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thespiritssaidso · 1 month

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Yeah, But That Backflip Though

Summary: Shawn and Gus need to interrogate someone who frequents a place called ‘Aerial Acrobatics’. Unfortunately, Shawn’s caught the eye of one of the teachers, and now has to revisit an old friend of his: gymnastics.

Notes: Is this just an excuse to write gymnast!Shawn? Yes. Is this also just an excuse to sneak in my absolute most favorite (and currently only) OC ship? Perchance.

And yes, for anyone wondering, the title is a vine reference. If you don’t know which one I’m talking about, here it is

—————

Gus pulled his car into park in front of a large building that looked vaguely like a warehouse. He thought it was a warehouse until he saw the large sign above the glass double doors saying ‘Aerial Acrobatics’ in big pink calligraphy. “Why are we here again, Shawn?”

“For the last time, we’re here to interrogate Drew Oberon. The dead guy only had a few close friends, and she was one of them. They got together every other week to just paint.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well for starters, all the paintings in his house? Every single one had the initials M. T. signed on the top left corner. Not the best signature, in my opinion. Like, at least make it something cool-”

“Shawn.”

“-Also his calendar was open and I saw the dates he’d marked for when he’d meet up with Drew. And his other friends for other activities. He’d color coded the whole thing, it kind of reminded me of the calendar you’ve got hung up in the office.”

Gus tried to steer the conversation back to the original point. “So you think she poisoned him with paint?”

Shawn hummed. “That’s a good idea. Too bad it’s wrong.”

“Tsch.”

“No, this guy was killed by something else. Something interesting Woody found in his stomach.”

“How interesting?”

“Mushroom interesting. Something called ‘The Destroying Angel’.”

Gus couldn’t help the surprise that crossed his face. “The Destroying Angel?! Those things are incredibly toxic! It causes severe nausea and vomiting, hallucinations… it practically melts your liver! It’s one of the worst ways to go out.”

“So is it above or below bellyflopping on water from ten stories up?”

“It’s above it. Way above it.” Personally, the mushroom’s side effects really unnerved Gus. Not because of the general grossness of it all, but because once you actually showed symptoms of being poisoned by the fungus, it would be too late.

“I doubt that. But anyways. This girl, Drew, she likes to post pictures on her Twitter account of the different places she goes hiking. And you’ll never guess what was in the background of some of those pictures.”

“Destroying Angels?”

“Yahtzee! She probably picked a few while on one of her extraditions-”

“You mean excursion.”

“I’ve heard it both ways. Anyways, Drew used the mushrooms she’d gathered to poison the poor guy.”

Gus nodded. “Okay, what’s her motive?”

Shawn unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door. “That is why we’re here now. It doesn’t make sense. Drew has all the means, but no motive. I need to talk to her. Read her. Feel her, maybe. I need her side of the story.”

Gus followed him out the car and into the parking lot. “Have you told Juliet and Lassie about all this?”

“You kidding? If Lassie even got wind of the fact that Drew breathed the same air as the murder weapon, he’d have her arrested faster than you can say ‘poison mushrooms’.” Shawn went quiet, and made a face. “Not gonna lie, that wasn’t my best.”

“Okay, fine then. So, again, why are we here? The last time I checked, this is not a forest.” And he was right. There was a few trees here and there, but they were all planted in the sidewalk. There was no reason for them to be at a gymnastics building in the middle of the city.

“Well, a little birdie told me that Drew comes here every day at noon and hangs around for about an hour before leaving.”

“Was that little birdie named Twitter?”

“The name of the birdie isn’t important, Gus. If you looked at the time, you’d see it’s currently… 12:03. Which means she should be here.” And with that, he pushed the double doors wide open and walked in.

Shawn strode up to the counter where there was a woman sitting behind the desk, enraptured by something on her computer. He knocked on the countertop, startling her.

She recovered quite quickly, and looked up at them with a smile that was almost too big for her face. “Hi! How can I help you two?”

