Balthazar usually wasn't late for things. But today, he'd been practicing for his gig the next morning, and he'd forgotten to check the time, and before he knew it, it was 7 pm and he was running as fast as he could to Hero's because Pedro had called him today in a bad state and he'd promised he'd be there for him. An hour. An hour late.
Balthazar rang the doorbell and Ursula let him in.
"Hey," she greeted him, "you're late."
"Hi, I'm sor-"
"Pedro's gone off to sulk upstairs or something with half the cake, why don't you go find him?" Ursula gave Balthazar a meaningful look.
"Oh- oh thanks! See you! Tell everyone I said hi!" Balthazar made his way to the second floor, hurriedly waving to Meg and some others on the way. The floor was pretty quiet, most of the guests were downstairs. But Balthazar could hear some voices coming from Hero's room. Stepping closer and pausing at the door, he could make out the voices of Pedro and Ben, but he wasn't sure what they were saying. He opened the door.
"Balthazar!" Ben cried. Pedro was sitting on the bed, looking at Ben in confusion. Then he followed Ben's gaze to Balthazar in the doorway and immediately stood up. Balthazar tried to smile, but he was too focused on how Pedro was wearing black and looked like he had forgotten what being happy looked like. "
Yeah. Um, sorry I'm late, Ursula let me in, told me you'd disappeared off somewhere, so I thought I'd come to see if you're okay." Balthazar said quietly, trying to keep his tone casual.
Ben answered instead. "Oh, don't worry about me, I've got some cake, and that's pretty much me set!"
He continued, "But no- no, come on in, we're filming, so uh… you just come over here my friend…" -Ben grabbed Balthazar's arm and sat him down on the bed- "we'll put you here, and Pedro, you can sit down too, because you're standing there like an idiot."
Balthazar looked over at Pedro, who was still standing there like an idiot. Pedro jumped.
"Oh. Yeah. Okay." The few inches from Pedro's position and the bed somehow managed to be great enough for him to trip over the bed and land face-down on it. Ben roared with laughter as Balthazar helped Pedro up.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sure."
It took a few more seconds to get everyone sitting properly. Ben turned back to the camera. "Well, now that we're all seated comfortably..."
Balthazar turned to Ben. "Um, so uh… what were you guys up to?"
"Ahhhhh… we… were just... doing something that's... a bit stupid!" Ben said slowly in the squeaky voice he always used when he was nervous. "Really, and isn't necessary to be done right now with certain people in the room, so we could just gloss over tha-"
"Ben here was trying to set me up with a girlfriend," Pedro interrupted.
"Oh, yeah," Balthazar said, turning back to Pedro with a question in his eyes. "Or- or a boyfriend."
"Or a boyfriend," Pedro agreed, "Actually, do you have any suggestions?"
Does he want me to tell them? "Well… who have you covered so far?"
"No guys as of yet."
Ben looked over at Pedro. "Pedro, we don't need to do this, this is stupid-"
"So what about Tony?" Balthazar asked, choosing to play along for now.
"Surf life-saving Tony or other Tony?"
"Nah, surf life-saving Tony. You know, he used to be really into you."
Pedro gave him his I-might-think-about-it face.
"It's an idea," Balthazar said, shrugging. "But, um… what about other Tony?"
"He's back on with Cleo; she broke up with Gus for him."
"Well then, anyone you had in mind?" Balthazar asked with a confused look at Pedro.
"No, not- not really."
"Okay," Ben said, turning back to the camera, "No idea at all, who could we possibly-"
The door to the bedroom opened, revealing John. "Oh! Hi- hi! Um, Pedro, do you mind if I just… hide- in here with you guys? Ursula's year nines have been… kind of stalking me for the last half hour..."
"Yeah, sure bro, have a seat," Pedro replied.
The three boys moved over to make way for John.
"Oh, thank you!" John walked over to the bed. "Yup!" he added with a nod. "They are convinced that I've stolen their cat! Apparently, evil geniuses always need evil cat psychics."
Ben laughed. "Well- well, John, ex-leader of Team Evil, welcome to Team Love Gods part 2! Our celestial mission being to set Pedro up with someone. Anyone. Now, it's gonna be a real labour of love so that no one has to feel like a loser. Anymore."
"Well, uh, how about, uh-"
Pedro stopped him. "No. That's not something…" he gestured to Balthazar, "that we've talked about. Ever."
Balthazar looked at Pedro to figure out what he meant, but Pedro's gaze was focused at John.
"Oh! Yeah, you're right. Yeah." He leaned forward and thought. "Hmm- well… yeah. I don't know."
"Oh, not to worry," Ben said in his most sarcastic voice. "It's a total mystery."
"Yeah," John said.
"Ooh, John! You've barricaded the door!" Ben exclaimed. "Very well done! Well then, Pedro, I guess there's no choice but to keep you here until we have an answer."
Balthazar looked down at the ground and smiled. Team Love Gods Part 2 was doing very well. He'd just have to see how Pedro would react.
"Okay!" Pedro said, looking exasperatedly at the ceiling. "Balthazar," he said, turning to him, and Balthazar couldn't help but feel a little giddy at the way he said his name, how it seemed to mean so much to him- "Do you wanna… go- outside with me?"
Balthazar nodded. "Yeah. Sure."
The door had just closed behind them when they burst into laughter.
