#looooong

1.) Who spends almost all their money on the other?

Cleo.

Which is impressive, considering her family is honest to Ra entombed in gold, but she manages. Buying things is how she grew up seeing affection done-

(RE: her parents getting her new sparklies every birthday and Nefera coming back from Scaris with MORE jewelry for her)

-so shopping sprees are the default when she first tries showering Frankie with love.

She’s more thoughtful about it than just random shinies though (she knows what it’s like to have something on your wish list for centuries and Never Get It) so it’s a lot of lab tools, weird things Frankie hasn’t seen before, and things like always getting them their fav snacks and drinks at the Coffinbean.

Frankie likes a lot of the stuff Cleo gets them, but also just bluntly says spending time with Cleo is the best

(this after Cleo spent a whole NIGHT trying to track down this one thing she KNEW Frankie would love, while Frankie sprawled on the floor all droopy and limp and pining for her).

This clicks something on in Cleo’s brain and she realizes she ALSO loves being with the monsters she cares for.

So after spending time recharging Frankie by looking at (but NOT buying) weird things on amazombie together, she drops in on Nefera, just to sit around and bug her while her older sis is doing schoolwork.

Nefera can’t believe it’s happening at first. Then she FLINGS her homework across the room so the sisters can have a good gossip session together for the first time in centuries.

2.) Who sleeps in the other’s lap?

Frankie likes falling asleep with Cleo in their lap. They just kinda drape themselves around her whenever their charge gets low, and Cleo makes sure they're securely snuggled before she settles in with her icoffin.

Frankie’s a deep sleeper, so Cleo can be as loud and giggly as she wants, BUT she keeps hush instead and shushes / death glares anyone who makes a ruckus around her monster while they sleep.

She also likes playing with Frankie’s hair without realizing it, or reach back to cuddle their cheek, just checking on them.

More intentionally, Frankie sometimes naps with their eyes open if they’re really tired (its a stasis thing). It freaks out everyone else except Cleo, who can spend a looooong time just sappily staring into their mismatched eyes.

3.) Who walks around half naked and who yells at them to put some clothes on?

Swap clothes for limbs and you have Frankie Stein, wandering around without an arm or leg or eyeball because they had a thought half way thought swapping out body parts and tots forgot what they were doing.

Cleo’s reaction is less of a yell and more of a concerned yelp when she finds Frankie’s arms stuffed between sofa cushions and runs over to find Frankie trying to fry a skillet of scary side up eggs with just their teeth.

4.) Which one tells the other not to stay up all night and which one does it anyway?

I think this is Cleo when she gets in party planning or scheming to take over the throne mode.

Frankie’s like, okay, but even queens need sleep right? So you’ll go to bed at some point, right? Uh-huh, Cleo says over her shoulder, absolutely getting no sleep.

Frankie enables this a little because watching Cleo get nerdy and passionate about stuff makes them all fizzy-happy inside, but they DO want Cleo to get some sleep eventually.

So Frankie learns the best way to break Cleo out of this is to just stay with her and fall asleep themselves under a snack food table or something, because Cleo WILL check on them to make sure they’re comfy, and Cleo WILL NOT be able to resist cuddling up with them. Just for a bit. A few minutes that’s all she swears.

5.) Which one tries to make food for the other but burns it all by accident and which one tells them that it’s okay and makes them both cookies.

Cleo loves all the homemade stuff Frankie gives them, so as part of her exploring other ways of showing affection that Don’t involve gold and gems, she tries making paincakes.

Pain def happens. The cakes? Not so much. Not even Cleo’s beetle babies can salvage a batter bowl once Cleo gets her hands on it.

Frankie finds the mess really impressive (once they’ve hosed things down with their fire extinguisher attachment, specially built after Cleo started taking an interest in cooking) and, as a monster who eats other monster’s popcorn off of theater floors, the taste of char is kinda yummy to them actually.

Them and Cleo make cookies together afterwards mostly just for the fun of it (and so Cleo can have something to snack on too).

6.) Which one reads OTP prompts and says “Oh that’s us!” and which one goes “Eh, not really”?

Frankie’s very literal. Unless the prompt is something they and Cleo have SPECIFICALLY done, they are just a flat Nope We Haven’t, sometimes then followed with a thoughtful and worrying Yet.

