Chapter Text
The group chat had gotten annoying- Fast. He’d get a notification sound every few minutes with something different. Maybe it was Narancia changing the damn group chat name again, maybe it was Guido sending pictures of his face up close or, as it was most likely, Leone telling Giorno to shut up whenever the little ‘Giorno is typing’ showed up.
It was a constant stream of words and photos, sometimes there were even voice messages. Everytime Fugo would look into the chat, he’d see that someone was typing. It’d always be like that- Until he started typing. They all went silent when he started to type. It always made him feel like he did something wrong.
Maybe he was doing something wrong. Pannacotta had eaten dinner, he had showered and changed into his pajamas. Yet he was still awake. It was 10:30 PM and he laid awake. His phone stuck in his hand as he stared at the group chat. He watched each message flow through. His eyelids started to push down with exhaustion but he forced them open. He knew very well he could just turn the sounds of the notifications off- But the small smile that was on his face as he read the back and forth between his friend group made him want to keep them on.
>Narancia: ‘dude dude did you see the new trailer that came out last night?’
>Guido: ‘Ofc I have?? who didn’t?”
>Giorno: ‘I mean, I haven’t. I like to wait to watch the trailers after the movie comes out so I can watch it right away if I’m interested.’
>Leone: ‘That’s real fucking stupid’
>Giorno: ‘I don’t really think it is. I can watch it right then instead of waiting.’
>Leone: ‘You got some fuckin mental problems, just watch the trailer and don’t be difficult’
>Narancia: ‘yeah well anyway, the lead actress is so fucking hot??? i’d let her sit on my face ooooooh my god’
>Guido: ‘HAHAHAHHAHAH SOMEONE’S DOWN BAD LMAOOO’
>Narancia: ‘DON’T EVEN START WITH ME I KNOW HOW YOU WERE WHEN WE SAW BEAUTY AND THE BEWAST YOU WANRTED TYO FUBHAVE SEX EITH BELLE AND YOU WOULDNY SHUT HTE FUCK UP ABOUT IT AT LEAST THE GIRL I FIND OHOT IS FUCKIGN REAL OH MY OGD’
Fugo had to cover his mouth as he tried to stifle his laugh. His face was flushing with joy as he read through each text they sent each other. For some reason, this stupidity felt comforting. He felt like he wasn’t going to be judged in this situation. They wouldn’t really have the room to judge. Fugo felt as if he could be himself even though what made him feel like he could really let go was the fact they’re making fun of each other for cartoon crushes.
Fugo never watched many children’s shows while growing up. The closest he’s ever gotten was when he was in the hospital with a fever and would be up at 3 am with teen Nick playing. In that fevered haze at the ripe age of 12, he felt that’s what he wanted. He wanted to be in a teen drama with friends who had a group chat and their own car, they’d sneak out to go to movies and would have crushes. They had fun and they all wanted each other in the shows- He might finally have his teen Nick TV drama.
Though he had a grin on his face, he could feel his tiredness just laying behind his eyes. He was up way past the usual time he went to bed and could feel himself starting to drift. He wanted to do one thing before he went to bed though.
>Pannacotta: ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
A promise he knew he’d keep. He never wanted this feeling to go away.
Fugo had started to meet up with the group daily and every other day, they’d find a new fast food place to eat at. Pannacotta never knew there was so much variety of grease until he went into Giorno’s car every afternoon. He had to say his favorite that they’ve tried together was Subway. It didn’t feel as gross and it was simple. It was a sandwich. No one could mess up a sandwich, well, no one competent could mess up a sandwich.
It was the same time as always and Pannacotta found himself drifting out of his thoughts to view his tutor’s shoes. It was Tuesday, math day. Yesterday was history, tomorrow will be science and the day after that will be math again. It was always the same. History, math, science, math and then Fridays is when he’d do his homework.
At first, Fugo had protested getting a tutor. He didn’t want one, he didn’t think he needed one. He did his work just fine and got above average scores. It wasn’t until he realized his parents required perfect was that when he realized why he needed Mr. Marzu.
