Work Text:
—
All three of the Thieves’ Den trio had been invited to a Phestival after-party. Now, being the three that they were, none of them had seen a point in rejecting.
Shuriken had mildly ignored Coil’s little message regarding what color he’d be wearing (mainly due to the fact it’d been sent an hour before the party), and had focused on getting the rest of his life in check beforehand.
He’d slept properly, he tried doing his hair before letting Vine Staff take over it, and his suit was somewhat ironed.
All in all, pretty good.
Even the ride there went nicely! Usually whenever the three of them rode together, a drink spilled all over their tuxedos, one of them would get overwhelmed, or there’d end up being absurd amounts of traffic.
There was none of that today.
In fact, he thought they actually looked quite good, and he was all smiley while walking into the area.
“You think they’ll enjoy the flowers?” Vine Staff whispered to him, already planning to stick around him instead of Slingshot.
“I think they look good.”
She’d prepared the majority of the bouquets hung up around the area, which was part of how the three of them earned their invites.
Then again, he could see why that made her anxious.
Shuriken watched his brother start talking his head off with Boombox and Skateboard, and some part of him reluctantly accepted he’d be stuck with Vine Staff. Not like he could talk when he wanted to make sure she wasn’t lonely.
But she caught wind of how much he wanted to leave, apparently, just by looking at him.
“I can go find Medkit if you want to go join Slingshot.”
His face crumbled in an instant, frowning at her for even implying that before saying:
“But you two don’t even talk often, and I don’t want you feeling awkward—”
“Scythe’s here, so.”
Well, that brought some of Shuriken’s joy back, and pretty fast. In any other moment, he would’ve tried taunting her for having a crush on a criminal or being concerned about whether or not she’d get murdered— but right now? Vine Staff was already trying to stare at Scythe where she stood next to Medkit.
“You are so gay.”
Not like he’d bully her for it, though. Shuriken had his own priorities to focus on, hearing all the music and wearing his good shoes.
“‘Kay then, I’m gonna go find Coil.”
“Throwing stones from a glass house,” Vine Staff taunted back, snickering at the way he frowned in return.
Shuriken moved towards all the playground people in an instant, coming up with a bigger smile than the one he had before. Sling already had a drink in his hand, one that’d almost looked expensive before he looked at it.
Ripoff champagne.
“There’s no way you can’t afford better.”
Seeing his brother holding some poor example of a good drink at a party where they were almost free nearly got a laugh out of him, up until it was pushed in his direction.
“No, no, try it!” He’d hardly gotten to wave at Skateboard and Boombox before alcohol was poured in his mouth. “It tastes nice, right?”
Neither of those two knew him well enough for Slingshot to be so keen on embarrassing him immediately.
But it was nice. Just a little fruity.
“You can’t just do that,” Shuriken whined in return, reluctantly grumbling, “Go order me one.”
“What’s up, dude?” Skateboard didn’t even acknowledge what just happened, giving him a nervous laugh and dapping him up. Right.
“They’ve been giving that stuff out all night. I think they even gave one to Coil—”
“He’s not old enough for that.”
“That doesn’t actually matter though.”
Boombox looked like he was almost in his own world with the music, giving him a nod and a big smile while the three of them talked.
“I mean, it matters as much as you make it matter.”
None of them responded to him. Alright, he’d do all this conversation stuff later then. With a good drink in his hands first.
And something else.
“Where’s Coil?”
Slingshot focused more on him by the time he said that, clearly in thought before saying, “I think he went up by the balcony.”
“On his first time drinking?”
“It’s child-proofed,” Skateboard stopped mocking Boombox’s DJing to add that, clearly trying to ease any panic that sentence would’ve brought up, “Boombox already checked out the venue earlier— I promise it’s fine.”
Fair enough.
“Whatever you say, man.” Shuriken adjusted his tie, prepared to go check the balcony out; Slingshot stopped him right before he moved.
“You got any songs you wanna add? He’s playing all of them after the slow dancing.”
“Uhh-” He wanted to show off. “Billie Jean?”
He could see his brother frown, as if he already knew what’d happen, right before quietly telling the suggestion to Boombox. The suggestion clearly got some confusion out of him, but he shrugged before going back to the music.
