Valicer OT3 Week, Day Three: Childhood Friends
Day Three of @ot3-week's OT3 Week, and we're up to a cute prompt -- "Childhood friends!" So naturally I couldn't resist writing the trio hanging out together as kids. :) This is supposed to be a Victorian!AU, though I suspect it might feel a little bit more modern than that...the important thing is, there's a grand old party happening in the halls of Christchurch at Oxford, and Smiler and Alice have already found each other and decided to sequester themselves away from all these boring adults in their own private table fort. But tummies have started growling, and so Smiler is venturing out to get snacks...
--
“I’m gonna get more snacks!”
“All right – make sure to grab some of Mama’s Welsh rarebit!” Alice said, arranging the cards into neat piles. “Then when you come back we can start building our castle.”
“Definitely,” Smiler said, shooting her a grin. They grabbed the edge of the tablecloth and lifted it – then, seeing no adults had eyes on them, scrambled out from under the banquet table that they and Alice had claimed as their personal hidey-hole. And I thought this party was going to be boring, they thought, scurrying toward the table where the Welsh rarebit sat, along with a few other cheese-based dishes the various attendees were nibbling on. Adults never want to have any fun when they get together – it’s just talk talk talk about boring stuff. Especially Father, going on about “social compliance” and all that...it’s a good thing that Alice is here! I can’t wait to hear another story about Wonderland – it sounds amazing! And I bet that, without the adults interrupting us, we can build a castle using all of the –
“Now, I don’t want you embarrassing me at this party, Victor, do you understand?”
Smiler stopped, turning toward the entrance. Standing there, having their coats taken by the coat-taking-man, was a hunched-over skinny man with a large mustache, leaning on a cane; a very plump woman in the fanciest dress Smiler had ever seen, fanning herself like it was the middle of summer; and a little boy, about Smiler’s age, wearing a suit with shorts and staring at his feet while the woman – presumably his mother – went on and on about how the Liddells were Very Important People and how they had to make a Good First Impression and how Victor was to Stay Quiet and Look Respectable, like the boys in magazines. The boy – Victor – was nodding along to his mother’s litany, trying to stand up straight and do as asked, but the look on his face...
“Now, Marmaduke, I understand that you’re a little – confused, at this age. But the simple fact of the matter is that you can’t just decide that you’re not a boy. It’s simply not done. Where would society be if people just started declaring themselves not one thing or the other? You have to learn how to be socially compliant. True happiness comes from obeying your elders – and you want to be happy, don’t you?”
Smiler frowned as the woman turned away from Victor, leaving him to tug at his tie as she swanned off to chat about boring things with the other adults. It seemed like, with a mother like that, Victor was about to have about as bad a time at this party as they’d feared they would have. And that was a really bad time indeed.
Well, good thing I’m here, then, Smiler thought to themselves, then marched up to Victor, putting on their best smile and sticking out their hand. “Hullo! I’m Smiler!”
Victor nearly started right out of his skin – maybe they should have been a little bit quieter. He stared at them a moment, glancing from their face to their hand and back, then hesitantly took it. “Uh – I’m – I’m – V-Victor,” he stammered, clearly out of his depth. Maybe people didn’t talk to him much? That would be sad if so. “Your name is – Smiler?”
“Well, it’s what I call myself,” Smiler told him, pumping his arm. “My real name’s awful. But Victor’s a nice name! Do you want to play with us?”
“Us?” Victor repeated, blinking.
“Me and Alice!” Smiler pointed at their table, where Alice was peeping out, clearly wondering why snacks were taking so long. They waved to her and pointed to Victor – she glanced over, then nodded and waved back. “She’s really nice, and she tells great stories,” Smiler informed Victor, grinning. “And she’s got cards – we’re gonna try and build a castle! Do you like castles?”
“Uh – yes?” Victor said, as if he wasn’t sure of his own opinions. “I’ve n-never made a card one b-before, though.” He dropped his gaze, playing with his tie again. “I’m k-kind of clumsy.”
“That’s all right – we can show you how to do it!” Smiler promised, taking his hand so he didn’t accidentally strangle himself. “Come on – we’ll get snacks, then we can go and play!”
“I – um...” Victor’s gaze went to his mother, chatting with some other adult Smiler didn’t know and didn’t care about. “I dunno...”
“Aw, come on,” Smiler wheedled, tugging his arm. “It’ll be fun! Don’t you wanna have fun? Be happy? Like, real happy, not grown-up happy?”
“Happy...” Victor looked at his mother a moment more, then over at Alice, patiently waiting for them to decide what they were doing. Then his mouth formed a determined line, and he nodded at Smiler. “Yes. Let’s go make castles.”
Smiler beamed. One happiness problem – solved! Take that, Father. “Great! But, first, we gotta get some of that rarebit – and I think there’s some cake too...”
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@ghostdoctor i had to like scroll so carefully to fit this into one screenshot but THESE IDEAS ARE SO CUTE
i think we finally found something we have different opinions on because i physically cant see this before izuku's crush realization for me.
i just really like the idea of like when monoma and izuku sorta become buddy buddy with their shared quirk enjoyment Izuku starts to become endeared by the little things (and even the things he used to think were lowkey annoying) that monoma would do when they spend time together.
AND LIKE WHEN 1-A QUESTION"S IZUKU OR SHITS ON MONOMA IZUKU IS LIKE "guys he's actually really sweet" and someone would be like
"no he just has a soft spot for you"
and like,,, he does. monoma like absolutely refuses to admit it but he really does think that izuku is just amazing. better than him in every way. which fuels his inferiority complex but also has this mixed in admiration and it messes with monoma's head SO BAD because hes supposed to hate this boy.
he wants to be around izuku but he wants to run away from his as fast as he can when hes nearby. he wants to love him but it would never work because izuku is thousands of miles ahead of him in everything, so why would he ever look back at monoma? why would he ever choose him out of all people. its impossible, so its better to hate him then to get himself hurt by wishing on a star that doesn't even exist.
and then with Midoriya, he probably thinks that monoma lowkey dislikes him still since he sucks at expressing feelings by anything other then being mean so its like
izuku knows that monoma likes being around him because he keeps spending time with him, but sometimes he's unsure due to the things Monoma says. (AUTISM. and his self image issues lol)
so these two are just in this never ending "he doesn't like me like that" cycle and the hypothetical readers are just like
"FUUUUCCCKKKKKKKK PLEASE JUST TALK ABOUT FEELINGS OR SOMTHING FOR ONE MINUTE I BEG"
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