Cleo, meanwhile, is so enamored with Frankie as her gallant protector she REFUSES to accept she’s actually an angry Smol protecting her Tol. She’s not yelling at people for upsetting Frankie- It’s just called saying THE TRUTH, which is that the person should be ashamed and if they are not then she will Curse Them.

7.) Which one constantly wears the other’s clothes?

We all know Frankie is never getting that varsity jacket back once Cleo gets her hands on it.

Though it’s more like, Frankie drapes it over her shoulders once because Cleo felt a chill (she was hoping for a hug or a snuggle) and saw how cool Cleo looked in it, and how much she liked wearing it, and it made Frankie shoot off sparks for the rest of the day.

So. Even though it does NOT go with Cleo’s carefully selected and matched royal regalia outfit (even more classy than Nefera's)… yeah. She starts wearing the jacket A Lot. And, snuggling with it.

Friends try teasing her about it but she’s immune because she is WEARING FRANKIE’S JACKET HELLO???

8.) Which one spends the day running errands and which one says “You remembered [thing], right?”

Frankie loves running errands. Frankie almost NEVER comes back with what they set out to actually get on said errands.

Cleo checks in with them via text, or just tags along, because she always makes lists and loves checking them twice. And this way maybe Frankie makes it back with the copper tubing they wanted instead of a giant scorpion plushy.

9.) Which one drives the car and which one gives them directions?

As per @bluebelleisabelle‘s idea, Frankie behind the wheel of a car isn’t a good idea do to potential brain bit memories distracting them at bad moments, so Cleo works hard to get a license (the first one in her ENTIRE family) just to drive them around (Drac helped her learn and it was an Experience).

Frankie is in charge of the map and does a good imitation of a car GPS (global positioning scream).

Sometimes their brain bits remind them of a shortcut- sometimes the shortcut is still there, and sometimes they’re remembering a donkey track that got built over a hundred years ago. No matter how many times it turns out to be the latter, Cleo's never stops trusting them or making sudden U-turns on command.

Its always an adventure to get in the car with Cleo and Frankie! Which is why most of their other friends Don’t.

10.) Which one does the posing while the other one draws?

Cleo would LOVE posing, Frankie would LOVE to see her do it, but it’s probably more of a scrap metal sculpture done with loud as heck hacksaws and torches than soft romantic drawing thing.

At least plenty of sparks would fly, though.

And Cleo would probably install the sculpture in pride of place in her section of the family tomb, much to the confusion of later visitors.

11.) If they were about to rob a museum, which one does backflips through lasers and which one is strolling behind with a bag of chips?

Okay so Cleo legit in the first episode lowered herself from the ceiling like a character from a heist film- AND she likes planning stuff.

Less backflips, more cunning doges and precision crawling under the camera’s blind spots. It’s awkward, not elegant, but she’s got this, she knows what to do and how to do it. She’s, almost there-  

Frankie, thanks to their ballet brain bit, is pirouetting freely around security in the background. Until they spot someone’s gum on the floor. And reach for it. And reach right into a laser trip wire and- oh zaps- RA HAVE MERCY- sorry cleo! do wanna split the gum with me-? FRANKIE QUICK OVERLOAD THE SYSTEM- oh uh right um-

*distant explosion sound effect*

Clawdeen and Drac don’t even look up they just sigh as Clawdeen grabs a spare pair of ski masks and Draculaura fetches the keys to her dad’s fastest stunt car.   

12.) Which one of your OTP overdoes it on the alcohol and which one makes the other stop drinking?

Listen. I’m not saying Frankie sees a human car for the first time (Cladween’s dad’s car??? powered by LIQUIFIED DEAD THINGS???) and instantly tries a sip of something they shouldn’t have, and then likes it so much they keep trying to go back for more-

But I AM saying that Cleo would NOT want her precious monster getting poisoned, and would skip out on learning more about the human world to keep dragging Frankie away from the car- one body part at a time if necessary- and then hold their hair back when they get sick in the storm drain an hour later.

It’s just what ghoulfriends are for, sometimes.

13.) Which one likes to surprise the other with a lot of small random gifts?