It took an unfortunate amount of socializing with random people, with him even bumping into Ban Hammer before finding his way to the balcony.
Walking up a flight of stairs while drunk proved to be a more difficult task than it should’ve been.
By the time Shuriken hit the balcony, he saw him.
Coil, apparently seeming intent on trying to tear through some of the chain-link fencing for a better view.
His instinct to laugh won, giggling at the sight and only stopping upon seeing the hellhound’s eyes lock onto him instead.
“What are you doing?” Shuriken ignored all the squirming he was met with while pulling Coil away, looking at the other’s face.
Oh, he was wasted.
Coil didn’t answer him for a second, mumbling some nonsense before settling on, “I’m going Beast mode, dude.”
“On the fence?”
“Y’can be a beast against anything if you try hard enough.”
Whatever that meant.
Shuriken only stopped laughing to do a quick physical check, trying to see if there were any injuries on the other while questioning:
“How much did you have to drink?”
“Not enough, clearly.” Coil didn’t even bother with staying up properly anymore, completely slumping himself against him while grumbling, “I can still tell that’s a trick question.”
“That’s such a crappy answer,” Shuriken gave up on trying to tell him off, only trying to find a better place to lean against with how much of Coil’s body weight was being put directly onto him.
“You’re not even meant to get drinks here.”
“A guy has his ways.”
“You shouldn’t.”
Some part of Coil’s flush was definitely alcohol-related, so Shuriken was trying not to take it too seriously.
Then again, he also looked way too comfortable being hauled around like some big puppy.
By the time he found a comfortable spot against the wall, Coil had given up on being subtle. He wasn’t replying to Shuriken properly to begin with, but this was worse.
“Was this your first time drinking?” The overeager nod said a lot more than it should’ve.
“You could have gotten me or Slingshot to watch you to prevent— that.” Shuriken gestured loosely to the pulled fence, shuddering at Coil trying to nuzzle into him instead of acknowledging the problem.
“You’re watching me now, so I don’t get the problem.” Because of course he didn’t. He grabbed at Coil’s arm, slinging one over his shoulder for a somewhat easier grip while the other continued his little drunken rambling, “And Slingshot was already drinking. He wasn’t a good responsible adult.”
“Nor am I.”
“Yeah, but you’re my favorite, so that’s different.”
Whatever that meant.
It took one strong exhale for Shuriken to find a rational thought process, which was that he shouldn’t keep around a drunk person who was intent on flirting with him.
“You are so heavy,” he murmured, already adapting to the weight while beginning to try and drag the two of them downstairs.
Phuck, Boombox was getting to the slow dancing songs; he had some hound dragging behind him, actively realizing this would be his only shot for anything romantic.
Shuriken nearly toppled over upon the other, suddenly deciding he could walk on his own! And trying to grab at his hand, pulling the two of them down. “Coil— No, don’t you dare.”
“Shuriken, come on!” It wasn’t like he was weak or anything, but being dragged along by someone who trained every day wasn’t easy to avoid. “You have to slow dance with me when they’re playing this!”
Upon seeing him growing annoyed, Coil giggled at his face. He’d nearly forgotten about his alcohol until now, feet bumping against each other as they moved down the stairs.
Even when dragged into the center, they were still far enough to the side for it not to be that embarrassing. Besides, even if one of his siblings were to get onto him for this, he saw Vinestaff dancing with Scythe (and Slingshot being alone was funny enough).
“You’re gonna trip me!”
“I’m not trying to.”
Coil was horrible at dancing. Way worse than Shuriken had expected, honestly, and he expected a complete lack of rhythm. It wasn’t that, but more like Coil couldn’t move his feet properly.
Shuriken practically had to grab one of his hands, trying his hardest to stay in step.
“Look, look,” He forced Coil’s head to look towards their shoes, reluctantly trying to show him how to move, “Just go to your left a bit—”
The laughter ringing in his ears while tripping was an abundance of too much.
Being trained properly and all, Shuriken didn’t fall, but Coil was almost trying to make him.
“Just step, Shuri! You’re so serious.”
By the time Coil said that, the two of them had entered a decent flow. Except it was mainly drunken laughter at how poorly they were doing combined.
