Chapter Text
The day started just like every other, unbearably and obscenely hot and humid for no apparent reason other than the routine tilt of the earth. Freminet was resigned to his usual spot on the floor in the living room, pressing his face into the rapidly warming floor of the house. Lyney was pattering around in the kitchen, as he was often found doing these days, and Lynette was hogging the fan all to herself in the corner of the living room as she read a book. Freminet couldn't find the energy in him to be mad about it.
"Guys!" Lyney calls from the kitchen. "We don't have anything to eat!"
The blonde groans into the floor at that, and he can hear his sister do the same, albeit quieter. They've both been reduced to mere puddles of goo on the floor, and neither really feels like getting up to go outside. At least in here, they can have some respite from the burning heat of the sun.
Lyney makes his way over to the living room, and he stands behind the couch with a cook spoon in hand. He wasn't wearing a shirt, hadn't been since this morning, yet he was still sweating like crazy. How he still had the energy to do anything beyond mope around was lost on Freminet.
"We can't just lay around the house all day," he says. "Not when there's no food in the fridge!"
"Then go and get something to eat," Freminet mumbles into the hardwood beneath him. "I'm not getting up from here."
"Me neither," He hears his sister chime in from across the room. "If you're getting takeout, then I want some cold noodles."
"Oh, that sounds so good," Freminet drooled at the thought. "Get me one too."
"I'm not leaving by myself!" Lyney complains indignantly.
"Then I guess we're not getting food." The blonde rolls his eyes. Lynette goes back to reading her book, checked out of the conversation as Lyney turns to him.
"Why don't you want to come with me, Freminet?" He asks all soft-like and caring. It's an act he puts on, Freminet knows, one that he uses in order to butter his siblings up into doing his bidding. It only works seventy-five percent of the time. "You've gotta do something other than lay around the house."
"It's too hot outside," he says in response, something else laying beneath his words. The real reason wasn't left behind on Lyney, but he pushed regardless.
"My car finally has working AC," he reasons.
"Where'd you get the money to fix it?"
"Who said I fixed it? Aether's becoming pretty handy these days. And besides, the stores also have AC. I can leave you by the vegetable cooler if you're that hot."
"I...don't have anything to wear."
"You sweat through all of your clothes that quickly?" Lyney tilts his head at him, his tone disbelieving. Freminet was just making things up at this point, and really, when had his brother ever taken no for an answer?
He sighs and peels himself from the floor with more effort than he realized he needed, and went to go get dressed. It was too hot outside to wear a binder, and if he did, he ran the risk of giving himself heatstroke. It'd already happened once, and he wasn't all for it happening again.
When Lyney came into his room later on, still not dressed in a shirt, he raised his eyebrows at Freminet's outfit. He'd gone for a simple striped short-sleeved shirt with shorts and had unbuttoned his shirt in a borderline obscene fashion.
"Letting them hang today, are we?" Lyney asks, fixing his sunglasses on his head.
"It's too hot to do much else," he replies, tying his hair back. Freminet spares his brother an unimpressed look. "Y'know you've gotta put on a shirt, right? They're not going to service you otherwise."
"I know! It's just so hot in the house, I'll put it on when we're ready to leave." Lyney turns to leave the room.
"And make sure you wear shoes!" Freminet calls after him. He snickers at the middle finger he gets in response. When they're ready to go, Lyney now armed with a fully unbuttoned shirt and shorts, they leave the house. Lynette waves them out, and they pile into Lyney's car to head to the store.
Freminet sighs when the AC hits him in the face. "Why can't we just spend all summer in your car?"
"Because none of us have enough money to pay for that gas." Lyney laughs as Freminet turns on the radio to listen to whatever boring pop songs they play all day.
"What else do we need from the store besides food?" He asks, just to make conversation.
"I'm running out of sunscreen, and I think Lynette ran out of toothpaste the other day. Besides that, we need some toilet paper and bowl cleaner."
"How have you had the energy to notice all of these?"
"Unlike the two of you, I spend my days doing more than just making out with the floor." Lyney rounds on him, gives him a shit-eating grin and looks back to the road. Freminet shoves his shoulder lightly.
"Yeah, whatever." He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. They spend the rest of the ride in companionable silence, Lyney occasionally singing along to a song on the radio, and Freminet singing along with him when he found a song he knew. When they pull into the convenience store parking lot, a bead of sweat runs down the back of Freminet's neck. He hasn't gone outside his house without a binder on in a while. What if people stared at him? What if people knew?
