Chapter Text
Ellie is not a light sleeper, but they aren"t a heavy one either. Nonetheless, whatever it was, Ellie always slept soundly but woke up easily. And that morning, they did so, yawning silently as they pawed around their surroundings in search of something familiar. Sometimes, during the morning, Ellie would refuse to open their eyes for whatever reason and would feel around until they eventually clutched onto something that was familiar or comforting to them. Scaly skin comes in contact with them and Ellie latches on, shifting to curl closer to the feeling with a gentle sigh.
They inaudibly mumble something under their breath, only taking a moment before blinking their eyes open. Soft, gentle sunlight greets their eyes and Ellie snaps it back shut, regretting their decision to open them.
Mornings were always so bright, although technically speaking, they could blame it on the fact that the rooms they were raised in barely had any windows, thus barely any sunlight. Yep, Ellie can blame it on that fact.
They blink their eyes open again, squinting through the sunlight as they continue to cling onto the cold scales. Ellie glances up and sees Mr. Snake fast asleep, coiled up right next to them. Despite wanting to cling onto him for a bit longer, Ellie reluctantly lets go of him.
They know how resistant Mr. Snake seemed to be with touch and sure, he’s allowed Ellie to cling or hold onto him more than once at certain moments, but Ellie doesn’t want to push any limits. Who knows how far it would take before eventually, they’d have to leave again. Ellie frowns at the thought, but briefly snaps out of their sadness when they hear a door open.
Turning around, they see Mr. Wolf step out of the shower, toweling off his hair (Could it be called hair? Ellie wasn’t sure) and dressed in clothes that looked fancy overall. Like he was ready to go out. Perking up at this detail, Ellie is more than quick to kick the covers off their legs and crawl across the large unoccupied space on the bed to rush towards him. Wolf, who hadn’t noticed Ellie practically leaping out of bed (His head was too full of thoughts of his own best friend), jumps in surprise when he looks down to find Ellie staring up at him expectantly with wide eyes.
“Holy-!” He starts before slapping a hand across his mouth, muffling the ‘shit’ before it becomes audible. Ellie blinks up innocently at him.
“God- You scared me. Tryna give me grey hairs, Ellie?” Wolf heavily breathes through his mouth, putting the towel away as he side-steps Ellie. The child turns and follows Wolf closely from behind. When he turns back around, they sign to him.
‘You’re dressed nice. Going somewhere?’ They sign with ease. Wolf blinks, his mind trying to decipher what Ellie had said through sheer memory of that sign language website he hadn’t had the time yet to look through.
Ellie notices this and merely points to Wolf’s clothes.
“Oh, you like my suit?” He questions, patting down his outfit for the day. Ellie nods. They did like Wolf’s clothes, he looked quite nice.
Ellie mimics walking for a few seconds, then points to Wolf. Luckily, he gets the message quicker this time.
“Out for breakfast. Diana invited me to a diner, says she wants to plan ahead for a charity gala.” Wolf explains, walking over to grab his suit jacket and tug it over his button up. Ellie perks up again at this and rushes over to Wolf, almost running due to how small they were compared to the tall canine.
Ellie doesn’t need to sign anything, because Wolf can already see the question waiting to burst out from the younger.
“You want to come with me?” He asks with a lilt of a smile on his face. Ellie nods enthusiastically.
“Are you sure? It’s gonna be boring.” Wolf hums, although he’s already moving to go find some of Ellie’s clothes he’d stored away. Ellie nods again anyways, trailing behind Wolf as he opens the closet.
“Alright, if you say so.” Wolf chuckles, rummaging through a drawer in search of some clothes. Ellie pumps their fists in the air in silent triumph, a wide grin spread across their face as Wolf laughs softly at the display.
Rushing up to the closet and jumping up and down enthusiastically, Ellie helps Wolf choose out an outfit for themselves, making Wolf chuckle even more at the adorable display. It doesn’t take long before Wolf has Ellie dressed up and pampered, wearing a nice cream coloured button up with frills, dark brown pants with white socks and a lovely matching brown knitted sweater on top to complete the look. Wolf smiles a bit as he watches Ellie admire themselves in the mirror, flattening any bumps and smoothing out crooked folds.
“Are you done admiring yourself over there?” Wolf questions, raising an eyebrow after he finished putting away Ellie’s other clothes. The child looks over to him and nods enthusiastically, rushing over to Wolf as they do so.
‘Is anyone else going to be there?’ the child signs, though briefly forgetting that Wolf can"t understand them all that well. So before he could look confused, Ellie points to him, then themselves before drawing a question mark in the air.
“You"re asking… who else is coming?”
Ellie nods and Wolf seems proud of himself for guessing it correctly.
“I think Webs might be stopping by. Maybe Shark as well,” he says, shrugging as he did so. Ellie points to Snake, who sleeps soundly on the bed.
“Oh, I don"t think Snakey’s coming. He might need sleep.”
Ellie pouts at this and Wolf almost laughs at how adorably childish it is.
“Well, you can ask, but I doubt he"ll say yes,” the canine only sighs, not really having the heart to tell Ellie that Snake might just agree to go out, especially so early in the morning. He usually didn"t get up until after 11 in the morning.
Still, Wolf watches as Ellie waddles over to where Snake slept, hands in his pockets, as the child climbs onto the bed and rolls over to where the serpent lay. They pat him gently on his coils, only jostling him ever so slightly until Snake groans and wakes up groggily.
