// PAPER HOUSES // TBP Modern AU //

1.

"All eyes on me."

All-time Uno champion, Griffin Stagg , strikes once more. "Uno!" He laughs as he places down his very last card. "Suck it fuckers! Haha!" He raises his arms in victory.

The five other people groaned and slammed their remaining cards onto the fluffy rug, Bruce muttered as he laid against the floor, "I knew I should've thrown it away." He drags his palm across his face.

"I told you," Vance pointed his finger at the boy that laid on the floor. "I told you like what, 11 times? You never listened, you keep saying it's a waste of money even though you only found it on the sidewalk." He rolls his eyes.

"You're just jealous of my endless win," Griffin sneers, Robin resisted the ultimate urge to punch him in the face. "And I have bragging rights." He stuck his tongue out.

Billy and Finney looked at each other from the circle and simply smiled, holding in their laughter. The two couldn't care less if Griffin bragged or won, they just found it funny how they bickered.

"Change of subject, Bruce's birthday is next week," Billy says on a serious note, sitting up. "You're turning 18, right?" He turned and looked at Bruce.

He sat up and nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking we could go out to an amusement park or something, get the birthday special one," he says, fidgeting with the ring on his index finger. "I can pick you guys up and we can stay at my house for a little while before going out to the amusement park."

Finney nodded, "Sounds good," he says. "I can't believe you're gonna be a legal adult." He laughs. "Sure you're not gonna go hang out with your other adult friends?" Finney jokingly mocks, pouting.

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Oh piss off, Finn," he shot back with a smile on his face. "If you keep mocking me about it I just might abandon you."

"Wait, no, I don't wanna ride in Vance's car, he likes teasing the police by going too fast but under limit," Griffin butts in, a genuinely worried look on his face. Vance narrows his eyes with a frown.

"You fucking dipsh-"

Bruce spins his head around to look at Griffin, "Is that what you think of me, huh, a chaffuer," he says, looking offended as a joke. "You know what, fuc-"

Robin intervenes, "In front of my salad, seriously?" He furrows his brows together as he took a bite off his fork. Everyone turns to him, mouth agape and eyes filled with confusion.

"Just when and how did you get a salad?" Billy asks him, tilting his head slightly to the side as he thought back to the few minutes of bickering.

"There's a big bowl of salad in the kitchen," Robin tells him as he continued munching on his lettuce. "I took a few while you guys were in your own little world war."

"Oh," they murmured, nodding.

"Do you guys wanna bake cookies?" Finney randomly says, everyone nodded and left the living room to head into the kitchen.

"Why are cookies called cookies if you bake them?" Vance asks, taking a piece of lettuce from the bowl he took out from the fridge. "Did your mom make this?" He asked Robin.

"Yes, it's good, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why are bacons called bacon if you cook it?" Griffin asks back, taking out cooking utensils from the drawer as he turned around to look at Vance.

"Keep your shower thoughts in the shower," Finney tells them, placing the bag of flour and the jar of sugar onto the table. Billy nodded in agreement and Bruce went to the bathroom.

Griffin shoots a fork into the bowl of salad, placing the rest of the utensils on an empty plate Billy had taken out. Vance and Robin gobbled down onto the salad, because apparently it was extremely delicious.

"There are a bunch of rats in the walls," Bruce says after coming out of the bathroom, pointing a thumb behind him as he closed the door. "You should probably call animal control, but they might take your snake upstairs," he tells Robin, patting his back before he took the eggs out of the fridge.

"Fuck animal control," Robin tells him, laughing. "I can just let Pumpkin loose and he'll eat the damned rats." He shrugged.

"Why the fuck is the snake's name Pumpkin?" Vance abruptly questions, although only for him to be ignored.

"Where's Finney?" Robin asked as he looked around the kitchen.

"He went to get aprons and mittens in the kitchen closet," Billy explains, everyone nodded. Robin went inside the kitchen closet and found Finney bent down, rummaging through the bottom of the shelf.

Robin covered the edge of the counter with his hand so that Finney wouldn't bump his head. "Hey," he says, stretching his arm to get the mittens from the top shelf.

"Hey-"

"EY, DONT THINK I DONT KNOW WHAT YOU TWO ARE DOING IN THERE WITH THE DOOR CLOSED!" Vance shouts jokingly, causing the two of them to burst out laughing.

"Bet they're canoodling in there," they heard Billy's muffled comment. "With the door closed and all, like, please do it in the bedroom away from all the food."

"Canoodling-pfftt-"

"Shut up!" Finney shouts, lifting his head, slightly grazing Robin's hand. "We're not canoodling!" He added with a stifled laugh.

"Maybe!" Robin counters Finney's statement, a way to tease him. Finney stared at him with his mouth agape, offended.

They heard Bruce say something along the lines of "I'm believing Robin on this one." Finney softly slaps Robin on his shoulder, he took the aprons and walking out the closet.

Robin laughs and follows. "Wo-ho-ho, look who came out of the closet," Bruce says, clapping between each halt.

"Ugh," Finney groans as he throws the aprons at his face and ties the lace of his own apron. "We were not canoodling!" He shakes his index finger in front of Bruce's face.

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Hallo, idk how to make Vance's canon personality tbh but hey.

word count (a/n not included): 1003