“Hello, my name is Shawn Spencer, and this is my partner Evan ‘Starfish’ Spencer. No relation of any kind. We’re with the SBPD and need to talk to someone named Drew.”

Gus shook his head at the new nickname. He didn’t know how Shawn managed to come up with a new and weird nickname for every case. It was definitely commendable, that was for sure. Shawn’s imagination never seemed to run dry. At least this time he was semi-honest about their intentions. He’d been ready for him to come up with some ridiculous job that most certainly did not exist yet the other person would somehow buy into.

The lady behind the desk sat up at the name. “Why? Are they alright?” She asked, although she seemed just a tad distracted, not taking her eyes off of Shawn. Her eyes continued roving his body as she stood up from behind the desk.

“We just need to ask her some questions, Ms…?”

“Schulz. Charlie Schulz.” Okay, she was definitely distracted. She’d completely circled around the counter and was now standing right next to the two. “And they won’t be here ‘til later.”

“Ooookay… uh…” he trailed off as she walked even closer to him, going so far as to slightly shove Gus out of the way.

“Hey! What-”

Charlie held up a hand to shush Gus. “Hold- hold on, can I just?…” Without waiting for confirmation, she began to circle Shawn, sizing him up, hand to her chin, as if she were looking at something new she wanted to test out. She was nodding to herself, and mumbling words like ‘sturdy’ and ‘probably flexible’. The last one didn’t sound very reassuring.

“Okay, what is this, some kind of shakedown, minus the shaking part-” he was cut off by Charlie poking the space between his shoulder blades. “Woah! Look, don’t touch!”

“Oh hush, you don’t have to worry about me, bestie.” She hummed and nodded to herself, as if reaching a decision. Then she reached out to grab his hand, marching off to the locker rooms with Shawn in tow. “I’m sure there’s a spare leotard back here that’ll fit you!”

“Woah woah woah, I didn’t say anything about-”

“I know you didn’t, that’s why I’m doing it for you! I’d take a guess we probably have your size. Now come on, I want to see if those hips can fit into our standard leotard.”

“No no no no no, I haven’t- I’m not-”

The door slammed shut, cutting off the conversation from Gus. He heard muffled sounds of protest, arguing, and then silence.

Eventually, Shawn resurfaced from the locker room, wearing a green and yellow sparkly leotard. He was walking awkwardly, and reaching down every once in a while to pick at the fabric stretching around his crotch.

Charlie reached down and slapped his hand away. “Quit picking at it, man. You’ll just make it worse.”

Shawn dramatically pulled his hand away. “Ow! Watch the package!” Shawn stopped and looked at Gus’ expression. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Gus unsuccessfully hid a grin, and held up his hands in defense. “I’m not saying anything.”

Charlie clapped her hands together, only slightly startling the two men. “Okay! Let’s go. Stretches first, of course. Then, we’re going to see how well you do on the bars-”

“What about the part where we talk to Drew? When do we get to do that?”

“They texted me that they were running late. Something about misplacing their gouache. But right now it’s gymnastics time, pretty boy!” She started to excitedly jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. “This is gonna be great!”

———

“This is stupid.”

“Quiet. Just keep your leg in that position for another fifteen seconds.”

Shawn groaned, and looked over to Gus. “You alright buddy?”

Gus didn’t feel alright. He actually felt ready to pass out. Shawn had managed to kick up his leg perfectly vertical to his torso and was only holding it up with only one hand. The other exercises he’d been fine with seeing, even if some made him a little uneasy. But this was just plain unnatural. “I’ll be fine when you put your leg down. Since when have you been able to do…that?!”

“Since forever? You don’t remember my dad shipping me off to gymnastics every week on Tuesdays and Fridays?”

“All I remember is you disappearing for 2 hours twice a week.”

“And you never questioned it?”

“I thought it was a little weird, but I assumed it was just more of your dad trying to train you!”

“Well, you’re not entirely wrong there buddy.” Shawn let go of his leg, allowing it to fall on the floor next to his other leg.

