Unidentified Emotions: 2/4 Fic

Chapter Two

CW: THIS CHAPTER, ALONG WITH CHAPTER FIVE, CONTAINS TOPICS OF ABUSE, FAMILY STRUGGLES, ALCOHOLISM, FAMILY MEMBER DEATH, AND GASLIGHTING. PLEASE SKIP IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THAT.

It was now 9:56 AM. The two had awoken an hour before, and hadn't spoken since. The rest of the sector caught on quite fast, as Hoagie usually tapped his ring finger when he was avoiding someone or something. They had simply assumed the two had an argument the night prior -- it wasn't unlike best friends to have occasional fights.

Hoagie had his own reasons for avoiding Wally. He was, quite frankly, embarrassed by all of what happened last night. Not just that he was "caught" during one of his breakdowns, but he cuddled up to him last night. Although Wally's body language indicated he was okay with this, it still bothered Hoagie. He was in the closet, and he had been doing so well to hide his homosexuality by getting into comphet relationships with girls... Until last night.

Hoagie was too anxious to even realize that Wally has a pink jellybean for a brain, and wouldn't have picked up on the signs no matter how obvious. He tried to avoid contact with the boys unless it was wrestling, and had just screwed it all up...

And now, he was confused. Confused about how he felt towards his best friend.

Wally aggressively stuffed his mouth with cereal that had enough sugar to drug a bear with. Similarly to why Hoagie was avoiding him, he was avoiding Hoagie because he was upset with himself. Although, he was upset with himself for an emotion he couldn't even identify.

The tension was tight at the table for Nigel and Abby. Kuki, as per usual, didn't even notice anything. She didn't pick up on social settings very well.
Nigel looked back at Abby, signalling her to do something. She sighed and attempted to start up a conversation.

"How'd y'all sleep last night? Did you make sure to go to sleep when Numbuh Five suggested?"

She watched as the two's eyes looked up at her, and then looked back down, all without their heads moving. She wanted to slap them both across the face for such a bitchy attitude, but she stopped herself.
She once again, tried to initiate conversation.

"Ah, Numbuh Five takes that as... You guys slept very little."

Finally, one of the two responded. "Actually, I slept quite well, for your information. I slept better than anyone in this whole treehouse!"

"Well sooooooorry, Mister 'Better Than You'! I had no idea I was talking to the king of sleeping."

As usual, her sarcasm flew over the short boys head.

"Yeah, you better remember that next time!"

Hoagie began chuckling at his stupidity. Although Wally was the one he was laughing at, he still blushed at him. He thought his laugh was... Cute.

In an attempt to stop this unknown feeling, he slammed his head aggressively against the table, which shook the whole thing.
"URRRAAAAAAAGH!"

"Woah, woah! No need for that, Numbuh Four!" Nigel shouted.

He picked his head up slightly and took a deep breath. He stood up, pushed his chair in, and headed for his room. Nigel picked up the bowl he had left and shouted for him to dump it out, but Wally had already gotten to his room.

Abby had noticed something wrong. Nigel probably would have, too. But he was too focused on Wally leaving everything out again. She made a mental note for later, to remind her to talk to him.

Hoagie eventually finished his sugar infested cereal, and put everything away. Instead of going to his room, however, he went to check on Wally.

The door made a loud creaking noise, even though Hoagie opened it as slowly and gently as he could. Wally had heard the creaking, but was simply too upset to care. He was punching one of his many punching bags, to the point that tiny blood droplets began to splatter onto the wall from his bony knuckles.