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Branzy did not like Clown’s parents.
He would feel bad about thinking that, if he thought that about someone else’s parents, but when it was Clown’s parents… He couldn’t bring himself too.
There were many reasons as to why, which Branzy would not elaborate on, but the one that bothered him at this very moment was that they didn’t do Easter stuff (or any holiday stuff for that matter) with Clown since he was halfway through elementary school.
Clown said that they said that it was because he was ‘too old for that’.
Not because they just don’t participate in christian holidays or just can’t for some reason, but because Clown was tOo OlD.
Branzy thought that was BS. Clown was fifteen, one and a half years younger than Branzy and Branzy wasn’t too old for holiday stuff.
Upon hearing about that, Branzy had immediately decided to change that. Well, not that , but give Clown proper holiday experience.
So for every big holiday, Branzy invited Clown to do something together: Birthdays, Halloween and New Years Eve were spent together, usually in cosplay; For the time around Christmas he gave them an extra advent calendar his parents had gotten after Branzy told them. And on Easter, Branzy, Clown and one time even Branzy’s little sister Arika went to search for eggs in their backyard.
It was generally a good time and the sparkle in Clown’s eyes was worth any sort of trouble that may have come from the changes. (There never came any trouble from it, but Branzy would go through any troubles to see Clown so childishly happy.)
This year (the second one with this new tradition), Clown and him spent some time in Branzy’s room, reading eachother’s fanfictions (a hobby that Clown had gotten Branzy into after they transformed into a writer) before Branzy’s mother came to tell them that his father said that he just saw the Easter Bunny hop off and needed their help.
It was obvious to all of them that this was just an initiation for their search, but Branzy and Clown took their quest very seriously, shifting into their new profession as detectives as they equipped their bags, went down the stairs and approached their newest client, Branzy’s father.
“Hello sir,” Clown said, not nearly as awkward as he usually was around Branzy’s parents, now that he was in character, “We are the master detectives, Pearce ‘ClownPierce’ Cluwen and Branzy ‘Kevin’ Craft, the detectives assigned to your case.”
Branzy nodded, taking out a small notepad and pencil before questioning his father.
“So, you have said you saw something hopping around your estate, correct?” he asked, continuing after his father nodded, smiling amusedly, “Would you mind elaborating on that?”
“Well,” his father supplied, matching their energy, “It was the shape of a bunny I think. It left behind a trail of shiny, suspicious looking things. It also seemed to dislike the sun, as it was only in the shadow half.”
Branzy scribbled on his notepad as Clown continued the questioning.
“So what you are saying is that the bunny-like creature was only in this half of the yard, correct?” Clown asked, moving their hand to gesture to the half of the backyard which was overshadowed by the building behind theirs.
“Yes,” Branzy’s father said, “The bunny kept to the shadows.”
“That raises another question, though,” Clown continued, “Did the bunny also enter any of the other shadow areas, such as the table section?”
The man shook his head. “No,” he said, “I believe it was because the way was blocked by sunny spots.”
Clown nodded before turning to Branzy. “Write that down,” he instructed before turning back to his friend’s father, “We are going to collect the evidence, then we will work on constructing the theory.”
“Thank you for your service,” Mr. Craft said, nodding, “It is really great that you could make time for this. I’m sure your schedule is full with how great you are at your jobs.”
Clown nodded. “It is,” he said, “but we can always make space for important cases like this one.”
Mr. Craft nodded and sat down on the step, watching as Branzy and Clown walked off.
Branzy was so insanely amused by Clown's acting that he found it hard to stay in character himself, which is why he didn’t participate in the conversation as much.
“Sooo,” he said, dragging out the ‘o’, “What’s your assessment, Detective Cluwen?”
“I’d say we start from over there,” Clown said, gesturing to the far right of the shadow side, “and work our way to the left side before doing one last round to check if we got everything. That way we’re less likely to miss evidence.”
Branzy could barely suppress a snort at how strategic Clown was being over something as simple as an egg hunt. It did sound reasonable, though, so Branzy just nodded, walking to where Clown had pointed.
In a matter of less than five minutes, they made it through half the shadowed yard before Clown stopped for a second.
“Is it normal for bunny-like creatures to leave behind kits along with chocolate eggs?” they asked, sounding mildly concerned as he picked up a chocolate bunny.
Branzy turned to him, hiding his grin behind his hand.
“If they’re particularly naughty kits, probably,” Branzy’s father answered from where he sat on the steps.
“Well, that sounds like a healthy and completely normal family dynamic to me,” Clown said with a blank cheery expression, before continuing searching for eggs.
Branzy snorted. “Very healthy,” he said before also returning to the search.
After another five minutes, the two finished the other half, although Branzy had to do the last section by himself as Clown refused to step any closer than five meters to the spiders there.
