005

— nivarnas complicated answer —

COLORS DANCED ACROSS HAZEL'S FACE, LIGHTING THE FLOWERS IN HER HAIR DIFFERENT CLORS. Hazel smiled, her eyes scanning the shelves of records, vintage figures and posters displayed on the walls. "Holy shit," Rachel exclaimed stepping further into the room.

"You want a pop? I got everything," Gar called, resting his hands on Hazel's shoulders as he stepped around her. He made his way towards a bar area, a fridge and microwave set up on one side and even more figurines took up the space on the extra shelfs. Gar opened the fridge door, looking through the bottles inside. "Root beer? Orange crush? Grape crush?"

"Grape!" Rachel called out immediately.

"Hazel?" Gar questioned, taking the Grape Crush out for Rachel.

Hazel took Gar's jacket off, hanging it on a chair. "Orange, please." Hazel smiled, walking over to the bar top, picking up the small cactus attempting to grow from the small white pot. She turned it in her hands, laughing softly at the discoloured plant. "Did you kill a cactus? You know they only require heat and the littlest bit of sun, right?" Hazel teased, looking up at Gar.

Gar stammered, his hands fumbling as he popped the caps off the bottles. Hazel waved her hand and the cactus's colour grew back, standing tall and sprouting a dark purple flower.

Gar handed the drink off to Rachel before walking to Hazel, standing on the other side of the bar. "I'll uh, take better care of it," Gar mumbled, handing the drink to Hazel.

"I'm teasing Gar," Hazel laughed softly. Gar smiled and Hazel clinked her drink with his, both having orange Crush Pops. "Nice."

Hazel turned, walking away to look up at the Frankenstein poster on the wall. "That's an original. Nineteen forty-eight. You ever see it?" Gar asked, his eyes lighting up as he spoke.

"Do not get her started," Rachel groaned, stopping at an arcade machine. "Haze, when did the OG Dracula come out? The old ones."

Hazel laughed softly and sipped the orange drink. "The movie came out in February nineteen thirty-one and it's based on a stage play from nineteen twenty-four," Hazel relayed looking between Rachel and Gar. "And they're classic, not old. But I still prefer the stage plays."

"Thank you," Gar exclaimed, his smile so wide his eyes wrinkled slightly. "I've got every Abbott and Costello Meet a Monster." Hazel smiled and sipped on her drink.

"Who's your favourite?" Hazel asked.

Gar rushed from behind the bar and opened a cabinet pulling out an old DVD of the original Wolf Man. "What's better than a werewolf?" Gar asked.

"Frankenstein," Hazel said shaking her head and Gar scoffed. "That movie is so heartbreakingly sad. He thought she was a flower!"

Rachel groaned, stopping the oncoming argument. "Great, I'm surrounded by geeks," Rachel hummed.

"About classic films, vinyl, and video games, yeah, check, check, and check," Gar countered, watching Hazel move to inspect his vinyl shelf.

"So, where'd you get all this stuff?" Rachel questioned, taking a vintage strong man and stretching his arms out.

"Uh, you know. Around," Gar said vaguely, taking the strong man from Rachel and placing it on a shelf. "It's, uh, vintage. I don't get out much."

Hazel walked to the shelf, picking up a photo of Gar with two other people, but his hair was dark brown, and even the shirt he wore had no colour. Gar walked to Hazel and smiled softly. "My parents. Yeah, they, uh... They died," Gar muttered. Gar watched closely as Hazel's eyes glowed green and Begonia, small white flowers, different from the ones in her hair, grew and twisted around the photo frame.

Hazel set the frame down and Rachel spoke up, "My mom died. She was pretty much all I had."

Hazel picked up her drink and sat on one of the beanbags. "Don't have a dad, and my mom's in hospital."

Gar's eyebrows furrowed and he looked between them. "So, who were the people you were with at the roller rink?" Gar questioned, taking his jacket and sliding it on.

"Oh, you know, just people," Rachel muttered, tapping her fingers against a shelf. "So, if your parents are gone, um who lives here?"

Gar took a deep breath and his lips pulled into a tight smile. "That is a complicated answer," Gar answered with a soft chuckle.

"Gar!" A man called from upstairs, his voice echoing slightly.

The three looked up, Gar's eyes widening. "Is that the complicated answer?" Hazel questioned, looking upwards.

"Gar! You down there?" The man called again, heavy footsteps accompanying his voice.

