Chapter Text
“Elliott, Sloane, dears. look at what Kai is doing for a minute, would you?” says Dot, while gingerly handing Sloane three glasses that can hold about 500 millilitres of liquid in them.
“Alright. So basically, if you’re trying not to get too drunk with your friends, or outside in general, but you’ve been trapped by societal convention to drink, here’s what you do.” Elliott takes their cup, and Sloane pays close attention, tapping his acrylic nails against the glass. It’s a really nice sound.
The four of them- Kai (who’s doing those one-finger spin tricks with his glass, though he stops at Dot’s gentle tutting to mind his brace, smiling gratefully and covering it up as a scowl), Mrs. Dot (“You can just call me Mrs. Dot, dearies! My last name isn’t super important.”), Elliott (who’s set the glass onto the floor as if it would break if they held it for too long) and Sloane (who is still tapping his red heart-shaped acrylic nails on his glass) just in front of the fridge, the freezer part being on the bottom rather than the top. Three of them form a small semicircle around the fridge, while Dot is sitting in her chair to spectate.
Kai holds up his glass, and takes out the whiskey bottle they’re using for this lesson from the fridge.
“First, you put in the drink. I’m using whiskey- and this is good stuff, Mrs. Dot- and you put just a little, like maybe a tenth of the entire glass’s volume in the actual drink. Not much.” He does so, passing the bottle around to everyone. Elliott takes their time, filling exactly a tenth of the glass. Sloane’s a bit faster, but some ends up spilling on the floor, even if it only a few drops.
Once the bottle’s been handed to Dot, she caps it and puts it on the kitchen island, Kai takes the next things out of the fridge- plain soda and ice cubes.
“Now look here: I’m going to fill it about three-quarters full of soda, you got me?” Elliott nods and Sloane gives Kai a thumbs-up, Kai nodding as he proceeds to fill the glass most of the way with soda, topping it with ice cubes. The liquid inside is still a golden-brown, just slightly lighter and more on the gold side, and it’s pretty fizzy. Kai once again hands out the soda and ice for everyone to do the same.
After it’s full, Kai looks at Dot, in order to ask for permission.
“Mrs. Dot, is it okay if they drink alcohol in your house?” he asks, a bit teasingly, but he’s genuinely asking.
“Of course! Be responsible though, and make sure you keep your glasses in the sink when you’re done, and definitely tell me or Larry if you feel strange during or after, alright?” Both Sloane and Elliott nod, while Kai hands his drink over to Dot, who takes it, helping him up to the other barstool on the island, as his friends go to the couch to sit on either side of Larry, who’s watching Steven Universe reruns on TV, humming along to the songs again.
Well, that’s what they were supposed to do, and let Kai enjoy his Apple and Mango juice mocktail in peace, but no, Elliott had to come over.
“Hey Kai, how come you know all this stuff? I thought you weren’t supposed to drink?” asks Elliott, turning a bit to face him. Elliott’s been better about asking questions when they want to since splitting up with Mitchell (for good this time), and seeing the inquisitive look on their face makes Kai soften a bit, even if he’d admit it to exactly nobody.
“El, I didn’t listen to my doctors all the time, y’know.” Elliott nods, and Sloane is still on the couch singing loudly to one of the songs or the other, harmonising with Larry, and the atmosphere (home, home, home his mind says) makes him want to talk about it for the first time.
“Before I got kind of… used to being like this, I guess, i used to try and pretend nothing was wrong. I’d go to wild parties and dance and drink and get high even though it hurt too much to move. It used to make my parents really worried, I’m sure.” Elliott nods- they can probably relate, even though half the time they didn’t actually want to do half the things they did.
“One day… something happened, and i had to admit that I couldn’t keep doing this. And yeah, since then I’ve listened to my doctors, taken care of myself mostly, and yeah. Now we’re here.” he finishes, not making eye contact with Elliott whatsoever, feeling too embarrassed to look, and curling further into the warmth at his side.
Someone plants a kiss on the top of his head, dyed the bi colours for Larry’s birthday about a week ago. It’s starting to fade a little, but it’s okay. It’s Dot. he’s been leaning into Mrs. Dot this whole time, and he makes to de-tangle himself, red-faced with shame, but Elliott takes his hand and keeps it there, while Dot pulls him closer.
They stay like that for a while, only moving to the couch when Kai lightheartedly complains that his knees hurt a little, and they join Sloane and Larry, both his and Elliott’s drinks done and Sloane puts them into the sink, coming back to Dot and Larry inviting him into a hugpile with Elliott and Kai in the centre, and he gets on Elliott’s other side, held close by both Dot and Larry, and Kai thinks that this might just be what family feels like, and he likes that feeling, so he buries his face into Elliott’s growing hair, let down from its ponytail and curling at the ends, cushions and limbs supporting his muscles just right. Dot runs her hands through his hair and whispers how proud she is of him, and Kai wonders, sleepily, how going to that one campy-looking therapist led to this, and decides he doesn’t mind, as he falls asleep, his last feeling being that of a blanket being put on him, and Elliott nuzzling closer.