Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Foolish was in a hurry. It was already close to noon when he stepped outside of his house to go to the city. He wouldn’t be in a rush if he just needed to run errands for himself, but Tina had asked him if he could buy her some things as well, so he didn’t want to disappoint nor later hear her complain. And Foolish knew that it took a good amount of time to walk there, so it was best to go early and use the day. Which is what he would have done, if he hadn’t stayed up late to work on his newest tinker project.

But yesterday was yesterday and now Foolish stood outside of his house, ready to go, as he heard a „God damn it “, from inside Tina's workshop. “Is everything alright in there?” he asks while stepping through the front door. On the inside, the shelves were adorned with bottles and glasses which held various liquids, herbs or other things that she needed to brew her potions. Her voice had come from the room behind the counter, in which she had her brewing station and workplace.

“Yeah yeah, just this stupid concoction that doesn’t want to do what I want. But it's fine”, she said with a sigh while coming to the front. Mentally, she still seemed to be in the process of brewing, when she remembered the favor, he promised her. “And what about you, Mister? Didn’t you want to be in the city a while ago?” she asked accusingly, underlining her question by poking her index finger into his chest.

“Look”, he tried to defend himself but then needed to chuckle as he became aware that she was totally in the right. “Don’t laugh at me”, Tina dared sarcastically but still kept her stern face. “I will, I will”, he held up his hands to signalize defeat and avoid getting poked at more, before he actually got on his way.

With a weaved basket on his back, he left their house and workshops behind him, and marched towards the city. Surrounded by forest, their settlement was in a really good place to provide the most possible materials for Foolish’s building and Tina’s potions. He and Tina had moved there about a little over five years ago, right after they left home to find their own place in the world. And the world had been kind to them, leading them to this calm piece of land. Where Foolish had build their house, and a workshop for each of them.

But there can’t always grow everything in one place, so that shopping in the city was still a necessary task. With his shark tail happily wagging behind him, he reached the city close after noon. The streets were filled with people that were carrying out their daily jobs, so that even in the outer parts, Foolish was greeted with a lot of faces. Usually when he comes here earlier, these streets were still sleepy, only roamed by the early birds.

The inner city was bustling even more, since there were all the open shops as well as the market that was run on the city square, with more than over a hundred booths, occupied by various people from all over the country and even further. The booths were small tents, each one having a table placed in front of them that was draped with cloth.

With an unhurried pace, Foolish walked by them, taking his time to take a close look at the goods that were being sold. He knew that he could make most of their usual purchases at stores around the city, so at the market, he had his eyes on rare imports. After passing by some dozen booths, he reached one that caught his attention. On the table in front of him lay numerous uncommon woods that he only ever saw once or twice, and even then, they were already used and processed. And not only that was sold there, but also tools in the finest quality with decorated handles from the same type of wood.

“You seem to know a lot about wood, my friend”, addressing Foolish from behind the stand. A little bit embarrassed, Foolish looked up, realising how much he was just focused on the contents on the table.  The man that owned the stand had a strange accent to him, which supported the fact that he wasn’t from around. He was wearing a leather apron on top of his clothes, had black hair, slightly tanned skin from the sun and strong builder arms that were crossed in front of his chest. And he smiled at him.

“Oh, yeah, I am a builder myself. So, uhm” he hesitated while looking back at the wood, touching some, to play off the shyness he suddenly felt. The man in front of him looked nice. Very nice and for some reason Foolish couldn’t shake off this tingling feeling of wanting to study this man’s face closer. But he was here for the wood. At least that was what he told himself.

“Ah I see. So, this red one is great for making decorations, and the dark one next to it is very durable, so good for utensils”, the man walked Foolish through all the different kinds of woods that he was selling. Attentive Foolish listened, while he just so often, took a little peak upward at the man's face, instead of just focusing on the wood.

“And that one over here” the man leaned over the table, to gesture at a wood lying close to Foolish, as Foolish tried to get another peak at him, just to find the man’s face only inches away from his. And again, he grinned at him with this stupid big smile. That smile that made a slight pink hue creep up his face, and his tail wag behind him, like that of a happy dog.

But he didn’t care about that, when all he could focus on was the person in front of him. He had a defined jaw, red soft lips, distinct eyebrows, and the last thing Foolish’s gaze landed on, were the other’s eyes. Purple, like the most beautiful and rare amethyst, maybe shining even a bit brighter than the stone. But once Foolish noticed that not only was he staring at the man, but the man also stared at him, he was quick to take a leap backwards, sparing him more embarrassment than he already had to deal with.

Standing up straight again, the man had a quick laugh to himself before he started talking. “It seems like you not only have an eye for nice lumber, my friend.” And before Foolish could answer anything to that, the man reached out a hand. “My name is Vegetta. Nice to meet you.” Foolish took the hand, still perplexed by the possible flirt thrown at him, but not appalled by it.

“I am Foolish”, he told Vegetta, which earned him a confused expression. “You are stupid?” And at first Foolish was just as confused as Vegetta. Why would he call him stupid, he thought, but then quickly remembered that based on his accent, Vegetta was most likely not native speaker.

“NO, I am not foolish! Well, I am Foolish. Ahh! I am not foolish, as in, I am not stupid. But I am Foolish in the way that my name is Foolish”, he rambled on, trying to explain but at the same time also trying not to make a fool of himself. Literally.

His rambling went on for some more sentences, when he eventually realised how much he had said, to then stop to spare Vegetta all these words. And that seemed to be the right thing to do, because when he focused back on the man in front of him, he looked like he understood even less.

“Uhhh”, Foolish groaned as the dread of being completely uninteresting for Vegetta, now swept over him. He didn’t necessarily understand why he felt that way, but he wanted it to be over as fast as possible. “I’m sorry Vegetta. I sometimes say a bunch of dumb stuff, so... You know I have to buy some more things; hence I should get going”, he explained and was already set to turn around and let Vegetta forget him.

“Foolish, right?” Vegetta asked. “I don’t know if I understood everything, but your name is Foolish right? You know maybe I am also a bit foolish because I can not understand everything you said. Lo siento.” “No, don’t feel bad”. Even though Vegetta’s answer filled him with a warm fuzzy feeling, it also made him feel kind of guilty. “I think you are so much smarter than me, speaking at least two languages. I only know one,” Foolish said rushed, with slightly pink cheeks and brandish hand movements, trying to ease Vegetta’s self-consciousness.

“You think so? Me siento halagado. Eres el primero en decirme eso.” And now Foolish was the one looking at him as if all his brain cells just went out. “Oh sorry”, Vegetta smiled at him benignly. “I don’t know if you would accept, but after your purchases, would you mind coming around again? To chat?” The question hung in the air, feeling to Vegetta as if it was a butterfly that could slip Foolish’s grasp at any moment. But to Foolish, it was like a kite, that had hit him full force and nearly made him fall over. “Of course I would. I will be back in a bit.”

The other booths on the market were completely ignored by Foolish, as he directly headed towards the stores that he planned to go to. He bought multiple plants in dry bundles, herbs and mushrooms in jars, and liquids in bottles, that he all stowed away in his backpack. And during all of that, a good mood kept him company. Not that he usually wouldn’t be delighted to be in the city, but now he practically beamed whenever he entered a store, also infecting others with his happiness.

Some hours had passed, before he decided to head to the market again. Nervousness pooled in Foolish’s stomach, the intensity rising the closer he got. It did take some time for him to finish all his shopping, so he was worried that Vegetta gave up on the waiting and had already packed. Luckily, he was proven otherwise, when he exited onto the paved place, spotting Vegetta’s booth as one of the last ones standing.

On quick feet he headed for the stand, as he noticed a hooded figure behind the table. He didn’t think Vegetta was a cloak guy, but you always learn something new about someone, he figured. But his mood changed quickly, as he got closer, and therefore came into earshot of the stall, hearing metallic clatter and Vegetta mumbling.

“Hey Vegetta? Is everything alright”, he spoke directed at the covered person from a distance, though they didn’t turn around. “Foolish, HELP ME!” he heard a panicked Vegetta shout instead. What was going on? The call definitely came from the booth, but instead that Vegetta would come rushing towards him, the hooded person crouched down. Confused by the unmatching reactions and freaked out by Vegetta’s call, Foolish started closing the distance to the booth.

“Hey!”, Foolish shouted trying to sound calm and collected, even though he was very much the opposite. “Vegetta it’s me, are you okay?!” The space between him and the booth was just a couple of feet now, so that the hooded person was nearly completely in frame. And then he heard Vegetta shout again. “Foolish! Ayuda! Help!” Confused, Foolish looked around, but still couldn’t see anyone except the figure in the cloak. That must be Vegetta, right? A thousand questions ran through his head, as the person in front of him swiftly took a peek over their shoulder and unexpectedly surged out of the back of the booth.  

“Hey Vegetta! What is going on?” he called after the person and was about to run after them, as he heard Vegetta’s voice again. “Hey, I’m in here!”, the shout came still from inside of the booth. Confused, Foolish turned around to the stand, before he looked back at the figure one last time. But then again, he cared for Vegetta. And he was in the booth. Supposedly.

“I am coming in”, Foolish announced. He wasn’t sure what he was going to find in there. The cloaked person was the only one that he saw in the stand, but he had still heard Vegetta from within it. Carefully he lifted the fabric in the back, to slip through. And there he was. There was Vegetta. In the middle of the booth. Just really tiny.

“AHHH”, Foolish let out a confused scream. “What happened to you?!”  “As if I know”, Vegetta screamed back at him. The man that had flirted with Foolish just some hours ago, had shrunken and was now approximately ten centimetres tall.

“Ah, Esto es un desastre”, Vegetta mumbled to himself. “Did the person do that to you? We need to go after them, now!” Foolish was already all and about to run out of the tent again, when he was held back. “No Foolish. Please don’t leave”, Vegetta pleaded. So Foolish stayed.

Trying to calm himself down, Foolish took a seat next to Vegetta, who couldn’t stop but pace around the booth. Looking down, he could see how stressed Vegetta was, and knew that it would be no help if he was panicking as well. “I am staying.”, he said as calm as possible and reached out a hand.

It took a bit for Vegetta to stop the pacing and walk towards Foolish, but he eventually did and took a finger that was reached out to him. “What do I do now?”, the tiny man asked, more directed at himself, as he sat down on the hand. Vegetta’s hair was messy, his apron was torn and in general he looked like he needed some sleep.

“We figure out how to make you big again, don’t you think so?” “We?” Vegetta asked from the curled-up ball he put himself into. “Of course. I am the one and only witness you have. Who would I be, leaving you alone, hm?” Foolish grinned at him.

“Gracias”, Vegetta thanked him with a bit of a shaky voice. “Uh yes, whatever you say”, he answered, still not being able to understand. “But I do need to find a way to get you home safe”, Foolish said, as he began rummaging through his basket. “Me? Home? To you?”, Vegetta asked confused from the place where Foolish had put him down.

“Yup, I’ll take you home to me. And I have an amazing person living with me, who I think can help us.” As much as Vegetta wanted to be happy about this statement, he couldn’t help but feel a little twinge in his stomach. A person living with Foolish? But at the same time, he didn’t think he was able to afford feeling that in the situation he was in. 

“Got it”, Foolish exclaimed as he pulled out a jar of mushrooms from his bag. Confused Vegetta looked at him, as he opened it and immediately dumped all the contents back in it. “It's not that bad when the mushrooms are not in the jar, they can handle it. But I wouldn’t want you to get squished”, he said while he looked around the booth for something.

It didn’t take him long until he got what he had searched for. A spiky tool for woodworks, that he now repurposed to poke holes in the lid. “So you can breathe.” Foolish presented Vegetta with the jar. “Can I?” he asked Vegetta, hinting towards wanting to put Vegetta in it.

“Fine”, he answered, a bit unsure, but also aware that Foolish would guarantee his safety. With his basket on his back again, Foolish picked up the jar with Vegetta in it. “I’m gonna keep you in my hand for now, so if I shake too much, just tell me.” Foolish gave him a heads up, which Vegetta answered with a nod.

Once he arrived home, he saw Tina, who was just about to leave her workshop. “Hi Tina”, he greeted her. “Foolish, there you are, finally. How long did it take you to buy things in the city?” she asked and scrutinised him. “And why do you have a tiny man in a jar?”

Chapter Text

“And why do you have a tiny man in a jar?”, she asked and pointed at Vegetta. “Oh he.” Foolish chuckled a bit awkwardly, thinking about how to explain the situation to Tina best. But Vegetta was faster. “My name is Vegetta. Nice to meet you”, he greeted Tina and even did a tiny bow since he couldn’t shake her hand.

“Oh my, Foolish, how did you meet him?”, she questioned, a bit surprised by the courtesy. “He had taken an interest in the wood I was selling, and not only the wood, you know.” Vegetta went on explaining, as Foolish started growing red around the ears. “You know what”, Foolish interrupted hastily, as he didn’t want Tina to know more about how interesting he found him. “Basic story. I met him. Later in the day I go back to his booth. Boom, he is small. Now we need you to make him big again.”

A bit perplexed, Tina switched eye contact between the two men. First of all because this was a situation that she would have never thought about in a million years, but also because she noticed how fast Foolish started to blush. “I don’t know how to make him big.” The words that left Tina’s mouth, let the other two mouths hang open.

“WHAT!”, both shouted. “But Tina, you are so smart, you know everything about magic and potions”, Foolish followed up, to which Tina just sighed. “Why don’t we go inside, and I can explain the details to you two”, she offered.

With big eyes, Vegetta viewed the inside of Tina’s and Foolish’s house. It’s not that their house was any special and different from other houses, but it was Foolish’s house, and that alone made it unique. “Okay so”, Tina started, as they walked into the kitchen, where Foolish sat Vegetta down on the table. “Have you two ever thought about how shrinking a person might work?”, she asked, upon which both of the men first stared at each other and then back at Tina. They equally had no clue.

A sigh left her mouth, before she sat down. “Basically, you can’t shrink a human”, underlining the word shrink, with signed quotation marks in the air. “But. There he is.” Foolish pointed at Vegetta. “Yes, I am on your table. What do you mean?” “What I mean is that you can’t shrink anything, without having a byproduct of some sorts. Which means that it is not really shrinking per se.” Still having two dumbfounded men in front of her, Tina elaborates further.

“If I have a piece of paper”, she goes on, while getting a white sheet from the kitchen counter. “Then the whole piece of paper symbolises one human. Now if I tear the paper apart...” “Then you tore the paper, but you didn’t shrink it”, Foolish completes Tina's sentence. “That is true”, she pauses, “but now imagine you didn’t see that I tore it apart and would only show you the smaller piece.”

“Then we still know you tore it apart. It’s fairly easy, no?” Vegetta questions. “Yes, but only if you show it to an adult. If you would show the paper to, say a one-year-old, they would be amazed by the magic trick I just performed. With that said, you are just like this one-year-old.” “HEY”, they complain combined.

Without caring about their whining, she goes on. “Now applying this concept onto you, Vegetta, means that you weren’t actually shrunken, but a huge amount of your body mass was taken from you. Could you explain in detail what happened?” Tina asked, the last sentence more carefully spoken than the other ones.

Vegetta hesitates, before he looks up at her. “I was in my booth, waiting for Foolish to pass by again, when I was approached by a hooded figure. I asked normal customer questions, like I normally would…” “You definitely did not have a normal customer conversation with me”, Foolish interrupted livid, but was ignored. “And suddenly I saw a yellow flash coming from under the person’s coat. The next thing I remember is being small and calling for help. That is when Foolish arrived."

“Foolish,” finally Tina turns to him, “Did you see any of Vegetta’s limbs or other body parts on the person?” A bit shocked by the question, Foolish’s face turns into a disgusted grimace, but answers anyway. “No, not that I remember.” Some seconds pass. “WAIT, where is the other part of Vegetta?!” Panicked, both look to Tina, who already seemed to have the answer.

“I assume that the rest of your body was turned into energy and stored in the device that emitted the yellow light. But that comes with two problems. First, that means that your body is transferable, meaning that it doesn’t need to be stored in the device, but can also be somewhere else. Second, your body can be used as an energy source, which eventually will run out. Ergo, even if we find the person who did this, there's no guarantee that you will go back to your original size.”

Defeated, Vegetta sunk to the bottom of the jar. “Seré pequeño por siempre?”, he started whispering among other things, creating the same hopeless feeling in Foolish. “The only way we get you to be tall again is by finding the person that has access to the energy of your body.”

“Okay, so if we go now, go to the city, we maybe can find hints. Or, I don’t know, something.” Foolish rambled with a twinge of panic, already halfway in the hallway. “Foolish”, Tina grabbed his arm gently. “Look outside.” She pulled him back to the entry of the kitchen, where they both took a glance through the window.

It was pitch dark. The sun had set for a while, making it impossible to see further than an arm’s length. “I know we might lose a lot of time, but we can’t do anything right now.” A suffocating silence filled the kitchen. Foolish had sat back down, and just as Vegetta, was looking out the window, deep in thoughts. His mind was racing. ‘There must be an option to do something now’, he pondered, but no matter what, he came up with nothing. And at the same time, he was wondering why he cared so much.

Sure, you should always help someone in need, but it deeply upset him, that he wouldn’t be able to spend time with a normal sized Vegetta, if they didn’t solve this.  And while being busy with his own mind, Tina had set down plates on the table. She looked like she wanted to say more, but refrained from it, letting go of the breath that she was holding.

With Foolish’s attention now on dinner, he carefully picked up the jar, which startled the tiny man in it, who mentally had checked out a while ago. The shark man stared at him for some seconds, as if that made it easier to grasp the situation, before he slowly tilted the jar, to let Vegetta out to eat.

It was strange seeing a tiny man walk around on their table, so that Foolish watched him a bit longer. He wasn’t sure how much Vegetta needed to eat, but he had a hunch that he didn’t eat enough, even for a tiny person. And before Foolish could look twice, Vegetta had fallen asleep on the edge of the plate.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed but hearing dishes clatter in the background slowly pulled Vegetta to the surface of consciousness again. He still felt very drowsy, but he could make out that Foolish and Tina were about to clean up. “Hey”, Vegetta heard Tina say from the other side of the kitchen, addressing Foolish. Interested in what was going on, he took a peek through heavy eyelids.

Both of them stood in front of the sink, seemingly getting done with cleaning, as Tina dried off her hands on a towel. Foolish sighed, which was too quiet for Vegetta to hear, but he could see the raising and lowering of his shoulders. And then Tina turned to him, before she opened up her arms, letting Foolish in for a hug. ‘It was a deep hug’, Vegetta thought, as he suddenly felt a little ache in his chest. Not wanting to intrude further, he turned his head the other way, letting heartache and fatigue claim him for the night.

The next morning, Vegetta found himself still on the table, but instead of leaning on the plate, he was wrapped in soft wool, making him feel comfortable and cosy. It was nearly too good to open his eyes, but he also wished to get big as fast as possible, so that he climbed out of the wool to look around. He really wanted to find something he could do this morning, but then realised that his size effectively trapped him on the table. Carefully he approached the edge, to then glance over it, looking down at the floor, which was as deep, as if he would stare down from a building.

Uneasiness pooled in his stomach, so he did the first thing that came to his mind and called for help. “Foolish, Tina!”, he called and soon got a reaction in the form of an opening door. “Good morning”, Foolish greeted him, as he walked into the kitchen. “Morning”, Vegetta replied.

“How was your night? Did you sleep well? I hope the wool wasn’t too uncomfortable, but that was the only thing I found for you.” Thinking back to last night, Vegetta’s mood dampened. But he didn’t want Foolish to notice, so he quickly placed the focus of the conversation on the wool. “Oh no, it was really soft. I slept like a bebé.” “Then I am relieved”, he said as he got to work at the counter.

“What would you like for breakfast?” “Do you have some oatmeal with fruits and milk?”, Vegetta asked. “Sure we do, coming right up.” Watching from the table, Vegetta observed Foolish, cutting the fruits and placing them in a bowl together with the oatmeal. At last, he poured in the milk, like a normal person, and brought it over to the table. “Here is your breakfast…”, he hesitated as he put it down. He had completely forgotten Vegetta’s size and only noticed, when Vegetta glanced over the rim of the bowl to see his food.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry”, Foolish apologised, but couldn’t help to laugh about the situation. Bringing another, smaller and more shallow bowl from the kitchen, he poured some of the oatmeal into it. It was still a funny thing to look at, but at least Vegetta had better access to his food.

They spend some time eating, as they noticed Tina approaching the house through the kitchen window. “She was up that early?”, Vegetta asked curious, before he started to munch on another oatmeal flake. “Yup, she woke up really early, so that we could use the time of the day to help you find the cloak guy.” In admiration and surprise for the amount of her engagement, Vegetta just nodded, being not really sure how to answer to that, before some seconds later, they heard the front door opening.

“I might have something”, she announced to the table, nearly making Foolish and Vegetta jump up from their seats. “Now hold your horses, guys. I said might”, Tina tried to calm them down, before she joined them at the table. “There is this potion”, she started, while she put down a book, and opened it at a marked page. “That can find objects or people. The only problem is, we are missing two things. The first thing should be easy to get, since it grows in a lake nearby and Foolish can simply dive in to get it. But to make the potion actually work, we need a part of the thing we are looking for. Let it be a piece of hair, or clothing, but we have neither of that so…”

“Ehm…” Vegetta cleared his throat to get their attention. “You need this?”, he asked, as he pulled out a single thread from one of his pockets. “I ripped it from the person's cloak, when they came into my booth to pick me up.”

“Oh my god, Vegetta! You are the best”, Tina showed her joy by lifting Vegetta high in the air, showing him off like some kind of trophy. “Tina, I”, Vegetta attempted to announce his displeasure, which she only noticed, once he was shaken a couple of times. “Oh, eh… sorry”, she sat him down carefully, but only let him be, after she gave him a pat on the head. “Then let’s go and get our last ingredient.”

It was about a twenty-minute walk to the lake and with the sun not fully in zenith, the wind was a pleasant breeze. “We are here”, Tina announced, and after a short turn the lake appeared behind some bushes. “So where is the plant that we need?”, Foolish asked as they walked closer to the lakeside. With a long-extended arm, Tina pointed to the middle of the lake, before she sat down her backpack. “I took a picture of the plant with me. It should be… here! “she exclaimed as she pulled out a piece of paper.

“Okay Foolish.” She held out the paper, so that Foolish could take a look at it. “Hm, I see. Consider it as good as done”, he assured her, before he got ready. While Tina and Vegetta stayed and made themselves comfortable, Foolish took some steps closer to the lake, where he then took off his shirt and left it on the ground. “See you in a bit”, he turned around to the two and waved, before he disappeared in the lake.

Ready to wait for a while, Tina took a peek at Vegetta, when she noticed the hands in front of his eyes, as well as his red ears. “You know he is gone now. You can look again”, Tina affirmed with a light chuckle. It was a first, seeing Foolish show anything close to interest in another person, and it was nice to know, that this person was also interested in Foolish.

Carefully taking his hands of eyes, he noticed that Foolish, was in fact, gone. A light sigh escaped his lungs, a sign of relief to be out of this dicey situation. “You think he was hot, right?”, Tina asked, wanting to have something interesting to talk about. And Vegetta’s feelings for Foolish were interesting.

The summer dress that Tina wore today was eggshell white, with tiny blue forget me nots on it. The breezes came from the direction of the lake, gently blowing strands of hair out of Tina's face, while she leaned back on her arms, enjoying the warmth of the sun. She herself could be the definition of spring, Vegetta thought, as he looked up to her. And he was… He wasn’t sure what he was, but he knew that he was in no way a match for her. Not when it came to Foolish.

Vegetta didn’t answer her question, so that Tina looked back at him. He was still red from ear to ear, but at the same time, he seemed sad. “Oh, I’m sorry”, Vegetta answered, as he noticed her looking. “Why are you sorry?”

Vegetta hesitated. She was right. Foolish was hot. He had strong arms, nice abs, and this stupidly beautiful face. He wanted to answer that to her question. But was he in a place to do so? Was Tina just asking him to make sure that he didn’t fall for her man? Would they toss him aside once she was sure?

“I know he is yours, but yeah I do”, he answered honestly. He didn’t think that he could ever travel with the two of them under these circumstances, so he rather just said it straight forward. “Excuse me? My what?”, Tina asked bewildered. “Your man. I know he is your boyfriend so…” “WHAT?” Tina shouted, as she couldn’t believe what she just heard.

“Hugh”, Vegetta saw Tina making a fake gagging noise, before she broke out in laughter. “Me? And Foolish?! Oh my god! I’d rather kill myself”, she wheezed while bending over because of the intensity of her cackling. Vegetta, who at first didn’t seem to understand the world, slowly but surely made the connection.

“Qué? So, you don’t like Foolish?” “Definitely not like that. Yes, we are friends, but that’s as far as it goes”, Tina assured him, coming down from the chuckling. Relieved Vegetta looked over to the lake, where Foolish had disappeared just some minutes ago. “So”, Tina started the conversation again, while crossing her hands behind her head and laying down on the ground. “You do think he is hot”, she stated, while she watched the clouds.

“I do.” The whole situation was a bit too much for Vegetta, but knowing now that Tina was supporting him, he felt safe enough to trust her with that kind of thing. “That’s nice.” The redness had partially reappeared on Vegetta’s face, but this time he felt happy being able to share his emotions with someone.

Like this, they sat next to each other for some more minutes until a splash from the lake interrupted their silence. “Foolish”, Tina waved to him from the lakeside. Back at shore, Foolish presented his findings. “I hope that this is the plant we are looking for.” He held it up for Tina to see, which she confirmed with a nod. “We still have a lot of time, so I can get the potion done today”, she said while she grabbed a container out of her backpack to put the plants inside.

And while it was easy for Tina to go about her way and put the plants aside, Vegetta tried really hard not to lose himself. It was already difficult for him to not stare at Foolish before he got in the lake, but now, it was even more challenging. From his wet hair, which he had combed back with his hands, some strands managed to escape, which now nicely framed the features of his face.

And not only that, but the beads of water that clung to his skin, slowly travelled down his body, over his chest, his abs, down to… ‘Vegetta stop’, he told himself, clearly getting too much into it. He knew now that Foolish was not in a relationship, but that still didn’t mean that he wanted specifically him.

With having no business at the lake anymore, Tina and Foolish collected their things. Tina her backpack and Foolish his shirt that he left on the ground. With one easy motion, he picked it up from the ground to fling it over his shoulder.  Vegetta, who sat inside of his jar, hadn’t stopped blushing, and especially when Foolish came towards him to pick him up, it became even harder.

“Are you alright? You are completely red in the face. Did you catch a heatstroke?”, Foolish asked concerned while he held the jar close to his face, to look at Vegetta from up close. “Creo que necesito un descanso”, Vegetta said, completely intending for Foolish not to understand. “Tina, did you leave him too long in the sun?” “I did nothing Foolish I swear”, she answered, thinking about their conversation some minutes ago. “That’s what I mean. Of course he’s getting a heat stroke if you don’t put him in the shade.”

“Foolish, we were out for TEN minutes. No one is getting a heat stroke from that!” “But look at him”, Foolish protested and pointed at Vegetta. Luckily Tina had enough of it, and already started walking, so that he had no other option than to follow and drop the question.

That said, the walk back to their house wasn’t necessarily better for Vegetta, considering that Foolish still hadn’t put his shirt on, and carried Vegetta right in front of him. ‘Just look ahead’, Vegetta thought while in the jar, focusing completely on the path they walked on, and totally not the abs that were right behind him.

