Okay, so you're probably wondering why I didn't post Day 5's prompt on Day 5. Well, uh... I got distracted by a dumb thing I wanted to do, which I'll probably post soon, but for now, don't worry about it. Can I interest anyone in fruit or dessert?
...No? Then how about the prompt for today: Date! Instead? This one's a little rough around the edges, but I think it's kind of fun. I'll try to post day 6 later tonight, but until I do that, enjoy this prompt first! See you at the bottom of the page!
Henry Stickmin was not good with ties. Bowties, sure! He loved bowties, but the last time he'd worn a bowtie out in public, he'd been mistaken for a waiter so many times that he'd been fired (despite not actually working at the restaurant). So, no; today was going to be a tie day, because he was absolutely not going to let this day be ruined. Days when his best friend would agree to go out on the town with him, without the entire military base knowing where they were going, were few and far between, and he really wanted this. No, he needed to spend some quality time with his friend, his partner, Charles Calvin. Now, if he could just get the knot right on this tie-
"Hey, Stickmin!"
Henry whipped around, pressing himself against the sink, and barely suppressed a groan. The Bukowski Twins had walked in, and immediately zeroed in on him and what he was doing.
"Hey, buddy." Konrad, or perhaps it was Calvin, threw an arm around Henry's shoulders and grinned at him. "Checking yourself in the mirror?"
Calvin, or perhaps it was Konrad, finger gunned him. "Looking good, man! Say… is that a tie?"
Oh, God.
The Twins looked at each other, talking through Henry as if he weren't there. "Why the dressy look?" One of them asked.
"Stickmin never wears ties," the other replied.
"Do you think that maybe…"
"Stickmin might be…"
Then together, "...going on a-?"
Henry quickly pushed the both of them against the mirror, hands fisting their shirts as he fixed them with a serious look. Once they wiped the shock off their faces, they went right back to their cheeky smiles and raised eyebrows.
"Relax, Henry," one of them began patting his arm as if to soothe him. "We won't tell anyone, right Calvin?"
"Wouldn't dream of it, Konrad," Calvin nodded emphatically. "We'll let you get right to it, even!"
They grinned evilly. "...For a price."
Henry stared hard at them, then let them go briefly to sign something. The two watched his hands, then looked at each other.
"Did you catch what he said?" Konrad asked his brother quietly.
"I think he asked us why about something tomorrow?" Calvin whispered back. "Or maybe he was saying not to do something, and something about our heads."
"...Ah." The twins paled a bit, then raised their hands in surrender and backed away. "D-don't worry, Stickmin," Konrad said carefully.
"We won't charge you today, promise," Calvin agreed.
Henry squinted at them for a moment, then glanced down at his tie. Ugh, he didn't have time to fix it anymore, it would do. Then he looked back to the twins and made an "I've got my eyes on you" motion before hurrying out of the bathroom.
The twins watched him go, standing perfectly still for a moment before slowly relaxing their shoulders. Konrad looked at Calvin. "We're totally following him, right?"
"Yep," Calvin replied.
"Sweet."
Later…
"Oh, Henry!" Charles saw him coming and waved excitedly.
Henry slowed to a stop on the sidewalk, taking a moment to catch his breath before signing, "sorry I'm late!"
"Late? You're not late, bud, don't worry." Charles grinned at him, the setting sun glowing right behind his head like a halo. Henry's heart skipped a beat. "Oh, did you tie your tie today? It looks pretty good!"
Henry blushed and signed shyly, "it looks better when you do it."
"Maybe, but it's still something you should learn. If the General made you wear a uniform, you'd have to learn real quick. He takes inspection super seriously."
Henry rolled his eyes and signed, "please, let's not talk about the General tonight."
Charles laughed lightly. "Okay, okay. No more work talk. So, where did you want to go tonight?" Henry reached into his pocket and pulled out the address he'd written on a piece of paper. Charles read it quickly. "Ooh, Italian? I love pasta!"
"I know," Henry signed, and he was about to sign something else when he looked briefly over Charles' shoulder and his heart nearly stopped. Standing on the other end of the sidewalk behind Charles, hardly disguising their obvious staring, were the Bukowski Twins.
Charles blinked and made to turn around. "What are you looking at-?"
Henry quickly pulled him away and signed, "let's go to dinner!"