Cazu Marzu, a professor who seemingly had no home life. He thought the man was just lonely to spend all his time after school tutoring him. That was until Fugo realized two things. One, that Fugo was Marzu’s only student to tutor and two, how many zeros were on the end of that check. Mr. Marzu was also a long time friend of his mother and they seemed to get along well. He was always invited to dinner, invited to their house parties and even once on a family outing.
Pannacotta loved Marzu. He was everything someone could wish to be. He was put together yet loose, he wasn’t too stuck in his head yet he knew when to think. He remembered to button each of the buttons of his shirt every morning and he always wore matching socks. Pannacotta wanted to be just like him. The only thing Fugo didn’t like was when he looked down.
For such a smart guy, he never understood why he wore white shoes. He always wore the same pair of white shoes every time he saw him. His sandals for the beach were white, his running shoes were white, his dress shoes were white and even his daily shoes were white.
Fugo always wore black shoes. His shoes were black with black laces. They didn’t stain easily and they fit with every outfit he owned. When owning black shoes was so easy, he didn’t understand why people chose to wear white ones. He supposed if the people wearing them did it correctly, they did look pretty nice.
“Pannacotta,” Mr. Marzu startled him out of his haze, “We’re done for our lesson for today,” The man had started to pack everything away.
He shuffled his papers and books away before grabbing the pencils he left out.
“I’ll be seeing you tomorrow,” He stood up, looking down at Fugo with a small grin before waving. “Stay safe on your way home, it’s a bit muggy out there,”
“Will do, sir, thank you.” Fugo stated gratefully, grabbing all of his material before turning to leave in the opposite way of Mr. Marzu.
Pulling out his phone to check the time before starting his walk home, his eyebrow arched at all the notifications from his messenger from Guido.
>‘FUGOOOOOOO WHAT DO YOU EVEN DO AFTER SCHOOLLLLLLLLKJ YOU’RE ALWAYS SO LATE’
> WE WENT TO THE PETSTORE TODAY AND COULDNT TAKE YOU SINCE YOU WERE LIKE JACKING OFF IN THE BATHROOM DUDE’
>’TELL ME WHEN YOU GET THESE WE GOT PLANS AND NEED UR OH PINNEY IN >:) yes i know how to spell opinion its just funny to typ eit like that’
Reading through the messages, Fugo shook his head before typing out his own response.
>’I do tutoring after school daily, I thought you knew this? I care about my grades. What did you need my opinion on?’
Plugging in his earbuds, he shifted the weight from one side to the other as he waited for Mista’s response. He’d like to answer Mista’s question before he started walking because he knew Mista would blow up his phone while he was walking.
>’Ok ok ok so, we plan on going camping this weekened ya? We wan take u. Giorno doesn’t have his car all days on weekdays so we’re going shopping right after school ends to get what we need these next few days. We’ll b going to mykers lake to cmap friday afternoon >:D, u in?’
Oh! Fugo’s never been camping! He’s always heard about in some of the young adult novels he’s read and heard it was a pretty fun experience. He supposed he could cut a little time out of his tutoring lessons for the rest of the week. He didn’t have any upcoming tests anyway and his grades were doing just fine. It’s not like his parents would care if he disappeared for the weekend either.
>’Sure. I’ll come. I have enough money to cover if anyone else doesn’t have enough.’
He was- Kind of excited. Fugo has never really bought things for people, he always just had left over money that he didn’t need. He knew Mista and Narancia weren’t the best off, so he felt kind of happy being able to help them get better camping gear.
As the texts started to slow down, Fugo had decided to start walking home. He was excited for the near future but he had to make sure he brought all he needed. Especially bug spray. Fugo hated getting bug bites.
Shifting the uniform’s blazer on him as he walked, he hummed along to the music that played through his earbud’s sides. What was camping like though? Were they just going to sit in a plastic tent while it rained and be scared of bears?
Mista made it seem fun enough through the text messages from how excited he seemed. Mista probably went camping before. He probably went camping with the rest of the group. Maybe that’s what they did during the summer. Did they go fishing too? Fugo never learned how to fish so maybe they could teach him! He’d need a fishing rod too, right? Bait? Could he buy bait at the store or did he need to harvest it himself? Fugo didn’t like worms so he didn’t know how he’d feel about searching for them himself.