Once they were back, Tina got right to work, brewing the potion in her workshop, while Foolish and Vegetta waited in the entry room. Upfront Tina had informed them that the brewing would take a while, so that Vegetta spend the time reading the newspaper of the day, receiving some help from Foolish to turn the pages.

“What does it say?” Foolish asked, after having looked at each and every single potion he could find. He wasn’t a newspaper reader, but he had nothing better to do, and he didn’t want the situation to be filled with awkward silence. Not when he could spend some time alone with Vegetta.

“Hmm, you see them?”, Vegetta said while trying to flip to the cover page. Quickly Foolish helped him and then nodded. “That’s the royalty from a kingdom in the east, both king and queen died apparently some days ago. Both of them left one daughter behind.” Attentively Foolish listened to what Vegetta had to say. “How did they die?” “No sé. It didn’t say anything about that. And neither did the public get to see their bodies during the funeral.”

“What was that? The first thing you said. No sé?” Foolish asked while placing his chin upon his hands, that laid on top of the counter, so that he and Vegetta could be eye to eye. “Oh that. That’s my mother tongue. It means I don’t know.” “No sé”, Foolish said it again, to see how the words felt in his mouth. “Wait, what about the other things you said today and yesterday?”, he asked, clearly being more interested in learning about Vegetta’s language, than the newspaper.

“One really important is Ayuda. It means help. I think you should know it, because I sometimes switch up when I am in panic”, Vegetta admitted. “Ayuda”, Foolish repeated the word again. “And what about the sentence you said today? When I picked you up at the lake?”, he asked. Vegetta, who’s ears already started gaining colour again, was interrupted mid breath by a dull explosion sound, coming from Tina's work room. “Ayuda, ayuda!”, Foolish called, before he realised that he was the only one that could provide help.

“Tina are you alright?” He stumbled in through the door, to find Tina in front of the cauldron, with a steaming potion and a black nose from the soot. “I am fine. And I am technically done”, she announced to them. “Okay, what are the next steps?”, Foolish asked excited.

“First, we are taking the final step to make it really complete, since it can’t tell us the direction just yet. Vegetta, would you give me the thread that you pulled from the cloak?”, she asked and reached for it, once Vegetta had taken it out. Next, she took out an empty flask and put the thread inside it, before she grabbed a ladle and poured some of the liquid over it.

Immediately the potion changed colour and with it, the direction of the steam, that it still emitted. “The steam indicates in which direction the cloak is located”, Tina explained. “But we should get prepared first, before we head out. We don’t know for how long we need to walk.” Agreeing with her both Foolish and Vegetta nodded, before the three of them went over to the house to pack.

Chapter Text

It was early in the afternoon, once all of their bags were packed. “Are you sure you got everything?”, Tina asked the two men. The three of them stood outside of their house, ready to embark on their rescue mission. “I do think so”, he answered, before he reached backwards to demonstratively pat his backpack.

“I am also ready. Not much to pack for little me…”, Vegetta replied from inside of his jar. Even though it wasn’t his favourite place to be in, Foolish insisted that he should stay there. He argued it was easier to carry him around and it would keep him safer.

“Then the last thing we should do is put up a protective barrier. And by we, I mean I. So please step back a bit”, Tina instructed. As requested of them, Foolish took a step back, bringing more distance between them and the house.

Tina on the other hand, took a step forward to then use a large stick to draw a circle around the entire house. Once she was done, she kneeled down and placed her hands on it. “Watch closely Vegetta”, Foolish whispered to him. Foolish had seen her magic countless times, but he was still impressed, nonetheless.

Mumbled words escaped Tina's mouth, and just some seconds later, the circle started glowing before eventually a border formed on the line in the dirt, growing in height, until it met in the sky, forming a dome. “Woah”, Vegetta mouthed silently. He had seen magic before, naturally, since he travelled a lot, but he never had seen someone putting up a protective barrier that fast.

“Good job Tina”, Foolish praised her. “Thank you, thank you”, she answered intentionally exaggerated, making it seem like it was nothing to her. But then Foolish also just answered with a chuckle. ‘Was this high level magic just normal to them?’ Vegetta asked himself but decided to not probe into it further. For now.

“All right then.” Tina got up and pulled forth the potion. “Let’s see where it takes us.” She uncorked the potion, and just like some hours ago, the steam drifted in the same direction. “That is north-east”, Foolish deduced, before he started to think. “So… This way”, he announced, while he pointed east.

“Is it okay for us to go that way”, Vegetta asked, who was completely dependent on Tina and Foolish to know their way. “Foolish is actually correct”, Tina assured. “If we just straight up follow the steam, we run into a range of mountains, which makes it more complicated to continue. If we walk around them, it’s easier and takes the same amount of time.”

And so, they started their march to an unknown destination. For some hours they passed through a forest, which eventually thinned out and turned into a huge landscape of meadows. “I think this is a good place to set up camp”, Foolish suggested, looking at the sinking sun in the sky. Its rays already started to colour the clouds orange, so it wasn’t long until the night would wash over them.

“I do agree.” Tina set down her backpack and stretched her back. “It’s been a long time since we did so much walking. My feet hurt”, she complained as she sat down on a piece of log and took off her shoes. “Getting out the grippers. I see”, Foolish commented, before he got a shoe thrown at him. “You better stop talking. The amount of times I have caught you with your feet out. Disgusting.”

The sound of laughter interrupted the two of them. It was Vegetta in his jar, clearly amused by the situation. "Tina, you rest and set up a camp, me and Foolish can look for... what is it... firewood! Yes.” “Again, such a gentleman,” Tina flattered him, and agreed with already getting to work.

The floor of the forest was mostly covered in leaves, so they needed to do some digging. Which was fine at first, but the darker it got, the harder it became for Foolish to see anything. Vegetta on the other hand seemed fine. “Over there is another one”, Vegetta pointed at a dark spot on the floor. “Really? I can’t see anything Vegetta.” But nonetheless Foolish tried to find it by carefully feeling it with his hand.

“Hah, got it”, he exclaimed. “Good job! Now, there is another one.” Confused by Vegetta’s sight, Foolish took him and the jar out of the leather strap that was holding him. “How do you do that?”, he asks, trying to make out Vegetta’s silhouette in the glass. “No sé. I just can- .” Vegetta abruptly ended his sentence.

“What?”, Foolish wanted to ask, but was stopped by Vegetta’s “Shhh”, telling him to shut up. It was silent for a while, until Vegetta started talking again. “Thought I saw something, but I think I was wrong.Sorry my friend.” “Don’t worry about it”, Foolish smiled at him. And Vegetta could have melted. He knew that Foolish couldn’t see him blush, but Vegetta could see Foolish, bare his teeth in his smile, looking so stupidly handsome.

“No, de verdad, probablemente estoy exagerando. Y lamento haberte asustado. Y probablemente no fue nada y…” he started explaining flustered but stopped as he saw Foolish’s confused expression. "Uh... sorry, I can't understand you fully yet. Could you repeat that?", Foolish asked, trying to show Vegetta interest in his language.

But Vegetta stayed quiet. How could he possibly translate what he said in a rush, because Foolish looked really nice? So instead, he turned to an apology again. “Lo sien—” “Lalalala”, Foolish interrupted him. “I know what that means. It means sorry. But I don’t want to hear that from you again.”, he scolded him, before he turned more sincere. “It's fine if you don’t want to translate it. Really. You know I started to think of myself as selfish, since you need to speak in a language you are not fully familiar with. But that means that I will try my best to understand you”, Foolish said with the same big smile as before.

“Gracias Foolish. It means thank you.” “Then, gracias Vegetta”, Foolish thanked him back. “What are you thanking me for?”, Vegetta asked, a bit confused, since he didn’t feel like he did anything that was worthy of thanking. “Gracias, that you are so patient with me, I guess. I don’t know, can’t I just be thankful?”. And against that, Vegetta had nothing to say.

“Ugh”, Foolish groaned while squinting his eyes, trying to see. “I think we better head back to Tina. We should have enough wood, and I can’t see anything”, he continued. Vegetta nodded. He agreed with Foolish, even though there was another thing that he was worried about. “Vegetta?” “Yeah?”, he answered. “Did you hear what I said?”, Foolish asked, since he couldn’t see the man in the jar.

Mentally, Vegetta was slapping himself, because he forgot Foolish’s lack of night vision, but instead he contained himself and replied normally. “Oh yeah, we can do that”, responding to the previous statement. “I’m gonna help you find the way”, Vegetta followed up, since Foolish could not only not see the floor, but also not the way back to Tina. And so, accepting Vegetta’s offer, he held the jar in front of him like a lantern, only that the lantern talked to him, instead of emitting light.

With Vegetta leading them both, it didn’t take long to get back to Tina. “Welcome back. Thank you for the wood”, she looked at the bundle under Foolish’s arm. “Yup here we go.” Foolish put down the wood, and arranged them in the circle of stones that Tina had already set up.

And while Foolish placed the wood in the fire pit, Vegetta just noticed the flying specs of light that gathered around their camping place. “Tina, they look so beautiful. What are they?”, Vegetta asked, while pointing at the tiny floating points. “Oh, that’s my magic. If I think about it, I probably should have given you one. It's amazing you even found back in this darkness. I can create fire with magic, but goes out just as fast, if it doesn’t have anything to sustain itself. So, thank you again.”

“If you would”, Foolish asked, catching Tina's attention so that she would turn on the fire. And with a quick magic spell later, red and orange flames danced on the wood. “You know it wasn’t even a problem”, Foolish got back to Tina's comment about the light, while cooking his food over the fire. “Turns out that Vegetta can see in the dark, so he brought us back here.”

The cracking of the fire was the only thing that filled the air with sound, after Foolish made that comment. And while Foolish continued to cook his food, Tina gave Vegetta the biggest side eye he had ever seen in his entire life, having him hitch a breath in his throat. “Vegetta?”, Tina asked threatening, not leaving him out of her sight.  

“What’s the issue?” Foolish had just taken a bite from his skewer, when Tina made her comment. “Oh, I’m sorry Foolish that you have the street smarts of a tadpole that just hatched out of its egg.”,Tina shouted at him, letting out her irritation. “Okay wow, not everyone can be smart okay. But seriously, what’s wrong”. “What is wrong? I can tell you. If I am assuming correctly, Vegetta here is a werewolf.”

A werewolf. That was the other thing that Vegetta was worried about. He wasn’t sure if Foolish knew about werewolves, but since he didn’t make a comment about his night vision, he assumed that he would be fine. But he didn’t think of Tina. And Tina knew very well of the different races that roamed the world.

“Solo parcialmente... my mom was one, yes.” “And that changes anything?” All of a sudden, Vegetta started to feel really small in his jar. Not that he had shrunken further, but internally, he felt like he wanted to vanish. Werewolves were covered with stigmas and rumors, so that no one really wanted to be around them.

“Hey hey hey,”, Foolish got up and stepped between Tina and Vegetta. He agreed that he wasn’t the smartest one, but even he could see that Vegetta was clearly stressed out. “Tina, why does it matter?”, Foolish asked slow and stern, as if there was a second meaning to his words. And with that, she was staring at him, almost as if she wanted to drill holes through his body.

“But what do you want to do? How are we going to handle him every month when it’s full moon? Do you want him to just tear us to shreds?” That was a good question. And also, a question that Foolish didn’t have an answer to. “I don’t transform every full moon”, Vegetta chimed into the conversation, so quiet that both Tina and Foolish nearly missed it.

“And you want me to believe that?” “De verdad, I swear! I'm only half werewolf. I don't know what.. uh... triggers, yes, triggers it... but not every full moon. Promesa- promise.” Sceptical Tina eyed Vegetta. “But it still happens sometimes.” “Yeah”, he admitted.

“But he is in a glass right now!” Foolish exclaimed as if it would solve all of their problems. “I don’t think he will pose a threat if he is just ten centimeters tall.” A weak grateful smile found its way onto Vegetta’s lips, though it sadly didn’t last long. “Foolish, the only reason we are out here is because we want to make him tall again.” Tina was right. What would happen if Vegetta got back to his original size?

“Once I am tall again, I will leave you alone.”

Foolish’s breath got stuck in his lungs. ‘Leave you alone?’, Foolish thought as he let his eyes wander between Vegetta and Tina. Vegetta couldn’t be serious, right? But then Foolish got hit by the bitter reality that they did just meet yesterday. It was a totally normal reaction to part ways with someone that wanted you gone. And maybe Vegetta just saw him as that. As an opportunity to get his height back. Was it even normal to be interested in a person so much after such a short time?

“If you really mean it, then I can live with that.” Tina accepted the offer. After the confusion came numbness. Was that it? Would he only be able to spend time with Vegetta when he was small. Wasn’t it his whole ambition for the journey that he wanted to spend time with Vegetta in his original height? Getting back to his place, Foolish pondered.

And not only him, but Vegetta and Tina did the same. Because neither of them hoped that the things said would turn out to become reality. Vegetta wished that through some unexpected turns, he could stay longer, and Tina, even though she knew the dangers of werewolves, didn’t want to see the only person Foolish was ever interested in being ripped away from him. But then what was love in trade for safety?

That night, none of them really slept. For Tina's conscience Foolish didn’t let Vegetta out of the jar but put the wool inside of it instead. It was comfortable but he couldn’t really see the sky through the warped glass. Other than Foolish, who gazed at the stars and the inevitable doom that was called the moon. ‘The moon looks beautiful tonight’, he thought as his mind didn’t want to keep quiet.

In the soon future, when they would need to say goodbye, would that be the only memento that he could keep? The only thing that they had left to share? The moon in the sky? Would he feel the same dread as now, when the celestial body would grow in size and with that, the uncertainty if Vegetta would turn into a werewolf that night?

Plagued by his thoughts he tossed and turned but hardly could find any rest. He should stop thinking, he thought, which already made his plan fail. And so, the moon slowly disappeared behind the horizon and got replaced by the sun.

Their journey continued for four more days. They had crossed the border of their country yesterday and were now in a completely new environment. But not only their surroundings had shifted. After their first night, the vibe was at an all-time low. The only communicator was Foolish, who switched between talking to Tina and Vegetta, which didn’t really add nicely to the atmosphere.

And even when they were talking, it was reduced to a minimum. About where to set up camp, how long the journey would still take, what to eat. But it was no wonder, since all of them had their own thoughts to keep them busy.

Tina was still debating with herself on the topic of letting Vegetta stay, Vegetta was thinking about why Tina was so against werewolves and Foolish didn’t want it to be true, that he would have to say goodbye after they would have found the hooded person. A tiny part of him even was a bit happy, that they travelled for as long as they did, hoping that it would take even longer. But as if bad luck was haunting him, Tina stopped in her tracks and pointed towards a wooden hut between the trees.

“The fog of the potion points directly towards that hut. I assume this is it.” Unable to form words, Foolish just nodded. This was it. The moment before the goodbye. And while every fibre in his body screamed at him to stop, his mind told him to continue. Because he wanted Vegetta to be tall again. Even if it meant not being able to be with him.

“We should make a plan.” That was right. Up until now, no one truly thought about what to do, once they reached their destination. And admittedly it wasn’t really possible, since they didn’t know what had awaited them. But now they sat right in front of it, hiding in some bushes, to evaluate the situation.

About fifteen minutes had passed, but not much was going on. No one had left or entered the hut, but they could watch through the windows, and eventually, the hooded person moved inside, passing by the glass. There they were . Inside of the hut.

“I have a plan”, Foolish said after a while of just watching. “Well technically it’s not really a plan, more like brute force, but it should do.” Attentively Tina and Vegetta listened to their friend, pushing away the thought of after the fight. “We rush in. You Tina hold the door shut so that they can’t escape, while I try to tackle them down, so that we can get answers. And Tina, you need to carry Vegetta.” Up until the last part, Tina's expression seemed to agree with the plan, but once he was finished, an unpleased look plastered her face.

“I’ll do it, but just because this is over soon.” And just there the thoughts of the future crept back. “Sure”, Foolish agreed, looking down at Vegetta, before he handed over the jar. It does somewhat was a funny sight to see, since Tina tried her best to not drop the jar, but she also treated it like it was filled with burning charcoal.

They left their backpacks in the bushes, since they were too heavy to fight with, and sneaked towards the hut, always making sure to stay out of sight. At first, they got closer with the cover of the bushes, and once they subsided, they made sure to approach the hut in an angle, where they couldn’t be seen through the windows.

With their backs pressed against the wall, Tina and Foolish waited, each on one end of the door. It was complete silence, no one spoke a word, and they could only observe their chest rising and falling under their breaths. And then Foolish gave the sign to enter.

With a loud ‘wham’ Foolish pushed the door open, so hard that it crashed into the wall on the inside of the room and bounced back at him. But that was enough time for both of them to leap in and for Tina to grab the handle and shove the door shut again.

The inside of the room was furnished like every other ordinary room, with a closet, a bed, a table and a kitchen, just that the hooded person stood in the middle of it. But other than a surprise attack, what they had hoped to achieve, the cloak guy didn’t wait a second to seize Foolish and deal with him.

Coming in with his right, the person aimed for Foolish’s head, but because Foolish had already anticipated an attack, he dodged it skillfully and landed a hit right in their stomach. Tina, who used her whole body weight to lean against the door, watched the cloak guy stagger back before they could grab a hold of the kitchen counter and steady themselves.

But they didn’t wait there for long, as they swiftly grabbed a chair by the backrest, and hauled it up in the air, only to bring it down on Foolish’s head. “Foolish!”, Tina screamed out in fear, as the chair broke in half, falling to the ground together with the shark man. For a second, she wanted to rush towards him, but then she remembered the door behind her back. She was the last resort for keeping this person inside the hut.

But how could she stop someone from escaping who just broke a chair over Foolish’s head? ‘Think quickly’, Tina said to herself, before she put Vegetta in just one of her hands and reached into her pocket with the other one. “You are not leaving”, she shouted at the person, more for reassuring herself that she could do it, rather than intimidating them, before she pulled out a little glass vial. With all her strength she threw it, right at the hooded person, hitting them on their chest, where the vial broke into a thousand pieces and a greed liquid spilled all over them.

Nothing happened. For a moment Tina and the stranger looked down at them. Tina knew what was supposed to happen. The potion should have reacted with their skin, burning it like acid, and then smoke should have been emitted, that would poison the individual with which it came in contact with. But nothing happened.

Stunned Tina still stared at the guy, while they yet again got ready to attack Tina. But just as they were about to advance, two strong arms wrapped around them, and pulled them to the ground. “Where do you think you are going”, Foolish asked with a grunt, since his head still hurt massively. With the last of his strength, he wrestled the cloak guy to the floor, where Foolish sat on his torso, to prevent them from getting away. But that was when the hood came off and revealed their face.

“What the fuck!”, the three of them yelled in union, as they stared in a blank white face. It was whiter than a ghost, and it wasn’t blank in a way that they had no emotion. No, it was literally blank. No eyes, no nose, no mouth.

“Yiaahh, Foolish get that away from me!”, Tina screamed in disgust, as the faceless thing used the moment of confusion to wind itself out from under Foolish and rush towards Tina and the door again. “Not so fast”, Foolish warned and reached out a hand to grab the thing by it ankle.

The only problem was that it was still in motion, so that when Foolish grabbed it, it fell face first onto the stone floor, when a ‘crack’ echoed through the hut, splitting its skull. After it landed, it stopped moving. None of them said a word before they looked at each other and Tina panicked.

“Foolish! You killed it. No, we killed it. We are murderers. What do we do now?!” Tina fell into a frenzy, during which she didn’t notice her hectic hand movements and therefore gave Vegetta a good shake, before Foolish took him from her. “It's not like it looked like a real person”, Foolish argued back with the same energy Tina had. “But it was alive, ahh.” Tina slapped her hands to the side of her face. “We can just bury it. Yeah bury it behind the hut and-“ Foolish and Tina continued rambling, as they both got interrupted by their tiny companion.

“Amigos, calma! ¿Cómo crees que me siento? Todavía soy pequeño. So shut up!”, Vegetta let out his frustration silencing the two of them. “I’m sorry… Lo siento”, Foolish admitted meekly, before he snapped back to the reality that laid before them. Carefully he walked towards the body on the floor and crouched down to inspect it.

Vegetta and Tina didn’t dare to breathe, with the latter still holding her face between her hands. Foolish on the other hand now grabbed the thing by its waist and turned it around. The face, if you could call it that, still looked the same, and overall, it really didn’t look like Tina and Foolish had taken it out.

“There is no blood”, Tina noticed correctly. “How do we know if it's really dead?” “Hard to tell, but at least its limbs are limp. Haha, limbs are limp”, Foolish chuckled upon the rhyme and demonstratively picked up its arm to let it fall to the ground again. “Ahh Foolish this is not the time to joke”, Tina reprimanded him with a smack on his forehead. “Pero, It’s true, we don’t know it's dead. Let’s tie it to the bed?”

With a rope from their backpacks, which Tina got while Foolish watched the corpse, they tied it to the bed, before they thought about their actual goal. “Vegetta, do you know what the device looked like, when this thing attacked you?”. Vegetta shook his head. “No,sorry”, he apologised.

“That’s alright, we are two big people, if Foolish and I search the place, we sure will find something.” Foolish believed that Tina was right. But then again, he didn’t want her to be. The shock from the fight nearly made him forget why he was here. It made him feel a sense of victory and adrenaline, only for it to get overshadowed by gloom right after.

“Yeah, sure we will,”, he said with a sigh as he looked around the place. He felt dread in his stomach that made his tail not just hang low, but curl inward between his legs. He just wanted to get out of this situation. And Vegetta didn’t feel any different. But his freedom of action was bound by his height, which likewise was his demise.

And then there was Tina, who could feel the density of the atmosphere seep into her body, making it all stiff and heavy. However, she continued, giving directions to Foolish, before she herself started searching the place. “You look in the closet Foolish, I’ll check the kitchen.”

Inside the closet there was nothing much to be found. Two additional robes and some boxes, which Foolish inspected, just to realise that they were empty. “I have found noth-“, he wanted to say as he turned around, but there, right by the kitchen stood Tina with something strange in her hand.

‘What is that?’, he thought as he stood still in his place. The way she held it, he knew that it was something important. And very likely the thing that turned Vegetta small. Tina felt Foolish’s gaze on her, so she sat down at the desk, giving Foolish the opportunity to decide for himself when he wanted to look at it. And so, after a few seconds Foolish came closer, slowly until he also took a seat.

The thing in Tina's hand was a golden ball, covered with an intricate design of wires, cogs and valves, which on one side had a recess, which showed the core of the ball. A yellow-orange orb that looked like it was made out of glass, though it didn’t emit any light.

“Does it ring any bells?” Tina asked, holding the thing in Vegetta’s direction. He looked at it for a while, but then shook his head. Exhausted Tina let out a sigh before she leaned against the backrest of her chair and let her head fall back to look at the ceiling. Her arms hanging tired by her side. “This is stupid, stupid, stupid”, she cursed as she started hitting the back of her head on the backrest. “Why won’t anything work.” Astray tears found their way out of her eyes onto her cheek before they fell sideways off her face and onto the floor.  

“Hey now,” Foolish said in a soft tone, as he pushed a hand under Tina’s head, preventing her from hurting herself further. And just for a second she stopped, before she glared at him, coming back to the rage. “Ahh, you are something. You, You annoy me so much right now, you know that!”, she shouted at Foolish before she jumped off of her chair. “God this stupid thing.”

She looked at the round object in her hand, thinking about smashing it on the table, but then refraining from it as she remembered its possible importance. “Just- Just leave me alone”, Tina yelled, more tears starting to stream down her face, as she stormed out of the hut, slamming the door shut behind her.

Perplexed, Foolish and Vegetta stared at each other, with Vegetta being the first one to find out of his confusion. “Foolish, go after her, “he said as he gestured towards the door. “But she said that-“ “It doesn’t matter what she said”, Vegetta interrupted him. “She is sad and upset and there is something bothering her. You are her friend, no? Go talk to her.” A bit unsure, Foolish made his way over to the door. With his hand on the handle, he looked back at Vegetta. “I am fine. Now go.”

Once Foolish stepped outside, he found Tina at a nearby tree, kicking it with her feet, while she tried to wipe her tears with her sleeves, though they didn’t stop coming. “Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone?”, she asked under tears, as she noticed him.

“Yeah but Vegetta said-“ Upon hearing Vegetta’s name Tina gave the tree an extra strong kick. “Okay I won't mention him”, Foolish held up his hands in defence, before he became more sincere. “But seriously, what is going on? It came so out of the blue. Don’t you want to tell me what’s up?”

Following the question Tina stayed silent. With a blurry vision she stared at the roots of the tree she delivered multiple kicks to, her mind filled with contradictions. “If it is about the device, surely, we will find a way. And maybe it isn’t even the thing we are looking after,” Foolish tried to cheer her up, even if it was doing the opposite to him.

“The ball is the thing we are looking for”, she answered in a mumble. “You didn’t find anything in the closet, and for every magical object I found in the kitchen, I knew its purpose. That thing is the only one I have never seen before.” Her words became clearer with each passing sentence.

“But that’s good right? Now we just need to find out how it works.” Foolish’s voice was trembling and about to break as he suggested his conclusion. “I don’t know why-“, he halted, as Tina finally lifted her head, locking eyes with his. Her face full of ruth.

“Do you even see yourself?” she asked, bringing Foolish out of concept. “Don’t you think I see how you form a grimace every time Vegetta’s departure is brought up. And just how you look at him in general?” Foolish wanted to answer, but Tina's question left his mind blank.

“Foolish I was so happy for you to have found someone you have an interest in. But for me, every time I look at him, I get brought back to that day, all the-“, her voice broke as the tears came flowing back stronger. “I feel like a child again and I don’t know what to do”, she cried, as she suddenly started to feel a warmth around her. Through her blurry vision she hadn’t noticed that Foolish had come closer to engulf her in his arms.

“I am so sorry”, Foolish apologised. It was merely a whisper that he spoke in her hair, but she heard it, nonetheless. “I was so frustrated when Vegetta wasn’t sure about the ball, but on the other hand I was also relieved”, Tina admitted.

A bit confused, Foolish pulled his head away, to look at her for an elaboration, only for Tina to notice the slim wet trail that also erupted from his eyes. “Ahh, don’t worry about me now”, he sighed before he wiped them away with his sleeve. For a moment Tina halted, but then went on to explain what she meant.

“I am afraid about the future. I don’t know what’s going to come, especially with Vegetta. But you were right about something the other day. Vegetta is in a jar, and as long as he is in there, he doesn’t pose a threat. So, I thought to myself, if we couldn’t make him tall again, by not finding the hooded guy, you could spend more time together.”

Tina felt Foolish’s arms squeeze around her, as she finished speaking. “I never wanted to make you feel that way. I am sorry”, Foolish apologised again. “But neither do I want Vegetta to stay that way, just so that I can stay with him. I know the future is scary, but I also know another thing. I will always be there for you. And on top of that, do you know how strong you are? I bet you could beat ten werewolves. At once.”

A light chuckle formed upon Tina’s lips before she became serious again. “I don’t feel ready for that. Yet. Will you wait for me?” “Of course I will. This might sound a bit bad towards Vegetta, so don’t tell him I said that, but getting the option of getting his original height back, and actually doing it, are two different things. We can hold on to it for as long as it is necessary.”

“So, you do want to keep him small?”, Tina asked jokingly, even though she knew the answer already. It wasn’t easy for them. Everyone had their package to carry and maybe it was time for her to grow confident in her powers and learn that not every werewolf was the same.  

As Foolish and Tina returned to the hut, Vegetta was walking circles in his jar. “You are back”, he exclaimed, trying to read the room. Without a word, they sat back down at the table, before they looked at each other and Foolish started explaining. “Tina said that she is pretty sure that the gold ball is the device we are looking for. We just aren’t sure if it's broken or if we don’t know how to use it.”