"Uh, yeah! Okay! But the restaurant is this way, isn't it-?"
Henry tugged him further away from the twins. "Scenic route," he signed.
Charles thought about it, then shrugged. "Sure, we've got a little time. Let's get going!"
Later Again…
The "scenic route" had ended up taking them a solid ten minutes, because apparently the twins couldn't keep their mouths closed. Soldiers started popping up around the town, and while it was technically possible that Victoria Grit and Amelia "Turtle" Esteban just happened to be having a girl's night out on the town and Josh Taylor and Drake Camper just happened to be getting drunk at an outdoor bar for the sake of getting drunk, Henry was pretty darn sure that Rupert Price and Quentin Alabaster of all people would not be spending their free time hanging out right where Henry and Charles needed to go.
And so, after ten minutes of dragging poor Charles around town, they had just barely arrived at the restaurant in time to keep their reservations before they were tossed out. That should have been the end of that, but while Charles was hemming and hawing over the menu, Henry glanced over to the bar and saw, again, Josh and Drake hanging out at the bar, continuing their journey to Ultimate Slosh-dom (and was Alabaster joining them?). So he'd had to insist on switching to an outdoor table, hoping against hope that if anyone else was going to insist on spying on them, they'd at least have the decency to be discreet. For a while, it seemed like that might be the case. But then it was time for dessert.
"Gee, I don't know what I should get," Charles wondered aloud, kicking his legs under the table as he looked at the menu. "I'm stuck between the tiramisu or the cannoli platter… which one would you prefer, Henry?"
"Cannolis," Henry signed immediately. "They have frosting in them."
Charles blinked and gave Henry an incredulous smile. "...No they don't? They're filled with ricotta cheese, not frosting."
Henry made a face. Normally, he loved cheese, but not in a dessert!
"It's a sweet cheese," Charles said quickly. "Like cream cheese, or something."
"You can have cheese or dessert," Henry signed emphatically. "You can't combine them both."
Charles leveled him with an amused look. "Well, clearly, they did. Maybe I'll get it just so I can force you to try some."
Henry swept his hand to his forehead dramatically, putting on an exaggeratedly pained expression.
Charles stuck his tongue out at him, and they laughed quietly together. Henry allowed his shoulders to ease up. Even if there was someone watching them, Henry hadn't spotted them, and more importantly, neither had Charles, so maybe he could relax just a little bit-
Was that Galeforce?
Sure enough, General Galeforce himself was standing by the hedge surrounding the outdoor dining area of the restaurant, dressed casually but not even pretending that he wasn't staring at them. And oh, did that make Henry's blood start boiling.
Charles noticed his change in expression. "Henry? What's wrong?" He started to turn around and Henry stood up abruptly, nudging the table and knocking a fork to the ground. "H-Henry?"
"Bathroom," Henry signed quickly, then ran back into the restaurant, Charles' concerned calls disappearing into the chatter of the dining room.
By God, Henry was not going to have Galeforce of all people ruin his date! If the man couldn't leave well enough alone, he'd have to force the issue. Henry picked his way through the restaurant until he came to an exit that would lead behind where the general had been standing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of duct tape. Perfect. Just the tool he needed to keep the General out of the way for the rest of the night. He'd come back for him. Probably.
Henry walked close to the hedge, stepping quietly as he approached the General from behind. The gods seemed to have deemed this the right choice, as the area was relatively remote from witnesses. If he worked quickly, none would be the wiser.
He leapt at the General, knocking him over easily with the element of surprise on his side. Unfortunately, that's where his good luck ended.
He and the General wrestled on the ground, Henry stuck between trying to tie the man's hands down and taping his mouth shut as he cried out in protest. "Hey! What in the- Stickmin, is that you?! Stickmin-! Stop-!" The General knocked the duct tape out of Henry's hands and the two wrestled for dominance. "Stickmin," The General growled as he grappled with Henry. "I don't know what's running through your head, but I have half a mind to dock your pay at the least! Why are you attacking me out of nowhere?"
Henry scoffed and kept pushing. Maybe wrestling with the guy who'd been working for the military for most of his life wasn't the best idea.
"Don't give me that," the General snapped back. "I was minding my own business, watching the sun set over the hedge, and then you come out of nowhere-"
…Oh. He'd been watching the sunset? Henry glanced at the sky. Yep, the sun was setting right behind his and Charles' table. Okay, maybe he'd made an erroneous judgment, but how was he supposed to explain that now?
