NOAH CZERNY + RONAN LYNCH
MOSTLY FLUFF | COMPLETE
RONAN HAS NOAH HELP HIM WITH A FEW ANIMAL CHORES
Ronan was trying very hard not to be weird about the whole Noah’s alive again thing. He thought he was doing pretty damn good honestly. He only stared his regular intense asshole amount. And okay, maybe he’d found reasons to touch Noah more than he should but it’s not like he threw him out a window again. It was just shoulder touches and clapping a hand on his back and poking him in the ribs.
He believed Noah was alive. He was infinitely grateful Noah was alive. But he was also a little bit fucking lost on how to help Noah readjust to being alive.
He’d suggested farm chores – the less gross stuff – just to see if it helped Noah remember how to be physical in different ways. He led Noah out to the chicken coop and handed over a bucket of chicken feed. “There you go. Have fun. I’m gonna collect the eggs so try to keep them walking around the yard with you if you can.”
Noah was trying hard not to be weird about being alive. He hadn’t minded any of the touching or poking. Mostly because he’d wanted to place himself as close to the people around him as he could. At least his friends. He’d showed up very confused and he couldn’t say he wasn’t any less confused now. He was dealing, though. Sleep seemed like a weird thing and really everything felt weird. He was currently in different clothes than what he’d started out in. It had felt weird and, if he was being honest about it, wrong to wear something else, but he didn’t need to, so he was okay. People would probably judge him if he didn’t change anyway.
Carefully, he took the bucket of chicken feed. He was almost afraid it would drop out of his hand, landing on the ground with a giant thunk and the disappointment of having spilled chicken feed everywhere, but it didn’t. So he took a few steps out and started to sprinkle some of the chicken feed. He thought that was the way to do it, but it was hard to piece together what was a remembered thing and what wasn’t.
“They’re not going to fly at my face, are they?”
Ronan snorted. “They’re more likely to peck at your feet. I’ll replace your shoes if they get fucked up,” he promised.
Grabbing a basket, he moved into the coop and carefully herded chickens that were loosely standing around out into the yard. Only a few resisted, bumping into his boots before finally racing down the coop ramp towards Noah. Ronan watched them for a moment, scowling, like he could direct them to keep their shit together in the face of a stranger feeding them. It was still weird seeing Noah in different clothes, mostly because he remembered back when they never noticed he was always wearing the same ones.
“Watch out for the black one,” he called out. “He’s a shithead.”
Noah stared at the black chicken? Rooster? Whatever. He didn’t want to get attacked just trying to feed some chickens. “Let’s be friends,” he whispered to the chickens as he fed them. Please don’t attack me, he thought as loud as he could. But he continued to feed them, hoping he was doing enough to keep them distracted. Whatever it was that Ronan needed him to do.
“I think I’ll just start wearing my Algionby shoes when I do this now. Cause then they can be destroyed and no one, not even me, will be upset about it.” Because who would be? It was basically a relic of a time that wasn’t here. Or something like that. He wasn’t sure if that was a thing people said or just something that he felt like he wanted to say.
Chickens weren’t so bad.
Ronan came out of the coop with a basket full of eggs and snarled, “I think you should burn that uniform…but that’s up to you.” It was a grudging thing, that concession, but it was something he wouldn’t have offered two years ago. “I’d rather just get you some fucking work boots if you’re worried about your shoes,” he added with a shrug.
Setting the basket down on a wide fence post, he looked over at Noah and his bucket of feed. “You can…” He mimed jerking the bucket out and back in again, to mimic tossing the feed out in arcs. “Unless you like them all up in your business there.”
Noah blinked exactly two times as he stared at Ronan. He’d had a very particular reaction to his uniform being mentioned. But the fact that he told Noah it was his choice was new, too. He hummed thoughtfully. He knew enough about time and how circular it was to know this wasn’t a Ronan he’d met. He was Ronan, but different. He smiled a little after a moment, doing what he suggested with the feed before walking over to boop Ronan on the nose. “You’re different.”
But that was all he said before he moved to look at the eggs and then look out over the chickens. “Have you always had chickens?”
Ronan twitched his nose in surprise and then rolled his eyes fondly. “Am not.” That was too close to a lie and he was too grateful to have Noah back around for even half a lie, so he blew out a breath. “It’s been a year. I guess some little shit’s changed.” Everything that had happened had changed things. Leaving school had changed things. Dating Adam had changed things. He supposed he could admit maybe those changes would be visible and not just inside the landscape of his dumb mind.
