Smokers (Friday Night Funkin' Pico x Reader)

Vs. Everyone

(TW! MENTIONS OF SUICIDE/SELF HARM/ BLOOD ⚠️)

8:09 PM
I learned the names of our competitors. The two little kids I had mentioned were Skid and Pump, arguably the most adorable and energetic children I've seen. Pico occasionally babysits when Lila, Skid's mother, is out. Speaking of which,

Pico apparently has to babysit them tomorrow.

I met Pico's friends, Nene and Darnell officially. Nene is... interesting to say the least. She's extremely suicidal and hypersexual. She became extremely infatuated with my boxcutter, asking me multiple questions about it such as where I got it, do I use it on myself, can I stab her with it, etc. Her infatuation with knives slightly creeps me out, but if Pico and Darnell are friends with her, then she must be alright to say the very least.

Darnell I had already met this morning, but I got to know him a bit better during intermission. He's actually really damn smart but trigger happy. I now realize that both him and Nene are perfect fits for Pico's personality. They all carry weapons, are aggressive, etc. How sweet is that?

Pico heavily urged me away from Senpai and Tankman when I started talking to them. He's distrustful of them both because they're "pricks". Senpai's really flirty and Tankman is passive aggressive though; so maybe he does have a point but I'll stay neutral about it for now.

There's a lot— a LOT of different people we have to go against. I almost feel overwhelmed, but Cherry approaches me, cutting me from my thoughts. "Hey Y/n! I'm gonna be sitting on the speakers if you wanna join, are you gonna be performing?"

"Yeah, but I'm gonna do it with Pico."
She's gonna have a field day with this.

"Oh my stars! You two are just so inseparable... it's almost like..." Cherry clasps her hands together in awe. I know exactly what she's about to say. "Don't say it, Cher."

"You guys..."

"I'm warning you...!"

"...Are in love~"

"I HAVE ONLY MET AND KNOWN THIS MAN SINCE LAST NIGHT! THERE'S NOTHING HAPPENING!" I tug on the tendrils of my hair looking down in embarrassment. My face is definitely red. I notice Pico is too before he quickly snaps back, "At least we don't have to keep our relationship platonic when we're around some fuckin' parents! Er— wait hold on that didn't... come out right..." He trails off. Nene  and Darnell snicker as Cherry immediately squeals and runs off, presumably to tell Keith about what happened. "Man, you gotta get your head straight." Darnell laughs. Nene really didn't help, "I ship it!" She squeals. I turned to face Pico who was stumbling over his words a bit. Please let there be a distraction—

"GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY!"

We all turned to discover the owner of the voice, Cherry's mom, Mommy Mearest. Everyone clapped and cheered for her. "WE'RE COMING TO YOU LIVE FROM THE TOP OF THE NEWGROUNDS OFFICE ABOVE THE CITY OF FUNK! ARE Y'ALL READY TO GET FUNKY ON THIS FRIDAY NIGHT?" She hollers into the microphone. Everyone goes wild with excitement. Cherry suddenly drags me to the speakers. She grows wings and flies to the top, leaving me a bit embarrassed because I'm way too short to get on top. I almost forgot she's a demon... "Ah... Cherry I don't have— huh?!" I was cut off by someone carrying me effortlessly. I look down to see Pico. He has a light shade of pink on his face, but he continues to speak in that gruff, bold voice. "Jus' hurry up and we'll get started..." I climb on top of the speakers with Cherry. "Let's see... we're gonna have Keith and Daddy Dearest kick off the night!" Mommy Mearest announces. Keith hops on stage with Daddy Dearest, Cherry's dad. As Pico hops off stage, I give him a small smile and mouth 'thank you'. He gives me a thumbs up and returns to Darnell and Nene, who started teasing him.

• • •

I could never even dream of beating Keith. He's really good at what he does, and he even sometimes put his own twist on Daddy Dearest's lyrics. Now I understand why Cherry's parents don't like him; he's out of this world!

"Wonderful performance to kick off the night! Can I get an applause from THE CROWD?!" Mommy Mearest screams. The crowd loses their minds. After everyone had settled down, she started again, "Now, next up we have... Pico against Keith!" Shit.

This is it. Don't get scared now.

I hop off the speakers. "And what's this?! Y/n is joining the battle!" She exclaims. I smirk and toss my mic into the air, catching it and turning it on. I take my electric guitar and plug it into the speakers, strumming it to make sure it was loud enough.

I have to pretend nobody is here but Pico and I.

The crowd screams in excitement.

Pico softly punches my shoulder as he gets ready to roll. Both Keith and the crowd watch in anticipation as I fix up my guitar. I suddenly begin Pico's first song. "Go Pico, yeah, yeah, go Pico!" I let my guitar finish the line. I can feel Pico's energy resonating off of me as I continue to deliver, shaking Keith, who is already sweating. He needs to give it his all if he wants to beat us. As Pico begins his verse, I suddenly cut the guitar and begin singing with him. I knew that I sounded better with him, and I'm using that to my advantage. Keith retaliates with his own lyrics, dissing us both and poking fun at us.

• • •

Pico really got into it. Blammed is the final song, and I made sure to give it my all with my guitar. The first song, 'Pico' we won by a landslide, but after Keith started getting into the groove of it, he won 'Philly Nice'. This final song will determine who wins. As 'Blammed' begins, I wait for Pico to start. I smirked at him as he put all of his passion and soul into his lyrics, which is truly remarkable and admirable.

The way he gets into music is inspirational, and I feed off of that energy. His taste is great.

I nearly miss my turn as I got lost in my own thoughts. But instead of rapping or singing, I decided to do a guitar solo. I close my eyes, imagining myself being alone.

It's just me.
It's only me.

My fingers start bleeding from how hard I'm playing. The harder I get into it, the better I play. My concentration is solely focused on the chords I strum.

I've never played this hard since my sister left after the shooting...

The shooting...

Dozens of memories flooded my mind. Memories that I've locked away. There was a slight deviation in my solo as I became more and more distracted.

After coming to an end, everyone cheered but I couldn't hear their clapping. I only hear screaming... panicked screaming. I look down at my bloody fingers. They were rubbed raw from the constant playing.

I start seeing tunnel vision. My breathing becomes shallow.

Don't. Don't remember. Please not now.

I bolt offstage towards the subway station where there were only a few vacant subways. I never looked back, I just kept running. Running like I did in the hallway, away from whoever was shooting.

I'm sorry, sis. I know I can't run forever.

I climb the top of one of the subways and breathe heavily. My lungs freeze with every breath as I lay down, looking at the night sky. I place my hand on my heart, trying to calm myself down.

Get it together, Y/n. You got it.

Tears well up, threatening to spill from my eyes.

"Y/n?"

I quickly wipe away my tears and look in the direction of that familiar voice. Pico.

...

He sits next to me.

"You wanna talk?"