catchacold | Babysitter's Club

"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.

"No one is gonna steal me away. Besides, I can't get any better than you, I already won." Cisco walked along with Lisa and kissed her cheek, idly making their way to where Hartley was feeding the ducks and not so subtly checking out Axel. How did he miss that? Seriously? "Yo, dude, sorry about ... the weirdness. Lisa likes to mentally torture me."

Cisco smiled sheepishly and watched as Teddy threw hand fulls of bread at ducks and squealed loudly in excitement. "You wanna check out my robot some time?"

"Sorry for telling me your ass looks hot? I don't know. I took that as a helpful hint." Hartley bounced Teddy on his knee while he sat by the pond, watching the ducks and smiling just enough to give away that he was joking. Either way, it prompted Lisa to protectively put a hand into Cisco's back-pocket, just to make sure everyone knew that ass was hers.

"Worry about your own ass!"

"Okay, okay, yeah, that was kind of weird." Cisco relented with an amused smile, at least they were joking about it now. "Don't worry, Lis, I don't think he's all that into my ass." He was more into that other kids ass. Made a lot of sense, given they kept blushing around each other. He kissed Lisa again before going over to where Hartley was sitting and dropping down next to him, looking at Teddy with a grin. "Hey buddy! You feeding those duckie-ducks all nice and proper?"

"Duck!" Teddy cried and pointed out at the water. "Du, du, duck."

"You're very observant," Hartley told Teddy, who nodded very solemnly and then turned to Cisco to apparently tell him a story, although he ended up mostly saying Lalalala and Dadadada repeatedly, but he sure was very excited about it.

While Teddy kept the two boys entertained, Lisa walked over to Axel, not interrupting him but curious what it was all about. If he had to take off or be upset because of work, she'd like to at least know why.

"Really? Interesting. Do go on." Cisco prompted and like that, Teddy did. Now with a ha noise that was probably meant for Hartley. Also he kept grabbing Hartley's shirt and tugging at it. "He's a smart kid. Must be your influence." Cisco smiled at Hartley before bopping the kid on the nose.

Axel hung up just as Lisa came over and stared at his phone for a moment before looking up at her with a small frown on his face. "I think I'm gonna have to run. Are you and Hartley going to be okay?"

"Sure, we have Cisco and Teddy. They'll keep us safe." Lisa pulled Axel into a hug, because she was a girl and she could be tough even while holding someone for a while. Hartley wasn't about to hug Axel right now, for oh so many reasons, but at least she could. "Just take care, yeah?"

In the meantime Hartley tried to pretend that he wasn't paying attention to Axel and instead only focused on Teddy, nodding at his explanations that made no sense whatsoever. "He was pretty much the same since I met him. Although he understands more Spanish now."

"I should be good. It'll be a non-issue once I get there and resolve it but if I don't, I'm fucked." Axel laughed nervously as he held her back, enjoying the contact and the warmth. She was such a good friend, he was glad he met her. "Make sure you keep those wusses safe, you just know Mick'll find a way to blame me." He pulled back and blew her a kiss before he took off in a swift pace.

"He's a lovely kid. Good choice of language too, man." Cisco switched to Spanish because why the hell not. "Maybe he'll get a passion for engineering like us. And get super into telenovas. I know I'm hooked." He grinned at Hartley and bounced a little, way more at ease now. "Oh man, you should totally help me make my robot."

Hartley stared after Axel and swallowed, cuddling Teddy closer for a moment. He shook his head at first, but then looked at Cisco instead and replayed what he'd actually said. "Sure, if you ever need help and I can fit it in. I mostly just babysit Teddy these days, but sometimes that takes up a lot of time." Because Mick didn't want Axel alone with Teddy for various reasons and Mick was busy trying to earn money, while Leonard was busy... Presumably earning money as well.

Lisa sat down behind Cisco and rested her head on his shoulder. "You used way too much cologne today." Harsh, but fair."

"I can imagine, kids are time consuming and I bet he's a curious kid, huh?" He looked so wide eyed and in wonder of everything. Teddy flailed his arms and fidgeted impatiently in Hartley's arms for a second, wanting to touch the water. Something he knew was a no-no but he still wanted to. It was so pretty. "Where did you friend go?" Cisco asked as he looked over his shoulder, kind of glad that one was gone. Even if he was gay, he was very close to Lisa.

Putting an arm around her, he paused and pulled a face, reeling back a little. "Damn girl, that's cold!"

"No touching the water." Hartley repeated the words in Spanish, which made Teddy happy and caused another instance of him trying to mimic the strange sounds. He loved Spanish, that much was sure. He glanced at Cisco and shrugged. "He probably has to work." He hated it, but what was he to do?

Lisa kissed Cisco's cheek and shrugged. "Hey, I hear honesty is important in a relationship."

"And mean. Very mean." Cisco huffed childishly because he personally felt kind of victimised by all of this. It wasn't his fault he dressed like a dork and didn't use the right amount of cologne. He panicked! He'd never met a girlfriend's friends before. "Teddy is gonna be a fly adult, I can already tell. Any baby that happen is gonna be a great guy."

Teddy seemed to agree, he laughed and pointed at himself, making a T noise.

Babysitter's Club

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