catchacold | Babysitter's Club

"You look great with him," Lisa assured Cisco and he did, not that Teddy would have been a bother even if Cisco had no idea how to hold a baby. He was Teddy, he was generally happy with the world. Lisa let go of Cisco so she could right Hartley's hoodie for him, even though Hartley rolled his eyes. "I'm just making you look good."

"Thanks." It was a very dry thanks and Hartley checked to make sure Teddy still looked happy. "I need all the help I can with that."

Cisco continued to hold Teddy, his eyes watching the way Lisa was always all over these boys and they were always all over her. It annoyed the crap out of him. He couldn't say anything either, Lisa insisted it was nothing and she was just teasing but they were both better looking than him, taller than him and all handsome and grown up. He pouted as he looked at Teddy, who grinned back and shoved his spiderman keyring into his mouth. "Come on, let's go see duckies."

"We're going to see duckies?" Axel asked, assuming a decision had been made. He grinned playfully at Hartley and reached out, tweaking his glasses. "I love duckies."

"Duckies are great," Lisa agreed, snorting when instead of another eyeroll, Axel messing with Hartley's glasses was naturally met with a smile and a blush. Of course. She went to wrap an arm around Cisco as they started toward the pond, Teddy thoughtfully chewing on Spider-man while looking around. "What do you think of my boys?"

"They're nice, yeah. Strong, tall, nice people." Cisco thinly veiled snark was not best hide but frankly, he didn't know what to make of any of it. They all seemed odd and he was unsure if he should be mad or what. Mostly he was going to focus on Teddy. Teddy was cute. All he wanted to do was chew his keyring and make happy noises. "Teddy is cute, he's really happy. For a baby. Usually they just cry, whine and want stuff."

"You're sweet." And so much fun when he was jealous. Lisa kissed his cheek and looked at Teddy, chuckling as she shook her head. "No, Teddy never cries, he's the happiest baby. He just asks when he wants something. He only gets upset when he's in pain or when people are fighting around him." Other than that, he was just happy to explore the world, big eyes looking around.

"Lisa says you're into science. What do you do?" Hartley finally asked, having been curious.

"He's pretty unique then. For a baby. Jeez." He wished his cousins were more like Teddy. Hell, he wished everyone was. When Hartley spoke to him, he turned his head and took a moment to think because this question was pretty tight but he was trying to be mad and it was a weird range of emotions for his young teenager brain. In the end, his love of science beat out his want to pettily dismiss this random hot dude. "Engineering and physics, a little maths on the side. I'm mostly just studying what I like right now, seen as they won't let me skip."

Not the school, his parents. Apparently skipping a grade was fine but graduating high school was ridic. Cisco had just taken to his own creative projects. "Right now, I'm building a robot for Robot Wars."

"I try to study on the side, Mick lets me use his computer." Mostly Mick didn't use the computer for anything other than porn and if Hartley wanted to use it to study boring things, he was free to it. "I can't afford college courses, but I still try. I wish I had my tools... I use what Mick has, but that's household level." Not a lot for advanced engineering. "At least I got to upgrade some of his appliances."

Lisa looked at Axel to see whether he even knew what exactly they were talking about, but it didn't really seem that way.

"Do you have any pictures of your robot? I built one once, but it's been a while."

"Nah, household tools won't do nothing. I remember my early days, when I built my first robot with my dads tools. Just ended in fire. Of course a lot of my projects end in fire." Cisco admitted sheepishly. He didn't have the tools and parts for his grand ideas but boy did he try and pull them off anyway. The result was usually just fire, explosions and nothing good. Seems about right, in all honesty. "Just do what I do and go to junk yards, steal stuff and then save your money for tools."

Seemed like a legitimate suggestion but he had no idea this kid was homeless. Either way, he nodded his head and juggled Teddy around, pulling out his phone and opening up his pictures. "Check it! It's hella dope."

