Consequence Drabbles 1

Nancy wasn't sure exactly when she noticed it- maybe she already had, just refused to acknowledge it till now- ,but she was very slowly starting to realize that Chip might have a, complicated relationship with touch.

Complicated because, on the one hand when he first started staying at the house, he'd keep to himself as much as humanly possible, which of course included batting Bill away whenever he tried to help him with a chore, or washing his hands constantly after touching, well pretty much anything in the house, claiming it to be dusty or dirty or a mixture of the two.

But then, on the other hand, Nancy was starting to see that, Chip might be the most physical person in the house (coming in second only to Bill).

It wasn't obvious, definitely not at first, but Nancy could be pretty darn observant, least when she wanted to be.

Chip'd be on the couch, watching T.V. and someone would come along to sit next to him, and whether it be Tilly, or Alice, heck even Cricket the blonde would extend his arm to subtly rest over their shoulders, tugging them just a hair closer till they were eventually resting against his side.

A lot times it seemed he didn't even know he was doing it.

And it didn't stop there.

It had suddenly hit Nancy when they were all waiting in line to see Croblins 5 that, Chip almost always ended up holding someone's hand whenever they all went out. It had hit her then because, that night he'd chosen to grab onto hers.

Nancy could almost laugh at how surprised she'd been, nearly jumped out of her skin when she realized the hand was too big to be Tilly's. When she looked at Chip she thought of asking why, but…something about the peaceful look on his face then..it stopped her, and she ended up just turning her head the other way.

And Nancy could go on listing examples, like the way Chip let Tilly ride his shoulders whenever she asked, or the way he never seemed to mind Bill occasionally messing up his hair with a classic proud hair ruffle, but the truth is…Nancy had kinda noticed that side to Chip way before.

Back when, he still hated her family's guts.

Nancy'd never told anyone this and probably never would, but her first run in Chip hadn't been at Mayor Handsock's office.

"Poor Bill, so nervous about the speech he forgot his lunch." Nancy lamented to herself as she traversed the con, toting Tilly and Cricket's lunchboxes in one hand, and Bill's baby carrot pouch in the other. Even at Farmcon concessions were insanely overpriced.

"Good thing Alice let me borrow her pass." Nancy smiled to herself as she adjusted her lanyard. Alice'd been in such a hurry to get the pawnshop she almost missed Nancy shouting at her.

"Ok, ok, just gotta find the stag-woah" Nancy just barely managed to not fall over and as she was rudely shoved past by some suit in a hurry.

The redhead quickly righted herself, shooting an annoyed glare at the rando who almost tripped her. "Hey now that wasn't very-"

"Boss, it's okay, just calm down."

" Y'u calm 'own!" Nancy's eyes widened as she watched a blonde beanpole shout at his minimum wage employees with both hands firmly clamped over his mouth, shaking like a leaf in autumn.

Nancy was just about to keep walking, but she couldn't help noticing the incredible panic in the man's voice as he started to hyperventilate, all while his employees looked at each other in helplessness.

"Uh,uh-"

" Get 'he car 'eg!" The man shouted as one of his employees nodded and took off out the con's exit. That just left the other employee to awkwardly try to keep her down as her boss started pacing around in frustrated little circles.

Nancy just couldn't tear her eyes away, and unfortunately the blonde took notice of that.

" w'at are y'u 'ooking at!?"

Nancy blinked, almost shocked he was talking to her. "Uh.." Her grip tightened on everyone's lunch as she momentarily considered minding her own business and walking off.

But, she didn't.

Instead, Nancy arched her brow and walked over.

"Hey…" She began, putting up a placating hand as the man raised his own brow, his eyes wild and flighty as he took a step back. "You uh, alright there?..."

The man seemed to curve his panic for just a second so he could stare at her in bewilderment. " 'W'at? W'at 'ind of dum' que'tion is 'hat?!"

'Oh boy we got a sass mouth over here.' Nancy thought in exasperation for half a second before shaking her head. The blonde's employee looked back and forth between them before taking her own step back, like she just didn't want to be involved.

