A/N: This is just because I need to write something, and what else to motivate myself than the show that I've been non stop obsessing with all month? After my latest one-shot I told myself 'work on other stuff at least until new episodes are out', and now new episodes are out, so I have no more excuses. This takes place just after Backward to School Night, though does take some elements from The Island of Lost Dakota's (That episode was so sweet, and so sad, and I loved it).
Besides, I feel like somebody should address the change that Dakota seems to have gone through since Missing Milo. It's a subtle change, but it feels like it's an important one.
Cavendish had been frustrated with Dakota before. Many, many times. Dakota's personality just contrasted Cavendish's so much that of course they would continually butt heads and disagree on matters, and oftentimes Dakota's laid back attitude was a cause of annoyance and a lot of frustration for Cavendish. Even so, as far as he knew, Cavendish had never been so furious with Dakota.
Then again, Until this moment Dakota hadn't done anything that could have so many potentially disastrous consequences.
"I cannot believe you." Cavendish said shortly for what must have been the sixth time in as many minutes, but he wasn't afraid to say it again. The two of them hadn't even walked off the grounds of the middle school and Cavendish already felt like a broken record. "What could have possibly possessed you to do something so foolish?"
"Hey, I didn't know what was going to happen." Dakota defended himself, but Cavendish was not willing to hear him out.
"That is precisely the problem." Cavendish snapped. "You didn't know what was going to happen, because you were messing around with something that you didn't understand how to use. Something that shouldn't have even been in your possession in the first place!"
"Look, I get it, okay?" Dakota raised his hands defensively. "I shouldn't have messed with the age regressor ray. I admit it. Happy now?"
"Hardly." Cavendish scowled. "Do you have any idea how disastrous this night could have gone?"
"Hey, all that happened was five people got turned into kids. Nothing bad happened." Dakota said in an attempt to shrug off the severity of the situation, and Cavendish was not about to let him do that.
"But it could have." Cavendish reminded him coldly. "The others who got turned into children had to be watched by Milo Murphy and his friends, who are still just children themselves."
"Teenagers babysit all the time." Dakota pointed out.
"But those three haven't." Cavendish narrowed his eyes at his partner. True, he didn't know that for a fact, but considering how exhausted the teenagers looked after just a short period of time, Cavendish thought that it was safe to assume that this had been their first experience with small children. "What if something horrible had happened and the children weren't able to protect the even smaller children?"
Dakota shifted uncomfortably. Finally, he was beginning to realize just how serious the situation truly was. Both of them were all too aware that Murphy's Law had a tendency to make things more dangerous than they naturally should be, and that was just with one Murphy. Considering that both Milo and his father, who had the same family jinx, had been there, Cavendish felt that it was nothing short of a miracle that every single one of them had made it through the experience alive, let alone unharmed.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" And Dakota truly did sound sorry. As reckless as he could be sometimes, Dakota didn't want for anybody to get hurt. Especially not Milo. "I won't do it again." Cavendish knew that Dakota would keep his word on that. He was just curious as to what exactly Dakota was promising.
"You'll never do what again?" Cavendish asked, because he wanted to know that Dakota understood the root of the problem.
Dakota looked confused at the question. "Uh, mess around with time travel devices?" Dakota asked uncertainly, because that was what he was thinking, but he wasn't sure if it was what Cavendish was wanting to hear. And it wasn't.
Cavendish groaned. "So you don't think you're above stealing said time travel devices?"
Dakota rolled his eyes. "That again?" He really didn't understand what was so serious about stealing. "I told you I was going to give them back."
"You shouldn't even have them in the first place." Cavendish said exasperatedly. He didn't understand how Dakota, who was normally the more ethical of the two of them, couldn't see that stealing was wrong and potentially dangerous. "Why on earth would you have stolen them from Brick and Savannah?" Had he just been bored? Had he wanted to feel important? Had this all just been some misguided ploy of revenge against Brick and Savannah for some odd reason?
Cavendish didn't know what had been going through Dakota's head, and his partner seemed to be surprisingly tight lipped about the whole thing. At Cavendish's question Dakota just shrugged, shoved his hands into his pockets, and continued the walk back to the time vehicle. Not another word was exchanged between the two of them, and with every minute that passed in silence Cavendish grew more and more concerned.
Even though they were partners, Cavendish was not foolish enough to believe for a moment that he knew everything about Dakota. He knew that the younger man had his secrets, and Cavendish didn't see any harm in letting him have them. Still, it was frustrating that Dakota didn't hesitate to start blathering on about some nonsense that was of little to no concern, but the moment that something more serious came up, he kept it to himself.
Cavendish was fine with Dakota handling his problems on his own, really he was, he just wished that Dakota would trust him enough to at least tell him what was going on.
The car drive back to their apartment was just as silent as the walk to the car had been, which disappointed Cavendish, but didn't surprise him in the least bit. Once Dakota decided he didn't want to talk about something, he didn't talk about anything.
And it drove Cavendish crazy.
Cavendish parked the car outside their apartment building, but he didn't move to leave the vehicle, and neither did Dakota. Both of them just sat there, waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally, Cavendish decided that he had had enough.
"Dakota." Cavendish's voice was quiet and concerned. He was still angry that his partner would do something so foolish, but at that moment his concern for why he had done it overpowered his frustration that it had happened at all. "I know you, and I know you're not a thief." Vinnie Dakota was many things, but a thief was definitely not one of them. "So why would you steal those devices?"
"...I don't know." Dakota sighed as he looked out the window and refused to even look towards Cavendish. "I was just tired, I guess."
