Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Vessel loved his side-hussle as an influencer, really, he did. It was great, he spent like an hour a day practicing specific songs one guitar and vocals before recording them one at the time. But sometimes, he kinda loathed it. You see, he had originally started his tiktok and youtube channel, just to post himself playing random songs and giving short explanations to the structure and chord progression. It didn't do well though, and he barely got any views. However, again and again he had gotten comments about how he sounded like Hozier, a pretty famous artist from Ireland. He was sceptical at first, but when he searched up Hozier and watched a few interviews, he had to reluctantly admit that he did kinda sound like him.

So, and after a long while of contemplating, he finally practiced and then recorded one of Hozier's songs, called "Take me to church". The song had been going viral at the time, and suddenly, his cover of the song blew up. He woke up the next day to countless new followers and comments about how he sounded just like Hozier. He went along with it, because heck, why not, and even grew out his hair. It wasn't curly, straight as a pencil instead, but still, it added to the gimmick.

Then, a few days after he had told his best friend II (who he had a crush on) that his video of the Hozier song had been going viral, and much to his surprise, II actually had known the artist for years. No, 'known' was the wrong word, more like: 'absolutely adored and worshipped'. Well. As much as the drummer boy could 'absolutely adore and worship' anyone besides his favorite drummer gods. But it was the thing that planted the idea of growing out his hair to look more like Hozier. At the time he was still critical about mainly covering Hozier, but it quickly took over his channel. Every second day he would do a YouTube video explaining the instrumental parts behind each song one at a time, and on tiktok he would post covers of the songs. One time he even dared to curl his hair specifically just for a video. But there's only so many videos and covers he could do on Hozier, and after almost a year (with the occasional break) he was first of all, out of songs, and second of all, exhausted.

But just as coincidence would have it, II was excitedly yapping off his ear about this Hozier concert he was gonna visit and how he was planning on giving the artist some hand-made bracelets. Vessel stayed quiet and just nodded along as they headed into the mall because II wanted to buy something specific.

Vessel simply followed him here, to be quite frank, purely to spend time with him. He had no business at the mall, but he didn't want to waste this opportunity to hang out with II, since they both had been busy recently. It was almost Christmas again and II had a bunch of concerts to play, and Vessel had students in university waiting for his curated lectures about music theory and story-telling over multiple pieces of music.

So yeah, he was definitely gonna use this opportunity to hang with his crush- ahem best friend.

When II stopped at a window of a lego toy shop, he used the moment to tie up his hair into a low ponytail. It had grown to be quite long ever since he stopped getting hair cuts, and it was now hanging down to his shoulders. It did kinda get in the way now, at times, but tying it up usually helped.

What definitely didn't help his pining heart was the way II's face scrunched up over the giant scarf he was wearing. Something behind the window apparently needed some scrutiny. Vessel's heart needed to stop beating that fast. It was getting a little embarrassing, really. He had been in love with II for ages now, but their long-lasting friendship kept him from ever doing something about it. Sure, he had had a few flings here and there with any willing man or woman, as did II, but still, his affection for the shorter man never faded.

So, he would keep his distance, as long as II didn't want him back. And he would keep watching the delight and joy on II's face whenever he could.

Soon, II had looked his fill (and also realized that he definitely didn't earn enough for the steep inflation of lego set prices) and they finally went into the clothing store the drummer boy wanted to go into. He needed a new shirt for his concerts coming up, and Vessel was supposed to help him pick one out or something, but the singer honestly had no sense of fashion. Nonetheless, he followed II around the store and watched curiously as he picked out one shirt, then another, then found a third one and put one of the other shirts away, and so on and so forth.

By the end of it, when II had ended up with two shirts that he liked equally and both looked stupidly good on him, Vessel was slightly overwhelmed and more than eager to go home. They parted ways outside of the shop, II heading into some more shops for presents, and the singer heading back to his flat ten minutes from the center.

He had something he wanted to do. Something he was more than a little nervous to do. But nonetheless, he wanted to try. It had been itching at the back of his mind ever since he put 'FINISHED' behind that one composition of his that he had actually dared to record, one brave evening. Because the truth was, Vessel didn't only play guitar and sing when he was recording or practicing for a recording, he actually composed sometimes too. Nothing grand or impressive, but little bits and bops, just enough to keep the creative flow in his mind at a manageable level.

He played piano too, sometimes. It had been his first instrument, but in his teens, it had slipped away from him, bit by bit. With every one competition, he lost a little more of that original spark he had felt as a little child. Now, he focused on other instruments, but when something in a composition just didn't sound right, he returned to the black and white keys of the piano.

Thinking about it made his fingers itch. Yeah, he was definitely gonna upload his own song on Spotify today. And shave his face, he had started to grow a beard by accident because he forgot to shave once.

He reached his apartment building and unlocked the front door, before taking the elevator to the fifth floor. The house was fairly quiet, beside the screams of a toddler downstairs, and he unlocked the door to his flat/ studio. Ever since he started influencing, he preferred to record in his own flat. So he had built a recording set up in his living room. He liked the echo in there, even if it sometimes made recording something clean absolutely horrible.

The new song was called "Take Aim". He had picked it out by himself, even if that meant that he'd spent the next entire year questioning that decision. But it felt like a fitting name for a song about a crush that's supposed to just love him back for once. When he had shown a part of the song to II, he was almost scared that the drummer would realize that it's about him, and tell him off for it.

In the entrance of his flat he stopped to neatly put away his shoes and hang up his jacket. He carefully pulled the hair tie out of his hair as he walked over to his recording set up on the table. It consisted of his laptop, a microphone and a lamp with a phone holder. He turned on the laptop and sat down on the chair right in front of it.

Vessel knew that listening to the song now would make him hate it even more, but he couldn't help himself.

He needed to hear it one more time. He pressed play, and the first chords came playing through the small speakers, surrounding him in what he should feel proud off. But predictably, the longer the song played, the deeper the furrow in his brows got deeper and deeper. He had pretty much done everything he could, yet the guitar still sounded too rough, and instead of the synthesizer he originally planned to use, he had to play the small higher notes on the piano. It sounded rougher, and harder than it should. But it wasn't going to get any better by him scowling at his laptop.

So, he sucked up his self-consciousness and anxiety, and instead hit the last ok so Spotify would upload his song on the planned release-time. Now he just had to make a video about it, since shameless promotion was part of a musician's life, and then he could probably start making an apology video for youtube, since really, this song was just an embarrassment, and he was sure his audience would hate him for it. It didn't fit in with his impersonating content and was nothing like Hozier's music at all.

He set up his phone and connected it per cable to his laptop, slowly and meticulously as always, and got ready to record a short, unapologetic self-advertisement. It felt foreign and awkward, to read some nonsensical bullshit off his laptop about how he was only able to do this because of social media, and after the tenth try of stumbling over the words and grimacing discontent, he gave up. Instead, he tried something else. He grabbed his guitar, double-checked the tuning, before he started a new recording. For a few minutes, he simply went through the chords and let his fingers get familiar with the progression again. Then he pulled up his lyrics-file.doc and scrolled to where he had typed out the lyrics of "Take Aim".

Something like nervousness creeped around the edges of his mind for the first time in years. This was really about to happen. His own song, his own music, out for the internet to see. He felt like vomiting again. But nonetheless, he put on a brave face and started singing and playing the song. The first time went terrible, his fingers too tense and unwilling to move and his voice all raspy and shaky. So, he played it again, and again, until it flowed freely and felt much more how he had imagined it. Naturally, the breakdowns kinda didn't really hit as hard on just a guitar, but still. This would do for a video. He stopped the recording at 46:00 minutes on the dot.

Then he got to work, choosing the best repetition of the song and cutting a part out of it that would hopefully evoke a bunch of interactions. After that, he sent the cut together clip to his phone to upload on tiktok. He put the same hashtags as always into the caption, but also made sure to mention that his own song was out now, even if that made him cringe a little. Shameless advertising really wasn't his thing. But it had to be done, if he wanted to get somewhere.

He had just barely uploaded the tiktok, as he got a call from one of his university students. Naturally, he picked up and let them chat his ear off about how stressful their week had been and what not, but he indulged them politely and even offered to tutor them. Well, he was going to offer to tutor them, but then they mentioned something about 'going clubbing', and he just told them that if they didn't send in the requested essay, he simply wouldn't give them the points they needed.

Then he hung up, expecting some peace and quiet. But then his mother called him to ask him for his plans for Christmas. He got caught up in the phone call, and by 8 pm he was standing at the stove with a fully cooked meal with his mother watching him over the video call.

The zucchini-soup smelled surprisingly exactly like it did when his mother made it, and it tasted almost the same. Meanwhile, his mother was grinning at him from the screen: "I told you that you could do it."

"Thanks, mom." He grinned and poured some soup into a bowl. "I gotta hang up now though, I have a scheduled call with that one professor tonight."

"Right, yes, my busy, busy son. Take care of yourself more often, ok, honey? And bring II along for Christmas, we've missed his attitude." His mother joked.

"Yeah, I'll try and convince him. Bye mom, I love you."

"I love you too, honey." She smiled and hung up.

And then he was left with the dawning realization that there was a video he uploaded two hours ago probably causing the downfall of his entire online personality.

Already dreading what he thought would surely be tons of hate comments and videos. So, he tried to avoid his phone for a while as he ate his dinner in front of the tv. But eventually, he picked it up again. He checked his contacts first, just to distract himself.

Then he checked his messages. III had spammed him again, as usual, after he posted a video, since the guy had made it very clear from the beginning that he was a big fan of Vessel's music and covers.

In fact, Vessel had met III first in one of his lectures. The bassist had chatted him up afterwards and they ended up becoming a weird sort of friends. At first, it made Vessel incredibly uncomfortable, but over time, the lanky man had wormed his way into his heart.

Anyways, judging by the words he read while swimming over the twenty messages consisting of either praise or key board smashing.

It gave him hope for a small moment, that maybe, his own song wasn't as bad as he thought it was. But then again III seemed to like just about everything that he made, so should he really count on III's opinion?

Before he could think about it for longer, his laptop binged from across the room, causing him to rush over and pick up the zoom call with his professor. She was already going through the notes he had given to her about the recent lectures by the time he had answered the call and sat on the chair.

"Right then, Vessel," She started. "I have started to read through this, and I have a few questions, before we can start talking about those poems you wanted me to look at."

"Yes ma'am." He nodded and fixed his hair, before tucking one leg between his ass and the chair.

And about two hours later after talking about this and that related to music and the English language, Vessel was glad to hang up the call and fall straight into bed. Well, almost straight into bed. He checked his phone one last time, ignoring both any youtube or tiktok notifications and instead shooting both III and II some texts. The guitarist he had met a week ago had sent him some scores and a song, but besides that, he didn't have any new messages.

II's contact picture made him pause and stare at the screen for a while. Damn, he really needed to get his ass back out there and find someone who he could actually date. Too bad that he had been pining for his best friend of sixteen years. Even worse was that III hadn't taken much more than a hangout with him and II to figure that out as well.

Before he could spiral even more and end up just crying through the night, he turned off his phone and turned to lay on his back in the middle of the bed. He was thankfully exhausted enough that he fell asleep pretty quickly, otherwise his anxiety about the song release would also keep him awake.

But he fell into a deep sleep, turning deaf and blind to the world for a few restful hours, forgetting about his worries for a moment and just dreaming.

The next morning, he woke up to ten missed calls from III, and another call from the exact same guy coming in. Vessel grumbled and almost hit 'decline'. But knowing III, the lanky fucker probably wouldn't give up anytime soon. So, he checked the time - it was barely 8 am - and picked up the phone: "Yeah? What do you want? It's only 8 am."