Gar quickly pulled the drinks from their hands and set them on the bar top. "Uh, you guys need to hide," Gar ordered, pushing Rachel towards the bar.

Hazel stood, watching Gar with confused eyes. "Hide? Seriously?" Hazel questioned watching Rachel duck behind the bar.

"Just hide. Please," Gar squeaked taking Hazel by the shoulders and manoeuvring her to the closet, shutting the doors. Hazel crouched, peering through the shutters of the doors.

The heavy footsteps grew closer, and Gar dived for his seat by the TV, slamming his headphones on and booting the game up quickly.

"Hey, Gar!" The door swung open, and Hazel pressed her back against the wall. "Gar!"

Gar groaned dramatically as his character died. "Oh! Hey, Cliff," Gar smiled, pulling his headphones off. "What's up, dude?"

"Who are you talking to?" Cliff questioned.

"Uh... myself," Gar shrugged, turning back to the TV. "Come on, Gar. You beat Super Mario World, you can beat this," Gar mumbled, Cuphead rebooting on the Frog level.

"Oh. Where were you today?" Cliff asked.

"Down here. Duh," Gar shrugged.

"Bullshit," Cliff called. "You went to town again."

Gar coughed slightly and sat up, his hands shaking slightly. "Look, my controller broke, and I had to go get a new one. Okay? I knew I could get there and back before Chief came home."

"Oh, shit. Kid!" Cliff chastised. He stepped closer, blocking Hazel's view of the TV. Her eyebrows creased in confusion as the coloured lights bounced off his metal hands, which dropped to his side. Hazel squinted, the bronze metal reflecting off of Gar's neon light.

What the...?

Gar rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair. "Relax. No one followed me," Gar shrugged, his eyes darting to the closet. "Kept a low profile."

"You want to keep a low profile, you wear a hat," Cliff joked.

Gar faked wheezing leaning forward slightly. "Ha, funny! You know, that's a good joke. I heard another good joke. Why was the robot mad?" He paused for a minute and Cliff groaned. "Cause someone kept pushing his buttons," Gar snapped, mashing the buttons on his controller.

Cliff chuckled his one laced with sarcasm. "Keep pushing 'em, there'll be a green tiger-skin rug in my bedroom. Dinner. One hour. Come tell Larry what you want, brat," Cliff snapped.

"Okay. I'll be up in a minute," Gar groaned, turning back to his game.

"I was not put on this Earth to babysit," Cliff mumbled, walking towards the door. The door slammed close again and Gar sighed in relief. He tossed his head back, the headphones slipping off.

"That was close," Gar sighed tossing his headphones off on the beanbag. Gar pulled the closet door open before moving towards the bar, pulling Rachel to her feet. "Two players? I'll swap out."

Hazel stood up, her back turned to the door. The door slammed back open, Cliff gripping Hazel's shoulder. "Gotcha!" Hazel shouted, trying to shake his hand off. "Gar! What the fuck?!"

Cliff turned and dragged Hazel up the stairs, Gar and Rachel following, Gar calling for Cliff. Cliff dragged Hazel up to the living room, Gar running in front of Cliff, trying to reason with him. "Come on Cliff," Gar whined. "It's all right man. She's cool!"

"I know, and she listens to all the right music, and she's just awesome," Cliff rambled, stopping in the centre of the room and looking back at Rachel "And make them go."

Cliff released Hazel's shoulder and Rachel pulled her to her side. "What is this place? Who are you people?" Rachel shouted.

"Someone with a strong grip," Hazel muttered rubbing her shoulder. "You could have just said, hey follow me!" Hazel shook her head.

"Chief calls us the conventionally challenged," Gar explained. "And this place is-"

"You need to go home, kids," Cliff ordered, spinning to face them.

"Are you a robot?" Rachel asked, looking up at Cliff and making him groan. Hazel finally dropped her hand and looked at Cliff. His body was entirely bronze metal, but he wore leather pants, a jacket and eight's rock band shirt she couldn't quite read the text of.

"He's not a robot, robots are sentient," Hazel pointed out.

"Kind of. He's a robot man," Gar corrected.

"Oh, fuck me," Cliff groaned.

"Cliff was a race car driver," Gar started, his smile growing. "A pretty famous one, too. He got into a bad accident. His body was pretty much kaput. Chief managed to save his brain." Gar knocked his fist against Cliff's face and Cliff grumbled again, knocking Gar's hand away.