That had not been the answer that Cavendish had expected to hear. "You were tired? Of what?"
"Of everything." Dakota, his voice tight and bitter, which threw Cavendish off. He did not like that tone from Dakota, and he had been hearing it with increased frequency ever since the whole sentient pistachio incident. "I'm tired of always being looked down on. I'm tired of nobody taking us seriously. I'm tired of Brick and Savannah thinking they're such big hotshots just because they've cured the common cold."
"Actually, I believe that they failed that mission." Cavendish recalled.
"Exactly!" Dakota finally turned to look at Cavendish, his eyes desperate. "Those guys aren't any better than we are, and yet we're still the ones being treated like screwups. We save their lives, and not only do we not get thanked for it, we get treated worse than before because of it!"
Cavendish frowned slightly. He could tell that Dakota was expressing his true feelings, but Cavendish didn't think he fully understood the meaning behind his words. He felt like he was missing something. Something important.
Cavendish put his hand on Dakota's arm. "You're not regretting saving the world, are you?"
Dakota sighed. "Of course not." And that was a relief. "I'd do it again if I had to. Heck, I have been doing it again. And again. And again."
"Yes, preventing Brick and Savannah from protecting the pistachios does get old, doesn't it?" Cavendish could understand that much.
Dakota looked at Cavendish strangely. "...Yeah, the pistachios." Dakota nodded. "That's what I was talking about." Well, of course that had been what he had been talking about. What else would it be?
"But what does this have to do with you stealing from Brick and Savannah?" Cavendish asked.
"Eh, I don't know." Dakota said again with another shrug. "Guess I just wanted to get back at them or something." Cavendish breathed a sigh of relief. So it hadn't quite been a revenge ploy, more like one of spite. "And they have such cool devices. I just wanted to know what it feels like to have that kinda power." And because of jealousy. While Cavendish wasn't exactly glad that Dakota had even considered stealing, let alone actually going through with it, at least he was giving them back.
And while his intentions had been slightly malicious and very selfish, and Cavendish promised himself that he would bring these things up with Dakota later, it didn't feel like he had meant any harm. Maybe the evening's events were clouding Cavendish's judgement, but he saw Dakota's little moment of thievery as something akin to what a child would do. Not well thought out, and definitely a mistake, but one that made it difficult to stay mad at him for.
"You really must learn to talk out your feelings instead of acting on them so rashly." Cavendish admonished. First the stress eating, and now this? And Cavendish hadn't forgotten about how eager Dakota had been to chop down the pistachio plants. Cavendish knew that his partner had some unresolved issues. He just wished that he knew how to help him with them.
"Yeah, yeah, okay." Dakota said, probably just to appease Cavendish, but he felt content with the reply anyways. Even if it was a half hearted promise, it was still a promise, and Cavendish knew that Dakota wouldn't just break one without a very good reason.
"And, really, you shouldn't let what other people think affect you." Cavendish advised. "You can't please everybody."
"Yeah, I know." Dakota said. "It just gets frustrating sometimes, ya know?"
"Indeed." After all, Cavendish was fairly certain that he was treated as a fool just as much as Dakota was. "But you can't change how other people think. And if we only bothered to save the people who truly deserved it, than the whole world would be doomed."
"Yeah." That strange look returned to Dakota's eyes. It looked like a mix between fondness, and sadness. "What're ya gonna do?" Cavendish could tell that it was a rhetorical question, though he didn't have the slightest idea what it meant. The way that Dakota said it though made it seem like it was somehow very important to him, so Cavendish didn't bother asking about it.
"Precisely." Cavendish agreed, even though he didn't understand it. "Now, unless there's something else we must discuss, I would really rather like to turn in." The night was still young, but Cavendish was exhausted and sore from running after child Dakota.
"Hey, I'm good." Dakota shrugged. "You're the one who wanted to have a heart to heart chat in the car."
"Yes," Cavendish admitted as he unbuckled and opened the door of the car. "But you are the one who stayed behind for it." Dakota didn't have to wait in the car for Cavendish to work up the nerve to talk to him, but he had. That just showed that Cavendish hadn't been the only one who had reluctantly wanted to have that conversation.
"Eh, you got me there." Dakota smirked and got out of the car as well. "So, you know if we have anything edible in the apartment? I'm famished."
"What?" Cavendish glared at his partner in annoyance. "We ate not even an hour ago."
"Yeah, but I'm hungry again." Dakota said. "And I still have this really weird taste in my mouth. Seriously, what did I eat?"
Cavendish smirked to himself. "Birdseed."
Dakota's eyes widened. "What? Why would you let me eat birdseed?"
Cavendish chuckled tiredly to himself and headed into their shared apartment. Dakota followed along after him, still asking about the birdseed. Dakota sounded upset, and even slightly offended that Cavendish had let such a thing happen. Cavendish didn't feel even the slightest bit guilty about it though. He hadn't been able to control a thing that young Dakota had done. Was it really so bad of Cavendish to take just the slightest bit of pleasure in Dakota's displeasure after the evening he had had?
Maybe it was wrong, but Cavendish didn't care. Maybe he and Dakota both had their issues. Maybe that was just made them work so well together.
Just so long as their issues didn't get in the way of what they did.
A/N: So, this is shorter than my average story, but I just had to write it. I'll be writing more Milo Murphy stuff, because this show has gotten a hold of my heart and refuses to let go. Look out for my future stories, especially another one that draws inspiration from Backward to School Night, and one for The Island of Lost Dakota's, because those episodes hit me right in the feels.