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For The Texas Chainsaw Fanworks Event Day 1: Favorite Ship

Ship(s): Franklin Hardesty x Nubbins Sawyer, past Drayton Sawyer x Lefty Enright.

Word count: ~3,800

Warnings: child abuse mention, ableism mention, tense family dynamics.

@texas-chainsaw-fanworks

______

Franklins been at the house for all of ten minutes before a hefty, but docile raccoon gets dumped into his lap.

The Sawyer boys keep her as a pet, since they aren’t allowed any dogs after the last one raided the chicken coop of all the hens and had to be sold off. The worst their raccoon has done is chew through the wall paper, but since it’s already peeling off, that couldn’t be used against her.

Besides, she’s lazy and more than a little overweight after a few long years of getting her sustenance from table scraps, candy, and lots and lots of berries from the bushes out back. Sending her back out into the wild now wouldn’t be any bit kinder than keeping her safe and pampered.

Franklin’s well used to her being around all the time, but it’s only recently he’s started being allowed to hold her. Most of the time without any input from himself, since Nubbins just drops her down onto his lap without any warning.

Like right now, with the raccoon all curled up on him like he’s the comfiest pillow in the house. He gets comfortable scratching behind her ears and patting her tummy pouch, no longer afraid of bites.

Today it’s not just Franklin and Nubbins sitting about, but Bobby’s tagging along again, mostly because he doesn’t have much else to do. Franklin figures it probably gets lonely, just the family here on the farm.

So he’s learned to stop taking offense when Bobby’s curious eyes stare at him for minutes at a time, usually building up to a question.

This time, it’s: “Y-You ever- uh, you ever h-held a c-critter like her be..before?”

Not counting the times the Sawyer boys themselves saw to it that he had held a random rodent they found, that would be a no. Franklin answers to that truth, “Never. You sure she wouldn’t give y’all rabies or somethin?”

Bobby shakes his head. “Nuh-uh. N-Not our miss I-Ivy!”

“Sh-She don’t bite, o-or scratch, or n-nothin’!” Nubbins testifies, breaking the silence that had been his cover since Franklin arrived.

Sometimes he gets like that, all quiet and tense. He’ll usually be much more active with his random movements when that happens, and Bobby will be something of a translator for him. It’s just part of him.

Franklin doesn’t make a big deal out of it, or he knows Nubbins will get more quiet. He just teases, “That’s what you said about Bobby too.”

There’s a short pause, where the twins are processing what he meant. Franklin almost has enough time to worry they took offense to the little quip, but not before they start cackling. It’s the kind of laughter that’s so loud and genuine it echoes off the walls, and it makes Franklin want to laugh too.

He just does. With the boys, it’s easy.

Especially when Nubbins declares delightedly that, “B-But we still l-like him!”

It’s something about the way they can poke fun at each other and knows it’s all for laughs, even when some of the comments they get out in the world aren’t so innocent. The twins hear it all the time when there’s no one home to watch them and they have to go to work with their older brother.

Really, they throw themselves in front of the hateful words, knowing the next in line to take them are Bubba, or even Franklin. People like them don’t get it easy.

So sitting around the table, with a raccoon in his lap, making playful remarks with his boys? That’s something worth holding on to.

They all (except for sleepy Miss Ivy, of course) look up when the only sister in the Sawyer family walks through, having heard their conversation and announcing it to all with, “I wouldn’t count out the rabies anyhow. Bobby boy’s a wild animal.”

“H-Hey! That’s not t-true!” He argues after her, not as close with his older sister to let things like that slide.

All at once, he clumsily pushes his chair back, already darted off after her for some kind of revenge before the chair had even stopped wobbling.

Nubbins waves his hands about excitedly, craning and watching the conflict until he can’t see it anymore because the siblings haul up the stairs to keep arguing. And then he turns back to Franklin so fast his own hair hits him in the face.