“What,” the older one grumbles, glaring at Wolf with half-opened eyes. Wolf only gestures to Ellie, who sat next to Snake. He raises a nonexistent eyebrow.
Ellie mentally remembers to not launch immediately into signing, going slow as they gesture to themselves and then over to Wolf before mimicking taking a walk. Snake blinks slowly, trying to slow boot his brain awake to at least understand what the kid was saying. Or signing.
“You"re.. going out. With Wolf,” he says slowly and Ellie nods, “And what"s that got to do with me?”
“They want you to come along,” Wolf ends up saying, still standing a little ways away from the bed, near the closet with his hands in his pockets.
Snake blinks even slower this time, trying to process what Wolf had just said to him. Then immediately the sleepiness washes away as the serpent now narrows his eyes at the canine.
“It"s morning,” he grumbles.
“Perfect time for breakfast,” Wolf retaliates.
“I don"t do ‘breakfast’,” Snake huffs.
“You don"t,” the other agrees, humming, “But it can"t hurt to try.”
Snake now glares at Wolf for even entertaining the idea. Sure, before when they were doing crimes, the gang often got up early since some heists had to take place as early as dawn almost. But with the absence of these heists, there was almost no reason as to why Snake couldn"t sleep in for as long as he did. He opens his mouth to reject the idea, maybe even throw in a snarky remark at Wolf, when he catches Ellie"s expression.
The kid was now on their knees, a pout on their face as they held their hands together in an almost begging manner. Their eyes were now purposely wider and damn it, why did it look cuter?
Snake groans, slamming his face into the pillows as he did so, prolonging it to let out his frustration. Then he looks up and slides off the bed, Ellie pumping their fists in the air in triumph and a silent cheer. Wolf raises his eyebrows in surprise, not at all thinking it would actually work before he chuckles, Snake slithering past him to get into the walk-in closet.
“One time. This isn"t going to be a daily thing, you hear me?” Snake grumbles, snapping at Wolf as he grabs a Hawaiian shirt off one of the hangers.
“Oh, I hear ya, Snakey,” Wolf chuckles, glancing at Ellie as they patter their way to the closet. He raises his paw to the kid and they high five him in response. Snake scowls as he sees this.
“Traitors, the both of you. I was looking forward to sleeping in all day, but no, I have to go to breakfast apparently,” he grunts to himself, huffing and puffing about waking up so early just to go out and get something to eat. He could"ve slept in, damn it, just why did the kid and Wolf have to team up and gang up on him at once? He could"ve said no to either of them separately, but together ?? Snake was almost horrified at how easily he just gave in.
“It"s not that bad,” Wolf chuckles as Ellie nods enthusiastically, “If it gets too boring, we can leave early.”
Snake narrows his eyes.
“And we"ll get more Push pops.”
An eyebrow raise.
“The ones you like.”
Snake hums, reaching for his hat as he plops it down on his head, “You drive a hard bargain.”
“What can I say, I learn from the best,” Wolf only chagrins, amused at the way Snake rolls his eyes, but fails to conceal the not so sneaky smile that creeps up on his face. Snake slides past Wolf as he exits the closet, making it a point to playfully shove the other.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let"s get going or else I"m going back to bed.”
Ellie beams and rushes to walk next to Snake, already grabbing onto the end of the Hawaiian shirt. Snake doesn"t comment nor acknowledge the kid, both of them exiting the room. Wolf smiles, chuckling once more as he shakes his head himself. Then he grabs a hat himself before he too follows the duo, not too far behind.
“Y"know, we"re like a little family,” Wolf can"t help but comment, watching as Snake tries to strap in Ellie. Keyword here being ‘tries’, as the kid wasn"t having any of the seatbelt fuss. His comment was enough to have both of them stop their squabbling, Snake on the verge of swearing at the kid in just a few milliseconds.
The three of them were outside, just about to climb into the car to head out, though as Wolf was locking the front door, he just managed to see Snake trying to gently coax Ellie into sitting still as he tried to buckle them in. Of course, Ellie must have something against seatbelts, because his coaxing isn"t doing shit. The scene, though, seemed almost intimate, like familial. And Wolf just couldn"t help but comment on it.
“Are you feeling ok, Wolf?” Snake questions as he raises an eyebrow. Ellie nods as well, but they seemed to almost like the comparison. Briefly distracted, Snake takes the opportunity to buckle in the kid at last.
“What? Of course I"m fine,” Wolf frowns, as Snake shuts the car door, “Why wouldn"t I be?”
The serpent only glances at Wolf for a second, an unreadable expression on his face before he looks away.
“No reason. But uhh, you"re saying pretty random things.”
“Me commenting on the fact that we"re like a little family is random?” Wolf only huffs, raising an eyebrow. Snake rolls his eyes at the other.
“It"s sudden, a comment like that,” Snake says before he sighs softly, “Just… don"t go saying things like that haphazardly. You like the kid, I like the kid. But they aren"t ours, not legally.”
Wolf frowns at the implication, crossing his arms as Snake slithers over to his side of the car. It stung slightly, knowing that this arrangement was really only temporary. Just until they got to the bottom of Ellie"s case, then the most likely scenario would be that the kid got sent off to some human family who"d treat them better. And sure, Wolf"s gotten fairly attached to Ellie, but he wasn"t that attached. It was just… nice, to care for someone.
Wolf stands there for a moment. Then he blinks as he realizes something.
“Wait, you love the kid too!”