bubblegum k.k.

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/35226469.

Rating: Not Rated

Archive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: M/M
Fandom: no - Fandom
Relationship: Wilbur Soot/Mark Boardman/Ash Kabosu/Joe Goldsmith
Additional Tags: Polyamory, Boys In Love, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, ash hasn’t
played animal crossing, joe teaches him, mark & will are just along for
the ride
Stats: Published: 2021-11-20 Words: 966

bubblegum k.k.
by ranloved

Notes

i’ve been playing acnh a lot recently and thought this up. poly lvjy my beloveds. :)
i quite enjoyed writing the group chat/text parts of this, brought me back to 2015 where one
of my old weird high school au chatfics got a fair amount of attention on wattpad. i’m
slightly tempted to write another here.
this was written over one night and not proofread. sorry for any mistakes.

Ash shrugs. “I don’t know. I just… haven’t.”

Joe groans. “Bullshit, everyone’s played it!”

“To be fair, though,” Mark says. “I didn’t play it until New Horizons came out in quarantine.”

Joe looks to his right, giving Mark a fake face of betrayal. “I don’t know why I’m with you.” He
looks back at Ash with another fake expression, this time of judgement. “Or you.”

The door opens and Wilbur walks in. Joe immediately jumps at the new chance to defend
himself. “Will! You’ve played Animal Crossing, right?”

“Mhm, yeah. I’ve played a bit of New Leaf. Haven’t played New Horizons yet, though. Why?”

Joe launches to his feet, wrapping his arms around Wilbur with drama, as the taller just laughs to
himself. “Finally, a good man!” Joe rights himself before telling Wilbur their topic of conversation.

Wilbur’s face contorts to one of slight confusion. “Why does that matter?”

“Ha!” Mark laughs. “See, Joe? It’s not that big of a deal.”

“I’m leaving.” Joe says, shaking his head but otherwise not moving a muscle.
“If it really means that much to you, you can teach me if you want.” Ash says, smiling at the way
Joe’s eyes light up.

“Really?” Joe asks, and Ash only nods in response. “Yes!” Joe draws out the ‘s’ slightly.

Wilbur and Mark chuckle to themselves.

———

Joe is ecstatic when Wilbur texts their group chat the following week.

will, 11:07am: switch and game are both here, all of you come over whenever you want :)

mark, 11:07am: we playing on big tv?

will, 11:09am: if you want to!

ash, 11:10am: didn’t actually think i’d be excited for this

ash, 11:10am: but here we are i guess

joe, 11:11am: YES ANIMAL CROSSING TIME !!!

joe, 11:11am: ALSO BIG TV IS GOOD CAUZE WILL BE EASUER FOR ALL OF US TO SEE

joe, 11:12am: SRORY FOR SPELLING IM EXCITED

will, 11:12am: lol it’s okay, i’ll start setting up in a minute :)

———

Mark is the last one in, stumbling through the front door of Wilbur’s house with a smile and a few
things he bought from an off license on the way. He leaves his shoes with everyone else’s, and in
the living room, Wilbur sits on the sofa, and Ash and Joe are both on the floor with their legs
crossed. Mark slips over the the arm of the sofa and sits with his right knee up to his chest, setting
down the blue carrier bag between himself and Wilbur as everyone greets him.

As Mark hands out a few snacks, Wilbur speaks. “You didn’t have to buy anything, dear.”

“Oh, shut it. I know for a fact you’ve barely got anything in.” Mark waves Wilbur off as he usually
does when he says things like this.

“You’re a wonder, Mark.” Wilbur says, taking Mark’s hand into his own and bringing it up to his
mouth, kissing the back of it.

“As are you, Will.” Mark smiles, and keeps his hand in Wilbur’s as he rifles through the bag to get
the bag of bonbons he brought especially for himself.

“Blehhhh,” Ash sounds off, exaggerating the fake vomiting by sticking his tongue out and
pretending to hold his stomach in pain.

All of the boys laugh, and Wilbur pushes him lightly with his foot. They calm down, and they’re
soon on their way to a desert island, courtesy of Nook Inc.

“What should we name our character?” Ash says, head tilting slightly as he looks at the TV.
“You can just name it Ash. We can have separate characters on the same island if we make
different profiles. Can we, Will?” Joe asks, looking back at Wilbur.

“Yeah, of course. I only bought this Switch for you guys.” Wilbur says.

“Aww,” Joe says. “You’re a simp.”

“Simpbur real, confirmed, not fake, not clickbait.” Mark says, laughing along with the rest of the
boys.

“I hate you all.” Wilbur says through laughs and a large smile.

The high pitched voices of the Nooklings bring the boys’ attention back to the TV, where Ash is
designing his character.

“Can’t you have, like, a beard or glasses or anything?” He asks.

“You can buy them later, I think.” Wilbur says.

“You buy facial hair in this game?” Ash mutters to himself. Joe snickers beside him.

Once Ash finishes his character customisation, they finally move onto the island. Ash picks the
layout for them once Joe explains that it doesn’t really matter all that much because of the
terraforming you can do. However, when the first day is done, and it comes to the name of the
island, Ash is stuck.

“We could just go easy and call it Lovejoy.” Mark says.

“Hmm, fair enough. It wouldn’t be a bad name.” Wilbur responds.

“I like it.” Joe agrees.

Ash nods and types it in. When he presses confirm, all of them smile.

It was nice, to have something just for themselves, to have something to wind down with that
reminded them of one another. It’s their own little getaway, to put it in Tom Nook’s terms. Their
home away from home, so to speak. (Though, if they were honest, it wasn’t really. They all
considered one another to be their home anyway.)

———

BONUS:

mark, 9:24pm: will

mark, 9:24pm: idea

mark, 9:24pm: animal crossing stream?

ash, 9:25pm: vouch

joe, 9:25pm: vouch x2

will, 9:27pm: i love you all dearly

will, 9:27pm: and i would do anything for you

will, 9:28pm: except going through the hell that is setting up the switch with my office pc

will, 9:28pm: so very sorry, but no :(

joe, 9:28pm: where’s the /j

will, 9:29pm: lol

will, 9:29pm: there isn’t one

will, 9:29pm: suffer

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