:October 4th, XX46; Friday.

:NEW FRIENDS.

•~~~~•

"So, why's your friend so loudly into astronomy, huh?"

"It's astrology," Remy's nephew corrected, cueing Remy to roll his eyes, "and I don't really know. I mean he's got ADHD, I think, but his pop is also one of the loudest guys I've ever heard in my entire life so maybe he just got it from him."

Remy, Emile, and Joe were still walking to Joe's house at that point. Remy hummed, glancing around the area and then back down at Joe. "Who's his pop?"

"His name is Roman."

Remy chuckled. "Ah, Roman Williams- I went to high school with him, too. He was definitely eccentric, pretty sure he was in band and theatre, too. His boyfriend was in band with him. What's Sage's other parent's name, is it Virgil?"

"Yep."

"Mm. He was pretty much the opposite. An odd couple, they were. I'm a bit surprised they lasted out of high school, especially to marriage."

"So my parents did know them in high school too, right?"

"Absolutely. Pretty sure the whole thing was Roman and Virgil went to middle school together and then met your father freshman year, then in sophomore year your dad joined the school and everything else happened from there. Nothing interesting happened junior year, from what I remember."

"And senior year..? My parents never talk about high school at all, it's weird. Especially that year."

"Probably because that was the year I dated your dad for a week." Joe shuttered at that sentence, making Remy smirk a bit. "Yeah, made Logan pretty mad. Probably traumatized Patton."

"It only traumatized my dad?"

"Well, Logan hated me most of senior year, but that was because he already knew 'bout most of it all. The fact I had murdered a good few people in my days, I mean."

"...Huh."

The three walked in silence for a bit. Remy grabbed his husband's hand randomly, just because he hadn't been holding it before and wanted to change that. Emile smiled at him.

"Wait, so..." Joe began, causing both ghosts to look back at him, "how old were you when you killed someone for the first time?"

"Twelve."

"What- twelve?!"

"Mm-hmm."

"Isn't that- ...wait, so how many people have you killed in total, then?"

"Hah, hell if I know- I think I've told you that before, though. Ever since The Great Student Vanishing of Freshman Year, I lost count."

Joe blinked. "The Great Vanish- what now?"

"The Great Student Vanishing of Freshman Year- there's something your school won't teach you, it was a phrase only my high school's class of XX18 knew. Pretty much, our entire freshman class was filled with a shit-ton of assholes- as any other class was- so... I got pissed and killed them all." He shrugged.

"Wow."

"Yep. Framed it so their parents wouldn't say anything to the school, which involved some murder too, and it appeared like they all moved out of town over the same summer. Didn't have to worry about the dead assholes's living friends because all the asses were friends with each other and each other only. I made a list of people I needed to jab but I never counted the number of names, and I couldn't add it to whatever number I had at that point... so I lost count."

"...Wow."

"Hah, yeah. Imagine having to witness all that. I feel bad for my husband."

Emile giggled in trauma.

"Hmm..."

"Why are you asking, anyways?"

Joe sighed. He looked down to his feet for a moment, kicking a random rock that had come into his path before looking back up at his uncle. "I don't know... I just- my friend Oliver got this crush, and-"

Remy groaned, stopping in his tracks. "Oh boy, I knew it. He's a-"

"What? No! No, I-I don't wanna murder the kid, no way! I don't even know if it's a real crush, b-but, I just... I feel like we're are meant to be, y'know? I feel like I'm obligated to stop Oliver from maybe crushing on the kid but I don't know how and why."

"Like father, like son... just don't murder the poor bastard."

"I'm not gonna," Joe disregarded the first thing Remy had said. The latter raised an eyebrow at that and got out his phone, beginning to type something into some sort of notes-resembling app, leaving Emile to not know whether to look at Joe, his husband, or his husband's phone.

Regardless, Remy put away his phone after a moment. "Look- honestly, Joe, if you're meant to be then whatever with that kid won't work out. Ask Oliver out before anything can happen, actually- even better."

"That's hard, though..!" Joe whined as the three began walking once more.

"I did it when I was eleven, and look at me now, we've been together for thirty-seven years and married for eighteen."

Joe sighed. "I guess you're right."

A few minutes later they arrived at Joe's house, the two uncles deciding to follow Joe inside since they didn't have much better to do. Joe went right up to his father when he got in the door, and Remy briefly wondered what he was up to.

