Chapter Text
One afternoon in September, Parker Bradley found himself sat on the couch in his first love’s living room. He was dressed appropriately for the slightly chilly weather outside, a thin hoodie providing warmth for his torso and a red beanie covering his multicolour pastel hair. A wheeled suitcase, a duffel bag and a rucksack laid close by, with Parker using the suitcase as an armrest. The luggage wasn’t there because Parker was staying at the house. He was only here temporarily.
Parker’s situation wasn’t ideal, to put it lightly. Prior to him ending up here, Parker lived in a small apartment on the outskirts of the city, a short bus ride from the stadium that he umpired for. Things were nice to begin with. Parker was happy with his job and making sure that the rules were being tightly followed (and picking fights with many stuck-up parents in the process), but, truth be told, his apartment was not the best. He rented the place from a landlord who didn’t follow the rules of being a landlord. He didn’t fix any of the many malfunctioning things in the apartment like he was supposed to, demanded rent days earlier than what was planned, and got angry at Parker for the squalor of the place that he was meant to fix in the first place. Parker had tolerated it thus far, but now he wasn’t having any of it. The day before, the landlord demanded rent a whole week before the planned day, and Parker bluntly refused. When threatened with eviction, Parker slammed the door in his face. He packed the essentials and left in a huff, paying no attention to the eviction notice stapled to his door.
Once out of the apartment block, Parker called the human (well, Parker was human, but this human was human before Parker became human, if that makes sense) and asked if he could stop at their house just to figure things out. A few moments later, the human arrived in their car, wearing their favourite red shirt. The two drove out of the city, with the human letting Parker rant about his experience. When they came to a stop light, the human reassured Parker that they would be there to support him no matter what, and they held his hand until the light turned green again. Parker did still have romantic feelings for the human. All the objects did. Parker honestly felt honoured that he got to be part of the world’s biggest polycule, and thanked Lady Luck that the relationship dice chose love. The human was Parker’s first love, and they were always so good to Parker. If he was to ever have any future relationships, they would have some pretty lofty shoes to fill.
And now Parker was here. Sat in the human’s living room with nowhere to live. The human had been nice and decided to give Parker some coffee and a few peppermint chocolate cookies as refreshments while he pondered what to do. After finishing his snacks and coffee, Parker wiped the crumbs off his hands using his jeans and pulled his phone out of his rucksack. He opened his contacts app and started sporadically scrolling through the different names. Parker had a vast contact list – besides the human, his boss and other people he had to communicate with due to being a human, every single object in the house was in his contacts. He scrolled away, glancing at all the different names, pondering who would be best to call.
He started thinking about the people in the attic. Due to them all being in close proximity, Parker had a somewhat friendly bond with them. Memoria, Artt, Sophia, Holly, Prissy, Zoey… the more Parker thought about it, the less good these options felt. He was only acquainted with them, asking if he could stay with them would be too much of a risk. He pondered Dasha for a moment – she was one of the most welcoming and supportive people Parker had met, she would likely try her best to help him out. But, again, no… She already had enough going on in her life, she had already been supporting so many people, she didn’t need another one. At this point, Parker was starting to wonder if he ought to just leave who he stayed with up to chance.
Wait…
Leave it up to Chance…
“Hey, Chance. How are you?”
Chance had been Parker’s closest friend. At least, hopefully his friend. Parker desperately wanted to roll his relationship dice with Chance, but Chance always refused. Spoilsport. Anyway, the two had been buddies long before they Realised, and they still kept in contact as humans. Chance had made a good name for himself, running G&G sessions while also combining them with therapy, and they were a smash hit. Parker always admired Chance with how keen he was with helping others. He was a great guy. And he would probably be Parker’s best shot at finding a place to stay. Normally, Parker embraced the spirit of random, but in situations like this, he would need to strategise. He scrolled to Chance’s phone number and let it ring. Normally, the two conversed over text, so Parker hoped that by calling, a sense of urgency would come through.
“Ho there, Parker!” Chance greeted in a sprightly tone. “I’m doing just fine, thank you. What about you? You don’t normally call me. Something feels different.”
Okay, good. He picked up on the urgency. Parker took a deep breath and ordered, “Okay, promise me you won’t freak out.”
“That doesn’t sound promising, but continue. I’ll try not to.” Chance replied.
“I don’t have a place to live right now.” Parker said bluntly.
“Holy Crit! Are you alright?!” Chance asked, sounding panicked.
“I’m fine, I’m with the human right now. In short, I had an argument with my landlord because he didn’t follow rules, then I kicked myself out. He didn’t kick me out, it was me.” Parker explained. “Anyway, I’m technically homeless right now, so I was just wondering if it would be alright if I stayed with you until I find somewhere new.”
“Yes, of course you can stay with me! I’ll quickly get everything set up for you, then I’ll be right over!” Chance replied immediately.
“Wait, seriously? Thank yo-“ Parker tried to thank Chance, but he quickly cut him off by saying, “Seriously, it’s no problem, I’ll be over in a few minutes. Okay, see you soon!” Parker could hear clattering while Chance was speaking, which he assumed was him frantically getting up, before Chance hung up. It might have been accidental or on purpose, Chance might have been so suddenly wrapped up in preparing for Parker that he hung up. Still, Parker felt relief that he had found a place to hole up until he could find a permanent residence. After the call finished up, the human re-entered the living room to take away the empty plate and coffee mug.
“Good news?” they asked.
“Chance is gonna pick me up soon. I’ll be staying with him for the time being.” Parker explained, leaning back on the sofa. The human nodded and mentioned, “Good stuff. Chance should be good, his place is pretty cosy.”
The human disappeared into the kitchen with the dishware, leaving Parker alone again. He tapped his foot against the wooden floor, drumming his fingers on his leg. As he was alone with his thoughts, he felt a feeling of excitement creep up on him. Chance had always been great friends with Parker, but they were always confined to separate parts of the house before they were Realised, and after they were Realised, they ended up living a substantial way away from each other. Yet now, they were going to be living together for the foreseeable future. Parker’s closest pal in the same vicinity almost all the time? It sounded like a dream. Parker felt his leg begin to shake, barely able to contain his excitement. However, while he was anticipating for Chance to swing by the house, Parker would be playing his least favourite game – the waiting game.