When Branzy turned back to Clown, they were standing on their toetips, leaning slightly to the side before returning to a more usual position.
“You missed one,” Clown said, pointing to a small collection of chocolate eggs and marzipan bread settled on top of the birdhouse attached to the fence.
Branzy quickly put the things in his bag before returning to Clown.
“Thanks,” he said. “Anything else I missed?”
Clown took a few more seconds to inspect the section from afar before shaking his head. “I don’t think so,” they said, “Let’s look over it one more time, okay?”
Branzy nodded, offering his hand to Clown as they slowly walked back. Clown took his hand, surrounding it with the familiar coldness of Clown’s ever-freezing hands.
On their way back they found about five small hideouts they missed and pocketed the evidence.
Once they were sure they found everything, they went back to Branzy’s father.
“I think we found all of the evidence,” Branzy said, trying to attain the sophisticated detective energy Clown had going on.
Branzy’s father nodded and looked over the yard. “I would believe you did, too,” he said, “I’m going to go and look if I find any more, but you can go back upstairs with the evidence already.”
Believe. Dang, Branzy should’ve used that instead of ‘think’... Oh well…
“Yes sir,” he replied, moving towards the door, “Let’s go, Detective Cluwen.”
Clown nodded. “Good day, sir,” they said before following Branzy inside.
Inside, they sorted the findings by type on the kitchen table before leaving them for Branzy’s mother to divide them fairly between Branzy, his siblings and Clown and going to Branzy’s room, after they washed their hands, where they listened to Lovejoy. Clown was resting his head in Branzy’s lap, who was sitting on the couch as he continued reading Clown’s fanfiction while carding his fingers through their hair.
After a bit, Branzy finished the last chapter and put down his phone, using his newly freed hand to card through Clown’s hair as well.
Clown, having connected the dots, apparently, opened his eyes again.
“What do you think?” they asked, looking up at Branzy, who in turn looked down to them, smiling.
“It’s really good,” he said truthfully. “Especially the bit where Ardy mentions Felix putting his phone on airplane mode before throwing it like Ash always does”
Clown grinned. “I’m glad you like it,” they said, “Are you happy with the Ash representation in my fanfiction”
Branzy grinned, too. “Yeah,” he said, “Ash is definitely a Felix kinnie, so it fits like the fist on the eye.”
Clown giggled, hiding their mouth by holding the back of their right hand against it.
“Please never change,” he said.
“Hm… I can’t promise that,” Branzy said, smiling like an idiot, “but what I can promise is that no matter how I change I will always love you very, very much, Clown.”
As Branzy hoped, Clown’s cheeks reddened. Clown looked so pretty when they blushed. That was not to say that he wasn’t pretty the rest of the time, he was, but he looked even more pretty when he was blushing, because it meant that Branzy did something right.
“Hm…,” Clown said falsely mournfully, “I’m not sure I can believe you just like that. Maybe if you proved it with a kiss, though?”
Branzy grinned so hard his cheeks started to hurt as they warmed up.
“Yeah, I think I can do that,” he said, putting a hand on Clown’s soft cheek, leaning down a little.
Clown, in turn, smiled and put both of their cold hands on Branzy’s hot cheeks, pulling him down a little further. Branzy held eye contact with his boyfriend until they started tapping his cheek impatiently. Branzy took the hint and leaned further down and-
Knock knock -his mother knocked on the door. Branzy immediately shot back up, his face feeling as if it was on fire, while Clown sat up and inched a little away from him.
“Come in!” Branzy called out as soon as he felt sure his voice wouldn’t crack.
His mother opened the door, holding two translucent plastic plates, one purple and one red, with some of their finds inside.
“Here are your rewards, my capable detectives, she said, putting them on Branzy’s desk, “You can get some muffins from the kitchen.”
Right, the muffins.
As Clown and him went to wash their hands, Branzy told Clown all about them.
“Oh yeah, I made muffins yesterday evening,” he said proudly, “I made them almost completely myself, but my mother had to help me with the oven, but I think I still deserve ninety-nine percent of the credit.”
Clown nodded, smiling slightly. “Sounds cool.”
The two went to the kitchen where the muffins were presented on two platters on the table.
“This batch is citrus and the other is chocolate,” Branzy explained as he showed Clown his masterpieces, each decorated differently. Clown nodded in response, looking at the muffins with his autistic artistic eyes.
“They look great,” he ended up saying, which made pride swell up in Branzy’s chest. Of course, Clown wouldn’t just say that they looked bad, but he sounded very genuine. To most people it probably sound fake as frick because of how flat Clown’s voice was in that particular moment, but Branzy had spent enough time studying the arts of Clownology to know that it was because Clown usually had a hard time regulating how flat or expressive their voice sounded, making it range from extremely expressive to almost entirely monotone seemingly without any trace of emotions, especially when he didn’t feel the need to mask it, which in itself was a huge compliment to Branzy too, because it meant that Clown trusted him and felt safe around him enough to not have to put on a metaphorical (and physical (Clown wore a medical mask almost always when they weren’t at Branzy’s or his own home)) mask.