"Hey, kiddo!" Patton greeted from the couch- Remy noticed he was obviously sick and smiled. Yep. Guess that plan worked out well.

"Oh, hello, Joe."

"Hey, father? What time were you born?"

Remy blinked. Right, Sage needed to know that, didn't he?

Logan blinked as well. "Erm... I'm not sure- Patton? Do you know what time I was born?" He turned to look at his husband in the living room.

"4:15 PM, hon," Patton called back.

"Yes, that's correct, thank you," Logan turned back to his son. "Why did you need to know?"

"I dunno, Sage wanted to know for some astrology thing. I don't know what he's doing."

"Ah. Well if the results seem interesting then do inform me."

"I will. I'm gonna go upstairs, love you guys."

"Love you too," both the parents called out as Joe began to walk up the stairs. Remy furrowed his eyebrows in a disgusted way, beginning to follow Joe with Emile by his side. The three reached a hallway, where Joe entered the door that Remy recognized to be across from the master bedroom, which he somehow remembered from that one time he broke in when he was alive. Ah, good times.

Of course, Remy had been in Joe's room once or twice before. He was just thinking this so you had a good description of the area.

Joe plopped down on his bed, Emile sitting next to him and Remy beginning to look around the room.

"Nice setup you got here," he commented, especially admiring his progress pride flag, something he knew he would have never been allowed to own when he was Joe's age. Allowed by the author, that is, not just his parents. "Pretty decent room."

"Yeah, I like it," Joe smiled.

"What's in the closet, then?" Remy began to wander over to his closet.

"Not me, probably."

Remy laughed. "Ah, good thing you at least have a gay sense of humor." He opened the closet after Joe gave him general body language that indicated he didn't care if he looked through there.

"Wait, you have the ability to open that?"

"Did you not want me to? I mean, yeah, just because I'm dead doesn't mean I'm a weak-ass bitch."

"I don't care if you do, just surprised."

"It takes some concentration, but once again, not a weak bitch. Just a bitch."

Remy looked around for a moment and then gasped.

"Oh my lord, you own a skirt?!"

Joe blushed. "Ah... yeah. That's been sitting in there for, like, two and a half years."

"What?! Oh, honey, that's just sad. Come on, fashion show. Let's go, right now." Remy grinned and clapped a few times, Emile smiling at the two of them.

Joe shrunk into himself a little. "Uh... honestly, it scares me a little, so I don't... eh..?"

"Scares you? What, because it's a girl thing? It's absolutely not just a girl thing."

"No, I don't have a fragile masculinity or anything. It just..." Joe toyed around with his words for a moment, "...uhm, it makes me feel something that I don't know how to feel about?"

The two ghosts stared at him for a moment, and Joe shrunk into himself a bit more out of embarrassment. Remy slowly moved his sunglasses to the top of his head.

"...My god, the kid is on the verge of a gender crisis."

"What- wait, am I?!"

Remy closed the closet and moved to sit on the unoccupied side of Joe, crossing his legs. "Sounds like it. Ah, so you really were confused when you said you didn't care about pronouns when we first met, weren't you?" Remy smiled and playfully waved at his shoulder.

"I guess..?"

"Do you parents know about that?" Emile asked, hovering his hand above Joe's shoulder since that was the closest he could get to touching it.

"Yeah, they do, they said they don't care as long as I'm being myself."

"Well at least they're in the right about something, I guess. I'm gonna start calling you my nibling from here on out unless you tell me otherwise."

"Nibling?"

"Gender neutral term for niece or nephew," Emile answered. Joe blinked a few times.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I don't care."

"Sweet." Remy smirked.

"Is there anything else you want us to call you, hon?"

"Uh... no, I try not to think about it because it hurts my brain."

"Ah- a true represser, just like your parents."

Joe looked between his two uncles for a second and then smiled, before looking down at his lap. Emile and Remy both smiled themselves, looking over him at each other.

"...So, uh, I heard about these iPhone apps that can apparently finds ghosts in your room and I wanna see if they work. Can we try that?"

"Ooh, nice, gurl. Let's do it."

•~~~~•
joe's relatable now

see ya in the next chapter!💙
    ~Maxx(SanderShipper)