Work Text:
Thunk
Rocket groaned as his head laid on the countertop.
Oh. My. SFOTH.
He was so bored.
Rocket was pretty sure he would die of boredom if he stayed in Da Shop any longer.
It was one of those ‘quiet days’ that just involved Rocket sitting at the cash register of his dads shop and doing literally nothing.
He simply sighed, his thoughts being the only damn entertainment other than the stupid spiders in the corners of Da Shop.
Closing his eyes, Rocket let his imagination run.
Imagining just sneaking off to go blow up stuff or maybe buy himself a snack at a convenience store. Maybe even check out the neighboring vendors.
Maybe… maybe go visit Sword.
Sword….
The absolute dumbass of a friend who annoyed him so, so, so much.
The dumbass who always yapped about nothing, who stops randomly to wave at strangers like he knows everyone by name.
The stupid bird who always helped out with everything for anyone without asking for anything in return.
The damned idiot whose eyes were too innocent and gentle and acted like a toddler.
A damned bird who was graced with pretty brown and red and white feathers that were soft and silky, who let him comb through them.
A bird that had a stupid laugh and a stupid face and a stupid, stupid grin with stupid lips that made Rocket wanna grab his stupid fluffy face and-
Woah
Okay…. Maybe Rocket was going just….
A little insane being alone here….
A ring at the door caught his attention and Rocket looked up in hopes of someone to actually talk to (and so he wouldn’t lose his mind).
It was Zuka.
Eh.
Good enough.
Rocket began complaining immediately,
“Daaaaaaaaad” he whined “Pleeeassssse, can I just take the day off? There are literally combwebs in the corners with how empty it is here.”
Zuka huffed before placing the shop keys in front of him,
“I got a meeting with someone to pick some stuff up in the lower levels.”
He pointed one, and his only, claw at Rocket's chest.
“And you need to watch the shop while I’m gone.”
Rocket's jaw went slack.
“Dad… you can’t be serious…”
They stared for a moment.
“Alone?”
“Alone.”
Thunk
Rocket wanted to disintegrate right there and then.
He shot up, hands waving wildly in the air as if a swarm of bugs decided to attack him.
“Can’t you just-“ He put his hands together in a prayer “Close up shop? Put up a sign saying that we’re closed?”
“Nope.”
“B-but, what if I wanna sleep in, o-or just let me come with you to help?!”
“Not happening.”
“I’ll go insane being here!” Rocket wailed “With all the annoying customers! An-and being all alone!”
It’s not like Rocket was never alone before. It was his whole life when he first spawned.
But, oh, how he hated it.
Alone. In the dark ass disgusting alleyways that smelled of rot in Playground.
SFOTH. He never liked the way he was always abandoned by his so called ‘allies.’ He felt sick thinking about the blood and screaming and smell of burning.
Zuka sighed as he watched Rocket spiral, placing his claw on his son’s shoulder to ground him.
“Kid.” Zuka patted Rocket a little, motioning him to breathe a bit,
“You’re old enough to take care of yourself now. I dunno how much longer I’ll be ‘round but I would like you to at least gain some social skills with people other than me, Medkit, and Sword.”
Rocket looked up at Zuka as he continued, “You need to learn how to care for ya’ workplace and yourself. I know being alone sucks, but I assure you, nothing bad will happen while I’m out.”
“It should only take me 2 or 3 days to get back here.”
Rocket looked at Zuka with hesitation.
“You promise?”
Zuka patted Rockets head.
“I promise.”
The old man turned towards the door and paused, “ ‘sides, you can always ask Sword to accompany you.” Rocket nodded, already dreading the loneliness.
Zuka sighed. Closing the door behind him.
—————————————————
Rocket cleaned Da shop for maybe the 23rd time in the past hour.
Once he put the oil cans in a different order for maybe the 11th time, he decided to head behind the counter and lay on the floor.
The subtle buzz of the lightbulbs filled his ears, groaning and dragging his arms across his face.
When Rocket got bored, again, of laying on the floor. He phished in his pockets till he found his phone.
He pulled up his contacts, which only consisted of 3 people, and began texting Sword.
— idiot bird ❤️🦤
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
idiot bird❤️🦤: OMG, You should take me sometimes :>
BestRocketeer_3v3r💥: ya ya i will once i get enough bux
~~~~~~~Today 8:49pm~~~~~~~~
BestRocketeer_3v3r💥: sword
BestRocketeer_3v3r💥: you done with training yet?