"Henry? General? What are you two doing?"
Uh-oh. Henry and Galeforce stopped wrestling to look up at Charles, who was peering at them over the hedge from the outdoor dining area of the restaurant. "You're here too, Charlie?" the General asked, seeming genuinely surprised. "Wait a minute… you're both here…" Henry could see the gears turning in Galeforce's head. He had to say something random to distract them both, quick!
"Galeforce is my dad," Henry blurted.
The two soldiers stared at him. Okay, maybe he shouldn't have said something as random as that.
"...Really?" Charles asked after a beat.
No, no, NO! "Yep. Just found out." …Crap.
Charles started clapping excitedly. "Oh my gosh! Henry, that's great! I can't believe the General is your dad! That's so cool!"
Oh, Galeforce is gonna kill me, Henry thought, straining to have something resembling a smile on his face. He glanced over at Galeforce, wondering how exactly Galeforce would destroy him… only to see him watching on with an odd expression. Not the total outrage he was expecting, or even absolute confusion. In fact, he looked… thoughtful.
…Oh crap.
"Charles," the General said quietly, "would you mind if I had a word with my son real quick?"
Abort, abort, ABORT! The General grabbed him by the wrists with a death grip; he was not going to get out of this one unscathed.
"I understand, sir," Charles said, calming down. "But I don't suppose it could wait for a bit? Henry and I are still on our date."
The word seemed to echo around the world. "...Your what," the General said.
"OOOOOOH~!" Suddenly the entire goddamned military seemed to appear, cheering and whooping and pointing at them. "Henry and Charles are on a DAAAATE~!" The Bukowski Twins were starting up a chorus of "Charles and Henry, sitting in a tree!"
Henry was definitely going to cut off their heads tomorrow.
…As soon as his dignity grew back.
Charles blushed and tried to ease the noise down, to no avail, why Henry simply flopped onto his back, hoping the sky would open and strike him with lightning. Galeforce peered into his line of vision. "Since when were you and Charles dating?"
Most people don't know sign language unless they know someone who speaks it, so the Bukowski Twins aren't all that fluent. Their confusion about what Henry is saying has to do with signs that look similar to other signs. The word "not" (making a fist with your thumb sticking out and dragging it out from under your chin) looks similar to the word "tomorrow" (a similar hand shape, but the thumb is next to your face, and you pull your whole hand up and outwards). Likewise, the word "head" (flattening your fingers at a right angle and pulling them away from your temple) looks similar to a variation of the word "why" (similar position, but as you pull your hand away from your head, you tuck down the inner three fingers to make the letter "Y", which is basically the "hang ten, dude" sign with your pinky and thumb sticking out).
Like many people, I enjoy the head canon of Henry really, really liking cheese, but also like Henry in this fic, I am slightly disappointed at cannoli's being filled with ricotta instead of frosting (I like my sweets sweet, thank you very much). Also, in case you aren't aware, a cannoli is an Italian desert that's basically a tube of fried pastry filled with ricotta cheese and decorating with chocolate or sprinkles. Meanwhile, a tiramisu is a coffee cake with cream, biscuits (often referred to as "lady fingers"), cocoa powder, and either mascarpone cheese or cream cheese (the former is more traditional while the latter is more American).
I keep seeing people head canon Henry as Galeforce's son, and while I'm not a total subscriber to that thought, I decided to use it here because I think Henry would make up a lie like that to get out of trouble. (Galeforce isn't actually Henry's dad in this fic, but I've seen a lot of good art and fics that have this head canon!)
The General was, in fact, just watching the sunset while out on a walk, and legitimately didn't know Charles and Henry were right there. Whoopsie-doodle!
Henry does not cut off the twin's heads the next day, but he does chase them up a tree like a dog. Charles reigns him in a little.
I'm not sure how this would work, but I think it would be funny if Charles was also trying to keep Henry from noticing that soldiers were out spying on them.
Anyway, I think I'll leave this here. Like I said, I'll try to post day 6's prompt later tonight, but if I don't, uh... sorry! I'll try to get this week finished this week! Anyway, leave a review and tell me what you thought of this one, and I'll catch you later. Until then!
