated on her and Nacho.
“I'm hungry, mama.” Nacho chirps, looking at her.
“Okay, okay, baby. Let’s..” she looks at Multi, “let’s go get something, okay? I’ll drive.” With a grunt, she picks Nacho up, his legs wrapping round her hips. “Your father doesn’t have his license. See, when you’re a little older, buddy, I'm gonna teach you to drive so you don’t end up like him.” She coos, already walking toward the front door.
Multi scoffs. “Actually, Nacho, your mama cannot drive for shit. Even if I do not have a license, I drive much better.” As Katie is grabbing the keys from the hook near the door, Multi swipes them from her hand. “Which is why I will be driving, Katie.”
Katie glares. Doesn’t fight it. Nacho giggles at the two, arms wrapping around Katie’s neck. “See, that is what you call illegal, Nacho. If you ever do anything illegal just know you get it from your dada, not your mama.”
Rolling his eyes, Multi leads them to the car. Katie drops Nacho into the backseat while Multi gets into the driver's seat. Her stomach growls again as she shuts Nacho’s car door and slumps into the passenger seat. He’s already starting the car when she pulls the door to a close behind her.
Katie’s looking out the window at some kids from their school, and something clicks.
…
She huffs, leaning back in her seat. A laugh of sorts escapes her. “Oh, my god. I failed my mission.”
Multi frowns, raising an eyebrow. Nacho leans forward from his spot in the middle seat.
“Wha- what mission?”
“What mission, mama?”
They ask it in unison, both sharing a perplexed little look as they stare at Katie.
“Nothing, nothing. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
She looks at Multi, and he gives her an estranged look.
But neither of them say anything— they don’t have to.