"... People still say dope?" Axel asked Lisa as quietly as he could, giving her a look. Her little nerd was adorable. Not as cute as his nerd but close.

"I try to avoid fire. It'd be a bad idea around Mick." To say the least, but Hartley saw no need to embellish. Instead he looked at the pictures of the robot, immediately switching to full on nerd as he asked technical questions about specifications and design features, while Lisa took Teddy out of Cisco's arm to shrug her shoulders and join Axel.

"I've no idea. Does Hartley say it? If he does, then no, people don't." Their nerds were very unique, nobody could deny that.

"No, Hartley is weird, he's super polite but at the same time, really snarky and uppity. It's an odd blend." Axel admitted as he walked beside Lisa, looking at Teddy and pulling faces, enjoying the way Teddy gargled and made excited noises at him. "I think your boyfriend is jealous of us. Which is really funny. How did he not twig already?"

Axel tended to get picked up pretty swiftly as gay, he could understand Hartley but seriously? Him? Then again, Cisco didn't seem that sharp, he was smart but slow, in a weird way. He was mostly just babbling on now about weird nerd stuff no one could follow but Hartley.

"I think it's hilarious, so I made him more jealous," Lisa admitted freely with a smirk, looking at Teddy, "I did, didn't I? Yes, Teddy. Was that mean?" A little bit, in all fairness. "He thinks you are both very tall and handsome and he was very opposed to us cuddling." It really was hilarious, she couldn't feel too bad over it.

"You're so evil, I love you so much." Axel had to laugh and, because he was about as sinister as Lisa, he casually threw an arm around her shoulder and cuddled in close so he could play with Teddy, kissing the boy on the forehead before sticking really close to Lisa. Seriously. So close, he was stuck like glue.

Cisco paused his rant mid-sentence and started staring at the two of them, alarm bells going off in his head. He was so focused on those two cuddling up, he walked into the 'caution: water' sign by the pond and nearly bashed his head in.

"Are you all right?" Hartley had reacted on instinct, pulling Cisco into his arms and away from the sign, reaching for his hand mostly to protect his phone. He couldn't afford a phone, so that had upped his respect for the things considerably. He turned to look at Cisco, frowning. "It really helps to actually use your eyes sometimes."

Odd mix of snark and polite, Axel was right about that. Lisa hid a giggle against Axel's shoulder, stopping by the pond and then crouching down so Teddy could have a better view of the ducks.

"No, I-I just... I was. Them." Cisco babbled hopelessly as he stared at Hartley for a moment and then swiftly took off running, leaving Hartley behind because he really had to find out what those two were giggling for. What was going on? Why were they all cuddled up? Cisco was soon at Lisa's side, kind of out of breath but trying to seem more chill than he was. "Hey, Lisa. Can I show you something? It's just like... over there?"

Cisco gestured to a whole lot of nothing because clearly there was nothing, he just wanted to get her away from this guy. Axel, being the troll he was, slumped over Lisa playfully. "Sure, we can come look." Yes. We. He was riding this train to hell. "Hartley too. He loves things."

"...I've no idea what you want to show anyone over there, but Teddy wants to look at duckies and the duckies are right here." Hartley pointed out the duckies and took Teddy from Lisa, who was giggling even harder now. No wonder that earned her an eyeroll. "People are silly, Teddy, don't you think?" Hartley asked the question in Spanish and Teddy just made a happy sound, looking at the duckies while Lisa reached for Cisco's hand.

"What do you want to show us?"

"Yo, I'm not silly!" Cisco rebuffed because he was not being dissed in his own language. Though he did switch to Spanish to add on a little bit. "You and your friend here are just muscling in on my date. Stupid handsome genius with your fancy glasses and hot ass. My ass is hot too." Turning away childishly, Cisco shrugged his shoulders dejectedly and took Lisa's hand anyway. "Nothing, doesn't matter any more."

