Chapter Text
The party was loud, but what did he expect? There was eye scream, frownies, and cookies from Mrs. Claus. Lock scanned the tables of food and sighed. They walked over to the drink table instead, and picked up sparkling cider. He moved to a quiet corner and watched as Jack and Sally swirled around the floor. He closed his eyes and sipped his drink.
They wondered if he would ever get to do that with someone. "𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵," he thought sourly, "𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘬'𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺."
"Hey. How you doing?" Barrel's voice broke Lock's train of thought. They looked at the youngest and rolled his eyes. "Oh, yunno, just quietly suffering. At least Shock had her potions exam as an excuse to skip," Lock said sourly.
"You wanna ditch?"
Flashbacks to when Oogie Boogie had hit them when they disobeyed an order flashed across Lock's mind. Then there was the time when the three were kids and Jack needed them. They had kidnapped the wrong guy, and Jack had been 𝘮𝘢𝘥.
Lock shook his head and made eye contact with Barrel. "We can't, Jack will-"
"Jack's not Boogie," Barrel interrupted, "the worst he'll do is scold us. Let's get the hell out of here. Grab some junk food, put on our PJs, put a game on the projector."
Lock thought for a moment. Barrel was right, Jack wasn't Boogie. And Jack would never hurt them.
"Fine. But 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 if I get to choose the game."
-
Barrel plopped down on the couch and waited for Lock to come out of their room. He opened the box of pizza and put two slices on each plate. They turned the projector on, grabbed a bat blanket, and sat back down on the couch. Lock finally came out of his room, but they looked uncomfortable, in the middle of a small panic attack.
"Hey. It's okay. Jack won't hurt us, trust me," Barrel said smoothly. Lock looked up at him with fear filled eyes. "I know! I know, it's just.. I keep telling myself that he will, and that we did something wrong and now one of us is gonna die-" Barrel stopped them immediately.
"No one is going to die, Lock! 𝘑𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘦! He won't do anything to us, believe me okay!?" Lock took a small breath and nodded. Barrel walked over to him and grabbed his hand. "Come on, you wanna game and chill?" Lock smirked weakly and nodded once more. Barrel lead them over to the couch and sat both of them down. The Imp looked like he was about to fall over, so Barrel pulled them down onto his shoulder.
"Rest, it's okay."
Lock closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately. Barrel smirked when he saw Lock's tail swish tiredly. He covered them with the blanket and turned on Animal Crossing. As he did, he thought back to what he said.
"𝘑𝘢𝘤𝘬'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘶𝘴."
And Barrel can say, he knows that for a fact.