"Hey," Lyney grounds him with a touch to his shoulder. "Most people in there are too hot to notice anything other than their increasingly sweaty clothes. I'm sure they won't say anything. You can stay in the car if you want, but I can't keep it running for that long."
"Right, gas money." Freminet shakes his head, breathes in his last breath of cool air before his brother pulls out the keys. All at once, the humidity floods the enclosed space of the car, and it's there that Freminet has to make a choice.
He's blowing this way out of proportion, isn't he?
"I'll come in with you," he says, unbuckling his seatbelt and opening his door. He'd forgotten to bring sunglasses like Lyney had, so his only protection against the sun were his hands. His face scrunched up as he squinted and covered his eyes, and Lyney seemed unaffected on the other side of the car.
"Alright! We'll be quick, in and out. I promise." Lyney punches him on the shoulder encouragingly before walking ahead of him into the store. Freminet tries not to slouch behind him but tries not to push his chest out either.
He doesn't take the time to look anyone in the eye, and even if he does, he doesn't hold the contact for too long. Lyney is preoccupied with picking out the better container of broccoli to even notice, let alone care, and Freminet silently thanks him for that. He doesn't know if he could deal with an overprotective brother right now.
"Should we get this brand of lemonade or that one?" Lyney asks him when they make it to the fridge section. Freminet is thankful for the cool air coming out of the machine and wishes he could stay there for the rest of the summer.
"Well, that one is more expensive," he points to the one with the flashier label.
"Yeah, but it's better. Of course they're going to make us pay more for it."
"I thought you didn't have money to get gas? Where's all this grocery money coming from?" He turns to the cart, chock full of both healthy and junk food.
Lyney laughs at that and pulls a black card from his pocket. "Father gave me this to cover grocery costs and grocery costs only. I haven't reached the limit yet, and although I'm interested in finding out, I don't want her breathing down my neck on it, so I pay for my own gas."
Freminet spares one last look at the cart, before scoffing at his brother. "You're sure this won't hit the limit?" He gestures back to the cart behind them. "I'm pretty sure even half of these items costs over a hundred dollars!"
"We'll be fine," Lyney waves his hand at him. "If anything, I can cut a little gas money and pay for the rest myself. It's not like we're going anywhere anyways."
"That's true..." Freminet mumbles to himself. He goes back to looking around the store and observing its patrons, Lyney returning to his ridiculous lemonade debate. He sees a mother and son walking into the cereal aisle, the mother feeding her child grapes from the open bag in her cart. Freminet himself looks over to the bag of cherries Lyney picked up and quickly pops some into his mouth. Across from the milk fridge, there's an old woman struggling to lift a bag of rice into her cart. Freminet doesn't see anyone around to help her, so he walks over there to assist the woman.
"Thank you, sugar," she says to him in a feeble, but sweet voice. He nods to her and turns to go back to his brother when he finds that Lyney is gone. He'd ended his lemonade debate and walked off to Archons-know-where!
Freminet rolls his eyes and just browses around the store, picking things up only to turn them over and put them back down. An unsettling sense of being watched pricks the back of his neck, but when he turns around, he doesn't see anyone.
We need to hurry up and get out of here, he thinks to himself.
Later on, after searching the entire store top to bottom twice, he finds his older brother waiting in line at the register.
"I didn't know one of your magic tricks included being nowhere to be seen." He says as he sidles up behind Lyney.
"I'm a man of many skills, and magicians never reveal their secrets," he grins at Freminet. "Oh, can you go and get a watermelon? I forgot to buy one."
"You don't even like watermelon."
"Lynette does. And in this heat, I know she'll plow through a whole one all by herself in a day!" He shakes his head to himself, jostling the sunglasses that have been perched on his hair since they entered the store. "Maybe get two then? I'll pay for 'em."
"Alright, but I better get some when we get home."
"Your best bet is to eat it in the car!" Lyney calls after him. "If she sees those it's over for the melon before it even started!"
Freminet snorts to himself and walks over to the section where the watermelons are. They're all contained in one big cardboard area, and if the walls weren't so high, it'd look like a cheap recreation of the already cheap inflatable kiddie pools. He has to bend over the cardboard walls to even be able to touch a watermelon, it being too high to simply walk over, and in doing so, he couldn't pick up the fruit as well as he would've liked. As he curses to himself and tries to rearrange his body in a way that allows him to pick up the melon (really, why were watermelons so heavy?), a whistle is all he gets for his effort.