"Dude! Vessel, my guy, check your fucking Spotify and social medias. You went viral!" III almost blew out his ear drum.

Vessel glared at his phone and turned down the volume. "Bro, I swear, if you're lying to me right now I'll come for your ass."

"Nah, I'm stone-cold serious over here, dude. Come on, check it out- also I've been meaning to tell you, that song is absolute fire, holy shit, your voice sounds even better, I mean that song was just perfect with your vocal range and-"

Vessel hung up the call and groaned.

Then he slowly sat up and rolled his shoulders to work against the ache and tenseness building in them. He felt older than he would have liked.

By the time he was in the kitchenette in the living room, he was back in a video call with III, listening half-heartedly to the man rambling about his idea to use Vessel’s new song as background for a new figure skating routine. But he wasn't about to complain about more distraction from the fact that sooner or later he was gonna have to go online again and post another video. Or, that he probably should already be working on an apology video, although he wasn't even sure what he would apologize for. Maybe for releasing something that wasn't his regular content? Or maybe for releasing his own music and advertising for it like that?

“Oi, if you even dare to start filming an apology video for literally just releasing a song. That's first of all, well in your own right to share a song you wrote and second of all the song is fucking fire," III cut his train of thought short with his usual sass (and gayness).

“Oh, sorry, was I thinking out loud?" Vessel looked up from tying up his hair.

"Yeah. And I feel like you need to gain some more self-confidence." III pouted at him through the phone and continued tying the laces of his ice skates. “But to get back on topic, can I use your song for my new routine? My teacher is gonna love it.”

“Right, yeah, sure." Vessel sighed and took one last sip of his coffee. "Feel free to. How’s your ankle? Is it still acting up?”

"Nah, it's all healed up now. Have you checked your socials, by the way?”

"Nope, I’m not ruining my Sunday with that. Can I pop by later for some more teaching?” Vessel washed his cup in the sink.

"Sure? I mean your pirouette could use a bunch more work.”

Vessel flipped him off after seeing the shit-eating grin on III’s face. Was the lanky bastard right? Yeah. But he also had too much ego for Vessel’s taste. So after he had dared to make another snarky comment, Vessel simply hung up on him and turned off his phone. Time to read through the first essays he had already gotten, before he would head to the ice rink.

Chapter Text

Vessel ended up coming into the ice rink at the edge of the city early, but he had brought his laptop along to do some more work while III practiced his routine.

But the essays from his students were boring, so he ended up checking out the scores that the guitarist had sent him last night. He had met the guy in a pub he rarely went in for celebrations. They had chatted over a few drinks and exchanged numbers, Vessel hoping for a hook-up, but nothing came of it other than these scores so far. It had been two weeks ago, after all, so his hopes were gone. It had surprised him a little though, that the guy, IV was his name, had remembered to send him the scores only now.

Vessel opened their chat curiously and actually read through the messages IV had sent him. Something about being stuck in the hospital after a small, non-fatal accident and then getting sick, which is why he only sent the scores last night?

Well, he wasn't going to complain if the guy's life had thrown cartwheels the last two weeks.

On the ice, III almost landed the quadruple jump that he had been practicing for a year now. The lanky man seemed unharmed from the fall onto the ice and got back up to try again. Vessel watched him for a moment, appreciating the wonderful view those long limbs made on the ice, before focusing back on the screen in front of him.

He managed to read over one more entire essay, before someone sat down on the bench beside him and leaned against his side to read what's on the screen.

"Hi, II, seems like you got here in the end."

"Yeah, I almost thought I was gonna have to walk here with how bad the traffic was," II joked, before watching III manage to land the jump with only a short slip at the beginning.

"Yo! Guys, did you see that?" III shouted and came gliding over the ice to them.

"Yes, that looked fucking amazing." Vessel gave him two thumbs up and a wide grin.

"Looked incredible. I love your shirt, by the way." II snorted and eyed the 'I ♥ eating ass' shirt that III was wearing over some black leggings.

"Oh why thank you." III wriggled his eyebrows and put his hands on his hips, before focusing on Vessel. "Alright, big guy, put on your shoes and come on the ice then."

"I will in a second, don't rush me." The musician rolled his eyes fondly and turned off his laptop. Then he leaned forward and took off his street shoes before sliding into the same expensive figure skates as III's that he had bought himself a year ago. They sat perfectly after tying up the laces and gave Vessel another unneeded inch of height as he stood up, which II naturally had to complain about.

III petted II's head condescendingly and cooed at him. "Aw, poor little guy, maybe you'll grow some more if you keep being all angry and adorable.”

But even III was wise enough to not overdo it with the teasing, and so the two tall men both got on the ice, leaving II to fume by himself. It was hard to stay mad for long though, because both III and Vessel made a nice picture on the ice. They were skating a few rounds first, so Vessel could get warmed up, and III could verbally go over the technique with him.

II leaned back and pulled out his phone, getting ready to watch them for an hour or two and go over the scores for his next concert again. He zoned out for a few minutes, mentally going through the motions of a fill-in that he had been particularly struggling with.

By the time he looked back up, the boys were standing in the middle of the ice, III right behind Vessel, while carefully guiding him through the motions one step at the time. II blushed and tried not to read too much into the way III carefully pushed Vessel's limbs around and explained it to him in detail. No, this was definitely nothing romantic and instead something purely educational and platonic, yeah, definitely. II didn't believe one word. It was hard not to see that III had definitely more than platonic feelings for Vessel.

Meanwhile, III had carefully stepped away from Vessel, guiding him with words only as the musician attempted a rather rough looking spin on the ice.

After a few more tries, it started to look more and more elegant, almost like III when he did it. Said Figure skater seemed to think so too and nodded his approval.

"Yeah, you're gonna have this down by the end of the month for sure. Wanna try doing it with some speed? I mean, like this." III demonstrated by starting to glide across the ice, before going into the spin and executing it perfectly.

"I'm so gonna fall onto my ass, aren't I," Vessel sighed, but followed III's example and took a few strides to gain some speed.

"Slower, don't try it at that speed just yet, you'll definitely fall on your ass that way.”

They were interrupted by a loud female voice coming from the entrance of the ice hall, before Vessel could attempt another spin.

"Hey girlies!"

"Hi, Sarah." III turned and grinned at the woman coming in with her own figure skates in hand. His arm reached out almost naturally to tug Vessel back against his side, II noticed.

"Don't tell me you've already replaced me as a flyer." She fake-pouted as she eyed III's hold on Vessel's waist.

"Hell nah, I'm not lifting his heavy ass."

"Watch it, I'm not nearly as heavy as you." Vessel freed himself and pushed III away from himself gently with a scowl on his face.

"Ouch, you wound me." The lanky man pretended to be hurt.

"I can push you harder if you really want me to wound you." Vessel huffed and started to chase III around the rink.

"Absolute kids, those two." Sarah shook her head, before turning to II. "Hi, by the way, I'm Sarah. Who are you? Vessel's boyfriend or something?"

"Oh, what, me? Oh, no, I'm just his friend, it's not like that. I'm II." II flushed red again and shook his head quickly in response.

"Right. Sure." She grinned, clearly amused by his reaction as she put her bag on the bench and her skates on the ground. "You know what, you'd actually make the perfect flyer, small as you are."

"Oi, don't you start with that too now. Bad enough those two giants can't stop teasing me." II was definitely not amused anymore, in fact more than grumpy, and he let her know with a glare that could make water freeze over.

He then pointedly turned away to watch his friends and paid witness to III demonstrating to Vessel how to go from gliding into a spin once again, but this time, and definitely just to show off, he grabbed his left skate behind his back and pulled his leg up over his head during the spin.

Vessel watched and nodded impressed, before going to the barrier to hold onto it while he stretched his legs. He hooked one skate over the top before slowly going down into a split.

"Damn, someone practiced, huh?" III finished up showing off and came over to appreciate the sight that the musician made.

II totally wasn't pissed that he was too short to look over the barrier while sitting down, so he missed out on the view III was getting.

In the meantime, Vessel was once again being fondled by III into deeper stretches, before the figure skater pulled him back into a standing position. "Right then, I'll hold you so you can try getting your leg up."

Vessel didn't look too sure of himself, but he followed III's guidance, being more than thankful for the hands steadying his hips as he lifted his right foot up to his ass so he could grab the skate with his right hand. He wobbled more than a little while he slowly pulled his leg up and straightened it out. "Holy shit... This feels illegal- ouch, my balls."

"Damn, are those two fucking or something?" Sarah muttered to II after watching the two men on the ice. "I mean, I just came here to give III his outfit for the next competition.”

"Not gonna lie, but I've been wondering about them too." II sighed and watched them, waiting for more jealousy to creep up inside him, but instead was hit with arousal at seeing III holding Vessel in place while the guy almost did a split vertically while looking like a newborn deer.

"Right, now arch your back- yeah, just like that, perfect. If you were spinning now you'd be doing a Biellman spin."

Vessel raised an eyebrow where his face was basically pressed against the 'I ♥ eating ass' print of III's shirt thanks to the arching he was doing. "Damn, never thought I was gonna be back in this position ever since I stopped doing ballet.”

"Mhm... right, get your leg back down and you can practice some more normal one-legged spins while I talk with Sarah." III patted his hip like it was his every day business to stabilize Vessel in such a position.

The latter did as he was told and slowly lowered his leg back to the ground, holding onto III for a moment, before pushing away and gliding back into the middle of the ice. He began gaining a little bit of speed, before trying to transition into a spin. But not even his ballet experience could help him much on the smooth surface of the ice and so he tried again and again.

"Right then, Sarah, I got time for you." III approached the bench that both II and Sarah were sitting on, after putting those protective sliders onto his skates.

"Oh I just came here to give you your new outfit. Our dear trainer made me pack it for you yesterday since you couldn't be bothered to show up for practice again." She crossed her arms, not quite handing the outfit over yet.

"Yeah, I skipped yesterday, but I didn't have the quad toe loop down completely anyways." III pouted and tried to steal the piece of clothing from Sarah.

"Sure, yeah, totally, like I didn't see you nail that jump last week." She leaned back and batted his hands away.

"What is a quad toe loop?" II scratched his head and slowly unstuck his eyes from where they were glued to Vessel, who had managed to do a few spins, before almost falling on the way out of the spin.

His question went unanswered, as III and Sarah started bickering like two siblings. He decided to ignore them and turned his attention back on Vessel, who was once again attempting to go into and out of the simple spin successfully. This time, he managed, even if it looked not very elegant and more like a surprise spin that shocked Vessel himself.

"Nice, that looked good." II muttered to himself and lifted his phone to snap a picture of the musician.

"Asshole." III had finally managed to snag the new outfit from Sarah's hands and cradled the soft cloth against his chest all protective.

"Eh, you know you love me. Now get back on the ice, I want you to show me the quad toe loop again." Sarah rolled her eyes and finished tying up her skates, before getting up.

"Yes ma'am." III huffed like she was asking him to give over his grandest possessions, but he did end up going back on the ice and doing a quad toe loop almost flawlessly for her.

___

II was freezing by the time Vessel came off the ice and told him they could go now. The poor drummer had been too lazy to get up and move around, so now his legs were asleep and cold thanks to the tablet on his lap. He made loud complaints about it, to make sure Vessel knew exactly how bad II had suffered sitting next to the rink and doing nothing.

But he did pack his stuff back into his bag and followed his best friend out into the cold winter winds brushing to the city. They found themselves in the same ramen place Vessel ate after every practice. It was safe to say that this little shop had a place in the musician's heart, with the homey decor and relaxed atmosphere and the small tables and seats in an even smaller shop.

They both ordered the same food as always, II going for the peanut ramen and Vessel choosing one of the other classics. It felt nice to take a break from the exhausting pre-christmas stress. Although their little hang-out was cut short by Vessel still needing to read over a bunch of essays, and II having to practice for a concert.

