beta squad ♡ bxb ♡ FLUFFEBRUARY 2024

Day 29 [crying]

Prompt fill: crying
Relationship not specified
AJ & Niko & Chunkz & Darkest

Most people looked a bit butters when crying. Niko himself did, he knew that much.

He was also very familiar with the teary look on his friend's faces, and after a bit of observation, he came to the conclusion that not only did people look weird while they cried, the feeling of not knowing what to do made it actually kind of cringe to watch them cry.

Aj, however- Aj looked positively heartbreaking. His eyes became all wide and glassy, his bottom lip started to tremble slightly, and he'd look so devastated, Niko couldn't bear looking at him.

And truly there actually wasn't even a reason for Aj to be crying at all, like ever. It still happened sometimes, but over time, Niko had perfected a routine, with the only function to make Aj smile again as soon as possible.

That routine sadly only worked when Niko was prepared to deal with Aj's tears from the jump. It totally didn't work when he was caught off guard by Aj's sobbing, which sent him into panic mode and was also a major flaw in his plan to make sure Aj never cries again.

Like this evening, for example, when he walked into the living room carefree, only to find Aj sitting in front of the television, bawling his eyes out. Niko stopped dead in his tracks, the first question shooting through his mind being, 'how could someone make the crying tears and snot face look so touching and weirdly cute'.

His second reaction was a gigantic bound of rage, aimed at whatever dared to make Aj cry like that. That didn't last very long however, as Aj noticed Niko in the doorway and pointed pitifully at the screen where a nature documentary was playing.

Then, all the anger evaporated, and Niko was left with the overwhelming urge to coo at his friend. He couldn't, obviously, Aj was a grown man, and coddling him was so far off the table, but

"Niko," Aj sniffed sadly, "Niko, they killed the elephant baby."

Looking at Aj like a deer caught in headlight for a second, he snapped himself out of his cuteness overload and threw caution in the wind.

Niko let himself fall down on the couch next to Aj and pulled him carefully against his chest.

"Don't cry, my Aj," he murmered, "please, please, don't cry."

Aj's small body shook with his sobs and he let his head drop onto Niko's shoulder. "'m sorry," he choked out, shivering.

Niko bit his lip as not to squeal out loud and cradled him closer. "No, no, it's fine, you're okay," he began peppering his face with kisses, "Aj, my Aj, you're alright, don't cry."

Aj buried his face in Niko's neck and clung to his torso. Niko began threading his hands through his hair, panicking more and more when it did nothing to soothe Aj's cries and fruitlessly trying to remember what the next steps of his perfectly laid out routine plan were, when Chunkz walked into the room.

"Yo my people, I'm back-", he stopped in the doorway, eyes fixed on A sobbing in Niko's arms. "Oh my- Niko, what did you do?" He dropped his bags on the floor, rushing towards them.

Niko gasped offended, "what did I- ? How dare you, I'm here to help!" He tightened his grip on Aj's body, not liking that Chunkz tried to pull Aj into his own lap. He gestured with his chin to the TV. "It wasn't my fault, he watched a tiny elephant baby be brutally murdered and-"

Niko was interrupted by a loud sob from Aj, who looked at him horrified. Chunkz used his distraction to pull him fully into his lap, and pushed Aj's face into his chest. "Why would you bring it up, idiot?" Chunkz hissed, trying to soothe Aj by stroking up and down his back.

Niko pouted at the two and reached out to hold Aj's hand. "I forgot, I kept panicking and trying to remember the list!" Niko dodged Chunkz attempt to smack his fingers away and clutched Aj's hand tightly in his. 

"What list?" Chunkz replied suspiciously. Last time Niko talked about a 'list' they had to clean up glitter from every surface for weeks, because apparently, according to Niko, checking bullet points off a list was a very common synonym for 'I'm convincing everyone that Aj's a fairy and leaves fairy dust wherever he goes, so naturally for achieving that, I'm helping out with glitter'.

Niko looked at him, affronted, "it's not like that!" He looked sadly at Aj's shaking shoulders and moved closer to the two, trying to hug Aj from the back, somehow managing to wrap himself around them. "I made a step by step plan on how to stop Aj from crying, and I've completely forgotten the stupid steps," he whispered quickly so Aj wouldn't hear them taking about him and cry even harder.

"Ah," Chunkz nodded, completely understanding the dilemma now. He tangled his hands in Aj's hair, tugging his head up a bit so that he was forced to look up at them.

Which he did, with red rimmed eyes, tears trailing down his soft cheeks and lips trembling. "Ah, fuck," Chunkz whispered devastated, pushing Aj's face back into his neck.

Aj looked heartbreaking. There was no way Chunkz could demand anything from him. Niko looked at him unimpressed but made no move to try and make Aj look up again.

"What's going on here?" Darkest asked from the doorway, having arrived with Chunkz but he had put the groceries in his bags away before investigating the weird noises they had heard walking into the house.

Chunkz and Niko looked up, simultaneously opening their mouths to explain, but remembering in the last moment how Aj had reacted the last time Niko had reminded him of the baby elephant's death, and closing them again.

Darkest raised his brow expectantly before taking one look at the nature documentary still playing on mute and swiftly walking over to the three. "You're useless," he muttered under his breath, "watch and learn."

He softly placed his hand on Aj's shoulder and asked silently, "what animal?"

Aj's reply came in the form of a heartbreaking sob, making Niko and Chunkz cuddle closer. "Baby elephant."

Darkest nodded knowingly and tugged Aj's head up. "We need to work on an initiative to make the lives of the murderers hell. Will you join me?"

Aj hiccuped once and starred up at Darkest before wiping his eyes and getting off Chunkz's and Niko's laps. "Im ready!" He rushed into his room to get pens and paper, tears long forgotten already.

Niko and Chunkz looked at Darkest in wonder. "How'd you do that?" Niko breathed out. Darkest rolled his eyes, "vengeance, brother. The last resort."

Niko shook his head, "I always forget that it works so well," he whispered amazed.

"I know," Darkest huffed. "It's why the first and only point on your foolproof list is to call me for help."

~the end

[1170 words]

[Had to bring Darkest back for the last day lmao]

[Can't believe it's over wow. I had so much fun, writing everyday and coming up with so many new ideas. Thanks to everyone who kept reading and commenting u mean the world to me and kept me so motivated <333

I'm definitely gonna keep posting, either in the existing one-shot book or a completely new story so don't u worry, but it probably won't be every single day for a bit. I loved loved loved the concept tho, so I probably will be doing it again<3]