Freminet straightens up as cold, hard dread falls to the pit of his stomach. The whistle was low, like one someone would give to a shiny new car they just saw on the road. It made the hair on his skin stand up at attention. The sound had come from behind him, meaning that the person who made it hadn't seen anything other than his legs and his-
"Hey, nice ass man."
"T-thanks," Freminet says, with no other thing to do. He can't turn around now, or else-
"Do you need help with that watermelon?" Suddenly, as if this man has nothing better to be doing with his time, he crowds into Freminet's space. It takes all of his willpower to not shrink into the man's obtrusive shadow.
"Yeah, I don't have the arms to carry two at a time," he swings his arms to extenuate his point.
"That's fine, I got it." This man is taller than him, Freminet knows, and that's already a feat in and of itself, because Freminet has always been the tallest person he's known. He's more muscular too, judging by the size of his arms as he reaches down past the blonde into the cardboard container.
"Hey!" Freminet hears another voice, accompanied by the patter of what seems to be six pairs of shoes.
Oh Archons, he thinks to himself. The one time I come out and I'm getting cornered. Great.
"Back off of him, man, he's clearly uncomfortable," comes the voice of that guy from earlier. Freminet hadn't noticed how his hands had dug into the carboard fence until he looked down.
"Oh, my bad," the man right behind him says. When he takes a step out of Freminet's space, all the air rushes back into his lungs. He doesn't dare to turn around, not yet, but he does turn his head a bit to see who else is behind him.
What he's greeted with is the sight of four guys, seemingly no older than he is, all in various states of awkwardness. The one who was right behind him only has one watermelon in his arms, and he's...cradling it like a baby? What has he gotten himself into.
"Uh- thanks," he says, because it's the nice thing to do, and he nods at them without turning around.
"I meant what I said earlier," the watermelon-holding one says. "You really do have a nice ass."
What the hell. "Thanks for- for that."
"Forgive him," the one with black hair says, and Freminet can guess he's the one who got the guy to back off earlier. He punches the watermelon-holding guy in the shoulder, hard enough that it has to hurt. "He can't flirt to save his life."
He was flirting with me?! Freminet replays the entire interaction in his head, the whistle, the 'compliment', the offer for help, the obvious showboating- He really was trying to show off his arms, wasn't he?
"I'm sorry." The guy bows his head, and Freminet doesn't know what to do. He only came over here for two watermelons.
"It's okay," he finds himself saying, because he just wants to leave. "I uh- I still need another watermelon."
Great. Now they're going to think he's only using them for manual labor-
"Oh- right!" The guy from earlier bolts back to the watermelon container, but he doesn't crowd Freminet's space this time. Thank Focalors.
In an unnecessarily flashy and frankly ridiculous manner, he makes a show of throwing the current watermelon in his arms into the air and picks up a second one before the first one comes back down. The motion reminds Freminet of his older brother.
Right. Lyney's probably waiting for me at the register. "Hey! Can you take that down to the registers for me, please?" Freminet asks. He bats his eyes for good measure, because he does not want to carry these watermelons all that way. The guy is already admiring him, what's a bit more charm?
He's taking this to the grave with him.
The guy he's talking to blinks at him, his face becoming a shade redder than it was earlier and he nods. In doing so, he gets a good look at Freminet's front side, and that makes the blonde stop in his tracks.
Shit.
"Which register?" He asks, dragging his eyes up to meet Freminet's. He holds the contact for as long as the blonde is silent, and Freminet doesn't know whether to thank the Archons above that this man hasn't called him a slur yet or curse them for making him stare into a stranger's eyes. In the end, he decides to just go with the flow, as Lyney would've done, and points to his left.
"Register five, my brother's over there and he's probably mad that I've taken so long to get our watermelons."
The man nods as if Freminet had just given him a direct order to carry out some secret mission and starts on his way there. The blonde exhales as soon as he's gone, and the other boys that have been there this entire time walk up to him.
"You don't have to humor him," the one from earlier with the black hair says. "Just- let him down easy, will you?"
"I'll uh-I'll try?" No one has ever flirted with him before, so he doesn't know how to respond in kind. How does he go about letting someone down easy?
The group of boys leave him then, and Freminet makes the long trek to register five. In reality, it only takes him about a minute to get there, and when he does, he walks in on the sight of Lyney and this dude laughing their asses off to Archons-know-what.
"What's so funny?" He asks as he takes the bags of groceries from the cart. The guy stops him and insists that Freminet hands him the bags. He does, in a manner of confusion, but nonetheless he's glad he doesn't have to carry anything. It's too hot outside for that kind of work.