Before he could get another word in to Gus, however, Charlie interrupted. “Okay, not a lot of time on the clock here, so we’re just gonna have you on bars. Good?”

“I don’t actually have a say in this, do I?”

“Nope! Here.” She handed Shawn a tub of chalk powder and some bandages. “I’m sure you know how to use these?”

Shawn slumped forward as he took the objects. “Yeah...”

As he wrapped up his hands up and dusted them with the chalk, Gus just continued watching from the sidelines. He had no idea if Shawn was actually any good at bars, let alone gymnastics. It didn’t really help that he’d never actually seen Shawn do any exercise of any kind either. Well, not in front of him, that is. But there were some… odd moments that were now surfacing to the front of his memory: Shawn lying down on the floor of the psych office; finding a mat stashed away in the closet; him sounding out of breath on the phone when Gus knew for sure that Shawn was at home. The list went on.

“Okay, you ready?”

“Well, I’m about put my life on the line. Actually, technically my hands’ life. And my back. And my neck. And face- yeah, my whole life. But it’s all good!” He placed a smile on his face, but it was just a little too big.

Gus knew that tone. It was how Shawn sounded when he was deflecting, making jokes when really he was more than just nervous. Like right now. He could see it all over his face. He may have the body — Charlie’s words, not his — but he probably hadn’t done this in a while. It was making Gus nervous for Shawn too.

Shawn dusted his palms of any excess chalk, a small cloud puffing from bandaged hands.

Gus watched as Shawn stood underneath the bar and jumped up, grabbing the bar tightly in both hands. He hefted himself up in one fluid motion and leaned against the bar on his core. Smoothly and gracefully he pushed himself up in a plank, legs hovering in the air as his arm muscles shook minutely.

Gus couldn’t help the look of surprise. Shawn, the man whose only exercise he’d personally witnessed was running away from bad guys, was successfully lifting his lower body into a handstand 6 feet above the ground on a 2-and-a-half-inch thick piece of plastic.

Charlie began clapping from the sidelines. “Woooo! Nice cast, Shawn!”

But Shawn wasn’t finished. The look on his face was one of pure concentration, focusing on not face-planting into the bar and breaking his nose. He pursed his lips as he began tilting backwards, hands loosening just enough to allow his quick descent.

As Shawn circled around the bar — all while keeping his body perfectly straight in a handstand — he quickly and expertly let go of the bar with one hand while in the peak of his arch and spun his body to face the other way before falling once more in another giant circle, but facing forward this time.

Gus’ eyes were bugging out of his head at this point. He was currently seeing a whole other side of Shawn, one that was graceful and smooth. He continued ogling as his friend did yet another handstand, but this time one handed.

He still couldn’t stop staring as Shawn put his hand back on the bar and let himself fall in a swing once more. Except this time, in what was probably an effort to show off, he did a flip — a flip — and landed perfectly on his feet on the mat, arms spread in a t-pose.

Shawn was heavily panting, sweat beginning to bead on his face. He licked off some of it that was lining his upper lip. “How was that?”

Charlie clapped very short and small claps, jumping up and down. “Wow, that was amazing! See, I knew you were gymnast material!”

Behind them, the sound of the door opening echoed through the gym. Gus and the other two turned to see who it was, and saw a… man? No, no, a woman. It was hard to tell, the androgynous figure not giving much to go off of. They were carrying a simple drawstring cloth bag in one hand, the other swinging nonchalantly by their side.

“Hey, hun!” They greeted, completely ignoring Gus and Shawn.

Charlie ran up to them and practically tackled them. “Drew! Did you get my lunch?”

“Sure did.” Drew reached into the bag and grabbed an opaque Tupperware. “Chicken parm salad, your favorite.”

“Oh my god, you’re the best.” She eagerly grabbed it before her expression changed to suspicion, squinting her eyes. “You didn’t make this, did you?”

“You crazy? I’m pretty sure if I did, all you’d be getting was a box fulla smoke. Nah, I had Parker make it.”

Charlie’s expression morphed back into one full of fondness. “You’re so sweet.”