"I uh, you just seem kinda spooked." Nancy explained, keeping her tone deliberately eased to offset the man's frustrated demeanor. "What happened to you?"

The man rolled his eyes, though the tension never left his shoulders. " o'thing. I'm 'ust 'eachy 'anks for a'king." He said sarcastically, turning his head with a shake as the hyperventilating and panting got cranked back up to eleven.

Nancy frowned, pursing her lips to the side with a low hum. "Yeah sure seems like it." The biker hadn't realized it yet, but she was getting pretty close to him now.

The man's eyes took on an even wilder look. " 'hat are you-" His hands suddenly tightened around his jaw and he scrunched his eyes closed. "D'nt 'ook a' me!"

Nancy put up her hands placatingly. "Alright, alright, I ain't looking, I promise." She said, her eyes comically pointed to the floor despite the fact the blonde wouldn't even be able to see with his own eyes still closed.

The suit's remaining employee was definitely no help as she awkwardly took yet another step back. Guess it was up to Nancy to stop this guy from having a heart attack.

Nancy sighed, she gently plopped her family's lunch on the carpeted floor, before gingerly stretching out her hand.

By then the blonde's eyes had opened again and Nancy made sure her hand moved as slowly and as gently as possible as it came to rest on his shoulder, giving him plenty of time to move out of the way if he needed to.

He didn't, stood stock still in fact, though his eyes never left her hand as he stared at it in perplexity.

"I just," Nancy paused as the man seemed to snap out of his confusion with a flinch. He still didn't move though. Nancy blew out a sigh as she gently repositioned her grasp on his shoulder. "I think you need to take some deep breathes hon. Can you do that?"

" 'hat? 'hy 'ould I, I 'on't u'dersta-" The blonde was so lost in own frustrated ramblings he didn't even seemed to care it was in front of a complete stranger.

Then again, Nancy couldn't really say much. "Hey, hey," She gently chided, not even realizing her free hand had come up to rest on his other shoulder. "It's okay. You don't have to understand, you just gotta breath alright? C'mon one big one, we'll do it together."

The blonde blinked at that, as if just now realizing the situation, and Nancy couldn't help ,but feel sorry for him as an embarrassed flush dusted his cheeks.

Regardless, Nancy made sure he was with her as they both took a deep breath together and let it out together.

She helped him through two more.

"Alright last one I swear." She promised. "Think you can do this one on your own?"

She patiently waited for him to nod. "Alright, in," The man closed his eyes and took the breath. "And out, there we go." Nancy nodded encouragingly as his shoulders slacked with that last exhale.

Nancy hadn't realized it til now, but the man must've been really hunching before because now that he was starting to relax and stand straight, he was nearly a head taller than her.

Nancy couldn't deny the awkward feeling that came over her as they both stood there. If it were Bill she'd wrap it up with a quick hug like usual, but this was very clearly not Bill.

So, Nancy did the next best thing and gave the blonde a few gentle pats on the back as her hands slowly came back to her sides. "See, you're alright."

The man rolled his eyes again, looking more tired than anything.

Nancy sighed. "So, you hurt yourself?"

"An old lady dropped a bag of swag on his head." The employee spoke up from the left. "Knocked out all his teeth."

" 'ose!" The man barked, one hand still covering his mouth as he used the other for an angry gesture. Meanwhile Nancy's eyes widened. 'Dang it Alice, not again.'

"Oh well, heck. You'll be fine then." She said instead. "I used to bust my teeth all the time when I was younger." Nancy laughed as she opened her own mouth and gestured to the many, many, fillings and crowns she'd gotten over the years. "Nothing a quick trip to the dentist can't fix."

Again the blonde rolled his eyes. Something told Nancy he did that a lot.

"Well that and something cold." Nancy smiled in empathy as she fished out the ice pack she brought for her family's lunches and held it out to him.

