lost boy

His words did not ease her concerns. Rather, when Cubby could not make an accurate assessment on how many of the pot brownies Tootles had ate, the brunette found herself frowning. This was not good at all. It was one thing for Tootles to have consumed a pot brownie or two, but what if he had accidentally consumed even more? Had he even drank any water since consuming any? Maybe Wendy should go and get him a glass just in case, she wondered even more worryingly. But before she could go and do exactly that, Cubby reassured her that Tootles was fine, going as far as to gesture towards his direction for the brunette to see. Turning her gaze towards where he was pointing, the older’s eyes landed on the eldest of the Lost Boys lounging comfortably against the couch, seeming to be as calm as ever. That sight did seem to calm her nerves a little in return. “I should get him some water.” Wendy insisted, tearing her gaze away to glance back at Cubby. He was ever so smily and giggling at her, it now dawned to the eldest Darling that Cubby himself may be quiet high as well. “And how many pot brownies have you eaten, Cubby?” 

Cubby attempted to reassure her with a smile as he saw Wendy frown. It was always like Wendy to be extra cautious and worried about the boys, but Cubby wasn’t worried this time. Everyone who ate a brownie (or several) knew what they were consuming and were prepared for the effects, unlike the last time. “Water wouldn’t hurt,” he agreed, knowing a common side effect was a dry mouth. Instead of doing that though, Wendy’s attention went to Cubby and how much he consumed, and his smile grew wider. “Only one! I promise,” he giggled. “The chef has to be of sound mind to feed everyone, so I limited myself.”

Let’s face it, even if Nibs was fine with Duke dumping his laundry with his, that wouldn’t stop the younger from being upset with Cubby and Slightly moving. No, not upset— he was happy that the two wanted to move into their own place, and while living all together had been a constant thing, he could get why the two of them thought it would be good to have their very own space. Duke admired it even because he knew if it had been him, he would’ve been terrified to move. Even with Benji. He’s just so used to being with The Lost Boys that he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else without any of them.

Though Cubby attempted to reassure him, it didn’t completely make Duke feel better like Cubby had hoped. His smile faded as Duke emphasized the word empty, understanding what he meant. Just from what they’d packed already, it did feel empty… However, Cubby wanted to believe it wouldn’t take long for the brothers to fill the empty space so the apartment would be less hectic and cramped than it always was. 

At the horror that was apparent within Cubby’s tone, Benji merely stared at his brother, completely unfazed as if he hadn’t been the one to say how he tried to eat his twin inside the womb. And he wasn’t kidding either— he had tried to eat Duke inside the womb, but it wasn’t anything personal, It was a matter of survival, and they both still came out fine and okay in the end. “Yeah, Duke was hogging up all the space in there and I was cramped. What else was I supposed to do?” Benji remarked, only for his mouth to curve at Cubby’s following words. “You never asked, but if you want to know more, by all means— ask away.” 

Though Benji’s explanation sort of made sense, Cubby still silently wondered if the twin was just messing with him or not, especially with the blank expression he held. He felt he would’ve heard this sooner if it were true, right? Benji’s blank expression turned to a smile, and Cubby seized the opportunity by asking what was on his mind without hesitation. “First of all.. how do you even know or remember?" He began. "Second, does anyone else know about this?”

“Not at all— I have patience.” She replied with a smile. This wouldn’t be the first time where she needed to wait for a batch of pastry goods to cool off first before she could have any. In fact, ever since she was a little girl, she use to bake with her mom all the time, and whenever they were finished, her mom use to always remind her to give it a few minutes for the treat to cool off before having any. And funny thing was that one would think her mom would have been the type of parent who’ll say she needed to wait until after dinner for her to have any, but her mom always use to let Mei have one cookie, or a brownie, or even a slice of cake before dinner. So she could wait a few minutes for the brownies Cubby had made before reaching for one.

Despite Mei reassuring him that she had patience, he decided to stick this batch of brownies in the fridge for a few minutes to help them cool down quickly. He didn’t want her to wait too long, especially if Slightly was waiting for her to return to spend time with him that evening. 

Picking up one of the whipped cream bottles in each hand to weigh which was heavier, Billy determined the one designated for baking and sprayed some from the other bottle into his mouth before putting it back in the fridge. He wasn’t sure how sound the logic was that the straight-to-mouth can would always be less full than the baking one, but it checked out for now—he wasn’t going to question it anyway. There was probably only a rule about separating them for one germ-fearing resident of the apartment in the first place; it wasn’t really a concern of his. “Heads up,” he called to Cubby, tossing the whipped cream to him when he got his attention, and then turned his own to finding a bag of chocolate chips in the pantry. “Now what? Do I get to help mix?”

