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“Hey, Q! How was school?” Karl asked, jumping out of the car and hugging his friend.
Quackity hugged him back halfheartedly. “It was okay,” he mumbled.
Karl rubbed his back. “Wanna talk about it?”
Quackity shook his head and put his backpack into the trunk, then got into the car between Dream and George.
“Karl, the car wasn’t even fully stopped. Do you know how dangerous that was?” Sapnap scolded.
Karl rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’ve seen you literally jump out of a car going 30 miles an hour.” Dream wheezed, making both Quackity and George snort.
“First of all, it was barely 10 miles an hour and second, I had to pee,” Sapnap refuted, rolling his eyes right back. He started the car and drove to the mall. It was a tradition since they’d first started high school to go to the mall after school on Fridays. They’d usually take the bus until Karl got his license(George was adamant about not driving) and he drove them to the mall, only requesting fries from the food court and a new necklace or set of rings from Hot Topic as gas payment.
Then Karl and George had gone off to college, but the tradition had kept up, even when Dream and Sapnap followed them and Quackity was the last one in their friend group still in high school, they’d drive down from the university to pick him up and they’d spend the weekend together at their dorm watching shitty B movies and eat shitty takeout. Quackity would spend the weekend on their couch, complaining the whole time, but when Sapnap or George threatened to cancel the weekend if he hated it so much, he’d backtrack, saying he didn’t mind it too too much.
“So, I’m thinking pizza for dinner,” Karl announced to the car, kicking his feet up on the dashboard. Sapnap batted them off.
“Dangerous,” he muttered, only swerving slightly before putting both hands on the wheel again.
“Not as dangerous as Sapnap’s driving.” George whispered to Quackity and Dream, making them laugh.
Sapnap ignored him and turned to Karl. “Of course you’re already thinking about dinner. You only think with your stomach.”
“And you only think with your dick,” Karl shot back, pulling his feet up to sit cross-legged on the seat as they pulled up to a red light.
“You weren’t complaining about it last night,” Sapnap teased, placing a kiss on the older’s neck. Karl keened and George made a gagging noise.
“Get a room.”
Karl rolled his eyes. “Shut the honk up. You weren’t complaining last night either.”
Quackity blushed and curled in on himself. He’d missed their arguing and couldn’t wait until high school was over so they could all move in together finally. His friends were all in a relationship together, thanks to Karl. They’d been friends since daycare and Karl had kissed Sapnap under the slide one day in 6th grade. Sapnap had been in the 5th grade at the time at their little Catholic charter school and went around telling his friends he’d kissed a girl under the slide.
They’d started dating shortly after that, when Karl had been moved to a different school after he’d come out. Karl kissed George in 7th grade and Dream in 8th and that had evolved into a relationship, too. One that didn’t have to be secret, because someone had found out about the “girl” Sapnap had kissed and outed him to the whole school. In an act of solidarity, Dream and George had moved schools, too.
Quackity’s parents couldn’t afford to switch schools, too, so he’d had to stay until high school. Karl had kissed Quackity when he was in Junior year and Quackity in Freshman. With college looming so near for the older, they’d decided to wait until Quackity could move in with them to make their relationship official.
So Quackity was stuck in years behind them. He hated high school. He wished he’d been born earlier so he would’ve graduated last year like Sapnap had. Then he could officially start his streaming career with his friends and prove Bryce and his stupid friends wrong.
Karl noticed his angry look in the mirror. “What’s wrong, Q? Are we making you uncomfortable? Do you not want pizza?”
Quackity smiled at the considerateness of the older. Karl was studying pediatric medicine with minors in computer science, coding, and business. He was always looking out for others, even if it put himself at risk of a burn out.
“You guys are fine. I was just thinking about some homework I have. And yeah, pizza sounds good.”
“Ha! At least Q loves me!” Karl childishly stuck his tongue out at Sapnap.
“Hey! We want pizza too!” Dream chimed, pouting.
“Yeah, Sapnap is the only one who doesn’t love you!” George added, crossing his arms over his chest.
Sapnap rolled his eyes. “You guys are children.”
“Well, duh. That’s kinda the point,” George replied poutily.
“Aww. Is someone feeling small?” Dream teased, poking George's cheek. The older bit him lightly. “Ow, what the fuck?”
“Language!” Karl scolded, before looking back at Quackity. “We’ll help you with your homework, Q. Well, I will. These two are basically incompetent and George will probably pass out after pizza. He’s had a long day. Haven’t you hon?”
George nodded, taking the stuffie Karl handed him.
Another thing, midway through high school, Karl and George had realized they were Littles. Sapnap and Dream became their Caregivers and despite everything they’d been through, Quackity couldn’t bring himself to tell his friends he was also a Little. They were just going off to college soon anyway. He planned on telling them when they got there.
Quackity just smiled, then tuned out of their conversation as they continued to the mall. Once they were there, Sapnap found a fairly close parking space and stopped the car. They all clambered out and headed in, George holding Karl’s hand because he was still feeling a bit Little, but fine enough to go inside. As usual, they took turns picking which stores they went to.