They parted ways in two different directions once again, like always.

___

III had watched them leave, before the figure skater sighed to himself and continued practicing his routine for another hour or so. Then his feet started to hurt too bad to keep going and potentially over do it. Besides that, he was feeling too off to fully concentrate on what he was doing. So, he got off the ice and sat on the bench where his friends had sat earlier. He took off his skates and changed into his normal street shoes. As he sat back up, he couldn't help but linger for a while. From this angle, the ice rink looked bigger than it was. His mind drifted back to watching Vessel and II leave together. Something bitter tried to roar its ugly head, but he pushed it away. Those were his friends. No need to feel that way.

He put on his earphones and grabbed his phone, scrolling through his playlists until he found "Show you a Body" by Haley Heynderickx. Then he grabbed his backpack and stomped out of the ice rink, turning off the lights and locking the door as he went. The figure skater lived in the attic of a small house basically right next to the ice rink. It was run down on the outside, but pretty modern and homey on the inside. Just like III. But it was basically just a one room flat with a small bathroom in the corner of the attic. The shower was too small for III, so he had to kneel in it to be able to shower, but besides that, he had no complaints.

There was no reason for him to be jealous of his friends, and besides that, Vessel had admitted to having a crush on II, so why should he get in the way of that? They'd be perfect together, after all. The scowl on his face wouldn't budge though.

When he arrived home, he sat down at his PC and loaded up 'Call of duty', now pissed off enough to spend the next four to five hours fighting random strangers and ignoring any and all racism. He shot his friend IV a text on discord, inviting him to play.

IV eventually joined him, and together they played until the other noticed it was dark outside, and he then peaced out on III.

III closed the game and spent some time in Blender, before completely shutting off his PC. He grabbed his phone and flopped onto his old iron bed. Any and all messages from II or Vessel went ignored as the figure skater checked his schedule and set himself an alarm. Then he turned off his phone as well and fell asleep.

____

 

Vessel's Monday started as it did every week. He got up at 7, showered, drank a coffee, and then headed to the university. Then he got to the usual lecture hall, set up his laptop and loaded up the PowerPoint from his professor he would be talking about today. His students started wandering in about a minute later and he sat down on a chair and waited until the clock hit 8 am. Then he started the lecture, uncaring about any student coming in late. He simply talked about 12-note music and made them listen to multiple examples of the abstract music. They were as hyped about this genre of music as he was, but at least he wouldn't have to write another test about it anytime soon.

After he had finished the lecture, he went to one of the guitar rooms and used the guitar provided by the university to practice. One of the guitar master students came into the room a little bit later to grab their stuff, before informing him that IV had been looking for him or someone else called Vessel - impossible, since he was the only Vessel at this university - this morning.

So, after the student had left, he continued to practice for a few more minutes, before packing up and getting ready to search IV on campus. It wasn't too big, so he probably wouldn't be searching for too long. As he was about to leave the room, the door opened from the outside and none other than IV peaked into the room. “Hi! Thank god you're here! I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the scores I sent you. If you're still up to playing a gig with me, that is.”

Vessel stared at him stunned for a moment, having to cope with both the sudden surprise of seeing IV and IV’s cute bed head this morning. “Right, uh… come on in, I got this room reserved for another hour.”

"Awesome, thank you. I’ll try and make it quick, but we could also already play through it, if you want to?” The guitarist stepped into the room and put down his guitar case with a shy grin.

"Yeah, why not? I was just practicing those scores anyways. It’ll sound so cool if we get it to sound good until the gig. You said it would be in the week before Christmas? So, in about a week then?” Vessel started to unpack the guitar again.

"Yeah, ideally. But if that's too short on notice, we can also play sometime in January. I always got one gig per week reserved in that pub, so like, there's no stress.” IV nodded and unpacked his own guitar, before plopping down on a chair next to Vessel's.

They went over the scores a few times, before actually playing them together. The first run-through was very rough, since they both had never played together before that and therefore didn't know each other's timings that well. But it got better, the longer they practiced. Eventually though, the person who wanted to use the room next knocked on the door, and they both packed their stuff and cleared the room.

“Right then, I’d invite you to a coffee, but I got a lecture now. See you soon, I’ll text you later." IV smiled at him and waved, before heading down the hallway to the lecture halls.

“See you soon." Vessel waved in return and smiled to himself as he watched IV leave. He himself had about three hours of free time to go, until he had his last lecture of the day. The musician used the time to head down town and go hunting for both a Christmas present for II and III each, and a new pair of pants for himself.

The pants didn't take too long to find, but it took him almost a whole hour to find a suitable Christmas present for III. He ended up getting a snow globe with a little wooden hut between mountains for the figure skater, since the guy had rambled to him one time about how he had this dream of living in the mountains one day. It seemed fitting.

The present for II was harder to find, and he gave up for the day, since he didn't want to end up late for the second lecture. So, he rushed back to campus, and got set up.

That evening, he actually took some time to do his stretches and read through some of the comments left behind on his latest video. From what he could tell, people actually liked it. Sure, he had a little less likes than usual, but the views were good, and he had a bunch more comments than usual. Maybe this could actually be a good sign that he was allowed to post other content as well. Some comments were even asking for him to cover songs that weren't written by Hozier. Maybe he could even post some more of his own compositions. It made him smile like some hopeful idiot.

He finished up his leg stretches and got up with a quiet groan. III hadn’t texted him all day, which he was a little confused about, but he just shot a simple ‘summary of his day’ text to the figure skater, before calling his mother again to inform her that II would come along for Christmas.

After that he went to bed. :D

___

Ever since II had done his master’s in drumming in late spring, he kinda had been just drifting around. Sure, he still worked the occasional nightshift at the local 24/7 store and sometimes a dayshift too, but he’s been having a lot of free time either way. It had made space for an elaborate morning routine, consisting of getting up and getting dressed around 7 am every day, before he headed to the gym and grabbed a coffee on the way. He would work out for at least an hour every day, always switching between leg day and cardio day and arm day and cardio day, throwing in some back work whenever he felt like it.

Today was no different, and after a good strenuous leg workout at the gym, he headed to the supermarket to grab himself a smoothie and a cinnamon bun. II ate and drank both things on his way back to his flat to shower. His shower routine was also perfected with a very specific shampoo and body wash and what not. Since he had basically nothing planned besides practicing, he took his sweet time doing his hair and picking out a nice outfit.

The drummer then headed to the university to practice some grooves. Thanks to the receptionist saving one of the studios in the basement of the university building. II took the keys and headed downstairs, unlocking the door to his favorite studio room. It housed the best drum set of the entire campus, and it barely ever needed tuning.

After a very satisfying practice session, and a short recording of a specific groove Vessel asked him for a song idea. He sent the musician the audio file, before putting on his earphones and drumming along to “Take Aim". He had helped Vessel with the drums, but if he could go back in time, he would definitely change up some drum parts, now that he went over it again.

It started to bug him so much, that he had to call his best friend and make air of his frustration.

“Vessel, let me re-record the drums for Take Aim. I know you already published the finished song, but like- I went over it again and I have some way better ideas for it. I can record them for you."

“Ah… why am I not very surprised about that?" His best friend sounded amused over the phone. “By the way, thanks for sending me the drum audio for “Thread The Needle” already."

"Yeah, dude, no worries. Right then, I’ll do another recording of the drums for “Take Aim" and send it to you. I need your opinion on this because it's pissing me off.” II huffed and stretched out his back.

“Sure. Just send it to me whenever. Alright, I gotta hang up, I gotta give a lesson now." Vessel’s voice sounded a little strained and he could hear a door being unlocked in the background.

“Oh, right, you're still teaching that one student English. Ok then, talk to you later.” II waiting for Vessel to respond, before hanging up the call.

He was definitely gonna record a better drum version for "Take Aim” today, even if that damn song was already out on the internet.

___

III's sulking lasted about two days. Two days without any messages written to either II or Vessel, and instead a bunch of hours spent learning and practicing. But it came to a sudden, predictable end, when Vessel actually posted another video. Judging by the messages that the musician had been sending him, he had been rather reluctant to post anything on social media, but seeing the streams his song had already gotten on Spotify, the man had dared to be brave.

The figure skater was one of the first people to view Vessel's new tiktok upload. It was a video of him curtly thanking for the streams of his song, before grabbing his guitar and strumming the first few chords of "Northern Attitude".

III let the video play a few times on loop while he himself finished eating the salad-mix he had bought at the supermarket. Then he liked it, saved it to his phone, and exited the app.

The elderly woman sitting on the other end of the bench kept smoking her cigarette and staring out at the lake. She must have noticed him looking, because as she flicked the ash off the butt, she turned to him. "What's got you looking so grim, young man?"

"Huh? Me? Oh, uh... well. I guess there's this guy I like, you know, the usual drama."

"Oh my, I stumbled into someone who's fighting love in the trenches?" She smiled and crows feet crinkled the skin around her eyes.

"Nah, it's not that bad. Just a guy in love with two dudes who seem to be dating already- and then there's this other guy, he's a real cutie..." III grinned and leaned back. "So, I guess, I just have a big heart, or something like that.”

"Oh? You got your eyes set on three people? That sure is ambitious." Her face turned contemplative and she took a drag from her cigarette, before blowing the smoke out into the wind. A few loose short braids slipped out of the low bun she must have tied in a haste and she didn’t bother tucking them back in place.

"Damn, now that you've said it like that, I really got a little too ambitious there." III scratched his head, before throwing his half-finished salad-mix into the trash can. Then he rummaged through his backpack. "Can I offer you some chocolate? I bought it two weeks ago, but I don't actually like the taste. It's strawberry and white chocolate or something."

She smiled amused and eyed the offered bar of chocolate and blew out some more smoke. "Well, aren't you a charmer?"

She took the chocolate and read the label. "Wow, it's one of those expensive ones, are you sure you might not want to give this to one of your lover boys instead?"

"Nah, it's tough luck with them, one of them is allergic, the next on a diet, and the third hates white chocolate." III groaned and crossed his arms.

"Well then, thanks a lot for the treat, young man. I'll have to go then, it's starting to look like rain." She smiled at him and stubbed out her cigarette on the armrest of the bench, before getting up and leaving him by himself.

III looked up at the sky, noting the greyness of the clouds starting to build up above him. She wasn't wrong. Three people was a lot. Maybe he should let go of II and Vessel, hope for them to be happy-ever-after one day, and instead pursue his interest in IV.

IV, the guy who had scared the living shit out of III the first time they met. It had happened in the figure skater's first semester of university, and his day had been pretty normal until then. Normal, until he had walked through the cafeteria with a full tablet in his hands on a search for a table. And he had found one, thinking it was empty, until he noticed the man laying almost under the table in a fetal position.

It had III jumping up first and then dropping to his knees quickly to check IV's pulse and breathing, because for a moment, III genuinely thought he was dead. Much to his luck, and to soothe his racing heart, the man started to move slowly and a little sluggish after a few minutes.

It turned out the poor guy had 'only' experienced something called 'cataplexy', that made him lose control of his muscles, which was why the guy had managed to lay down onto the floor just at the last second.

Still, III was shaken and unwilling to let IV out of his sight or reach for the rest of the day, which made for a very awkward rest of the day. The figure skater followed IV to his last class of the day, before ensuring that the man got home safe by driving home with him, before he could finally be convinced to go home as well.

Ever since then, III had been keeping in touch with Ivy - as he affectionately called the shorter man - and watching over him whenever they met on campus.

Ivy wasn't too fond of it, but he also wasn't too bothered, after all, it ensured that just in case, if he had another episode, the lanky man could hopefully watch over him and make sure he wouldn't hurt himself. But that didn't mean III needed to mother him. He was an independent being, thank you very much, as he would write to III multiple times. Besides, he had his trained dog to watch over him.

