Work Text:
January 30th, 2021
5:00 PM
Pix sighs as fWhip sets out the food, admiring the sunset.
"What's wrong, Pix?" Katherine asks. Her sparkly dress hugs her figure perfectly, and Pix considers it a bit too formal for an event like the one he's hosting.
"Nobody's shown up yet, so I'm a bit worried." Pix glances over at the picture his aunt had recently framed of his group of friends.
Katherine rolls her eyes, a smile on her face. "Oh, you know our friends. I'm sure they'll show up eventually. No, I know they're gonna show up."
Pix nods and adjusts part of his vest. He looks up when fWhip gasps.
"They're here!" fWhip jumps up from his place in front of the window and runs outside, ignoring the fact that he doesn't have shoes on. Pix hears him yell excitedly as Joel runs up and hugs him. Behind Joel, Lizzie, Jimmy and Scott walk up to the house. Lizzie pats Joel on the back and ushers him into the house and they're both greeted by Katherine.
"Hello, Pix." Lizzie greets him with a smile and a hug.
Joel walks behind her and bows slightly to Pix.
"Remember, Joel-"
"Yeah, yeah. I know." Joel jogs to catch up with Lizzie, who's already sitting down on the couch.
After the first group, the next people to arrive were Sausage, Pearl, and Gem. When Pix and Katherine were done greeting them, fWhip dragged them to the living room and Katherine sighed.
"What's wrong?" Pix asked, beginning to lean on the wall.
Katherine rubbed her arm with her thumb. "I'm a bit worried about Shrub. I mean... it's probably nothing." She smiles in an extremely shit attempt to hide her worry.
In the driveway, a car door slammed shut. Katherine's eyes had a hopeful gleam as she looked out the window and almost immediately, a smile appeared on her face. She ran out the door and greeted Shrub with a large hug and a twirl. From inside the house, Pix smiled and walked out to greet Wilbur, who had driven Shrub to the house in the first place.
"Ah, fWhip's dad. Nice to meet you," Wilbur jokes as he shakes Pix's hand. The latter lets out a hearty laugh, leading Wilbur inside.
After Joey arrives, they all cram their way into the kitchen, everyone having an assigned seat for them at the large table.
Pix raises his glass above his head and clicks a spoon against it, gathering everyone's attention as the room quiets. Pix clears his throat. "I'll have you all know that this feast was prepared by myself, fWhip and our lovely special guest, Katherine Elizabeth." He gives a glance towards the now-smiling Katherine before continuing his speech. "Through these strange times and this even stranger school year, we've become a family of sorts. Quite an odd one, honestly, but a family nonetheless." Pix smiles. "To the people who sit here today, tomorrow, and so on. Cheers everyone." Pix takes a seat as a few of the rowdy teens cheer and reach for the food, others taking their time to chat. Katherine gives Pix a thumbs up from the other side of the table before passing a small plate to Shrub.
"What gave you the idea for this?" Joey asks, taking a sip of his water.
Pix smiles. "I'm not sure. I missed my new family, so I guess I just wanted us all to spend time with each other." Joey hums and takes a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
Across from Joey, fWhip smiles. "I'm actually really surprised nothing got burnt, y'know?" He chews on a piece of chicken.
Joel glances at Lizzie and looks down at his phone, where he sends fWhip a message.
thing 1 & thing 2 Private Messages
thing 1(Joel): fwhippppppppp should i do it
thing 2(fWhip): do what
thing 1: like..... kiss her....
thing 2: dude you've been dating her for how long? like three years???
thing 1: okay but i don't wanna make a scene cause she might be embarrassed
thing 2: do what you want man
Joel takes a deep breath and taps Lizzie on the shoulder.
"Hm?" Lizzie hums.
Jimmy watches as Joel leans in and whispers something into Lizzie's ear, and watches as she gasps.
Everyone's attention turns to the couple, the shorter of the two now focusing on his food. Lizzie excuses herself from the table, and the room fills with mumbled speculations. Scott whispers something to Jimmy but before Jimmy can respond, Lizzie walks back into the kitchen and drags Joel from his chair.
"Oh shit, he said something bad." Scott pokes at his green beans.
Jimmy furrows his eyebrows. "I'll beat him up. I'll do it, man, I'll beat him to a pulp." Scott chuckles at Jimmy's response.
"I'm sure if Lizzie wanted him beat to a pulp, she could take care of it by herself." The teal-haired boy giggles at his own answer and eats a carrot off of his fork.
A few moments later, Joel and Lizzie return. Joel's face is beet red and Lizzie smiles as they take their seats again. Everyone's focus turns back to their food and the small talk they were making before.
Once everyone was done eating, fWhip ushered them into the living room, where everyone sat on either a couch, loveseat, or the floor.
fWhip, standing in front of the TV, cleared his throat and gathered everyone's attention. "So, this is our last year of high school. Some of us are going off to college, and some of us are... doing whatever people do instead of college. And since it's nearly the end of the year, we decided to have this family dinner. Now, does anyone have anything to announce?" fWhip looked around the room and spotted Joel raising his hand sheepishly. "Yes! Joel, come up here."
Joel stood up and with a beet-red face, mumbled something incoherent. Someone from the small crowd yelled for him to speak up. "Lizzie and I are getting married once we can afford it!" He makes jazz hands as everyone cheers and high-fives. In the corner, Sausage begrudgingly hands Pearl a 10-dollar bill and Gem jabs her elbow into Pearl's side.
fWhip congratulates Joel and he sits down. "Ladies, gentlemen and creatures of the wood, I present, our very own home movie! Made on a shitty camera from 1989 Gem and I found in mom's closet." fWhip takes a seat and on the TV, a movie starts to play.
The moon nears its halfway point in the sky as Lizzie carries Joel out to the car.
Pix follows. "You four heading out?" Lizzie smiles and nods.
"See you later, Pix." She gets in the car and drives off, fWhip waving goodbye from the doorsteps. Pix turns around to see Shrub pushing past Wilbur and fWhip, who are kissing each other goodbye.
"Bye, love." Wilbur gets into his car and once Shrub is buckled in, reverses out of the driveway and speeds away. Pix ushers fWhip into the house.
"Well, that certainly was an event, huh?" fWhip asks, throwing his body onto the couch. Pix smiles and takes the seat across from him.
"That was very much an event." He groans at a sharp pain in his right side, and fWhip sits up quickly.
The ginger runs over to Pix, helping him stand. "Okay old man, let's get you to bed." fWhip helps Pix up the stairs and into his room. "We should get you a cane with how much that hip of yours hurts." fWhip nods at Pix's right side.
"It's-" he sucks air in through his teeth, the pain growing stronger, "-fine. I can handle it on my own."
"Alright, alright. Just saying, it would help and you'd look wise. Night, Dad." fWhip saluted him and walked to his own room, Pix groaning from the stupid joke.
"One time, fWhip! One time!"