Cleo cannot open her locker without there being some little origami note or flower or baked treat inside from Frankie.

No matter how tired or dispirited she is after a long day of still not getting any new followers or popularity after organizing the last school function, the little surprises from her monster always make her smile.

Maybe not too many others in school think about Cleo De Nile on a daily basis. But Frankie does. Always.

14.) Which one keeps accidentally using the other’s last name instead of their own?

Clawdeen joked once “Frankie, when it comes to your feelings for Cleo? Frankly, you’re in DE NILE!” once and “Frankie De Nile” has been rattling around Frankie’s brain every since.

It pops out sometimes. Cleo thinks it’s so cute.

They both died a little inside tho when Frankie met her parents and introduced themself and… well….  

Frankie brought out the brain getter out two-thousand again after THAT little memory got created (Cleo had to call in Clawdeen and Draculaura as reinforcements to get the plunger away from them)

15.) Which one screams about the spider and which one brings the spider outside?

Beetles? Cleo loves beetle babies

Any other bug? Cleo is screaming. Cleo is running. Cleo is climbing Frankie like a ghoul’s damn tree and shrieking for them to KILL IT KILL IT AAAAHH!!!

Frankie picks the spider up in their bare hands and takes it outside

(only after looking at it very closely for FAR TOO LONG in Cleo’s opinion. No Cleo will not climb down form off of Frankie if being near the spider creeps her out this much. Clinging to Frankie’s back is the safest place she knows and more importantly it's HERS and NO she is NOT giving it up to a SPIDER)

16.) Which one gives the other their jacket?

So I said Frankie earlier, but now I’m thinking- there’s no way Cleo doesn’t have a fancy, snazzy royal jacket stuffed in a closet somewhere, maybe kept for formal occasions.

And Frankie? Wearing her colors?? Is it even possible Cleo could RESIST that idea?

I think not.

Absolutely they go on dates wearing each other’s jackets.

Cleo takes a million selfies of them, and gets increasingly frantic comments from Nefera wondering why someone else is wearing the family regalia Cleo, Cleo mummy and baba follow your social media if they see this they are going to Get Ideas and Start Planning and, Cleo, stop giggling with Frankie for a sec you do NOT want mummy and baba Planning Things- Cleo? CLEO! BY HATHOR PLEASE CHECK YOUR MESSAGES. I CAN ONLY SPAM CUTE BABY SCORPIAN PICS AS A SHIELD FOR SO LONG!!!! D:

17.) Who keeps getting threatened by the other’s overprotective older sibling?

Nefera would never, and Frankie’s too much of a sweetie, so Cleo doesn’t worry about that too much.

Until Clawdeen and Draculaura drag her into the lab one day start explaining Exactly how long hypothetic mummy would last if she hypothetically made a werewolf and vampire upset by hypothetically breaking their franken friend’s heart. Hypothetically.

Cleo listens in shock and then rates them an ehhhhh 7/10. Could have been more detailed. Not quite as much passion in the threats as Cleo would have hoped for. Maybe try again somtime?

Next time, they bring Lagoona.

(Meanwhile Nefera and Frankie have a lovely chat at the coffinbean over gutshakes and Nefera cheerfully tells them she can completely disembowel and dismember a body in less a minute but Frankie won’t make Cleo unhappy and will never have to worry about that~)

(Frankie thinks about this all day, finally confessing to Cleo she’d really like to be autopsied by Nefera, but NEVER if the only way is by upsetting Cleo.)

(Cleo assures them anyone would be lucky to autopsy them and then has a little Chat with her big sis)

(From Nefera’s ensuing terrified screams, everyone else realizes they REALLY need to step up their game)

18.) Who’s the first one to admit they have feelings for the other?

Oh Frankie’s been feeling them longer, and they’re the kind of monster to examine each new feeling with great interest as an when they first appear, so they’d def KNOW about their feels first. And they seemed pretty, hrm, direct and unabashed about it in Horoscare. That held eye contact and little head tilt at the end… oh they WANTED Cleo to notice their little spark, notice them noticing it, and check her reaction to all that…

But. They also get anxious and shy easily when it comes to interpersonal stuff. Unsure.