Vegetta felt a lump form in his throat. ‘What was that supposed to mean?’ Would they abandon him since they found the only hint they had? Questions upon questions formed in Vegetta’s head, which were immediately shut down, with Tina opening her mouth. “So, we decided to continue to help you.”

Perplexed Vegetta stared at Tina, then at Foolish and back at Tina. “Como? What? But you said-“  “I know what I said”, Tina interrupted him. “I agreed that you should leave when you are tall again. And I don’t see a tall Vegetta anywhere.” Relief and happiness washed over him, so that he had to sit down. “Thank you, my friends. Really. I don't know what to do without you.” “Ahh, don’t mention it”, Foolish said as he grinned at him.

After they had searched the place a second time, just to be extra sure they didn’t miss anything, they grabbed their bags and headed out. “Can we just leave it there?” Tina asked as she hoisted her backpack on her shoulders. “I mean, it hasn't moved since... and there's no evidencia of us. Should be okay, no?”, Vegetta argues, evaluating the situation.

“I agree with him”, Foolish chimed in. “Though now that we don’t have a potion to follow anymore, where do we go?” A justified question, to which Tina already had an answer. “We should head back home again, since I have a lot of magic devices in my workshop, which can maybe help me figure this thing out”, she said as she held up the golden ball.

“But before that”, she continued. “I want to sleep in a real bed again. So, we are going to a hostel. I saw a sign on the way here. God my back hurts”, she complained. And Foolish had to agree. Even though they had brought some blankets, sleeping in a bed beat a dirt floor a hundred times.

And so, they got on their way, as they reached the hostel shortly before sunset. Of course, the windows were still illuminated, thus they stepped closer, only to stop at the door, where they were greeted with over a dozen missing person posters.

Chapter Text

“That is, oh”, Tina tried to speak her thoughts, as she grazed over the posters. At least fifteen of them were nailed to the wooden door of the inn, neatly beside each other. “Let’s go in first, we can think about it later,” Foolish said, as he pushed the door open, revealing a warmly lit entrance area.

“Welcome travelers. How can I help you? Maybe a room to rest, or a warm meal?”, the man at the reception greeted them. He was probably in his thirties, bald, and had a scar running over his right eye and his nose each. “We would like both”, Foolish answered, as he came closer, leaving Tina at the side of the room, where she was lost in thoughts.

“So, one room for you and the lady?” the man asked. “Uh no, we would like to have two please”, Foolish hastily tried to avoid an awkward situation. “That will be more expensive though.” “Yeah, that’s fine.” He didn’t want to risk getting a singular king bed to share, so he’d rather have two rooms and pay more. Additionally, it also meant being alone with Vegetta.

“Here you go.” The receptionist handed him two keys, with wooden key chains that were engraved with numbers. “Thank you”, Foolish replied back, before he walked over to Tina. “I got us two rooms”, he announced, while dangling the keys in front of her head. Still lost in thought, it took her some seconds to snap back to reality, before she noticed the silver objects. “Oh, thanks.”

“Jeez, it’s just some posters, what got you all worked up?”, Foolish asked, but before Tina could answer, Vegetta chimed in as well. “ I also don’t like the bald guy ”, he declared, for which he earned a confused look from Foolish. “Okay, before we all turn to conspiracy theories, why don’t we put our things in our rooms and we discuss it over a warm plate of food”, he offered, which the other two had nothing to object to.

After putting all of their stuff away, they met again in the entrance area, before heading to the cafeteria. The room itself was not big, just like the rest of the hostel, only harboring eight tables to sit at. In the wall at the back of the room was an opening, which led into the kitchen, where the guests could order and pick up their food.

Besides the three of them, there were only a handful of other people scattered across the tables, so that they had a good amount of choice where they wanted to sit. “What do you guys want to eat?” Foolish asked, as they sat down. “I’ll have the number two”, Tina answered after she threw a look at the big menu hanging over the kitchen window. “And you Vegetta?”

Vegetta, who was let out of his jar, sat on the tabletop. “ Just whatever you have ”, he replied, knowing that since he never would be able to finish a plate, he would just steal from Foolish. “No, I am not accepting that.” Foolish put up and unserious frown. “I asked what you wanted to eat. Not me.”  

“ Then number three please ”, he returned with a twinge of guilt. It was just a simple meal, but Foolish went the lengths to set aside what he wanted, just to get him his food of choice. “Alright then, you wait here”, he said before he wandered off to order some food.

“I think he would have ordered that anyway”, Tina commented, ripping Vegetta out of the hole he just started shoveling. “ Ah, I see. Gracias .” Vegetta appreciated Tina for telling him this. But even more, he was happy about that she talked to him in general again. During the week of their travel, he was pondering a lot what must have happened to her, that she was so against him.

And when they found the device, and didn’t know how to use it, he was a bit afraid that from now on that was how they would be together as a group. But somehow, just that, their failure was what lifted the mood.

“Wait, what exactly does that mean again? Gracias?”, Tina asked. That is when Vegetta remembered that he previously only explained it to Foolish. “Right, I only told Foolish. It means thank you.” With a hum Tina acknowledged the explanation, not really knowing how to respond.

Luckily for them, Foolish came back just some moments after, filling the silence that they created. “One for you, and the other for you”, he addressed Tina and Vegetta while setting the plates down in front of them.

Foolish already saw how Vegetta looked at him, so he shut it down immediately. “Don’t worry about me. “I will be full from what you leave me”, he assured, before Vegetta broke off a piece of Potato to stuff it into his mouth. And just like the first time Foolish saw Vegetta eating, he couldn’t get over how adorable he looked.

“Anyway”, Tina interrupted their lovey-dovey time. “I have noticed something about the missing person posters we saw at the door.” “Oh yeah, right. That’s what we wanted to talk about.” Foolish looked up from Vegetta, to pay attention to Tina.

“I assume you didn’t notice anything?”, she asked with a judging look. And she was right. “Uhm, there are people missing. A lot of them. Otherwise… No nothing that caught my eye”, Foolish recalled trying to prove her wrong. Not that it worked.

“ All of the people were different .” Vegetta said what Tina wanted to hear. “ And no one was just human. Like in the ciudad… uh city where I met Foolish .” After he finished the last sentence, Tina stopped chewing instantly, before she threw another glare at Foolish. “What?”, he asked while he slowly got sick of being the only one not having a clue what is going on.

With haste Tina swallowed her food, so that she could berate Foolish more. “Did you ever think about telling me this? This is some important information. You moron.” Tina sighed as she massaged her temples. “How am I supposed to pay attention to everything around me? ”, Foolish defended himself but his complain fell on deaf ears.

“Well anyway. Thank you Vegetta for bringing it up. And you are right. I found it suspicious that all these people are from different races. None of them were the same. And now that you mention that it was the same back home, this can’t be a regional thing. And on top of that, I haven’t seen a poster with a werewolf.”

“You mean that Vegetta’s case wasn’t a one-time thing at all?” Foolish finally clocked into the conversation. Tina agreed with a nod. For a moment, the three of them thought about what Foolish said, when someone butted in the conversation.

“Seems like the cute one over here has a lot of smarts”, a person interrupted them from the table behind Tina, before they turned around and promptly swung their legs over the bench to sit next to her. Baffled by the sudden approach, none of them really brought out a word, perfect for the stranger, who just continued to talk.

“You are right about the posters. And about that it happens elsewhere too. I travel a lot, and since a while, it always met people with the same kind of profile.” The woman next to Tina explained. “And who might that be?”, Foolish asked instead of Tina, who’s eyes still seemed to be lingering on her.

The woman wore a brown leather jacket, matching the hat on her head, which sat upon white hair with a brown streak. “They are travelers. People that no one knows about, the moment they went missing, and that are either another race, or half human. But never fully. It almost seems like its intentional.”

With a doubtful expression, Foolish shot Tina a quick glance, trying to convey his feelings about the woman. “What’s your name?” Tina asked, after she caught the look, but her voice didn’t hold an ounce of caution, it sounded more like genuine interest.

“I am Bagi, nice to meet you”, she answered, holding out her hand, that Tina gratefully took, before the white-haired one brought it to her lips, leaving a gentle kiss on the back of it.  And Tina liked it, holding eye contact with Bagi just a second longer than she needed, before she drew away and finally remembered that Foolish and Vegetta sat at the table with them.

“So, you have someone that you are looking for?”, Bagi asked, based on the conversation she overheard before. “Kind of”, Foolish replied vaguely, while Vegetta hid behind one of his arms. Bagi noticed the movement, fleetingly seeing the small man disappearing, but she decided not to probe it further. She was mainly here for that, but she already told them all she was allowed to, so now she could focus on the woman sitting beside her.  

“Anyway, I haven’t even asked for your name, love”, she mused, while tugging a strand of Tina’s hair behind her ear. “Uhm, Tina, my name is Tina”, she somewhat stumbled over her words, which she was surprised about herself. Because yes, she had crushes before, but this situation was just outright ridiculous. Like what, she just met this woman not even five minutes ago, and she was behaving like this?

And Foolish was of the same impression, because all that he did was look at her concerned and confused, trying to grasp the situation. But at the same time, she felt this strong pull towards Bagi, and maybe it was her imagination, but she really thought for some seconds, that she could make out a red shine in her eyes.

And suddenly, Bagi left the table. “Was nice talking to you, I hope you find the person you are looking for.” She walked away with a wave, that Foolish and Tina reciprocated, but Foolish only because it was polite.

“What was that?” he asked, while Vegetta came back forth from behind Foolish’s arm. “I don’t know?” she replied, a note of abrasiveness and confusion hiding in it. It was really weird and she didn’t even know how to place her feelings, so how could she explain it to others. “ Hey, it’s okay ”, Vegetta tried to console her while gently laying his hand on one of her fingers.

“ Try and tell what you felt ”, he nudged her, but not in a forcing way. “It was really weird. Because this is not how I usually react. Believe me. But it nearly felt like there was this force, pulling me in.” she explained. For a second, they thought about it, but then shook their head. “Then you must have been the only one. I felt nothing”, Foolish concluded while still thinking about it. “Maybe it was something like a curse? Did she curse you?”, he asked, but Tina denied it with a turn of her head. “I would have felt that.”

It was true. Tina’s affinity for magic was really strong, so she would have noticed something like that. But she didn’t even feel anything on that woman. Not an ounce. “ Pero, that’s not what we talked about before, no? ”, Vegetta brought the topic back to the posters.

“Right.” Tina got out of her thoughts. Even though she couldn’t really grasp what was going on, they had more important matters to attend to. “In summary, all the people from the posters are of a different race. They are mostly travelers, if we can believe that woman, and it did not only happen here but elsewhere too.”

Vegetta nodded along with her explanation. “When I saw the posters here, I thought that now we disposed the threat, but that leaves two things open. First, if it was only one, it would only have happened in a certain area. But from what that Bagi woman said, it was elsewhere too. Which leads me to believe that there are multiple of those white creatures. And second, where are the victims?”

“Since we found no one else in the forest hut, it must have brought them somewhere. And for what purpose?” Questions upon question formed in their minds, to which they didn’t have an answer yet. And while they continued thinking, Foolish remembered another thing. “Vegetta didn’t you say that you didn’t like the receptionist? What was that about?”, he asked curious.

“ Ah sí . He just seems sospechoso. Like, I have seen him before. His smell is… ” Vegetta trailed off as he tried to remember. “You smell people?” Foolish burst out with a giggle. “ Well yeah, it’s what werewolves do .” But hearing Vegetta’s answer just sparked another question. “Then what do I smell like?”

A red tint crept its way onto Vegetta's cheeks, while he somehow tried to find a way to doge the question. “ Uhh, Tú. Tú huels como... ”, he instinctively fell into Spanish. And it was a good tactic, since Foolish didn’t understand. But even if he wouldn’t, this time Tina was already there for his rescue.

With a swift motion, she scooped Vegetta into her hand, pulling him away from Foolish. “I am so tired”, she said with a fake yawn. “Why don’t you bring away the plates?” Puzzled, he looked at the two of them, before he eventually followed Tina’s request and moved away from the table.

“Do I smell like roses and pink cotton candy?” Tina asked out of the blue, which let Vegetta’s thanks stuck in his throat. “ What? ” “Do I smell like that?”, she asked again, fully knowing that she had interrupted his train of thought. She didn’t want to hear his thank you’s all the time, since she still wasn’t completely comfortable around him, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t help him out.

“ I don’t know, you smell like you ”, Vegetta answered honestly. With a puffed out bottom lip, Tina's face turned into a pout. “Hmm. Sounds right coming from a guy, you just can’t make compliments”, she complained, with a hint of sarcasm, when she saw Foolish coming back.

“Here, take him back.” Tina held her arm stretched out towards Foolish. Gently he took him from Tina's hands, still not fully grasping what was going on. But even if he would question it, it was likely he wouldn’t get an answer, that he would understand. “I think men should just stick to each other”, she made another comment, eyeing Foolish and Vegetta up and down, before she walked ahead towards the stairs.

Having given up on the situation, he followed her willingly to their rooms. She didn’t say anything else, until she stopped in front of her door. Tina had put her hand on the handle, but waited a few seconds, before she opened her mouth. “Foolish, this is bigger than we anticipated.”

While holding her breath, she waited, as her eyes were not leaving the place where her hand rested. “I-“, she paused again, before she continued. “Do you want to do this?” It was a stupid question. Of course he wanted to. It was she who actually questioned what they were doing. What dangers they encountered. Foolish was blindfolded by the crush that he had on Vegetta, so it was on her, to decide whether she followed him, or pushed against it.

“I am not sure”, he answered her, as he put a hand on her shoulder. “But I promised Vegetta to help him out.” While mentioning the man, he took a quick glance at him, giving him a warm smile. “I see”, Tina replied, before she opened the door.

It was too late for her to ponder about all the options that she had, so that she let them be for another time. But the main question still stood. Where did they need to draw the line? At what point did the efforts outweigh the profit?

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night.” “Good night, Tina.” They passed her off and went into their separate rooms. “God I am so done”, Foolish sighed as he let himself fall on the bed. Vegetta, who he had put on the nightstand before, watched from inside of his jar. “ Mhm, Sí . I agree. So many emotions ”, he commented.

For a moment Foolish closed his eyes, enjoying the softness of the bed, which compared to the dirt ground was a hundred times better, before Vegetta called for him. “Ey don’t fall asleep”, he heard him interrupting his relaxation. Through heavy eyelids, combined with a smile on the edge to a smirk, he looked at the tiny man, “You scared I fall asleep and don’t let you out?”

“ Sí ”, Vegetta slipped again at the sight of the half-shark before him. And not so long after it hit him, that this would be the first night that he would spend alone with Foolish. All the other nights, Tina had been there with them, and additionally, the mood wasn’t the best. But tonight, there were just the two of them.

“I am assuming that means yes?”, Foolish said as he got up to let Vegetta out. “ Oh yeah, sí means yes ”, Vegetta explained not without taking some seconds to notice that Foolish was talking to him. For him, he was still far away in his imagination, picturing what could have been. What would have happened if Vegetta wasn’t small.

Would they hold hands? Maybe kiss? Share a bed? All these possibilities swam around in his head, making him visibly blush. And oh, how Foolish noticed. How would he not, so close to Vegetta, just letting him out of his jar. But he decided not to ask. It had been a long day after all. Just like he said, so many emotions.

“Here is your wool.” Foolish handed Vegetta the wool that he was using as a bed. “ Thank you ”, Vegetta replied as he spread it out to his likings, just when he noticed Foolish taking off his shirt. “I hope you don’t mind. You know since we are not sleeping outside…” he trailed off, hoping that he didn’t make Vegetta uncomfortable.

“ Yeah, it’s okay. I understand ”, he basically mumbled while also turning away the instant he saw some more of Foolish’s skin. Sure, he had seen Foolish like that before but knowing that he would be just in boxers the entire night was something else. So, all he needed to do was not look, and he would be fine.

And to his plan he stuck, getting under the covers while averting his gaze. Like this, he laid there for a while, listening to the sounds of fabric, while Foolish continued to undress. And then the rustle stopped for a moment before it picked up again next to him. Foolish must have gotten in bed, Vegetta thought, so he took a quick peak to confirm his suspicion.

And he was right. There he was, snuggled under the covers and as Vegetta turned further, his eyes were meeting Foolish’s. “ Oi, stop watching me ”, he tried to make it sound somewhat upset, attempting to distract Foolish from being caught, although came out the opposite. He liked knowing that Foolish was watching him, but Foolish didn’t need to know that.

And as if Foolish could read his mind, “What? You don’t like it?” And to that, Vegetta simply didn’t have an answer, other than to pull the wool closer over his face. The past days, Foolish barely witnessed Vegetta’s shyness so that now, he wanted to get to know him even more.

Admiring the man in front of him, Foolish let his eyes linger on Vegetta, as he started talking again. “ Foolish, can I ask you something ?” And Foolish’s blood froze. He wasn’t about to ask the question that Foolish thought he would, right? That was all a bit too fast. Vegetta wasn’t even tall yet. Sure, Foolish liked him, but he didn’t know him. Not enough. But that is what dating was for, right? But can you date a shrunken man?

“When Tina heard I was a werewolf. Why did she not like me?” Oh. It stayed silent. But not because Foolish thought about that question, but because it derailed his whole train of thought. “It looked like you eh… You also uhm…” ,Vegetta couldn’t find the right words to add after the silence. “It looked like it was also my story?” “Yeah.”

“It is”, Foolish answered, making order in his head. “But”, he turned to look at the ceiling. “We are different beings. We were both in the same situation and It’s not that it didn’t hurt me. It did. But after all these years, we both drew different conclusions. That is for example why I reacted differently.”

“It is not your fault. But at the same time, I feel like she should tell you, you know?” Foolish turned back to Vegetta to give him a warm smile. “Besides. Things changed today, don’t you think?” What Foolish was referring to was the hut in the forest. Vegetta still didn’t fully understand what had happened, but Foolish was right.

“ Mhm” , Vegetta nodded. “I talked to her. And I know that she is trying, so will you give her some more time?” Foolish asked. “ Okay, I will .”

Restless Tina turned in her bed. It had been some hours since they said good night, but she couldn’t find the deep sleep she was hoping for. She did nod away for bit, but something kept stirring her awake. And that something was strangely close to the feeling she felt just a while ago, when she met Bagi.

She turned another time, now in view of the window, through which she watched the night. ‘Maybe some fresh air would help’, she thought so that she slipped out of bed. After putting on some light clothes, she left her room, as the strange feeling in her chest grew stronger. And the further she went down the hallway the more it amplified, almost pulling her downstairs and outside.

Worries started sparking in the back of her head, but she continued to follow anyways. It was probably Bagi, who was at the end of the pull, so at least she knew what to expect, but it was still a mystery to her why she even felt like that in the first place. And additionally, because of the way she acted during dinner, she wasn’t sure if she could trust her own decision-making abilities. But regardless, she continued onwards.

“Bagi, just because of a feeling, we can’t let them in on this”, the bald man in front of her said, leaning against the outside of the hostel. “But it’s not just the feeling Fit. I do think they know something. They could be a great asset”, she tried to convince him.

“Uhh,” Fit sighed, bringing one hand to his temple. “Bagi how am I supposed to know that this is not something you made up because you have this feeling since you met that woman.” And just as Fit had finished, Bagi snapped. “Do you honestly think, I would endanger our work just because of some woman?”, she got in his face. “I am trying to find a solution to our problem Fit.”

But Fit stayed silent and instead of paying attention to her, his eyes darted past her cheek, focusing on something behind her. In an instant she turned around. If there was someone, they would have to get rid of them. No one should find out about their mission. But…

Illuminated by the moon, Tina stood just some meters away from them, while Bagi held her breath. Just like Tina, who didn’t dare to utter a word. Her hands clenched to fists, while her arms pressed to the side of her body. And she didn’t even know why. Her face morphed in confusion, but also a pain, she couldn’t decipher. She didn’t like this woman. She just met her this evening. Her way of talking and acting was so in her face that it became intrusive. So why did it feel like it was so hard to move away.

And even though Bagi didn’t know what was going on inside Tina, she could read it on her face. Her eyebrows, raised and scrunched together, sat upon watery eyes, paired with firm lips, pressed together, shaking a bit from the force. There was no movement from her. The only motion was caused by a breeze that picked on her dress and her hair, gently swaying them in the wind.

Was Bagi supposed to reach out? But then she remembered what she just said. And it was true. She wasn’t going to risk their mission and their identities. Not for some woman, right? She pondered, as a conflict broke out in her head. And maybe she would have taken a step forward. Maybe she would have consoled Tina, if it wasn’t for Fit’s hand, firmly pressing down on her shoulder.

“I-“ “You-“ They spoke at the same time, cutting each other off. “I should leave”, Tina finally brought out. And she waited, just a second to see if Bagi would say anything to hold her back. But she didn’t, and so Tina turned around, leaving the two of them outside of the hostel.

“She didn’t hear anything important”, Fit commented, while Bagi was still facing the spot Tina just stood in. “Let’s go back to our mission. Did you notice anything important?” Fit steered the conversation back to its beginning. “You know, how easy that is  for you to say, with your boyfriend also being in the rebellion”, Bagi bit back, but then went to talk about the second thing that he said.

“Well even if we don’t reveal ourselves to the three of them, they are onto something. They basically caught up with the posters even before I told them about it. And then there is this tiny man with them”, she listed. “I have never seen someone like that”. “When I followed them some days ago, before coming back to the hostel, I also noticed him. To be honest, it was just a coincidence that I saw them. I didn’t think there would be a second time we ran into each other,” Fit recalled.

“There also isn’t any progress from my brother.” Bagi added to summon up the situation. “So how do we proceed?”  For some moments Bagi thought about it, before giving Fit a look. “I have something in mind”

Back inside all the tension left Tina’s body. But still, her chest felt awfully tight, as she got back to her room. And worst of all is that she didn’t want to feel this way. At his point, she was genuinely concerned, because tears started rolling over her face, even though she was more confused than sad. It was like a reaction of her body that she didn’t have any control over, just like when her body decided it was time for her monthly period pain.

 With the back of her hand, she wiped away the tears when she was hit by the realization that she probably was interrupting something really important, considering how they both acted. And the only logical thing that she could come up with was that they two must have been dating. The way that Bagi talked about her. Calling her “some woman”.

And then that led to another conclusion. ‘Was Bagi trying to cheat on the hostel owner with her? And he caught her?’ Tina's mind was running labs as she spiraled down the path of potentially getting hit on by someone, who was cheating on their partner, while she got back to bed.

Now, this encounter didn’t necessarily help her find better sleep, but at least she had something to ponder about. And while doing so, there was still this lingering feeling in the pit of her stomach, though this time, it was overshadowed by whatever she had just experienced.

The next morning Foolish and Vegetta headed to the reception, waiting for Tina to get ready. And not too long after, she came down the stairs as well, greeting them with a wave. “Good morning you two”, she said, trying to sound enthusiastic, even though the state of her eyebags begged to differ. “Good morning to you too, eh…”, Foolish paused to think about how he should ask about her current state.

“You know if you want to stay another day-“, he wanted to offer, assuming that she probably needed some more sleep, but was immediately cut off by her. “God no, let’s just get out of here.” With one swift motion, she took Foolish’s key and headed towards the reception. And even though there was a risk of needing to talk to the bald guy there, at least she would get it over with. But to her luck, another man was sitting behind the counter.

“Here are our keys”, she said and laid them down, before she turned around. “One second miss. Are you Tina, by any chance?” Tina paused as she heard her name. “Uhm, yes.” Tina expected the worst. What if the owner decided that she needed to pay extra? Or what if he decided to deal with her personally.

“Someone left something for you”, the man explained before he opened a drawer, and pulled out multiple pieces of paper. Perplexed Tina looked at it, “Do you know what they looked like?” But the man just shook his head. “No, I found the papers this morning with a note, saying I should give this to a woman named Tina, who was traveling with a half shark and a tiny man.”

‘Ugh, how great’, she thought, as she thanked the receptionist and took the papers. What if they were just papers to blackmail her to get revenge. “What’d ya got there?” Foolish asked, as Tina got back to them. “The guy at the reception handed me some papers. He said someone left them for me. But no clue who.”

“ Have you looked at them ?”, Vegetta asked, who got on his tippy toes trying to get a glimpse of them. “No, but”, she started while flipping through them. “This is just a news article. And it’s even some days old.” She held up the article for them to see.

“ Wait, Foolish. This is the article I read to you, no? ”, Vegetta asked. “Uhm, what was it about again? Some queen and king dying, right? I am not deep into social affairs. But why would they give that to you?” But Tina just shrugged her shoulders, before she looked at the other papers. “This one seems to be a note”, she assessed, before she started reading it out loud.

“The king and queen are not dead. The article lied to prevent panic. They disappeared like so many other people. Maybe there you will find what you are looking for.”

The three of them exchanged alert looks. “The last thing is a map, marked with the path to the main city.” Tina could feel Foolish and Vegetta light up. And it made sense. Considering that the only lead they had was the unusable device from the white humanoid creature. And their best plan was to go home and look at it there. But there was no guarantee that it would work.

And just then Tina realized that she started to think like the two of them, looking for a good reason to head into another, possibly dangerous, adventure. “I know what you want to say”, she addressed both of them. “We don’t know if the ball device is ever going to work, and this is an opportunity that we might never be able to get again.” She sighed at thought of what would lie ahead of them, if they took that route. But then again, they already went through so much, how much worse could it get.

“Okay, but if we do this, I want neither of you to head into unnecessary danger.” She pointed at Foolish and Vegetta, earning a well-behaved nod from the two. And so, they left the hostel, heading to a place where they hopefully would find a solution to their problem.

Chapter Text

It had been a couple of days since they left the hostel behind and set out for their new destination. Since then, the only time they had a bigger stop was in a smaller village to stock up on food and water, but after that, they would only set up camp to sleep at night.

And even though at first, they followed that note without thinking much about it, Tina made sure to imagine every possible scenario, while they were on the road. “Guys, I know all of this seems really promising, but that doesn't mean that we can rush into things”, she had said days ago, right after they had left. “Okay then, let us entertain your mind games”, Foolish offered while strolling next to her. “ Mind games ?”, Vegetta asked in his jar. “Hmm yes. It means to think of a possible situation. In this case, we are helping Tina come up with people who could have sent the note”, Foolish explained while Tina nodded along to his words.

“ Vale. So first, the woman? From the inn ”, Vegetta spoke from the top of his mind. “Yes, right. She was awfully suspicious”, Foolish agreed with him, before shooting a glance at Tina, waiting for her comment.  “Uhh, you know, I don’t think that’s the case.” Tina hesitated while answering.

They didn’t know what she knew, but then again, she didn’t feel like explaining. And yes, they all had seen it happen at dinner, but to go on and tell them that she felt Bagi’s presence throughout the entire hostel and that it was basically calling for her, was something she’d rather forget than share with the two of them.

“I don’t think she likes me very much anymore”, Tina finally replied to their confused faces. With a breath, Foolish was already about to ask why, as his gut decided that it was probably best to not question it further. Instead, he used his breath to continue making suggestions. “Since we know that people disappear all over, do you think that it could be someone working with the thing we knocked out?”

“It is possible”, Tina answered while she entertained the thought in her head. “Though we didn’t feel anything following us after the hut, right?”, she turned to the two, who both shook their heads. “And adding to that, why would they set a trap, when they could have just taken us out in the hostel. Considering they know how the shrinking works”, she trailed off, more talking to herself.