It made III wonder how his dear friend was doing, and so he got up and started walking back home.

It started to rain like the woman had predicted.

Chapter Text

Three days after Vessel uploaded the first song. Wednesday.

IV was practicing "Ego Death" by Polyphia in one of the studio rooms in the basement of the music department of the university, when he got a text from an unknown number. He picked up his phone and stared at his screen for a moment, before opening the new chat.

-Unknown number:
"Hi, this is II. I am a friend of Vessel and III, they both know you apparently. I'm reaching out because Vessel and I are jamming out rn and Vessel is too shy to ask you to come over and jam along. I saw you go into studio U14 earlier, so if you're still on campus, don't be shy to come to U3."

IV raised an eyebrow at his screen and eyed the time for a minute. He calculated when he would need to go to his next scheduled event, and then decided that he had enough time left to spend a good hour jamming with them hopefully. So, he packed up his guitar and stuffed his scores back into his bag, before turning off the lights and leaving the room.

The guitarist locked the door and stared at the key in his hand. He probably should bring this key back first and then steal his service dog back from the receptionist who had taken it as a bribe. Yeah, that felt like the right thing to do. Even though technically he wasn't supposed to run around without his service dog, he didn't really feel all that tired today.

Either way, he shot a short message explaining that he needed to get his dog first back to II, as he took the elevator to the ground floor.

IV went to the register and traded the key for his dog, which he naturally had to give a treat to, before he then went back to the elevator. He stepped into the elevator when it arrived and guided his dog into the far right corner, before standing in front of him, so his dog wouldn't get stepped on by any musician in a haste.

And it proved to work once again when a bunch of cello students followed him into the elevator. They chatted loudly and waved their arms and legs around, and IV made sure to give his dog another treat for staying calm and still in such an overwhelming situation. Thankfully the ride was pretty short, and the guitarist was able to squeeze himself, his guitar case, and his dog out of the elevator. It had been kinda funny to him that because of how similar cello and guitar cases looked, he had kinda blended in with the group.

Finally, IV had reached room U3 and was knocking on the door. It swung open after a few seconds and someone who had to be II, stared at him. "Oh. You actually came. And you did bring your dog."

"He actually brought his dog? Aw, let me see!" Vessel appeared from behind the door with a big grin on his face. He must have sat on the chair behind the recording set up.

"Yeah, I kinda have to always bring this little guy along. Please don't pet him though, he is supposed to make sure I don't pass out." IV smiled and watched as his service dog stayed focused on him only.

“Right. But he is pretty cute. Is he an Irish wolfhound?" Vessel immediately crossed his wrists behind his back so he wouldn't end up petting the dog.

"Yeah, kinda. But judging from how short he is, he probably is a mix or something, I'm not too sure. He is very calm in nature."

“Yeah, I bet. What’s his name?”

“God.”

"That’s certainly a name. Did you pick it for any specific reason?”

“My mom’s a priest. I’m an atheist. We don't talk.” IV shrugged.

“Right… Come on in, then. Should we leave the door open in case it gets too stuffy in here? Also are you sure he should stay in the room when we practice? The drum set is quite loud." II eyed the service dog wearily.

"No, he should be fine. I'll just keep him with me and when he gets overwhelmed I might take him outside for a minute." IV shrugged and stepped into the small room. "But leaving the door open does sound good. I also have hearing protection for him, and I've trained him to wear them for twenty minutes at a time."

"That should work then. Hey, where was your dog on Monday when you were practicing with me?" Vessel looked at him confused.

"Oh my brother took him to the vet for me. I personally tend to get too stressed in such situations and I didn't want to risk having an episode in the middle of a vet." IV laid his dog's leash down for a moment so he could focus on unpacking his guitar. “But yeah it is kinda hard to decide in some situations what to do with him, like sometimes people don't want me to take him on stage with me but like- his job is literally to watch over my ass."

“Yeah I was gonna ask about how you play in the semester finals." Vessel watched him curiously and handed him a guitar tuner.

“Thanks." IV took the tuner and sat down with his guitar in his lap. He started to tune his instrument. “Well my professor isn't too bothered with my dog sitting next to me on stage, he gets that I need him just in case, but sometimes other professors get a little… upset, I don't really understand it. Anyways, are we just gonna jam, or do you want to try out something specific?”

“Well, I mean so I have a chord progression that I kinda would want you to stick to, I'll improvise some vocal parts and you can go wild as long as you stick to the chords. II will just do whatever." Vessel started to explain as he watched IV finish tuning and unpack some mutt muffs to put on his dog. The Irish wolfhound mix was more than eager to sit still while the guitarist slid the ear protection over his ears, but he did also get a treat for it. Then the big dog was content to curl up around IV’s chair and watch the room from there.

Vessel was more than happy to watch the dog from his chair on the other side of the small room, which made II just shake his head at his best friend. The drummer poked his ribs to get him to focus, before shuffling over to the drum set, which sat behind glass walls in the other two corners. “Alright, let’s start.”

II started first, playing a simple but nice beat, before counting in IV with a short fill-in. The guitarist started playing, keeping the chords simple for the first few beats, before slowly working towards some more interesting background harmonics. Vessel took a little longer to join them, looking a little embarrassed, like he didn’t feel quite confident singing in this setting. It worked out well, the groove staying pretty repetitive, but quite catchy all the same. IV thought it lacked base.

Half an hour later, IV had to leave early, both because of his dog getting anxious and his dad calling him multiple times, so he left the other two to what had descended into a composing session. It had been fun, although it had also reminded him of how he never really felt too confident and comfortable composing music by himself. It really wasn’t his thing. But then again, there was already enough composed music out there just waiting for him to play it. His dad kept blabbering about his marriage with his current boyfriend, the ceremony was planned to happen some time next June. IV wasn’t going to come, but he wouldn’t tell his dad outright. Instead he watched as his service dog took a shit outside the campus. He pulled a plastic bag out of his bag and picked up what his dog left behind, before throwing the bag into the trash. His dad was still talking. Thankfully though, he had the perfect alibi to cut the call short. “Hey dad? Class starts in a minute, I gotta hang up.”

“Ok, honey, have fun and don’t be late.” His dad responded cheerfully through the speaker, before straight up hanging up on him.

“Yes, dad." IV grumbled and walked back onto the campus. “Such an asshole."

God stared up at him curiously, before nudging his hip.

“Oh? Is an episode coming on?” IV sped up to get inside the building before he could end up passing out outside. God followed him quickly and sniffed out the corner of the entrance hall that his owner had approached, before sitting down to show that IV could sit down there.

The guitarist gladly sank down in the corner and leaned back, making sure he was wedged right in where the two walls met each other, so he wouldn’t move when the episode hit. Then he waited, while God snuggled up to him and rested his head on his chest.

Naturally though, this had to put him in an awkward position, because his professor just had to walk past him on her way to the lecture hall. She stopped and came over to talk to him, but when she realized that he was in the middle of an episode, she just noted down something on a sticky note, before sticking it to his backpack and leaving.

Meanwhile, IV felt like he was made of pure asphalt, his limbs and head heavy and immovable. Through his half open eyes he could catch a glimpse of a bit of shadow and light and his ears let him know that his professor was walking away down the hall. But besides that, he couldn't do much else than appreciate his service dog mentally. He could feel God licking his hands and neck gently. It kept IV grounded and from spiralling while he was basically a lifeless sack of flesh and bones in the corner of the entrance hall of his university.

His patience paid off, because after a few minutes, he could start to slowly move his fingers and toes again, before he sat up with the help of God. His body still felt like lead and his head buzzed, but eventually he got up on his feet and walked to the lecture hall at a slow pace. God stuck close to him and kept licking his fingers. No one looked up when he quietly entered the lecture hall and slid into his seat in the back row. That's when he noticed the sticky note barely hanging on to his backpack.

He picked it off of his backpack and read over the note, before smiling. Yeah, she was a nice woman, just as he had thought. And he would definitely take an hour of tutoring over trying to get anyone in this lecture hall to explain to him what was talked about at the beginning of the lecture.

_____

IV had gotten home fairly safe after the short scare at the beginning of the lecture, and he had given his dog his dinner first, before feeding his tarantula. Then he had taken God’s service dog vest off and made sure the dog knew he was off duty for the rest of the day.

While he started to cook dinner for himself, his mind kept wandering to the pretty short jam session he had partaken in. Damn, the drummer had been so hot. Not to mention Vessel, the guy was bad enough on his own, as attractive as he was. And now not even halfway though making dinner, IV had a boner. But there was no way in hell he would jerk off to either of them, not after- hold up, IV wasn’t into dudes. He had never been into blokes. In fact, he found boobs to be the most attractive part of a woman. And he had to admit that he had never quite liked the way a pussy looks, but… no, could it be?

IV pouted at his food and stabbed a few straying noodles. This was utter bullshit.

Half an hour later he was in the shower with a hand around his dick, getting off to the mental image of the two musicians while his JBL speaker drowned out the noises from his hand and the water stream. He felt weird, awfully strung up even as he spilled against the wall out of nowhere. It killed his mood for the rest of the evening and he cut his shower short, tugging on his boxers when he was barely dry enough, before leaving the bedroom and dropping onto his bed.

The cosplay mask he had only recently finished stared back at him from its stand next to the bed.

“The fuck do you want? I’m not working on the rest of you tonight. Stop staring, creep.” IV insulted it just moments before he could hear God coming into the bedroom. The big dog rested its head on the other side of IV’s bed and huffed for his attention. He turned his head and smiled at his dog. “Hey buddy. Sorry, I wasn’t talking to you. Do you wanna watch me sleep? I put your bed in here for you.”

God only relented and backed off to his dog bed once IV had gently nudged his snout off of the mattress. They both curled up in their respective beds and the human pulled his blanket over himself.

___

Peter, the horse is here

____
When he woke up the next morning, stuff was… weird. His cosplay project was looking slightly odd. Instead of having fully colored eyes, the eye sockets of the mask were empty. That was… quite unsettling, because he could remember clearly the way the mask's eyes had stared at him the evening before.

He pushed himself up and stared at the mask confused, before turning when he could hear claws clicking on the floor of his apartment. “God?"

God barked in response, which also was weird, his Irish wolfhound definitively didn't sound like that. And the dog that came jogging into his bedroom, definitely wasn't his service dog. It was a tiny, blond chihuahua that looked like the world had wronged it already.

“Who’s dog are you? And where's God?"

The small dog barked again and scratched at the bedframe, while wagging its little tail like crazy.

“The heck… Well, you are right, I should get up.” IV muttered and slid off the bed without taking his eyes off the Chihuahua. Said animal was staring up at him with its little black eyes, and acting a lot like a service dog. Something at the back of IV’s head tingled. He scratched his neck.

“Well isn't this quite… odd…”

____

 

Vessel stood at the bus station, waiting for the bus that would take him out of the city to his therapist. It was cold and his hands were going numb in the pockets of his coat.

The street was completely empty. He was the only one outside at this time. Thursday's were his least favorite days. His feet were growing numb too. He fidgeted with his phone.

The city looked slightly different today. A little taller, with deeper cuts where streets ran between buildings.

He had stood here so many times that when he closed his eyes, he could imagine the bushes across the street in any weather or season in great detail. One day he’d be good enough to stop standing here each week. The ghost of his father barely whispered anymore.

But for now, he’d stand here every night. The back of his head tingled, and he pulled the hood of his coat over. It was colder outside than it probably was inside the ice rink.

He longed to glide over the ice, but he wouldn't have any time for that today. So there was no point in being all mopey about it. His bus arrived just on time.