Rocket sighed as he stared at the screen.
If he was honest, Rocket was a little nervous about being around Sword lately.
It’s not like he was scared of the bird, no, no way. It was physically and mentally impossible to be scared of what was the literal embodiment of innocence.
No. It was much worse than fear.
And Rocket wasn’t gonna humor his heart.
Well…
Until now…
Look, Rocket was bored and lonely. He needed to humor something if it wasn’t the pieces of metal in his fathers workshop to not go insane.
His fingers scrawled across the screen making up words and lovey dovey phrases of his feelings for the damned bird that clung to him like glue.
He felt his chest relax and tighten at each letter appearing on the screen with every sentence being some stupid, cringy vow of his affection.
Rockets typing began to quicken a bit as if he wasn’t digging his own grave in front of his own eyes-
‘Sent’
Rocket froze.
His eyes glazed over and refocused, feeling the world steadied and tilted as he felt everything sink while looking over his text like he didn’t just slip and fat fingered the send button.
idiot bird ❤️🦤
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BestRocketeer_3v3r💥: you done with training yet?
~~~~~~Today 8:54pm~~~~~~~~
BestRocketeer_3v3r💥: Look, I’m gonna sound stupid when I say this, but, I love you. Whenever I’m around you I feel so relaxed, you’re so kind and caring for others around you and I can’t help but want to be you. You, being so unrelentingly kind, you were always so accepting and patient around everyone and willing to treat every stranger like a neighbor, even being willing to stay around me. Tolerating my fiery outburst whenever you just wanted to hangout or buy me a slushie, comforting me when I broke down or needed help with carving my horns and asking for nothing in return. I’m so happy that you choose not to give up on me when I already gave up on myself and I really can’t keep it in anymore whe
Rocket stared at the unfinished text in front of him for a hot minute. Taking in its cringy wording before trying to delete the message.
Then, freezing when he noticed, underneath the message said ‘read’ with three quick dots appearing then disappearing.
He felt everything sink even farther into the ground.
He decided to turn off his phone, stuffing it deep into his pocket, opting to curl up into a ball under the desk.
——————————————————
Darkness enveloped the living room as he hid under his blanket. The only thing filling the room was the TVs bright light and the mass of a half asleep Rocket on the couch.
Rocket had thrown his arm somewhere in his bedroom and left his poor leg sprawled on the floor near him.
He was probably laying there for maybe an hour? Two hours? Rocket didn’t bother looking at the clock after closing up Da Shop for the day. One customer came by after he closed and had argued with the annoying inphernal how he wasn’t gonna open the door so they could get a single screw.
He would’ve just blown their head off if it wasn’t illegal in Crossroads…
Rocket probably laid there for another few minutes until he heard a small ‘thunk’ upstairs, he ignored it till the sound of knocking made him cringe.
He tried to ignore it, but the sound kept getting louder and more frantic.
Eventually, and dreadfully, Rocket relented and rolled himself off the couch to reach for his prosthetic. Grumbling and ready to punch whoever wanted to try and annoy him at this hour.
The knocking led him to his room, blinds closed so no one saw inside.
He practically almost tore them off the wall with how rough he pulled them back to peak outside and almost choked on thin air.
There, sitting neatly in black shorts (and only black shorts, seriously what’s with this bird?), with brown, red, and white feathers, was Sword. All smiley and giddy when he saw Rocket.
Sword was dragged in by his horns when Rocket opened the window,
“What are you doing here?!” He shook the poor inphernal, “Aren’t you supposed to be like, doing important deity stuff with your dad or something?!”
Sword chuckled and stretched himself across the floor, “Obviously I’m visiting you, you goofball.” He said booping Rocket’s nose “Venomshank let me stay at home this week. Which is like, super rare, since he never leaves me alone at home for a full week!”
Rocket watched as the feather brain stayed laying on the carpet, happily yapping about how empty his house is and stuff.
Groaning, Rocket just walked back downstairs, picking up his blanket and pillow as he did so, with Sword hopping up to follow behind still rambling endlessly like a broken record.
He sat himself on the couch, pulling off his leg and wrapping himself in both blankets as Sword crawled over the couch (sitting upside down???).