“ But ”, Vegetta interrupted her thinking. “ There was someone, before the hut ”, catching Tina’s attention. “ When we got wood, I thought I uh… heard something, yes. But I saw nothing. Then in the hostel, I smelled something familiar . I didn’t know, que, what it was, until now. It was the bald man, he was in the forest. ”

Vegetta’s statement made Tina rethink her whole image that she had about that night. The boyfriend of the girl that was hitting on her was spying on her, days before they even met? “Vegetta, could you pay more attention to smell from now on?”, Tina asked. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

Now, Bagi hitting on Tina could have also meant a different thing. Maybe it was all a tactic to get to the information they were holding. “Of course, my friend”, Vegetta assured her, before taking a sniff in the air. “We are safe right now”, he concluded, which made Tina relax a little bit.

“So hold on”, Foolish jumped back into the conversation. “It likely wasn’t the weird woman, nor was it someone from the white creature? Like, is there a third party, or what?” “Could be, but that also wouldn’t explain how they know about Vegetta and our problem.” And like that, they went on, even though their options all seemed to come to a dead end.

Now, after those few days, their conversation had shifted from who sent the note, to how they should proceed when they would reach the main city. “Let’s stop here a bit earlier. I have something to do”, Tina told them, as she sat down her backpack on a nearby stone. The sun had gone past its zenith, and it would only take a couple of hours till nightfall.

“ What are you doing ?”, Vegetta asked, who was set down close to her, so that Foolish could start to unpack and set up camp. “I thought that it would be a good idea to prepare some portable summoning circles. It is only likely that we will run into more white creatures, so we need to be prepared”, she explained while she pulled out some pieces of paper and red inc. “ Are they hard to create? ”, he asked, as he recalled the first time he saw Tina using a summoning circle, to create the barrier around their house. Back then he was impressed by her magic abilities, just as now, since portable summoning circles were nothing a beginner could do.

“I wouldn’t say they are easy, but they are not difficult either. Its like a middle thing.” Vegetta listened attentively. “ So, what are we summoning? ” “These ones are for swords”, she said as she waved the papers in the air. “Actually Foolish, here you go.” Tina handed over one of the papers to Foolish. “Thanks”

“ So, wait, Foolish can use these?” ,Vegetta asked confused, since he had never seen Foolish use magic before. “Yes, he can. Vegetta, do you know how summoning circles work?”, she asked, to which Vegetta shook his head.

“Hmm, alright, then let me give you a little magic recap. As you might know, magic is the use of mana and all of us have mana, some more and some less. We use that mana and turn it into different energy forms, such as fire, or little particles of light, like I have before. That we call Spells, or in a more scientific term, energy transformation.”

For the most part Vegetta could follow Tina, until she included the long, complicated words, so he more acted like he understood than he actually did. But Tina went on. “Summoning circles are a subcategory of spells. They use the energy of movement.” And just as she said that Foolish started stumbling out of the blue.

“ You did that ”, Vegetta called out, to which Tina just giggled as a confirmation. “The important part about summoning circles are the runes on the side of the circle. Do you remember that I said that you can’t shrink people without having some byproduct. It’s the same with summoning. You can’t create things out of thin air. It just seems like that to the general public.”

“ The general public is the toddler then ”, Vegetta compared as he recalled Tina’s explanation about the shrinking. “Yes, exactly. When we do a summoning, we pour our mana into the circle, which transforms it into movement energy. That then attracts the small particles that we need. And that is what the runes are for. For our small circles, I have written down wood and iron.”

“Now to the part why Foolish can use it. Summoning circles are difficult, because of the runes. You need to write them correctly for it to work, but other than that you just need to pour your mana into it. No concentration or anything. So if Foolish uses a circle that is already made”, she said as she held up her paper, “then he just needs to do the most basic task with mana that you can do.”

“ So, I can use it also ?”, Vegetta concluded out of her explanation. “Technically yes, but your situation is a bit hm… complicated, you know. I don’t know how that affects your magic abilities.” “But”, Foolish joined the conversation, after he had rolled out their blankets and piled up firewood. “If you can summon wood, a living plant, then couldn’t we technically summon Vegetta’s missing parts?”, he asked while he sat down on a stone close to them.

“I already would have done that long ago, if it was possible. Believe me. But there is something called an energy pattern that prevents us from doing so. So even though I can summon wood, it is dead when I do, because it doesn’t have an energy pattern. Just like you can’t create one human, by stitching different body parts together."

With his head cranked to the side, Foolish put on his thinking face. “So, if you were to summon the missing part of Vegetta, it would be nothing more than a lump of flesh?” Tina affirmed with a nod. “But we are actually going off topic, since the summoning circles were not the only thing I wanted to do”, she said while she turned on the fire with a spell.

“ More magic ?” the tiny man asked. “If with magic you mean using my brain, then yes.” She pulled forth the three papers that were given to her in the hostel. “According to the map, we should reach the main city in two days, so we better think about how we are going to approach this.”

“ Talk to the princess , no ?” “Hmm”, Foolish hummed disagreeing. “But Vegetta, what if she was the one who murdered the king and queen? In cold blood!”, he declared dramatically, for which he earned a light slap with the newspaper. “They are not dead, at least according to the note, but you are not technically wrong”, Tina let Foolish have the feeling of accomplishment.

“What if the princess is involved in this?”, Tina thought out loud. “ There are three options. I think. One, the princess is evil. Two, the princess doesn’t know. Or three, the princess is… fue amenazada? uh. You know, with weapon. Like: If you talk, I kill you ”, Vegetta deepened his voice at the last sentence, pretending to terrorize someone, with a knife. “Oh, you mean threatened. The princess could be threatened”, Foolish explained. “ Ah yes, thank you .”

“I think we could ask the people in the city about the first thing. How the princess was in the past, how she acted since her parents died, all of that”, Tina summarized. “And for the other two…”, she continued thinking.

“We ask her”, Foolish suggested. “I don’t know if that’s the best way…” “But how else are we going to figure it out?” And Foolish was right. They had no one to contact. The fastest way was indeed asking, but,” Yeah you’re right. It would make sense to see by her reaction, but if she really is threatened, we are putting a target on our back.”

“ Ok ok but first, how to meet the princess? ”, Vegetta interrupted the two spinning plans, effectively making them shut up, before Tina broke out into a groan. “Uhhh, I hate that we have no solid plan”, she shouted into the evening, though this she labeled more as a tiny inconvenience than a huge deal-breaker. Not like figuring out Vegetta was a werewolf.

With the few hours left till sunset, Tina thought more about their plan and prepared more summoning rings, before she headed to the forest, to gather some berries and mushrooms to eat. They did have their rations from the city, but it was better not to waste them, if they could take from the forest instead.

And just like that, the sun finished its way across the sky, while with every passing minute, Vegetta grew more and more restless, running circles in his jar.  “Hey, is everything alright?”, Foolish asked, while they were roasting the mushrooms over the fire. But he received no answer, so he decided to take a closer look. With his face he leaned nearer to the jar, as suddenly he was met with pitch black eyes, enclosing the tiniest white glowing pupils.

“AHHH!”, Foolish leaped back out of surprise, nearly falling backwards off of his stone. “God, what are you screaming for”, Tina shouted back, whose heart nearly skipped a beat. “I uhm… Sorry. But I think, I think it’s starting”, Foolish still held eye contact with Vegetta, while answering.

It was a haunting feeling. And finally Foolish understood what Tina had meant that day, when she said that she felt like a kid again. All this time he thought he was fine, but you don’t forget the gaze of a werewolf. The rapid twitching of the eyes, like in a frenzy, switching back and forth and doing everything but focusing on you. It creates space. A space that was distancing him and Vegetta, and everything kind that Foolish knew about him seemed to be gone.

Tina recognized Foolish’s expression, before taking a look up in the sky, noticing the full moon that just climbed over the trees. ‘This will be a long night’, she thought, while she got up to also take a closer look. And even though she felt bad, she thought it wasn’t as bad as Foolish must be. For her, even though her desire to get away from Vegetta was greater at the start, she had her time, in which she was able to deal with it.

She and Foolish had talked about it. He had reassured her that he wouldn’t push things and look out for her. And all that happened days ago. She had the time to come to terms with it, but Foolish was pretty much just smacked in the face with it. And maybe that was part of who he is. Ignoring a problem, until you can’t avoid it anymore.

“Can I do anything?” Tina offered, seeing Foolish’s worried face, his eyes still not leaving the jar. “I don’t… I don’t know, to be honest”, he spoke almost in a whisper, deep in thoughts. “Well, it is not going to get better, when you stare at him”, she told softly, laying a hand on his shoulder.

“If you want, I can take him for the night.” Confusion and concern mirrored itself in his scrunched eyebrows. “But you also…”, Foolish didn’t finish, but Tina knew what he meant. She was shaking. “I’ll be fine”, she tried soothing him, while taking the jar, and getting back to her place.

By the time she had sat back down, she noticed Vegetta’s changed figure. From under his pants peeked out paws of a wolf, and more hair grew on his back and on the edges of his face. Additionally, his ears grew pointy and his teeth sharp. And how glad Tina was that Vegetta was in a jar right now. Just thinking about a tall werewolf Vegetta made shivers run down her spine.

Foolish, who now didn’t need to look at Vegetta anymore, stared into the fire, until a growl startled the two of them. Vegetta, who was now fully transformed into a half werewolf, had started howling and scratching the glass with his claws. Luckily, he wasn’t strong enough to break it, but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t scare them.

Concerned Tina watched Foolish, who seemed to jolt out of his thoughts any time Vegetta made a noise, so that she mumbled a few quick words, to put a silencing spell on the jar. To Foolish though, it didn’t matter much whether he heard Vegetta or not. Both options just made him spiral further.

The fire danced in the reflection of his eyes, as he didn’t pay much attention to it, but rather made up scenarios in his head. ‘He said that he would protect Tina, whatever might come, but if Vegetta was tall and would transform, how could he help. He couldn’t even help now. And he wanted to spend more time with him. How was that supposed to be possible if Vegetta would turn into this every few months. Was he even safe with him?’

Thoughts raced, piling up dreadful outcomes one after the other, as he thought of a particular thing. Not a scenario, but a memory.

“Can you tell me why you need to sleep extra well today?” “Because if we don’t, the werewolf gets us”, a small Foolish replied to his mother, acting like he got claws as hands, holding them up in the air. “Oh no a werewolf”, she acted afraid, only for Foolish to follow up with a growl. As much as a six-year-old could do that.

“Haha, if I see a werewolf, I am scaring it instead”, Foolish jumped up and puffed out his chest. “I am sure you will”, his mother replied, before she gave him a kiss on the forehead. “But mom”, Tina chimed in, who was already laying in her bed. “Werewolves don’t even come here. They hide from everyone, each full moon.”

“Ugh, Tina. Don’t ruin my fun. If they don’t come, then I can’t scare them”, Foolish complained, still standing on his bed. “But its true, dummy. I read it in a book. And also, not every werewolf is bad”, Tina explained, with her hands crossed in front of her chest. “You’re right Tina”, her mother came over and also gave her a good night kiss. “But maybe you can leave Foolish some fun, hmm?”, she asked with a soft smile. “Okay fine, but only because you asked”, Tina replied, with a puffed-out lip.

“Thank you sweety,” she said before she got up. “And you, young man, I don’t want to hear a sound from you”, she joked, but only because both Foolish and Tina knew that they could come to her any time, if they needed something. “Aye mam”, Foolish saluted before plopping down on the bed with a giggle.

“Good night.” “Good night mom”, both Tina and Foolish replied in unison, before their mom left the room. “Tina, you think I could take a werewolf?”, Foolish asked once their mom was gone, to which he just earned an eye roll. “Foolish we are six. And also, let me sleep.” With a huff, Tina grabbed one corner of the blanket and pulled it over her shoulder, while she rolled over.  “Fine”, was the only thing Foolish replied to that, before he also got under the covers.

A high-pitched scream pulled Foolish and Tina out of their sleep. And then there was a second and a third. And as the first one made them open their eyes, the others embedded them with dread and panic. Sitting upright in their beds, their eyes met in fear, searching the other for reassurance.

It took minutes of them listening into the night before Foolish pulled his blanket aside, and got out of bed, to head over to Tina. His face was filled with this questioning look, that Tina knew just too well. Usually, Foolish did that whenever he was trying really hard to get away from his chores, loading them onto her. But this time, it was underlined with uncertainty.

Though how much could Tina help him, when she was just as confused and afraid as he was. “You said that you would scare evil creatures away”, she whispered, trying to load the responsibility back on Foolish. “I did, but you… If I go, you stay with me, okay?”, he asked with the same volume in his voice as Tina, before he grabbed her hand.

Tina hesitated, as she looked from his hand to the door back to his hand, before she gave the slightest nod with her head. Without much shuffling, she got out of bed as well, first placing one and then the other foot on the floor but never getting down from the tip of her toes. And so, both of them sneaked over to the door, holding hands, making sure not to let go of one another. Once they arrived there, they stopped, and both put an ear to the wood, trying to make out any sound from behind it. But there was nothing to hear.

With another reassuring nod, Foolish laid his hands on the handle, before he ever so slowly pulled it open. At first, it was just about an inch, but as he couldn’t see anything through it, he opened it further. And still, there was nothing to see, except the flickering light that came from downstairs. Confused, they exchanged looks, since it was strange to see their mother awake at that time.

Seemingly determined, Foolish slightly squeezed Tina's hand, telling her that he would go on now, though this was also a reassurance to him, that Tina was still there. And so, slowly and quietly, they continued on their way to the stairs, before they descended, halting on each step to assess the situation. The only problem being that they couldn’t see much, since a wall was blocking their view.

With a finger he pointed downwards, signalizing to go further, until they stood on the last step. From here, they could peek around the corner, catching a glimpse of the living room. And it was chaos. The chairs and the table were flipped over, cushions from the couch were thrown everywhere, and worst of all, a huge red puddle decorated the wooden floor.

An ice-cold shudder went down Foolish’s spine, who was the first to look. And though Tina caught the situation just seconds later, Foolish had already overpowered her, dragging her along the wrist to the living room. “MOM!”, Foolish screamed out, not even fully in the living room, as a loud growl filled the house.

And just as they crossed the door, there was it. A werewolf, fully transformed, towering over their mother, whose clothes were filled with so much blood, you couldn’t make out where the werewolf had attacked her. In the panic of the moment, both of them froze. If they wouldn’t move, it wouldn’t see them, right?

But no matter how much they tried, their breaths wouldn’t come down and they couldn’t stop the tears, welling out of their eyes. And as they paused, the werewolf watched them, its tiny white pupils on black ground, darting back and forth, but not always focusing on them.

Time seemed frozen like this, while Tina and Foolish tried to check on their mother, but at the same time somehow making sure that the werewolf didn’t move. But of course, the moment of interruption didn’t last long, before the creature in front of them took a long whiff with their nose, locking onto the two children in front of it.

As it came closer, that was the first time, that Tina and Foolish actually noticed the blood on its claws and mouth, dripping down as it moved. One step followed the other, as it moved over their mother, closing in the distance. Both of them were shivering out of fear, as their bodies long had overtaken their mind. They wanted to run, but they couldn’t move an inch.

But that didn’t stop the werewolf from approaching. Step after step it closed in on the kids, who cowered beneath it. With bared teeth it looked at them, raising its claws, to put them down. It could easily get them with one swing, Foolish thought. Any second it would get them, as they involuntarily raised their arms to protect them from the impact.

It was natural. Trying to protect yourself from greater evil. Even if the try would bear no fruit. But then, the impact didn’t come. Their eyes stayed closed, until seconds passed and nothing happened. For a moment Foolish thought that he already had gone to the afterlife, but as he still felt his shaking body, he slowly peeked one eye open, to figure out what had changed.  

There was no werewolf towering over them anymore. Instead, it laid on the ground not moving and even as he waited, nothing happened. And from the corner of his eyes he saw Tina, with stretched out hands and eyes pressed together, waiting for the inevitable, just like he did before.

“Tina”, Foolish whispered to get her attention, but not the one of the werewolf’s. “It’s eh… dead?”, he tried to explain but neither did he really know what was going on. And as Tina finally also took a peak, she let down her arms as well. Confused but cautious, she stared at the werewolf, before turning to Foolish, to see if he was alright.  

“Tina?”, he questioned, with the intention of asking what had happened. But he stopped, as he saw something strange. There was a red hue in her eyes, that slowly started to fade. “Foolish”, Tina replied, as she had already ran into his arms, relieved that he was still okay. And like that, the hue had already faded.

Tears streamed down her tiny face, while she pulled him close. His warm skin was a reminder that he was still alive, as Tina suddenly stiffened. “Mom!”, she exclaimed as she remembered, which immediately made Foolish’s blood freeze.

Within seconds, they ran past the motionless werewolf, but their mother was just the same. Their tiny feet carried them as fast as they could, past the turned-over chairs and through the puddle of blood on the ground. It had soaked their socks and then also their pants, as they fell on their knees, pulling her close.

“Mom?”, they asked, but there was no response. And there couldn’t be one, since her body had already started to grow cold. But neither of them noticed. How could they, being children and in this situation.

“Mom wake up, please”, Tina begged as she tried to shake her awake. They tried so much, putting their hands on her dress to receive any kind of reaction, but the only thing it did was coat their little hands in blood. But they didn’t stop.

They tried the entire night, losing a sense of time, which was only stopped as someone from their village came checking on them in the morning. The werewolf had not only attacked them, but other villagers too, resulting in the death of about a dozen people.

And as they got ripped out of their state of desperation and grief, they found that the body of the werewolf had transformed back, into a young woman, laying on the floor like her death was also a result of the very same thing she was.

With the morning came a heavy atmosphere, which Vegetta didn’t know where it came from. “ Ay wey mi mente ”, he complained while holding his head. Transformations always cost him a lot of energy, especially since he could not sleep, while he was like that.

“ Good morning, my friend ”, he greeted Tina, who was already up, shuffling in their bags to prepare breakfast. “Oh, hi.” She tried to sound nice, but last night made it hard for her. Just like Foolish, she kept zoning out, even if it wasn’t as bad as it was for him.

And of course, Vegetta noticed. It obviously wasn’t the first time he transformed, so after some full moons, he learned how people behaved around him afterwards. “Ah… I am sorry ”, he apologized as he plopped down on the bottom of the jar. He, as well as Tina and Foolish knew that there was nothing that they could have done, but he still wanted to say sorry. To show that he usually wasn’t like this.

But he had hope, that with Foolish’s support, Tina would eventually find to like him. “It’s okay”, Tina answered. “Since you were in the jar, nothing happened. And when you got too loud, I put a silencing spell on it, so Foolish could sleep”, she explained while she was turned to the fire, cooking something in a metal pot. “ Wait ”, Vegetta said as it dawned on him. “ Foolish was sleeping? You were awake the entire night?” But Tina couldn’t come to an explanation, as a “morning”, interrupted her thoughts.

Foolish had woken up and turned around on the mat that he was sleeping on. But oh, even though Tina told him that he apparently slept the entire night, Foolish looked like the opposite. Eyebags, paired with unkempt hair, made it look like he was the one who kept watch.

“ Good morning Foolish ”, Vegetta replied, but to his surprise, all he earned was a quick glance and a weak smile, that disappeared as fast as it emerged, before Foolish focused back on Tina and the fire. And even after that, it didn’t seem like Foolish wasn’t completely present to the situation.

Confusion and worry spread inside of Vegetta. He clearly acted like that because of the transformation, but then why did it bother Foolish now? He seemed fine with everything up to this point. And it also hurt Vegetta. He didn’t want to make Foolish act like he did. But what could he possibly do?

Pondering like this, he only realized at the last moment that he got handed some food. Though he wasn’t let out, it was handed to him inside of the jar, but he didn’t expect anything else.  And like that, the day went on.  They finished eating, packed up and got on their way.

And after Tina and Foolish had grabbed their backpacks, it wasn’t Foolish who picked him up. It was Tina. Tina, who before treated his jar like hot coals, was now willingly holding him. Something had changed fundamentally, but he didn’t know what it was, and it bothered him. So much, but again, what could he do?

The night came quickly and was spent like the day. With a heavy atmosphere, spinning doubtful thoughts in Vegetta’s brain, as they set up camp. He wanted to know what was up since the sudden change in his crush had him waver. And maybe, maybe he wanted to get out of the awful situation, even if it meant staying small. Because right now, Foolish didn’t give him butterflies, but a tummy ache of unreciprocated feelings.

And he didn’t want to stay with people that hated him but helped him out of obligation. But that was a thought that he didn’t speak out loud. It was a thought that he buried deep in the back of his mind, hoping that it would just disappear.

The sun rose on the last day of their journey, and soon enough the towers of the kingdom appeared in the distance, extending over the trees that bore them shadow. “Uhm Tina?”, Foolish asked and it was the first time in hours that Vegetta heard his voice. “What’s up?” “Do we even know the princesses’ name? I noticed we just called her princess the entire time”, he noted. “Oh yeah. In the article they call her princess Niki.”

And soon enough, they reached the wooden doors of the kingdom that was ruled by her.

Chapter Text

It was a little after noon when they crossed the town gate, and entered the bustling of the city. As for any day, the people mingled with each other, walking past shops and booths selling all kinds of things. Overall, it seemed like a lively atmosphere, even though it was a lot quieter than they had anticipated from such a huge city.

“I uh”, Tina needed to rethink her words. “Why don’t we look for a place to stay first. And then we can do some investigating.” It seemed like a solid plan, so neither Foolish nor Vegetta had something to complain. Without having anything to talk about, Foolish strolled beside Tina, who was clearly leading the way, cranking her head left and right, to read the signs of the shops, to find a hostel.

The problem was just that most of them were written in a language that they did not understand. “Why do we always run into a language barrier somewhere”, she complained, though as they went further, they finally found a hostel, that had their sign written in English as well.

“Two one-bed rooms, please”, she told the receptionist, who this time was a man with hair, and got handed two keys, of which one she handed to Foolish. “Let’s put our stuff away and then we meet back down here. We have some people to question.”

And so, they both separated, going to their different rooms. And Vegetta. Vegetta got taken by Tina. Something that was just as uncharacteristic as her taking him in the first place. Once they arrived at their room, Tina opened the door, and threw in a bunch of things that weighed her backpack down too much. And while she did that, Vegetta realized that he would also sleep in the same room as her, and not with Foolish. He probably could have guessed that even before they checked in, but it was still strange to him how Foolish distanced himself. All he wanted was an explanation as to why. Since his existence didn’t seem to bother him before.

“Any idea where we could start?”, Foolish asked, as Tina and Vegetta came back from her room. Of course he was just addressing Tina. “I did think about that, but considering I couldn’t read the shop signs…”, she trailed off, thinking about how she should communicate with the people here.  “He knows English”, Vegeta pointed at the man at the reception, giving the three of them a point to start.

“Oh, you are right!” Tina lit up. “I didn’t even notice. I guess I am used to being understood”, she laughed it off. At least Tina seems to get along with him more, Vegetta thought as he noticed Foolish as well, who tried his hardest not to pay him any attention. But would there ever come a good moment to talk about it?

Probably not soon, and definitely not now, since Tina was dragging him along, anywhere that she was going. Like right now, as she went over to the guy at the reception again. “Uhm, I have a question”, Tina started the conversation. “Sure, what can I help you with?” “We would like to know about the former princess”, she asked and nearly immediately the face of the receptionist lost his customer friendly smile.

“It was really tragic, indeed”, he said as he focused on his hands. “We all loved the King and the Queen very much. They were great people.” “How was Queen Niki’s reaction to the situation?”, Tina asked and hoped that it did not sound too weird. Because who would ask what the daughter thought of their parents’ death.

“Queen Niki? No. She is still the princess.” “Still? Do your coronations take longer here?” Tina was a bit perplexed. “No, though I wasn’t old enough to remember the old King’s coronation. But from what I was told, it almost happened immediately, one or two days after”, the man with hair explained.

“Do you know why?”, but the man just shrugged his shoulders. “I know there was a public hearing today, but sadly I couldn't go because I had work. Maybe if you ask people on the streets, they know more.” “Ah, thank you for the hint”, Tina answered before she and Foolish moved away a couple of meters to talk in private.

“She is still the princess?”, Foolish restated what the receptionist said. “Seems so. But I do think it’s odd. Especially since it could only be her and some high-ranking officials that could delay the coronation.” “So, let’s ask the people then,” Vegetta suggested, what the man had told them. “Yeah, we should probably”, Tina groaned, “but it’s going to be tough.”

“How bad for people to not understand you, eh?”, he replied sarcastically while crossing his arms. “You are right”, she admitted while shooting Vegetta and apologetic look. “Let’s give it at least a try.”

Once they stepped out of the hostel, they headed to the main road, assuming that there would be the most people they could talk to. But even the many people there seemed not to understand them or were not confident enough to accept the conversation. “Excuse me?”, Tina asked another person, which seemed like the hundredth one today. “Hää?” “We have a few questions”, she continued. “Wie bitte?” But the person did not understand them and continued walking.

“I swear to god, we only have a couple of questions”, Tina complained with pent up frustration. For the fact that this was supposed to be the main city, a huge amount of people did not pay any mind trying to understand foreigners. “What if we try a different place?”, Foolish suggested, while hoping to cheer her up. “Ugh, I doubt it, but we can try”, she sighed, as the three of them heard some shouting.

“Hey, you guys.” Surprised they looked around, as they found a blond-haired young man running towards them. “Yes you”, he repeated himself, once they finally focused on him. “You have been asking people questions right?” Tina nodded. “How do you know?”, she asked, as she eyed him up and down. He clearly wore some kind of work clothes, the hair that decorated his head was rather sparse, and to his back was strapped a huge teddy bear.

“I work in a store nearby and einige Gäste, uhm…customers told us that they were questioned on the streets. But they didn’t understand you. So, I came to take a look. My name is Hugo, by the way”, the man introduced himself. “Nice meeting you Hugo. And yes, we do. We wanted to find someone that could tell us something about the public hearing that was held today”, Tina informed him.

“The public hearing? Well then you are completely right with me. I went with my girlfriend this morning”, Hugo said, as he pointed towards the teddy bear on his back. “Your girlfriend?”, Foolish looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Jup. This is my girlfriend Vivi”, he told them, as he grabbed one of her paws. “The bear is your girlfriend?” “Mhm”, Hugo nodded proudly. “But what did you want to know about the hearing?”, he came back to the original topic.

“Yeah right. We wanted to know, if the princess Niki talked about why she is still the princess.” For a second Hugo thought about it but then shook his head. “I don’t remember. But she looked very shy. Probably because her wings didn’t develop yet.” “Her wings!?”, the three of them asked at once.

“Ach ja, you are not from here. She can get wings if her… Ansehen… uh reputation in the kingdom is high enough. That’s because of the royal blood. She would also get more powerful. But before the king and the queen died, she was rarely seen publicly.”  After the explanation Tina’s alarm bells started ringing. “Is there any possibility to talk to her?”, she questioned alert. “Can she speak English?”, now Vegetta chimed in from his jar.

Perplexed Hugo looked down at Tina’s hands, and indeed the man in the jar was talking “Is that… a tiny man?” Naturally, you wouldn’t notice a small man, if you didn’t look for him, and so when Vegetta spoke, it was the first time that Hugo had noticed him. “Your girlfriend is a teddy bear. Stop asking”, he replied snippy.

