Sorry 'bout the wait, The Avengers is a very good distraction.
I don't like this one much, but hey, a chapter.
Thank you all soooo much on the reviews and alerts once more!
You people are bound to burst my ego into oblivion.
When Tavros opened the door to his home, he was faced with, as expected, a very livid father attacking him with a barrage of questions. His father started to roll him to the living area, and for what seemed to go on almost forever, he had to sit there and listen to his father's heated scolds and ridiculous 'what-if' scenarios. When Tavros finally got a word in, he explained in a stuttered mess what transpired that afternoon. He might have purposely left out Gamzee in his story- just the car almost running him over and Dirk.
It was almost haunting how quickly his face turned from raw anger, to pure and utter distress.
Almost as quickly as he entered the room, he was ushered out, his father ordering him to sleep and that medic bots would be there in the morning. Tavros, despite giving a few half-hearted protests, agreed and rolled himself to his room, his father still in the den already sending out the message for the medic crew. As Tavros closed the door to his room, he just simply rolled over to his bed- day clothes and all- and crawled into bed. As soon as his head hit his hard, but welcoming pillow, the events of the day caught up with him in full force as he fell into a heavy sleep, ignoring the small ghost pains in the back of his head.
He dreamed of clown bots and magic.
-
The next morning, Tavros groggily awoke to, as his father promised, the medic bots already setting up his room for testing. Meaning they were rearranging all of his furniture and personal belongings to make room for their medical equipment. Irritated, he sprung up from his bed, ignoring the sudden dizziness and keeping an eye on where the bots were taking his stuff. Last time this happened, it took him a month to find all of his favorite books and trinkets.
When the bots finished refurnishing his room, they started the testing, which, to Tavros, felt like getting stuck with a cattle prong repeatedly. About half-way through, the doctor finally made himself present and asked the boy about the previous night's events. His father was there- but only to serve as a silent spectator, only chiming a few health comments here and there. After almost half an hour of tedious questions and ludicrous testing by the bots (scanning equipment? How did that even get in here?), the doctor believed to have heard enough and started to go over the results.
A bruised shoulder, a few bone fractures in his left leg (that freaked Tavros out more than he liked to admit- even if he couldn't feel it), and a minor concussion. That one scared him. The doctor presently strode over to his father without another word as the bots started to bandage his leg. Sparing a glance to his dad and the doctor, he saw two slips of paper shoved into his father's hands. He recognized one of the slips as a prescription, probably for the concussion. Peering at the other paper, Tavros visibly cringed.
The bill. Great. Now more reasons to feel like a burden.
After explaining to his dad what he needs to do to heal faster, the doctor left, rather abruptly, the bots trailing behind him, leaving his room in a disarray state. The boy's father sighed before giving his son a weak smile, telling him to stay put in bed and that he needed to go back to the barracks soon. Walking over and planting a kiss on his son's forehead, he left too, leaving a very disgruntled Tavros to his thoughts.
-
A few days into this "house arrest" (his dad would never call it that- but it felt like it) and Tavros never felt more uneasy. And bored. The pain left him completely, only leaving him with his leg to finish healing, whenever that will be. He was prohibited from going to school, and that's fine, he was even hoping for that, but he was also prohibited from going outside. "Not until you're healed," his father ordered. The mohawked boy scoffed. More for his father's sanity, than for his own son's safety, Tavros thinks. It disappointed him that he won't be able to see Gamzee, but there was little he could do, and he didn't want to risk angering his dad.
Currently, Tavros was stationed in the kitchen in the middle of the day, scouting for something to eat. He tried opening the doors to the cabinets, but his perched up leg became an obstacle, so he gave up having to fix an actual meal. Rolling to one of the counters, he settled for an apple in one of the baskets on the surface. Taking a bite, he rolled back to his room, back to complete boredom. He could sneak out- his dad is still in the barracks, but the leg would only prove to be a complication in the streets, and plus his dad could come home early. Not a chance he's willing to take.
Rolling into his room, apple in hand, he cast a glance to the full view mirror in near the side wall. He didn't know why he even had one, his dad just gave it to him one day. It only just disheartens him. Wheeling a bit to the mirror he ran a hand through his mohawk, messy from the lack of proper maintenance. He made a mental note to trim it later.
Sighing, Tavros moved from the mirror to his bed near the end of the room. Using his upper body strength, he pushed himself on top of his bed, making sure not to bump his cast. After he got as comfortable as he could be, he skimmed around at his room, which was still in disarray from the bots a few days ago. Frowning, he made another mental note to rearrange everything back. Later, after his leg healed.
Confident of this new plan, the boy pulled a book from under his bed, Pupa Pan, his favorite, and began reading it for the thousandth time.
Until he heard a knock on his window.
At first Tavros ignored it, thinking it was a tree, or his overactive imagination. Then the knock grew louder. Frowning slightly, a tad irritated that something was interrupting his reading, he looked up and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a black mess of hair and glowing indigo eyes staring straight at him. It took him a moment to process that it was, in fact, Gamzee, in all his copper and purple glory, grinning brightly and waving at him from outside the window.
It took him another to figure out that he wanted to come in.
Setting the book aside, he placed himself in his chair and wheeled to the window, letting the steam bot inside. Normally Tavros wouldn't do something like this, but then again, normally people (or steam bots that recently saved him), don't come knocking at his window. After unlatching the window and raising it enough for Gamzee, the mohawked boy reeled back, letting the languid bot step into his room.
