high rise hearts ☆ lifesteal smp au

𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ✦✯

𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲: fluff
𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀: swagdoons (+ a small bit of clownzy)
𝘁𝘄: n/a
𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆: @Problems-love-me
(my tags aren't working right)
𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁: redd and ash attempting to interact/ignore each other at a party. both miserably fail. p2 of thinking of you; i reccomend that you read that first!

─── ⋅☆⋅ ───

𝐏𝐎𝐕: reddoons

Redd was finally able to pull into a tiny parking spot after like five minutes of searching, about a block away from Parrot's apartment. Goddamnit, New York parking.
Redd locked his car and stuffed the keys into his pocket, although he kept his hands there, tightly curled for warmth. It was a reasonably chilly night, and the cool air tugged at his stiff hair, held in place by a copious amount of gel.
Parrot had been super serious about this party for no reason. Everyone had been poked or prodded into attending, and if they couldn't make it for whatever reason, he'd reschedule it just so he could find a date that would work for them. No excuses.
Everyone had also been forced into semi-formal clothing, because Redd doubted every single Lifestealer owned true formal clothing. Today he wore a crisp white collared shirt with a dark red jacket half-buttoned on top, plus his usual maroon dress pants and shiny black shoes. He slicked his hair back extra nice, too. And switched up his cologne.
Redd tried to imagine anyone else putting this much effort into their outfit. Spoke, Zam, Ash, whatever. He couldn't really summon the mental image of that. Maybe he'd gone a little overboard.
A few minutes of quiet walking later, Red lifted himself out of his thoughts and swung open the door to Parrot's apartment. It had a buzzer for entry, so he pressed the button labeled with his apartment number and patiently waited for anyone to pick up.
Nobody answered the buzzer when it rang once, twice, three times. Redd was bored out of his mind, sure he'd been standing there for a good two minutes, when someone finally picked up.
"Hey! Sorry, was, uh- helping someone out- who is this again?-" The voice is a little crunchy in quality but unmistakably Parrot's.
"It's Redd," he replies, short but it's all the information he really needs. Parrot buzzes him in with no further questions, and Redd swings open the surprisingly heavy glass door to the small lobby area of the apartment. Honestly, for a gang of criminals they should up party security a bit- someone could get in just by doing a passable imitation of someone's voice and claiming they're real.
That's a thought for another day though, so Redd brushes it off and walks up the 4 flights to Parrot's apartment, because he just had to live on the top floor. Oh well, walking up such a short time isn't much of a workout.
A few moments later, he's in front of Parrot's apartment door, which is slightly ajar. There's no music that blares out from the crack- just the idle chatter of familiar people. And the lights are on for some reason, spilling out onto the floor of the landing. He swings open the door without announcing himself- it's unlocked, what was he supposed to do? Knock?
Everyone's mostly congregated around the door, in a half-circle facing away from the front. Nobody's noticed him arrive, which is terribly awkward for a few seconds until Parrot finally glances up towards the door for a second. "Oh, hey Redd! Didn't hear you there."
"You literally buzzed me in, Parrot," Redd says with a short chuckle. "What's all this?" All the Lifestealers were staring at him as if he'd interrupted their cult ritual or something- he wouldn't doubt it was a ritual, anyways. Like he'd predicted, nobody was wearing an outfit close to what he was wearing. Hell, Mapicc was standing there in the hoodie he'd been using for the past week.
"Oh, we're just waiting for everyone to get here. Ash and Spoke are very, very late. Hang on, I'm gonna really quick text them again-" Parrot pauses and pulls out his phone, typing something out at a furious pace. The reply he receives makes him groan in irritation.
Redd casts a glance around the heads in the crowd, eyes searching, and as Parrot had said, they weren't anywhere in the small crowd of impatient people. A shame, he was looking forward to bringing up the texts from this morning again, just to see Ash's reaction in person. It was always incredibly satisfying- maybe he enjoyed pissing him off a little more than he should be. He'd even admit to himself that it felt nice. Not to anyone else, though.