"Okay, I'm gonna go check my phone." Axel felt like giving the kid a break so he pulled away. Not before kissing Lisa's cheek, of course. Then he wandered off to see what messages he had while Cisco stubbornly clung onto his girlfriend.

"I'm gay, you genius!" Hartley had been thrown out of his home and lost everything he had, every opportunity, everything. He wasn't about to let some guy be a dick to him over not realising that he was in fact gay, just because he was too busy being insecure. So if he had to come out loudly to him in Spanish, he would. Hartley lifted Teddy up so he could walk a bit around the lake and bring some distance between himself and everyone else.

"...what was that all about? Didn't sound a lot like the language of romance." Lisa looked at Cisco and combed some hair back from his face. "Hey, handsome. Don't be upset."

"He... He just told me he's gay." He blinked a little before bowing his head awkwardly and kicking at the ground a little. "I thought -- God, you were teasing me, weren't you?" Great. Now he just looked like such a jackass. And he totally deserved to look like a jackass, he was being so jealous. He just worried a lot. He wasn't secure in his masculinity for so many reasons, he was shorter than most people his age and he had one hell of a baby face. Frankly, he looked younger than he was and he couldn't help that. He tried shaving to get some kind of stubble going but it just wasn't happening. "I'm sorry I got weird, Lis. You're just so ... woah. And I know you could have anyone and I freak out sometimes."

"He is pretty damn gay," Lisa agreed, wrapping her arms around Cisco, "Sorry, he's moody. He got thrown out for being gay, so I can see where he comes from." Which did make her feel a bit bad over including Hartley in this game, but on the other hand he was now playing with Teddy and everything was great when you played with Teddy. "I want to be with you, Cisco. Nobody else."

To prove her point she kissed him.

Cisco pulled away from the kiss with the dumbest smile on his face. He was loved and he loved it! He paused and remembered something, fumbling in his inside pocket before pulling out a jewellery case. "Here!" He held it out to her with a massive grin. It wasn't anything expensive, especially given how poor he was, it was just a simple gold necklace with a heart. Not real gold but goldeny. "It's not fancy or nothing but I liked it and I thought you might too."

Lisa pulled her phone out right away, so she could take a picture, gesturing to Cisco. "Help me put it on?" She was smiling brightly, not really hiding how charmed she was. Far from the most expensive gift she'd gotten, but it was from Cisco and that made it very special indeed. She didn't even care that it might not be worth a lot. "Thank you, Cisco."

Cisco helped her put it on and then back up, grinning at her. "You're so beautiful. You make me so happy." Cisco gushed awkwardly as he went a little red and reached out, taking her hand. Right, no, he couldn't get all sappy and lame, he had to be good. "Come on, let's go look at duckies!" He dragged her along playfully as they circled the pond. He eyed Axel, still on his phone, looking a little pissed off and he frowned. "So Axel... is he gay or what?"

"Axel's very gay. Him and Hartley are dating. Or something." Sometimes it was hard to tell, but given Axel's job, it was hard to blame either of them for that. Lisa tightened her grip on Cisco's hand and called out to Axel. "What's up?" He definitely didn't look happy right now.

"Work!" Axel yelled back as he waved her off and turned away, back to her so he could keep talking. Cisco was unsure what kind of job he had but he was assuming something like retail or coffee shop? Something along those lines.

"Okay so both my love rivals are gay and you didn't think to tell me? Thanks, Lis." Cisco huffed and rolled his eyes. Now he owed Hartley an apology.

"It was a lot more fun this way," Lisa confessed, wrapping both of her arms around Cisco and kissing him again. "You're the best boyfriend I've ever had. I need to make sure to keep your interest before someone steals you away. Like Hartley and his science talk."

Of course, right now Hartley was just helping Teddy toss duck feed into the pond and holding him close while glancing at Axel every now and then and pretending that he wasn't glancing at Axel every now and then.

Babysitter's Club

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)