I can see them being chill about the feels until they start gathering more data about it, then starting to freak out a little. Because where there’s parameters and social norms, there’s things they can get wrong, wrong with CLEO and-

They REALLY don’t like risking pushing any of their friends away with their feels (re: crushed and what’s up watzie) even if it makes them sad.

So, smooth as they’ve been, I can see them choking up when I comes to actually out loud admitting it.  

Who actually SAYS it first?

Cleo.

Probably bc Frankie was doing everything EXCEPT saying “Hey! I have a crush on you!! wanna date?” and getting all frazzled about it, and miss high level emotional regulation Cleo looks at her poor precious rambling monster and goes

“Frankie Stein? Would you, ah-hem, like to go out sometime? You know. As like, friends but also… more?”

Frankie’s ecstatic “ohmyzaps YES!!!” causes a school-wide power outage.

their first date is technically in detention

(they giggle so much headmistress Bloodgood lets them leave early just to her head from falling off with the force of her eyerolls)

19.) How good would your OTP be at parenting?

I have head canon-ed them a scarab swarm child and they would be very worn out and overwhelmed but also great at it.

Cleo is all “who’s a little bug baby? who is it?? You! Yes!! You are!!!!” while Frankie’s reading a giant monster’s guide to parenting monstrosities like

“okay so routines are good and consistency is good and explaining stuff is good and beware of the flesh-threshing threes, and- Reading about all this is kinda boring, actually. I don’t know what the flesh-threshing threes are, but I wanna make those traumatic memories together, as a family! Now who wants to start a pre bedtime eyescream ritual?”

The bug baby grows up with a great relationship with them bc both mummy Cleo and themmy Frankie are very open about emotions and admitting when they’re wrong and figuring out your own identity, and also lots and lots of hugs.

(the one problem is separation anxiety- cleo has it worst, but fankie gets it too and the bug baby tries to hide it later when she gets old enough to go to school and stuff but, yeah, all three of them really really suffer and facetime / text CONSTANTLY just to ease the agonies)  

Also if you touch that child, you are DEAD. Frankie will vaporize you. Cleo will curse your remains so that they never rise again.  

20.) Which one types with perfect grammar and which one types using numbers as letters?

Canon Cleo legit SPEAKS in brb and such. She’s def typing “can’t w8 2 c u QT <3 <3” at Frankie and Frankie def spends so long trying to decode the message that Cleo ends up having to come looking for them in codes and foreign languages section of the library.

(Twyla tried to help but also had no idea and the two got so wrapped up learning about morse code they forgot to ask Manny the puzzle wiz)   

21.) Who gets attacked by a bully and who protects them?

Toralei finds her first grey hair on her tail the day she’s mean to Frankie in front of Cleo.

(canon Frankie also saved Cleo from Toralei, by actually carrying her away from the werecat’s attack, but they’re better at the whole whisking away from danger than they are picking up on and countering social stuff)

(Cleo makes sure anyone who thinks that’s an invitation to bully Frankie learns the flaw inherent to their logic. In the most traumatizing way possible, preferably.)

22.) Who makes the bad puns and who makes a pained smile every time the other makes a pun?

Cleo makes terrible puns IN CANON and Frankie laughs at them so fucking stupidly im sorry they know the pun is terrible but Cleo said it and they can’t help themselves.

The laughter only gets louder and longer and more delighted over time, which only encourages Cleo to come up with worse and worse ones,  and all of their friends (except Clawdeen) are in PAIN.

Drac especially so.

23.) Who comes home from work to see that the other one bought a puppy?

So. Frankie did kinda in canon adopt the first puppy they saw and brought it home with them.

BUT! Cleo has no control or resistance to cute things in need of help (re frankie), and I can really see her hiding a new puppy behind her back like

“Oh hey Frankie! You’ll NEVER in a THOUSAND YEARS guess what I totally thought really long and hard about before bringing home with me!” and Frankie just tilts their heads and points “is it something to do with the happy wagging tail of a dog? Or did you just get that for yourself?” “IT IS IN FACT…… OUR NEW DOG!” “Oh wow! Good job hiding it Cleo, you’re right! I never would’ve guessed!”

Cleo is never able to hide it for more than a few seconds and Frankie is always impressed with her sneakiness (and the dog)

24.) Which one gives the other a piggyback ride when they’re tired?