George went first, because he nearly had a temper tantrum if he didn’t. He picked Build-A-Bear, naturally, and his four friends watched as he made a new stuffie. Once George was happy with his new friend, they went to a skate shop so Sapnap could buy new wheels and wrist pads, as his old ones were wearing down. He’d learned a few months ago that wearing wrist pads was a good idea when he couldn’t stop his skateboard and ran hands first into the glass door of one of the class halls. He’d sprained both of his wrists and had to have someone take notes for him.
Dream took them to an electronics store, buying a new usb drive, a new headset, and a new microphone. Karl dragged them to Hot Topic, buying a Death Note notebook, an Adventure Time hat, and matching bracelets for them all. Along with several new pins he’d found in the box at the front counter. Sapnap practically had to drag him out of the store. Finally, telling him Quackity still had to pick a store snapped him out of his nerdy passion.
Quackity decided to go to a shoe store and got himself a new pair of sneakers. The five settled at a table in the food court with a plate of fries. Suddenly, George gasped and ran off, mesmerized by a claw machine. Karl followed after him to make sure he didn’t spend all of his money on it. Dream saw something he wanted to check out and Sapnap excused himself to the bathroom, leaving Quackity alone with a plate of greasy fries. He knew his friends hadn’t meant to leave him alone, but he still couldn’t help but feel abandoned. If he’d been Little like George, they wouldn’t have left his side.
“Hey Liar-Liar-Pants-On-Fire! Where are your famous friends?” It was Bryce. Of course the other would be here now , right when everyone had left.
“Can you just leave me alone, Bryce? It’s bad enough that you make fun of me at school, but do you have to mess with my personal life?” Quackity asked, sighing.
“Maybe if you weren’t such a liar, I wouldn’t have to make fun of you,” Bryce refuted.
“I’m not a liar.”
“Sure you’re not. You actually know Dream, Sapnap, George, and Karl.”
“Yes. We’ve been friends forever.”
“There’s no way they’d ever hang around a loser like you,” Bryce scoffed, pushing Quackity’s shoulder. There was no way he was gonna believe the other Dream and Sapnap had gone by different names in high school and Karl and George had graduated before Bryce had transferred.
“They’re my best friends!” Quackity protested, though he curled into himself.
“Yeah, then where are they?”
“They’re just busy.”
Bryce shoved his shoulder repeatedly. “Sure they are. Why don’t you call them then, huh, liar boy? Why don’t you call them?”
“He doesn’t have to.” Karl’s voice floated to Quackity’s ears.
“Holy shit! How much is he paying you to hang out with him? $100? 200? Holy shit.”
Karl frowned, that look he got when he was standing up for someone. “He’s not paying me anything. And I’d appreciate it if you kindly left my boyfriend alone,” he hissed. Quackity was shocked. Not only had he never heard Karl so angry, but the older had called Quackity his boyfriend . He’d never done that.
Bryce scoffed. “This pathetic loser is your-” He didn’t get to finish, because Karl punched him in the face. The other fell to the floor, cupping his face and looking up in shock.
“I said,” Karl grit out. “Stay the fuck away from my boyfriend.” That also surprised Quackity. Karl never cursed, not even when he was getting his ass kicked at Mario Kart. The older turned to Quackity as Bryce scrambled away. “Are you okay, love? Did he hurt you?”
Quackity couldn’t answer, because sometime within the whole interaction, he’d slipped into his Headspace, going nonverbal. Karl pulled Quackity into his arms, gently shushing him and rubbing his back.
“Shh, sweetheart.” He pulled back and Quackity whined. “Are you feeling Little?” Quackity nodded and held up one finger. “Oh, a little one, huh? Do you wanna go home and cuddle?” Quackity nodded and pressed his head back against Karl’s chest, tears leaking from his eyes.
“Karl, George just said you punched someone.” Dream walked up.
Karl held up a hand. “I’ll explain later. Right now, we need to get home.” He turned and left the mall, not even bothering to make sure his partners were following. When he got out to Sapnap’s car, he waited for it to be unlocked before sliding Quackity into the backseat, grabbing out an unused paci and one of his own emergency stuffies and giving them to the Little. With the weight on his tongue and the stuffie in his arms, Quackity fell asleep quickly.
He woke up on the couch surrounded by his friends(boyfriends?), who were eating pizza and playing Wii. Karl was obviously regressed, wearing a Cartoon Network onesie with a matching paci clipped to the hood. Dream was wiping pizza sauce off of his mouth gently as the Little giggled. Quackity groaned and sat up, drawing all four’s attention to him.
“Ducky!” Karl exclaimed, crawling over. “We has pizza!”
Quackity’s tummy rumbled and he reached out for the pizza.
Dream chuckled. “Alright, little one. Hold on.” The older lifted him off the couch and settled on the floor with the Baby in his lap, grabbing out a slice of pepperoni pizza and taking out Quackity’s paci, before giving him a cut up bite of pizza. Dream continued to feed him and at one point, George got a point up on Sapnap, who looked at him mischievously.
“No fair, mister. I was distracted by Ducky being so cute!”
George just stuck his tongue out only to be swooped up by Sapnap, who discarded their controllers and took to tickling him on the armchair. Karl joined in, only to be ganged up on by both of them. He was irrefutably the most ticklish out of the five, so making him giggle and squirm was easy. Quackity clapped his hands. He was happy with his new brothers and Daddies.