"Knock it off," Cliff complained.

"What little there was left of it," Gar corrected himself, glaring at Cliff.

"That a cyborg," Hazel spoke up making the boys look at her. "A cyborg is just a being with robotic attachments. Because you still have your brain, which is..." Hazel trailed off under their eyes. "Sorry."

Cliff sighed and turned back to Gar. "They gotta go before the Chief gets home."

"Who's the Chief?" Rachel questioned.

Cliff froze, noticing his mistake but Gar just smiled and started to explain. "Well, he's the greatest doctor in the world," Gar explained. "Saved all of us."

"All of you?" Rachel pointed out and this time they both froze. Rachel looked around; her eyebrows furrowed. "Who else lives here?" Cliff winced, his patience with Gar running thin.

"Well, there's-" Gar's sentence cut off when Cliff grabbed his shoulder and pushed him backwards.

"You do realize this is supposed to be a secret, right?" Cliff snapped. Gar tried to defend himself, but Cliff cut him off. "No, no. Let me get this straight. You want the Chief, who just learned to walk again, to walk into your dumbassery."

Hazel knocked Rachel's shoulder and turned, making her way down the hall to the left. Music echoed from down the hall and Hazel smiled softly. "Is that AC/DC?" Hazel thought aloud.

She rushed ahead towards the source of the music. She peeked through the circular windows of the swinging doors into the large, luxurious kitchen. A man wrapped in bandages and a light teal shirt danced around, spinning to the music, his apron flying with him. Thunderstruck's heavy beat echoed from the tape player and the bandaged man hit pots and pans with the spatula.

Hazel carefully pushed the door open, smiling. "Hey. Wow. Show's over!" Cliff called, catching Hazel's shoulder for a second time. Gar and Rachel were quick to follow, and the bandaged man quickly turned the music off, spinning to face everyone.

The bandaged man tossed his spatula down and rested his hands on his hips. "Who's this?" He questioned.

"That's Rachel, I'm Hazel," she said quickly before smiling again. "And you have great taste in music."

"I was just showing them out," Cliff explained, his hand still on her shoulder.

"Out?" The man scoffed. "You wanna kick out the only person who understands what good music is?"

"Before Chief gets back," Cliff clarified. The man scoffed and waved his hand, turning back to the food.

"What are you making?" Hazel asked, slipping from Cliff's grasp and walking to the man's side. "It's smells amazing."

"Are you invisible under there?" Rachel asked.

"Wouldn't that be nice?" The man laughed softly, flipping the ends in the pan. "I have waffles, eggs, salad, whatever you like. And of course, steak. How do you guys like your steak? Unless you're a vegan, which would break my heart."

Cliff groaned and Hazel looked at him. "She's not staying for dinner, Larry," Cliff called.

"It'll be fine," Larry waved off. "Chief is gone until tomorrow. And even with Rita, we have plenty of food."

"And we are hungry," Rachel called.

"And she is hungry," Larry agreed.

"Rache you're always hungry," Hazel murmured, looking around the kitchen.

"You gave me one strawberry," Rachel defended.

"They have food, they don't need to stay," Cliff countered.

Hazel walked away from the stove and to the herbs hanging in the window. She scoffed and shook her head. "Do none of you know how to keep a plant alive?" Hazel teased. Larry turned to Hazel, but she waved her hand, and the herbs grew back to like, spreading further over the windowsill.

The kitchen went silent for a moment before Rachel hummed. "It's nice here," Rachel called, ignoring the stares from Cliff and Larry.

"Right? Told ya," Gar smiled, tossing a strawberry he stole from a basket to Hazel.

Larry threw the utensils down. "Do you make thyme?" Larry asked suddenly walking to Hazel and pulling her back to the steaks. Hazel held her palm and grew a small thyme stalk. She plucked it off and handed it to Larry who practically squealed in excitement. "Oh my god. She stays, they stay," Larry called, taking the thyme and setting it on a chopping board.

Gar smiled at Hazel who leant closer to Larry. "You said you could make anything right?" Hazel asked, looking over the food spread over the counter.

"Let's test that shall we," Larry said proudly. "Gar, go set the table."

Gar nodded taking a final strawberry. "Do you want any help?" Hazel asked, tilting her head slightly.

"I got it, but, thanks Haze," Gar smiled and ran off.

— gods —