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“i’m back!”
Parker sighs and slides down in his chair. When the Reader finally left his office after the last time they showed up uninvited, they’d been so mysterious about where they were going and why that he hadn’t actually expected them to come back. He’s annoyed (and definitely not relieved, not even a little) to find out he was wrong about that.
“did you miss me?” they ask as they walk in, nudging the door shut with their hip. Parker is about to tell them that no, he very much did not, when he realizes they’ve got something under their arm. He doesn’t want to jump to conclusions here, but it looks, at a glance, like a dripping wet teenager.
“Um… what’s that?”
They grin at him. “i brought a friend!”
The “friend” is still concerningly limp. “Are… they’re not dead, are they?” he asks, leaning away apprehensively. “Because I really don’t want you to bring dead people into my office. Actually, I don’t want you to bring any people into my office. Or, uh, be in my office. At all.”
“they’re fine, don’t worry,” they assure him, blatantly ignoring the rest of what he just said. “they just need to dry off.” They look around thoughtfully. “do you happen to have some rice? like, a lot of rice?”
“What? No. What?”
“never mind, it was worth a try.” They wave off his confusion and deposit their friend on his perfectly nice, previously non-water-damaged carpet. They look at the door, then at him, with something uncharacteristically like nervousness, before kneeling down and pulling off their hooded cloak to wrap around the unconscious kid. Parker has never fully seen their face before, and it’s kind of weird. Even more so when it means they’re a lot less of an enigma now- he can tell that they’re worried.
He gets up and takes an uncertain few steps toward them. Reader barely turns around to look at him. He hesitates, then locks his office door before sitting down next to them. (It won’t stop anyone from coming in if they really want to, since, unlike the outside locks, there’s a spare key on top of the doorframe on the other side, but it will at least give him an extra second of warning before the door opens.) Up close, he can see that Reader’s mysterious friend is alive and breathing, even if they’re looking pale and washed-out enough to be mistaken for dead.
Reader is still just sitting there frowning intently at them. “i should have found them sooner,” they say, mostly to themself.
There are a dozen questions Parker wants to ask, but he settles on one to start with. “What happened?”
“they were…” Reader makes a motion with their hands that doesn’t convey as much meaning as they seem to think it will. “hard to explain. materia immateria,” they say, quoting one of their own past Seasonal Readings. “overwhelm.”
Parker thinks he understood enough of that to hazard a guess. “They were… stuck in the immateria?”
They nod.
“Why couldn’t you just say that?”
The look they give him is probably supposed to be scathing, but it’s not his fault they suck at explaining things. Before he can say so, the person on the floor shifts a little and groans under their breath. The only word he can think of to describe the sound of their voice is low-quality, like he’s hearing them over a phone call with bad reception.
Reader leans down. “hey, wyatt. waking up?”
Their friend- Wyatt- coughs and sits up slowly, holding Reader’s cloak around them like a blanket. “…--ere a-- w-?” Their voice seems to cut out frequently, making it hard to tell what they’re saying.
“we’re in parker’s office,” Reader tells them, nodding in his direction. “don’t worry, he’s cool.” They tilt their head and amend, “pretty boring, but he’s not a narc.” Parker makes a face at them. “you can stay here until it’s safe.”
Both of them make a noise of protest at the same time.
“Wait, I didn’t agree to that!"
“I d--’t -n-w -f th-t’- a ---d id-a…”
They frown. “why not?”
“You didn’t even ask me,” Parker points out.
Wyatt adds, “-nd h- ---sn’t l-k- -e.”
“What?”
They give him a look like he’s the one not making sense. “wh-t?”
“What do you mean I don’t like you? I’ve never even met you.”
“y-s -ou h--e,” they insist. “b-f--e. y-u --ld us t- s--- --wn.”
He shakes his head, brow furrowing. “No, I- I don’t… I don’t remember saying that, it- that never happened. I would… I would remember.”
They look to Reader for help, who makes some kind of gesture over Parker’s head that he can’t see. Wyatt nods slowly.
“oh. s--ry,” they tell him carefully, “I w-s th--k--g -f som--ne e-se.”
“Oh. Okay.” The extent of his relief at hearing that they were mistaken is something he’s choosing not to examine. “Well, I don’t, uh, not like you. I just don’t think you can hide in my office forever. People do come in here to see me, you know. I’m the commissioner of Internet League Blaseball. It’s a very important job.”
Wyatt looks appropriately impressed, at least until Reader interrupts him. “are you sure? because last time i was here, you didn’t do anything but scroll through twitter all day.”
“That’s- interacting with Fans is an important part of, uh, commissionering. Also, shut up.” He clears his throat. “Anyway, um- if you want me to let you stay, you’d better have a good reason. Okay? Tell me what’s going on.”
Wyatt opens their mouth, but the first thing they try to say doesn’t come out audible at all. They sigh and pull the cloak tighter around their shoulders, waving at Reader to go ahead and talk for them.