“Sword.” He looked at the bird who looked innocently at him “Can’t you like… be normal?”
“I am being normal!”
“You came here shirtless.”
“So?”
Rocket sputtered “It’s fall.”
Sword just stared with his stupid wide grin before chuckling again. He rose from his spot and plopped himself on top of Rocket, his face flushing as blue as his horns as he struggled under the warm weight of Sword.
“Wha- when I said it’s fall I didn’t mean fall on me, bird brain!”
“I know,” Sword said, tugging at the blankets “If you feel like it’s that cold then at least let me warm you up a little!”
Rocket’s face was probably glowing blue with embarrassment “Wha- NO???” He pushed Sword off who tangled himself in the sheets, a mess of feathers and hurt whines from the bird inphernal filled the air.
“Didn’t you- didn’t you see the text I sent you???”
Sword blinked, “Yeah, I love you too.” He said almost too casually.
Rocket blinked back in shock, “Y-you know what that means right?”
“Of course I do!” Sword leaned forward in slight confusion, tilting his head in a way that made Rocket’s heart skip a beat, “You’re my best friend, I’m your best friend, and we love each other cause we’re best of friends? Aren’t we?”
Rocket buffered for a moment taking in what the man on top of him just said before barking out a laugh.
He folded over and wheezed out as Sword flinched in confusion trying to figure out what’s so funny about what he said. The bird was pushed roughly and both began to wrestle about who got to lay under the blankets.
It ended with both of them inches apart, Rocket was still a giggling mess under Sword as he held the bird’s face close to his, “Y-you’re such a phucking id-idiot bird” was all he managed to wheeze out as he surrendered himself to Sword.
The bird above him puffed up “I’m not an idiot!” He whined, taking a moment to sneak his way under the blankets still wrapped around Rocket. “I’m very smart! You keep saying I have a bird brain, but I’ll have you know, us feathered creatures are quite intelligent!”
Rocket’s laughing fit had settled as he felt Sword cloak them both in a comfortable darkness with his wings.
His thumb rubbed Sword’s cheek in thought, “You really don’t know what I meant when I said ‘I love you’?”
Sword’s brows frowned in response, “Are we not friends?” Rocket winced when he said that.
“No, no, I don’t mean it like that,” Rocket shifted, moving his arm to more comfortably cup Sword’s face. “I mean I love you, like, more than a friend.”
Rocket squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for some stupid remark or a rejection or a burst of some form of any emotion. But nothing came, just the sound of their mixed breathing and the white noise of the TV.
When no response came, Rocket slowly opened his eyes and was greeted with the sight of a bright red Sword staring wide eyed at him.
“Oh…” was all Sword said.
“Oh?” Rocket questioned. The two continued their staring contest for another second or two before Sword shifted.
“I…” he hesitated, “Love you too…”
He slid both hands to the sides of Rocket’s face, gently thumbing over his horns that made Rocket buzz from the touch.
Swords eyes flicked from Rocket’s eyes to his lips and back to his eyes. Carefully pulling his face closer as if asking for permission to continue.
When Rocket didn’t show any signs of discomfort nor conformation. Sword brought himself down till their foreheads touched, waiting patiently for Rocket to process what’s happening.
Rocket’s eyes widened a bit in realization and moved his arm around the back of Sword’s neck to pull them closer.
They stayed like that for a little longer just taking each other in (and a little hesitant who would make the first move).
Sword took a moment to cover their heads with his wings before finally dipping down to connect their lips.
And let’s just say, it was not as smooth as both expected it to be. They bumped noses, clattered teeth, and both were at an awkward angle. The two pulled back a little, giggling like high schoolers, before Rocket pulled Sword into a much more successful kiss.
The two pulled back again smiling wide, Rocket lightly brought his hand back to Sword’s chin to kiss his cheek.
“You’re so dumb.” he whispered sweetly.
Sword hummed, “And yet, you’re dating me.” He paused, “This does mean we’re dating now, right?”
Rocket chuckled, “Yeah, I guess this means we’re dating.”
They stayed on the couch snuggled up and flipping through channels till they got bored, turning it off to entertain themselves with each other’s company.
“Can I come by Da Shop tomorrow? I’ll bring snacks I promise.” Sword said, filling the silence with puppy eyes.
“Mmmm, ok. But I get to crash at your place after.”
“Deal!”