The wallpaper of his phone was different, he realized as he searched the app with his bus ticket on it. It depicted II and him and a strange woman that he could not remember ever seeing or meeting. That was weird. Vessel pulled up his bus ticket and showed it to the bus driver as he got in. Then he opened his gallery.

His gallery was full with pictures he couldn't remember taking. He rubbed his eyes confused. The pictures were still there.

Okay… either he was dreaming a very realistic dream or having hallucinations. Or maybe, he was actually in some sort of weird parallel universe. He turned and reached for the bus plan, trying to make sense of what his brain couldn't comprehend.

The bus plan looked so normal, that he almost missed it. He had to do a double-take. Nope, the bus plan still said “hero central”. That was a weird name for a bus station, and he had never seen it before. It was in the opposite direction of where Vessel would be driving. But he was gonna check it out later for sure.

His bus arrived a minute later, and he found himself pulling out an ID instead of his usual bus ticket. He stared at it perplexed, before giving it to the bus driver to have it scanned. When he got it back, he was still as confused as before.

He took a seat and googled his name. And oh boy, he was not ready for the results. There were no tiktok videos, no song, no youtube videos. Well, no youtube videos of him in his bedroom, at least. Instead there were countless youtube videos of him… fighting? Fighting with a sword in hand, as it seemed. He put on his earphones and pressed play on one of the videos. It was chaotic, definitely shot in a hurry, and it showed him, fighting some sort of thing with his sword, before preparing for some sort of finishing move and- the audio cut out, and the thing he had apparently been fighting, stopped moving.

Vessel rewatched the video multiple times, before shaking his head. No, this had to be a joke for sure. That couldn't be real.

______

 

The chihuahua followed him closely as IV went to the kitchen to drink a glass of water. His Irish wolfhound was nowhere to be seen. It made him start to worry. He emptied the glass in one go, before putting it back down on the counter. Then he walked towards the bathroom. “God? Are you in there?"

The chihuahua barked and followed him quickly.

IV tried to shoo it away. "Stop, you weirdo, I’m looking for my dog. He’s pretty big and loud, so I don't understand how… Hold on a minute.”

After turning on his phone, IV almost dropped it on the floor, because now his wallpaper, which had originally been a picture of his Irish wolfhound, was now a picture of a chihuahua.

He rubbed his eyes, before restarting his phone confused. The picture of the chihuahua stayed the same. He was at a loss and scrolled through a photo gallery that couldn't be his but had pictures of him and Vessel and II all over it.

Before he could think too much about it, he got a call from Vessel. He picked up the call.

“Hey, dude… I just sent you a picture of you, II and me, and some woman. Can you tell me who she is, again?” Vessel said, sounding slightly stressed.

"Yeah, uh… Right. Yeah, I can do that." IV mumbled a little stunned and opened their chat. The picture looked familiar, but he had never seen that woman before. “Nah, dude, I don't know who that is."

"Right? I’ve been thinking that too, but like- I cannot figure out why I have like fifty selfies with her saved on my phone.”

“You're telling me- God’s gone. My dear service dog is gone, and instead there's this tiny dog here that keeps following me and staring at me like it wants breakfast. But like, I have looked everywhere, and God is gone for sure. This damn Chihuahua must have somehow snuck in overnight and even took a picture of himself on my phone to put it as my wallpaper.” IV rambled and gave said dog a treat.

“That's wild. Damn, are you sure God is really gone? Maybe you didn't lock your door tonight and some ‘big bad dog corporation’ decided to play a prank on you."

"Not helpful.” IV was getting a little panicked and stressed out as he scrolled further through the phone's photo gallery. "Dude, I must have had this little dog for years. I can't find any pictures of God.”

"... That's concerning? I’m pretty sure I saw an Irish wolfhound yesterday and not a small dog. Hey, maybe sit down, you sound pretty anxious. Shoot, I forgot you had narcolepsy for a second. Should I come over? I can cancel my therapist appointment if you need someone to look over you?”

“Fuck no, I’ll be fine, I think I’ll just stay home today. And no way in hell are you going to cancel your therapy appointment, you pay way too much for that stuff, I’ve looked at the prices."

"It ain't my money anyways so I don't care. Look, I gotta go now. And, uh, I see you at 6 at “hero-central"?”

"Yeah, I got time- wait- dude I can't leave the flat- and hold up, what’s “hero-central"?" IV did a double-take at his phone, but Vessel had already hung up.

IV cursed at his phone for a moment, before going through his phone’s gallery for the third time. Judging by the pictures, his service dog was… a Chihuahua now, apparently. The exact chihuahua that was sitting next to his feet right now.

“I never quite liked small dogs. But I have to admit, you are very cute." The guitarist squatted down and eyed the dog.

The dog barked and wagged his tail.

"Can I put you in my pocket? But then it would probably be very hard for you to watch over me, huh? Unless… let's hope ‘I’ wrote a list on what my service dog can do, shall we?”

Chapter Text

III had gotten up and dressed first thing in the morning. On the way to the ice rink he had turned around at least two times to run back and grab something he forgot. He was so lost in his hurry, that he didn’t even notice that he didn’t rip his front door open with his arm but he simply made it disappear into thin air, or rather, made it disappear into his pockets.

Instead, he was panicking and rushing to practice his jumps some more before his teacher would arrive. He had been slacking off a bit too much the day before, so he just dropped his bag on the first bench and slid into his skates, before running onto the ice.

His quad toe loop was still a little shaky, and the routine around it was even worse. Speeding across the ice, III warmed up his body in the cold air and went over some of the arm movements he would do between jumps.

After a few minutes, he stopped and connected his phone to the music system in the ice rink. He put on the remix he had created out of Vessel’s “Take Aim" and “Conclave" by President.

Then, as the first notes came crackling through the speakers, he started his routine, even though he wasn't anywhere near the center of the room. Parts of the routine still were a little rough and fresh, but he made it through the worst of it and the first two jumps went just fine before his teacher arrived. At least, he thought it was his teacher that had entered the ice rink. But it wasn't. It was a stranger that he was pretty sure didn't belong in the ice rink, however said stranger seemed to know him very well.

"Hey, III, how's it going?”
"Uh, hi... It's going well." III stopped and paused the music while eyeing up the man suspiciously.

"I'm so glad to hear that. Anyways, are you ready to drive to work?" The man smiled.

"Work?" The figure skater was horrified.

"Yeah. You might have helped save the world yesterday with your wonderful powers, but you still need to come and do the paperwork afterwards." The man grinned at him and rested his arms on the barrier.

"Uh... Yeah, naturally." III responded perplexed. None of that made sense.
The man kept looking and smiling at him, so III slowly exited the ice and put covers on the metal of his skates.

"So we gotta go now?" He barely recognized the unsure voice coming out of his mouth.

"Yeah, I mean, unless you wanna miss the bus and walk all the way to HC by foot."

"Yeah, no, I wouldn't want that, would I now." III gave an unsure smile through a grimace.

"Exactly. So change your shoes and hurry, we got paperwork to finish off."

"Right, yeah." III slowly sat down on the bench and took off his skates, before putting on his- hold up, since when did he wear shoes like this? He eyed the leather boots confused for a moment, before putting them on anyways. "Where exactly do we work again?”

"Bro, are you drunk? We work at HC, Hero-central, you're a hero and I'm your assistant." The man laughed surprised.

"Right, yeah, naturally, how could I be so stupid as to forget that?" The figure skater tried to laugh it off and got up. He slung his bag onto his shoulder. "Ok, I'm good to go then."

"Awesome, let's go then, I'm driving us today.”

“Alright." III shrugged and followed the man out of the ice rink and got into the black car waiting outside without any other question. Sure, he didn't know the guy, and he didn't know what he was talking about, but hey, why not go on a little adventure if his teacher wasn't gonna show up? Besides, when was a man in a suit ever someone you shouldn't trust?

_____

 

II was more than a little confused to wake up in a very uncomfortable position, bent over a desk with his head resting on a stack of paper and his lower half resting on a chair. His entire spine hurt like crazy and his head hurt like someone pounded it with an iron hammer.

"Ah, II, you pulled your first all-nighter, huh?" A woman entered the room - his office? - and smiled cheerfully. Her name was Anne and she was 35 years old - how did II know that? He had never seen that woman...

No, he could in fact recount his entire relationship with her. That was... weird, and new, because even though he could recount his entire 'life' up until this exact moment, it felt completely odd and out of place for him. Memories of years of his 'life' flashed in front of his eyes and overshadowed his memories of his own yesterday. Every little thing that had happened was engraved into his brain like a book, even though nothing felt familiar to him. He was overwhelmed with just about everything.

“II? Are you listening?"

"Huh? Yeah, sorry." The drummer jolted out of his thoughts and threw Anne a weak smile.

"Right then. I got some paperwork for you to go over, just for bureaucratic purposes." Anne smiled politely and put a small folder holding papers onto the table. "I take it you didn't manage to finish reading the reports last night?"

"No, I didn't." II had the fitting memory in front of his eyes.

“Right, but that's no issue. Since you don't have any outside surveillance today, you have lots of time to focus on paperwork."

"Yes. And, uh, those are the files from last week's bigger fight? The one with Vessel involved?" The words coming out of his mouth surprised II and he stared at the desk in front of him.

"Yeah, exactly. Right then, shall I bring you a glass of water and some coffee? Maybe a brush too?" She smiled amused and watched him try to sort his hair.

"Yes, that would be quite amazing, thank you."

"Anytime, I'll be back in a minute then." She left the room.

II took the moment of being alone to look around the office room. Not that he needed to, his brain supplied him with the exact memories of him moving into the office and getting everything set up.

His ability of being immune to change, called Immutability - what on earth was his brain on? Why did he have some sort of ability and why did he know how to use his ability? Because he had a perfect recollection of his entire life, his brain answered and II thought he was losing his mind. This had to be some sort of elaborate nightmare. The drummer massaged the sides of his head.

He quickly was distracted with the coffee and water that his assistant had brought him. Then the paper work took all his attention, and soon he was barely even thinking about how weird all of this was.

_____

 

Vessel had a breakdown in his therapy session. He had accidentally managed to activate what his therapist called “Chaotic Vision" and the way the world suddenly looked made Vessel throw up and want to die. His therapist didn't look too phased by it and said something about how “that must have come from not using the ability in a while". It didn't help his growing confusion and dwindling sanity in the slightest, but he put on a brave smile and nodded like he knew what was going on. Then the therapist started to ask some questions that didn't help him and his hurting brain at all.

So he ended up leaving the session early, too mentally exhausted to continue talking about emotions and what not. His phone began to ring when he was on the bus and just one more station away from his home.

The singer picked up the phone, surprised to see II’s number on the screen. The drummer never called first.

“Hi Vessel… How are you? How are your abilities?” II’s voice sounded cautious and strained.

"Uh… yeah so… hey II? Can I tell you something crazy? I think I’m in some sort of nightmare where I have the ability to see things and like- I know this sounds super insane, but then I called IV this morning and he said that his service dog changed dog breeds because instead of God there was this small dog and…” Vessel began to rant and pushed the stop button.

"Right, so about that… I think I’m in the same nightmare as you are. I don't know for sure, since my brain is… I have a perfect recollection of what my life in this… reality is like, but I also know that yesterday I was in the studio jamming with you and IV and not getting slapped around by III.” II stopped him over the phone and lowered his voice.

“Yeah… Do you have time to meet up? I have no idea what my schedule for today is, because my therapist called me ‘Professor’ once and that's just… weird, right?”

"Well, I hate to tell you but I’m actually working in an office today… Like, a real office. It’s like all my worst fears came true, except the paperwork isn't too bad. But yeah, I’m stuck here, but I apparently got a lunch break in about two hours. Maybe we can meet then? I’m in the Hero-central paperwork building if you wanna come.”