“they’re wyatt mason,” Reader explains.
He frowns. “Which one?”
They pause for a second. “yes.”
“Uh…?”
“they were caught in the flood. getting lost. i tried to help, and it went wrong.” The look of guilt on their face is not one Parker is used to seeing from them. “they survived, but… scattered. i couldn’t find them again until now.”
"n-- --ur f-ult," Wyatt tells them quietly.
"i didn't say it was," says Reader in a tone very close to sulking. "anyway, now that i've pulled them out of there, they need somewhere to recover from… all that. so i brought them here."
Parker still feels like he should be protesting his office turning into some kind of hotel. "There are other places to go. You do know that, right?"
"not safe places! we've been over this, parker! what if the coin finds them?"
"She's not that bad," Parker mutters. Reader growls under their breath in frustration. "If you just explained-"
"no!"
"- --n't w-n- -o g- --ck." They both turn. Wyatt is huddled into the Reader's cloak with their arms wrapped around their knees, looking like they're trying to become small enough to disappear entirely.
"you're not going back," Reader says firmly, putting a hand on their shoulder. "that's not an option."
Parker bites his lip. "Would- do you really think She would… send you back there?"
Wyatt nods.
"it's because of her they were there in the first place!"
He doesn't want to believe it- there has to be a misunderstanding or something- but they really do seem to be afraid of Her, and… he's not quite willing to test who's right here. "Okay. Fine. I won't tell Her anything." He avoids thinking about how much trouble he'll be in if She finds out anyway.
They exhale and slump a little against the wall. "tha-- --u."
"I just- I can't keep hiding more people in here," he tries, though he has a feeling it's a lost cause. "Like, there's not that much space, and-"
"then i'll leave," Reader snaps.
Wyatt's head jerks up to look at them. "w-it, n-," they start, but Reader is already standing up.
Even they look kind of scared, Parker is startled to realize. "what?" they say stubbornly. "you're not going anywhere until you're better, so if we can't both stay here, i'll just- try hiding under the counter in the gift shop or-"
Without thinking, Parker grabs their wrist before they can leave. "I- I didn't say that."
"oh, so you do want me to stay?" They raise their eyebrows and grin in a way that almost makes him instantly regret it.
"I didn't say that either," he mutters, pulling his hand back and flushing a little with embarrassment. "I just meant don't bring anyone else." He didn't, actually, but pretending so is a lot easier than admitting he changed his mind.
They sit back down and prop their chin on their hands, still giving him that look. "you can't avoid the fact that we're friends forever, parker. i will make you admit it eventually."
"No, you won't. I mean, no we're not. Uh. I have work to do." He gets off the floor and back into his chair and stares at his computer as intensely as possible to show that he is now Busy doing Important Things.
Reader whispers something he can't make out to Wyatt, who laughs quietly. He narrows his eyes and doesn't look away from his screen, which is not currently turned on. He starts up the computer and gets his phone out to use in the meantime, but he can still hear the two of them on the other side of the room, and it’s very distracting. When he glances that way surreptitiously, Reader is shuffling their cards while Wyatt leans on them and watches over their shoulder.
“do you know how to play go fish?”
“n-...”
“neither do i! i’ll go first.”
He looks away, scowling at the blaseball website as it loads the current schedule. Unlike some people, he has better things to do than make up the rules of card games. They didn’t even ask him if he knew how to play it. He doesn’t, but they still could have asked.
Nothing interesting is happening in the games, although they’re definitely more confusing to follow than ever, and nothing interesting is happening in his Twitter notifications, either. He considers dropping a vague hint about something the Fans aren’t supposed to know, just to make something happen, but the last time he did that he got yelled at, and he really shouldn’t risk someone coming down to scold him in person about “giving away confidential information” or whatever right now. He sighs and looks over at Reader and Wyatt again.
Whatever they’re doing with the tarot deck, it doesn’t resemble any game he’s ever heard of. Some of the cards are floating in the air, others have been built into small towers, and the rest are scattered haphazardly on the floor. Wyatt is still leaning against Reader while wrapped up in their cloak, and Reader has an arm around their shoulders. They look very comfortable. Reader squeezes their arm while gesturing animatedly with their other hand and saying something about building down, whatever that means. Parker slumps in his chair with his head propped on his fist and halfheartedly checks his phone. Still nothing.
A card bounces off the side of his face.
“Ow!” he says. It didn’t actually hurt, but it could have, so he should still be allowed to be just as mad. He glares at Reader, who is smiling innocently like they didn’t clearly just throw it at him. “What was that for?”
“getting your attention. want to come join us?”
“What?” He hesitates a little too long. “No. You just threw something at me!”
“oh, you’re fine.” They wave him off. “c’mon, you’re not even doing anything.”
He sits up defensively. “Yes, I am! I’m working.”
They raise their eyebrow at him. “you’re just staring at two different screens at once and sighing every few minutes.”
