I'm Better With You

Chp. 9 Piggyback

Randy woke up, clutching Oliver close to his body. He was starting to get used to this but it still made him a bit red. He hugged Oliver before getting out from Oliver's arms and climbing out of bed carefully. He went into Oliver's bathroom for the first time, surprisingly. He figured he should at least rinse off the dirt and blood from his skin, as he hadn't gotten 'clean' in a very long time. Randy turned the shower nobs til the water was to his liking, verging on burning his skin off. He placed his clothes on the counter before stepping in, the hot water hugging his forever cold body.

After washing off the dried blood and dirt from his skin and 'cleaning' his injured hands, he stepped out into the steamy room. The mirror in front of the nice marble-looking counters having now been coated in precipitation, Randy looking like a blurry blob of colors. He sighed as he put his clothes back on and threw away the bandages that were on his hands. Randy looked down at his hands. They were covered in various colors of scars from the damned waterfowl that kept him up for so many nights.

Randy sighed as he walked back into the bedroom, finding Oliver sitting up now. He stretched as he turned to look over at Randy.

"Mornin' Randy," Oliver mumbled in a tired voice as he waved to Randy.

"M-morning," Randy responded, replying to Oliver's wave as well.

"Did y-you sleep well?"

"Yeah, you?"

Randy nodded.

"Groovy," Oliver said, a clear smile heard in his voice as he got up.

Oliver walked into the bathroom, starting his morning routine as Randy sat down on the side of the bed.

"I hope y-you don't mind that I took a shower." Randy realized how weird it sounded so quickly added, "I-I didn't use any of y-your stuff! I-I promise!"

"You could if you wanted to, I don't mind," Oliver calmly responded as he continued in the bathroom. "Everything is in a bottle so you wouldn't have to worry about cross contamination junk or something."

"O-oh."

Randy felt stupid now, and rather disgusting. Did Oliver think he was gross too?

Why are friendships so hard?

Randy sighed as he got up, Oliver now closing the door to take a shower of his own. The thought of Oliver taking a shower flustered Randy so he quickly went to go busy himself with literally anything else. He settled with watching whatever was on TV, which turned out to be some random reality show. While it wasn't Randy's cup of tea, it would have to do.

Once Oliver was done, ready for the day he sat down next to Randy. He smelled of fresh pine, which made Randy want to move closer to him. 

"I-I should probably go wrangle swans today," Randy rubbed his neck with his shredded hands. "I don't want to get f-fired from another j-job..."

"Alrighty," Oliver said with a thumbs up, "Can I join you?"

"W-what?"

"Can I join you? You know, to help with the swans," Oliver elaborated.

"I know you don't do well with swans."

Oliver looked at Randy's hands, Randy instinctively moving his hands from Oliver's line of sight. He could feel his face become hot with embarrassment.

"I-if you want, then uh, s-sure."

"Gnarly! We'll kick the swans' asses!" Oliver said gleefully, putting a hand on Randy's shoulder.

Randy smiled to himself as he nodded at Oliver. They both made their way to the door and out the building as Randy explained what he did. He was supposed to keep the swans away from people at the park and in the water, but the swans would almost always win. He practically got bullied by swans for money.