While in his head thinking about the trip, he was at his front gate sooner than he thought he’d be. He punched in the code and heard the ugly creaking of the gate unlocking and letting itself be opened by Fugo.
He walked up the stone path that led to the door and let himself in daintily with his little house key he kept buttoned into the inside of his blazer pocket. He took off his school shoes at the door and carried them in between his fingers as he walked to his room. His room was unlocked as it usually was when he wasn’t home and he proceeded to let himself in.
Pannacotta placed his shoes under his desk and then started to strip himself of his outer uniform. First his blazer and then his button up, he folded them and placed them on the clean area of the desk. While discarding his clothing in the dirty linen basket he kept in the corner of his room, it hit him.
What was Fugo going to wear on the camping trip? What was he going to wear on the car ride there? He doubted that they all were going to stay in their stuffy uniforms the whole ride there and back!
He stood in front of the linen basket and felt himself start to overthink. What if he didn’t fit in with what they were wearing? They were poor, of course they wouldn’t match exactly what he was wearing! Oh. That was a little mean, Pannacotta.
Ugh! Quickly, he shuffled himself up to the linen basket, picked it up and poured it all over his bed. Hastifully he started to sort through the clothing he had worn in the past week. All of it was the same. Uniform undershirts, his back-up blazers and the same slacks he’s worn for years.
That’s when it hit him once again.
He did go on a more lax vacation before! One with his grandmother a few years ago. It was the trip before his grandmother became housebound. He was so devastated that the trip wouldn’t be annual anymore that he didn’t even unpack the suitcase he brought with him.
Fugo could feel his heart in his throat as he approached his closet. Hidden away under hanging suits and folded socks was a brightly colored suitcase he once dragged alongside him at the ripe age of 14. Moving the items out of the way, he made sure not to push any of his clothing off the hangers before ripping the suitcase from its confines. Placing the suitcase carefully onto the bed alongside the mess of clothing he had just created, he studied the carry-on.
It was a light blue suitcase with stickers adorning it. He kept this suitcase at his grandmother’s house, so he was allowed to decorate it however he wanted without his parents scolding him for being so childish. He found himself smiling slightly at the Naruto and Avatar stickers he had all over the exterior.
Grabbing the tag, he found himself reading his old cursive handwriting once again. He read the luggage tag and felt it pull at his heart strings for a moment. Listed on the address line was the address of his grandmother. He found himself missing spending the summers there.
Shaking his head, he opened up the suitcase and looked at the contents inside. Nothing was folded and it was obvious it would all need a wash, but he found himself looking eye to eye with clothing that hadn't shown the light of day in years.
Cargo shorts. T-shirts. Sandals.
For the hot weekend coming up, this should all be just great to wear! Grabbing one of the t-shirts, he held it up to his ceiling light to get a better view of the graphic on the front.
‘I went to Fred’s Mountain Water Park and didn’t throw up!’ It made him wince a bit at the idea but the small smile on his face didn’t fade. It was a bright tie-dye blue with white ripples throughout it. That one was a maybe. It’d be fine if they didn’t read the text, but he didn’t want to risk the idea of any of them being literate enough to make fun of his shirt.
Unwrinkling the next shirt, he held this one up to the light too. It was a gray shirt with an anime character on the front. He couldn’t pinpoint who it was at first as it had grown faded and was folded disgustingly. That one was also a maybe. What if the character was from some stupid show and they knew it and made fun of him for it? You didn’t have to know how to read in order to identify a character!
This went on for a while longer, with Fugo making piles of ‘no’, ‘maybe’, and ‘yes’. In the end, he only had one outfit left in the ‘yes’ pile with the rest residing in ‘maybe’ and ‘no’. Ugh.. He would just have to figure this out. Maybe he could borrow a shirt from Panettone? He had lots of cool shirts that their parents didn’t know about.
While he had refused to ask Panettone himself, maybe he could just take some when he wasn’t there? It wasn’t like Panettone was home that often.
While Pasticciotto cycled through girls like daily newspapers, Panettone was more of a collector. At times, he’d bring multiple girls home and stay at their houses for weeks on end. With all the women he surrounded himself with, Panettone was almost never home.