“Sorry about him”, Tina replied on Vegetta’s behalf. “But yeah, would she understand us? I also expected most people in the city would, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.”  “Yeah”, Hugo sighed and scratched the back of his head. “A lot of people here feel too insecure to talk another language. But I can tell you, the princess understands.” At least that was some good news. “But then is there any possibility to talk to her?”, Tina urged again. Hugo thought for a second, as he remembered. “Actually, yes. They said at the end that there will be a private hearing tomorrow. For all the people that still have questions.”

Tina’s eyes lit up after hearing that information. “Thank you so much for the information”, she clasped his hands and shook them. After the first moment of puzzlement, a fond smile crept its way into his face. “Ahh, don’t mention it”, he replied before they parted ways.

“I feel like you know something I don’t”, Foolish commented on their way back to the hostel. “Hmm, you could be right”, Tina teased, but before letting Foolish complain, she started clarifying. “Let’s gather all the information we know. First, even though the King and Queen died nearly two weeks ago, Niki is still a princess and not the Queen. Second, she seemed shy and wasn’t in public eye until very recently. And third, therefore she apparently didn’t grow wings, because they only do through public approval, with which she would also grow stronger”, Tina summarized.

Foolish nodded along with her explanation but then still had some questions. “So why would they delay the coronation?” A sharp inhale came from within the jar, as if Vegetta wanted to answer, but then stopped himself. Foolish’s eyes continued to linger on Tina, wanting her to answer, but when she raised the jar to turn to Vegetta, he quickly looked away.

“Do you have an idea Vegetta?”, Tina wanted to include him, but he just crossed his arms in a pout. “No, it’s fine. Tina can say it.” With a sigh Tina lowered the glass before she turned to answer. “I think she would already be the Queen, if she knew that her parents were dead.” “But everyone knows that”, Foolish jumped into the conversation.

“But if we believe our little note we got, they were supposedly kidnapped right? If I were to go missing, would you immediately declare me dead? No. You would only do that, if you were sure, for example by seeing my dead body.” Foolish cringed to the thought, but he actually could follow what Tina wanted to say.

“So, the princess has never seen her dead parents, so she maybe believes that they could come back?”, he concluded. “I think so”, Tina agreed with a nod. “But we can only be sure once we get to talk to her tomorrow.”

After they entered the hostel, Tina and Foolish said their good nights before they separated into their own rooms. And Vegetta was still in Tina’s hands.

With a stretch Tina let the hardships of the day fall off her body. “I can’t wait till tomorrow. I just hope that things go smoother then.” She had already put Vegetta down on the nightstand when they entered, so that he was now watching her unpack the rest of her backpack. “Smoother than what?”. Vegetta was petty. Pretty much so and he didn’t feel like there was a reason to stop.

Sure, he transformed the night before, but he was in the jar. And for a matter of fact, he has never left that jar since then. Foolish didn’t want to look at him anymore, and Tina, who treated him like the scum of the earth before, voluntarily carried him around, and also took him into her room. And then there was this other thing.

“You know, smoother than talking to people today”, Tina said absentmindedly while rummaging through her backpack. “A ver, so once it bothers you, it is a problem.” Tina halted in the middle of her movement before she took an abashed look at the ground. “That’s not… I can also feel troubled by it.” Even though she tried to defend herself, the volume of her voice decreased with every word. “You tr… uh troubled?!”, Vegeta asked bewildered while he stumbled over his words. “Ostras! You know how I feel? Intento discutir, pero necesito traducir cada palabra que pienso. Ni siquiera puedo hablar bien de mis sentimientos, y a menudo me siento incomprendido. ¿Tu crees que yo quería esto? No. Y luego te quejas de que algunos no te entienden. Aún tienes a Foolish. Pero yo tengo a nadie. Si hubiera sabido que esto iba a pasar, nunca habría querido conocer a Foolish...”

His breath caught in his throat. ‘Did he say something he regretted?’, Tina wondered. Whatever it was, she wanted to talk about it, but there was no way that she would understand what he said. And there was equally no way for him to translate it with the same feeling behind it. So, she stayed quiet.

“Why do you hate me?”, Vegetta asked now calmer than before. “Hate you? No, we don’t hate you”, Tina tried to argue, but the glare she received thereupon made her avert her gaze. “Guau, really?” he asked in a sarcastic tone. “Because first, you hate me. Then Foolish hates me. But you are ok with me now?”

 “I… uhm”, Tina hesitated. The images of the night popped into her head. The images of Foolish, who hugged his legs while he stared into the fire, dissociating into whatever came to his mind. Most likely the night that their mother died. Just like Tina remembered it.

The morning after was just as bad. Since their house was not the first one that the werewolf entered. Entire families had been killed, their bodies laid out on the streets, covered with a cloth to accurately count the losses. She had not only lost her mother, but also many friends and people she looked up to.

And the fact that Vegetta didn’t know meant that Foolish never told him. “You don’t know what happened?” She wanted to make sure. “Correcto, I know nothing, nada. Foolish said it’s your… stuff.” Tina quickly nodded in acknowledgement. Foolish thought it was her stuff. Until two nights ago, when it became clear that it was also still his stuff.

With a breath she steadied herself, before she started talking. “When Foolish and I were young, our village got attacked by a werewolf.” Tina took a break to let that information sink in. “The night it happened; we found it standing over the body of our dead mother.” That much information would be enough, Tina found, not only for Vegetta, but also for herself.

Now it was on Vegetta, to work though the information he was given. To him, it finally made sense. Tina’s behavior towards him was not just some unfounded racism anymore. It had roots that deeply grew in her heart. The conversation between her and Foolish the first night. He always had thought that there was a second conversation happening between the lines, but he could never pinpoint it.

And his heart sank more, as he remembered how much Foolish had defended him then. Even if he had all the rights not to. So, it was his transformation that made Foolish scared. And he did remember something that he would rather not.

Suddenly Vegetta felt really stupid. The entire last days he felt angry and frustrated, because he was confused. Confused as to why Foolish wouldn’t talk to him anymore, and why Tina suddenly changed.  Why they continued on this journey even though something clearly brought them pain when doing so. And to be honest, he still didn’t understand that now. But at least he wasn’t angry anymore.

Instead, he now felt guilty. Because what it came down to was that he was the reason that Foolish and Tina needed to relive such painful memories, that clearly could have been avoided. If he would just have never agreed to come with them. Or if he never called out Foolish’s name.

“Don’t beat yourself over it too much, Vegetta. You didn’t know”, Tina interrupted his spiraling thoughts. “And it wasn’t you who attacked us. You just happened to be… of the same race”, she said, even though she remembered clearly how she acted towards him just some days ago. She definitely didn’t feel proud about it, but at least she tried to be better.

Some time passed, in which neither of them spoke, and Vegetta’s thoughts still rattled in his brain. “Why not leave me? And be happy?” He phrased it as if he wanted to be left behind. “Before you didn’t like me, but Foolish did. But now…” He can’t even look at me, Vegetta wanted to add, but didn’t muster the mental energy to translate.

“It is true that at first, I just tagged along because Foolish wanted to help you. Maybe that’s part of the reason I am still here. But if I never tagged along, do you think I would have started to overcome my fear? You are a great person Vegetta. And I would have never gotten to know you if I left.”

“After we fought the white thing, it was Foolish who desperately tried to get this thing solved.” Vegetta crooked his neck and looked at her questioning. “He tried to cheer me up; by listing all the options we had to make you tall again. Even if it meant to say goodbye. He tries to please everyone, even if it is the worst outcome for him. Not saying that this is a bad outcome by the way.”

Tina gave him a soft smile, before she continued. “Remember, he promised to help you. And he is not someone to go back on his word. Besides, he still likes you. That’s why I haven’t given up on including you. But he is scared.” Scared. So, was Vegetta not supposed to feel scared? Certainly, Tina and Foolish were allowed to, but him? He was the one that was shrunken. He was the one who didn’t know if he would ever have his original height back. He was the one who wished that they would just leave him behind, if it became too much of an obligation. He felt a tummy ache instead of butterflies. And more importantly, he felt alone.

“So… he needs time, yes?”, Vegetta asked. He knew that the answer to that would be yes, but he’d rather it be a no, so that things could go back to how they were before. He wanted things to change now, and not… If they ever were to change again. Tina nodded affirmingly to his question. “Yes.”

The night in their room passed silently, both of them busy with the feelings that came up during their conversation. Just so much that they fell asleep pondering and only woke up, when the sun grazed their window, and blinded their eyes.

“Good morning”, Tina greeted Foolish, when they arrived in the lobby. “Good morning to you too”, he replied only to Tina. But maybe the talk yesterday was good for something, because now Vegetta noticed the half shark stealing glances towards him in the jar. Maybe Tina was right.

After last night, Vegetta had a lot of time to cool down and think, and it gave him a new perspective. The last few days he was frustrated. Rightfully so, but nothing would change if he acted passive aggressive like the day before. If Foolish was scared, he should probably be even nicer than he already was, just that now, he also needed to be more gentle. At least he hoped that he could act like that and that it would work.

“It’s the big day guys”, Tina announced as they made their way out of the hostel. “If I remember correctly, we just need to follow the main road up to the castle.” And she remembered correctly, as they were not the only ones who got on their way to the private hearing with the princess.

“So just as a revision, what are we going to ask?”, Foolish questioned, while they went to the castle. They had talked about their plans some days ago, but that conversation got drowned by the emotions that followed. “We had three scenarios and the first we cleared yesterday. There are just too many things that speak against Niki wanting the throne to herself. Now the question is if she knows about the disappearance of her parents and is blackmailed, or if she thinks that they are actually dead.”

“But both mean, someone is faking it? The deaths?”, Vegetta asked. Other than yesterday he didn’t want to hold back talking and he hoped that this would bring back a sense of normality. “Right, but I think I already know the right answer.” Perplexed Foolish stopped right in his spot, what Vegetta would have also done if he wasn’t carried around in the glass. “Did you turn into a fortune teller over night?”, he asked bewildered, which earned him a little giggle from Tina.

“You know, I am just better sometimes”, she bragged while Foolish caught up to her. “But seriously, how?” “Hmm okay, let me ask you a question. Remember the allegory I used to explain why the princess never saw her dead parents?” Foolish nodded. “Let’s say again, I went missing, but everyone else believes that I am dead. Now someone comes to you and tells you, that I am in fact not dead, but kidnapped and you need to do everything they tell you to, or I will actually die.”

“Sounds like… blackmail, yes? Was it blackmail?” Vegetta asked, confirming if he used his newly learned word right. “Yes, that’s right. Sounds like your usual blackmail. Now, it is important that everyone continues to believe that I am dead, so you were tasked with holding a funeral, so that no one becomes suspicious. If I were to just go missing, you would delay the funeral in hope that I would return.”

“Delay… Like the princess did the coronation”, Foolish noted correctly. “Mhm, I suspect that if the princess is in the knowledge of her parents kidnapping, they wouldn’t allow the coronation to get delayed as long as it has now.” “Okay, but why do we still talk to the princess then?” They had reached the stairs that went up to the entrance of the castle and lined up behind the people already waiting there. “I only have a theory about what happened, but I need to confirm it to make sure. Luckily, I already have an idea, so let me do the talking”, she said with a wink, as they got interrupted.

“The private hearing with the princess will start in a moment. Please be civilized and patient. Do not push and shove and please be aware that we cannot let everyone talk to her that is currently lining up.” The first time the guard spoke was definitely not English, but then he started a second time, repeating what he said, which was now understandable. A quick panic went through Tina as she heard these words, but when taking a look at the line, she was confident that they would be in the range of people that would be allowed to enter.

And after about 45 minutes it was their time to be led inside. “Liebe Gäste, bitte folgen Sie mir.“ With big eyes Tina and Foolish glared at the housekeeper, trying to make out what he said. “English please?” The Man cleared his throat before he spoke again, “Dear Guests, please follow me.” He held a quick pace when walking, which was probably because there were a lot of people waiting, so that they were ushered along, taking one or two turns, until they reached a big wooden door. “Her Highness is waiting inside”, he declared and stayed back in the hallway, when they entered.  

The room on the other side was definitely not made for conversations for people on the same level. Pillars decorated the sides and formed a corridor that led to a raised platform in the floor, on which the princess sat on a chair. The chair was decorated, though not enough to be a throne. And the same could be said about the room. Most likely its purpose was to welcome guests of lower status.

“Your royal Highness”, both Foolish and Tina greeted the princess, while kneeling on red carpet adorned with gold accents. For a second the woman in front of them raised her eyebrows, probably due to the unexpected language, but just right after, the creases in her forehead smoothed out.

“I welcome you guests from afar. Due to which reason is it that you seek my audience?” Her voice was clear. But looking up at her, it did seem like she was not fully accustomed to the position that she was in. Her hands were fidgeting in her lap and her eyes sometimes darted past the visitors and around the room.

“Thank you for receiving us your Highness. First, we would like to say our condolences for the late King and Queen”, Tina paused to see her reaction. “We got sent by our company, the one that produced the gowns for the late King and Queen’s burial. We are simply here to ask about your satisfaction with our work.”

“The gowns. Yes.” The princess grew more fidgety. “It was to my satisfaction. You did a great job with your work.” “We are glad to hear that we could suffice for such a task. We especially took great pride in the embroidery, in green and yellow, that hugs the arm and waist”, Tina spoke as she glanced up at the princess. It was direct and challenging.

“It was truly magnificent.” That was the confirmation that Tina needed. Knowing that, her eyes quickly lit up, before she forced her excitement back to keep her composure. “Then allow me another question.” Now Tina was bold, but she wanted to get as much information as possible.

“Sure, go ahead”, Niki replied, though it was clear that she grew restless. “Why was it that there was no open casket funeral, when we put so much work into the creation of the dresses?” The air was thick with tension. It was possible that someone in this room knew why, but it was definitely not the princess. Behind the chair stood multiple people in nice clothes, probably her advisers, who now started whispering among themselves.

The princess, who had nothing to reply, looked to her left and right, waiting for one of the advisers to step forward. And as she had hoped, one did and leaned close to her ear. It was a bear with white fur, who held up his paw to shield the words from escaping from the princess’s ear.  “We recognize your work, though we can not disclose this reason to you. You may leave”, Niki spoke now firm and confident. “As you wish your Highness”, Tina replied and both her and Foolish bowed a last time, before they turned around and left.

Once they stepped out of the main entrance, Tina let out a big sigh. “God, I feel like I sold potions to customers for an entire day, even though this was just fifteen minutes”, she said with slumped shoulders. “Oh, I totally understand you, and I didn’t even say a word”, Foolish agreed with her. “Same with me, my friends”, another voice commented from inside the jar. It was clear that it was nerve-wracking for everyone.

“So, you know more now?” Vegetta spoke up again. “Definitely. And my suspicion was correct.” Tina had found back the confidence she felt when speaking to the princess.  “Though, why did you specifically talk about the dress?”, Foolish asked as they descended the stairs. “Remember the last question I asked about the open casket funeral? I heard it from the keeper of our hostel. If the kingdom didn’t see the dead bodies of their rulers, maybe the princess didn’t see them either. It would explain why there was the delay.”

“Hmm I see, so you asked about the clothes, because if she didn’t see the bodies, that meant that she also didn’t see the clothes that were used”, Foolish guessed correctly. “Right, and I specifically described details that were unlikely to be on the dresses if they were actually dead. But the princess didn’t negate it. And she also didn’t know the reason for the closed casket funeral. As if it was decided without her.”

“But, does it help me?” Vegetta asked a justified question, which made Tina stop on the stairs. “I, uhm…”, she started thinking out loud and Vegetta could see that Foolish wanted to say something. Just that he didn’t. And Vegetta was right with what he had asked. They had confirmation that the King and Queen were not dead, but they neither knew where they were nor who did it. The only thing that they did was confirm that it wasn’t the princess.

That was when Tina realized that they had only come one step further, while they used so much energy to get there. Maybe it would have been faster to research the golden ball back at home, instead of following a strange note, from which they didn’t know who it belonged to. Speaking of. “I just noticed, since the note told us that the King and Queen are not dead, why couldn’t they figure out who it was.”

“That is true. Maybe they are in a position where they can’t act further. But regardless, what do we do…” Foolish interrupted his sentence, as a hooded figure broke through the line of people that were still waiting for a chance to talk to the princess. For any other person that would spark no suspicion, but for the three of them, alarm bells started ringing. And they grew louder, as the person walking by had their legs, poking out from under the coat which were white as snow.

In an instant Tina and Foolish communicated in silent glances, before they carefully walked to the end of the stairs, to peek around the corner. “Was that…?”, Tina asked without finishing her sentence. Foolish nodded. “Why are we waiting? let’s follow! Vamos!” It was Vegetta who suggested that. Why waste such a perfect opportunity when it showed itself? With a quick look Foolish confirmed the position of the thing a last time, before he turned to Tina.

“Get your summoning circle.” “Already in hand”, she replied with a pat on a pocket in her robe. “Great. Do not take your hand out of that pocket once we follow it. And another thing.” Even though Foolish said there was another thing, he took a pause and looked at Tina, while at last also at Vegetta.

“I want you to take Vegetta out of the jar and put him somewhere on your body where he can grab onto stuff. If it comes to a fight, the jar is in the way. It also only protects against squishing and not shaking”, he rattled down the words. Vegetta was still important to him. Of course he was. He just felt like he couldn’t count on himself when it came to Vegetta related issues.

He had thought about it the past few nights and understood why Tina had said that she wasn’t ready back then. Even if she was physically capable, the fear was holding her back, and it did the same to him. But catching some white creature? That was something that he felt confident in doing.

Following Foolish’s command, Tina opened the lid of the jar and held her finger inside for Vegetta to grab onto. It was his first human touch in days. “I am going to put you on my head, okay?”, she said and waited for Vegetta to approve.

“Grab tight onto my hair, and at best even tie some around your waist”, she instructed, as she lifted him up and let him jump on her head. Up there, he did as he was told, before they continued to focus back on the thing in the robe.

While they were talking, it had walked further down the road, but it was still in sight. “Okay, I think it’s clear that we follow in a safe distance and act like we are just interested in the city. Do not act suspicious.” Tina and Vegetta gave him a nod, which already tested how secure Vegetta was on her head.

The distance they held was great, but it didn’t prove any difficulty following the creature. From one of the bigger roads, it turned into smaller side ones and after a while into even smaller ones. At the very end, it took a turn to the right, but as Tina and Foolish did the same, they found it standing right in front of them, as the street was a dead end.

It only took a second for Foolish to register, but as he turned around, there were already two other creatures blocking their way out. “Tina. Sword, now!”, Foolish screamed, as the three hooded creatures pounced upon them . They drew swords as well, with one of them focusing on Tina and the other two on Foolish.

Luckily Tina reacted fast and was able to raise her sword, as the opposite one was now in the motion of crashing down on her. The sound of metal reached their ears, but hers wasn’t the only one. Foolish, who was rushed by two opponents, first deflected a blow from the creature in the streets, before he pushed it away to turn around and take care of the second one.

But Tina, despite having only one foe to take care of, it proved itself more difficult, since she was only really used to fighting with magic. Magic! She thought as she again and again parried the onslaught of sword strikes. If she could find an opening just for some seconds, as the creature brought down the sword in an exceptionally strong swing. Their blades clashed and grated against each other, when Tina gathered an extra amount of strength to push it back.

And it worked. Her opponent had an opening, even if it was just for a second, but that was enough for Tina to force him on the ground. Or at least she had hoped so, but instead of her magic having the expected effect, it just stumbled a few feet backwards. But there was no time to wonder about such a thing. Decisions needed to be made fast, so she surged forwards and reached for everything that was in her swords range.

It coursed through the air, before it hit something. It wasn’t what Tina had hoped for, but just a second later, a hand of the creature flew through the air. It was plain white, like everything else on the thing, but to her surprise, it didn’t wail. It didn’t bleed, like the thing in the hut, and neither did it make any sound, before it came onto Tina again.

At the same time, Foolish was also fighting for his life. After he had pushed the first creature away and focused on the second one, he had a short repartee before he already needed to dodge swords at once. At least he was able to move around so much that the two creatures were coming at him from one direction instead of two.

Fleetingly he once in a while took a glance at Tina, but luckily, she seemed to be doing good enough to not get killed. “Foolish, down!”, Vegetta shouted, who was watching him from Tina’s head. In a quick motion he followed the command, and barely fast enough, as a sword missed him a couple of inches. “Thanks!”, he yelled back, before he jumped back up and hit the attacking sword with his own in such a way that it flew out of the attacker’s hand. It ran immediately after it, so that there was only one creature he needed to focus on. Skillfully he delivered some overpowering blows to his opponent, until an opening formed. With a thrust, he pierced his sword where its heart should be.

With anticipation Foolish watched what happened. For a second the thing stopped its movement, before it slowly put its hand on the blade to push itself off the blade. And right after it attacked again. “Holy shit”, Foolish cursed, as he dodged the attack. “I can’t kill them!”, he shouted over at Tina, who was also still busy fighting.

“Foolish stabbed it, in the heart”, Vegetta added the information, since Tina couldn’t afford to take her eyes away from the fight. ‘Shit’, Tina thought. She had a sneaking suspicion, and it didn’t look good. She originally had planned that they maybe could bring the creatures to talk so that they would tell them how the golden ball worked, but since they didn’t even make a sound when they got hurt, maybe they couldn’t talk to begin with. And since there was also no way of stopping them, if she or Foolish would cut off a limb, there was practically only one option.

“Smash in their heads!” “What?” Foolish thought he didn’t hear correctly. “Back in the hut. It died because we smashed in its head. It cracked open on the floor!”, she explained as best as she could. Tina needed a second try. If she could drop the creature on the floor, probably the same would happen. It was strange that her usual efforts in magic didn’t do as much as she was familiar with, but that didn’t mean that that was all she could do. No. She had way more mana in her storage. And suddenly she got really sick of fighting this thing.

“You’re starting to annoy me”, she shouted at the creature, before severing the other hand. With a cling the weapon well to the ground, which alerted the other two. “Foolish, keep them in check”, she instructed, before she let her sword fall as well, to completely focus on this more complicated spell.

Her hands rose towards the creature, as she started mumbling. Words formed sentences, and as the last one passed, the thing hung several meters above ground, waving with its arms and legs, to try and get away. But it was no use, as Tina ended the spell, and the creature fell to the ground accompanied by a crunch upon contact.

For a second it was silent around them, as the other two attackers eyed the white thing lying on the floor. It was the perfect distraction, because right after Tina started anew, now lifting one of the foes Foolish was fighting against. Of course, the third of them didn’t want to let their companion die like that, so it started to rush towards her.

Unlucky though, that it didn’t pay attention to Foolish anymore, who now easily grabbed the thing by its head, and smashed it into the nearest wall. Two cracks followed each other closely, as both creatures grew limp. And Vegetta, who watched everything from Tina’s head, was glad that he decided to argue with her, when he didn’t know that she could do that.

“Search the three for the ball”, Tina told Foolish, before she took a seat on the ground to think. “Can I get down, my friend?”, she heard a voice coming from her head and quickly put Vegetta back in his jar. “Oh my, I’m sorry. Is everything okay with you?”, Tina asked while inspecting him. “Yes, yes. Everything okay”, he only lied a little bit. It did somewhat shake, but at least he was happy that he didn’t throw up on her head.

 “I found nothing”, Foolish reported back to Tina, after he had searched the robes. “Checks out”, she commented while glancing over at the corpses. “There was someone in that room with the princess that knew why we were there. Because I don’t think it was a coincidence of crossing paths with the things. They want us gone”, Tina concluded.

A week has passed since they were ambushed the first time, and it wasn’t their last time running into the creatures. Back then they had decided that they would probably be attacked again and took this as their new strategy to get closer to the person pulling the strings. Though without much success. 

“Excuse me?”, the man at the reception called for their attention, as they entered the hostel. “Yeah, what is it?” “Someone left something for you”, he said as he pulled out a note.

Chapter Text

After a long day, the sun fell behind the horizon, just like how the exhausted princess fell into her bed. The private hearing was difficult. Some people were more than others, but there was one thing that wouldn’t leave her mind. And that was her parents.

Niki rolled over to lay on her stomach and look out of the window that oversaw the city below. All these people were depending on someone, but she wasn’t sure if that someone was her. Especially since there were so many things that she wasn’t sure about. She never liked to be in the public eye and had an agreement with her parents that it wouldn’t come to that but look at where she was now.

At least one good side effect was that she actively felt herself become stronger. Not mentally but physically. Though how much would it help her? And there was another thing. “Why was there no open casket funeral?”, she had been asked. She knew why, or at least she had been told why.

The morning of her parents’ death had been horrible. She was shaken out of her sleep, just for one of her parents’ advisers to tell her the shocking news. Disturbed, she had run through the castles halls, in her nightgown, until she had reached her parents’ quarters. But guards were securing the door.

“Please let me in. Let me go to my parents. Please”, she had begged, but the men wouldn’t budge. “I would advise you against it, your Highness”, a cold, somewhat mechanical voice echoed from behind her. With a tear-streaked face she turned around to find a white bear. He had been working under her parents for ages now. “The King and the Queen have been brutally attacked. I advised the guards to not let you through. It is a horrible sight. Nothing for a princess.” He continued speaking.

At this point, Niki had sunken to the ground, holding her face while sobbing. “But, but my parents…”, she brought out, while two other guards had arrived. “Please bring her to her room to let her calm down”, the white bear commanded, so that they helped her up on her feet and escorted her away.

Later on, she was told that she would not see her parents’ dead bodies. At first, she was in shock, like everybody would be, but no matter how often she asked after, the answer was still no. So yes, she could have told the employees from the company that her parents were horribly attacked, but she wasn’t even sure about that herself anymore, and besides that…

Cucurucho had just told her what to say, since letting your country know about the gruesome death of their leaders was also not good for the people. So, he had told her something else. They should live with a healthy picture of the King and Queen in mind. Cucurucho had explained that to her afterwards, but after being confronted today, her suspicion just grew stronger.

The next morning held little royal expectations, so that Niki took the time to head to the archive. It housed various documents that were important to the kingdom, so she hoped to find what she looked for. Since the funeral didn’t lie that far in the past, the documents about it should be located in the newest section. And she was proven to be right.

With her fingers she slid over the back of the books, skimming the titles until she found the right one. “This should be it”, she murmured to herself, as she flipped it open. Last night she had thought more about the dress makers’ question, when she remembered something out of line. And if she would be correct…

Her eyes flew over the pages as she found the chapter that noted everything about cloth-related topics. Including the companies that produced them. “The company should have been from within our borders”, she summarized the information in the book. “Is there anything I can help you with, honey?”, an elder woman asked her. She was the keeper of the archive and very familiar with all the information stored there.

Even though she technically had to address Niki as “her Highness”, the old woman never did so. But it wasn’t that she intended to be impolite. Niki recalled that she had been around for ages, even so long, that she knew Niki’s parents when they were young. She had a familiarity to her, that made her words not feel out of place.

 “Would you happen to know if this company takes in foreign workers?”, Niki asked while she pointed at the paper. “Not that I know of. So that would be a no” the woman answered her. ‘And even if they would, they wouldn’t send foreign workers to the castle, if they had native people to get in touch with me’, Niki thought. “Is that everything?” “Ah yes, thank you.”

With her mind elsewhere, Niki left the archive. If these people weren’t from the company they claimed to work for, then why did they come to speak to her. And what information did they gather from the conversation? She had made it to her quarters, where she sat down to think more.

It was possible that they came from another kingdom, to try and spy on her, but wasn’t that a bit too odd? Asking about the funeral gowns did not strike her to be a topic someone could gather much information from. But if they didn’t work for the company, then they wouldn’t know about the dresses. And then the scales fell from her eyes.

