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rainbowfic2025-10-29 04:03 pm
paradoxcase) wrote in rainbowfic2025-10-29 04:03 pm
Warm Heart #28 [Tales From the Neighborhood]
Name: Favorite People
Story: Tales From the Neighborhood
Plot Thread: Michael, Robert, and Stephen
Colors: Warm Heart #28: Heart
Styles and Supplies: Silhouette (I can use Silhouette for a QPR, right?), Life Drawing, Gesso, Glitter (this poem)
Word Count: 1685
Rating: T
Warnings: Implied threesome
Characters: Stephen Bren, Robert Bren, Michael Wolf, Philip Marsh
Summary: Robert returns home from his shopping trip.
Notes: This did not happen in my game. The only reason this is Gesso is because aliens (insert Ancient Aliens meme here). Originally I dreamed this one up as a kind of funny thing that could happen to Robert after the Cold Issue Clothing episode, but then it wound up morphing into the more serious conversation in the second part. Since that's 2/3 of the piece now, I decided it didn't merit being Vaudeville.
Stephen was working at his computer when Robert came back from his errand, wearing a brand new jacket and a sour expression. He slumped onto the couch in front of the TV, but didn’t turn it on, and flopped his head on the back of the couch to stare at the ceiling instead. “Being friends with Victoria is so painful, sometimes,” he said.
“Not going to ask,” said Stephen, turning back to the computer. “I prefer being enemies with her, myself.”
“Bless you for not asking.”
Michael came back in from the kitchen, but stopped when he saw that Robert had returned. “Good, you’re back,” he said. “I wanted to show you something. Just a second.” He turned and hurried up the stairs, almost taking them two at a time. Robert picked his head up and followed him with his eyes.
A few minutes later, Michael came back down with a laptop tucked under his arm. He sat down on the couch next to Robert and opened it so that it was balanced on both of their knees.
“This is new?” Robert asked.
“Oh, yeah, the computer is. But look what I found.” Michael pulled a pair of earbuds out of his pocket, and hooked them up to the laptop, handing one to Robert and putting the other in his own ear.
Robert watched whatever was on the laptop for a few minutes, without saying anything.
Michael jabbed a figure at the screen. “I think that guy is you,” he said.
“Oh, come on. If you want to say you’re the jock in this situation, you have to at least pretend to watch football with me sometimes.”
“But between the two of us, you’re definitely the nerd. We agree on that, right?”
“Stephen’s the nerd, but I don’t think he wants any part in this.”
“How did you wind up being both the jock and the nerd? It’s not fair.”
“Sorry. I guess there isn’t a tropey role in any of these things for ‘weird art guy’?”
“Alright, never mind that,” said Michael. “What do you think?”
“I think we shouldn’t be watching this in the living room where Stephen is.”
Stephen turned his head to look over at them. “Just keep the headphones plugged and go upstairs if you want to do something more than just watch,” he said.
“See? It’s fine.”
The doorbell rang, and Stephen got up to answer it.
Suddenly, Michael sat up with a start, transferred the laptop to Robert’s lap, removed his earbud, and got up. He turned to face Robert, apologetically. “I’m so sorry, Robert, I totally forgot. I already made plans for tonight.” He turned back and went to answer the door himself. Stephen watched Robert watch Michael flirt with the redhead outside, and then head upstairs with him.
“Unbelievable,” said Robert, after Michael and the other guy had disappeared. “That’s the second time today.” He sighed, closed the laptop, and set it down on the couch next to him.
“Isn’t that guy someone you got with back in college, too?” Stephen asked. “The redhead, I mean.” After a few moments of no response, he added, “Maybe I’m wrong. It’s just a feeling I got. I saw him hanging around an awful lot.”
After a few more minutes, Robert said, “You’re not wrong.”
Stephen shrugged. “I think you could probably just go up there and ask them if you could join, then, right?”
“I can’t do that. That’s—” Robert just shook his head.
“Do you think either of them would actually say no?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I’ll… I’ll have to think about it.” He got up and went into the kitchen.
Stephen turned back to his work, and spent some time completely engrossed in it. When he got up to get a snack sometime later, he noticed that Robert did not seem to be downstairs any longer.
It had gotten late, and dark. The only light downstairs was now the glow of Stephen’s computer screen, bathing its surroundings in an eerie incandescence. He should probably get up and turn on a light, he realized, but he didn’t need one for now; all he needed was to be able to see his screen.
He finished the last line of his script, and looked it over briefly for issues, but didn’t see any. Good. Now he could finally run it and see what the results were. He typed in the command and hit enter. After five whole seconds of bated breath, the prompt returned with a message: “NameError: name ‘alele’ is not defined.”. Dammit, it was always the typos, wasn’t it.