"'Bout time you motherfuckin' answered, Tavbro," He greeted with a large smile as he brushed by a very confused Tavros, "I almost up and thought that you weren't ever gonna look up from that motherfuckin' book!" Gamzee twirled a bit, glancing left and right, before stopping at the foot of Tavros' bed, facing him with a face splitting smile.
Tavros was a little more than uncomfortable with this. The steam bot that saved him a few days ago, appears out of nowhere and, albeit with Tavros' help, is currently standing in his unorganized room, staring down the boy like Tavros was the one who saved Gamzee. But strangely, he felt more uncomfortable with the state of his room, rather than Gamzee's sudden visit.
"Uh…" Tavros took a deep breath in and tried to regain what little thoughts he had. "G-Gamzee, why… Why are you h-here? Not that I, uh, don't want you to be here! It's j-just, um…" That earned himself a few mental slaps. Tavros was about to let out another language massacre before the clown bot interrupted him.
"I just thought I'd check on a motherfucker," he said in his smooth, artificial voice, "you weren't at that water place for a motherfuckin' bit, and it was all kinds of lonely without my favorite watching bro." Gamzee grinned at the mohawked boy before deciding to take a seat on his bed, all while still looking at Tavros.
The paraplegic blushed and turned his head away from the automaton. Favorite? Surely he didn't mean it. He was just a faceless nobody stuck in a wheelchair. Braving a glance back at the bot, he saw that Gamzee was still staring at him innocently, like he didn't say anything wrong. Tavros couldn't help but smile, though. "T-thank you… I guess," He muttered as he started to wheel over to his bed, being extra careful of his leg.
The clown bot beamed. Tavros situated himself back on his bed with his back resting against the headboard. Gamzee spun around and mindlessly poked at the cast on the boys leg. "What all this for, bro?"
Tavros shivered, trying to come up with audible sounds to answer, "Uh.. Well, my leg, k-kinda broke, that night…" he stuttered, trying not to let his voice go too low.
Gamzee's smile instantly disappeared. "Aww shit, Tav…" He groaned, "Motherfuck, I didn't mean to all up and push ya that hard… Aw fuck…" He then started to stumble out apology after apology, running a copper hand trough his messy mane of hair. Tavros tried to stop his ramble, but it only made it worse. So he did the next thing he could think of.
He threw one of his playing cards at him. The card bounced off him. He wished he hadn't done that.
As stupid as that was, he succeeded in quieting Gamzee. Looking at the steam bot, he stated, "G-Gamzee, you did nothing wrong. You s-saved my life, and I'm glad. So please… Calm down? Maybe?" Tavros didn't know how he got the sudden burst of confidence, but it felt good, and Gamzee seemed to have calmed down, a hint of a smile returning on his copper features.
"Really?"
"R-really."
Gamzee's smile returned in full force and Tavros couldn't help but smile back. The automaton's grin was almost contagious. Gamzee then shot his head back and forth, looking for something, "Hey, bro," he inquired as he started getting up and rummaging through one of the mohawked boy's drawers lining his room, "You have, like, motherfuckin' pens or markers or somethin'…?"
Tavros blinked, confused by the sudden action, "Um," His eyes followed Gamzee shifting drawer to drawer as he tried to think of a good answer. Finally, he pointed to the dresser next to the bathroom door, "I, uh, think they're in there…"
Gamzee followed his direction and started going through the cabinets. After a few minutes he let out an "Ah Ha!" before pulling out a multitude of colored markers. Picking out the purple one (of course), he sat next to the boy's cast, and with a grin started writing, the angle of Gamzee blocking his cast.
"Gamzee? What are you, uh, doing?"
"You'll see, bro."
A few minutes later Gamzee rose from his spot, revealing dark purple letters across the cast, and sat back in his original spot across from Tavros. The boy arched a brow and examined the words written in alternated caps:
I'm So SoRrY aBoOt ThIs! I hOpE iT hEeLs SoOn! HoNk! : o)
A large smile threatened to break Tavros' face in two as he read the small message. It was so touching, he didn't even notice the spelling mistakes in it. Nor did he care. He only had something like this happen to him once- back in Prospit, he and Jake were playing rather roughly and as a result Tavros broke his arm. Jake later apologized, and signed the cast in dark green letters. It was a bittersweet memory though- Vriska wrote several obscenities and profanity on it to the point where the binding had to be removed.
Gamzee bounced a bit on the bed, eagerly awaiting a reaction. The boy regarded him with a smile, "Thank you, Gamzee… It's very, uh, n-nice." He cursed himself at his choice of words, but it seemed the bot didn't mind one bit, as his smile grew bigger (how does it keep doing that…?) and bounced a little bit more.
"No problem, brother!" He chirped. After a while of small, comfortable silence, the bot started to squirm. "So, what do you up and do for motherfuckin' fun around here?"
Tavros squirmed too, involuntarily, before he answered with a small voice "W-well, I just either read… Or play my card games…" He remembered the card he threw at the bot a bit ago. He couldn't see it where he was sitting.
"Really, Tavbro? Like what?"
"I just, um, play Fiduspawn, mostly…"
"Oh! I've heard of that! I've seen all those motherfuckin' kids play it. It looks fun."
"Y-yeah.. I like it…"
"You think you can all up and teach a motherfucker?"
"Uh… S-sure… If you want to…"
"Miracles." Twitch.
They ended up playing until sunset. When the boy's father came home, he found a very happy Tavros sitting on his bed rearranging his cards and placing them on his bedside table. He saw the purple writing on his cast, but decided not to ask, only going to start dinner for the two of them. He'll ask later.
Faygo Loving Clown: That would be the logical thing to do. If I had money. The minute I have it though...
