You're Weird, I Like It - Rarl

Smile

Carl was a shitty friend. Over the past week and a half, most of his time had been consumed by Enid, going over the wall with her, hanging out together, talking her into breaking up with Ron and NOT because he had a crush on him! She'd finally done it though. He'd gotten the report from her before she left, his dad had another fit over something stupid and Ron had paid the price. She'd left a week ago now and Carl had not seen Mikey or Ron that whole time, and he felt guilty. They were his friends too, and he had pretty much ignored them in favor of helping Enid and now that she was gone for however long he hadn't bothered even trying to talk to them at all. He wanted to change that today. He needed to. He didn't want them to hate him or think he only hung around for Enid.
Determined he went towards Mikey's house, figuring he'd see if they were already there, when he saw Ron in the distance, walking towards the pond area. He looked...bad. Carl frowned, deciding to follow Ron instead of head to Mikeys.
Stepping into the foliage with practiced stealth he watched Ron a moment; though it was just the back of his head and shoulders. He seemed to be thinking hard, Carl almost didn't want to interrupt him. He did though, startled when he accidentally startled Ron who looked like he'd almost vaulted himself into the pond before looking to see who had done the startling.
"Carl!?" He looked so surprised and that was when Carl noticed the bruising on Ron's face. Frowning Carl opened his mouth to say something but Ron cleared his throat loudly, a clear sign that he wasn't going to talk about it, especially not with Carl. It was a rather awkward conversation following, which had Carl feeling like an idiot after mentioning Mikey in the same sentence as Ron looking lonely, he'd literally made it sound like Ron was the last resort which wasn't the case at all! When Enid was brought up, or rather her lack of appearance by Carl, Carl couldn't help but feel guilty because he understood why Ron would ask that, he'd been berating himself about the fact not moments before he found Ron. His guilt must've looked like something else to Ron though because he was apologizing in a roundabout way that made it seem like it was his fault Carl was 'upset' even though he really wasn't, just guilty as all Hell for being a shitty friend.
He smiled at Ron's suggestion that Ron thought he might weird Carl out because they never hung out alone together. Carl couldn't help the smirk or his daring words for Ron to give it all he had, Carl could handle it.
Their shenanigans started with Eugene, who Carl was iffy about pranking. Eugene wasn't a bad person, Carl actually kind of liked him, he just got this high and mighty attitude sometimes and suddenly Carl didn't mind that they were pranking Eugene. Naturally, it was successful though Carl owed most of that to Ron since he'd never pranked anyone before; he'd joked around with Michonne but they'd never pranked each other. So when they got Aaron with just as much success; and he was a good sport about it too, their next target ended up being, by Ron's words, the next person to walk down the sidewalk...neither knew or even thought about it being Michonne but rules were rules and they got her too. She smiled at them in that way that Carl knew meant she would retaliate eventually and Carl could see it on Ron's face, he was scared of what was to come too. Michonne was creative like that, she wouldn't retaliate right away, she'd think it through, plan it out to the finest detail and get them when they least expected it. Nevermind scared. They were officially terrified. Getting over their fear they managed to get Tobin, Spencer, and Rosita; She was not a good sport about the prank at first until she realized it was just Ron and Carl. Their win streak came to an abrupt halt with their last prank victim.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Carl questioned Ron, helping him set up for the first person to walk through the front door. It was his home, there was no telling who it was gonna be, he knew it wasn't going to be Michonne or his dad, they were currently on duty around Alexandria. Sure his family members lived in different houses but they like to frequent what they called 'the main home' as often as they wished. Oh God, what if it WAS his dad! What if he decided to come home early!
"Carl...Carl, you're over thinking, I can see you over thinking from here, stop" Ron chuckled "Relax, it's a harmless prank, it's not meant to cause harm...maaaybe a bit of stress but no physical harm"
Carl looked at Ron like he was nuts "Stress! You mention this now! Dude, what if it's my father coming home early! He doesn't handle stress well when it comes at him like a surprise!" He pouted slightly as Ron laughed "Stop laughing, there's a chance I won't make it out of this alive"
Ron shook his head "Relax, Carl, I can promise your dad won't be the one walking through the door, he's across town, and I'm pretty sure your dad can take a small prank if by chance he did come back early, so relax"
Ron finished the setup "There, now we wait! So whatcha got to do here?" he looked around the clean house. His home only had the video games in his room, he doubted Carl's place would be any different but he could always hope, right?
"Um...no, not really, I'm usually at your place, so..." He shrugged his shoulders lightly "We should probably go out the back way, wait on the front porch" With Ron's nod of agreement they left the house out the back door, making their way to the front porch as they chatted about the most inane things; like Mikey's sickness in the middle of what might have been the summertime, which Ron concluded was probably from what hed heard was called a 'summer cold'. Carl didn't believe it, sitting on the porch steps with Ron for the next 30 minutes or so.
In that span of time they had completely been engrossed in their conversation, something about a comic book character, and so didn't hear Daryl walk up "Hey, Carl, do me a favor, run in and grab that container of cookies, Carol needs'em"
And without even considering Daryl might be up to something "Oh, sure, on the counter right?" He got up as Daryl nodded, heading towards the door. It was only as he was turning the doorknob that Ron remembered "Carl! Wai-" too late, Carl had the pleasure of being smacked in the face by a balloon filled with green mush made from plants and some water.
Daryl smirked at Ron "Michonne" was all he said before walking away. Ron stared at him in disbelief before scrambling up the porch stairs to help Carl "Are you okay?" He helped wipe Carl's face off, watching Carl spit out some of the green, most likely nasty tasting, gunk they had created.
"I'm okay, its just nasty as all sin" Carl chuckled, wiping his face as well with Rons help "I got it, can you go get a wet cloth from the kitchen?"
He watched Ron leave to the kitchen to get the cloth. About 10 or so minutes later Carl was cleaned off and his shirt was in the wash, a new one covering his torso. Carl could feel Ron's boredom growing again, pranks could only hold interest for so long after all. It was then Carl was hit with an idea.
"Hey, Ron...I have an idea, you're welcome to say no, I'll understand but..." he fidgeted slightly with his hat "Would you like to go over the walls?" He looked up, blue eyes meeting Ron's hazel "There's a town, a couple miles away, I wanna teach you how to protect yourself out there, we could head out and see if we can find anything?" He watched Ron, watched his facial expression change as he thought about it. He was so sure Ron was going to say no before the other boy looked at him, taking him by surprise.
"Sure, on one condition..." Ron looked so serious as he said this but wary at the same time in his eyes "don't leave me alone out there"