wait, are we friends now?

As he suspected the moment the words left his mouth, they were fruitless. Snarking at Webby to imply that she had basically chosen loyalty to Dewey over the other two triplets for nothing, considering where their relationship stood now, didn’t achieve anything. Louie was still hurt by that decision, and she still didn’t have a good excuse as to why she’d made it. She had tried to tell him the last time they talked that she hadn’t been more concerned with a mystery than his and Huey’s feelings, hadn’t been favoring Dewey by choosing to keep the secret for him instead of letting the others in on it—but she’d yet to explain her side of the situation in a way that proved anything else was the case. Even now, she said she‘d hated it, but didn’t know what else to do, as if the answer wasn’t blatantly obvious.

Webby sharply inhaled. She could have told them. She really could have, and yet, she didn’t. And the thing is, it wasn’t as if the blonde hadn’t considered that choice before. She has, on multiple occasions whenever Dewey would refuse to tell his brothers about what they were doing, Webby has considered going behind his back and telling them herself. But she never did. It’s no wonder that Louie thinks that she only cared about being loyal to Dewey, or that she didn’t care enough about how he or Huey would react once the truth finally came out. But it wasn’t like that. She never choose Dewey because she preferred him over his own brothers, nor was it as if she cared less about them compared to him. Webby loves the triplet. Being around each of them and having all three in her life had made her see what it really was like to have a sibling. To finally know what it was like to have a sibling of her own since she viewed all three of them like a brother to her.

Buttercup had attempted to keep the mood up and still get Webby to come along despite the damper in her spirit, but the blonde seemed to be dead set on changing her mind. Just moments ago she was practically jumping up and down in excitement of the idea of throwing an axe, and now it was as if she’d never been excited about it at all. Buttercup’s attempt at another smile fell again. “And why is that?” The brunette asked genuinely, wanting to understand why Webby was being so hard on herself. Just because of what happened with Louie? Buttercup wondered if Louie himself was being hard on Webby to make her feel that way — as the blonde continued, it answered that question without Buttercup needing to ask. “... I don’t think what happened was your fault,” she answered Webby’s question honestly. “It was Dewey’s. You don’t see me talking to him, do you?” She pursed her lips, pausing before continuing. “I think … Louie will ease up eventually. He’s going through a lot, and he's probably just letting his anger out in the wrong places… he is my best friend, but sometimes we don’t always agree on everything.” She knew Louie would probably be mad if he knew she was trying to give Webby the benefit of the doubt and spend time with her, but he would get over it. She wasn’t afraid of him, and she still believed that Webby really needed a night to feel normal again. “Trust me, if I was mad at you, I wouldn’t be here trying to do this. Despite everything, you’re still my friend too," she reassured her. "I really think you should get out of the house and try to have some fun tonight.”

After being so focused on her own self pity, it surprisingly took the blonde much longer to consider why Buttercup was trying to cheer her up in the first place. After all, it’s as she had just said, the brunette was Louie’s best friend, and so as his best friend, shouldn’t the Powerpuff be angry at her too? More so at that, considering how badly injured Louie was because of the fact that Webby had helped Dewey lie for so long, resulting in the youngest triplet getting severely hurt. Yep, Buttercup should detest her for that, not be trying to cheer Webby up and trying to convince her to go out with her. So imagine Webby’s surprise when she heard the older girl say it wasn’t her fault. “You don’t?” The blonde repeated, shocked, only for her to then shake her head. Actually, she hasn’t seen Buttercup talking with Dewey. But then again, Dewey had recently moved out of the mansion, so she couldn’t say for sure who was talking to him still or not. Besides Morty and Ferdie that is, since he’s living with them. Webby still continued to frown, not believing that Louie’s anger was displaced because he did have a reason to be angry with her even if Buttercup wasn’t. But she didn’t say anything about that, instead, listening to the rest of the brunette’s words before she attempted to slightly smile with gratitude. “Thanks for not being mad at me, I wouldn’t have blamed you if you did but— thanks.” She made out, realizing how much she really needed to hear this. “I don’t want Louie to be even more upset with me for going out with you tonight though, but getting out of the house to distract myself does sound really nice.” 