Shaky, clumsy fingers pull the strands apart out of his eyes, reorienting and smiling all over again with his eyes fixed on Franklin.

Boy, Franklin knows what’s coming next.

Ever since the first time they kissed, Nubbins has been obsessed with it. Every quiet moment they get, he’s pressing kisses to Franklin’s skin wherever he can reach, be that his hands and his arms or his face.

It’s not faring well for their secret, but it’s also not something Franklin wants to stop anytime soon. Right now, it’s all the shy and chaste stuff still, little presses and gentle bumps, no lust in the mix of romantic feelings. The way they’re comfortable.

Though, Franklin still hasn’t gotten over blushing as red as a rose when Nubbins does kiss him.

This time, it’s a kiss right on his cheek, which is definitely heated up and blushing before Nubbins even pulls away. He’s not even sure what it is that flusters him so much. Probably just somebody so open with his emotions, showing them all for him.

It makes his hands sing.

Flapping and shaking like Nubbins taught him how to. Burning off all the happy that builds up in his body when his boyfriend gives him those sweet kisses.

They’re both doing it, the hand dances, when Drayton floats into the room randomly, holding papers they’d gotten in the mail and ranting about their contents under his breath. Something about bills and taxes. Franklin smiles sheepishly, embarrassed to be in a struggling man’s house, but he gets no response.

It’s all just hot air anyway. Nubbins reminds him of that by poking him in the side where he’s ticklish, making him squish up to one side and giggle. A wordless way of saying, ‘don’t pay no attention to him!’

Big brother Drayton grabs something out the drawers in the corner and paces back out to the kitchen, closing the door behind himself to deal with his troubles on his own. A couple of sheltered up seventeen year olds don’t know all that much about paying for things, so they wouldn’t have been much help to him anyway.

The thing is, the second they’re alone, Nubbins pulls his little stunt again. Kissing Franklin, that is.

This time it’s twice. Once just past the side of his mouth, and once straight on his lips. It gives him all kinds of fuzzy and warm feelings. Makes him want to grab onto his boy and never let go.

But he has to. Cause they’re interrupted once again, darn it.

The boys’ younger cousin Johnny comes running out of nowhere. He ducks behind the table, giggling up a storm. It’s only a few seconds before Bubba stumbles in, squealing delightfully. The children run around in circles, screaming back and forth with each other, playing some sort of chasing game. Bubba roars and Franklin thinks he might be playing as a dragon or something.

It’s around this time that the raccoon in Franklin's lap gets annoyed and jumps down, sauntering away towards the screen door to get outside, to get herself into some trouble probably. He sees Sissy come through and pick the old lady raccoon up and carry her to the back door instead, where the yard is fenced in and safer for her.

Nubbins is to shut down to do it himself, as he covers his ears. He doesn’t like all the noise, but he gets in trouble if he tells Bubba to stop making it. Neither of them can help it. Franklin taps Nubbins gently and shows him to shake his hands and get the yucky feelings off. To try to cope with Bubbas way of copin.

He wiggles his bottom in his chair, which Franklin would imitate if he could. He nods and smiles at least so Nubbins knows he’s doing good. A few months back, or years when the two had first met, Nubbins would’ve snapped at Bubba and hurt both of their feelings in the process.

They don’t really know what Nubbins has got going on in his head that makes him so irritable, but he’s not too good at controlling it, not without some help. Franklin wants to be the one that helps him. Forever and ever.

‘Cause Nubbins is helpful back. He teaches him to do fun things and how to make cool art. Over home, Franklin wouldn’t get nearly as much conversation, he’d probably just sit there quietly all the time and be miserable.

So he hopes it’s alright that he’s here so often. The family accepts him. Even the pet raccoon likes him!

If he’s got Bubba’s approval, he knows he’s good, and that he must, since Bubba gets hurt while playing with Johnny, and goes straight to Franklin.