"Right, yeah… in two hours… I’ll see if III has time right now. Thank you though.” Vessel responded meekly and hung up without waiting for an answer.

II stared at his phone, before sighing deeply and turning to his assistant, who had once again come into his office.

“I take it Vessel isn't coming into the office today?” She looked as worried as he felt.

"No, he seems to be in a bad mental place. I’ll see if I can finish early and go see him.” The drummer smiled politely and put his phone away.

Meanwhile Vessel was sprinting from the bus to his apartment, feeling sick to his stomach. His vision was flickering between normal and what his therapist had called ‘Chaotic Vision’. Instead of normal things and materials he saw what everything was truly made of. Chaos and Distortion burned into his retina as he tried to figure out which of his keys fit into the door. Eventually, he made it inside and into his flat, before throwing up in the hallway and passing out.

____

III almost didn't notice that Vessel was calling him, too busy clutching his left thigh to try and stop the blood from running out of his newly acquired stab wound. Because apparently the man who he had thought was his work buddy turned out to be some sort of villain or something, whatever that meant. Fact was, III was confused and currently bleeding profusely all over the place.

He pulled out his phone and picked up the call, more than a little overwhelmed with the entire situation, and took a seat at the side of the field where the guy who had stabbed him, left him at. The man was still there, actually, and the car too, but III was more concerned with the fact that his leg hurt and he wasn't able to practice for a long while.

“Hey III, do you have time at the moment?" Vessel broke his panic.

“Uh… well, I mean I just got stabbed and uh… oh he's coming back, I should film this.” III hung up the call and switched to his camera to get a picture of the man and then he recorded how he stalked around the car and towards him with the weapon in hand.

Though his phone quickly hit the floor when III curled up and wrapped his arms around his head to protect himself as the man tried to stab him some more. The first stab hit his arm but slipped and didn't do much damage, the next lodged itself nicely into his arm between his bones and tore on his flesh on the way out. The next stab sliced the side of his stomach open, and it jolted the fight back into the figure skater. He groaned in pain and began to fight back, before suddenly realizing he held the knife he was stabbed with, in his own hand.

Both he and his attacker paused for a moment and stared at each other, before III kicked him off with his good leg and scrambled to put his newly acquired knife to use.

Although he didn't end up actually stabbing the man, he did scare the man away and basically won the fight. If you ignore the fact he got stabbed like four times. But he also was now stuck on his knees somewhere at the side of a field, watching the man who stabbed him drive away in his car. Meaning he was basically bleeding out with no one to save him if he didn't- his phone. He panicked and started to look around him for his phone. The wounded man needed to call an ambulance immediately if he didn't want to die surrounded by fields.

His phone was laying with its camera facing the fight scene between some clumps of earth and grass. Ignoring the pain coursing through his body, he reached over and picked it up, saved the video, and called an ambulance. Only when he was being lifted onto a stretcher by the First responders did he realize that he didn't memorize the number plate of the stabber's car. But he passed out before he could open his phone and show them the video.

Hours later, he woke up to quiet voices talking to his right, and a weird drowsiness in his limbs and head. The pain from before was different now, and barely noticeable as long as he laid still. There was a machine beeping rhythmically to his left. He licked his lips to wet them and blinked until his eyes had acclimated to the bright white room that he was in.

The voices kept talking, before they stopped and someone leaned over the bed to peak down at him and cast a shadow over his face.

“Hi, III." Vessel smiled down at him shyly.

“Hi, Vess. Where am I?" III croaked back.

"In the hospital. You were stabbed. How are you feeling?”

"Like shit. I’m never gonna figure skate again, huh?” His throat began hurting halfway through the sentence.

"Actually, your muscles and arteries are mostly intact, so you’ll most likely be able to continue in a few months.” Vessel tried to calm him and sat down on a chair at the side of his bed.

“Really?" The figure skater sniffled and turned his head slowly.

“Yeah… Look, can you tell me what happened? You called me and then you just cut off and I got a little scared. The nurses told me you got stabbed four times, but you were holding the weapon.” Vessel’s smile faltered and the anxiety and deep worry started to show.

"My phone… I took a picture of his face. I tried to record too. I don't know, Vess, I trusted him.” The beeping sped up.

"I believe you, it's fine, please calm down. Where is your phone? It has the picture and video on it, right?” The singer was back on his feet and watching him worried.

"Yeah… I put it in my jacket, I think."

"What's your password?”

The door opened behind Vessel and a very worried looking II peaked into the room. IV followed right behind him and paused at the sight of all the machines.

"Hey guys.” III waved at them with his good arm, and yawned.

II came to the bed and inspected the monitor to III’s left that was beeping at a lower pace now, then the drummer eyed his face worried. "What did you do to get stabbed, huh? Vessel had two whole breakdowns on the phone with me.”

IV stayed at the door since he wasn't allowed to take God into the room, but he also couldn't leave him alone. So he stood very awkwardly in the half open door and watched them converse. It felt like he was looking at some weird sort of hero comic where one of the good guys had gotten hurt in battle. Huh, that fit way too well. He grimaced and shuddered. God nudged his leg.

“Oh… I don't know… there was this guy and I thought we were work colleagues or something - cause guys, I think I’m in some sort of nightmare. I don't know why, yesterday everything was normal and today I suddenly am in this weird world where I’m some sort of hero with powers - shiiit, I must have smoked something last night.” III laughed shakily and looked more and more exhausted.

“Yeah, that's what we three also seem to be in, a nightmare." II smiled a little and pat III’s good arm.

“Huh?" The figure skater stopped laughing and stared up at II. “You're bullshitting me. Do you three also have abilities? Holy shit, is this real?"

“Yeah, it seems like it. I can see matter and change it, which is… rather not helpful for my sanity, II is literally immune to everything, and IV can see ultraviolet light. But we can all remember not having these abilities yesterday. So… Yeah, it seems we're all in this together. Wonderful, right?”

"I mean it is better than being in this all on your own.” IV joined in from the door. He was sitting in the doorway now, with God on his lap.

“Are you ok, buddy?" III peaked past Vessel’s legs and eyed IV worried. “You're not about to pass out on us, are you?"

“I’m trying not to but God is telling me I got an episode coming up. Today has been a lot." The guitarist muttered quietly and petted the Chihuahua.

Vessel watched confused, before getting big eyes. “Should we get a nurse? Will you be fine? Can we help?"

“Please shut up, Vess, I don't think you're helping in the slightest." II scolded the singer quietly and poked his chest. “Tie your hair and count every tile in this room if you need to calm down, but please don't have another break down."

II sounded meaner than he meant it, but thankfully Vessel understood and sat back down on the only chair in the room to be out of the way.

“I mean it’d be nice if you could help me out of the doorway? I think the nurses would appreciate it. Besides that I’ll pretty much just be knocked out for a few minutes, no harm done. God knows what to do." IV called out to II quietly, already looking halfway passed out even though he felt fairly awake still.

“Okay, thanks for telling me. Will God be ok with it if I touch you right now?" II approached the narcoleptic and got ready to pull him out of the doorway.

“Nah, you're good, I’m still awake so it should be fine. I would move myself, but I don't trust my legs right now." IV smiled crooked and slowly shifted out of the doorway and against the wall of the room with II’s help. God wasn't too thrilled about it, but stayed focused on his owner.

Not even a minute later, the guitarist was limp against the wall and II’s side, because the drummer wouldn't let him just slump against the wall and potentially drop his head onto the floor.

Chapter Text

Meanwhile, III tried to distract Vessel, who was clearly very distressed, by chatting to him, even though III himself was too tired to do much more than blink. But he tried to keep the singer sane as said man quietly explained to him what he was seeing. Or well he tried to explain. Because no matter how hard Vessel tried to put what he saw into words, he never was content with the words he found. It didn't really ever describe what he saw when his vision changed. It's like he could see how every matter came together and connected to form what the world was today.

II in the meantime was watching IV... sleep? It felt strangely intimate, holding the man against him while God licked IV's hand. The dog looked to be pretty calm and collected, watching over his human while its little tail wagged slowly behind it. Looking at it made countless memories resurface in II’s brain, almost like he had always been a part of IV’s life- Ha, that would be insane though. Right? The countless memories of him holding IV during the man’s episodes felt a little too real for his liking. Especially since he could also remember IV having another service dog in this… reality before having the Chihuahua.

“Hey, so… what do we think this is, huh? A group hallucination? A group nightmare? Or are we maybe all stuck in some sort of parallel universe spider-man style?” Vessel tried to joke a little, since III had fallen asleep sometime during II’s inner monologue. He was holding III's good hand and slowly caressing the back of it with his thumb. (hehe remember the security guy hehehe vess was so proud too hehehehe)

IV started to stir against II, although not in a controlled way, but with small twitches, as the man started to regain control of his limbs. God barked and wagged his tail excitedly, losing his professionalism for a moment - which was a behavior that would have to get corrected - and licking IV’s face.

Vessel watched the guitarist closely and got up slowly. “I don't think I’ll ever stop losing my awe for how he handles his life."

“Same here. Ives is great. It feels weird to say this, but my brain holds all these memories of this man here and me being friends, it's like I’ve known him for years. It feels weird, you know? Cause I've only actually known him for about a day now.”

“Ives? Is that your nickname for him in this life?" Vessel squatted down next to them and took IV’s hand when the man reached out to him slowly.

“Seems like it." II looked a little surprised and helped IV sit up slowly.

“Can you stop talking about me like I’m not here?" IV pouted and leaned against the wall gingerly.

“Right, sorry." The drummer smiled and gently moved some hair out of IV’s face.

Vessel watched that small gesture a little horrified, not at all used to II behaving in any sort of gentle or loving way. Which didn't mean that II wasn't loving or gentle in any way, it was more so the fact that II acted this way towards IV. And he awaited some sort of jealousy or self-doubt at the fact that his crush was caring like that for someone else instead of him. But no feelings besides the normal anxiety arose.

That was odd. But it was just one of many odd things that day.

II, IV and Vessel ended up grabbing some dinner at McDonald's, since III had stayed passed out for the rest of the visiting time and the nurses eventually ushered them out before they could get too deep into the ‘So where exactly do we think we are/what's going on’-Talk.

That just meant they were spinning conspiracy theories at a sticky, messy table in a dingy fast food restaurant down the road from the hospital as the sun began to kiss the horizon. God sat obediently under the table and slurped some water out of a small bowl next to IV’s feet. Said man was stuffing his mouth with a burger and fries, II ate his chicken nuggets with a fork while sipping from his black coffee every once in a while and Vessel devoured a veggie burger, now less anxious since he was getting used to seeing the world a little different every time he accidentally activated his abilities.

“I’m telling you guys, this must be some spiderman multiverse stuff, III was onto something there." The singer spoke up between bites.

"The Spiderverse? I loved that movie- but like, imagine if we guys actually had to fight a guy like Spot."

"I mean you got a great attack as far as I know, you got sonic screams, right? I can only really stand there and tank attacks from opponents, so I’m good for defense only. Your abilities are a little more flexible, I mean you basically got the ability to both attack and defend as needed.” II rambled while going through fitting memories that his brain supplied.

"Huh? Damn, I keep forgetting you just… know everything, like some oracle.” Vessel furrowed his brows at II.

“Dear honored oracle, please grant us knowledge of how I activate my sonic scream and what it does?" IV played into Vessel’s words.

The drummer shot the guitarist a look that felt like it could burn a hole through his head. “Well, have you ever done metal vocals? Like, with vocal distortion and stuff?”

"Nah, should I have done that?”

"It would have helped.”

"Sorry that I forgot to check the weather if I was gonna end up with super human abilities today.” IV snarked and stuffed his last fries into his mouth.

