bored ‖ dandy mott

1.4

"Hey, if you're that bothered, go annoy my sisters," You contemplated what you'd just said and then immediately contradicted the statement, "Never mind, leave them alone. Go practise doing faces or whatever you enjoy doing. Find a clown,"

He looked pretty annoyed, and scoffed, "The only clown here is you," 

You snickered at his attempt at an insult, playfully elbowing him, "That's not what you were saying last night,"

It then dawned on you that Paul was witnessing the entire conversation. He stood there dumbfounded.

You coughed, "Nope! Nothing happened, nothing at all. It wasn't like that. I'm actually telling the truth,"

Dandy suddenly looked quite amused at your misfortune. 

Paul, instead decided to answer your previous question, "Jimmy's in his tent,"

You thanked him and went to go find him. Dandy never left your side.

He struggled to keep up as you strode through the freakshow, "Why did you tell Paul about last night?"

"What about last night? Nothing even happened,"

Dandy tilted his head, furrowing his eyebrows, before regaining his confident composure, "You're right, nothing happened,"

Walking into Jimmy's tent wasn't a pleasant experience. An instant shockwave of familiarity hit you and you could smell the reek of alcohol. 

"Jimmy Darling, what the hell are you doing?" You said, raising your eyebrows, as you saw him sprawled across the concrete.

You instantly rushed to his side, offering him a hand, and yanking him to an upright sitting position.

"They... They killed Meep," He managed, tears welled in his eyes, "They killed him, it should've been me,"

He sobbed. Sobbed till his eyes went dry. Until every time he went to rub them, it felt like he was scraping against sandpaper. The bags beneath his eyes were dark purple, almost as if they were bruised.

You held him close as he wept, his tears falling, soaking your top. 

You looked over at Dandy who genuinely looked confused and unbothered. Tilting your head, you motioned for him to leave. He wasn't great at this since he only stood right outside, with one of his feet still in the tent.

"It's okay, Jimmy, it's okay," You muttered, "I don't know what happened but what I do know is that there's nothing you could've done. The freak show's your home and you'd never do anything to harm them,"

He wiped his tears with his sleeve, picking up an idle bottle of booze and taking a swig, "I was the one who did it. Not Meep. They sent him to prison, those thugs killed him,"

You instantly knew what he was talking about. Before you'd left, Jimmy killed a police officer. He had a right to since they were practically threatening Bette and Dot. You would've done the same thing so you didn't blame him.

You hadn't been that close to Meep but you two did share the occasional funny encounter. To be honest, you weren't close to many people in the freakshow. Only Eve, Jimmy, your sisters, and maybe even Pepper.

"There's nothing you can do now. The only thing we can do is honour Meep's memory," 

You pulled him closer to you, he turned over and enveloped you into a hug. His hands gripped your waist tight, desperately, as if you were going to slip away at any moment. He sniffled and finally let go, "I'm sorry about your shirt,"

You looked down at the tear stains and simply laughed, "Don't worry about it, I'm always going to be your shoulder to cry on. Literally,"

"I'm always here for you too, Y/n, you know that right?" He looked up to where Dandy was standing at the entrance of the tent.

"I know Jimmy, I know," You softly smiled.

You sat there for a couple of minutes until the tent flap opened revealing your sisters. 

Dandy realised they'd came in, and his face instantly lit up, "Bette! Dot! I thought you'd been evicted from the freakshow for how little I've seen you. I've missed you two so much,"

Bette was smiling while Dot looked as irritated as ever.

Your sisters walked up to you, slightly in shock. They looked from you to Jimmy, who was curled up in a ball.

Dot looked like she felt sorry for you, "Y/n, we weren't expecting for you to be here!"

"Yeah, I didn't think I'd be coming,"

Bette gave you the biggest smile, her eyes twinkled under the lights in the tent, "It's so great to see you, we've missed you so much,"

Dandy walked over to the four of you, his eyes were glued to the twins, "So Bette, Dot, have you reconsidered my offer? Mott Manor will always be there to welcome you," 

"I think my sisters are perfectly fine to be staying at the freakshow," You chimed in, standing up.

Dot nodded, "Y/n's right,"

"I'm sorry but the freakshow's our home," Bette finished, frowning.

You could see Dandy try to keep calm but you knew him too well. Deep down he was pissed. 

"Y/n, we're leaving," He tugged your sleeve, causing you to roll your eyes.

"Two seconds, or are you that impatient?" You tutted, turning to your sisters, "Look after Jimmy for me, okay? Just until I can get back home?"

They nodded and you enveloped them into a warm hug.

When you got back to the car, Dandy slammed his head against the steering wheel.

"Holy shit, not this again," You struck out your hand to keep the back of his head against the seat, and sighed, "If you've got this much pent-up anger how about you go and kill that clown? That seems like a fun stress relief activity,"

"That's a stupid idea," He put the keys into the ignition, "He's too much fun to kill,"

You tried to not laugh at that statement. Your head was definitely full of different possibilities on what that could've meant but you kept it to yourself.

As you stared out the car window you came to a realization. 

Maybe you'd have to live at Mott Manor for a while, but during that time you were going to show Dandy Mott that there was more to life than killing. Every inconvenience in his life didn't need to be solved with a knife to someone's throat.

You were going to make him a better person.