Redd knew they'd be here very soon, with how fast Parrot was texting them. For now, he occupied himself by winding his way through the crowd for someone who might be able to give him information.
He spotted Mid and Woogie near the back of the crowd, talking about something he didn't quite catch. "Hey," he greeted as he sidled next to them.
"Hey Redd!" Mid returned, wearing her usual friendly smile. She also wore a freshly washed purple hoodie, her usual, and blue jeans that weren't ripped or frayed at the edges for once.
"Oh, hey Redd. We were just talking about what the hell this party's even about-" Woogie's wearing his normal black suit, coupled with a stripy pale blue tie, and Redd can't tell if it's fresher than usual or not. He looks the exact same as he usually does.
"Good, because I kinda wanna know, too- like, I better have dressed up for a good reason." Redd laughs again. He usually dresses up randomly formal anyways- half the time, you can find him wearing some version of his classic red suit.
"Well, I got as much answers as you," Mid says with a quick shrug, almost too quick for Redd to pass it off. "Parrot hasn't told us anything." He didn't quite believe it, but made a hum of agreement anyways. If Mid knew and wasn't telling him- hell, if Parrot was telling people and not him- it must have something to do with him, then.
Redd surveyed the looks on Mid's and Woogie's faces, both of which remained stubbornly impassive, giving no information away. It's silent for a weird moment. Finally, he sighed and gave up. "I'll go see if anyone else knows anything. See ya." Redd hears their strangely cheerful goodbyes as he walks away, disappearing into the crowd.
Nobody else he's talked to has given him an answer, but at least he's occupied the time it took for Spoke and Ash to arrive. He glances up from his none-too-friendly conversation with Mapicc ("bro, are you even LISTENING? I assure you, I need this money") to see Parrot standing by the door, ushering in Spoke and Ash, who have no doubt carpooled or something. They look equally shaken up- Spoke must have done the driving for today.
Parrot doesn't bother fully closing the door behind them, despite everyone already being here. It's left to swing shut, creating the same gap he'd peeked through only a few minutes ago.
Parrot pointed towards the crowd, seemingly talking to them. Redd can't hear them over the unusually hyper chatter from everyone else. Spoke and Ash seem none too interested in what Parrot's saying, and both are glancing around the room, waiting for his rant to end. Ash says something back to Spoke, irritation evident in his tone even though Redd doesn't know what he's saying.
While Parrot's talking back, obviously ruffled by Ash's response, Ash casts a glance into the crowd and locks eyes with Redd. Being noticed catches him off guard, and all he can do is grin foolishly, a little too nervous to look away. Ash rolls his eye at him- he can see it from here, he's hella tall- and turns back to Parrot, replying sharply once again.
Eventually, Ash breaks off from the others and heads straight past Redd, instead inserting himself into Subz and Vitalasy's conversation like he's always been there. It strikes him that he might be trying to avoid talking, although Redd doesn't know if he's doing it out of spite for him. He probably is.
Ash is wearing his usual purple suit and checker-patterned magenta tie, everything slightly rumpled as Ash always seems to be. His hair isn't faring any better than his clothing, probably because of the glitches that currently buzz within it, giving it Ash's signature frazzled look, a look Redd knows well and likes more than he'll admit.
He doesn't turn to Redd again, and he decides that's enough of staring for one day. He doesn't want to look weird, not in front of Ash. He'd no doubt make fun of him. So instead he approaches Parrot, who is setting up what looks like a small plastic stage in front of his TV. It looks like it was made for kids and not the full grown guy currently trying to stand on it. It doesn't break though.
"Y'know, Parrot, you never told me what this party was about..." Redd says, trying to dig for an answer. Parrot looks up from trying to fix something on the side of the stage, gaze guarded like that of Mid and Woogie.