Light flooded his peripheral vision, momentarily leaving him blinking in surprise. He looked out at the rest of the room, and saw Robert standing at the base of the stairs, his hand on the light switch there. He was dressed in just a pair of sweatpants. What time was it now? Stephen actually had no idea.
“Why are you down here working in the dark?” Robert asked.
Stephen shrugged. “I guess I lost track of time.” He quirked his eyebrows at Robert. “Did it work out for you?”
Robert angled his gaze down at his feet and said, “Yeah. It was fun.”
“Told you.”
"You should go to bed, it's late." Robert went into the kitchen and returned a few seconds later with a glass of water, sitting on the couch next to the discarded laptop from earlier. “What are you working on, anyway?”
“I’m trying to find out exactly how the alien equivalent to DNA works, how the hybrids’ genome functions,” said Stephen. He pulled his arms behind him and stretched. “I’m going to find a way to prove that kid of Victoria’s is mine, if it’s the last thing I do.”
“I wish you luck with it,” said Robert. He sipped at his water. “You know, you could probably have kids in a more conventional way, if you wanted to. You ever thought about marrying Jasmine, settling down, and all that? I know you were close in college.”
Stephen shook his head. “She doesn’t want that from me, she’s got Simon for that.”
“No reason it couldn’t be the three of you. Like your parents did, yeah? And my sister’s got something like that going on now, I never remember which of the four of them are actually sleeping together.”
“It’s not like that with us,” said Stephen. “Simon’s her favorite. I’m just a friend.” And wasn’t he just Michael and Robert’s friend, too? Something about that thought hurt. He looked back at Robert where he sat on the couch. “Sorry,” he said. “You must feel like I’m getting in the way here, too.”
“In the way of what?”
“Your romance.”
Robert laughed, and accidentally spilled some of the water. “No, there’s no romance happening here. We agreed on that very specifically, actually, me and Michael.”
“You’re definitely his favorite, though,” said Stephen, “and vice versa. So what is that, if not a romance?”
“I don’t know, precisely,” said Robert. “But definitely something. But it’s not just him, you’re my favorite too, and his, as well. Just, you know,” he shrugged. “Not in a sexual way.”
Stephen looked back at him, cautiously. “For real?” He asked. “I know I always thought there wasn’t anyone other than the two of you that I’d rather live with, but you guys have your own thing going on, don’t you?”
Robert shrugged. “If you mean the sex, sure,” he said, thoughtfully and uncharacteristically directly. “But there are more important things than that. If it was just the sex between us, I don’t think either of us would have wanted to actually live together, and like I said before, there’s no romance, either. And whatever Michael and I have that isn’t the sex, you’re part of that too, I think. Our favorite person. For real.”
Stephen smiled, some anxiety he’d been holding onto melting away. “I wonder if Victoria has a favorite person,” he mused. “Is there someone she’d prefer to raise her kids with, rather than doing it alone? It’s probably you, isn’t it?”
Robert shook his head. “It’s definitely my dumbass brother. Even his marriage hasn’t kept her away from him. Some day someone is going to have to tell his poor wife about all of it, and I hope to God it’s not me.”
“I wish Victoria the very worst of that situation,” said Stephen. “She certainly deserves it.” He studied Robert for a minute. “You’d really prefer I stayed here? It sounded like you maybe wanted me to leave, earlier, when you were talking about me settling down with Jasmine.”
“I’d be upset if you left — we both would — but I’d get it, you know? I think that’s what most people want out of life, isn’t it? A sex partner who’s a romance who’s a best friend and the person they live and raise their kids with. But I guess I wouldn’t know. I’ve never wanted all of that.”
“I don’t think I want that, either,” said Stephen. “I thought I did, once, but I think it was just because I thought I was supposed to want that. But now… I don’t think there’s that much I want that I don’t have now.” There was still the matter of his son, of course. But he’d be happy just sharing him with Victoria, at a distance. The problem was just that Victoria didn’t want to share at all.
“I’m glad you don’t want to leave,” said Robert. “I was worried you would, eventually. You’re not a third wheel here, I promise.” He got up and returned the glass to the kitchen, pausing at the bottom of the stairs. “I’ll leave the light on for you, yeah?”
“Yeah,” said Stephen. “Thanks.” He turned back to his script, but didn’t feel like returning to it. His concentration had been broken by the conversation, and shifting gears again didn’t seem worth it. He guessed he’d come back to the debugging in the morning.