“Yeah! That’s my job. It’s important. The Coin says-”
“don’t care, didn’t ask,” they interrupt. “bring your phone with you if you’re so worried about it. just stop sitting over there looking so bored it does psychic damage to me.”
“You deserve it,” he mutters. He grabs his phone and sits on the floor with them anyway. He is bored.
Reader flaps a hand at him. “that’s too far away, you have to sit closer.”
“I don’t have to do anything, you’re not my parent.”
“come oooon, just scoot over!”
He rolls his eyes and moves. “Fine.”
“a little more than that,” they insist. If he gets much closer he’ll be in danger of knocking over the card structures, but that’s not his problem, so he does as they demand. He notices the glint in their eyes a little too late.
Parker finds himself flat on his back on the carpet, having been lured into tackling range. Reader is now halfway sitting on him so he can’t get up, and they also stole his phone. Wyatt is laughing at him behind their hand. Parker shoots them an indignant glare, which apparently only makes everything funnier.
“Hey! Give that back, I need to do my job!”
“break time,” Reader announces. “no more working for you.” They lock his phone and shift to let him up, but as soon as he lunges to grab it back, they toss it behind them to Wyatt while holding him off with their other hand. “you can have it back if you play cards with us first,” they tell him smugly.
“Ugh. Fine.” He sits next to them as begrudgingly as possible, hoping they won’t notice the internal part of him that lights up at being invited. If he wanted to play, it would have been weird of him to not have asked by now, so… he didn’t want to. Obviously.
“right answer,” they say, looking way too pleased with themself. “c’mere.”
He jumps as they pull him in close to them, opposite the side of their body Wyatt is already settled against. They almost immediately let go to start pointing at their cards as they explain the arbitrary “rules” of the game they’re playing, and he could scoot away a little and get his personal space back, but… he doesn’t. They’re warm, and softer to lean on than you’d expect from the sharp edges of their personality, and… well, he just doesn’t see any reason to move away from them, that’s all.
They’ve been talking for a minute now, but he hasn’t understood any of it, mostly because it hasn’t made any sense. When they finally stop and ask, “got it?” he has to shake his head in the negative.
“oh well, you’ll figure it out. or not.” They shrug and pass him a few cards plucked out of the mess on the floor. He has no idea what to do with them, but the illustrations look pretty cool. “it’s my turn now, so watch what i do.”
While they’re leaning forward to consider their move, Wyatt sits up to look at Parker over their head. “h-y,” they stage-whisper. “p--ker.”
“Oh, uh- what?”
“d-es ---r ph-n- --ve g-mes o- -t?”
Parker doesn’t think they deserve to play the games on his phone, actually, after helping Reader steal it from him. But- oh, wow, this kid is really good at the sad puppy face, aren’t they? And they have been lost in the immateria for who knows how long, and they’re still all wet and cold and scattered, and… He sighs, defeated. “Yeah. Let me unlock it for you.” He doesn’t even steal it back in the process, for reasons he himself can’t understand.
Their face lights up. “th--ks --rk-r!” They curl up under Reader’s arm again and open Candy Crush.
When Parker turns around, Reader is looking at him… weirdly. Not, like, bad weird, just- they don’t usually look like that, and he can’t tell what it means. It’s gone as soon as they see him looking back, anyway, and they point at the cards with a flourish. “now you go- you remember what to do, right?”
He doesn’t, but he tries anyway, reaching for something at random. “no, no, not like that!” Reader bats his hand away. “you have to- with the- you know, like i showed you!” After a few more attempts, all of which are apparently completely wrong, he gives up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he informs them, “and I’m just going to take these cards and start making a little pyramid out of them.”
“oh, well, you can do that. that’s a completely legal move here!” They ignore the incredulous look he’s giving them and turn around. “your turn, wyatt!”
Wyatt throws a single card at the pile without looking up from their game.
“oh, that’s a good move. i think that’s worth… two points? yeah, two,” Reader decides without even looking at what the card was.
“Wait. Two points for what?”
“for throwing it really well, duh.”
He can’t argue with that. “Oh. I… guess that makes sense.”
They smile. “see, you’re getting it now!”
“No, I just remembered I shouldn’t expect anything you come up with to be reasonable.”
“shut up.”
“You shut up. You stole my phone.”
They pause. “you can have it back now if you want. i only said you had to play with us, not how long. i think they’re almost done with that level.”
“Uh…” Parker looks at Wyatt, bent over his phone and totally absorbed in the puzzle they’re solving. He should take it back now. What if something important happens, and he’s not there to tweet about it, and then… he’s not actually sure what the consequences would be. Disappointing the Fans, who seem to see everything before he does anyway? Another phone call to lecture him about not acting professional that he’ll just tune out? Why does he care about that so much, exactly?
Reader is smirking a little when he emerges from his thoughts, as if they can see the gears turning in his head even before he says anything. “They can keep it for now,” he decides. “I want to finish my pyramid.” He leans his head on their shoulder and picks up another card.