If they didn’t know about the dresses, then they were confirming that Niki also didn’t know about them. And they even asked about details, to which she just affirmed that they were beautiful. But there were never any details. All she did was admit to these people that she had never seen her dead parents. Upon her discovery she did feel a bit stupid, but it also opened up two other questions.

First, why did Cucurucho not tell her that these people lied to her? What would she have done if she had found out then? She would have probably questioned why they lied to her. But afterwards? Maybe she would have asked what her parents really wore? Was that a question Cucurucho tried to avoid? But why would he?

And second, why did these foreign people ask her in the first place. Sure, the kingdom did find it strange to have a closed casket funeral, but it never arose the suspicion that she had never seen them. And what would that entail. Wouldn’t that mean that these people thought that her parents were never dead? That maybe she tried to force her way on the throne?

Considering that Niki now seemed to be stuck with these two questions, she figured that there was only one thing to do, that would bring her closer to answering both. “Butler,” she called, which was immediately answered by a man, entering her room. “Yes, your Highness. How can I help you?”

“I would like for you to make an appointment for me tomorrow at the cemetery. To be more specific, with the mortician. This matter is highly confidential, so make sure it doesn't reach anyone else’s ears.” The butler nodded before he bowed out and left the room.

The workplace of the mortician was right on the grounds of the cemetery. This wasn’t where her parents were buried, but there aren’t only Kings and Queens that died in this kingdom. Niki wore a dark green coat with a hood, when she knocked onto the mortician’s door. When she said to the butler that no one else was to know about her visit, it also meant that she didn’t intend to be seen.

“Please come in”, a voice sounded from within. Firmly Niki grabbed the handle and opened the door. On the inside, the room she stepped into looked like a normal shop, with a counter and a table placed in a corner. Probably to do consultations. “Ah your Highness”, a man in his fifties answered her, surprise knitted in his voice, even though he knew she was coming.

“Good day to you sir. I came to you on a matter asked by the people”, Niki chose her word wisely. “The people? ”, he asked. He clearly seemed to be nervous. “Yes. You see two days ago, during the private hearing, I was asked about the dresses my parents wore when they were buried. I assume you took care of that?”

“But of course your Highness.” Niki eyed the man up and down. She was a bit surprised by herself the last two days, but she blamed her determination on the wish to find out what happened to her parents. “I was asked by the company that had crafted them if I was satisfied with the dresses. But since I wasn’t allowed to see my parents personally, I wanted to ask you about their state.”

“Ah yes. They were truly magnificent.” He added no further comment. “Even the embroidery in green and yellow, that hugs the arms and waist?”, Niki stole the lie from the woman and twisted it around for her own benefit. The man swallowed visibly, before he looked around the room. “Those were the details that especially elevated their looks.” And now she got him.

“Oh, did I forget to mention. The people that asked me that question were frauds. They never worked for the company they claimed to come from. There were also never such dresses. So let me ask you only this once. What happened to my parents?”

Her cold eyes laid on the man, not letting lose the grip that she had on him now. “Oh yes, your Highness. I must have misremembered”, he stammered, while he slowly moved backwards to bring distance between him and the princess.

“Is that so? Maybe some time in one of your caskets will be enough to give you a jumpstart.” Her voice was cold enough to let her heart freeze over. Following her statement, the man let out a tiny shriek, before his body posture loosened and he got ready to confess.

“The King and Queen never wore any dresses. I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted.” He spoke quietly; the words only meant for her ears. “Why is that?” “Because their bodies never laid in the caskets to begin with. We used body doubles, so that the weight wouldn’t be suspicious. That’s why the funeral was a closed casket one.”

For a moment, Niki took in the information quietly. “And who gave you the order to do so?” There was no resistance from the man anymore. “I don’t know. It was a butler that gave me the order. He said that if I don’t follow, I would end up as one of the body doubles.” A sigh escaped Niki’s lips. “I will send you a guard to protect you. But don’t let anyone know that I was here.” With a quiet nod the man agreed to what Niki had said, before she left out the door. Time to try something else.

After the first ambush of the white creatures, something in their group dynamic had changed. It was definitely for the better, Vegetta had concluded, but it had also perfectly demonstrated how much fear can be blinding. Ever since he saw Tina and Foolish beat these things to a pulp, Tina had found more confidence in her skills, and he could see how she became more determined.

He also became more careful about what he said, though maybe he was a bit over exaggerating, thinking that Tina would also drop him from up high. But overall, it really seemed like Tina tried hard to get over her fear, and the efforts were definitely showing. Vegetta almost felt like he could talk to her in the same way as they did before Tina found out about him.

And what Vegetta didn’t know was that their talk was one of the things that had pushed her fully over the edge of commitment. She had realized that she couldn’t just let Foolish do all the relationship building, even if he wouldn’t have had the flashback. She thought it would come to her naturally at some point. That there would be a right moment in time. She hadn’t thought about how Vegetta would feel, who had nothing to do with her fear and judgement.

Until their talk. Until Vegetta asked her if she knew how he felt, before he went on to convey his feelings in the only way he knew. His mother tongue. And it made Tina realize that even in this city of people that she couldn’t understand, she still had Foolish. But Vegetta already went days without being able to properly articulate himself.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, if there weren’t any bad feelings involved, but there were. And she thought back to some days ago, when both of them would give him the silent treatment. And Vegetta couldn’t even walk away. So no, she couldn’t allow herself to wait till the exact constellation of stars aligned, that would open up the perfect moment of forgiveness for Vegetta.

She was allowed to feel anxious and afraid. But what she didn’t allow herself to do was to pull innocent people into her mess of emotions. And so, she decided to actively work towards being able to be in Vegetta’s presence and maybe even get along better than just travel partners.

And ironically, Foolish had been another huge part in getting to where she was now. When he had told her, back at the hut, that she was strong, she believed that he had told her the truth. It was just that she didn’t necessarily believe in her own abilities. But after fighting the white creatures, she finally saw what he had seen in her back then. And maybe, she now should give this advice back to him.

He and Vegetta were getting better. Vegetta on one hand was seeking out active conversation again and didn’t hold back like he did the days before. Tina suspected that was because of the conversation she and him had the day before the attack. But Vegetta wasn’t the only one whose actions altered. Ever since Foolish gave Tina the instructions on how to keep Vegetta safe in a fight, he became more relaxed around him again. She just hoped that it wasn’t because he pushed back his emotions surrounding Vegetta, to keep room for the current situation.

“They really don’t change, do they”, Tina commented on one of the paperwhite bodies in front of her. “Sí. Just like… they are just following orders.” The first attack laid a week in the past, and ever since then, they had been attacked basically every day. Not on the open streets, but just like the first time, it was one functioning as bait, while the others waited to ambush them in a dark corner.

But the three of them weren’t stupid, so they quickly caught onto the strategy. Though it didn’t seem to help them in the slightest. Yes, fighting these creatures gave them a lot of material to understand them, and figure out how they worked, but there was no clue that led the three to their boss.

“And guess what, no golden ball”, Foolish called from the body as he was searching it. “It was probably hopeless from the beginning.” Tina put her hands on her knees to help herself stand up, with Vegetta still on her head. “It was purely intentional that they showed up after the talk with the princess. And they most likely saw Vegetta. That’s why they don’t have the device on them.”

Even if their efforts were in vain, at least they slowly had figured out how to easily defeat them. The creatures had no hearts, at least that was that the three believed, since stabbing the creatures where a heart should be, gave them no reaction. On top of that, it didn’t seem like they felt any pain, because even though they had no mouth with which scream out when they were injured, neither did they have any other visible reaction. It didn’t matter if they were cut or even lost a limb, the creatures immediately sprang back into the fight.

Which then led them to the discovery that the only way to dispose of them was actually the thing they did the first time. Smashing in their heads. Tina had tried some interrogation before. She tested out talking, and when that didn’t work even hand gestures or signs on paper. But there was no persuading. No amount of threat made them turn; no injury was too grave to make them give out any information.

At the end of the experiment, it was Vegetta who actually wondered if deep down buried in Tina, there was a sadistic side to her. But there was no right time and place to ask her, especially since what was to come, when they stepped into the hostel on the seventh day of their stay.

“Excuse me?”, the man at the reception called for their attention, as they entered the hostel. “Yeah, what is it?” “Someone left something for you”, he said as he pulled out a note. Well, it was more of a letter than a note. Not something like they had received the first time.

Excited eyes darted around the room and out of the window. How long has it been since the letter was handed in? Could the person still be around? But the receptionist had to disappoint. “The letter was brought in shortly after you left this morning.” Tina turned the envelope around, to spot a plain wax seal. No information to be found here.

“What did the person look like, who handed this in?”, she asked. If their suspicion was correct, and it was the same person that left them the note the first time, maybe they were actually coming closer to their goal. “It was no one special. Maybe a merchant? He was probably around thirty, with blond hair.”

“Ah thank you.” Tina gave him a slight wave, as they parted with the receptionist and headed upstairs to her room. “Hurry up. I want to know”, Vegetta said impatient, who still hadn’t left Tina’s head. Foolish’s excitement looked a bit more muted though. The contact from their informant meant more input, and possibly a way to help Vegetta. Something he deliberately had pushed out of his mind. It was easier to think about whether you were doing something to help, rather than remember that the outcome would hurt oneself.

“Alright, alright, I am already opening it”, Tina commented on Vegetta’s request. She broke the seal, and pulled out a single, tiny note, for which it felt a bit excessive to use such a big envelope. On the note, there was only one sentence, and it read, “I am waiting at the King’s and Queen’s grave.”

“Their grave?”, Tina repeated, and read over the sentence again, before she looked up at Foolish. “Smells like trap”, Vegetta said, while he turned to Foolish to look for confirmation. “Hmm”, he nodded, though he still seemed to think about it. “It could be that they tried something new after the last few times, but we just beat more of them this morning. Maybe a double trap?”, Foolish spoke his thoughts out loud.

“But the note is similar to the one we got in the hostel”, Tina noted on their suspicion.  “Look, we already know how to beat them. But if it is really the person from the hostel, we are passing up a huge opportunity.” Tina was right. Since the note was basically the reason they were in this mess, it itched all of them to figure out who wrote it.

“Ahh okay. I was on your head a lot. I can do it again”, Vegetta agreed to the plan. “What about you Foolish?” “I know I am usually not the one to be careful, but we should be this time.” There was this feeling inside himself that made him feel uneasy. “I wouldn’t have done it any other way”, Tina said, before she went on.

“We don’t even know where the grave is, so we best ask at the reception and plan from there on.” So, the plan was made, and they headed back downstairs. “Oh, you are back again”, noticed the man who had given them the note. “Yup, and we would like to know, where the King’s and Queen’s grave is.”

“That’s not hard to miss. They built a statue east of the city walls. It’s not far out. Just follow the main road until the castle, then head left and walk until you are outside of the city, then you should already see it. Anything else?”, he asked. “No nothing but thank you.” The three gave the man a quick wave, before they went out.

“I am thinking…”, Tina began talking, as they headed down the main road. “that we don’t wait at the statue but look for a place where we have view of it and can see who approaches.” “Mhm”, Vegetta and Foolish agreed at the same time, before they shot each other a look. But while Vegetta was happy about their sameness, it was a reminder to Foolish, that there was just one thing that currently kept him from wanting to be with Vegetta.

But time didn’t stop marching on, so that after roughly 25 minutes, they had passed the eastern city gate and saw the graves statue in the distance. From what it looked like, the statue was surrounded by trees and bushes, so it was the perfect place to hide and wait. Though at the same time it was also perfect to ambush someone.

When they were a few meters away from the statue, they took a turn off the path and into the shrubbery, where they peeked onto the round place before them. The statue the city had erected, was made out of copper, which still harboured its original orange sheen, though sooner or later would turn turquoise. It had the form of two people, most likely the King and the Queen, and to the feet of the stone pedestal they stood on, were laid rows and rows of flowers, which only opened up a tiny path to the stone, where their names were engraved.

And on that path stood a person, covered in cloak. Immediately the senses of the three in the bushes were heightened, but they waited to see what would happen. The person stood there a while, as they looked up at the statue, before they came closer, to let their hand gently glide over the stone. Their shoulders raised and lowered, probably taking a deep breath, before they turned around and leaned their back against the stone. With a last motion, they removed their hood, before they also let their head rest against the stone.

From the bushes, they could see the person’s pink hair fall behind their ears and their beige skin, that had a warm tint, not like the white creatures they thought of meeting there. ‘The princess!’, the three of them thought, while they exchanged looks. This was definitely not who they had imagined to find, and they were sure, that she had not left them the first note. So why was she here? Was she the one who sent the second one?

Some seconds passed, in which Tina, Foolish and Vegetta had a discussion purely with their facial expressions, before they all agreed to talk to her. “Your Highness,” Tina spoke from the bushes, to not startle her with a silent approach, though there was still a tiny shock running through the princess, as she was sunken in her memories.

“You came”, she replied while pushing herself away from the stone, which confirmed that she was the one who had sent the note. “So, it was your doing”, Tina stated just to completely make sure that this was no misunderstanding. “Yes”, Niki replied, while she waited for Foolish together with Vegetta to completely come out of the bush.

“I called you here because I have questions. I figured out your game of charades.” Compared to last time, Tina noticed the changed demeanour of the princess. The last time she had felt easy talking to her and deceiving her. Now she felt like she actually had to be careful what to say, or she would feel the consequences. Did this transformation really happen in a week? Or was the last conversation they had a ruse?

Niki noticed the people in front of her stiffen. She was still not used to this fire that started kindling in her a week ago, and she quickly noticed the change that happened in the people around her. Though this time, a bit of force might be useful. “Why did you lie to me?”, she asked and noticed the eyes of the people in front of her jump at each other.

Tina’s brain rattled with the evaluation of the situation. A lie was usually always a bad thing. And it was seen as even worse if it was directed towards a royal. Though, if she already had figured out that it was a lie, why send the note? Couldn’t she have let them be arrested sooner? And on top of that, they were alone right now. Not in a place to pressure someone with guards or similar. And that was when Tina took the gamble.

“We are under the suspicion that the King and the Queen are not actually dead.” Upon the statement, Foolish’s eyes widened, since he was probably fearing for the worst. But contrary to Tina’s expectation, the princess stayed calm. “So, you knew all along.” “Yes. So, I am assuming you were also aware?”

From the way the princess talked about it, it very much seemed like she did. Though this would jumble up all the theories they had about her situation. Certainly, it would be possible. Even if she didn’t catch the lie at first, Tina still suspected that there were royal gowns, just that Niki had not seen them. And she went along with it, to not arouse any suspicion.

“Actually, I did not. In fact, you made me aware of the inconsistencies”, Niki corrected her, which just threw Tina completely off. “Huh?”, she spoke without thinking, though the princess in front of her didn’t seem to mind. “Look,” Niki took a break to think. “I just want to piece all of this together. You knew about my parents, but you don’t seem like you want to cause me any harm, which you could have totally done. You could have started rumors in the kingdom, and even if you had no prove, that doesn’t prevent them from going around.” Her voice softened during her elaboration.

“We are here because of him”, Foolish spoke, as he raised the jar to make her aware of the man inside. “Your Highness”, Vegetta greeted her and tried to mimic Tina, though the words didn’t sound as fluent with him. Confused Niki observed the jar, though she couldn’t understand how those things were related.

“Even if you are not in charge for long, you might have been notified of people going missing”, Foolish started, but it didn’t seem like Niki knew what he was talking about. “Hmm, I don’t think so”, she said, her face masked with perplexity. “Are there a lot of people going missing?”, she turned to Tina to look for confirmation.

“There are. We know that it affects people from different races, and that there are rarely two of the same kind. Our friend Vegetta here is part werewolf, and on our journey here, we haven’t seen another missing person poster of his kind.” It still didn’t seem like Niki caught on, but she stayed patient. “Okay, so how does this relate to my parents? And how do you know about them?”

“When I met Vegetta for the first time, he was tall, just like us. But he was attacked, and the majority of his body was turned into energy and stolen. He was also supposed to be kidnaped, but I could prevent that. The thing that did that was a white humanoid creature. We followed it thanks to a potion, and when we had caught up, we found a yellow device, but didn’t know how to use it.”

“When we took rest in a hostel, Tina got a note…”, he said while gesturing towards her. “, which said that your parents were not actually dead, but disappeared. We had no better lead, so we followed it.” “We thought that your parents were kidnaped because of your royal blood. And we might be right, since we were attacked by the same white creatures, that also attacked Vegetta, right after we talked to you”, Tina added to the explanation.

“So, when I send you the note, you thought that it came from the same person as before”, Niki guessed, to what the other three agreed with a nod.  “We had to lie to you to figure out If you knew about the kidnaping or not. There is someone behind the scenes pulling the strings and we didn’t want to endanger you, by simply asking. And there definitely is something going on, since we were attacked right after.”

“This is maybe why you don’t know about the other kidnappings”, Vegetta added. “It would make sense. After I found out your lie, I went to the mortician who buried my parents. He told me that he was threatened by a butler. If he wouldn’t have followed, he would have been the one in the casket.” The part where she did the same thing, to figure out the truth, she left out intentionally.  

“But that means we are one step closer, right Tina?”, Foolish turned to her. “Now we fully know that at least their bodies are not where they supposed to be at. And since we fought the white creatures the entire week, it is likely that they are behind it.”

“Your Highness, do you have…” “Ihre königliche Hoheit?”, a voice called out, interrupting Tina mid question. The four of them froze up, with only their heads turning in the direction of the shout. The voice was distinct, but only Niki knew right away who it belonged to, since the others had never heard him talk. “I never told anyone I was going here”, she warned them, as a white bear appeared from behind a tree.

“Ihre Hoheit. Was machen sie hier. Sie sollten im Schloss sein”, the bear laid his eyes on the group, and either he didn’t remember them, or he didn’t want them to understand, since he didn’t repeat himself in English, after spotting them. “I am here to visit my parents. Is that a crime”, Niki stood her ground in a way that the other three also understood.

“Nein, aber es stellt eine Gefahr da, wenn wir nicht immer wissen, wo Sie sich aufhalten. Sie sollten immer wenigstens zwei Wachen bei sich haben”, he still didn’t change up, even though it must have been obvious from Niki’s sentence. “I don’t need guards around me constantly. I am getting stronger, and I don’t need to justify my actions to anyone.”

After her sentence, the white bear came closer. “Bitte folgen Sie mir”, his eyes narrowed and at least from the tone, Tina understood, he wasn’t going to let loose. “I am actually having a conversation, so would you leave me alone”, Niki demanded, though there was a slight panic bubbling up inside of her. And that was justified, since he still continued his way towards them.

“Hey”, Foolish called out into the conversation. “If she wants to be left alone, then respect her wishes. She is your princess, is she not?”, he asked, while he straightened up and stepped in front of her. “She might be, but she doesn’t know what she is doing”, the bear said, before Foolish felt a bump in his shoulder, that turned his torso away and made the princess pass by.

But when he caught himself, he realized that it wasn’t voluntary, but an invisible force, that had dragged her away from Foolish and towards the bear. “Let me go, I command it”, she struggled against the grip but couldn’t do anything. This went on, until she reached Cucurucho, though he didn’t give her a chance to run away, as he immediately reached for her hair, when he turned around to drag her after himself.

“That’s enough!”, Foolish shouted at him, though it left no impressions. And before Tina could even start to try and break them apart with a spell, Foolish handed her the jar, before he sprinted towards him. He didn’t really have a plan in mind, all he wanted was to separate them. After that, multiple things happened at the same time.

Foolish was already close to Niki and the bear, when he also felt the same force that made Niki move, hurling him backwards. Nearly after came the sound of shattering glass, when Foolish took a peek backwards and saw the statue closing in on him. There wasn’t anything he could do, besides protecting his head, so he lifted his arms upwards and waited for the impact.

But there was none. He peeped his eyes open, and saw Tina, who had lifted both of her arms, holding Foolish in the air with magic, which prevented him from crashing into the copper statue behind him. While Foolish went for the princess, she quickly had picked Vegetta out of his jar, but there was not enough time to put it down, before she reflexively cast her spell to save Foolish, so that it shattered at her feet.

But there was no sentiment to lose on it, as Niki was still struggling in the bear’s grasp. “Let me try”, she told Foolish after she had let him down. Again, she raised her hands and concentrated. Fast, mumbled words, flew out of her mouth, but once she was done, nothing happened. The bear didn’t stop, Niki wasn’t freed out of his grasp, but instead he opened his mouth to let out a weird, metallic laugh. “Ha ha ha”.

Tina didn’t understand. Why didn’t it work. She clearly just saved Foolish from receiving life threatening injuries, so why didn’t it work on either of them. In desperation she turned her hands around to look at them, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. But maybe that tiny bit of distraction was a huge mistake, as Foolish charged at the bear again.

Niki had continued to scream, and he couldn’t just sit by and watch. If Tina’s magic wasn’t working, then he had to do something. Even if it was the same thing over and over. And so he charged again. And again, he flew through the air, though this time not horizontal, but upwards, just like Tina had done it with the creatures. However, he wasn’t let go for a freefall but instead was slammed into the ground.

“Foolish!”, Tina and Vegetta called out, while she tried to catch him last second. But it was not enough, and the sound of breaking bones filled the air. Tears sprang into their eyes and balanced on their waterline, as she rushed to him. Foolish felt like the air had been knocked out of his lungs, and whenever he tried to gain it back with a breath, his chest started to sting. The corners of his eyes darkened and then there was this strange warmth that ran from his head and spread under him like a carpet.

While on her knees, Tina hastily set down Vegetta, before she pressed her hands on Foolish’s head and started pouring her magic into it. The panic let her hear her own heartbeat in her ears and the only thing that kept her vision from getting blurry were her teeth biting down on her lower lip. Another laugh filled the air. “Ha ha ha”

“Ahh, fuck you!”, Tina screamed at the bear, while she desperately tried to close the wound on Foolish’s head. He wasn’t unconscious, but he was shortly before it, and she knew what risks came with a prolonged blackout.

“Vegetta, try keeping him conscious and…”, she wanted to take another breath, but found herself unable to. Her head snapped to her opponent, who had a faint smile on his lips, while he watched her. Tina had already used half of her breath to lead Vegetta, and so the desperate need for air set in quickly. She opened her mouth, but her lungs wouldn’t inflate. Anxiety made her eyes widen and her hands claw at her throat, while the last tears ran down her cheeks.

There was one last look at Vegetta, before she could feel her vision go dark. What would happen to him. Would Vegetta be targeted right after this? Or had the white bear not noticed him. And Foolish. Was she able to close his wounds enough that he could make it? Or would he be killed either way after she was gone.

But she didn’t want to give up now. Had she really tried everything? Was all of her magic useless against that bear thing?  There were people relying on her. Foolish, Vegetta, who she could feel frantically tugging at her pants, and the princess, whose cries filled her ears. Though shortly after, she felt herself lose all the tension in her muscles and fall over front wards, where her face hit the ground, while still gasping for air.

Her face grimaced in pain while inside of her, started brewing an undying resilience. They actually had found the culprit. The last three weeks they felt all this pain and anguish, just to be stopped now, when they finally knew who to fight.

At this point her heart was racing. Partially because it was pumping more blood to supply the brain with more oxygen, but the other reason was spite. She would not die here. With her last bit of consciousness, she focused on her lungs. If there was just a tiny opening, that she could use. Something...

Tina’s world got dark.

“Poppet, carry them into our car after first aid. And don’t forget the little one”, a voice said, that pulled Tina out of her unconsciousness. Her head hurt. Her eyes only let her see that much, and she really felt like throwing up. And it didn’t get better, when she suddenly was picked up by a childlike person and carried to a weird looking carriage.

With all the might that she had, she lifted her head. Were those the white creatures on the ground? And even though she only had tunnel vision, she was sure, that those were not two or three, but maybe a dozen that laid on the ground besides them.

Chapter Text

The carriage that Vegetta sat in was weird. It was, as much as you could say, a normal carriage, though the horses were missing. In fact, there was nothing at all, pulling the roved cart, which he only noticed after he was carried into it and made sure his friends really received the first aid the guy was talking about.

He had followed Tina’s last command as best as he could and talked to Foolish to keep his eyes open. But when suddenly Tina was grasping for air and clawing at her throat, it made him frantic. Who should he help first? Could he even help them? Was it again his size, that made all this so hopeless. He could have attacked the bear with Foolish or reached for the princess.  But he was small and trying his best to keep both of them alive.

That was until Tina had lost her strength and fell forward while her face contorted into something intense. The desperate desire to continue living. The bear was still walking away from them, though the choking wouldn’t stop. Her blinking had faltered and just moments later she fell into the unconsciousness that she told Vegetta to keep Foolish out of. But he could see her chest rising.

Had the bear lifted the spell? What happened? Though Tina seemed to breathe again, his attention to the situation didn’t halt. He easily could have killed them, so why did he stop? But just as he thought that, a rustle from the bushes caught his attention, which quickly parted and about 20 of the white creatures started surrounding them. He had no chance.

Even if Foolish and Tina would have been in their best form, it would have been a hard fight, bordering on impossible. But Foolish had a couple of broken bones, a laceration and was floating in and out of consciousness, and even if Tina was breathing again, she wasn’t doing better. It was a lost fight.

Would he be taken away? Would he be picked up and brought to the place where he was originally supposed to be? Or would he be killed. Maybe they already found him a replacement and because he was the reason to cause them so much trouble, they would find it satisfying to get rid of him. But it wasn’t even himself that he was worried about.

It was them and he felt guilty. So incredibly guilty that these people he called his friends were dragged into this mess, his mess. Why was he the only one standing, when it was his problem. Tears picked at his eyes, as he got lost in the overwhelming situation. There wasn’t anything that he could do, except cry his emotions into his hands, and sink into himself.

Through his cries Vegetta heard a strange humming and even before he could look up, the source of it had reached the stature and slammed into one of the creatures. The sound belonged to a vehicle, which was black and didn’t look much different from usual carriages. Just that the horses were missing. But that was a fact that Vegetta took really long to register, so long that he needed to sit in it, for him to click.

In the moment though his attention was directed towards what came out of the carriage, and it was what looked like to be a little girl. Her hair was styled in poofed-up curls that were decorated with some sort of symbols, her face was adorned with dark tinted glasses, but something that immediately worried Vegetta even more, was her paper white skin.

But as he watched her, she began targeting the white creatures one after another, so that just some minutes later, all the creatures were laying defeated on the ground just like Tina and Foolish.

“Poppet, carry them into our car after first aid. And don’t forget the little one”, Vegetta heard someone call out of the carriage, as he noticed Tina stirring awake. He was glad that they were helped, but that still didn’t give him any insight on who those people were. In a protecting motion he placed himself in front of her and glared at the child. “ Who are you? What do you want? ”, he tried to sound intimidating, but even though it was just a child in front of him, to him they still looked like a giant.

And the child hadn’t answered, but instead walked over him, to grab the waking Tina and carry her to the carriage. Next had been Foolish, which didn’t necessarily had a calming effect on him.

Now, Vegetta was sitting in the passenger seat, on some boxes, that were put there so that he could look out of the front window. Which was strange, since he didn’t know these people, and so he expected them also now to know that he was tiny. But the boxes were there and put in that position by the driver.

 “So, I guess it’s time for a round of introductions?”, the driver said while he put on goggles that he kept in his blond and brown hair. Vegetta turned to him, but also always kept an eye on his friends, who were laying on the backseats and tended by the white child.

“Oh, your amigos are fine bro. Thanks to me”, he said, as the child’s head snapped to the front and they started to gesticulate with their hands. “And because of my poppet too. Her name is Sunny by the way”, he answered as he had watched her through the rearview mirror.