Story: Tales From the Neighborhood
Plot Thread: Michael, Robert, and Stephen
Colors: Warm Heart #28: Heart
Styles and Supplies: Silhouette (I can use Silhouette for a QPR, right?), Life Drawing, Gesso, Glitter (this poem)
Word Count: 1685
Rating: T
Warnings: Implied threesome
Characters: Stephen Bren, Robert Bren, Michael Wolf, Philip Marsh
Summary: Robert returns home from his shopping trip.
Notes: This did not happen in my game. The only reason this is Gesso is because aliens (insert Ancient Aliens meme here). Originally I dreamed this one up as a kind of funny thing that could happen to Robert after the Cold Issue Clothing episode, but then it wound up morphing into the more serious conversation in the second part. Since that's 2/3 of the piece now, I decided it didn't merit being Vaudeville.
Stephen was working at his computer when Robert came back from his errand, wearing a brand new jacket and a sour expression. He slumped onto the couch in front of the TV, but didn’t turn it on, and flopped his head on the back of the couch to stare at the ceiling instead. “Being friends with Victoria is so painful, sometimes,” he said.
“Not going to ask,” said Stephen, turning back to the computer. “I prefer being enemies with her, myself.”
“Bless you for not asking.”
Michael came back in from the kitchen, but stopped when he saw that Robert had returned. “Good, you’re back,” he said. “I wanted to show you something. Just a second.” He turned and hurried up the stairs, almost taking them two at a time. Robert picked his head up and followed him with his eyes.
A few minutes later, Michael came back down with a laptop tucked under his arm. He sat down on the couch next to Robert and opened it so that it was balanced on both of their knees.
“This is new?” Robert asked.
“Oh, yeah, the computer is. But look what I found.” Michael pulled a pair of earbuds out of his pocket, and hooked them up to the laptop, handing one to Robert and putting the other in his own ear.
Robert watched whatever was on the laptop for a few minutes, without saying anything.
Michael jabbed a figure at the screen. “I think that guy is you,” he said.
“Oh, come on. If you want to say you’re the jock in this situation, you have to at least pretend to watch football with me sometimes.”
“But between the two of us, you’re definitely the nerd. We agree on that, right?”
“Stephen’s the nerd, but I don’t think he wants any part in this.”
“How did you wind up being both the jock and the nerd? It’s not fair.”
“Sorry. I guess there isn’t a tropey role in any of these things for ‘weird art guy’?”
“Alright, never mind that,” said Michael. “What do you think?”
“I think we shouldn’t be watching this in the living room where Stephen is.”
Stephen turned his head to look over at them. “Just keep the headphones plugged and go upstairs if you want to do something more than just watch,” he said.
“See? It’s fine.”
The doorbell rang, and Stephen got up to answer it.
Suddenly, Michael sat up with a start, transferred the laptop to Robert’s lap, removed his earbud, and got up. He turned to face Robert, apologetically. “I’m so sorry, Robert, I totally forgot. I already made plans for tonight.” He turned back and went to answer the door himself. Stephen watched Robert watch Michael flirt with the redhead outside, and then head upstairs with him.
“Unbelievable,” said Robert, after Michael and the other guy had disappeared. “That’s the second time today.” He sighed, closed the laptop, and set it down on the couch next to him.
“Isn’t that guy someone you got with back in college, too?” Stephen asked. “The redhead, I mean.” After a few moments of no response, he added, “Maybe I’m wrong. It’s just a feeling I got. I saw him hanging around an awful lot.”
After a few more minutes, Robert said, “You’re not wrong.”
Stephen shrugged. “I think you could probably just go up there and ask them if you could join, then, right?”
“I can’t do that. That’s—” Robert just shook his head.
“Do you think either of them would actually say no?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I’ll… I’ll have to think about it.” He got up and went into the kitchen.
Stephen turned back to his work, and spent some time completely engrossed in it. When he got up to get a snack sometime later, he noticed that Robert did not seem to be downstairs any longer.
It had gotten late, and dark. The only light downstairs was now the glow of Stephen’s computer screen, bathing its surroundings in an eerie incandescence. He should probably get up and turn on a light, he realized, but he didn’t need one for now; all he needed was to be able to see his screen.
He finished the last line of his script, and looked it over briefly for issues, but didn’t see any. Good. Now he could finally run it and see what the results were. He typed in the command and hit enter. After five whole seconds of bated breath, the prompt returned with a message: “NameError: name ‘alele’ is not defined.”. Dammit, it was always the typos, wasn’t it.
Light flooded his peripheral vision, momentarily leaving him blinking in surprise. He looked out at the rest of the room, and saw Robert standing at the base of the stairs, his hand on the light switch there. He was dressed in just a pair of sweatpants. What time was it now? Stephen actually had no idea.
“Why are you down here working in the dark?” Robert asked.