While he had started this conversation in hopes of talking a little shit about Dewey—as petty as that already was—hearing that his brother hadn’t even told Webby of his recent relationship development gave Louie’s permanent bitterness a new outlet. Instead of trying to indulge in the gossip with Webby, he couldn’t resist picking on the fact that she hadn’t known of it. “He didn’t tell you? Wow, I thought you were his best little secret keeper.” As soon as he said it, he was glad Webby wasn’t looking at him; he almost wanted to look away from himself. The thing was, as upset as he still was over everything, being nasty to Webby didn’t make him feel better about it. The schadenfreude of seeing Dewey beat up on Halloween, finally facing consequences to some of his impetuous actions, was real.

She winced at Louie's words. They had definitely hurt—after all, she would think that Dewey would’ve gone and told her he was dating Tiffany now. Even if the last time she wasn’t so thrilled about the fight he had gotten into at the ball, she thought he would at least message her about it. Instead, she knew nothing, having very little updates about Dewey’s life since he left the mansion. Since he left Webby to fend for her own and try to find some kind of way to make things right again with Louie all by herself. Yet, she was scared to. She was afraid that anything she tried to say to the youngest triplet would make things even worst between then. Heck, she just responded to his question, and his initial reaction was to make a dig at her! 

“Pretty good,” Darla reaffirmed when Webby sought assurance that she had done well on her second flirting attempt. With practice, she could definitely become a pro. It seemed she wasn’t trying to put the moves on anybody just yet, which was good—it gave her time to develop her flirting skills before it actually mattered and she needed them for a real crush. When she did have her eye on somebody, however, Darla wanted to be the first to hear about it! She bounced a little in excitement at the thought.

At the redhead’s affirmation, the blonde beamed. From an outsiders perspective, this entire conversation about trying to flirt and make random pick-up lines may come off as strange to them, but Webby was appreciating this entire thing. Not only was she learning how to potentially flirt with someone in the future, but this whole thing was helping distract her from her pervious state of mind. Things back at home had been getting better—she’s been going out more and doing her own things instead of wallowing at home all day—but Webby’s still be feeling kind of out of place at home. So this moment she’s having with Darla definitely helped her a lot. 

Despite the harshness in the glare that Webby shot in his direction, he would take it — she was acknowledging and listening to him. Before, he may as well have been invisible. Between the way everyone started to treat him after what happened, it felt like he was beginning to disappear within the manor the longer he stayed. Dewey had always been the triplet who needed the most attention, but sometimes he couldn’t figure out which was worse — the negative attention he received from some of his family lately, or being ignored completely by the others. They both stung in different ways, but right now he wanted Webby to finally listen to him. He wanted to try and fix what he broke.

Webby didn’t actually believe that Dewey was lying to her. Deep down, she knew he was telling her the truth about missing her, and honestly, so did she. Ever since he left, the mansion has felt much more emptier and quieter, as if the home knew there was someone rightfully missing and couldn’t function the same without him here. She couldn’t function the same without Dewey here. In fact, if she dared to truly think about it— the mansion felt like how it used to feel when it was only just Webby living here—cold, dark and lonely. The only exception was that whereas before she knew how to spend her time making up games and activities to relieve her boredom, nowadays, even with more people living here with her, all the blonde wanted to do was stay locked up inside her bedroom until she shriveled completely away. 

@webbiigaiil

Since her encounter with Louie a few weeks back, it seemed like Webby had tried to bury herself even deeper within her self-isolation. She hasn’t exactly been staying locked up inside her bedroom like she’s done before, but she hasn’t being staying much around the mansion either. Instead, since she was given a job at the House of Mouse, the blonde has been using up most of her time working there until it was finally late enough for her to head back home. Once she was back at the mansion, she would always hope to not run into Louie like she had done the last time— still wanting to give the youngest triplet his space until he felt ready to be around her again, but also as an attempt to not wound her spirits again. The last time had been a lethal blow, and Webby was scared to tread the waters in the risk of making things fatal between the both of them. 

There was a distinct difference in the way Webby and Dewey interacted with each other since the hotel bombing. The two were once best friends, but now they may as well have been strangers. It was even worse now that he was staying with Morty and Ferdie, which wasn't Dewey's intention at all when he agreed to the idea. Even if he was grateful for the opportunity, thankful for a chance to leave the depressing walls of the manor that he used to love so dearly (it didn’t feel the same now that everyone who lived there didn’t want him around), he still understood that the choice only added to the tension with his family. It was partly why he attempted to apologize again, as he had a backpack on his back that indicated he was stopping by the manor to grab more of his belongings from his bedroom. It was easiest for him to do so at night when most of the family was already in bed, but tonight he accidentally timed it as Webby got home from a late shift. Watching the blonde attempt to go by him as if she hadn’t seen him at all made him break the silence — he didn’t want to be astray like this from his best friend forever.

