The Masquerade - Sal x Reader x Larry Collab - (Not Sal x Larry)

🕷️Two Nerds and A New Kid🕷️

A/N: MY TURN TO WRITE! Onyx here, the main owner of this account and the one who proposed the idea of this collab (I also edit bits and pieces of chapters when re-reading in edit mode)! I'm gonna try my damnedest to make quality chapters, even if it costs me my locally painted poster of Patrick Bateman (can't auction off my soul bc I already did that for my Johnny Cade fanfic)! Enjoy!

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          Inching closer to the door, I start to sweat a bit. It's always like this at first. Meeting people, I mean. I'm never sure who's aware of my family's ties and who isn't. Hell, I wish I wasn't aware of my family ties. I knock on the door sheepishly, eliciting a "Who is it?" from inside. The voice was gruff and laid-back, and somewhat nasally almost. "It's probably Lisa," I hear another voice tell the first. This second voice was softer and a lot more chill sounding, if that makes any sense. "Shit, you might be right- pause Street Fighter, I'll be right back," the first voice said.

         Around three seconds pass and the door swings open to reveal a lanky, tall, terrible-postured dude with long brown hair and a Sanity's Fall t-shirt. Spoiler alert, I love Sanity's Fall. He looks at me with a slight look of confusion in his eye. "Well, you're definitely not my mom." He then chuckles. "Unless my mom had some sort of mid-life crisis, chopped off a few inches in height, and dyed her hair (h/c)." Reaching his hand out towards me, he introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Larry." I eye his hand cautiously for a moment, then decide to take it in mine. "(Y/N). I'm (Y/N)," I begin, "I just moved in on the fourth floor."

         Larry makes an 'oh' face and steps aside, jamming his thumb in the direction of a shorter blue-haired guy in front of the living room TV they had set up. "I'm assuming my mom sent you to meet me because we're around the same age? That's exactly how I ended up with this straggler here!" The pigtailed boy's eyes remain glued to the screen. "Say whatever you want," he said, "but this 'straggler' is currently beating your ass at Street Fighter." Larry's mouth falls agape as he runs back over to inspect the screen. "I told you to pause it, you asshole!" It came out more playful than angry, and the blue haired boy replied, "Rule one of being the best fighter: play on your opponents weaknesses. That's what dad says, anyways."

          I chuckle lightly at the interaction. They both look up at me as I laugh to myself, and that's when I notice the mask that the blue-haired guy is wearing. I try not to stare, and thankfully my thoughts are cut off by Larry waving me in. "Shut the door behind you, (Y/N)," Larry says as I enter. I do so, and kind of just stand there awkwardly. Larry pats a spot on the floor beside him and I sit. Offering a gap-toothed grin, he picks up his controller and motions towards the blue-haired kid. "This is my best bro Sal. He's kinda the best, I won't lie. Real easy to get along with." Sal suddenly pumps his fists victoriously. "Yes! I won! AGAIN!" Larry's smile drops and he backtracks, "Actually, forget those last two sentences." Larry puts his smile back up almost immediately, displaying that he was joking.

         I glance at the mask that Sal is wearing once again, and this time Larry catches it. He whispers to me, "That's Sal's prosthetic face. Got into some crazy accident as a kid. That's all I know. We try not to bring it up around him." I nod. "So...." I say, desperate for something to talk about, "what do y'all get up to in these apartments? What do you do for fun?" Sal smiles (I think) and he replies, "Well, we play video games from time to time, listen to music and talk, draw, and...." Sal looks over at Larry expectantly. Larry picked up the sentence, "I have a little treehouse that we chill in sometimes."

          "Also," Sal chimes in again, "sometimes we ding dong ditch Mrs. Gibson. She's always been rude, so Larry suggests we deliver some sort of karmic retribution every now and then. Typically I'd be against it, but she did kinda insult me the first day I moved in, so..." I laugh. "So she's like that with everyone?" They both look at me, urging me to go on. "What, do you have a Gibson story too?" Larry asks. "Dude, you gotta spill!"

        "It wasn't really anything much, just coming at me immediately for my nonbinary parent and being on of those 'stupid kids'. I don't know who pissed in her flowerbed, but she's one cranky-ass old lady." Larry laughs instantly. "We call her the Wicked Bitch of The Western Addison Appointments." That got a small smile out of Sal (I think), and an eruption of laughter from me. God, these guys are funny.

         "Listen here, dude," Larry begins, "we're having dinner at Henry's place this evening. They already talked about inviting your parents, but you should totally come too! Mom's cooking, so I promise it'll be good." Sal pushes Larry playfully. "Are you saying dad can't cook?" Larry grins at Sal. "No, he can cook. He just can't cook well." Sal rolls his eyes (I'm pretty sure) and shuts of the game console. "So..." Larry trails off, then picks back up, "see you at six thirty?"

          I grin. "Yeah, see ya then."