“Thanks!” Branzy answered happily, just a second before his mother came into the kitchen.
“So each of you can have two muffins,” she said, giving a plate to each of them.
Branzy took a chocolate muffin with both chocolate and citrus glazing, as well as a citrus muffin with citrus glazing and a chocolate flower, before turning to Clown.
“Which ones do you want?” he asked, knowing that it was hard for Clown to take things without directly being asked to, sometimes.
Clown looked at the muffins for a few more seconds until he picked a chocolate muffin with chocolate glazing and a chocolate butterfly, as well as a citrus muffin with yellow and purple citrus glazing.
The two then went back to Branzy’s room and ate the muffins while watching some episodes of Minecraft Freedom, which was definitely an English YouTube series and not German at all.
Once they finished their muffins (or Clown finished his, while Branzy only ate the citrus one and half of the choco one because the choco one didn’t taste as good as he had thought), Branzy brought their plates back to the kitchen.
When he got back to his room, Clown was leaning on the armrest of the couch, typing something on their phone.
“What are you doing?” Branzy asked, sitting down next to them as Paluten searched the chests futilely for Banani, which was in his inventory already.
“Wait a second…,” Clown said, concentrating on what he was doing for a few more seconds. Then, he looked at Branzy.
“I wrote down to write a platonic Alldy Easter special based on our detective roleplay,” Clown said, “Because, honestly, it was way too good to just let it go like that.”
“Oh,” Branzy said, smiling as he leaned against his beloved partner, “That sounds like a good idea.”
“Yeah…,” Clown said before focussing their attention back onto the screen.
A few minutes of relative silence, save for the video playing, passed until Clown spoke up again.
“You still haven’t given me my kiss,” he said, looking at Branzy, “I want my kiss.”
Branzy chuckled. “Well, we can’t have that,” he said, cupping Clown’s cheeks, pulling him a little closer.
Clown moved closer, half sitting on Branzy’s lap at this point.
“Nope,” they said, putting his hands on Branzy’s cheeks as they leaned closer to him, close enough for Branzy to feel their breath on his lips, “Can’t have that.”
Branzy chuckled slightly before finally putting his lips on Clown’s.
He couldn’t say they kissed a lot, mainly because of Clown’s initial aversion and/or shyness to physical affection, but when they did it was practically heaven.
Clown’s lips were soft with a slight chapped texture to them, likely from his habit of chewing on them and occasional dehydration, and Branzy was sure that texture was his favourite. He also enjoyed the intimacy of the action, because it was one of the main ways he showed and felt love. Clown seemed to like it a lot, too, apparently, seeing as he started to ask for kisses more recently.
Branzy didn’t realise his eyes were still open until they fell shut.
They really, really should kiss more if Clown was comfortable with it. But that was a discussion for later.
When they broke apart, they leaned their foreheads against one another.
Clown’s eyes were still closed, but from the slightly uneven breathing as well as the little smile on their face, Branzy could tell he was awake. And the fact that the two just kissed.
Their hands slid from Branzy’s cheeks to his shoulders and Branzy stroked Clown’s cheeks with the thumbs of his hand which were still resting on their cheeks.
A little later, after their little moment and KotKit sounds exchange (an activity where they show eachother the KotKit sounds they saved in the time inbetween their hangouts), Branzy decided he would walk Clown home as they both were getting tired.
So, after he put Clown’s Easter stuff from the plate into a small, older paper gift bag and gave it to them, Branzy took his boyfriend’s hand and walked him home.
Infront of Clown’s apartment complex, he hugged his lover, who gasped.
That gasp he always did when he remembered that they forgot to do their secret handshake when they met up. Oh gosh.
And so they did it twice (like almost every time these days).
Branzy was going to leave it at that, but then before he could leave, Clown pressed a small kiss on his lips, leaving him blushing as they went inside.
“Bye Clown!” Branzy called out, voice cracking ever so slightly.
“Must be off, my moth,” Clown said, smiling, before the door fell shut.
Gosh Branzy loved that guy.
When Branzy got home, he was horrified to see Clown’s chocolate bunny sitting on his couch, before realising that it meant that they had to meet up again ASAP.
This was good because they didn’t see eachother very much, seeing as they went to different schools, and they were on Easter break, so he quickly took a photo and sent it to Clown.
Bread <33 (they/he)
[photo]
Guess we gotta
hang out again soon
(07:12 PM)
how tragic :o]
tomorrow 3pm?
(07:14 PM)
Yes
(07:15 PM)
Btw ily <3
(07:15 PM)
ilyt <33
(07:15 PM)