Cubby was confident in his answer even if it didn’t logically make much sense — there was a rotation in place when it came to the whipped cream bottles and which one to use for what. With Cubby being in the kitchen the most frequently for cooking, he was the right person to ask these sorts of questions. He turned and caught the whipped cream bottle with perfect timing, then nodded, motioning Billy back over. “Yup, we’ll sprinkle the chocolate chips in here and mix.” Once Billy did so, Cubby showed him the correct mixing motion before letting him take over. “See? Pretty simple.”

“Okay,” With a nod of her head, the blonde followed her new fellow co-worker towards one of the more emptier booths. Once there, the two of them sat down and Webby took a moment to glance around the restaurant. This wasn’t the first time she’s been here, the House of Mouse was a place she knew fairly well and has visited many times due to the owners of the place being close family friends of Donald and Daisy. In fact, it was thanks to Donald’s encouragement for her to take up a job at this place once he heard from one of the owners—Mickey, how they had a opening for a waitress position when one of their employees had left recently. And after considering it for a while, Webby decided to take up on the offer and apply, and after being interviewed, she was given the job and now here she was. She glanced back at Cubby. “Ah, I always figured this place was bustling all the time. It is whenever I come in for a visit.” She commented, although it made sense that the House of Mouse wouldn’t always be so busy especially during the weekdays. “But then again, it is usually on the weekends when I'm here or if it's some kind of special occasion being celebrated.” Like the triplet’s birthdays. After Webby said that, she fell silent, for once not knowing what else to talk about but thankfully, Cubby came with a topic for her and the most the blonde did was smile. “Honestly? I’m a bit nervous.” Webby admitted, crossing her arms against her lap. “This is not only a new job for me, but this is actually my first real job ever and well, I don’t want to mess things up while working here.” 

Though Cubby wasn’t the most charismatic of the lost boys, he still liked to make an effort to make sure people around him felt welcome and comfortable, which was why he was making the effort with Webby to actually talk and get to know her. Webby seemed shy though, which wasn’t a problem — Violet had been sort of shy in the beginning too. “It is on weekends… and summer, and near the holidays,” the lost boy confirmed with the blonde. “You should see it when my best friend Slightly comes and performs. Even if they squeeze him in the last second, he still gets a decent crowd,” he smiled. It seemed that Webby may not have been shy after all though, just nervous. Cubby could understand that, but he made sure to reassure her. “There’s no reason to be nervous — everyone here’s super understanding. It’s like a big family, really,” he admitted. “I’m not new here and it wasn’t my first job, and I still mess up sometimes.” Cubby’s had his fair share of accidentally breaking a glass or dinner plate when trying to be quick, but he’d never gotten in trouble for it; it was simply part of the job. “Don’t worry, you’ll fit right in. It just takes getting used to.”

“Words are hard. That’s why they’re your job,” Slightly complained and leaned back in his spot on the sofa with his guitar in his lap, closing his eyes. He played a sick riff that had been stuck in his head lately. He was just being a baby about lyricism because composing came so much easier to him—putting notes and chords in an order that sounded good and made you feel something was easy, working with a set of known sounds and just putting them together differently to make something new. There were twelve basic notes, and like a hundred thousand something words in the English language. And words all had meanings and spellings and there was grammar, too, so the order you put them in mattered more than just ‘it sounds good that way.’

“I know, I just need to give my brain another minute,” Cubby replied. It wasn’t easy to go from busboy mode at the House of Mouse straight into songwriter mode as he immediately got home. Though he loved both jobs, they could be exhausting at times in different ways. Slightly’s music as he strummed his guitar was a good way for Cubby to relax and transition into the right headspace, leaning back against the couch and taking in the soothing sounds. Even if Slightly was the music guy and Cubby was the writer guy, the two worked as a team and always consulted each other with their work and ideas.

“Regular brownies,” Tink decided as soon as Cubby finished listing the options. She’d rather take the sugar-free “sugar” cookies than store-bought chocolate chip—she trusted that Cubby’s homemade goods were better than anything generic, even if she still wasn’t particularly interested in eating Splenda cookies. Serving herself a brownie square and taking the first bite, she was already smiling by the time she nodded at Cubby to show that she was satisfied with her choice. “Yep, I'm having a good night now," she declared, if her sudden lift in mood wasn't clear enough. The simple taste of sweets hit quicker than the special brownies would have.