“Pretty sure that’s you, sugar.”

They had both been inching closer and closer together before Shawn interrupted with a cough. The distance between the two didn’t change, instead they whipped their heads over to the men who were both awkwardly watching the couple.

“Oh right! Drew, this is Shawn Spencer and his friend Evan Spencer-”

“Starfish. No relation.”

“Uh- yeah. They’re here with to ask you some questions.”

Drew looked at the two suspiciously. “What’s so important that they have to ask me instead of you?”

“Well, they’re with the police, so-”

“Really? Come on, I already answered all of Detective Flat Stanley’s questions. If you really worked with them, you’d know that.”

Gus watched Shawn wipe off the sweat from his brow before he said, “That’s the thing, Drew. You see, I am no normal man. I’ve tried, but I’m just too amazing. I’m actually a psychic. And I’ve been getting some serious vibes from you.”

They raised an eyebrow and crossed their arms. “You have, have you now?”

“Yes, in fact I’m getting something right now.” Shawn theatrically sucked a breath through his teeth, and shut his eyes as a hand flew to his temple. “I see… you, surrounded by green, lots of it. And brown. There’s a little gray too. Ehh… maybe some purple-”

Gus swiftly elbowed his friend in the arm.

Shawn gave a short yelp. “Ow!” He shook it off and resumed his ‘vision’, this time with his eyes open instead of shut for dramatic effect. “You like to hang around the woods. No wait, scratch that. You don’t just hang out there, you like to hike there!” He winced. “Ew, you do that for fun?”

Once again, Gus had to elbow Shawn. This time, he managed to dodge it, only barely.

“I’m seeing plants, Drew. Grass, ferns, trees, moss, and mushrooms.” He paused, and turned to Gus. “Are mushrooms even plants?”

“It’s still up for debate what fungi really are.”

Drew cut in with, “They’re not plants.”

“Unimportant! You harvested those mushrooms, the Demolishing Demons-”

“Destroying Angels, Shawn. I know you know what they’re called, you said it before-”

“-Destroying Angels, cut them up, cooked them into a little meal, and gave them to your poor, probably innocent, definitely unknowing friend Matthew Timons.” He lowered the hand from his head. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Before Drew could say something to defend themself, Charlie cut in. “I have several things to say on Drew’s behalf, actually. First of all: Who the hell do you think you are to accuse my girlfriend of killing off their friend?!”

Shawn and Gus jumped back at the unexpectedly harsh tone coming from the small woman. It was a monumental turnaround from the attitude she had shown just moments ago. She’d seemed so full of positive energy not long ago. But now she looked as though she could spit fire.

“Second of all: they can’t cook for shit. The last time Drew was in the kitchen they burned a pot of water trying to make Kraft Mac and Cheese as a surprise for me.” Charlie sucked in a breath and turned to her girlfriend. “I’m sorry, that was harsh. You’re not that bad-”

Drew gently put an arm around Charlie. “You’re fine, sugar. I really am that bad at cooking.”

Gus thought back to earlier, when Drew had presented the Tupperware box to Charlie. She’d asked them if they had made it in a wary tone, as if she was experienced in Drew’s cooking. And what she said just then practically confirmed it: Drew couldn’t cook, so they couldn’t have made something to get Matthew to eat it. He looked over to Shawn and saw that he was coming to the same conclusion.

“Shawn? Gus?”

The unexpected voice caused the four to whip their heads towards the source. It was Juliet, and right beside her was Lassiter.

Juliet’s eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. “What are you two doing here? And what are you wearing, Shawn?”

Shawn opened his mouth, then closed it. Even Gus didn’t know how to explain why he was wearing a leotard of all things. Charlie had just sort of dragged him into the locker room and forced him into the outfit.

Drew looked at the two detectives in confusion. “What’s- what’s goin’ on here? I already answered your questions.”

Lassiter spoke up first. “Drew Oberon, you’re under arrest for the murder of Matthew Timons.”

Again, Drew was cut off by Charlie. “On what grounds?”