"It's a surprise." He says bluntly, sticking his tongue out at Redd as if to taunt him about the answers he'll never receive. Redd doesn't like not having information available to him, and he's sure Parrot knows this and is intentionally trying to annoy him over that fact.
"C'mon, can you at least tell me somethin'?" Redd presses, one hand placed on his hip as he continues to observe Parrot, who is trying to screw something together. A screw clatters onto the floor and he curses, picking it up and slotting it back in, out of sight.
"Uh uh, strictly a surprise. Sorry, man," Parrot tells him, not quite sounding sorry. Redd rolls his eyes behind his sunglasses- not like he'll see, he's too busy.
"Alright, dude, if you're gonna be so high and mighty and not tell anyone then I guess that's how it'll be." Redd feigns giving up, although his next plan is to try and pry information out of someone else.
"Well, I AM high and mighty- I technically lead this party, you know? 'Cause it's my house-" Redd doesn't let him finish, only chuckling, shaking his head and walking away. Parrot might like being a leader a bit too much.
Redd's looking through the crowd for someone to talk to, hopefully someone who'll tell him what he needs to know about whatever the hell Parrot has planned, but instead he catches the eye of someone else. It's Ash.
He'd been looking in Redd's general direction, and Redd happened to look over, resulting in them being locked in another imaginary staring contest. He grins, opens his mouth to say something (something stupid, knowing himself), and Ash looks away again, instead helping himself to his cup of punch. He's sitting on top of the punch table, which Redd notices is unusually free of alcohol in any form.
Redd decides to shrug off the weird interaction when he's approached by Vortex. "Yo, Parrot asked you to get the beer from his cabinet. He forgot it." Redd sighs, then looks over at Parrot, who's still busy trying to fix up his stage. The plastic is literally bending beneath him.
"Parrot, I'm not being your errand boy," he calls over. Parrot glances up, and Redd crosses his arms and sticks out his tongue, a show of defiance.
"Oh my god, can you just get it? I'm kinda busy here-" Parrot glances quickly towards the kitchen, almost as if he's nervous, then turns back to screwing in stuff.
"Jeez, fine-" Redd, grumbling just to sound pissed off, starts pushing his way through everyone to the kitchen. Nobody's really there, nobody except Ash, who's already bent down wrestling bottles out of Parrot's cabinet.
"Oh, hey Ash." Redd takes great satisfaction in seeing Ash look up at him, clearly surprised. The bottle of craft beer he holds slips a little in his grasp.
"Yeah, hi, whatever. Do NOT bring up the texts." Ash mock glares at him, lifting up the bottle of beer by its neck and placing it with a clink on the counter, going right back to digging for another bottle.
"You read my mind." Redd chuckles. "Why not, though?" Ash finally removes his head from the darkness of the cabinet, bringing with him another sizable bottle of beer, just to glare at him again. Redd keeps smiling back.
"I'm sure you know exactly why, Redd. Don't fucking play dumb," Ash skirts around the question, probably because the real answer is that he'll never recover from the embarrassment of Redd mentioning it.
"Uh huh, totally. That kind of makes me want to bring it up more though-" Red's cut off by Ash picking up one of Parrot's slightly cleaner dish towels and throwing it directly at his face.
"Shut the hell up." Ash is back to glaring at him again once Redd removes the towel from his face.
"God, you're rude." Redd throws the towel back at him, and he narrowly dodges it. It lands at the back of the counter, and he snatches it up, throwing it right back with full force. Redd catches it mid-air and throws it at Ash again, who gets smacked in the face this time. Soon enough, they're giggling like fools, throwing the towel back and forth like they're playing dodgeball or something.
"Alright, I do actually need this beer though-" Red tries to sidle away from the crumpled-up towel currently aimed at his face, hands up in surrender. Ash throws it anyways, and he knocks over one of the bottles of beer, which crashes into the wall and shatters into a thousand tiny pieces.
