little things :: zeroyalchaos au

Dogs are wonderful things

(title is kinda unrelated there's only one dog in this chapter sorry)

Three days? Four? Anthony wasn't really sure how many- counting wasn't exactly his strong point. He hadn't been to school in a while. There wasn't much of a reason for his absences, he simply just couldn't.

He couldn't... function? Find motivation? It was all confusing, even to him.

Steven was the only thing that got him out of bed that day. Perhaps he could catch him after school and apologize for his disappearance. He had been worried, after all.

So he got up, took a shower, got dressed, and made his way towards the school. It was already 2:30. School ended at 3:45, meaning that the last class of the day was probably beginning already. Or, at the very least, it was about to.

Halfway down the block, he decided to take a detour and pass by Steven's house. His neighbor had a really cute dog, and sometimes she laid on the sidewalk in the sunlight, and when she did that, Anthony liked to give her belly rubs.

Much to his dismay, however, the dog of the day was not there. And so as he stood there, wondering what to do now, he felt something grab his arm.

Quickly turning around, Anthony realized that this wasn't just anything- it was Ze. A smile instantly appeared on his face, and he could feel his world light up a bit brighter.

Steven's expression, however, immediately wiped the smile off his face.

"Anthony? What the- where have you been? You vanished off the face of the fucking Earth and now you just show up at my house, all casual like it's no big deal! Do you have any idea how worried I was, or how confused I've been? Like, is this-"

"Yes, Steven. I know, I know I worried you. I'm sorry about that. I just..." Anthony's voice trailed off, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to explain himself. He didn't mean to disappear like that, but he woke up Tuesday morning feeling half dead, both figuratively and literally. Then one thing lead to another, and Anthony was sulking in his room for no reason at all.

"I just felt down, a little. Life gets ya down, y'know?" Steven's expression softened at his answer.

"Oh. Well, I'm... I'm glad you're feeling better, Chilly Willy. But that doesn't explain why you're here."

Anthony laughs. "Your neighbor has a cute dog. I wanted to see if she was here."

Steven smiles and shakes his head. "You're so weird, Anthony. Well, do you wanna go inside and play some Mario Kart?"

"Well, yeah! Maybe we can-" Anthony cuts himself off as he realizes what's happening. "Shouldn't you be in school? Isn't- Isn't school still going on?"

"Huh? Oh! My mom had to go out of town, she wanted to make sure I got home okay. To be honest, though, I think she pulled me out early to make sure she didn't lock me out or something. She's done that before, I was lucky we lived with my uncle at the time."

Steven's dragging Anthony into his house and up to his room, talking the entire way. The second they're inside his room, Steven flops down face first onto his bed, making Anthony laugh quietly.

"Amazing. This is the kid who became my best friend, the one who passed out on his bed like he was drunk."

At this, however, Steven perks up, lifting his face off of the bed as he looks over at Anthony. "You... I, uh, I'm your best friend? Like, me-me? Even if I just moved here?"

Chilled nods, a warm little smile on his face. "Of course, buddy! You're fun to be around, you're nerdy and cute, what's there to not like about you?"

Steven's only response was to plant his face back into the bed, giving some kind of muffled remark that Anthony couldn't understand.

He was blushing. He was totally blushing, that cute little fuck is blushing and trying to hide it.

Adorable.

"Well, buddy, once you've stopped being a tomato, I'll come back and kick your ass at Mario Kart. I'm going to go raid your fridge."

And with that, Anthony made his way downstairs to the kitchen, a big, goofy smile on his face the entire way.

(i wrote this in like 40 mins to make up for the one that i lost, please dont yell at me i know it's short compared to everything else. I'll add back in whatever i missed next chapter or so)