miscellaneous knifan one shots

it's you.

he's so cool...

fan glanced over at knife. they were both sprawled out next to each other on fan's bed inside hotel OJ, both pairs of legs hanging comfortably off the side. knife casually rested his blade on his forearms, propping himself up just a smidge. he chuckled at something fan had said a moment ago, which made fan feel proud.

after a long, especially strenuous day, fan was exhausted. between technical difficulties delaying the next Fan's Fantastic Features episode, insomnia leaving him running on a low battery, and a heated debate with nickel about the acceptance of "childish" interests, he was just about at his limit. tonight he craved company in a low-stress environment. paintbrush was on a date with lightbulb to some half-ass fancy place that took reservations, and wouldn't be back for a while. it'd be too troublesome to cancel last minute, so neither of them were an option. meanwhile, test tube had been busy in her lab on a new experiment she seemed especially excited for, so fan thought it a little selfish to keep her distracted on the brink of a breakthrough. with his best friends all busy, he hit up someone he'd been getting rapidly closer to recently: knife.

upon receiving his text invitation, knife was eager to accept, and was at fan's bedroom door within minutes. fan seemed a bit thrown off by knife's enthusiasm, but didn't think much of it. it's not like he was complaining about spending more time with him - quite the opposite, actually.

they had greeted each other with warm, comfortable smiles as knife walked in. their conversation started and took off in an instant, as it usually did. it began with knife asking fan about any new series he'd watched recently, to which fan responded by enthusiastically infodumping about an anime he found; it was a magical girl series about three young witch apprentices. knife listened intently, a smile stuck on his face. he'd let out little laughs every time fan would get especially excited. but his attention would waver occasionally in favor of what he dubbed "unmanly thoughts." these thoughts would overwhelm him instantaneously, make his heart stop short, and make his head go to mush. he'd been having these thoughts for a while, and grew to accept them when he realized they weren't going away. at one point in their conversation, they bubbled to the surface - when fan mentioned how one character, named yada, reminded him of knife. 

"i wonder if you'd like it," fan pondered aloud, tapping the chin area of his paper face, "most episodes are really well written! the character interactions are so sweet and genuine, but some episodes can be really emotional and even powerful, too!"

"hmm... i dunno," knife responded with a rather dramatic sigh, drawing out his words in a jocose fashion, "sounds like a lot of fluff. it may not be gritty enough for a guy like me." he punctuated his statement with a flex of his arm.

fan scoffed, turning on his side. "oh, don't give me that, mr. dora doll!" he playfully poked at knife's sides, giggling. knife squirmed and swatted fan's hands away, trying (and failing) to hold back his own laughter. fan backed off after a few seconds, snickering proudly, and laid back down. "come on, i know you're not too good for fluff, knife."

he was right, too. knife tried to act like a super-macho tough guy all the time, even with the dora incident leaving a mark on his reputation - and he definitely still was one - but he had an undeniable soft spot. it just so happened to be really embarrassing. he managed to cover up the dora incident pretty well, as well as his general interests,  but he couldn't keep his façade up for long when he started talking to fan more.

fan had found knife one day while on a walk. knife had been sitting by himself in the shade of a tree, looking at his phone with headphones on. when fan approached, he looked over knife's shoulder and saw him watching a show he recognized about a cute red panda working an office job. he had damn near scared knife to death when he tactlessly announced his presence,  squealing the name of the show in disbelief. before knife could react to instinct and flee the scene (or punch someone's face in), fan was sitting next to him and incessantly asking questions about his thoughts, how far along he was in the story, and every other question he could think of. but even if knife had been boxed into a corner between humiliation and discombobulation, fan's enthusiasm was infectious. after the initial shock had faded, he was surprised to find himself having a back and forth conversation about what he was so desperate to hide just a while ago. even more shocking was the fact that he gradually felt calmer as they kept talking. they even watched some of it together, though fan had already seen it and was mainly anticipating knife's reactions to important plot points. even still, they both parted ways later on feeling surprised by how pleasant their time together was.