"Oh shit-" Both he and Ash stare at the beer spill spreading slowly over the counter and dripping onto the floor, staring for what feels like a good half hour even though it's only a few seconds. "Redd, you're helping me clean this up."
"Me? Why, what did I do?" Redd complains as Ash shoves a wad of paper towels into his hands.
"You existed." Ash replies, parroting one of his texts from earlier. So Redd parrots right back:
"You know, that's a little rude to say to your boyfriend."
Ash inhales very slowly, his eyes shut tight, and if he wasn't Ash Redd might think he was about to start meditating or something. "Actually shut the fuck up."
Redd can only start wheezing, and his success in annoying Ash only made it feel all the better. He can't stop laughing even as he mops up the beer and the glass remains of the bottle crunch under his shoes. He's laughing so hard he doesn't really register that Ash has turned tomato red.
Eventually, though, Ash starts laughing too, and the sound is melodic, like the shards of glass clinking together as he sweeps them up from around Redd's feet. Redd has the strange urge to bottle up the sound as if it were beer, drink a little of it in every night. God, I'm hopeless.
"Well, I mentioned it and you didn't die." Redd finally recovers, throwing away the last of the paper towels into the garbage.
"I did die, you kill me slowly inside." Ash's blush has receded, but it's still kind of there, although Redd's too busy squinting at Parrot, who is now attempting to hook up a speaker and mic to his crappy TV.
"Wow, didn't know I was so handsome that the longer you go without me-" Redd is cut off by the toe of Ash's foot making contact with his ankle, making him stumble for a moment. "Wow, rude as hell." Redd laughs as he says this, aiming a kick at Ash's knee so he stumbles too.
"Your ego needed to be lowered somehow." Ash sticks his tongue out at Redd, then grabs the bottle of beer he's left on the counter.
"Hey, I need that- Parrot asked me to put some on the punch table." Red attempts to grab the bottle, which Ash lifts high out of his reach. It evolves into a stupid little game of keep-away.
"Not- fair- you're- TALLER-" Red gasps in between jumping for the bottle, which Ash easily moves out of his reach every single time he lunges for it. He settles for trying to wrestle down Ash's hand from the sky, but he just switches the bottle to his other hand.
"I think everything is all fair and good, Redd, whatever do you mean?" He teased, tossing the bottle back and forth now. "Squiddo asked for beer anyway. I'm going to give them some because they never ever ask for beer."
"Has it occured to you that maybe they aren't going to drink it?" Redd huffs, exhausted from all the roughhousing. "They can just get it from the punch table if they want, technically Parrot is more important than Squiddo-"
"Well, technically I am more important than you, because I have the beer right now and you can go dig in the cabinet for one if you really need it." Ash consistently keeps the bottle just out of reach, and it infuriates Redd while also being strangely amusing to him.
"You? More important?" Redd bursts out laughing again. "I'm trying to imagine a world where that happens..." Ash slaps his shoulder. "Ow, you've WOUNDED me." Redd starts making a show of pretending his shoulder is bleeding out, and Ash scoffs at him.
"You're fine, idiot..." Ash watches him play charades, arms crossed. Redd, however, has just been making a distraction, and he uses this moment to snatch the beer bottle from Ash's lowered hand. "HEY- fuck you, Reddoons-" but Redd is already running away towards the punch table, Ash close on his heels.
"Parrot, I got your stupid beer!" Redd shouts over the clamor of the crowd, who all turn to look at him as he slams the bottle on the table. He slams it so hard it breaks. "God fucking damn it." Soon enough everyone's laughing, even him and Ash.
"You can clean up the stupid beer now. I think I still have another bottle in the cabinet," Parrot calls back once everyone has calmed down.
"Parrot, I seriously think we broke that one too-" Redd called back. "This is all Ash's fault, by the way," he added, which earned him another glare from Ash.
"Wow, so now we have no beer. Fun," Parrot looks up from the stage he's finally finished setting up. It still kind of bends underneath him, but it hasn't snapped yet. "You guys owe me two bottles."