“We only had a couple before.” Most of them were his now. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and nodded at a white one with a crazy plume of feathers on his head. “That’s Icepick.”
Noah grinned widely as he bounced a couple times before stilling again. “I’ve been in a circle enough times to know.” And he was happy for the weird and circular time. He knew a lot of things that he shouldn’t have because of it and he liked to think it helped him and the rest of them. “Little shit,” he said with a hint of disbelief, the smile on his face not getting any smaller. But he was glad that his friends had been happy after he left, that they lived and found a way even if he couldn’t be there. That was good. He’d worried.
He glanced at the chicken that Ronan pointed out. “That sounds like a name you’d give a chicken. If I had a chicken, I dunno what I’d name them. Probably like Bob or Gerald.” He shrugged. He wasn’t the creative namer of the group. He crouched down for a moment, studying the rest of the chickens as they pecked the ground for food. “I think I’ve seen chickens before. Like...not up close like this, but somewhere.”
“Yeah. Little shit,” Ronan replied stubbornly. Things may have changed, but he was still an asshole who wasn’t about to give an inch when there was no real reason. Noah bouncing did soften the set of his shoulders though. He was unsure if Noah's memory issue was something to worry about, so his face went through a complicated emotion and settled on forced casual.
“You can name one if you want. It’s not like they fucking remember what I named them. Or you can save it for a goat?” He glanced over his shoulder towards the goat paddock. “We gotta go feed them next.”
Noah was happy just having this little bit of Ronan again when he wasn’t supposed to. Sure, the circle would keep going, but he would always end up leaving. Now he wasn’t! He was here and they were here together. He was suddenly younger than all of his friends, but he wasn’t really too upset about it. In years of existing, he was still older, but he’d stopped aging at seventeen, so it wasn’t like he got to gain years because he was a ghost.
He studied the chickens for a moment, trying very hard to pick one that he didn’t already know names for. He picked one that seemed fairly plain. But chickens were girls, so he tried to think of a girl name. At least something that wasn’t Gerald. Strangely all he could remember were Pokemon names. “The only name in my head for a girl is Clefairy,” he said after a moment. “I dunno why that one.” He shrugged, staring over at the goats. “There’s probably a Gerald over there.”
“Clefairy?” Ronan barked out a sharp laugh. "What the fuck." He waved off an explanation and picked the egg basket back up again. “Gerald the Goat is actually not the lamest shit I’ve ever heard. I mean it is, but in a hilarious way, so that makes it okay.” Flashing a smirk, Ronan stole back the bucket of feed and set it aside, then he hooked an arm around Noah’s shoulders.
It was still weird, being able to do that without feeling the cold take over. Weird, but in the best fucking way. Ronan swallowed dryly and tugged Noah towards the goat paddock. “The one that would make a great Gerald actually needs his hooves trimmed. You gonna help or escape while you've got the chance?"
“What? It’s...a name.” He hummed thoughtfully. He tried to think of the other Pokemon names, but he gave up once Ronan started moving to pick up the eggs. “I was never the creative one. At least not with names. Just raven art!” Which he remembered now that his sister had reminded him. How he’d spent so much time putting it together, happy just to be able to have something. Only he didn’t have anything like that. So he guessed he’d have to figure something else out.
“Am I gonna get kicked by a goat? Because that sounds terrible.” And it really did. The very idea of being kicked by anything with hooves sounded bad. “Also I don’t think you should trust me with that cause what if I mess up?”
Raven art made Ronan look thoughtful as he let Noah go to push into the goat paddock. He’d heard about the art project and Raven Day, but he hadn’t been there. And in the mess of everything else that happened around that time, he’d forgotten it was Noah’s idea to begin with. He frowned and set the egg basket down outside the gate before closing it behind them.
“I forgot about that. The raven project. I wish I’d seen it.” That at least was true, even if I wish I’d gone wouldn’t have been. He’d been far too checked out at Aglionby for that by then. “Anyway, if anyone's gonna get kicked it's me." He smirked and pulled a stool and some tools out from a small storage shed. "It just helps to have someone stand near their head and keep them distracted while I work on their hooves. I trust you to be distracting, Czerny.”
Noah shrugged. “I forget a lot of things, so don’t worry about it. It was nice. Kind of weird to see my sisters after so long. And Mom.” He paused briefly, letting the thought settle. His smile dropped for a moment. At least Blue had gotten to talk to his mom for him. At least they’d had that moment. He looked back at Ronan, letting himself get distracted by the idea of having to wrestle a goat instead. It would be better than feeling sad about missing his family.