“ Sunny… like the sun? ”, Vegetta asked and wondered how many people were named after just words. ‘English is a strange language’, he thought. “Sunny like… so- le- a- do? Soleado? Is that how you say it?”, the driver asked, as he tried to make his mind familiar with the word. “Ah god damn dyslexia. Chat, I hate it”, he said as he spoke to you. And you kind of had to agree, speaking another language was hard, even more so with dyslexia.

“ Chat? Que? Espera, you know Spanish? ”, Vegetta asked, probably a bit too happy about it, considering the situation he just was in. “Hold on broski. We are not doing some speed dating get to know each other. We have time. So, first of all, my name is Tubbo”, Tubbo said, while he continued to keep his eyes on the road. But if he would have been honest with you, it’s not something you could call a street.

“ And the Spanish? ”, Vegetta was still impatient. “Saying I know it would be lying, but I can show you”, he said, before he slipped the goggles off his head, and laid it besides Vegetta on the boxes. “Say anything you want in Spanish”, Tubbo offered from the driver’s seat.

“Eh… ¿Pero no sé qué decir? ”, Vegetta spoke towards the goggles and waited for something to happen. He didn’t know what he expected, but it was not that. Letters started to pop up on the glasses that formed a sentence, replicating what he said, though it was written in English.

“And?”, Tubbo peeped at Vegetta with a huge amount of excitement bubbling inside of him. “ But I don’t know what to say” , Vegetta read the translated message out loud. “Its one of my proudest inventions. Well, partially. Technically I borrowed the translation, but the idea with the goggles is a hundred percent mine”, he bragged about his invention with a puffed-out chest, as a knock from the backseat caught his attention.

It was Sunny, who again moved their hands, which seemed to be a form of communication, because right after Tubbo watched her through the mirror, he started to reply. “I totally am a safe driver!”, to which Sunny just crossed her arms in front of her chest, before she returned to tend to the two wounded people in the back, which drew Vegetta’s lock back to them.

“When we arrive, we are going to fix them up, right back to how they were. I promise”, Tubbo softened his voice, as he saw how worried Vegetta still was. “ Gracias ” he replied without averting his gaze.

After the King and Queen’s graves vanished behind the trees of the forest they were driving through, it took them a bit, till Tubbo turned off the road and into a forest path. There they continued until they reached the end, which was by the bottom of a cliff side with an opening into a cave.

 “We are here”, Tubbo announced while he parked the carriage and grabbed the goggles from where he had put them on the boxes and put them back on. “All right, Sunny and I are going to carry your friends inside, and you get a special seat on my head.” Vegetta nodded to allow Tubbo to pick him up.

Once he was lifted, he grabbed onto Tubbo’s brown locks and watched the two ready his friends for transport. “Okay, careful now poppet”, Tubbo warned, as they lifted Tina by the shoulders and knees, to put her on a foldable stretcher, that he had propped up outside. Next was Foolish, who they lifted with the same carefulness as Tina.

“Sunny, I want you to listen really closely now”, he started talking to the child. “Tina is going to feel nauseous, so the best we can do is saline solution to keep her hydrated. Foolish needs pain medication, knowing by just looking at him. But seriously, why does this backwater time not have X-rays?”, he complained to you with the last sentence.

“Anyway, give him saline solution as well, but in the end, we need Tina’s healing to get him totally fixed up.” Sunny nodded to the command and made her way to Tina’s stretcher to roll her inside. Tubbo followed her close after with Foolish.

On the inside, the cave was spacious. The opening that Vegetta had seen in the stone, was actually just an indent, where Tubbo could park the carriage. The real entrance was a door on the side of the dent, which led into a round, organic looking cave room. It seemed to be the living area, based on the kitchen like appliances, the counters that stood by the wall, and the chairs and Table in the middle of it.

But that wasn’t where they stopped. Tubbo and Sunny rolled the stretchers further, towards one of three openings in the wall, which must be leading to other rooms. When they passed the middle curtain, the room behind it looked just like the first one, just with a different interior.

“Like this should be fine”, Tubbo commented on how he had put Foolish’s stretcher with the head end to the wall. “Sunny, the IV’s”, he requested, to which she made a comical salute, before she left the room. “ What is happening? ”, now asked a slightly panicked Vegetta, who had no clue about what was going on.

“Oh yeah, so…”, he paused for a while. “Chat, how do I best explain to a person from this time how modern medicine works?”, he asks you, without really expecting an answer. Since how would he get one, if the readers can’t even directly answer the story the author writes. Tubbo sighed loudly, as luckily Sunny came back in to take care of what Tubbo had told her to do.

“Chat? ¿De qué estás hablando, chico?? ”, Vegetta had no reservation to complain in Spanish, since Tubbo was still wearing his goggles. “It’s uhm… It's magic. Yeah magic”, Tubbo looked for a convincing answer, while shooting Sunny a pleading look. Though she just responded with a big smile and a thumbs up.

“ Magic , you say ?” Tubbo was about to nod, as he realised that Vegetta was still on his head. “Look, I am going to put you down here, and… I don’t know. Just do what you normally do. Be in love or something”, he called out Vegetta, but didn’t wait for a reaction. “I will get some stuff ready, so shout when either of them wakes up. But I will also check in periodically.”

There wasn’t much reaction from Vegetta, besides a slight nod, as he was still processing how in gods name Tubbo knew he was in love. In love? Vegetta halted to that new thought. Surely, he liked Foolish, but love? Vegetta sank into an internal monologue that occupied so much of his attention, that he didn’t notice Tubbo and Sunny leaving the room, as well as the amount of time passed, since they did so.

Foolish wasn’t just a crush. Vegetta knew that. For him, it would be an insult to call Foolish just a crush. Especially since they have been together basically every second in the last three weeks [JM1] . Sure, it wasn’t enough time that Vegetta could call it a deep love. But he would call it a new one. A new love that has space for discovery, for dates, holding hands and…  kisses? Vegetta clapped his hands over his face. Did he really just think about kissing Foolish?

With one eye he peeked through his fingers to catch a glimpse of Foolish. And his heart sank. There was dried blood that stuck to his head and clothes, which portrayed dreadfully well, that he had nearly lost him today, and it wasn’t even clear if he would fully recover. How did they say? I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and health? At least that was something that they could tick off their list.

Over the past few hours, Tubbo and Sunny had come in a couple of times to check on their patients but so far nothing happened, so it was mainly on Vegetta to look for any signs of them waking up. And to make that possible, one thing Tubbo did was lay a plank between the two beds, so that Vegetta could watch them close. Currently he was with Foolish, trying to make him look more presentable by peeling of any dried blood on his skin, as he heard a stirring behind him. It was Tina.

“ Hey Tubbo, Mira!, I think Tina is waking up ”, he called into the living room. Immediately Tubbo and Sunny came rushing in, before Sunny grabbed the bucket next to Tina’s stretcher. Since she was laying on her back, Tina opened her eyes to the ceiling. “Where am I?”, she asked in a hoarse voice, while she raised a hand to her forehead, as the waves of nausea came crashing over her.  

“Oh my god, I don’t feel so good”, she mumbled, before she turned right to where Sunny held the bucket, before she threw up in it. “And that is why I gave her saline solution”, Tubbo’s smart ass commented, as he received a ‘what the heck’ look from Vegetta. It took about half an hour for Tina to completely come back to herself and somewhat be able to think straight.

“ Tina how are you, my friend? ”, Vegetta asked with a worried expression, as he stood next to her hips and looked at her where she was leaning against some propped up pillows. “Well, my head is killing me,” she paused to think. “How the heck did we even make it out? And…”, she hectically looked around, but settled quickly, as she found Foolish breathing right next to her.

“You have some huge luck Tina”, Tubbo made himself noticed. “If you didn’t block his magic, you would be 6 feet under right now. Maybe not 6. Probably zero because you’d still be laying by the stature. Anyway, you didn’t die. Great, right?”, he attempted to explain at least something, but the stares from Vegetta and Tina reminded him, that he was not in his time.

“Block his magic? Wait hold on. Who even are you?”, Tina raised a brow in question, as much as her weakened state let her, but also looked at Vegetta, who, to her, seemed to know more about what was going on. But to her bafflement he just answered a dry, “ No sé .”

“What do you mean ‘No sé’?!”, Tina’s voice grew closer to a questioning shriek. “You mean this stranger randomly showed up and just saved us?” It was more of a rhetorical question, but Vegetta indeed gave a silent nod. Perplexed, her eyes switched between Vegetta and Tubbo, before she stopped on the latter.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Tubbo”, he spoke in the nicest and most neutral voice he found for the situation. “And I am no stranger.” He paused. “Wait, actually I am. Anyway, this is my daughter Sunny.” He gestured towards the girl organising their medicine supplies.

“Daughter?!”, Both Tina and Vegetta asked in unison. Sure, Vegetta was already introduced to her, but not as Tubbo’s daughter. “ Are you like eh… a teen dad? ” Vegetta asked, hoping that he found the right words.

“A teen dad? No… Although she is five, so I would have been fifteen…” Tubbo got quieter the more he thought about it and started mumbling to himself. “But no, I adopted her”, he smiled at their faces, that were more and more filled with confusion and shock.

“Okay so you are Tubbo. You have a daughter but are not a teen dad. And you know us from where?”, Tina summarized the things she picked up from the conversation. Suddenly Tubbo got really quiet before he shot an uncertain look at Sunny, who was already having her attention on him. As if they were having a silent conversation.

“Okay I know this will sound really bad. Really really bad”, Tubbo stretched out his words. “But I am actually not allowed to tell you.” He folded his hands and as there came no reaction he continued. “But you see we didn’t harm you. We helped you. We kicked some wor… eh some creatures asses.”

With an unreadable look Tina studied Vegetta. She wanted to ask him how he could let any of this happen, but he was small, and she realized really quickly that there was actually nothing that he could have done. “Ugh men are so insufferable”, she sighed with her head leaned back against the pillows with no attempt to spare the people present from the comment. To her surprise, she found Sunny next to her, patting her arm, as if she wanted to say, ‘I understand you’.

“Okay I know I might regret this”, Tina stated to address Tubbo. “Do you want to kill us, harm us, or use us in any kind of other way?” “No”, was his simple answer. “I guess you can go on then.” Tina knew that this was a typical Foolish approach to a problem. Though there was also nothing else that she could do, should it have turned out another way. Normally she would have liked to hear Foolish’s opinion as well, but he wasn’t awake and besides, she knew that he would have said nothing against what she did.

“ So, plan for now is to let you and Foolish recover, while Sunny and I train you in magic to beat Cucurucho, the bear ”, Tubbo gave as a quick explanation. “I uhm… alright I guess”, Tina agreed to the plan. In her mind she was still organizing all the new information she got in the span of just a couple of minutes. And besides that, however hard she tried, she couldn’t sort Tubbo into a plausible category in her head.

After he and Sunny had left her and Vegetta alone for some private time, Vegetta had informed her about everything that happened from the time she fell unconscious to when she woke up. And let’s say it didn’t help her cause. Based on Vegetta’s description of the horseless carriage, she first thought that he might be a powerful magician, but then she asked herself why it was only Sunny who fought against the creatures. And why Tubbo hadn’t fought Cucurucho himself. Why did it seem like he wanted them to fight him?

Though once she asked those things, she received an “ I’ll tell you when Foolish wakes up ”, as an answer. So, there was nothing better to do and wait until she felt strong enough to help Foolish in his recovery process with her magic.

It had gotten late. Even though there were no windows in her room, she sometimes could peek through the curtain when someone entered and see past it into the living room, where there was one on the opposite wall. The sky was drenched in orange, and if it had been a bit darker, it might have reminded her of the blood that just today seeped out of Foolish’s wounds.

But luckily it was just orange. To pass the time, she had asked for a book that was in her backpack, which she then read out loud, for Vegetta to hear as well. He liked the story and sometimes would pause her, to ask for a word he didn’t understand. It was a nice atmosphere. Somewhat domestic and calm, something that they couldn’t afford to have for some time now.

“Excuse me?”, spoke Tubbo, as he entered the room following Sunny. “What is it?”, Tina asked. Looking at them, she could see that Sunny was a bit shy, looking up at Tubbo, as somehow giving him a clue. “Sunny wanted to ask you something”, he said, before he gave his daughter a gentle nudge into the room. After studying the two with her eyes, she raised her hands and signed, while Tubbo spoke as her interpreter.

“I wanted to ask you, if I could braid your hair, Tina?”, Tubbo voiced Sunny’s request. Tina scrunched her eyebrows and curled her mouth in the way Sunny’s cuteness overloaded her system. “Aww, of course you can. Come here”, she said, while she patted besides her on the bed.

“In my backpack there is a hairbrush and some hair ties.” Following the information, Sunny brought over her bag and searched it in Tinas presence. “There you go”, Tina praised, as Sunny had found them. Next, Tina carefully moved, to let her legs hang off one side of the bed, so that Sunny could reach her hair.

A bit hesitant, Sunny got closer, when Tina felt the mattress dip under the child’s weight and a hand settle in the ends of her hair. Quietly Sunny inspected it, and Tina was sure she must have signed something to Tubbo, since he started chuckling. “Sunny is amazed by the smoothness of your hair, but she is also mourning how roughed up it became during today’s events”, Tubbo explained.

“Thank you for the compliment, Sunny”, Tina responded, while Sunny got to town behind her. There was a bit of pulling here and there, but overall, Tina really enjoyed being taken care of. “ How does Sunny know to braid hair ?”, was Vegetta’s question for Tubbo. “She learned it from-“, Tubbo abruptly stopped in the middle of the sentence, when he realized he wasn’t getting out of the teen-dad allegations.

“ Que? Learned it from who? ”, Vegetta followed up. “Her sisters”, Tubbo’s voice raised, so that it sounded more like a question than a statement. “Huh?”, was Vegetta’s answer, who seriously asked himself if it was just Tubbo or if his English skills got lost on him. “ You have more children? ” Sunny paused for a moment, to tell something to Tubbo with her hands, before he answered. “No, Sunny sees the children she grew up with as her siblings, before I adopted her.”

“ Ah, I see ”, Vegetta finally made sense of their family dynamic. After a while, Tina felt a tap on her shoulder, telling her to turn around. “Already finished?”, she asked and got a nod from Sunny as an answer. With her fingers she felt along the braid, as she pulled the longer part over her shoulder to inspect it.

Not only did it look fantastic, but Sunny had also put little charms into the braid, which now made them two match. “It looks beautiful”, Tina commented, before she invited Sunny into a hug. After loosening it, Sunny signed again, which Tubbo translated into: “It looks perfect on you”, since how was he supposed to translate the term “slay” into something they would understand.

“Now I hate to be the spoilsport, but its already bedtime for you, young lady”, he told Sunny. “And it actually wouldn’t harm you too, to get a bit more sleep than usual”, Tubbo now addressed Tina and Vegetta. “You are right, maybe we should”, she replied while she got back under the covers. “Good night, Sunny, and thank you for the braid”, Tina said while she waved Sunny goodbye. “ Buenas noches ”, was what Vegetta said, before he elaborated himself, telling Tina that it also meant good night.

The morning came like a grace for Tina. The Night had been rough, as she fought with the events of the day before in her dreams, waking up in a cold sweat and grasping at her throat, as if it was still obscured by Cucurucho’s force. Now, as she couldn’t fall back asleep after the last nightmare an hour ago, she laid awake, though she made no effort in getting up and finding Tubbo, to ask for the plan of the day. The body got at least a little recovery from resting, even if it wasn’t sleep.

And so, Tina waited until someone would come and check on her. “ Buenos días ”, she heard next to her, and upon looking, she found a sleepy looking Vegetta, that was still bundled up in his wool. “How did you sleep?” “ Meh ”, is what she received as an answer. “I feel you.”

“Good morning sleepy heads”, rang it from the other side of the curtain, before they got pushed to the side. It was Tubbo, who entered with a tray, carrying bowls, which Tina assumed was their breakfast. “Good morning Tubbo”, Tina reciprocated, as he placed down their food on her bedside table, that also Vegetta slept on.

“Do we have any plans today?”, she asked with her bowl in hand. It was semolina porridge with some strawberries cut into it. “You don’t, but Sunny went out some minutes ago, to get the rest of your stuff from the hostel.” A bit of worry crept onto Tina’s face. “Do you think she will be alright?” “ Don’t worry Tina ”, it was Vegetta who answered. “ The girl is crazy strong. She alone picked you and Foolish up. And she was fighting the creatures too ”, he reassured her.

“If you say so”, she replied, wanting to believe what she was told. “Girl, don’t worry, she is like super slay and a girlboss. I could not stop her if I wanted to.” “O-Okay?” Tina did not understand what Tubbo told her, but she imagined that she could get the gist.

Her breakfast was nice. She and Vegetta had a great time enjoying the food, when all of a sudden, they heard a groaning from the other Bed. “Foolish!”, came from both of their mouths. “Tubbo, come here quick”, called Tina, before Tubbo came rushing in. He bee-lined for his bed, as he came to a halt before it, only to shake his head.

“Must have been a short moment of consciousness”, he concluded, as he searched him over, just to be sure. “Things like that will happen more often from now on. He will fall in and out of sleep and the only thing we can do is wait. Until you have filled up your mana reservoir to help heal him, Tina.” She nodded as she looked down to stare at her food. ‘I need to get better quickly’, she thought.

The health of her friends was dependent on her, so she needed to do her best. Though, was her best good enough, when she could have prevented this situation? If she just had tried more, tried harder when they faced Cucurucho. Wasn’t that something that Tubbo had mentioned? She was only alive because she blocked his magic . But then why couldn’t she do it at the start? Why couldn’t she get through to him?

“ Tina? ”, it was Vegetta asking, who gently had put his hand on her wrist to catch her attention. “Oh, yeah?”, she answered as she blinked away her thoughts. “ You are good, my friend ?” “Yes, its just, you know, the days.” And that was enough that needed to be said, since everyone had their own things to think about.

The day passed with not much greater interruption. Around noon Sunny came back, carrying multiple things at once, which did convince Tina that she was stronger than what she looked like. But that did make her wonder why. Though that was a question asked later, since now it was time to settle in completely.

At first it was just Tubbo and Sunny, who handled her things, but upon being a bit clueless what some things were, Tina wanted to get up as well and help them. “Okay, but be really careful, okay?”, he had warned her. “If you feel any kind of weakness or feeling like you could fall, tell us immediately.” “I will do that”, she answered, with a tiny hint of half meant annoyance. But she actually felt just fine, even if she was going slower than she usually would.

With her help, they stored away her things, and soon, the room actually started to feel a bit homey, instead of just being a medical room. There also were some interruptions of Foolish as he made some unconscious grumbles, but nothing where he stayed active for more than just a few seconds.

“ Sunny, I have a question ”, Vegetta asked from the bed. Because of his height there wasn’t much he could do besides watching. Sunny turned around and gave him a nod, to show that she was listening. “ What is happening in the city? And with the princesa ?” “Yes, right, what is going on outside?”, Tina followed up, as she also was worried.

“They put out wanted posters for you, once they realized you weren’t killed”, Tubbo interpreted. “Luckily, I got to the hostel before the news made the rounds. Otherwise, your stuff would have been confiscated. On top of that, there are a lot of white creatures patrolling the city.” “Ugh, great”, Tina commented sarcastically, as she sat down on the bed. “For the princess, they announced the coronation to be held in just some days.” Tina and Vegetta exchanged worried looks.

“They are not going to do anything to her”, Tubbo voiced his own thoughts. “They need her to speak to the people, otherwise the city will grow suspicious. Even Cucurucho knows what it would mean if he lost the country’s support.” Tubbo’s words made sense, though it didn’t fully let their minds at ease. “How long do you think we need to stay here?”, Tina asked, determined to try and do something.

“Do you want me to be honest?” It didn’t sound like Tubbo was optimistic. “Sure?”, though it sounded more like a question, Tubbo continued. “You two belong to the type of people who have recurring monthly… cycles. Hmm, yeah cycles”, he thought about it, like he tried not to be offensive. “So, the next full moon is in nineteen days. Because of your ‘situation’ I think it is best for all if you at least sit this out. And for you Tina, I bet you don’t want to be on the battlefield when you start having cramps.”

So many of the statements in Tubbo’s explanation were shocking them. Vegetta realized that he never told Tubbo about being a werewolf, so he asked himself how he knew that. On top, neither Tina nor Vegetta had told him about the problems in their group, that stemmed from Vegetta being one, so they were really wondering if Tubbo meant that with ‘situation’. And at last: “I think you don’t need to worry about me”, Tina said abashed. “It should be close.”

And she was right, as just the day after, her period announced herself with cramps, that made her be tied to the bed at least a day longer. “Aside from your cramps, how are you feeling? Are your mana reserves filled up again?”, Tubbo asked, as he brought Tina her lunch. “Ah you actually reminded me, thank you Tubbo”, she said, before putting her hands on her abdomen and mumbling some words.

Instantly she relaxed into the touch. “My mana is full again”, she answered Tubbo’s question. “Mhm, I heard that warmth is good for helping with period pain.” Dumbfounded, Tina looked at him. “How do you know that?”, she asked. “How do I know that? Well, heat is also good for sore muscles…” “No, that’s not what I meant”, she interrupted him.

“How did you know that I used a spell to warm up my hands, and not one that would make the pain go away.” “Because you can’t make the pain of cramps go away”, Tubbo answered dryly. “Huh? How do you know about that”, she asked again. “Girl, I am here to teach you magic, so that you can beat Cucurucho. Why do you think I know that.”

Tubbo didn’t sound offended at all, more like a gentle older Lady, who calls people “honey” all the time. “Okay then why don’t you beat him?” “Because I am no magician”. Again, Tina was really confused by his explanation. “So, what about the horseless carriage that Vegetta told me about?” “Well, that I would call a company secret.” And with those words he left the room, leaving Tina to ponder over his answers.

Two days had passed, in which Tina sat out her period cramps, and Foolish actually started to comprehend the world around him. “Foolish, please tell me where it hurts”, Tubbo requested, as he was pressing around on his ribcage to test for broken ribs. “Ah”, Foolish jolted as Tubbo was halfway down one side and reacted two times more on the other.

The first time he really came back to consciousness yesterday, he had shot up, based on the situation he last remembered, which immediately made him feel a sharp sting of pain in his ribs, despite the medication that Tubbo had given him. And just with the same suddenness he found four people gathering at his bed, urging him to lie down.

It was then, when he calmed down a bit, that Tina and Vegetta explained the situation to him. “Thank you, man”, he then replied to Tubbo, who was currently adjusting his drip. Not that Foolish knew what a drip was. “No problem bro. Anything for my homie”, Tubbo had replied in the same gist, which left Foolish to question if the blood loss had left permanent damage to his brain.

“ Don’t mind him. He talks weird ”, whispered Vegetta, who had sat himself besides Foolish’s head on the pillow. Now, after Tubbo had assessed the broken ribs Foolish had, it was time for Tina to step closer and let her magic do the work. It wasn’t unusual for her to heal Foolish, especially because of his field of profession, but usually it was tiny nips in his skin, a bruise here and there, or a sprained ankle. Broken ribs were something else. Especially because of the aftercare.  

“Okay Foolish, you remember what I told you about healing?”, she asked. “Yep!” “Alright, then you will probably understand that I cannot do this in one go. If anything feels off, tell me immediately”, she instructed to which she received a nod.  “Okay, here we go”, she gave a warning beforehand, as she let her hands hover just some inches over his chest, as she spoke a spell. Visibly, his ribcage started glowing, but despite that, neither Vegetta, Tubbo nor Sunny could get what was going on on the inside.

Just after some minutes Tina was finished, and eyed Foolish up and down, to see if anything was wrong. “Now all we need is-“, her sentence was interrupted by Foolish’s growling stomach. “That. We need some food.” “I’m on it”, called Tubbo, who was already halfway out of the room.

When he came back, he sat a plate down in front of Foolish, before he looked at them with sparkling eyes. “What’s up with him?”, Foolish whispered towards Tina, though it was clearly not quiet enough. “Since Foolish is awake now, I can finally get on with my explanation”, Tubbo’s words beamed with excitement. Because apparently, despite being able to keep it in till now, he really wanted to talk about it.

Chapter Text

“Is everyone paying attention”, Tubbo asked, while four pairs of eyes focused on him, with Foolish munching on his food. “Okay. Remember Tina when you asked me why I didn’t fight Cucurucho myself? And then I told you, that I will let you know once Foolish is awake?” Tina nodded. “Well yes, though you also said two days ago that you aren’t a magician, so I thought that was it.” “Hmm, that is one reason.” Tubbo halted.

“You could say that I am quite the mysterious person. Which is funny, did you know I always wanted to be mysterious one day?” He smirked towards confused faces. “Anyway, you are supposed to fight Cucurucho, because that’s what the people told me that send me here. You know they also told me that you would trust me”, he added the last sentence as a comment, to somehow show that these people knew what they were talking about.

“But you don’t work for the letter people, do you?” asked Foolish. “Huh? Letter people?” “ We got a note uhm… two weeks ago. It said the King and Queen were not dead ”, Vegetta explained to Tubbo. “That’s why we are here ”, he clarified further. “Ah, no. I am not from the letter people. But any more questions regarding the thing before?”, Tubbo asked into the round.

“I suppose you cannot tell us who sent you here, just that they predicted the situation like it occurred?” Tubbo nodded. “Okay, then those are also who taught you magic?”, Tina followed up, which got affirmed by another nod. For a moment Tina creased her forehead.

“Then I think the next question does already belong to ‘how to defeat Cucurucho’, but you said that I blocked his magic? How?” This question has bothered her from the moment Tubbo had told her about it. She always assumed that she was quite skilled when it came to magic, but this felt like a huge blow to her knowledge.

“You are asking the right questions Tina”, Tubbo said, while he looked like a teacher holding a lecture. “You were able to block his magic, because you created a shield.” “Did you know you could do that?”, came it as a question from Foolish, who basically knew the ins and outs of what Tina was capable of. Even if he mostly didn’t understand how it worked.

“Well clearly I did not”, she snapped back, a bit meaner than she intended to. It just really got under her skin. “And you really couldn’t know about it, because you are self-taught”, Tubbo stated another fact that Tina hadn’t told him. At this point she just had to live with it. “When you encountered the white creatures, did you notice something weird? Something in connection with your magic?”

Immediately Tina knew what Tubbo was talking about. “Yes totally. It felt like my magic didn’t have as strong of an effect as it should have had. It worked out afterwards, but only because I put more mana into the spell.” “Mhm, you see, that was because they had a shield. And you probably would have known about them way sooner, if you had a teacher. Since usually you would practice your skills with and on them, before you would have realized that it wouldn’t work. That is usually your first encounter with shields.”

For Tina, this suddenly made a lot of sense. Since this would actually explain how people defend themselves against magic. “The shield you created against Cucurucho was purely out of instinct, but it worked.” “But how do I use it without instinct?” “That is what we are getting at now”, Tubbo said before he turned to Sunny. “Could you get the chalk board from the other room?”, he asked, as Sunny hopped from where she was sitting on Tina's bed and vanished behind the curtain.

When she returned, she handed Tubbo a standard paper sized board, and some chalk. “Okay, this is not only important for Tina, but you two listen as well”, he said as he used the chalk to first point at Vegetta and then at Foolish. He knew that magic wasn’t easy, especially for the author, who only invented the system three chapters into the fic, but still made it work, and also needed to have a long ass consultation with one of their friends to explain this whole shield bullshit, since it didn’t make sense beforehand.