Lassiter took the lead. “Well, after we questioned Ms. Oberon — who was hostile at best during her questioning-”

Drew cut him off. “Yeah, you interrupted shroomie time, ‘course I was gonna be pissed-”

“I’m sorry, shroomie time? What, is that code for ‘Drug O’Clock’?”

“No, it’s when Charlie and I-” Drew’s face turned red. “When we, uh- cuddle on a pile of mushroom plushies she’s collected over the years.” Their face didn’t stop growing red, seemingly embarrassed at having to tell strangers that they and their girlfriend had a specific time set aside to lounge together on top of a mound of toys.

They all stood in awkward silence before Juliet broke it. “Uhm, we did some background checks on her, and it turns out that she has a degree in mycology.”

Drew looked like they were about to say something, probably to defend themself. But, once again, they were interrupted, this time by Shawn. “What- what is that, the study of colons?”

Gus clicked his tongue in annoyance. “It’s the study of fungi, Shawn.”

“How do you just know this stuff?”

“It’s common knowledge!”

“Oh yeah, mycology. It’s right up there next to the word for the fear of rubber bands.”

“For your information, that’s lastihophobia.”

“You’re really not beating the allegations here, Gus.”

“Would you two shut your yaps?!” Lassiter nearly shouted at them. He continued where Juliet left off. “Matthew Timons was poisoned by a mushroom called ‘the Destroying Angel’. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you? I’ll answer that for you: you do.” He brought out a pair of cuffs from his suit pockets. “Hands behind your back, please.”

Drew couldn’t even say a word, too shocked by all the evidence currently stacked against her. All she could do was numbly follow Lassiter’s orders.

Charlie was equally stunned. “What? You’re taking them away? Just like that?!”

Shawn stepped forward and in an effort to calm her, said, “Look, Charlie, I didn’t mean-”

Slap!

Shawn physically recoiled, and Gus winced in sympathy. It looked like it had hurt. Heck, it sounded like it hurt, too.

Juliet quickly reacted, pinning Charlie’s arms to her sides to keep her from potentially harming Shawn further. Lassiter simply watched from the side — still keeping a strong grip on Drew — eyebrows raised in surprise. Charlie didn’t resist, letting herself become entrapped by the detective.

Shawn turned back around, now sporting a red handprint on his left cheek. He gently tapped it with a finger, and sucked a breath through gritted teeth. He looked back to Charlie, who’d stood still and only moved to blow a strand of hair from her face. “Charlie, I promise you we’ll prove Drew is innocent.”

She just shook her head. “Don’t bother. You’ve already done enough.” Charlie pulled free from Juliet and stormed out of the building to follow after Lassiter and Drew, who had already made their way out.

———

Ao3 link

For anyone curious, here’s the list of the moves name’s that Shawn performed in order:

Pull up from hang: The pull up from hang is a skill that requires you to pull your body up towards the bar using only your upper body strength. This exercise helps build strength in your arms, shoulders, and back.

Cast to horizontal: In the Cast to Horizontal, the gymnast casts up and levels out in a position parallel to the ground, requiring core strength and control. It’s easier than Cast to Handstand as the gymnast is only extending into a level position rather than completely upside down.

Cast to handstand: This skill is an extension of the basic cast, where the gymnast casts up into a handstand position. It requires strength and control.

Giant: The Giant is a fundamental skill where the gymnast performs a full 360-degree rotation around the bar in a handstand position, essential for building momentum. (Shawn does the backwards version)

Blind Change: The Blind Change is a turning skill where the gymnast rotates 180 degrees while in a handstand on the bar. It’s a difficult skill but once mastered will allow gymnasts to switch the direction of their swing and add a wider range of skills to their routine.

Front Giant: The Front Giant involves a forward giant swing, where the gymnast maintains a handstand position while circling the bar. It’s key for developing momentum.

Salto Dismount: A common dismount, the Salto Dismount involves performing a salto (flip) off the bar, landing on the mat. It can be executed in various forms.