nibs

Duke cheered the second Nibs had agreed to buying him an entire pizza pie. However, his moment of celebrating then came crashing down as his older brother requested him to go talk to their boss about the coffee machine he had broke. That caused the younger’s shoulders to sag, already wanting the urge to complain again about if he really had to go and tell their boss the truth, but Duke knew he had to. “Fiiinnnee.” The red head exhaled out, a very obvious unhappy look on his face as he turned around and walked towards where their bosses office was. But just as he neared it, he froze. What if he gets fired for messing with the coffee machine? He’ll need to go looking for yet another job if that was the case! The lost boy gulped, turning back around to peak at his brother with a one last attempted of a pleaded gaze. “…..You don’t think he’ll fire me for this, do you? Especially if I say it was an accident?” 

When Duke finally (albeit reluctantly) began to make his way down the hallway towards their boss’ office, Nibs privately rejoiced. Only to call a halt to his internal celebration as Duke stopped in his tracks and again hesitated. It was hard to be stern toward his younger brother’s puppy-dog eyes, so Nibs was gentle even as he remained firm in what needed to be done. “You won’t get fired,” he reassured, a soft smile offered as a comforting gesture, though he followed it up with, “Just...don’t tell him about the ramen specifically. Say you didn’t know how to use it and broke it—I’ll clean up the evidence.”

“Right,” Nibs replied: couldn’t argue with that logic. “He’s about yea high—” He measured the height off from his own head. “Handsome, charming fellow. Humble, too,” he joked, only really hyping himself up for the bit and not because he was actually that full of himself. After that he got a little more serious, introducing himself realistically so he and Mir could get to know each other the way they meant. “He’s twenty-four, a temp worker—usually in an office somewhere—but I promise he’s not a lifeless drone. We play as hard as we work around here.” That much he hoped was evident if the positive party vibe was anything to go by. He stopped there, not wanting to talk too much about himself, and nodded towards Mir. “What about yourself?”

Yet again, the younger sighed. Nibs was right, he should be taking accountability instead of trying to sneakily replace the coffee machine without anyone else knowing, but just because his brother was right didn’t mean that Duke had to like it. And it was shown clear as day on the younger’s face how much he didn’t want to take accountability as the redhead's face scrunched up at the thought of doing so. Everyone was going to laugh at him, he just knew it, or worst— hate him for his stupid idea. But then at the offer to buy him pizza, Duke immediately perked up. “Pizza?” He repeated. Well, if Nibs was offering to buy him some then… “Fine, I’ll take accountability!” Duke gave in, glancing back at his brother. “But only if you buy me three supreme slices— no, a whole supreme pie!”

Pizza wasn’t exactly what Nibs had in mind as a prize for Duke deciding to do the right thing and take accountability for his own mess, but he wasn’t complaining about the selection. Bless his brother for one thing here: having simple tastes. He could have asked for more than a supreme pizza and Nibs would have given in just to get him to agree to his suggestion for how to deal with this situation. “Sure, I’ll get you a whole pie. Don’t eat it all at once,” he recommended, adding in his head, or that’ll be a mess you’ll have to clean up yourself. “Now go talk to the boss about the coffee machine, and we’ll go out after work!”

“Cool,” Nibs replied, making a mental note to find out where Mei’s friends were so he could introduce himself, whether they ended up being single and free for a midnight kiss or not. (Cubby didn’t sound a hundred percent certain of his answer, which was understandable. He probably wasn’t that invested in the love lives of all of his girlfriend’s friends.) Moving onto his wistful thoughts about Cubs and Sly moving away, Nibs shook his head at the idea that he would hardly know they left, and tried to move on from the moment of melancholy by joking around. “Hey, if you’ll still be here all the time, then what’s the point of moving out? Give us a chance to miss ya, punks,” he said, roughly tousling Cubby’s hair as punishment for being too cute and lovable.

Miriam smiled, watching as he put his number in their phone and even snapped a selfie for his contact photo. Mir rolled her eyes playfully, taking the phone back and going to send him a text right away. “It’s Mir! She texted, followed by a few emojis (a jacket, a coffee, and a winky face). After sending the first text, she opened her camera and also took a selfie, her expression similar to Nibs’ from his moments ago and sending it without further context — she was sure he’d understand it was for her contact photo in his phone. Once the second text was sent, Mir slid their phone back into the pocket of her jeans. “Yeah, so far it’s been fun!” They smiled again. Nibs politely began to check if she needed anything (a gentleman?), even squeezing in an offer for a kiss at midnight that caught Mir by surprise. Honestly, she hadn’t thought that far ahead with midnight not far away — it was obvious who her best friend would be kissing as the clock struck twelve, but Miriam was still new to this group of friends. The idea of a midnight kiss was great, but she had no plans to stress over it or overthink it; it seemed now that maybe it wouldn’t be so difficult after all. “Well, I did already raid the snacks and talked to Cubby in the kitchen — cool guy,” they continued, “.. but I am lacking in the someone-to-kiss-at-midnight department currently…”

