Boy Couch: Homerun

Red Gatorade and Clementines

 Apparently leaving Jeremiah in charge of picking a meeting place meant making that meeting place someone else's house. Fortunately for Leif, however, he apparently lived in the same neighborhood as Tiberius, meaning he could take his skateboard over without needing to explain things to his mom.

When Leif arrived at the front of the house, he was greeted by a certain degree of clutter, even outside of the house, that seemed at odds with the haughty demeanor Tiberius and Luciana seemed to exude. There were toys littering the front lawn and the driveway, along with a tire swing hanging from the big tree in the front and sidewalk chalk drawings of varying levels of skill winding up the path to the front door, which was decorated with lots of charming signs and a very friendly wreath over the frosted windows.

Jeremiah was waiting there, and it seemed they had arrived just moments before Leif.

"Oh hey, good timing." they nodded. "Then we should have the planning committee minus one."

Leif cocked his head to the side questioningly.

"Asteria's always late. Says she's too busy to get places on time. I think she just read the term 'fashionably late' in a magazine one time and decided that was going to be her," Jeremiah explained with an eye roll. They paused, leaving the two standing awkwardly in the doorway in silence. "I swear they should replace their buzzer with a church bell..."

Jeremiah was about to press the doorbell again when the front door swung open, revealing a very frazzled woman with familiar red hair, who appeared to be mid-lecture.

"JUNI, I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GET THE DOOR, I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF—Oh hi there Jeremiah, dear, how are you?" The look of frustrated mom-fury that was all too familiar to Leif instantly melted into a warm smile. "Come on in, I'll tell Tiberius you're here. Oh, and someone new too! What's your name?" she asked. Leif glanced at Jeremiah.

"This is Leif, he's a new player on the team," Jeremiah answered for him.

Mama Robustelli nodded.

"Well, you know where we keep the drinks and the Otterpops, just let we know if you need anything," she told them with a wink before turning around and yelling, "TIBERIUS YOUR FRIENDS ARE HERE!!" in a cadence not unlike a drill sergeant's. "He should be down in just a minute." She glanced down the hall and her friendly smile seemed strained with a hint of alarm before she ran off, calling, "Porcia? Porcia what is that?? Porcia don't put that in your brother's mouth, hey!! HEY!!"

A moment later, two identical redheads peeked down the stairs. Tiberius hopped on the banister and slid his way down, gracefully landing in a way that seemed to indicate plenty of practice with this exact stunt. Claudius opted to cautiously take the stairs down instead.

"Geez, finally you're here. I was starting to think you'd never come," Tiberius complained, slinging an arm around Jeremiah and smirking.

"We're exactly on time," Jeremiah answered with an eyeroll. "Now please tell me you guys have the red gatorade this time."

Tiberius scoffed.

"You doubt me? Of course we have the red gatorade this time, specially for you," Tiberius assured them.

"Should we make a kitchen trip before we start our meeting?" Claudius suggested at a volume level that almost made it sound like he was talking to himself. If he had just been talking to himself, Leif certainly didn't care. Snacks sounded great right now, and, if he recalled correctly, they had Otterpops in this house. The more Leif thought about it, the hungrier he realized he was.

Leif made a sound of agreement and nodded excitedly in response to Claudius's offer.

"Geez, someone's excited... Well I can't get my red gatorade if we don't make a kitchen trip, so let's go," Jeremiah agreed.

The four had been sitting in Tiberius's room making small talk while they snacked when they heard thumping on the stairs.

In a flash, Tiberius's door was slammed open and a familiar pink-haired girl entered the room.

"Asteria has arrived!!" Asteria announced, standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. Jeremiah rolled their eyes.

"Clearly," they remarked.

"Ooo are those snacks?" She asked, pointing at the wrappers from several mini bags of chips, Cheez Its, and Otterpops.

"Uh huh. Maybe if you were on time you could have had some," Tiberius teased, crossing his arms coyly.

"Ack! No fair!" Asteria exclaimed. She sat down next to Leif on the floor and turned to him. "Are you seeing the way they treat me? Utterly unfair, I don't know what I could possibly have done to deserve this!" she bemoaned.

Leif paused for a moment, then pulled out an uneaten clementine and signed "WANT SOME?" After waiting for a moment, Leif realized his mistake and started trying to think of an alternative way to pantomime this.

"Wait, really? That's really nice of you," Asteria answered with a smile that sent an electric jolt through Leif's heart. Wait a minute, did she just understand his sign?

The smile quickly transformed into a smug grin.

"Impressed? Yeah, I'm a pretty quick learner if I do say so myself," she told him, tipping her nose in the air confidently.

Leif stared at her for a moment. Catching his stare, she began to fidget, which made Leif laugh.

"W-What? What are you laughing at??" Asteria asked. Leif shook his head and handed her half of his clementine. "Wh–Hmph!" She took a piece of her clementine half and nibbled on it indignantly, a slight flush crossing her cheeks.

"Awww how cute! New guy's got the Almighty Asteria flustered," Tiberius teased, causing her blush to darken. She glanced at Leif, but upon seeing him watching her, she quickly averted her gaze and turned away.

"This all seems very off-topic from the BARBECUE we were supposed to discuss today!!" Asteria insisted.

"Wait, we're actually meeting? I thought this was an excuse to hang out," Tiberius questioned. "What is there even to discuss?"

"Well... what food are we bringing? What activities are we going to plan? Who needs to bring chairs?"

Tiberius groaned and turned to Claudius.

"What do you think, Claudius?" he asked.

"M-Me?!" Claudius balked.

"Yes, you. What food should we bring, who's bringing chairs, and what activities should we do?" Tiberius restated.

"I-I don't know, doesn't mom usually bring all the chairs? Why don't we just do what we usually do for barbecues?" Claudius suggested.

"Oh, Claudius, you're a genius! See, this is why I asked you. Let's just... do the same things we do at every other barbecue. I told you this meeting was useless," Tiberius concluded, reclining back in his spot on his bed.

Asteria sulked.

"No, Tiberius, you're wrong. It wasn't useless." Jeremiah spoke up. Everyone turned to look at them. They were sitting against the post of Tiberius's bed with their legs up in the way a lone bounty hunter in the corner of a fantasy bar might. They took a long swig from their plastic bottle then tossed the empty husk with two more near their feet. "I got my red gatorade."