"You mean REDD owes you two bottles. I did nothing," Ash says, passing all the blame onto him. Redd cannot let that slide. Not when it's Ash saying this.
"Nothing? Damn, you call throwing a towel at me nothing?" Redd swats at him, and he dodges the hit, smirking.
"I never did such a thing." Ash replies, in his best sweet, innocent voice. He's pretty sure Ash doesn't possess that tone, however, and it sounds more like he's lost his voice a bit- just a bit squeaky and higher pitched.
"I was literally right there, Ash. Hell, you threw the towel at me... after I called you my boyfriend." Redd has forgotten that they're literally standing in front of a crowd, but apparently so has Ash, because all he does is shove him, and he almost crashes into Kab, who yelps but in the end doesn't actually fall over.
"That never happened, fuck you." Ash has turned red again, but he's turned away from Redd, towards the kitchen. "Anyways, I'm going to see if there's anything else instead of beer, because Redd has ruined all of it."
"Hey! It wasn't ALL my fault..." Redd speedwalks to catch up with him, leaving behind a very confused Kaboodle and a snickering crowd. "And that's my job, I was supposed to put the drinks on the table, thank you very much..."
"Your job now can be to clean up that wonderful spill you made." Ash replied, searching through Parrot's fridge now. Bottles and containers collided and produced many assorted noises as Ash mixed them around.
"I cleaned up YOUR spill, you can go clean up mine." Redd said firmly, arms crossed over his chest again. Ash still doesn't look up from the contents of the fridge.
"Yeah, yeah. I guess the beer will just stay there forever. What a shame." Ash produces a large bottle of Sprite and another large bottle of Fanta from the fridge. "Hm, this'll do."
Red immediately snatches the Fanta. "Gotta get my job done," he explains as for the second time he runs away from Ash, back to the punch table. At least the soda bottle can't break when he slams it on the table. "And that's victory!"
"Shut up, I did all the digging for the soda. You merely saved me from more work." Ash sets his own bottle down more gently, his expression insufferably smug. Redd gives him a smug look right back, locking them in a smug stalemate.
"Nuh uh." His response is simple but has no effective counters. Ash opens his mouth, about to spew what no doubt will be a jumble of explanations that make sense on their own but not put together, when Parrot's now-amplified voice rings through the apartment.
"Alright guys, I finally got this shit working, so can y'all like stand in front of this stage or something-" Parrot announces from his position on the stage, holding a mic in his hands. Everyone assembles in front of the stage, and it's messy but probably all you're going to get out of them. Redd and Ash stand near the front- Redd has made it a point to stand next to Ash, if only to annoy him. Nothing else.
"Alright, so I've brought you all here because..." Parrot makes a cinematic pause, which is really just three seconds of awkward silence. "Today- well, 2 weeks ago today- was my HALF BIRTHDAY!" Clearly he expects some sort of cheering, which he does not receive. Redd, while observing the silent crowd, looks over at Mid and Woogie, purely by chance, and they seem genuinely confused. He probably misread them earlier.
"We were supposed to be formal for THIS?" Zam calls from the back, obviously offended that he should have to dress up for so mediocre an occasion.
"Well, yes- you guys better start cheering or I'll eat all my cake by myself." Everyone starts half-heartedly cheering, just for cake. "Much better. Vortex, can you get the cake, please?"
The guy in question pushes his way past Redd and Ash and through the rest of the crowd, headed for the kitchen. A few moments later, the noises of items shuffling rings from the other room. "Who the hell ransacked the fridge-"
"Oops. Redd, you might wanna fix that." Ash elbows him, an insufferable grin on his pretty ass face.
"Shut the hell up, five seconds ago you were saying YOU dug everything out of the fridge." Redd shoots back.
"All right lovebirds, that's enough bickering." Both Redd and Ash fumble for a coherent and highly offended reply to this remark, although everyone else is in an uproar of laughter.