“I’m very distracting.” He stuck his tongue out for good measure before looking at the goats. At least he hoped distracting goats was easy. It probably wasn’t the hardest thing he’d ever done. He didn’t have a plan, but he’d figure it out. “Which one is Gerald?”
Ronan rubbed at the back of his neck. He wasn’t good at putting feelings into words. He felt the complexity of Noah seeing his family again though. The comfort that might bring along with the loss. The sense of unfairness. Life went on while Noah had been stuck in between worlds. But how the fuck did you put something like that into words? You didn’t. Ronan reached out and squeezed Noah’s shoulder for a moment, then pointed at a goofy looking goat as he hopped off a hay bale and face planted in the grass.
“That fucking doofus is Gerald. Let’s bring him over to the stool. You can sit on it, give him head pets, and feed him some of these.” He pulled a box of raisins out of his pocket and held it out to Noah. “Not too many..”
Noah laughed when he saw Gerald. He was definitely goofy looking. It was a nice distraction from his previous thoughts and all the feelings that came with it. He smiled as he took the raisins and went to try to coax Gerald over toward the stool. He enjoyed the strangeness of it the way he enjoyed the strangeness of everything else that he’d been experiencing. Except for a few things, but he wasn’t that put off. It was perhaps sleep that was the most complicated part...even though eating was also a little weird, too.
“How many is too many, though? What if he’s being super cute and very well behaved? Will we be effectively bribing if we deny him?” He reached out slowly to pet Gerald, humming happily as the goat let him. “See? He’s so good!”
“No more than half of that little box, no matter how good he is,” Ronan warned, unnecessarily serious. He’d given a few of the goats too many raisins before and paid the price for days, so he was maybe a little traumatized. “Unless you wanna be out here dealing with liquid shits and crying goats.” That he at least said with a crooked grin and a point of his finger.
Crouching down behind the goat, he got to work on shaving down one of his hooves, carefully and patiently. He hadn’t had goats long, so there was still a learning curve, but just like with Chainsaw, he’d done a lot of research. “You can feed him some animal crackers later if he gets through this without being a little asshole. Watch out for the teeth,” he warned, nodding towards Noah and the goat who was now trying to nibble on his pants.
“Ew.” Okay, so he was going to rethink giving Gerald the goat more raisins than he was allowed. His nose scrunched up and he sat down on the stool before making a small, surprised noise as he tried to distract the goat from eating his pants. He was going to consider wearing his uniform in general when dealing with farm animals. At least then if it got destroyed, he wouldn’t care. He’d be fine. “I need my pants, dude.” Because why wouldn’t you call a goat dude? He didn’t know.
He reached out to pet the goat again before putting a couple raisins in his hand and holding them out. “You’re a good boy, aren’t you? A good, pant leg eating, hopefully not liquid shitting boy.” It was definitely a weird sensation to have a goat eat something out of his hand. Noah peered at him, making a vested effort not to let the goat eat any other clothes he was wearing. “Clothing is not food,” he said, just in case Gerald needed to know. “But we have half dead grapes for you and lots of pets and cuddles if you promise not to eat my clothes or hair.”
Ronan laughed, too charmed to make it sound mean, and finished on the goat’s back hooves. With that done, he knee-walked around to the side to start on a front leg. “They’ll eat anything given half a chance.” To prove his point, two smaller goats wandered over to see what Gerald was getting fed.
“Hey, buzz off.” Ronan said, not unkindly. “You’ll get your turn later.” He stopped working to shoo the goats away and they bounced off each other in their effort to turn around and flee. Ronan snorted.“Don’t worry, Czerny. I won’t make you stick around for all of them. It’s uh...been cool though. I normally do this kind of shit alone.”
Noah smiled up at Ronan. He was happy to be able to spend time with Ronan. Even if it was doing weird farming tasks he’d never figured he would do. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.” And he didn’t. “I like getting to spend time with you. Even if it does mean my clothes are in danger.” He turned to Gerald, giving him a few more raisins and head pets. “Plus Gerald is the best boy and now we’re friends, so we’re gonna spend a lot of time together. Especially since you said I was cool.” He stuck his tongue out, knowing that he’d meant that the fact that he was here was cool and not just him. But it was fine. He was just happy to be here and to get to see Ronan in a different setting and be alive. Even worrying about stupid things was fun. If Ronan wanted him to stay for all of them, he would and he’d make sure to hit Ronan with at least one raisin while he did.