Stephen shrugged. “I guess I lost track of time.” He quirked his eyebrows at Robert. “Did it work out for you?”
Robert angled his gaze down at his feet and said, “Yeah. It was fun.”
“Told you.”
"You should go to bed, it's late." Robert went into the kitchen and returned a few seconds later with a glass of water, sitting on the couch next to the discarded laptop from earlier. “What are you working on, anyway?”
“I’m trying to find out exactly how the alien equivalent to DNA works, how the hybrids’ genome functions,” said Stephen. He pulled his arms behind him and stretched. “I’m going to find a way to prove that kid of Victoria’s is mine, if it’s the last thing I do.”
“I wish you luck with it,” said Robert. He sipped at his water. “You know, you could probably have kids in a more conventional way, if you wanted to. You ever thought about marrying Jasmine, settling down, and all that? I know you were close in college.”
Stephen shook his head. “She doesn’t want that from me, she’s got Simon for that.”
“No reason it couldn’t be the three of you. Like your parents did, yeah? And my sister’s got something like that going on now, I never remember which of the four of them are actually sleeping together.”
“It’s not like that with us,” said Stephen. “Simon’s her favorite. I’m just a friend.” And wasn’t he just Michael and Robert’s friend, too? Something about that thought hurt. He looked back at Robert where he sat on the couch. “Sorry,” he said. “You must feel like I’m getting in the way here, too.”
“In the way of what?”
“Your romance.”
Robert laughed, and accidentally spilled some of the water. “No, there’s no romance happening here. We agreed on that very specifically, actually, me and Michael.”
“You’re definitely his favorite, though,” said Stephen, “and vice versa. So what is that, if not a romance?”
“I don’t know, precisely,” said Robert. “But definitely something. But it’s not just him, you’re my favorite too, and his, as well. Just, you know,” he shrugged. “Not in a sexual way.”
Stephen looked back at him, cautiously. “For real?” He asked. “I know I always thought there wasn’t anyone other than the two of you that I’d rather live with, but you guys have your own thing going on, don’t you?”
Robert shrugged. “If you mean the sex, sure,” he said, thoughtfully and uncharacteristically directly. “But there are more important things than that. If it was just the sex between us, I don’t think either of us would have wanted to actually live together, and like I said before, there’s no romance, either. And whatever Michael and I have that isn’t the sex, you’re part of that too, I think. Our favorite person. For real.”
Stephen smiled, some anxiety he’d been holding onto melting away. “I wonder if Victoria has a favorite person,” he mused. “Is there someone she’d prefer to raise her kids with, rather than doing it alone? It’s probably you, isn’t it?”
Robert shook his head. “It’s definitely my dumbass brother. Even his marriage hasn’t kept her away from him. Some day someone is going to have to tell his poor wife about all of it, and I hope to God it’s not me.”
“I wish Victoria the very worst of that situation,” said Stephen. “She certainly deserves it.” He studied Robert for a minute. “You’d really prefer I stayed here? It sounded like you maybe wanted me to leave, earlier, when you were talking about me settling down with Jasmine.”
“I’d be upset if you left — we both would — but I’d get it, you know? I think that’s what most people want out of life, isn’t it? A sex partner who’s a romance who’s a best friend and the person they live and raise their kids with. But I guess I wouldn’t know. I’ve never wanted all of that.”
“I don’t think I want that, either,” said Stephen. “I thought I did, once, but I think it was just because I thought I was supposed to want that. But now… I don’t think there’s that much I want that I don’t have now.” There was still the matter of his son, of course. But he’d be happy just sharing him with Victoria, at a distance. The problem was just that Victoria didn’t want to share at all.
“I’m glad you don’t want to leave,” said Robert. “I was worried you would, eventually. You’re not a third wheel here, I promise.” He got up and returned the glass to the kitchen, pausing at the bottom of the stairs. “I’ll leave the light on for you, yeah?”
“Yeah,” said Stephen. “Thanks.” He turned back to his script, but didn’t feel like returning to it. His concentration had been broken by the conversation, and shifting gears again didn’t seem worth it. He guessed he’d come back to the debugging in the morning.
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no subject
Yeah, it's sort of the last piece of that giant 12k word thing from before. Thanks for reading! There is more yet to come about Stephen's son.
no subject
He should probably get up and turn on a light, he realized, but he didn’t need one for now; all he needed was to be able to see his screen.
Stephen no that's how you get headaches
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Oh, haha, I don't doubt that happens to some people, but I did that sooo much in college and didn't get headaches from it. I'm sure it's probably terrible for your eyes, though.
Thank you for reading, and I'm glad you liked the conversation!
no subject