Ash is the first to recover from the initial shock of being called a lovebird. "Parrot, what in the name of- for fuck's sake- I am not a fucking LOVEBIRD- I do NOT like Reddoons in any way, shape or form- fuck you- this shit-" He spews a few more curses before he finishes whatever he's just said. Redd has failed to formulate any sort of good response, so he just listens to Ash's futile attempt at one instead.
"Totally understood that, Ash. Anyways, Vortex hurry the hell up," Parrot says into the mic.
"I'm TRYING- you ordered four fucking cakes, like bro-" Vortex slowly walks into view, indeed holding four large boxes of cake. "Who the fuck needs this much cake, my god-" Huffing, he sets the cakes down on the living room table, grumbling about how unnecessary it was.
"Okay, there- soon as I put on all the candles we'll sing Happy Birthday!" Parrot announces, taking his time in unboxing the cakes and pulling the accompanying wax candles out of the little plastic bags taped on the cake boxes. Everyone groans, but they'll sing anyway if it means they get cake.
Parrot finally finishes setting up the whole mess, sticking the last candle into the top of the chocolate frosting of cake #4. "Alright, lemme just put on the karaoke-"
Another stupid 3 minutes of Parrot entering letters into his TV's search bar. At last, the Happy Birthday song comes on, and it's overbearingly loud and the instrumental sucks. But Redd won't say anything, because he wants cake.
When the lyrics pop up on the screen, everyone starts singing, and so does Redd, yet all he hears is the voice of Ash next to him. It doesn't stand out because he's any better at singing, it stands out because he's Ash.
The song's finished before he knows it, and Parrot struggles to blow out all the candles, graciously lit by Vortex with a giant lighter that resembles a miniature flamethrower. He's out of breath once he finishes, but Redd can barely hear him gasping for air over the cheering of everyone else.
It's time to distribute cake, and everybody clamors to the front of the line. It ends up being based on how good you are at fighting, with the exception of Branzy, who is literally escorted to the front with Clown. Redd gets a decent place up front, having wrestled Leo out of the way, but Ash is standing in the middle of the line, trying not to get pushed around by everyone else.
Redd takes this moment to look behind him and give Ash his best superior smile, because he's going to get cake first and Ash just needs to know that. Ash does not return his kindness, wearing a scowl that would drag a man to hell, could looks kill.
He gets his slice of cake and lingers by the table, relishing the crumbling vanilla bits and crunchy rainbow sprinkles that find their way onto his slightly bent plastic fork. Ash stalks over to him a few moments later, holding a paper plate with his own slice of cake. It looks a little more messed up than Redd's- the frosting's all smeared and half the sprinkles are buried in it.
"You know, you could have just asked me to bring you cake. We would have been like Clown and Branzy-" Ash rolls his eye.
"You can go ahead and imagine that. I do not need to be escorted to the front of a fucking cake line." Ash takes a break to shovel cake into his mouth, and his next words are muffled. "Especially not by the likes of you."
"What, is being at the front of the cake line not enough for you? Do you want me to buy you a whole ass cake?" He laughs, and surprisingly so does Ash. Redd savors the moment like he does the last few bites of his cake.
"I'm good, thanks. I'd be hyper for a week." Ash finishes chewing, gaze fixed on Parrot's amazingly bright ceiling light. Redd squints at it too, wondering what Ash finds so interesting about it. They fall into silence, just eating their cake and staring at the light.
"I finished first." Redd breaks the quiet by presenting his empty plate to Ash. He promptly slaps it into his face with his free hand, getting leftover frosting and sprinkles onto his suit front, his face, his sunglasses and his slightly messier hair. "Fuck you, Ash."