Lyney is the one who gathers his wits first, and he puts his hand on Freminet's shoulder to relay the story to him.
"So, Gary over here," he gestures to the man now armed with about eight grocery bags, looking downright stupid in the store. Freminet can't help the snort he lets out at the sight. "Was telling me how he came up to you and complimented your ass of all things."
"Uh huh," Freminet's tone becomes flat, because he knows what's coming next, Lyney always does this when people compare the two of them. It was funny the first time he did it, but it'd happened so often that Freminet just sighed every other time.
"And I asked him- 'why would you do that? He's got nothing going on back there!' and he tells me, I kid you not- that he's been eying you since we got into the store, and he had no idea how to start a conversation other than comment on your ass!" Lyney falls back into his gaggle of giggles, and Freminet wonders how all of this is so funny. He supposes he gets it, remembers how Lyney and Lynette would laugh at him for his pathetic attempts at trying to start conversations with strangers, then tell him the multitude of ways to make strangers fall in love with the bounds of charisma that he didn't have. He sees the guy- Gary was his name- look at the very least a bit embarrassed as Lyney recounts this story, and a pang of sympathy runs through Freminet's heart.
"You know, I would've done the same," he nods to Gary. "Well, I wouldn't have commented on your ass, but I would've at least said something about you- your arms maybe? They are pretty nice."
"Ah, thank you," he says, and he averts his eyes. Freminet wonders how he got himself in this situation, how he went from not wanting to leave the floor of his house to complimenting a stranger on his arms. They were nice arms, he had to admit, and Freminet wishes he had them for himself. But what the heck. This was not how he imagined today would go.
"I can help you guys carry these to your car, if you need?" Gary jerks his head towards the door of the supermarket.
"That'd be great! One less thing to hear Freminet complain about," Lyney sings as he skips out of the store, only two bags in hand. Freminet fixes his sunglasses for him before going outside and follows the two to Lyney's car.
It's a lot hotter out here than he remembers, and he must show it because Gary envelops him in his shadow again. Archons, this man was tall.
"I'm gonna start the car so the AC has a fighting chance," he hears his brother say.
"Thank Focalors," Freminet waves him off as he takes the bags from Lyney and opens his trunk. Together, he and Gary strategically stuff the small trunk full of grocery bags, and when Freminet closes the trunk, Gary doesn't leave.
Is this the part where he asks for my number?
"Your brother is pretty hot," is what Gary says instead, nodding to himself like that made any sense. Freminet nods along with him, an incredulous look on his face all the while.
"He knows. Makes it known to me and our sister everyday even," is what he replies instead, hopping onto the back of Lyney's car. He knows it's a bad idea as soon as he does it, the metal searing into his legs once they make contact. He tries not to let the discomfort show on his face.
"Well, he's got a good reason to. You do too," the guy nods to him. Freminet looks away.
"Thanks again, for helping with the watermelons, and with packing the car. I think I would've overheated had you not been here." Somehow, the Archons above have made it so that the blonde hasn't melted into a puddle since this entire interaction started. Anytime now, he thinks, anytime now and I will be pile of goo.
He's never talked to a stranger for so long. What's he supposed to do to end the conversation? It's much too hot to stay outside, but he wouldn't go back in the store to continue talking to the guy.
His saving grace comes when Gary slips him a piece of paper with some numbers scribbled on it. "I uh- I'd meant to give you this earlier, in the store, but I didn't want to say goodbye yet." Is what he reasons with. "It's my number. You can call me later if you want, I'd- I'd really like that. See you...?" He hangs a silence in the air, and Freminet gets what he's searching for.
"Freminet. My name is Freminet."
"A pretty name for a pretty guy," Gary smiles at him, soft and sweeter than his whistle from earlier, that'd initially made Freminet feel cornered. The blonde finds himself smiling back, his eyes still squinting from the force of the sun, and he waves the guy off as he leaves.
When he's gone back into the store, most likely to meet up with the rest of his friends and go about his day, Freminet lets his back fall to the rear windshield of Lyney's car. A soft thump is heard as he does, and he hears his brother come outside. The only respite is when he feels Lyney's shadow over his face, blocking the sun better than his hands do.
"He gave you his number?" Freminet can't see his face, but he just knows that Lyney's eyebrows are raised to his hairline, based on the suggestive edge his voice takes.