He’d been running around the table again and bumped his head, and welled up with tears right away. Happy little squeaks turned into loud and snotty wines. Johnny and Nubbins freeze up, being the youngest and the most distracted two in the whole family, neither of them know how to fix it when Bubba gets upset. But Franklins been watchin’ for all his time here. He thinks he can do this.

“Come here, Bubs. Lemme see.” He adjusts his wheelchair around to face Bubba and holds his arms out to him.

The younger boy, a preteen now but much taller than Franklin, inches over and sadly lays his cheek on his shoulder. Franklin has to lean just a bit to observe the little red mark on his head, glad to see it didn’t even break the skin, “Hey now, it’s just a bump. You’re alright. No blood.”

Instant relief. Bubba babbles and pats his hands on Franklin's arms, and he knows that’s the boy thanking him. He smiles, “You’re welcome, Bubba. If it still hurts, go with Johnny boy and tell Drayton you want some ice in a bag.”

Bubba nods and turns to his cousin. The younger boy smiles, tags Bubba on the tippy top of his curly head, and takes off running back towards the kitchen to find Drayton, taking the long way around through the front hall. Bubba follows, looking much better already.

Nubbins gives him a little smile, “H-Hey you’re g-good at that.”

Franklin’s going to shrug it off, say it’s just what friends do for friends, but Nubbins isn’t listening anyways. He’s looking at his lips again. With the position of his wheelchair, they can’t reach each other, so Franklin gives a small nod. He can tell Nubbin wants to move him, but he got in big trouble for touching Franklin's chair without permission.

Frankie himself hadn’t minded it, but Sally saw, and Sally might not get a lot of things right about Franklin, but she was angry that someone would drag her brother around like a doll. She’d screamed at Nubbins til her freckled face was red, and Nubbins was near in tears from anger at being talked to that way.

He really broke down when he got home and got in trouble with Drayton for making the neighbors upset. He’d spent his whole time-out sobbing his eyes out, and punching the wall.

It was ugly and Franklin wanted nothing to do with that again. So they have their little silent moments, where Nubbins can just, sort of look and it’ll imply what he wants. Sometimes that’s better than words with them, and better than just doing it without asking.

Would it have been easier to reposition the chair himself? Absolutely. But it sort of felt nice having Nubbins spin the wheels for him and try to get everything perfect. Like he really cared about having Franklin close.

And then once he gets it, he kisses him one more time. This time, he brings up both of his hands to either side of Frankie’s face, and just holds him there. They don’t move much, it’s pretty much just a lock of their lips, occasionally shifting to breathe. It’d be weird and awkward if it was anybody else.

Instead it makes Franklin blush carnation pink and his heart go pitter patter.

That gentle rhythm turns a hell of a lot more panicked in both of them when suddenly there’s a shriek in the room,

“Nubbins got a boyfriend! Nubbins got a boyfriend!!”

Oh. Bobby came back. He saw.

There've been plenty of close calls before, but nothing the two couldn’t pass off. Two years of hiding is a long time and they maybe got careless. And now Bobby’s jumping up and down and singing and it’s just-

Too much.

“Boyfriend!!! Nubbins! Got! A! Boy-“

The kitchen door slams back open. Drayton whacks the wall with a wooden spatula instead of hitting any of the boys,

“That’s enough, boy! You lost your damn mind?”

Now Bobby’s on the defensive. He shakes his head wildly and points, putting all the attention on his brother and Franklin, “Th-They was kiss-kissin’!”

Nubbins and him stare at the ground. Bobby looks confused why they seem so upset. Romance is supposed to be good! They keep mama’s wedding picture on the mantelpiece and she don’t even live here anymore. It’s not bad that Nubbins could be like mama too, not in his eyes. It’s good that he’s got a boyfriend!

Drayton might beg to differ though. It’s hard to tell, with the tense form of his posture. His eyes are narrowed and he’s just, staring for a moment. Assessing if maybe Robert was lying to him. Til he asks gruffly, “That true?”