The blonde's eyes widened, and even with his mouth covered Nancy could tell he was frowning in confusion.

Nancy shrugged, pressing the ice pack into his free hand regardless. "Here slic, you deserve it for putting up with me." She joked.

Satisfied, Nancy offered one more friendly smile as she turned and waved goodbye over her shoulder.

Rejoining the crowd, Nancy watched from the corner of her eye as the blonde beanpole slowly raised the ice pack to his cheek, briefly waving goodbye back.

And Nancy'd say she didn't know why she was thinking of all this right now, except she kinda did.

It started when she got a call smack dab in the middle of evening.

"Hey," Bill greeted from the other line. "It's starting to get pretty bad out there," Wasn't that the truth, it'd been raining cats and dogs since noon.

"I think they're gonna issue a tornado warning soon and, it'd really ease my mind if you started heading to the house right about now Nancy."

"Aw Bill I was just about to eat my 99-cent macaroni." Nancy pouted as she stirred said macaroni with her spoon.

"Nancy please, your trailer is not tornado proof last time I checked."

The biker sighed, shaking her head. "Alright, alright, no need to worry. I'm going Bill."

Bill sighed. "Thanks Nancy, stay safe…also I'm stuck at that Andromeda girl's house with Tilly so you're gonna have to be the one to make sure Ma goes down to the basement if things get bad."

"Wha-Bill!?" Nancy complained, but her ex-husband had already said goodbye and hung up.

The redhead sighed to herself as she dug around in her closet for her raincoat. "I'll bet at worst we're just gonna get a severe thunderstorm warning."

Nancy sighed as a drop of water from the basement pipes fell onto her head. She sure was eating crow right now.

But, that was the least of her worries right now because someone didn't want to stay in the basement.

And surprisingly enough it wasn't Alice.

"Chip, no we can't go back up yet." Nancy said whilst Alice fiddled with the radio, trying to get the weather report back on.

The blonde groaned in frustration as he stood next to the stairs. "But, it'll just take a few seconds- "

"Chip c'mon don't be stupid." Gloria piped up from the corner as she sat cocooned in her comforter next to Cricket, who was sound asleep, curled up on one of her pillows. "Just wait for the tornado to pass."

Chip groaned again, running his hands down his face. "But that could take all night, and what if it doesn't pass, what if-" Chip shook his head. "I'll be back down in no time anyway-"

"Let it go booshie boy," Alice spoke up as she finally got the radio to work. "I lost my leg poking myself out from the storm cellar too early, you want that to happen to you?"

Chip rolled his eyes. "My room's literally right next to us, why-"

"Slic, what could be possibly so important that you need to-" Nancy cut herself off as her gaze suddenly landed on Chip's hands.

They were starting to shake as he repeatedly twisted Tilly's popsicle bracelet around his wrist.

Hold on a second, what was in Chip's room that-of course.

Bill's wooden chopper.

Nancy felt her brows drop. "Chip,"

The blonde jolted slightly at her change in tone. Nancy took a couple steps closer. His eyes widened as she laid a gentle hand on his wrist, already rubbing circles into the back of his hand with her thumb.

"Chip, they're fine. Andromeda's apartment building has a built-in storm shelter, Bill and Tilly'll be back home before we know it."

Uncertainty flashed in Chip's eyes. "I.." He turned his head to look back at the stairs, but Nancy knew defeat when she saw it.

The redhead eased her hand up his shoulder, much like she did back then. "They're safe." She repeated for added emphasis before steering Chip away from the staircase towards Gloria's bed, where even Alice was now relaxing.

Nancy eased Chip into a sit before throwing herself down on the mattress, it actually jiggled a little causing Gloria to chide her for it. "Guys it's a spring mattress please be gentle."

Nancy sighed, as she sat up just a hair, leaning against the wall for support. With one hand she scratched behind Cricket's ear like she knew he liked when he slept, and with the other, she reached around Chip to grip his hand in her own.

He squeezed it in reply, shooting her a sheepishly grateful look.

Just like back then.