Freminet merely nods, and Lyney takes the scrap of paper from his lap to examine it. A second later, he's getting a slap on his arm and excited cheers.
"Congrats, Fremi, you've received your first number! What a crazy summer you're having already."
"Right?" Freminet chuckles. He slides his hands down his face, a giddy smile appearing from under them. He looks away from Lyney as he relays the good news to him. "He called me pretty. He said I was a "pretty guy." Can you believe that?"
Lyney's face lights up even more at that, and he shakes Freminet from side to side in his excitement. "What'd I tell you? Nobody at the supermarket even noticed, let alone cared. You'll be fine, man."
"Yeah, I know, I know," he rolls his eyes, no heat behind the action. "I just. I don't know. I'm happy? I'm finally being perceived as a guy."
"He saw you for who you are, not who you used to be," Lyney nods. "Good guy. Gay as hell, too, I could tell."
Freminet scoffs good-naturedly. "Whatever. Are we going home or what? It's too hot out here, and I didn't even put on sunscreen before we left the house."
"You're the one laying on my car like it's the coldest thing in the world," His brother shakes his head at him. "And what have I told you about not putting on sunscreen? Skin cancer is as real as male patterned baldness, and just as serious!" He scolds as Freminet slides off his car and walks to the passenger seat.
"Weren't you running out of sunscreen before we even came here? I don't wanna hear this coming from someone who also didn't put it on."
"Potato potato." Lyney sticks his tongue out at him, like they're in second grade, and slides into the car. The AC is as amazing as ever, and Freminet sighs as it blows off all the sweat that's accumulated on his skin. Lyney drives them out of the parking lot, and down the street. He passes the sandwich shop and the hardware store, coming to a stop at the sorbet spot on the tip of the boardwalk.
"They're having a sale," he says as he clambers out of the car, Freminet hot on his heels.
"Lynette's going to kill us if we don't get her some," he says when they're in line.
As if on cue, Lyney's phone rings and on it is their sister. "Y'ello?" He cheerfully answers.
"It's been two hours since you guys left," she complains on the line. "I'm hungry as hell, and there's nothing to eat."
"Worry not, dear sister!" Lyney says in that saccharine tone he always gets when he's avoiding his problems. "Me and Fremi got something I know you'll love!"
"We're also getting some sorbet," the blonde chimes in. He hears Lynette gasp over the line. "Want some?"
"Want some?" she parrots back to him, the smile evident in her voice. "Get me the watermelon flavored one, if they have some."
Lyney looks over to him and wiggles his eyebrows, in a what'd I tell you? sort of fashion. Freminet chuckles. "Alright, we'll be back in a bit."
When they get to the counter, Lyney lays his charm on thick, and ends up getting them three free sorbets. The girl behind the counter is redder than Lynette's watermelon sorbet by the time they leave, and Freminet shakes his head.
"You can't just flirt your way to free things."
"Why not? It worked, didn't it?" Lyney looks at him over his glasses. Freminet rolls his eyes. They walk back to Lyney's car, and that's when Lyney sees the sign for the annual surfing competition they hold at the beach. He pivots on his heel, Lynette's sorbet spoon almost falling to the pavement, and walks to the little shack behind the sign. Freminet has no choice but to follow him. At least he has a sweet treat to cool him off.
Lyney chats up the guy behind the counter, and after filling out a bunch of paperwork, he's signed up for the competition. In that time, Freminet finishes his sorbet, and is hit on again, just by a different dude. What the hell was going on today?
"My friend thinks you're cute, but he's too much of a wuss to say it himself," is what he's greeted with when a boy shorter than him with green eyes and a band aid on his nose walks up to him. He's not wearing a shirt, as many guys are these days, and, considering this is a beach, it's pretty commonplace. Still, Freminet still feels a bit jealous that all these guys can just- do that.
One day, he thinks. One day, I'll be able to do the same.
"Bennett!" He hears a scandalized cry come from a blonde guy in their group, and he assumes that's the name of the person talking to him right now. Freminet is too mentally checked out to say anything of substance, so he just nods his thanks, and turns to leave.
When he gets back to Lyney, he notices that Lynette's sorbet is half-melted. She's going to have their asses for that one.
"A second confession in one day?" Lyney asks incredulously. "Damn, when did you become the hottest guy on the street?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to find out. Let's go before a third one comes out of the bushes. I don't know how you and Lynette do this every day."
"I would say you get used to it, but you probably won't." They walk back to Lyney's car and start heading home now. "But, you know, maybe it's the fact that you're at least wearing a shirt that people are walking up to you. It's not often you see a modest guy during summer."