Getting the shirts from Panettone’s room didn’t seem like a problem, more of the problem of actually getting into his room. He knew Pasticciotto would snitch in seconds if he saw Pannacotta going into their brother’s room. He didn’t know what his father nor mother would say, but all outcomes he could think of ended with Panettone finding out he was in his room.
With that, Pannacotta Fugo had hatched a plan. He was to wait until the house grew asleep and simply go into Panettone’s room, grab a few shirts that felt like they’d have a nice decal on them and then leave. It was nearly a fool-proof plan!
Fugo was showered, fed and had done his dishes for the night. Though like every other night, he wasn’t asleep in his bed and tucked under his blankets. He sat on the floor, next to his slightly ajar door. The house was silent and only the air in the vents stirred.
It was roughly three in the morning.. And there Pannacotta sat awake. What for? For a graphic t-shirt so he wouldn’t get made fun of by his new friends. Did he really care that much what they thought of him?
He sat there thinking for a few moments..
Yes. Yes he did. If they made fun of his shirts while on this trip, he will no longer have any friends ever again and will become a recluse.
Fugo got himself up, steady in his black slippers and pried open his door slowly. He made sure it wouldn’t creak as he slowly walked himself over to his older brother’s room. He knew each of these floorboards like the back of his hand.
When his father grew angry, he knew he had to walk around the house quietly. Over the years of avoiding his father’s CEO wrath, he learned each sound the floorboards would make. He knew how much pressure would make a sound grow from the wood below him.
So that’s why he danced around certain pieces of flooring underneath him as he made it to Panettone’s room. He moved like a ghost as he reached the open door of his brother’s room. Anxiety grew in his stomach as he slowly walked in, observing the room he hadn’t been in in years.
It was a bit of a mess, clothing on the floor and items scattered on his bed. The light from the window helped Pannacotta to see just a little better- It shone into the room and lit up the shiny foil on Panettone’s bed.
Pannacotta felt himself cringe as he saw foiled condom wrappers on the sheeted mattress. At.. Least Panettone wasn’t getting anyone pregnant? That was the only plus Pannacotta could come up with for seeing such a thing in his siblings room.
Eventually, the boy reached the closet. Opening the closet door slowly and quietly, he shoved his hand in with haste. He wrapped his fist around a few hangers and plucked them off the rod they hung from. Without even checking what was on the shirts he grabbed, he left the room as quickly and as quietly as he came.
His heart beat out of his chest as he made it back to his room. Closing and locking the door, he laid the shirts on his bed and flicked the light switch to ‘on’.
Pannacotta felt his skin run cold as he started to look through the shirts.
‘I got this shirt from Mable’s Whore House.’ is what the first one said, and when he grabbed it to move it, he felt crust on the bottom of the shirt. He didn’t even return this one, rather he shoved it to the bottom of his trash can, hanger and all. He’d have to take out his trash in the morning before someone saw and thought the shirt was his.
“Jesus..” He felt himself murmuring as he started to look over the other shirts.
The second shirt was a plain black one with a skull on the front. It looked pretty promising until he turned it over to look on the back. ‘SKULL-FUCKER ANONYMOUS’
Pannacotta just felt himself blink as he read it a few more times. That shirt rested in the ‘no’ pile within seconds.
The last shirt, the last shirt he had managed to sneak from his brother’s room had to be something. He almost prayed to God and the holy spirits for this shirt to not have to do something with whore houses and skull-fucking.
A light blue shirt with a cutesy drawing of a kitten on the front made Pannacotta smile slightly. Maybe his brother didn’t just have the worst fashion taste.
“I LOVE PUSSY!”
Oh. Maybe he shouldn’t’ve read the text under the cute cat.
Placing the third and final shirt that had failed him with the other failures in the ‘no’ pile, he felt defeated.
Laying on his back in his bed, he gave a heavy sigh. Pannacotta pulled out his phone and went to his contacts.
>’Guido, could I borrow a few shirts this weekend?’
Without even waiting for a reply from Mista, he found himself falling asleep. Anything had to be better than what he had on hand. Mista wasn’t as mean to make him wear something like pussy skull-fucking anonymous whore house shirts.
The adventure held him in a tired grasp, he could only hold the hope loosely that he wouldn’t be doomed to wear something that stupid.