Lycros | ✔

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝒯𝒽𝓇𝑒𝑒 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

On a day when she was stacking the shelves in the back, Sage walked in with a furrowed brow.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Lauren asked, brushing her bangs from her damp forehead.

Sage hesitated. "Uh, nothing. Just a weird customer. No worries."

Glancing over her shoulder to look at the purple-haired teen, she noticed the tight smile on their pallid face. But it was obvious they did not want to talk about it anymore.

Lauren chose her words carefully, not wanting to overstep or upset the teen further. "Okay, well, if they come back, let me know. I don't want you dealing with creeps, alright?"

Sage lost their grimace and gained a genuine beam, shoving at the blonde woman playfully. "Oh, yeah, like I'm gonna let you deal with one? Fat chance. I'm not letting you drown behind the counter."

Lauren stuck her tongue out jokingly before moving on to more important topics. "Hey, when was your father's business trip again?"

"Oh, next Wednesday. It's still cool if I spend the night, right?"

"Of course. I'm sure Lycros will be happy to see you."

Sage rolled their eyes with a lopsided smile. They oozed sarcasm way before they opened their mouth. "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be leaping for joy out of the water when I walk in the door. Maybe he'll tell me how much he missed me."

You have no idea, Lauren thought to herself with a chuckle.

And then they left back out to the front with a wave, leaving the blonde to her back room duties.

The week passed by peacefully, and Sage had no issues making their way over from school as per usual. Lauren made some peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, paired with a glass of oat-milk and chickpea chips, always ensuring that the vegan teen had snacks galore at the apartment for nights just like these.

For dinner, Lauren had consulted with Lycros on what to make before Sage got there — and they settled on spaghetti — and then she removed the alphabet and easy-responses charts. The secret of Lycros' ability to speak was still just that — a secret One that, unless Lycros changed his mind, Lauren would never break. The bell-mirror toy remained, bobbing on the water and slowly circulating around the tank. It made both Lycros and Lauren feel better about still being able to communicate, or at least allow him to be able to alert if he needed something.

Sage knocked on the door soon after three in the afternoon, their backpack on one shoulder and an overnight duffle bag on the other.

"Man, you've really fancied up the place," Sage remarked as they peeked their head around the doorframe and took in the sights. "You sure take a while to cozy up to a place, huh?"

Lauren giggled. "Yeah, something like that. Come on in, you can put your stuff in my room."

"I know where to put it," Sage scoffed with a grin.

One of the first things Lauren bought for the apartment, long before Lycros blessed it with his presence, was a trundle bed. Sage had nowhere to go after school if the pet store were not open, so Lauren would offer to hang out with them at a restaurant or park until their father got home. Sage never liked to stay home alone, and Lauren completely understood it, even though they both had their own reasons as to why.

After so much time together, Lauren became somewhat of a mother figure for Sage. Whenever their father was called into work overnight, Lauren pulled out the trundle bed, so they were both cozy in their respective spaces. After the first time Sage spent the night, they both tried to fight for the couch out of politeness. Lauren settled the spat and saved up for a decent trundle bed so the argument could be laid to rest once and for all.