“Uh…” Franklin can’t speak. He knows what his boy means to him, but he just can’t articulate it, can’t defend himself in the face of someone he’s afraid of.

Nubbins isn’t afraid. He balls up his fists and slams them on the table and shouts, “Yeh! S-So what?”

“Ain’t going to have none of that in my house, is so what.” Drayton says it sort of like a command. Like he expects the two of them to just break up on the spot. Calm because of a smugness, and because he’s so angry underneath.

Oh, but his Nubbins turns bright red in anger, the glaring birthmark on his cheek deepening like the color of blood when it gets under the skin like a bruise. He accuses, “Yer just m-mad cause you got n-nobody t’ kiss! Lefty left you, a-an’ yer all-all alone! Mean old m-man!”

Drayton grits his teeth, sort of like a growl, “Shut up.”

Franklin really needs to ask more about what happened between his uncle and the oldest Sawyer. For now, he’s watching this argument like you’d watch a ball game, back and forth between the angry brothers shouting at each other. His jaws a little slackened in awe.

“Nuh-uh. I-I’m gonna kiss my Fr-Franklin whenever I want!” Nubbins declares, and gets real close to Franklin, nose pressed into his cheek, as if to prove it.

“Don’t you dare-“ Drayton warns, but it’s too late.

Nubbins kisses Franklin's face all over, cartoonishly and childlike, with little “~mwah” noises and everything. It’s sorta sweet in a way. Doesn’t stop Franklin from being mortified.

And it doesn’t stop the oldest from reacting. Drayton marches forward, shoving extra furniture out of his path, to get to Nubbins, pulling him back hard by his bony shoulder.

“Why you little-“

His hand raises up automatically to thwack Nubbins. Nubbins pokes his tongue out, disobeys, but he shrinks down too. He anticipates the painful contact.

Dread settles heavy in the room.

Franklin can’t breathe. They’d talked. This wasn’t supposed to happen anymore. Nubbins wasn’t scared, things were better now, they’d be okay-

Bobby breaks his stunned silence from things going so so wrong, to shriek out, “N-No, Drayton!”

Franklins realizes he has the power to speak too. He’s much closer to everything. Can hear the angry breaths and see the shaking bodies. It scares him, but he tries to be firm too, “Don’t hurt him.”

The image of getting a smack of his own plays in his head and he bows apologetically, “Please.”

Somewhere, that reminds Drayton of his hollow promises. His face even goes a little pale.

Stiff and awkward, he taps his hands on Nubbins’ arms. It looks like it’s supposed to be comforting, and at least Nubbins takes it that way cause he relaxes a little. Drayton eventually, with a little bit of effort now that he’s past forty, crouches down by the chair. It’s not really a hug per se, but he kinda lays his head on Nubbins, and the boy accepts it, curling up to make as much contact as possible.

This isn’t the pretend to get along stuff, or the scream until their throats are raw hatred. They’re trying to love each other. Drayton’s trying to be vulnerable. Nubbins is trying to not fight.

Franklin, for one, is confused though. It doesn’t make sense.

“I thought you was mad?” He asks quietly, eyes fixed to the floor like seeing the Sawyer siblings hug is something to be ashamed of.

“Been through a lot, kid.” Drayton answers automatically, pulling away from the bit of strange affection he was able to show, rising to his feet again.

There’s silence for a long time, while everybody tries to think of what to say.

Drayton paces on the spot a little. Bounces impatiently, his temper with himself now mostly. Wipes his hands on his work pants.

Finally, he speaks, seeing that nobody else is going to, and having something else on his mind he needs to put out, “I’m all they got. Can’t let a simple thing ruin it….. I won’t get on your case. Just.. Just you stay outta his bedroom, you hear?”

Oh god. They’re not- Franklin never- Where did he..?

Franklin just nods, and he’s sure he looks stupid, but he was caught off guard! The implication there is beyond embarrassing, something that never even occurred to him yet. He’s sure his own flushed face is hot enough to rival the sun.