As soon as her gaze landed on Dewey, Webby felt a range of emotions. First and foremost, she was most definitely still angry at him. Angry at the fact that not once he took her concerns to heart whenever she tried to convince him to tell Huey and Louie the truth about what they were doing, and how it was not until after everything literally blew on all their faces is when he’s finally realizing how he should’ve. But then the blonde felt a wave of envy at the sight of Dewey— envious of the fact that despite it was the both of them who had lied and hid everything from their brothers, Dewey was the one Louie had decided to forgive. That flash of envy in return had then changed into guilt, as the fact remains that for as angry as she was at the middle triplet over the situation he had put the both of them in— Webby couldn’t one hundred precent put the entire blame onto him. Because at the end of the day, she had gone along with Dewey’s antics, from the very start to the very last second of when harm was thrown at Louie. Which is why she’s been beating herself up way too much over the last few months.

“Knitting,” Ferdie repeated. He had heard the nothing before the knitting, but he wasn’t going to call Webby out on the obvious lie. Usually, his penchant for sarcasm would kick in and he’d ask if that was the best she could come up with, but not today. She was clearly out of sorts and needed a gentler touch. “If you want to take a break from all the…knitting, we could do something together,” he suggested. Even if it was as simple as watching a show or quietly reading together, he hoped that might help her feel a little less alone. It was better than her sitting in a dissociative funk all day, in any case. Hell, if she actually was knitting by some chance, she could go ahead and teach him how—he wouldn’t mind.

Despite his attempts to be gentle with her, Webby could see it written all over Ferdie’s face that he didn’t believe her when she said she had been knitting. And in fairness, she hadn’t believed herself when she said it either. While she did in fact already knew how to knit (as her Granny did enjoy the art of knitting from time to time, so that was a thing she had taught her to do at some point), it also wasn’t exactly something the blonde did most of the time. She needed to be in a special kind of mindset in order to get herself to want to knit, and currently her mind was far off from wanting to display such a skill. Hence why as soon as she said it, the girl sighed. “…..I wasn’t actually knitting.” Webby admitted, only saying that she was to see if that would convince Ferdie to go away. It did not such thing, the brunette proposing they could do something else together instead if she wanted to— she wasn’t sure if she did. “I do know how to knit, I just wasn’t actually doing that. I haven’t been doing much of anything lately honestly. I’m trying but— it’s been hard.”  

For the first time, because Webby wasn’t trying to explain how she hadn’t meant for anything to happen the way that it did, how she only tried to do what she thought was best, or how she wanted to tell them but couldn’t—Louie believed her apology. It felt like she finally understood that there was no explanation he could accept for why she had helped Dewey keep the secret about their search for the triplets’ mom from two of them, even as he demanded justification for it. He just realized himself that knowing her motivation wouldn’t help him understand it nor forgive her, because intentions and actions and outcomes were all what they were and no amount of comprehending it all would put him back together. His injury would heal and he would try to move on, and one day he might be able to forgive her and Dewey, but it wouldn’t be because he understood why they’d done it. It would only happen if and when he felt like his life wasn’t over because of this accident, and they had nothing to do with that.

Okay— Nothing else was said than just a simple “Okay,” and Webby found her chest shattering all over again. Somehow, she was hoping that he would end up saying something else, something more in response to her apology than a “Okay”, yet it was Louie saying that single word was enough to tell her everything she needed to know. He still couldn’t forgive her. Even with her apologizing without any excuses or explanations on why she did what she did, but rather the blonde taking full accountability for the part she played within lying to him and Huey, Louie hasn’t forgiven her. 

“Has saying that ever prompted anyone to want to kiss Huey?” Darla retorted, trying to make Webby see that certain topics—like nausea, for example—just because they could be involved in romantic feelings, that didn’t make them good things to talk about in an attempt to flirt. (And as an aside, if one was to mention it, a more romantic turn of phrase for that concept might be considered having butterflies. She might have to make notes for Webby. A glossary of appropriate terms.) After listening to the younger girl’s attempt to craft a pick-up line about eyes, Darla opened her mouth to give feedback but paused, somewhat confused. 