Vessel watched them with a smile on his face as the two shorter men began bickering back and forth. Then suddenly, someone tapped on his right shoulder. He turned to the right with the smile still on his face, before frowning confused when he found himself with a phone in his face.

“Hi, you're the Vessel, right? The leader of the group? I’m so excited to meet you, I’m your biggest fan!" Shouted a high-pitched voice from behind the phone.

“Ok?" The singer carefully nudged the phone away from his face.

“I’m filming this for my social media, come on, smile some more! What are you doing today, are you free later or slaying some more monsters?" The person chatted on, unbothered by the fact that Vessel was looking less than happy or comfortable by the second. “I’m Lyssa, by the way."

“Hey, nice to meet you and all, but can you go away or stop recording, please? This isn't cool." IV tried to save his friend.

"Oh my gosh, so rude. I’m his biggest fan, you know?” They shut him down.

"Sorry, but we're just trying to eat in peace so it'd be much appreciated if you could stop filming us now. That's not called ‘being rude’, that's just asking for privacy.” II crossed his arms and leaned back. Vessel took the moment when they weren't filming him to turn away and pull his hood up.

“Oh come on, you guys are all super famous, what's a little filming of you guys eating dinner gonna do?” Lyssa pouted, before gasping, offended when they noticed that their "favorite” hero was now hiding from them and their camera in the form of a puddle of water on the seat. Because Vessel had unknowingly activated his Reactive Adaptation and melted into a puddle of anxiety and shame. “Aww, don't get shy on me, I was just trying to introduce myself, I mean I am your biggest fan.”

Their smile became uncanny and way too full of teeth, and as they raised their free hand, the last thing the drummer expected to see was a gun.

“I just want to show my appreciation for you. After all, you're such a great hero. Saving our city again and again..." Lyssa tilted their head slowly and aimed at the puddle of water.

The puddle of water turned into a panicking hen that jumped under the table.

II watched and knew they were in danger if they moved and reminded the person with a gun they were there too, of course, but he took the moment of their distraction and dragged IV up and out of the seat. God, who had slept on IV’s feet, protested loudly, but II was already dragging them out of the restaurant. “Let's just leave. Vessel, stop being a damn chicken and come along."

Vessel materialized under the table and hit his head, before adapting again, this time into a small Chihuahua and sprinting out of the restaurant. On his run out of there, he adapted into a cat halfway, and then into a one all-fours running human, who looked rather surprised to be running on all fours.

Lyssa, who had continued to film them, was indeed still trying to capture everything on their phone and jogged after the singer excitedly. The gun in their hand seemed to have a mind of its own, moving its muzzle at random and shooting at just about anything and everything.

“Woah, I’m feeling sleepy as fuck." IV tried to keep up with the shortest of them and picked up God mid run so the dog wouldn't get hit by any stray bullets. God nudged his chest.

“Not right now, please, Ives. I mean, if you're gonna pass out, I can't promise you that I will carry you out of here.” The man stated as he looked at him more than a little unhappy. He kept running and pulling IV along by one arm.

Behind him, Vessel escaped a bullet about to split open his skull by changing the density of it into that of gas. It surprised him and he almost tripped as he walked backwards into a bicycle standing against a lantern. “Stop shooting, please!"

“Oh chill out, it's just some little bullets! Let me film one video, please. And I want your signature!” Lyssa shouted cheerfully and kept throwing their gun around like it was the most normal thing ever that they could be doing on a random Thursday and not something out of an action movie that would trouble an entire police department and keep a whole court busy for a month just to calculate all the property damages.

“Please just put down your gun, you're gonna shoot someone." Vessel pleaded worried and tried to sprint backwards and away from them. His eyes never strayed from the gun though as he ran into multiple parked cars and bicycles.

“But that's the whole fun!" They giggled and slowed to a stop. “I’m not some loser hero like you are. I’m a criminal! The best one in this city! So come on, pretty boy, fight me!"

The other two stopped running when the gun shots stopped and turned around to see what's going on. Vessel looked to be in perfect health, although very nervous, as he tied up his long hair in hopes of gaining some courage. It was way longer than it used to be, flowing down his shoulders to the middle of his back, and giving the illusion of a short, silky hood.

“Ives, it's your time to shine, Vess doesn't have any proper attacks, so scream." II realized and turned to tug on IV’s arm. His memories showed him how IV’s ability could win a fight in seconds.

Too bad this IV had no idea what to do and looked at him a little lost. “I don't know what to do.”

"Just scream. Your body might remember. We don't have time for this, stay behind me and just scream, I’ll protect you."

"Yeah, why not.” The guitarist huffed and stepped behind II, before starting to scream random vocals. Nothing happened besides awful throat sounds and some coughing from IV.

If Vessel had turned to look at them, he would have seen II look mighty cute while trying to cover IV with his body. But he was distracted by trying to keep Lyssa's attention on him and not the screams by picking up a brick, throwing it and changing its density to be way harder mid-flight.

They laughed and dodged it with a swing of their gun, but it ended up scratching up and bending the barrel permanently. It was heavier too, since the changed density of the brick had jumped over to the gun.

“Nooo! My gun!" They let out a wail of despair and dropped to their knees to inspect their weapon properly. The safety was still off though, so Vessel took the chance and sprinted towards II and IV.

In the meantime, IV had stopped trying to scream and was instead sitting leaned against a parked car with God on his lap. II was still standing in front of him, although now with his hands on his hips and a scowl on his face.

“Now what? Do we call the police? What do we do?" The singer came to a stop in front of II and bent over to catch his breath.

“I guess so. Is the gun still functional?" II kept a close eye on the person and crossed his arms.

“No, probably not. It changed density, so the bullets are now too heavy and the mechanism is broken. I saw it. With the- the thing… the ability I have.” Vessel straightened up and rubbed his eyes.

"Lets just call the police and go home, I don't want to pass out again." IV spoke up where he was still sitting.

"Ok, yeah, sorry for making you sit on the street. Vess, can you carry him to the next bench while I call the police and get that sorted?”

"Uh, yeah, sure.” His best friend nodded after a short moment of hesitation and approached IV. The narcoleptic was already making sure God would stay on his lap and pulled his knees up towards his chest.

“Well then don't mind if I do." Vessel carefully scooped the tired man off of the ground and started to walk to the nearest bench and left it to II to handle the situation.

IV got big eyes at the way the taller man just picked him up like it was something easy and not a grown man that looked a little more than flustered. It also didn't help that Vessel had long hair, which- he didn't have a hair kink, but he always has had a thing for long straight hair. His cheeks felt hot and he fidgeted with God’s harness, trying to stay as still as possible so Vessel would have an easier time carrying him. Fuck, this was taking too long, he’d have an erection by the time this man put him on a bench. But honestly, why did he have to carry him in a bridal carry? This way IV’s head was leaning comfortably against his biceps and chest and it gave him both a close-up view and feel of the muscles this man packed. And it gave him a nice view upwards too. Vessel's jaw was quite nice to look at, and so was his Adam's apple. IV felt the strongest urge to bite into the pale skin like an apple.

He couldn't stop himself from turning his face against the singer’s body and taking a big sniff. The man paused and shot him a confused look.

“Did you just smell me?"

“Hard to avoid."

“Ah… yeah, naturally.”

The guitarist pretended to be very interested in the empty street Vessel was walking on. He could feel the small twitches in the singer’s chest as his muscles flexed to keep the extra weight held high above the ground. Yeah, IV was definitely hard now. God wasn't too bothered by all of it, but IV felt pretty awkward being hard when his dog was sitting on his lower stomach. That thought quickly turned him just off enough that he could pretend to adjust his pants and tuck his erection where it wouldn't stand out nearly as much.

If Vessel had noticed, he was being fair enough to not address it, but maybe he was also just too busy watching two cop cars speed by towards where II probably still was.

But good god, this man. This man and his damn defined face and hard eyes and strong arms and a soul kind enough to heal the world. Oh hell nah, this truly was a new low for him and his damn addiction to falling for people that clearly already had an interest in someone else, someone called II, if he had read the room during the jam session correctly. A man could dream, but he wasn't going to get in between what would surely turn out to be a perfect couple. He decided that he definitely didn't like this rising attraction because it made him feel like a horny teenager.

Vessel had finally spotted a bench and carefully deposited IV onto it, before watching God. “I’m impressed, I thought he was gonna jump off or bite me or something.”

"Nah, since he's so tiny, I’ve trained him to stay still on my lap if necessary. God’s a real good boy though.” The guitarist smiled and gave his dog a treat. “Such a good boy. I promise we’ll go home so you can have dinner soon."

If the singer, who had squatted down next to the bench, was actually flushing a little at his words, IV wasn't sure about. But he just grinned and placed God onto the wood of the bench and stretched out his legs. “Man, I think I’ll take a short nap before I go home."

“Sure, I’ll wait then." Vessel nodded full of understanding and watched him expectantly.

“Uh… You don't have to. You can just go once II’s done chatting with the police.” IV stared at the man as he slowly laid down on the bench.

“No, I want to make sure you get home safe. I mean, this little God is hella cute, but he’s not gonna save you when someone attacks you while you're passed out.”

"Oh man, Vess… You really are too sweet." The guitarist sighed amused at the furrow in Vessel’s brow.

“Huh?" The Hozier impersonator's jaw dropped and he blinked at IV like he just spoke in hieroglyphs and not in the proper queen’s english with the proper queen’s accent.

“Forget it. Just… Be yourself or something.” The guy grinned and shut his eyes exhausted.

Vessel nodded and watched over him as the narcoleptic fell asleep on the bench. Now that he actually had the time to look around, he noticed it was standing in front of a park. In fact, it was the hospital’s park. III was probably sleeping and resting as well, and hopefully healing his wounds.

By the time II joined them at the bench, Vessel was completely lost in his thoughts and IV was sitting half awake on the bench with his dog in his lap. It brought a small smile to his face to see both men that were calm and unharmed in front of the park. He made sure to bring both of them home, although he did end up sleeping on Vessel’s couch, because he couldn't stop being worried about his best friend's mental health.

Chapter Text

Hey, where r u @?
III shot IV a text early Friday morning

The guitarist was still dead asleep though and didn't answer, which left III to be bored, high on pain killers and all alone in his hospital room. The nurses had informed him that breakfast would come in later and he was gonna have to wait and try to sleep some more. The problem was, even though he was hurt, he was wide awake and unable to shut his eyes.

It made him fidget on the bed and fight the urge to jerk off just to have something to do. But he only had one good hand, and his other hand was hurting too much. It made him creative. He slowly plugged in his earphones, and then navigated his phone on the search of the secret videos of his ex he had saved. Sadly, his ex had been hung, which was the only reason he still had the jerk-off tapes at the ready. He pushed play on his favorite video and put his phone on his good leg, before sucking on the fingers of his good hand. At home, he had lube to help out with activities like this, but today, his spit would have to do.

He fumbled to get his hand into his pants and around himself. The video was enough to get him going as usual and his head quickly emptied and he focused on getting off. Thinking about his exes dick was kinda weird, but hey, it was better than imagining Vessel’s dick, because last time he did that he ended up drooling like some damn animal. Now that he was thinking about Vessel’s dick, he wondered what II’s prick might look like- that was both new and problematic, because although the drummer was cute, he hated III. And that was for some reason to his stupid brain, unbearably hot.

He groaned and shook those thoughts out of his head. No point in simping over his friends, it wouldn't end well. So he preferred to instead think about his exes dick while he was tugging on his length and hooking a finger under his balls every once in a while. It began to get a little frustrating, when after the second replay of the video, he was still horny and hadn’t orgasmed.

