Twister (A Gustholomule Story)

The Invitation

The soft, red grass tickled Matt as he plopped down next to Augustus. The beautiful craftsmanship of the Looking Glass Ruins was a familiar and calming atmosphere for the boys. Somehow, it had managed to avoid most of the damage from Belos' temper tantrum earlier that year. After a few months of unease, Gus proposed that they return to their weekly ruins maintenance routine.

Despite the fact that Belos had hardly touched the ruins, the period of neglect they faced while Gus and Matt's attention was elsewhere left them in... well, not the best condition. After what felt like ages, the boys were finally able to restore the ruins to how they were before their unplanned break.

After a long day of working, they were both quite exhausted, especially Gus. Matt had decided to multitrack and learn illusions on top of construction before the Day of Unity (in hopes of impressing Gus, but he'd never admit that), so he was already fairly proficient in illusions. Gus, on the other hand, had only ever focused on illusions, so when he came to Matt asking him to show him construction magic, Matt was ecstatic.

 Although Gus is a prodigy when it comes to illusion magic, he found construction to be rather difficult. It took a lot of energy and concentration for him to even do simple spells, let alone the level of magic his friend could do. Today, though, Gus powered through and (with the help of Matt) was able to reconstruct some of the fallen statues.

They both lie back, staring at the sky as the hot sun begins to drift downwards. Gus sighs and wipes the nonexistent bead of sweat off his forehead, "all in a day's work," he says, satisfied with himself.

"Gus... you did one spell today," Matt retorts, "and it was a beginner one too".

Gus looks at Matt, and a pinkish hue begins to surface to his face as he tries to hide his face in his hands. "Hey!!", he stammers, "I've only been doing construction magic for like 3 months!!"

Matt turns his head to the side to look at Gus and chuckles, "Whatever, Augustus. At least you're doing better than the kindergarten class." 

As he said this, Gus turned his head to see an asshole-ish, shit eating grin on Matt's face, "Rude," he says, trying not to smile.

They both lie in silence for a few moments, just soaking in the calm atmosphere. The silence doesn't last long, however, as both boys slightly jump at the sound of Gus' Penstagram notification. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at him, but Gus was disappointed that the nice moment had been ruined. He lifted his scroll to see a message from Luz.

Luz: Hey Gus!!

Gus: What's up?

Luz: i was digging through my moms storage closet and look what i found :3

*Attachment: 1 Image*

<the image is of Luz holding a colourful box entitled "Twister", while smiling wide and pointing at it>

Gus: ...

Gus: Your mom has a tornado in a box?

Luz: 😑

Luz: ajhsgkslk

Luz: its a fun game!!

Luz: anywho,, come over 2 play :D

Gus: Right now? I'm kinda hanging out with Mattholomule

Luz: Bring him! See you in 30 mins :3

I guess I don't have a choice, Luz will just come find me if I don't show up, Gus thought. Mattholomule and the rest of the Hex Squad had hung out a few times, but they still weren't super close, so Gus was hesitant to ask Matt, fearing that he might decline.

"Hey Matty? Luz invited us over to the owl house! Wanna go?"

Mattholomule blushed when he heard his nickname, but he looked at Augustus, trying to play it cool, "Maybe I'd consider it if you stopped calling me Matty," he said, sticking his tongue out and winking.

Gus rolled his eyes, "fine, MATTHOLOMULE, do you want to go to the owl house?"

Matt nodded, satisfied with Gus's reworking of the question. Gus smiled and quickly stood up, making sure to wipe any grass off his clothes. He reached out a hand to help his buddy up, to which Matt accepted. Excitedly, Gus starts running to their new destination, pulling Matt behind him.

As they arrive in the woods bordering Eda's home, Matt begins to slow down.

"Hey," Gus looks at Matt and gently tugs his sleeve, "you slowed down, are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just..." Matt looks down and rubs his foot into the ground, "I don't hang out with the whole group all that often, I'm a little nervous."

Gus looks at him, unsure of how to respond so he just squeezes Matt's arm and smiles. Matt hesitates, but he eventually reciprocates with a slightly less genuine smile. 

Gus can sense that his squeeze didn't help much. "My friends love you Matty, there's nothing to be nervous about! I promise." 

Mattholomule shoots him a look at the sound of his nickname, but decides not to mention it, after all, Gus is trying to help him. "okay," he responds, somewhat sheepishly. 

Gus takes his hand and continues to lead him through the woods until they end up standing on the edge of the property. Matt takes a deep breath and they continue onwards. 

A/N: hi hi hi! this is the first time I've written for fun in years, so I'm definitely rusty and struggling, but there aren't enough gustholomule fics out there so I've decided to take matters into my own hands :3

if you somehow end up reading this, please give me suggestions or critiques, I would love to improve!

also, this is supposed to be written post-canon, sometime after belos is defeated!

chapter 2 will get to the actual meat of the story though teehee