Drayton accepts the nod as the answer it is, more than used to not getting words for answers. And then he lingers sort of awkwardly, extending his hand out for maybe a hand shake with the boy, but then withdrawing it immediately before Franklin can even accept.

There’s something going on in that old man’s head, and Franklin wants nothing to do with it.

It’s only because Nubbins forgives him that he doesn’t hate Draytons guts. Maybe he gets the luxury of being an outsider, or maybe it’s because he’s got both his parents and just one little sister. Whatever it is, something tells Franklin it isn’t his place to decide for the Sawyers.

Either way, doesn’t mean he has to be a fan of Drayton Sawyer.

And maybe he glares a little at the door after the man leaves again, muttering to himself about something indistinct, not the same as the finances rants. More like he’s scolding himself or something.

The twins are over it though. They’re fixed back on their respective friend and partner, both leaning in to ask him something quiet.

It’s Nubbins who does the speaking for the question they both have, “Why a-ain’t you allowed i-in our room?”

God, no. Franklin cannot answer that right now. He’ll die of humiliation trying to explain it to the boys. Shouldn’t they know that already at seventeen?

“Uh.. that’s probably a question for your brother.”

Bobby recoils and scrunches up, acting like he touched something gross, and squeaks, “Ew, we d-don’t wanna talk to h-him!”

Never thought he’d see the day, but he’s actually about to defend their older brother. Not because he likes him, that'd just be a downright lie, but because he knows this’ll be easier if they don’t all fight amongst each other all the damn time. No hitting, no arguing, no name-calling.

That’s probably wishful thinking. Franklin tries to mediate peace anyways, “You heard what he said. He cares ‘bout y’all. Sometimes you gotta talk to him.”

But Robert Sawyer is one stubborn son of a gun. He just shakes his head and flicks his hair dismissively, “That’s d-dumb.”

That offends Nubbins into speaking up, “Fr-Franklin’s not dumb, Bobby!”

There’s a moment where they just stare at each other, before Nubbins strikes. It’s like nobody in the world is allowed to breathe until they solve their problem. Which they choose to do by wrestling it out.

The fight is like watching two lions without teeth trying to kill each other. They just sort of push and hit and pull hair. Bobby bites Nubbins on the arm once. Nubbins shoves a pile of chicken feathers from the next room, that were left from Bubba bringing his favorite hen in the house, into Bobby’s face.

All of it’s mostly harmless. That’s probably why Franklin feels a little flattered, watching his boy defend him that way. If it were anybody other than his own twin brother, he might even do some actual damage.

All for Franklin. ‘Cause he isn’t stupid. Just like Nubbins didn’t deserve to be hit.

He’s glad he stood up for him. And that Nubbins did it right back.

It’s something a little like love that flutters in his chest.

That is, until the spirit of the Holy Ghost gets scared right out of him by more unexpected yelling and banging on the wall.

Drayton crowd, “Y’all aren’t gettin’ nothin’ for supper if you don’t stop yer rough housin’!”

For a moment, the twins are just stuck looking at each other in horror, before they work on untangling and righting themselves, helping each other fix their hair so they don’t look like they’ve just been fighting. It’s too late, their brother already knows, but they hide the evidence anyways.

The thing Franklin finally understands, is that it’s not a lie when Nubbins says he isn’t scared.

It sort of inspires him to wanna feel that way too.

So this time, once the boys are settled back in their seats, he initiates a kiss, right on Nubbins’ cheek. Nubbins sneaks and turns his head quick to make it a real kiss, but just a peck.

Bobby giggles and points at them, “Y’all got.. C-Coooooties!”

Nubbins would’ve probably jumped across the table and tackled him again if the rest of the family didn’t start coming in for supper.

Instead, he’ll hold Franklin’s hand, all throughout, for the rest of the day even if he can help it, and not care even one little bit who’s looking,