13 October 2020

Prompt: Grow

Character/Pairing: Dingo King (OC), Luka Couffaine

Rating: T / PG-13 / Teen

Notes: Abner, the cousin mentioned, is Fen's. Thanks to Quick & Mal for the idea here bc this prompt had me STUMPED.

When Dingo leaves Paris the first summer after he and Luka met, he's…scared. A little. And a lot sad. Dingo doesn't want to go back to Wagga Wagga, convinced they'll never come back. And he likes Paris. He likes Luka.

…he's never had a friend before. Not really. Abner doesn't count because he's a cousin and no one's friend.

But Luka just grins at him and gives him a hug, telling him he'll see him at school next year. Maybe sooner, if they both get back in time. (The Captain's taking them home to Stornoway to see her parents, too, so it's not like he even would've been around that summer.) Dingo's not as convinced, but he just smiles and lets Luka ruffle the spiked blonde hair covering his scalp. He tells himself it won't be the last time he ever sees him, and he almost believes it.

And Wagga Wagga isn't bad, but it's not home anymore. Not like Paris is. He has an ok time, but he's never been close to his family, and even Abner isn't the company he once was. (Abner has discovered girls, and while Dingo technically has, too, Brielle isn't girls and he's not Abner.) Really, the only good thing about the trip back home is the growth spurt he has over the summer, and despite the pain that comes with it he can't wait to get back and lord his new height over Luka.

Because Dingo has always been awkward angles and jutting elbows, but he's also tall now. His aunt calls him lanky, but for the first time ever he actually looks…proportionate. And he kinda loves it.

…even if none of his pants fit anymore and he goes back to Paris with too many baggy jeans cut off around his knees.

They both get in a few days before school starts, but between the rush of settling in and preparing for the new year they don't actually see each other until Dingo slides into Mendeleiev's homeroom Monday morning. Luka just blinks at him from their desk – until Dingo hauls him out of his seat, spins him so they can stand back-to-back, and tells Brielle to see who's taller. She tells him to stop being a dumbass and goes back to talking to Charisse, but his point is made. Luka just rolls his eyes before he sits back down.

"I'm not done growing yet," he says, but Dingo just grins as he plops back in his chair and kicks his booted feet onto the desk.

"I'm taller than you," he leers, but any other bragging is cut off when Mendeleiev comes in and snaps at him to get his feet off the table.

Dingo gets to enjoy his new height for maybe three months. Luka's steadily been catching up to him, growing into his own awkward angles and elbows, but it's the gap over Christmas and New Year's that gives him that final spurt. He comes in that Monday a few inches taller than Dingo, and Brielle just laughs as she swipes the back of Dingo's head.

"Serves you right, asshole," she snickers, but Luka just grins when Dingo pouts at him.

…when all is said and done, and their growing seems to peter out and they settle into their teenage-turning-adult bodies, Luka's almost a head taller than Dingo, which…isn't fair. It takes Dingo a few months and a summer (and less begging than he expected, even with his parents), but when they show up for their first day at Sant-Saëns, he's made up for the missing height.

With a vibrant, lime green mohawk.

That makes him a good two inches taller than Luka. At least.

Luka just blinks at him as Dingo grins behind shiny orange shades, and then Luka's laughing so hard he doubles over clutching his stomach.

"Ding," he wheezes, reaching up to clap a hand on his shoulder, "you are such a dumbass."

(Dumbass isn't weirdo, and Dingo thinks he doesn't mind his best mate calling him a dumbass at all.)