Cubby smiled as soon as Tink took her first bite, knowing that sometimes a good treat was exactly what a friend needed when they were feeling grumpy. Seeing her mood lighten up was surely a positive sign. “Good! That’s all that matters,” he chuckled. He wanted to ask what had her in a mood before enjoying the treat, but perhaps it wasn’t a great idea to shift the mood again so quickly. “It seems like everyone’s having a good night, huh? We really know how to throw a kick-ass party.”

“Tootles is baked like a fucking cake” -Cubby ( @colincubs )

Cubby couldn’t help but giggle playfully, expecting Wendy to repeat what he said but she stopped herself. Though he didn’t normally partake in things such as weed edibles often, it was fun to have the occasional special treat for things like holidays, understanding why Peter always requested them for fun nights like this. However, it was even more rare for someone like Tootles to partake in the activity, which was what made it even more amusing. Of course, Wendy went into mother mode as soon as she heard this news, to which Cubby was here to reassure her. “Only one! I think…” he trailed off. At least he only witnessed Tootles eat one, but there was a chance he may have had more. He shrugged, not too worried. Cubby always made sure to be as safe as possible when it came to his special treats. “It’s fine, look at him!” He continued, turning to gesture toward the living room couch where Tootles was currently lounging comfortably. “He’s having a blast!”

With a sheepish smile, Duke twiddled his thumbs together as he leaned against the bedroom doorframe and stared at his brother. By now it was practically old news that both Cubby and Slightly decided they were going to move into a place together, breaching out and away from the apartment and home all of the Lost Boys lived in for sometime together since moving out of their parents household. But the reality of them moving didn’t hit until after Duke saw how empty their place was starting to look like once Cubs and Sly began to move out their things. In fact, knowing that he was about to be down not one, but two more brothers (even if the two were only going to be living a couple of blocks away from them), the oldest of the twins couldn’t contain the words that blurted out his mouth as he apologized for constantly tossing his laundry with Cubby’s. “Yeah— Sorry.” He apologized, with an actual apologetic look on his face. “I never felt like doing my own load, and Benji always does his when it’s way too darn early in the morning, and I like the detergent you use when you do yours so….” Duke shrugged, trailing off as they both knew apologizing for sneaking his laundry with Cubby’s wasn’t the only reason why he was saying any of this. But he was much too tongue-tied to actually say anything about it yet, opting to let out a laugh instead at his brother’s following comment. “I don’t know, once he found a colored sock that belonged to Peter, and Nibs then started to rant about what would’ve happened if it had been a white load it got mixed in with? And knowing myself, I would accidentally do just that.” 

Cubby watched the twin’s expression, fiddling with his thumbs with a glint of sadness in his eyes. He sighed, hoping this feeling was only temporary — change was always difficult at first, but Cubby was optimistic that moving would be a good thing. It was the saying goodbye part that made it feel sad, even if they weren’t really going far. 

“Really? Are any of them single?” Nibs hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Mei’s friends yet, but he knew from Slightly showing him some of her TikToks that she had a main squad consisting of herself and three close girl friends who often appeared in her videos. “It’ll be fun to have new friends around anyway!” he added brightly after a moment’s pause, as he truly didn’t just care about their guests in terms of whether they were viable options to kiss. It was always fun when Tink’s friends were around—which Cubby surely agreed with if his relationship with Prilla was anything to go by. Those two were adorable together…but with both Cubs and Sly having new girlfriends at the same time and being ready to move out into their own place together, it really felt like they were growing up and flying the nest, both at the same time.

“Uhh, I think so!” Cubby answered, but he didn’t sound completely confident in his answer. He didn’t want to get Nibs' hopes up if he were wrong in the assumption. The lost boy smiled and nodded in agreement — the boys always welcomed new friends with open arms, and with some of them getting into relationships now, their found family was growing bigger and bigger. Still, Cubby hoped for his brother’s sake that he found someone to kiss at midnight tonight, whether it was a friend or someone more.

“Would you like a brownie?” -Cubby ( @colincubs )

Cubby had been in and out of the kitchen throughout the evening, keeping snacks stocked up and even making a few extra batches of brownies because of how popular they were. He made sure to distinguish which were the special brownies and which weren’t, having only made a single batch of the laced desserts and keeping track of who had them. He’d learned his lesson after the last party to be more responsible with them! Though it had been Peter’s idea both times Cubby made them, he was easily persuaded considering they were actually fun to make. Still, the regular brownies were the ones people were more likely to have multiple of, so Cubby was glad he had plenty of what he needed to make multiple batches.