That slow song took forever to end. Not like Shuriken was complaining that much, but Coil was so giddy over the whole thing.
“You smell like alcohol.” Coil was so close to his face.
Shuriken pushed Coil’s face a bit further from his with a newly formed flush, retorting back, “And you smell like outside.”
“You like being outside, don’t you?”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“It could be.”
He didn’t nod to that, focusing more on Boombox finally getting to the song requests. Whatever Slingshot requested played first, but Shuriken couldn't care less.
It got Coil excited, though, so Shuriken mentally noted the song before trying to find something else to do while it played.
And he found the next best option.
“Coil, I’m getting more drinks.” The minute Shuriken said that, his eyes lit up as if that were the best sentence in the world.
But he shut that down.
“I’m not sharing, so quit looking so eager.”
“So mean t’me,” Coil whined that out, but when the other grabbed his hand, he was already walking toward the bar.
Having a drink in his hand made Coil so much more tolerable; the only issue was how much easier it made him. Not that he wouldn’t do anything while sober; Shuriken had been holding off on it. With fewer inhibitions, well—
“You’re getting us weird looks.”
Coil was already halfway off his stool, and he didn’t seem to care about what Shuriken just said. It was an awful lot of public affection, when he would have preferred none.
Where were they in the requests?
He’d been zoning out the music in favor of focusing on the mess trying to kiss at his face, but then it hit him.
This was his request.
“Oh, bro, you gotta move.” All Shuriken’s little mumbling and pleas stopped the moment he realized what it was, already partially laughing at what he planned to do.
Coil was quick to whine about it, still needing someone to lean on as he got up. “Shuri, come back.”
“You can come with me! But look!”
The boxer didn’t bother arguing with that logic, being led on easily with a bit of gibberish about how ‘hurt and sad’ Shuriken would be if he didn’t just come.
He was way too drunk for this.
Shuriken could see one lop-sided smirk in the corner of his eye the moment he stepped out. He couldn’t blame Coil for doubting him, when the two of them had begun leaning on each other to properly get around the venue.
But, having some hope would’ve been more affirming!
“‘Kay, okay, look, watch—”
There was a small second before the music matched what he’d do, but he got right to it.
Sure, he had to look down at his feet to mentally track where they were going before he moved, but he moonwalked to the best of his ability. And it must have looked clean based on Coil getting excited about watching it.
Then Shuriken fell while walking back over to him, having to hold onto Coil’s arms to not completely fall. Once both of them could tell he was fine, though, it was right back into laughing.
“You can’t do that then fall! You lost all your aura, Shuri, oh my gosh-” Coil hoisted him up, albeit pretty giggly.
“No, no, that was cool!”
“Not when you fall right after!”
That argument continued for almost twenty minutes, shifting into nonsense rambling before either of them realized it.
Crap, he hadn’t even figured out which one of his siblings was being responsible tonight. Maybe it was Vine Staff. There was a small chance at Slingshot.
No, his brother would definitely be just as drunk.
“Coil, come with me, I wanna find Vine.”
By the time Shuriken had found her, she was right where he expected her to be. Hanging out with some wanted criminal with smudged lipstick.
Because of course she was.
Right when he opened his mouth to taunt her, maybe mockingly call her gay— Coil grabbed his face, turned it towards him, and kissed him.
And he left without saying anything? Really?
Vine Staff had barely registered it either, looking at his paused confusion before laughing at him. He didn’t even process her whole ‘this is my little brother’ greeting to Scythe, clearly somewhat malfunctioning.
“You were gonna call me gay, weren’t you?” She read his mind, whether it be because he was predictable or because she had a good hunch.
Upon receiving a nod in return to her question, she giggled some more, only straightening herself up with a fake clearing of her throat.
That little bit of composure was ruined by Scythe murmuring:
“Jus’ seems to run in the family.”
Her and Scythe’s conversation after that didn’t go on too long, and he was partially convinced it was because he was watching. Regardless, he was grateful for it.
They caught Slingshot and Skateboard doing God knows what, but part of Shuriken being so drunk meant they’d zoned it out.
Shuriken’s only reminder of the night at all was Coil messaging him in the morning, with a small:
> so we kissed right.
He didn’t even want to answer that.