Frankie to Cleo, full stop. Cleo wraps her arms around the tall monster’s shoulders with her organ bag in front of them, and Frankie lifts her like she’s nothing (remember the boulder? Yeah. Frankie lifts)

There’s at least one scary moment though when Frankie runs low on charge and Cleo’s so frightened of them wearing that little last bit out with walking that she INSISTS on carrying Frankie the rest of the way, no matter how awkward, hard, or silly it looks.

25.) Which one competes in some sort of activity and which one does the overzealous cheering?

Oh they both can get into it and both cheer like there’s no tomorrow (Cleo's getting good at catching Frankie's limbs when they go flying off at random, or having her beetle babies fetch them if she's not fast enough). The energy these two have together is Intense.

Ra help you if they ever complete against you as a team, or cheer for the person you’re competing against.

They may not win. But you WILL be terrified the entire time they're working against you.

26.) Who takes a selfie when the other one falls asleep on their shoulder?

Cleo is steadily heading towards a solid MILLION pics of her with Frankie napping on her shoulder. The ones where Frankie is making weird faces and snoring are her favs.

(Frankie doesn’t take pics- they know how sensitive Cleo is to embarrassing pics after her fearbook photos- but they have sleeping Cleo’s face etched into their brain and sometimes absentmindedly doodle a cross hatch sketch of her so lifelike people who glimpse it think it’s a pic with a filter on it at first. Then frankie erases it at light speed before any incriminating evidence of Adorable Sleeping Cleo can be gathered)  

27.) Which one would give the other a makeover if they asked?

Frankie wonders aloud once what it’d feel like to be royal as themself (not their king of goreway brain bit) and before they’ve even finished their sentence, Cleo is dragging them off by the disembodied hand to go have a makeover date~

28.) Which one owns a pet that the other is absolutely terrified of?

It’s mainly the Judgement of Cleo’s pets that Frankie fears, but yeah, they’re absolutely terrified.

"Cleo...they're smirking at me..." "Oh Frankie they're just smiling at you!" "They hate me don't they." "HATE YOU?? Pffa! You're Frankie Stein, how could anyone hate YOU! You're too sweet for it~" "Aww, Cleo! I- ..... they just glared at me." "Frankie..."

29.) Which one holds the umbrella over both of them when it rains?

Frankie has an arm-brella prosthetic and brings it out on romantic dates in the thunderstorms.

Cleo always groans when they get back and she see’s Frankie’s other arm and shoulder are soaked AGAIN  bc they wanted to make sure the umbrella covered Cleo completely, even if it meant getting a bit wet themselves. She punishes Frankie for this with a smooch, which really has the opposite effect <3  

30.) If your OTP went on vacation, where would they go and what would they do? Who would take the pictures?

They would go. Everywhere.

But the highlight for Frankie would be Japan, to finally try some homemade wormen just like Kuma always raves about, and Cleo’s family home in Egypt, bc Cleo really loves it and loves showing it off and Frankie loves when she gets all excited about stuff.

For Cleo, visiting various places in Europe and listening as Frankie’s brain bits spark up this or that tidbit of gossip from their past lives would be a Treat, by FAR the most fun she’s ever had traveling.

Cloe takes pics of Frankie posing with or trying out all the tourist trap usuals. Especially the cliché ones.

Frankie takes candid shots of Cleo handling their passports and tickets and checking time tables and happily reorganizing their itinerary at various unmentionable bus stops or train stations...

Sometimes (a lot of times) there's an iconic landmark blurry and out of focus in the background when they take pics of her

(here's the Eldritch Tower in Scaris, mostly blocked by Cleo's head piece)

(the Leering Tower of Scares-a, waaaaay in the corner as Cleo chats with a local and gets directions to a nice little cafe)

(the shadows on the ground reveal Frankie climbed ON ancient Stone Haunt to get a better angle of Cleo spreading all the maps and tickets and brochures on the grass nearby, smiling as she works out the BEST trip they could POSSIBLY have together)

so yes. All these sights they came to see, that other monsters can't take their eyes off of, and Frankie has even less to compare it too, all the easier for them to get impressed by it-

Even so, right then, they were happier just looking at Cleo

and cleo has the pictures to prove it