OVERLOOKED ㅤkotlc

031. Eugene Is Pretty Hot

"Uh-huh," Melia says, once Ruy opens the door. "Let's also dominate the world, Mr. Bad Boy."

He flushes, laughing. "Well... we will be blowing stuff up," he says. "That's pretty bad."

She rolls her eyes through a smile, booping him on the nose before turning to me. "Hey, Dex. We're erupting a volcano and watching a movie, if that's something you want to get on?"

I smile, a little awkwardly. "Sounds good to me, I think."

"Good, because I wasn't going to not erupt something." Alvar gestures at a table with human-looking stuff on it. "Dex, you're good at volcano stuff, right?"

"Volcano stuff," Ruy repeats, snorting.

Alvar points at him. "Don't make me beg Melia for karaoke instead of a movie."

Melia laughs. "On your hands and knees again?" she asks.

He grins, finger-gunning her. "On my hands and knees."

She tilts her head towards Ruy. "That's a lot to one-up, love."

Ruy thinks for a moment, then offers, "Cuddles?"

Alvar groans, and Melia just laughs.

"Well," Alvar says, "at least Dex can third-wheel with me." He grins. "Me and Dex, we're powerful-er than your fancy love, you know? We're better at blowing sh—"

"Let's keep it PG for the author," Melia says.

"The auth—?" Alvar shrugs. "Okay, fine. We're better at blowing poo poo up."

Ruy laughs. "Poo poo," he teases. "Attaboy, Alv."

"Am I your pet now?" Alvar says, raising his eyebrows.

Melia laughs, glancing towards me. "Let's keep this between us," she says to me, as they continue to bicker, "but I'm afraid my boyfriend and his bestie are massive idiots."

I burst out laughing, and they pause. Ruy looks sheepish, but Alvar's grinning.

"So," Alvar says finally, "volcano stuff?"

I grin. "Volcano stuff," I agree.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The four of us made two volcanos.

The first one was a fail, since we (or just Alvar, as Ruy's insisting) accidentally mixed the baking soda with something else.

The second one was a success, except the counter got dirty and we had to clean it up. And after having to clean, Alvar's pretty set on calling it lame, which Melia is laughing at.

I'm pretty sure Ruy thought it was cool, though, even if he's not saying anything.

"So," Ruy says, as we all sit on the couch. The holographic producer, or the HP, is set on the coffee table, ready for its chip. "What movie are we watching?"

Melia's sitting on the floor in front of him, leaning against him, as he mindlessly plays with her hair. I find it funny that Alvar's used to it.

Alvar opens his mouth.

"And so help me," Ruy interrupts him, "if you choose Hamilton again, I'm gonna go find a melder."

Alvar laughs. "Ah, well. It was worth a shot."

"Do you wanna choose?" Melia says, tilting her head to look at me.

I hesitate, then shake my head. "No, it's okay," I say. "You guys can choose."

"How about Wonder?" Ruy says, his finger tapping a chip in the box.

Alvar shakes his head. "God, Ruy, you're just gonna cry again."

His face turns red. "No I'm not!"

"Are, too," Alvar says. He gently nudges his friend, smiling. "It's a good movie, though, so don't worry about it, m'kay?" He returns his attention to the box of chips.

I scan the labels. "Are these all, like... human movies?" I ask.

"Yup," Melia says, shooting a quick smile at me. "The good ones, too."

"Elf entertainment is dry as heck," Alvar adds. "Like, humans are equivalent to pieces of poo, but their music and entertainment is kind of top-tier."

Ruy glances sideways at me. His face is blurry, but I can tell there's something mischievous in his smirk. "Yeah, anything you wanna say about elvin music, Alv?"

He groans. "Don't even get me started on that."

Ruy laughs. "I can play some for you right now, actually. How do you feel about that, hm?"

"Don't you freaking dare."

Ruy takes out a small device; an elvin music player. Elvin music isn't listened to much, so I'm surprised he has one. After a moment, river sounds play from it.

I laugh softly, thinking of me and Rosaleen's conversation.

My smile fades a bit. I hope she's okay. Maybe I'll see her tomorrow.

Alvar groans, covering his ears. "For heaven's sake, Ruy, only the snobby-ish of elves will smack weird nature noises into that freaky thing."

Ruy laughs, stopping the music, nodding towards me. "Hey Dex, if you ever wanna piss off this dummy, you can just play some nice gentle river ambience."

Before I can reply, Alvar scowls at Ruy. "You can't even name the stupid noises!" he says. "What would you name that one? Water? Or River?"

"H2O," I joke.

Ruy and Melia laugh, sending teasing glances towards Alvar. I suppress the urge to smile.

"Yeah, Alv," Ruy says. "That's a nice name, isn't it? Just—let's play some H2O this fine afternoon, wouldn't you like that?"

"Or how about," Melia says, before this spirals into some crackhead conversation about drinking water right, "we play a movie this fine afternoon?"

"Right. Hamilton!" Alvar says.

Ruy shakes his head. "We watch that twice a month, Alv. Let's watch Wonder."

"Bruh, I—" Alvar makes a face. "We watch that twice a month!"

"How about Tangled?" Melia cuts in.

Alvar opens his mouth, then closes it.

"I mean... sure," he says, laughing. "Eugene is pretty hot. His last name's kinda ugly, though, not gonna lie."

"And it is your favorite movie, right, Melia?" Ruy says.

She nods, pursing her lips to hold back a laugh.

Ruy smiles proudly, gently patting her on the head. She tilts her head back, looking up at him, and he blushes.

Alvar groans, then holds up his fist to me. "Official Third-Wheeling Fist Bump?"

I bite back a laugh as I bump my fist against his. Who knew this trio would be as chaotic as Lord Hunkyhair himself?

Melia takes the Tangled chip out from the box, plugging it into the HP. "Here we go," she says, as a floating screen expands across the room.

I can see hidden speakers hidden across the room, quickly connecting to the HP.

"This is the story," the speakers say, "of how I died." Melia claps, clearly excited. "Don't worry, this is actually a very fun story, and the truth is, it isn't even mine."

I settle into the couch. If I'm being completely honest, this is nice.

This is really nice.

˚ ༘ 🌷 ── author's note!

the three of them are literally a dumpster fire