Ash starts cackling at him. The sight of him with frosting all over his face must look reasonably ridiculous, so he laughs too and starts mopping up the mess with a napkin. The second Ash finishes, Redd slaps his plate out of his hands and into his face. A shower of angry glitch-sparks mix with the sprinkles now in his hair as Ash curses him out, and they're both laughing like it's the funniest thing in the world. "God, fuck you too Redd."

It's about 9 PM now, and Parrot has ordered that everyone gather in the living room to watch a movie of his choice. They're watching Home Alone, although it is in no way the correct season for that movie. Redd has watched it a thousand times before and he thinks he'll fall asleep if he sees it one more time.
He's lucky to have found a spot on the couch at all- the living room is packed with people, and there is about zero personal space anywhere. He's been squished against the edge of the couch, sitting on the arm rest, and worst of all (maybe it's the best part), Ash has been squeezed right next to him. He looks none too happy about it, but Ash never does, especially when it comes to being smushed into a crowd of people.
"Hey, at least you got me." Redd whispers to him when he complains about being so close to everyone. "I'm sure I'm plenty nice to cuddle with-"
Ash jabs his chest with his elbow. "No, you have far too many bones in your body, just like the rest of these idiots." Ash's eye reflects the scene of the movie on the TV screen, but Redd looks beyond it. He doesn't quite know what he sees there.
"Hey, you have bones too. Actually, if you have bones and I have bones, we're a perfect match!" Redd grins at Ash, and Ash only sighs and grumbles something about him being an insufferable little shit.
"Yeah look, because we have bones, we fit right together." To prove his point, Redd flops backwards from his seat on the arm chair, plopping his head into Ash's lap and dangling his legs over the edge of the couch.
Ash sputters for a moment, the buzzing of his glitches all too noticeable from where Redd now lay. It's difficult to see, but he's blushing hard. Redd doesn't notice though, because his eyes are closed, hands behind his head like he's in a lounge chair on vacation. "You see?"
"Shut the fuck up, oh my god- get off me, Redd-" Ash attempts to say something more but fails, instead spewing a bunch of nonsense half-words. Neither of them end up moving. It's actually kind of comfortable.
He must have fallen asleep at some point, because he doesn't remember anything else. But sometime during the night, he woke up again. The movie was finished, and the light of the ending screen reflected off Ash's still, sleeping face, a face Redd admitted he had kind of come to love.

𝐏𝐎𝐕: none

It's the morning after the party, 9 AM. Mostly everyone's passed out on the couch or the living room floor, save for a few people. Vortex, Parrot and Squiddo are among those people, and they're helping clean up after the party, which hasn't ended in disaster for once.
"Pfft, that setup was insane." Vortex was laughing at something Squiddo had said. "I literally cannot believe that even worked."
"Yeah, this was fun. Honestly, I don't even know when my half-birthday was." Parrot's chewing on an early-morning slice of leftover cake, expression thoughtful.
"Haha, yeah- and the beer bottles! That was funny as hell..." Squiddo manages to choke out between hysterical giggles. "And- and the whole cake thing-"
"Yeah, only to hear 'We've been dating for three weeks, Parrot, that was entirely unnecessary.' Like, way to ruin the moment, Clown," Parrot adds in.
"I mean, it does make sense though. Why else would Clown be following him around all day, helping him with the beer spill and getting cake or whatever," Squiddo continued, trying to remember some of the key moments they'd witnessed.
"Mhm. Hey, what about Redd and Ash though?" Vortex looks up from the tablecloth he's folding to point at the two, still asleep on the couch.
"Eh, I'm sure they'll be just fine. No setup needed." Parrot grinned. He didn't doubt it a moment.

─── ⋅☆⋅ ───

𝗮/𝗻: i wrote this while i was supposed to be preparing for my vacation. and published it after i woke up from sleeping on the floor bc we didn't have enough beds and i didn't want to sleep next to my lil bro. ☆ bk

𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲: i don't actually know when parrot's birthday is. i don't even know when my own father's birthday is bro i SUCK at remembering that stuff

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 5490 💀