Something was needed to push him over, so he engaged in his secret finishing move. He pushed his thumb up under his balls and reached down to his entrance with his other fingers, massaging both places at once while he used the hospital blanket still laying over his lap for stimulation on his dick. And as usual it helped him get off in about thirty seconds. His head started hurting right after, but he ignored it and pulled his hands out of his pants satisfied.

Said pants were very sticky now, but he ignored it in favor of turning off the video and then his phone.

And now that there were no distractions left, his mind went back to II. Damn, the little drummer was a sight for sore eyes. Tiny, yeah, but also cute and so full of hate that III would much prefer to always stay on his good side. But this also meant he now not only had a thing for Ivy and Vessel, but for II as well.

_______

 

Vessel and II went out for breakfast, after the latter had ended up sleeping over and they discovered that Vessel’s fridge was as empty as it could be. They went to the small bakery further down the block and sat at the only table with their orders. II had gotten a hot chocolate and a glazed donut, while Vessel had stuck with his usual black tea and salty pretzel.

“You and your sweet tooth." The singer teased quietly and sipped on his tea.

“Oh, I’m sorry, mister ‘I despise any and all good flavors’." II pouted and licked the sugar from the donut of his fingers. He’s had this kinda nasty habit for years, but he tended to do it more around his best friend… for no reason naturally. But it was just a little too fun and ego-stroking to watch as Vessel’s eyes flitted over his tongue and hand, before the singer quickly looked away and flushed bright red. “Anyways, are you gonna upload a video today?"

“Huh?"

“For your tiktok account. Or YouTube. You remember? You're supposed to be an influencer, you know?" II teased him amused and ignored the small jolt of pain at the back of his head.

“Right, fuck, I completely forgot about that with everything that… yesterday was a dream, right? There was no person with a gun, yeah?” Vessel began to look very anxious again.

"No, that was all real. Although something must have changed again, because like- I can’t remember everything anymore and you- hey, since when do you do spray painting again?”

"Huh?" The singer looked just about to break down.

“Your hoodie, it's covered in spray paint." The drummer decided to slow the conversation down and motion at the other's clothes. Some women were coming into the bakery behind him.

“Oh, yeah, that's weird." Vessel sat up and inspected his hoodie, surprised. “I don't remember buying this, maybe I accidentally stole it? But my pants are covered in paint too… Fuck, I was gonna go to college like this.”

He began to panic and grabbed his backpack, zipping it open to check his timetable, only to find he had mainly cans of spray paint with him. His voice got more and more quiet the longer he talked. “II, I didn't leave the house like this- did everything change? What's going on?"

"Are you ok? Wanna go outside and catch some fresh air for a moment? Because I also think something happened and now everything’s changed.” II noticed that his continued questioning only worsened Vessel’s spiral. “My pants are also covered in spray paint, it seems.”

"No, all good, let's just finish eating and I’ll have a break down later.” Vessel sniffled and wiped his face, before continuing to slowly eat his pretzel.

“Wait, sorry, is your name II by any chance?” A female voice suddenly interrupted their meal. (Vess fr hasn't had a peaceful meal like once oml)

"Huh, yeah, who are you?” The drummer tensed up and eyed the woman up and down critically. She was dressed in a flowy wool skirt and a thick jacket on top of it.

"I’m Mariah, we went to the same high school, remember? I was the girl with a dick.” She joked and smiled widely.

"Oh, damn, that's you? You look good, I almost didn't recognize you.”

Vessel chewed quietly as he watched them hold their conversation. There was this small feeling of jealousy creeping up inside him at seeing them seemingly so comfortable with each other. Especially since II was smiling that specific smile he only used when he found someone attractive. He scowled and busied himself by looking through his backpack. He found a note book and some pens and got to work scribbling in it while II was busy.

“I didn't recognize you either, you grew some, didn't you? Also, did you start working out or something?" Mariah started to lay the flirting on thick and kept eyeing II liked there was no tomorrow.

“Yeah, I started working out a little, I mean now that I’m done with university and all, I just kinda want to get more into concert life, you know how it goes." II smiled politely, starting to look a little out of his depth with the heavy flirting.

“Wait, you play the drums? I thought you wanted to study art?" She paused for a second, before just chatting on without waiting for his answer. "By the way, can I have your number? It would be fun to meet up some time in private. Who's that by the way?”

II turned to Vessel and grimaced a little at seeing his best friend stick his nose into a book. He really didn't want to give Mariah his phone number. There was only one way to get out of this. "Oh, that's Vessel, my boyfriend."

Vessel looked up surprised for a second, caught II’s urgent face, and began to play quickly. He held out his hand to Mariah, “Yeah, I’m his boyfriend. We met in college. You're his best friend from high school?"

“Oh, no, we just went to the same courses, but we weren't really friends." Mariah’s confident attitude faltered quickly and she shook the singer’s hand. “You been together long?”

"Yeah for about four years now." Vessel lied through his teeth and gave her a death glare. “And no, you cannot have his number."

II raised his eyebrows at how cold his best friend - ahem, boyfriend was acting, he really was laying it on thick, and he was thinking of reprimanding him later for acting so controlling.

When Mariah began to look a little too uncomfortable, Vessel backpedaled quickly. “I’m sorry for being so rude. That was unnecessary and I shouldn't have acted that way towards you. On the other hand you did flirt with him, so I won't be overly nice to you. Anyways. Sorry, but could you maybe leave for now? It's nice that you know each other and all, but we both got a lot going on already."

"Right, yeah… See you some time then, bye.” She grimaced, clearly not calmed by the apology, and rushed back to her friends to get away.

The group of women quickly left the bakery and the shop got quiet again. The silence felt even more deafening at the table they were still sitting at, hot chocolate, tea, and their food long forgotten. Neither one of the two men dared to look at the other, and it took some awkward small talk and very heavy ignoring of what had just happened, for them to grab their stuff and leave the shop.

They parted ways outside the bakery, but not until Vessel got a call from a number saved under the contact name ‘Lyssa’. He paused and showed his phone to II. “Hey… wasn't that the name of the girl from yesterday?”

“Yeah, I think so. Don't pick up, that's so weird, I mean how exactly does she have her phone in prison? Unless in this… reality, she’s not in prison? Man, this is hurting my head. Just ignore it and go home. And call me if you need help. Any help. I’m here for you.”

Vessel nodded distractedly and avoided looking at II’s face, who sounded way too genuine and honest for his liking.

"And don't forget to call your mom and post a video or something."

“Yes dear papa." Vessel rolled his eyes and headed off, leaving II on his own as it started to rain. “Damn London weather."

On his way home, he walked past houses that he barely recognized because the signs of dilapidation made them look run down and shabby. Graffiti covered most walls of the block in thick layers, but one thing stood out to him the most. Where days ago there stood “Free Palestine", there now also stood “Free America" and “Free Europe", whatever that meant. It didn't concern him, he was just another British bloke in London.

On his way he also passed a bus station, and because he was curious and needed to know, he read through the different stations. But the Hero-central station that he had been told about was nowhere to be found. They definitely were somewhere new now. Still in London, but in a London they didn’t know and had to get used to it anew.

_______

 

IV visited III for lunch. The hospital looked different today, but the guitarist shrugged it off as him being more rested than the day before. They sat in the cafeteria, this time with III in the wheelchair and being the one worried about, as they ate the lunch provided. And the figure skater had actually let it slip that he had begun to feel something for… II? Normally they didn't really chat about stuff like that, but III seemed to be a little… distraught about his discovery.

“Look- and stop giggling, but- I just… he’s so hot!” III whined over his ravioli and played with his food.

“I mean it is so funny though, first you turn into a full-on simp for Vess, and now II as well? That's hilarious.” IV couldn't stop grinning at him and stuffed a piece of almost cold steak into his mouth.

“Oh shut it… I knew I shouldn't have told you.” The figure skater pouted and took a sip of his fanta.

“Aw, come on, you love me." The guitarist grinned amused and leaned back, reaching down to check if God- hold up, when did IV’s Chihuahua turn into a white and brown terrier?

“Hey, Ivy, hate to ask this, but… why’s your dog a Terrier? Yesterday you had a Chihuahua with you, right? And before that it was a bigger dog, right?”

"Uh… Now that you mention it, yeah, God definitely didn't look like this yesterday." IV sat back up and looked down at his dog worried. “That's odd. You think we’re in a new universe or something? Because I kinda remember the hospital to look a little different than this.”

"If this is a new world of something I could have lost the wounds.” III muttered. "It's like some video game or something. You know, because it can't be a group hallucination because we weren't all in the same place when this first started, and I wouldn't have gotten wounded too.”

At IV’s surprised face, he elaborated, “I woke up early this morning and did some research. Group hallucinations aren't a proven thing, and usually don't last this long or actually damage physical things. It's not a hallucination and it's not a dream either. This is real.”

It got quiet at their table for a while and III actually began to eat his food as IV just played with his food.

"Hey, so… are you gonna do anything about II or Vessel?” The guitarist spoke up finally and pushed his plate away.

"No, I don't think so. I mean, have you seen the way they look at each other? Vessel has a big crush on II actually, which is why he grew out his hair and did the whole Hozier thing in the first place, like- And- Damn, I just aired out his dirty laundry.“ III stopped himself quickly.

"Oh, yeah I noticed that too.” IV’s expression fell and held into his service dog’s harness to ground himself.

“But yeah, I think if I actually ever confessed to II he would just hate me more."

"What? No, he’s an absolute sweetheart, he’d probably just be a little awkward about it, I’m sure.” IV tried to calm his friend like he didn't know II would probably not be too hyped about getting a confession from III. “Besides, why do you think he hates you in the first place?"

"I kinda like to tease him because of how short he is.” III already raised his hands, ready to defend himself against a frowning IV. "Ivy! At least hear me out!”

"He’s just a tiny bit shorter than me so tread carefully.” Ivy glared at him.

“Yes sir. So- like yeah, but he always pouts when I call him short and that's just so fucking cute- especially since he doesn't even reach up to my shoulder."

“Sure, yeah." The shorter crossed his arms.

“So like… it's less about his height and more about his personality, because he's quite controlling and mean. And that's bold because he inhabits such a small body. He’d make a great flyer.”

That made IV pause and actually think about it. “Yeah, he is quite petite, isn't he?"

"That's exactly what I mean!” III sighed relieved and threw his hands up.

"Right, ok, I guess you have a point." IV pouted and pulled his plate back to himself. “Come on, let's finish up here and go outside or something."

“Always those gays(replacement for F-word), being so noisy. Go get a room." An old lady cussed them out while walking past them.

"Yeah, time to go.” III scowled at her and flaunted his dyed hair unbothered.
______

Late in the evening, II received a call from Vessel. He picked up and waited patiently for what he already knew was to come.

“Hey II, I’m so sorry for earlier, how I acted wasn't ok at all, I mean- I was acting so possessive over you and like I was so controlling and I mean, yeah you did kinda force me into the role of your boyfriend but I really over did it so, I’m very sorry.” The singer rambled after an awkward moment of silence.

“I take it you had a phone call with your mother?" II mused with a grin and leaned back on his couch.

"Yeah, well, she called me.”

"And I noticed your tiktok account looks hella different, but you uploaded a video anyways.”

"Yeah, I seem to be an artist in… in this world." Vessel muttered and II could hear him rummaging through something with tons of cans in it.

“Right, I’d guess we both are spray painters here, cause I have tons of sketches all over the place, not to mention that the walls in here are definitely custom spray painted.”

"Ah, so you too, huh. Did III text you too?”

"Yes. He wants to call, but I’m going to bed now.”

"Good call, me too."

“Sleep well then."

“Night."

And with that, he hung up the call and scrolled through his phone. He found tons of weird messages with numbers and dates and his phone wallpaper had the words “deny, defend, depose" on it, but he decided he was going to check that out the next day. Sleep was more important right now.