“Huh, well when you say it like that, I guess not.” The blonde admitted after some thought. Then again, it’s not like Webby’s been paying attention to whoever the boys kisses or has been actively around whenever it happens. Sure, they’ve had girlfriends and boyfriends whom she’s met before, but even she knew when to give them privacy for things like kissing. So for all Webby knew, maybe talking about nausea had prompted someone in wanting to kiss Huey! But the more she thought on it, the girl doubted it, which is probably what Darla was trying to tell her. Talking about nausea or puking while trying to flirt with someone was not the way to go. Noted.

Seeing the hint of a smile on Webby’s face, however quickly it disappeared after, Ferdie felt he had definitely made the right choice to visit her. She deserved to smile as much as anyone else—indeed, it had been strange lately to see her go so long without one—so Ferdie vowed to himself to make her smile again today. He wouldn’t go home until he did. “What were you up to before I dropped in?” he asked as he stepped past Webby to enter the manor. He assumed if she was doing anything terribly important, she would have told him so before letting him in, but she did seem very surprised by his presence, so maybe the distraction made her forget herself. Either way, he was here to stay, so she’d just have to make room for him in whatever she was doing before he showed up.

Closing the door behind him after he stepped inside, the blonde paused when asked what she had been up to before he arrived. Nothing. That’s what Webby had been doing. Well, it was more like she had been locked up inside her bedroom the entire time until he came— just like she’s been doing every single day since they all returned back home from the hospital. It was the best thing the girl could do since Louie started to avoid her, and because she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by seeing her or accidentally running into her, Webby figured the best way to prevent any of that from happening was for her to stay inside her room. Even during days like today, where Louie wasn’t even home so she didn’t have to. The blonde didn’t want to run the risks or cause any more awkwardness between them. But could she say that to Ferdie? “I was doing noth— er, knitting?” She randomly ended up saying, blinking her eyes just as she did so. “Yeah, knitting. That's what I've been doing the entire time before you stopped by." Knitting.

Louie startled at the sudden cracking sound of the glass breaking on the ground, his heart hammering in his chest. Unexpected loud noises had been triggering him lately, an automatic anxious tension sparking. He froze in place momentarily, before carefully wheeling himself back and further away from the side of the kitchen where Webby had dropped her cup; he didn’t have to worry about stepping on broken glass, but he didn’t want it in his tires either. It was like Webby didn’t even notice the damage herself, too focused on countering his assumptions. Wasn’t she going to clean that up first? Louie kept looking at the broken shards on the ground, hardly hearing her rebuttal until he tuned back in to catch the end of it. “If you wanted us to know the truth, you should have told us,” he said, his tone uncompromising. “Telling Dewey to do it doesn’t count for anything—you know he doesn’t listen to anyone.” Especially considering she had told him over and over again. “Stay there.”

It was only when he took a step back was when she realized that she had broken the glass she had been holding. With her own eyes widening, the blonde shifted her gaze towards the ground and stared at the shattered pieces of glass. She then glanced back at Louie, the youngest triplet being completely frozen in place, his own gaze now focused on the broken glass as well. Great, as if there wasn’t enough tension between them already, now she had to go and freak him out by accidentally breaking the cup and triggering him with the noise of it shattering. It wasn’t on purpose, Webby praying that once Louie snapped out of it, he wouldn’t take it to the heart because freaking him out was on the very last thing she wanted to do. The fact that she had broken the cup in the first place goes to show just how out of it she was— clearly the girl wasn’t taking Louie’s avoidance well to focus on these kinds of things.

For a moment, the side of her lips had lifted into an almost smile as the realization that Ferdie was here for her finally settled in. While it’s not to say that no one else has tried to check in on Webby since the bombing at the hotel happened because some people has— her Granny, Huey, Donald, and Daisy, just to name a few, most who had were all her family so it was to be expected. At the same time, since neither she or Dewey had gotten as badly injured like Louie did, the two coming out of the accident with scratch wounds at best, it also made sense that most of everyone’s focus would be on him. She get’s it and the blonde wasn’t about to start complaining over the lack of attention. But as Ferdie confirmed that he in fact was here for her, Webby not only felt confused but also felt kind of happy to hear that. Happy enough where she almost smiled, but as soon as said smile had appeared, the girl then dropped it. Should she even be acting happy right now? “Oh right, yeah, of course you can come in.” Snapping out of it and not realizing that she may have been blocking the doorway, Webby moved aside from her position, giving him enough space to walk in. “Sorry, about that.”