"You know why I'm not shirtless."
"Yeah, but they don't."
"I'm sure it's pretty obvious," Freminet leans back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest.
Lyney turns to him, a small consoling smile on his face. "It's not as noticeable from afar as you think it is," he says, patting Freminet's knee. "People don't really look twice at that kinda thing. And if they did, well, we both know what would happen if they did."
Freminet chuckles, remembering the times that his siblings had beat up people who were mean to him in the past. "Yeah," he says into the seat, looking out the window. Living near the beach meant it wasn't ever really cold during the year, and although he was glad he never had to worry about freezing his ass off too much, he wonders what it would be like if he never had to go outside without a binder because it was too hot for one. He wonders what it would be like, to live as he wanted year-round.
They pull into the driveway of their house, Father's car still not in the driveway, and bring the groceries inside. It's a miracle that the vegetables hadn't started sweating too much since they were out for a while, and Lynette greets them with a relieved sigh. She's a bit upset that her sorbet melted, but all is smoothed over when Lyney hands her the watermelons they bought for her. True to what he'd said earlier, once she slices the fruit open, she goes to town on it with a spoon. It's all gone by the end of the hour.
"Won't you get sick if you eat it that fast?" Freminet asks her as he helps Lyney cut up some vegetables for lunch. Lynette giggles at him from the counter she's sitting on.
"Haven't gotten sick before, and I'm not gonna start now," she sets the shell of the melon to the side and unfolds herself to let her legs swing off the counter. A contented sigh leaves her as she lays back.
"That good, huh?" Lyney chuckles. Lynette only offers a nod back.
The oldest of them puts on some soft pop music to play in the background, and they all help with making lunch; Lynette puts away the groceries they don't need, Freminet preps all the ingredients, and Lyney stirs everything in the pots and pans he has hot on the stove. Along the way, they get distracted- Freminet ties Lyney's apron strings to the cabinet handle so he can steal some vegetables out of the pan, Lynette sprays Freminet with the faucet when he does, and Lyney does a guitar solo with a half-melted cook spoon.
"We need to throw that away," Lynette laughs when she takes it from her brother as he rises from the floor.
"It's still got a little bit of life left on it!" He pleads. Freminet shakes his head and puts his hands on his hips.
"The only life it's got is a life of crime. That thing is going to poison us if we continue using it!"
The twins laugh at his little joke, and Lynette deposits the spoon- what's left of it really- into the trash. She hands Lyney another one, one that looks exactly like the spoon he just had, except new and not melted. He sniffles dramatically.
"Diva down!" He cries over the trashcan. Lynette and Freminet take this moment of weakness to steal more vegetables and chicken from the pan, burning their fingers in the process. Freminet throws a piece of chicken to his sister, who catches it in her mouth like they're at hibachi. He tries again, and a third time, and each time she catches it flawlessly. When she tosses him a hot piece of stewed onion, it falls on his cheek just aside from his mouth. She giggles at him and throws him another piece. It flies over his head entirely, and he reaches his arm out to catch it before it can fall in the sink.
"Hey!" Lyney rounds on them, and they all burst into laughter at how stupid this is. Their older brother turns down the stove and pours out the food, just simple rice and stewed chicken with vegetables, pointedly giving himself more chicken than the two of them.
"If you want to eat while I'm cooking, then you'll get less when I serve," is what he reasons with, and both Freminet and Lynette roll their eyes at that. Lyney lets both of them steal some stew from his plate while they eat, and after they're all done, they relax on the couch.
It's then that Lyney recounts to their sister the embarrassing events that happened today at the store, exaggeratedly telling her the tall tale of how Freminet managed to get hit on not once, but twice in one day! Freminet hits him with a pillow, and despite the tiredness clinging to his bones from how hot it's been all day, they dissolved into a heated pillow fight. They fought until Father came in through the door and quieted them down. She settled onto the couch with a plate of the rice and stew they'd all cooked earlier, and they watched a movie together.
Freminet, for the life of him, couldn't manage to stay awake during whatever movie they ended up watching. Lyney was sprawled over the couch as usual, his legs stretching across the lap of both Lynette and Freminet. Lynette seemed too into the movie to care, and Father was silently watching in that detached way she usually viewed things. When he woke up again, the movie had been switched to another one, and the twins were sharing a container of popcorn. The blonde didn't even want any, and he snuggled himself back into the couch cushions.