Connor was slouched semi-comatose on Victor and Co.’s couch, VIctor was beside him equally slumped, eating chips from a bowl perched on his chest. Connor glanced away from the crime doc they were staring at to watch Victor attempt to pull a chip directly from the bowl using only his tongue.

“You’re gross,” he said.

“Die,” Victor answered indifferently, and they continued watching. It was a Thursday night, a few weeks after the inauspicious start of Connor’s internship, and not much had changed on that front, it was an ongoing cycle of data entry and embarrassing himself. The guy who’d been meant to train him had quit, and he was just falling through the cracks.

So at the end of every workday, he’d gotten in the habit of wandering next door, often making dinner for the helpless trio before joining whatever lowkey sluglike activity Victor was doing. He didn’t have the mental capacity for much else, and Victor’s quiet presence was comforting.

Connor heard the ruckus even before the door opened. When it did, Victor startled next to him and choked on a chip. Ollie walked in first, followed by someone Connor had never seen before. ”Hi!” Ollie chirped, shoving Victor’s feet off the coffee table to dump his bags. “This is my friend, Bee. They work at that cute boba shop.” 

Victor looked at Ollie, then at his friend like he had just awoken from a twelve-hour sleep. “The one with the dogs?” He eyed Bee suspiciously. 

“That’s the one!” Bee answered, matching Ollie’s excitement, and stretched out a hand. 

Victor shook it, taken aback by the sudden surge of energy. “Victor,” he introduced himself simply. 

“And this is Connor, he’s not ours,” Ollie added. “He lives next door.”

Bee nodded, and Connor's eyes narrowed, unsure if he’d been insulted. It was Ollie so probably not. He sighed– he didn’t have the energy to be charming to a stranger. But in the face of Ollie’s scalding enthusiasm, he pasted on a polite smile which was also handsome, because he was handsome. “Nice to meet you,” he said, his gaze inching back to the screen.

“You guys are the worst,” Ollie chirped. “It’s not healthy to watch that much murder, come play with us instead!”

Victor grimaced and Connor could almost hear him hiss out loud. “Yeah,” Connor pouted, agreeing with Victor’s unspoken words. “Your games are always weird.”

“Oh, come on.” Ollie took Victor’s bowl of chips and tugged his arm. “It’s not weird. We’re going to add monsters to these landscape paintings from the thrift store– I saw someone doing it on youtube!” 

Victor pressed his lips into a thin line. “You’re going to ruin those paintings.” 

“Buddy, we’re going to make them interesting,” Bee shot back with a smile, then nudged Ollie. “Maybe he’s just… shy?” they offered. “Not everyone is a good artist.” 

“Yeah,” Victor said dryly. “I’m terrible.” 

“Then we can work in teams!” Bee announced. “I’m taking the grumpy one,” they said and grabbed Victor’s arm, tugging him to his feet. 

Ollie nodded wisely. “Then I can have the tiny one.” 

And just like that, they were separated in two teams, facing each other at the table, each with a dusty canvas propped up in front of them. Connor took a brush from Ollie and peeked over their painting to sneer at Victor. “Our monster is going to make your monster look stupid.”

“Should I just paint you then? You always look stupid,” Victor shot back.

“Ohhhh is it a competition now? That’s fun! I’m into it.” Bee grinned. “What’s the prize then?” 

Ollie tapped the end of his brush against his chin. “Losing team has to grant a wish to the winners!”

Victor shrugged. “Sure, I guess you could buy me pizza later.” 

“What a boring wish, no imagination at all. This is why we will crush you.” Connor smirked. “Art takes imagination.” 

Ollie giggled and Connor wasn’t sure why.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t know,” Victor said, then leaned down to whisper something to Bee who nodded enthusiastically. 

Connor turned to loudly whisper to Ollie in retaliation. “We’ve gotta give it some sex appeal to win.”

“Lingerie?” Ollie whispered back.

“Lingerie,” Connor confirmed with a sharp nod.

“And give it hot, sexy, curly hair.” Ollie already had his brush dipped into some blue. “We can make the underwear pink.” 

Connor nodded as if all this were obvious. “I agree, let’s give it a big package too. And like…” he paused to consider, “tentacle arms.”

Ollie gasped. “That’s amazing.” 

“Big dick and tentacles?” Victor asked. “I’m surprised you’re into those kinds of things, you seem so vanilla.” He leaned down towards Bee again and pointed at a color. “Maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to use the internet unsupervised.” 

“Maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to breathe unsupervised.” Connor stuck out his tongue and Victor flipped him off. 

“I’ve decided that we have one hour to finish,” Ollie announced. “Three, two, one, go!” he said, which was totally unnecessary because they were already painting. But it did force everyone to focus on their own monster.

“Give it bigger muscles, I hate men without big muscles,” Connor whispered loudly, then glared over his canvas at Victor.

Ollie nudged him. “That’s not nice! All bodies are good.”

“We can talk later and you can teach me how to get,” Victor paused, "as beefy as you,” he continued without looking up from his canvas. His lips narrowed though, and Connor sensed he’d annoyed him. Good. 

“I like soft boys myself,” Bee added. “Better for cuddling.”

Ollie smiled and nodded. “I knew we were destined to be friends!” Bee smiled back at him.

Connor clicked his tongue, ignoring them. Ollie was adding veins on the arms, which was a good call… or at least he thought they were supposed to be veins. They looked more like squiggly, drippy worms. Ollie wasn’t the best artist, but he had the spirit. 

“Put highlights in its hair.” Ollie pointed at the blond locks. 

Connor nodded and added blue highlights. It wasn’t coming out quite right… and Victor and Bee looked way too relaxed. “Give it nipples,” he ordered Ollie, who nodded and brushed feverishly.

All too soon, Ollie announced that an hour had passed.

Victor and Bee dropped their brushes in their plastic cup of water. Bee was beaming and Victor looked pleased with himself, though he was trying to hide it. Victor turned the canvas towards Connor and Ollie. 

“We’ve named our piece, Summer Picnic,” Victor said, pointing at a large monster sitting on the grass, eating brains from a skull. The monster had also had a flower crown and was simultaneously cute and horrifying. The image, Connor noted immediately, was far too skillful.

“You cheated!” he shouted, suddenly embarrassed of his own sloppy work. “This was supposed to be a competition for amateurs!”

Victor shrugged. “Bee did most of the work, I only colored the flowers.” He smirked. 

Bee chuckled next to him as if they were part of some sort of private art scheme. 

Ollie pouted. “Connor, don’t be ashamed of our monster. You’ll make him sad.” 

“Your monster is very cute,” Bee noted. 

“I want a vegetarian pizza, and coke, please,” Victor said. “Ollie, you can handle Bee’s wish.”

Connor crossed his arms. “I refuse. I don’t deal with cheaters.” 

“I insist,” Victor said with a wide smile that sent a shiver down Connor’s spine and a little extra blood down lower. 

“You can insist to my butt,” he snapped back to cover his reddening cheeks.

While Connor was busy arguing with the world’s greatest cheater, Ollie and Bee sat on the couch and pulled out some of their snacks. They were talking and giggling, sometimes looking over just to shake their heads and gossip some more. 

“Guys!” Ollie called out, interrupting what was about to become a very serious fight about integrity and sportsmanship. Ollie was dangling a bag of chips in the air– the way you do when you’re trying to lure a cat.

It was enough to distract Victor from whatever snappy line he was about to say. “You still owe me,” he said to Connor, then turned to follow the call of the chips. 

Connor flipped him off behind his back.