“I’m a man of my word,” Nibs assured them as he took Mir’s phone to input his number in their contacts. As long as she actually texted him, he was sure of his own follow-through and that there would be no reason to sic Slightly on him, as sweet as that thought was. Nibs added a rabbit emoji to the end of his name as he finished entering his information, then snapped a winking selfie to save as the photo—complete contact info locked and loaded—and handed Mir’s phone back. “I hope you’re enjoying the party so far!” he said, remembering that he was one of the hosts and they were a first-time guest here. “If you need anything, just ask. Drinks, snacks, the bathroom, someone-to-kiss-at-midnight, party favors…”

“No, I don’t.” The younger point blank stated as he heavily sighed. He didn’t like the idea of being the butt of everyone’s joke, feeling like whenever anyone laughs at him it wouldn’t be because they were laughing with him (since Duke wouldn’t be laughing one bit) but more laughing at him. But as much as he hated the idea, he also got where Nibs was coming from. At least, some of it. If Duke took accountability for the accident he had made, which was in fact that— an accident, he may be able to get away with a lesser punishment if he were to try and keep his mistake to himself. Well, between him and Nibs, but his brother would never rat him out if he begged him not to. Still, there was an unpleased look on the younger's face. “Can’t I just go off and quickly buy a replacement before anyone notices? That way, no one would know what happened and I won’t be the butt of anyone’s joke around here?” 

“Taking accountability is the most important part,” Nibs replied, almost groaning at how difficult it was to get Duke to see things from that perspective. It wasn’t enough to sneakily replace what he’d broken—it was a mark of good character to own up to where he went wrong instead of hiding it to save himself from potential embarrassment. People would have a more positive opinion of him in that situation than if they didn’t know he’d made any mistake at all and he was merely invisible in the office. “Please, just…Take my advice now and internalize it later?” If Duke really insisted, Nibs was going to start going prematurely gray. “I’ll buy you a prize?” he offered as a last-ditch bribe attempt, as any tired older sibling might eventually resort to.

Though their tone was teasing, he definitely believed that he might not have been given the benefit of the doubt if they’d met again without the presence of their mutual friends inspiring her to hear him out. “I do feel pretty lucky,” Nibs agreed, continuing to flirt lightly, because as far as he could tell, Mir wasn’t being put off by it—and as a matter fact, he was going to take their blush as a good sign that they might even be feeling the same vibe that he was. “Can I give you my number so we can work out how much I owe you and set up a time for that coffee?”

“I hope you do,” Nibs replied with a wink. Now that he was talking to her up close, he couldn’t help noticing how attractive she was; if he felt inclined to flirt a little, he couldn’t be blamed. He would ease up if he noticed it made her uncomfortable though—he absolutely wasn’t here to creep on Mei’s friends, but to envelop them into their own ever-welcoming friend group. Skipping straight to what she said friends call her, he said, “Nice to meet you, Mir,” as they finished their handshake. “Yeah, it sure is. Call it coincidence or kismet…Lucky for you, the ass who spilled coffee on you is your friend’s boyfriend’s brother, huh? We would have had to run into each other in the wild again for me to repay you otherwise!”

"Oh," Cubby answered simply, eyebrows furrowed momentarily until he remembered that he did still have some soup he made leftover in the fridge. He was glad Nibs was enjoying it, at least! He nodded his head as his brother described the actual smell of confidence. "Those are really good smells.." He trailed off, watching the older lost boy take a whiff of his shirt. Cubs smiled in return as he rocked back and forth on his heels excitedly, the thought of kissing Prilla tonight making him eager for her to arrive; perhaps Nibs' confidence was rubbing off on him, too. "I dunno, maybe? Or you could wait and see who else shows up —" he shrugged, attempting to help by thinking of who else was coming. "— I think I heard Sly's girlfriend is bringing some of her friends?"

“It builds good will,” Nibs emphasized. Duke was only seeing the short-term of the situation, not looking ahead to how his actions now would impact his reputation in the future. Of course that was how he made a mess in the first place—not thinking things through properly—but Nibs wasn’t going to blame him for the coffee pot mishap itself. Anyone could have made such a blunder; what was important was how he dealt with it, and Nibs didn’t want his younger brother to make the worse mistake of not owning up to his little mistakes. “It’s not about the ramen, man. You just have to take accountability for the accident so people know you’re an upstanding guy. They’ll be laughing with you, not at you, as long as you keep your side of the street clean. You know what I mean?”