“The base of the shield is the magic infusion”, Tubbo started his lecture. “ Is that also a part of spells? ”, Vegetta asked, and Tina picked up on what he meant. “Hmm, partially. You are remembering what I told you before we came here, right? About Spells and Summoning circles?” She received a nod. “All right. So, when it comes to magic there are five groups. Spells, summoning circles, potions, magic infusion and soul magic.  You have actually seen me use magic infusion on the barrier I created around our house”, Tina explained.

With two small coughs Tubbo cleared his throat to get back the attention he had just lost. “As I said, the base of the shield is the magic infusion. The more mana you put into the infusion, the stronger the spell can be that you are able withstand.” After Tubbo said that he drew a small square on the board and labeled it “shield”. Next to it he drew a smaller square, next to which he wrote “spell”.

“If you put more mana into your shield, than your opponent puts into their spell, the spell gets canceled”, Tubbo explained. Next, he drew the shield square the same size, but made the spell square bigger than the shield one. “It is the rule that any spell needs a certain amount of mana to work, based on what you want to do with it. You only need a bit, if you want to move a tiny rock, but a lot when you want to do the same with a huge boulder.”

“The second case that I drew resembles your problem Tina, when you used a spell on the creatures. What was it that you wanted to do?”, he asked. “I originally wanted to make them fall to the ground, but when I tried, they only stumbled.” “And that has a good reason. If I were to give an example with numbers, for your spell to succeed, you would need to put in five mana.”, Tubbo said, as he held up five fingers. “And the opponent, which you wanted to make them fall, has a shield of three.” Respectively, Tubbo put down three fingers.

“The only magic that now applies to your opponent are these two”, he said as he wiggled the last two fingers. “So, they only stumbled because the mana points that were applied to them were not enough for the spell”, Tina concluded. “And since I put in more mana later, it was enough for the spell.”  A grin sat on Tubbo’s lips, as he was happy that Tina was so quick to understand. For the other two though…

Foolish had crossed his legs, while he and Vegetta took glances back and forth, sharing their incomprehension of the topic. With a sigh, Tubbo looked at them, “How much did you actually understand?” “Hmm, well there are magical shields that stop the magic, unless you are super strong and can overpower them”, Foolish summarized.

What followed was a scrunch of Tubbo’s eyebrows, before he grabbed the goggles in his hair, and placed them before Vegetta. “I can see why you don’t understand Foolish, but I think for Vegetta it’s only the language barrier.” “ Thanks, my friend ”, he replied, before Tubbo got back to the topic.

“To create a shield yourself, you don’t need a strong affinity with magic, but you need to know that it exists in the first place, and it does take some practice. Which is one reason I took you here. But the shield also has another function. It enhances the body’s physical abilities”, he said as he side-eyed Foolish again.

“Wait, so I need to learn how to use a shield too?”, Foolish asked as he was already dreading the labor that he had to put into it. “Unless you want to make Tina do all the work”, Tubbo teased. “Well of course not, but I am not nearly as strong in magic as Tina is. And she needed to catch me when I physically wanted to punch Cucurucho.”

He wanted to add that he didn’t believe that he could create a shield to withstand Cucurucho’s magic, given that Tina barely made it, though he could guess that Tubbo would probably restate that it only took practice. But that was what Foolish was still not sure about.

“Hm, I should probably give you a bit more information to understand”, Tubbo thought out loud. “Since long there exists a problem called the magicians’ duel problem.” “ Magicians’ duel problem? ”, Vegetta repeated Tubbo’s words. “Exactly.” On the board Tubbo drew two stick figures apart from each other. Next to them he again wrote “shield” though this time, he didn’t draw any boxes.

“What is most common in magic duels, is that the participants don’t know each other, or only know so few, that they have no clue how big their opponent’s mana reserve is. Which leads to a situation like this”, he said, as he pointed at the two figures. “What is also important to know, is that magic shields don’t use up any mana, after you have created them. You can imagine it like plugging your ears when there is noise nearby. You only plug your ears once, but they are protected from any noise that is made, until you remove your fingers.”

Attentively Tina and Vegetta nodded along to the explanation, before Tina followed, “So, when I attack a person with magic, who has a shield, is it more a gamble if I used enough mana or not?” “You are right. And that is exactly what the magicians’ duel problem is about. Because using a spell depletes your mana, while creating a shield doesn’t, when it defends you. Which then leads to neither of the participants attacking at all. Since using your mana is making your shield weaker, which gives your opponent an advantage.”

Foolish, who tried to follow the conversation, had his head tilted to the side, probably in a thinking position, as his eyebrows knitted together. “So then how do they fight?” “He he”, a low chuckle came from Tubbo. “Get ready to not understand anything anymore”, he warned sarcastically, but at the same time hoped that you would understand the explanation that the author cooked up.

“Since magicians, who were fighting in a duel didn’t want to use their magic anymore but still wanted to win they simply started throwing hands.” “Throwing hands?”, this time it was Tina asking. “Fighting with their fists”, Tubbo elaborated, before he went on. “Now, attacking physically proved to be very effective. Any Magician could approach the other with no problem, because their magical shield made it possible to not be stopped with such.”

Now Foolish finally understood why he needed to learn how to use the shield too. Though, “I still don’t think my shield will be strong enough. Sure, it enhances my physical damage but…”  “To be honest bestie, in a best-case scenario we wouldn’t need you”, Tubbo said dryly. “HUH? What do you mean ‘not need me’! “, Foolish got louder, ignoring how he had doubted himself during the entire explanation.

“What I mean…”, Tubbo stated, while defensively raising his hands to calm down the mood. “Is that there might come a moment when you can’t be with Tina while she fights in a magic duel. For reasons I will explain in a second, we need your agility and strength now, but Tina also needs to train that. It’s just that in such a short amount of time she will not be at your level. That’s why, yes, we need you now, but hopefully not later.”

Even though that was a logical explanation, Foolish sat there with a pout. Ever since he and his mom found Tina in that dried well, they have never been long away from each other. And what was so wrong with wanting to protect his sister, especially now since they learned that magic didn’t work all the time.

Both Tina and Vegetta noticed his change in mood. Vegetta reacted with a pat on Foolish’s leg, while Tina knew him well enough to find the right words. “Just because I am learning how to fight doesn’t mean that I won’t need you anymore. Totally opposite, because imagine how much stronger we both could be together. Sure, I am learning a new thing, but you are also learning new stuff. It’s not that we plan to separate, but if there ever comes an unexpected situation, we know how to handle it.”

Foolish took a deep breath through his nose, before a faint smile crept on his lips. “Yeah, you might be right”, he said, as he put his hands behind him to lean on them. But that interaction, that proof of knowing someone, was what made Vegetta feel a bit gloomy. Because he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know Foolish well enough to tell him things that made him feel better. In fact, there probably were so many things that Tina knew about Foolish that he didn’t.

She probably knew his favorite food, what he liked about his job, and what not. What his favorite thing to build was. Heck, Vegetta hasn’t even seen Foolish build anything once, since all they did together was travel, to make him tall again. There never was a good situation to talk about anything personal, because they tried to survive, or not feel miserable because of each other. Yes, Vegetta called his love a new love. Open for discovery, but what was there that Foolish needed, when all the comfort he could get, he already had.

“Okay can we move the therapist talk to after I finished explaining”, Tubbo interrupted their little moment of emotions. “You are right. So, you said that I also needed to learn how to physically fight. Is there more to it? Also, I agree with Foolish that his shield might not be strong enough to defend himself, Tina brought the conversation back on track.

“Hold your horses. One after the other. First let’s head back to the Magicians’ duel problem. As I said, the dualists would stop using spells and start attacking each other physically. But remember, I also told you that the shield enhances your physical abilities. Therefore, it makes you stronger, among other things.  So how many hits do you think someone would need to land to win?”

Tubbo looked at the three, before Tina took a guess. “How you describe it, I’d say one.” “Hmm, you don’t take any chances. That is a good way to think. In general, it is around one to three hits, until you are dangerously hurt. But since it’s based on physical strength, Foolish would only need one, whereas you might need like three to five.”

“So that’s why I need to learn how to create the shield”, Foolish finally understood his purpose. “Yes, and additionally, you don’t even need to defend yourself with it.” “What do you mean?” Tubbo took a look at Tina. “You already know that you can use your magical infusion on other things.” It wasn’t a question. It was a fact that got Tina’s cogs turning.

“Ohh, we are supposed to be like a really well functioning combat unit”, she concluded and received a nod from Tubbo as confirmation. “Huh? Please can someone explain normally what is going on?”, Foolish asked while he sounded a bit defeated. Whenever he had something figured out, there was another thing he didn’t understand.

“ Tina can put her shield on you .” It was Vegetta who said that. “Remember back home, she did the same for the barrier .” “Ohh!” It finally clicked in his brain. “We are going to be a combat unit. Tina with her magic and me with my muscles”, he concluded as he pulled back one of his sleeves to flex his arm.

It definitely was a sight to behold, because while Vegetta’s eyes wandered up and up to Foolish’s muscle ridden arm, Tina’s face was deadpanned, clearly too used to his antics. “Now, there is actually one last thing. The key to our success, as you will”, Tubbo told them and you. It was already a wonder that he had made it that far in his explanation and he hoped that the author didn’t forget to include anything.

“Please, go on”, Tina requested. “Alright, I bet none of you want to be punched by a shield enhanced fist, right?” Like well-behaved kids in school, all three started nodding. Just in the way that Tubbo described it, it made their stomachs drop. Tina knew that for her, it was a one and gone type situation. But that didn’t mean that Foolish was all invincible against it. After a few hits, he probably would be done as well. And Vegetta… If Vegetta was big, he most likely would be similar to Foolish. But now, even a flick of a finger could send him flying.

“Well, you aren’t the only ones to feel that way. Basically, every person in a magic duel didn’t want to be punched to oblivion on the first hit. That’s why they modified an already used technique to protect them. Nowadays it’s called the physical shield.”

A groan erupted from Foolish’s bed. “Another shield. Really?” It was definitely too much shield and too much protection for him today. “Don’t worry, all you need to know is that punching the physical shield is everything you need to do to win”, Tubbo said while turned to him, before he started addressing Tina and Vegetta again.

“How it works on a technical level, is that the shield is formed with mana shaping”, he explained, which already gave Tina a good grasp of its function. But since Vegetta had little understanding of magic in general, Tubbo elaborated. “Mana shaping belongs in the category of spells and works by taking your raw mana and forming it into objects. Though it seems convenient, it is not really efficient, because in comparison to summoning circles it needs a huge amount of mana.”

“If you want a spoon to stir your coffee, you better summon one, than to form one out of mana. Additionally, you need to apply mana to keep its shape.” Eager to understand, Vegetta paid full attention. “A normal wooden spoon can be easily broken, by snapping it in half. A mana spoon will not though. You can apply as much force as you want, it will only break if the person creating it stops putting mana into it, either by will or because they ran out.”

Tubbo halted his monologue and waited for a moment to see if Tina could draw the final conclusion. “So, in a magicians’ duel, you are not fighting with spells, but your mana skills are still tested, by upholding the physical shield.” A first nod came from Tubbo. “And not only that, but you still need to use the magical infusion, to have your mana shield and the physical enhancement of the body.” A second nod.

“And considering that mana gets used up if we punch the physical shield, it’s still a matter of who has the bigger mana reserve, but also who has better fighting skills. And if we see the physical shield falter, we can just as much use spells now, since they also wouldn’t have enough mana for the magical shield.”

At that point, Tubbo’s eyes were beaming. “Tina, you are the most pussy-pop girly-pop person I have met in a long time.” “Did you just insult me?” After Tubbo took a dramatic gasp and acted like he clutched his pearls he calmed and said,” Of course not. It’s my way of saying that you are awesome.” With a hint of doubt Tina scrunched her eyebrows, but Sunny seemed to agree with her father, by vigorously shaking her head up and down.

The entirety of the explanation had taken them about two hours, so that it was shortly before noon. “Hmm”, Tina hummed while she stretched her arms over her head. It had only been four days since Tubbo had rescued them, but sitting inside all day made it definitely feel longer. She also didn’t really leave their room, besides using their bathroom, which was located on the wall opposite of the curtain.

And Tubbo knew that despite this fic being awfully realistic about periods, the author completely forgot to include a bathroom in the floor plan of this hideout and only added it later on. Because even they don’t want to deal with non-electric bathrooms. So, they humbly ask you to forget about it.

“Hey Tubbo…”, Tina dragged her words in an extra kind way. “If you want to ask if you can start training, feel free. But before I would like to give you a summary of what to achieve. “Oh uhm, that’s actually not it.” “Do you need anything?” Fresh air for example, is what she thought of as an immediate response, but refrained from saying it.

She knew herself that it wasn’t the best idea to go outside right now, but maybe if she did it right, Tubbo would say yes. “Just, you know, I have been in here for at least four days now. And I barely got out of bed. If I were just to feel some sun on my skin again”, she danced around the topic like a ballerina.

With a side eye Tubbo glanced at Sunny, who leaned her head left to right and back, showing that she would comply with what she was told. “Would you be so kind as to search outside for creatures and then join Tina to protect her?” Sunny’s shoulders raised and lowered nearly as if she let out a sigh, but right after she made her way into the kitchen, where the door to the outside was.

“You can watch her from the kitchen window if you want”, Tubbo offered. Eagerly Tina nodded, before she turned to Vegetta. “You wanna come as well?”, she asked. For a second he watched back at Foolish, before he answered. “ No, my jar is still broken. Another time. ”  “Oh, all right then. I’ll be back”, she said to both, before she vanished behind the curtain, followed by Tubbo. “If you need anything, just scream.”

It wasn’t that Vegetta specifically wanted to stay alone with Foolish, but he also didn’t want him to be completely on his own. For a matter of fact, it was probably more awkward to stay than to go, as there were still all those unresolved feelings that were swirling inside of him. That, and the fact that this was their first time being alone with each other in over two weeks.

“ How are you doing? ” It was Vegetta who broke the silence. “Besides my ribs hurting and not understanding anything, good.” And there was nothing that he could think of to reply. Which wasn’t adding positively to his overall feeling, since it still didn’t leave his mind that he didn’t know Foolish. Maybe he was even too fast in calling it love.

Why had he even called it that in the first place. Because Tubbo had called it that. What if in the end he just thought that because outside circumstances convinced him it was love. Since… he didn’t think about it himself. It was planted in his brain and maybe he just wanted to have someone special so much that he tricked himself into liking Foolish. And the dread that was now building up in Vegetta and directed at Foolish, overshadowed every positive emotion Vegetta had ever felt for him. Maybe he should have gone with Tina.

And Foolish. Foolish was brought back to the reality that was so easy to forget, because of all the more important and life-threatening things going on around them. Sure, if you get attacked, you put all your emotions on the back burner, until you actually get so comfortable in it, that it is hard to face them when you are not in survival mode anymore. For him, that displayed itself in the fact that whenever he looked at Vegetta, his mind would jump to that night, having his transformation in front of his inner eye. He didn’t know why it had gotten easier for him during the past week, but right now, it was back full force.

It felt weird, because right now, they had one of the most peaceful moments in weeks, but he never felt so much like running away, as now. So, in the end neither of them said another word, for as they spiraled in their own thoughts.

Tina on the other hand seemed to have had one of the best moments in weeks. She had waited patiently by the window until Sunny had told her with a hand gesture that it was safe to come outside. With joy she opened the front door, before she took off the slippers that Tubbo had given her to move around in the hideout. At first, she only felt the earth of the path beneath her feet, but as he came out more, she met the soft grass.

That, paired with the sun, whose rays shone through the treetops, made it an entirely calm situation, which nearly made her forget which dangers she offered herself up to. But that was what Sunny was for, who always stayed by her side the entire time.

Tina took some minutes to just stand there, close her eyes and breathe in the scent of nature, before she looked around. “Sunny, has Tubbo ever taught you anything about plants?”, she asked. The small girl shook her head, but without Tubbo as her interpreter, there wasn’t much else that she could say. “Do you want to learn about some?” And to that, Sunny nodded eagerly.

With having someone to talk about her favorite Topics, Sunny felt less like a guard, and more like a friend, with whom she could have an extensive conversation, even though she was still there for her protection. It was like hitting two birds with one stone.

They spent about half an hour outside, during which Tina talked intensively about plants, which didn’t seem to bother Sunny though. On the contrary, she listened attentively and even tried to ask questions with hand gestures. Not that Tina understood them all, but that only led to a fun guessing game, which had them bend over laughing in the end. When they came back, their hands were filled with all kinds of herbs that mostly had healing properties.

“What are these for?”, Tubbo asked, who saw them come back with an entire Forest. He was more of a technological guy, so he couldn’t really work out what his daughter and Tina wanted with the greenery. “Most of them are medicinal herbs that help healing and reduce pain. Perfect for Foolish.” Sunny nodded along Tina’s explanation, though it was a bit funny, since her hands were full, it was comparable to someone having their mouth taped shut.

“Can I borrow your kitchen?”, Tina asked, which Tubbo allowed. “Alright, thank you. Then I will just let the boys know, and maybe they want to join us.” After she set the herbs down on the kitchen counter, she walked towards the curtain of their room. “Hey guys, I found some perfect herbs outside, for you Foolish. Wanna join us in the kitchen?”, she asked as she pulled the curtain aside.

Behind it, she found a rather gloomy atmosphere. Vegetta and Foolish were sitting on opposite beds, facing away from each other, and both looked like they wanted to disappear. So, for them Tina was the perfect opportunity to push their thoughts aside, and deal with them later. “ Sure, if you take me ”, Vegetta said, as he stood up.

“Of course, I can. Foolish, can you walk on your own already? I don’t know how much work my healing has done.” But apparently it had done enough, because he got up demonstratively, without a problem. It was slow, but at least he didn’t seem to be in pain.

 The rest of the day they mostly spend in the kitchen. After Tina was done brewing the medicine, Tubbo had gotten board games, that all of them played together. At first, they ran into the problem that Vegetta could barely roll any dice, let alone hold any playing cards, but that was solved by putting Vegetta and Sunny on the same team. That way Vegetta was the voice, and Sunny was the hands. Like that, they played well into the evening, until Sunny had to go to bed, and everyone decided that it was also probably time for them as well.

“We will start our training tomorrow Tina”, was what Tubbo had said to her, before he vanished in his own room. Foolish already seemed to get better, but in everyone’s opinion, he should rest at least one to two days more. “Good night you two”, she whispered into the darkened room, and received two back, before she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Tubbo made Tina get up early. “An early morning is the perfect start for a day of training”, he had said and dragged her into the kitchen. She was still a bit groggy, which was mirrored in her hair, which she tried to tie to a bun as best as possible. Tubbo was sure that if you could have seen her, you would have described it as the perfect messy bun, that was the key factor to being sold to one direction. But sadly, there existed no one direction in this world.

“Follow me Tina”, he directed and headed towards the only curtain that Tina had not looked behind. “Welcome to the training room.” With a swish, Tubbo pulled aside the curtain and revealed a huge room, with all kinds of equipment in there. “Holy shit”, Tina said in surprise, as she scanned all the things she could see.

At the sides of the room stood various strange machines, that you knew to be workout equipment. Further in the middle was a track that was meant for running, which connected in a circle and left a clear area in its center.

“The machines are for you to train your muscles”, he started as he did an examining squeeze on Tina’s upper arm. “Hey”, she complained but Tubbo went on. “The running track is for you to get your stamina up. And the place in the middle is for you and Foolish to train magic with Sunny”, he explained.

“So, she can use magic”, Tina concluded. “Mhm, yes she can”, Tubbo replied, though his face had a strange expression, that Tina didn’t really know how to read. But that was just a minor thing, as Tubbo already went on rambling about what she had to do in which order.

“Including today, we have fourteen days until it’s full moon again. I don’t really know about your plans, but I would start the rescue mission right after.” “Only fourteen days hm?”, she mumbled, more to herself, but Tubbo answered anyway. “Yes, and that is why, despite you needing to gain some physical strength, we still have Foolish to do that job. Your main focus is supposed to be on shields and once you rescue the princess, you can continue training your physical abilities after.”

“Okay so where is Sunny?”, Tina asked as she looked behind herself. “Oh, I let her sleep in”, Tubbo answered nonchalantly, as he walked over to one of the devices. “We will start here.” Skeptical Tina looked at Tubbo, and decided to follow his lead, regardless. He was their trainer, so he knew what he was doing, right?

After he was done explaining each and every “training equipment”, as he had called it, Tubbo gave her another instruction. “You are going to do a set of twelve with three repeats, and after, you run until Sunny wakes up.” “And when is that?”, Tina asked, who already felt dread brewing in her veins. “Hmm, no clue”, Tubbo shrugged and left Tina in her hopeless position. “You want to get better for them, right?” “Of course I do”, Tina answered a bit offended. “Then go at it, girl”, Tubbo threw back, while he needed to remind himself time and time again, that he couldn’t say “queen” instead of “girl”, or he would seriously offend someone.

And while Tina got training away, Tubbo had the specific earworm of “eye of the tiger”, playing in his head, which made watching Tina even more fun.

Going through the entirety of all the training equipment took Tina a good hour, and afterwards, her entire body felt like jelly. “Who invented these torture devices?”, she asked as she leaned forwards to rest her hands on her thighs.  A smile of pity laid on Tubbo’s lips, as he imagined Tina like a sick Victorian child, that everyone was making memes about.

While she was in the middle of training, he had left for a short moment, to get her some water, which he now handed to her. “I give you a ten-minute break, and then you start running.” “Running?”, she groaned as she sat down on the ground. “Hmm, well at least walking. Do anything but don’t stop moving.”

The ten minutes passed so fast, Tina thought it was one. But reluctantly she got up regardless and well, walked. It really looked like she was having a stroll in the park, but if Tubbo said it was fine. “If your breathing has calmed down, I want to see you running”, he shouted from the side of the room and popped Tina’s dream of walking out there alive.

Some time later, as Tina was just about to drop to the floor and stay there, a tiny head of curls peaked into the room. “Sunny!”, Tina exclaimed with a weak breath and finally came to a stop. “There is my poppet”, Tubbo greeted her and lifted her in the air to spin her around. “You are going to train shields with Tina today”, he told her and received a thumbs-up as an answer.

“But before, I think we all deserve a breakfast.” “Breakfast?”, Tina wanted to cheer, but the missing energy prevented her from doing so. In the kitchen Tubbo prepared a quick meal and sat it down before them. “Actually, let me see if the other sleepy heads are awake now”, he said and sneaked towards their room to take a look behind the curtain.

“Ah, good morning”, Tina could hear Tubbo say, before he vanished into the room. Some minutes later he reappeared, with a sleepy Vegetta in his hand, and an equally sleepy Foolish in tow. “Woah, Tina. You look like shit”, Foolish commented, as he was finally awake enough to take in his surroundings. “Well, I also feel like shit”, she said, not even trying to deny it.

“You better get used to it”, Tubbo joined their conversation. “Because you are going to look the same in two days.” He gave Foolish a gloating pat on the shoulder, which seemed to still hurt though, as he let out a small wince. “Oh, my bad”, Tubbo apologized but then turned to Tina. “I think that’s another thing on your agenda.” And the only thing Tina had to answer was a groan, while she let down her head on the table, with a not so soft sounding clonk.

Breakfast passed without any further disturbance, so that after Tubbo gave Tina only a little bit of time for a break. “I’d say you take a shower now. And afterwards we start training on the shields.” “Aye aye sir”, Tina mocked a salute and disappeared into their room.

“ Can we watch ?” asked Vegetta. “If Tina is fine with it, sure. You might actually learn something just by watching.” Once Tina came back, she gave her okay, so that everyone gathered in the training room.

“Okay Tina, what is going to happen now, is that Sunny will use a light spell on you, to gently push you away. I want you to imagine the feeling you had when you canceled Cucurucho’s spell and try to recreate it. If you manage that, Sunny will increase her mana output”, Tubbo explained his plan. “Sure”, was the only thing she replied, even if the only time she managed to create a shield was in a near death situation, and she didn’t really want to recreate that.

Sunny and Tina both walked to the middle of the room, where to be honest, they just stood there. Magicians didn’t really have a fighting stance, so it looked kind of awkward. That was, until there was an invisible force slowly pushing Tina to the edge of the running track. “Woah”, she waved with her arms to keep balance.

Once the force stopped, it was Sunny, who beckoned her to come closer again, to repeat the process. Only this time, Tina actually focused on her body and tried to gather her mana. ‘This shouldn’t be too hard, right? I used mana infusion so many times on so many things, it should be a walk in the park’, she thought, as she tried to remember the feeling she had when she used it on the barrier back home.

Sunny started a second try, and at first Tina still moved some inches backwards, but all of a sudden, she stopped. “That was… easy”, she commented, as she noticed. “I didn’t really think you would need more time for this step. You have used magic infusion countless times. It was just a matter of knowledge. But now comes the actual training”, Tubbo said, as promptly Sunny used a stronger spell and pushed Tina back the remaining distance.

“Hmm, I think I get it.” For Tina, this was definitely more fun than the physical training, mostly because she could feel immediate progress. And maybe also because her observers were oohing and awing whenever she wasn’t pushed back from Sunnys’ spell. “Don’t even imagine that your progress will be that fast, muscle brain”, Tubbo threw at Foolish.

“Hey, I have my little experience with magic”, he tried to be upset, though fully knew that Tubbo was right. “ Summoning one sword ”, Vegetta commented backhandedly, while he held up his index finger, symbolizing a one. “Pff, more than you”, Foolish glared down at Vegetta. “ B eee c aaa use I am small ”, he bickered back, when their eyes met.

A glare, and boom, just seconds passed, and their wall was back up again, as their eyes hushed away. It was scary, for both of them, to instantly fall back into this familiar feeling of comfort. It would be easy if they didn’t want to be more for each other. But they did, and that meant talking about things they didn’t want to.

“Uhh, anyway…”, Tubbo noticed how awkward the situation had just gotten. “Tina, you will do this the rest of the day. For the physical shield, we will see in a couple of days if it’s time to start that. Also, because it depends on the physical fitness of Foolish.”  “Alright- ahh”, Tina wanted to reply but stopped focusing on her shield and therefore got pushed back.

“By the way Foolish.” “Yeah?”, his head snapped up from the place he decided to zone out on. “If you already feel like doing something, use the little experience with magic that you have, and try find your mana.” “Finding my mana?”, he didn’t quite understand. It’s not like he could see it with his eyes. How was he supposed to search for it.

“I mean I also don’t know how to use it, but the people that send me here said that you need to find it in your body, and that you will feel when you find it,” Tubbo recalled with a hand on his chin. “Uhh, I guess. I will see what I can do. Do I need to meditate?” But Tubbo just shrugged his shoulders.

“Tina!”, Foolish called over to her, while she actually managed to uphold her mana shield this time. “Do I need to meditate to find my mana?” But she also replied with a question. “Remember the feeling you had when summoning the sword?” “Uhm, yeah?” She was still standing with her back to him and deflecting Sunny’s spell. “Now try and find the origin of that feeling. Until now, you have only ever used it on instinct. But you need to be able to use it intentionally.”

“Okay but, do I need to meditate?”, he continued pressing, so that Tina’s defense wavered and she was transported right in front of his feet. “Ugh, I don’t know”, she was a bit annoyed. “Do whatever you feel is right.” But that didn’t help Foolish in the slightest. “And how did you do it?” A question that was answered with some seconds of silence, until Tina borrowed one of Vegetta’s sentences. “No sé.”  

“It was just always there, you know.” “We are talking to someone gifted, but apparently that also can’t help us”, he complained to which Tina gave an apologetic look. “You know what, I am going to meditate. In our room. So don’t you dare come in, unless it’s for lunch.” Surprised, Tina raised her eyebrows and watched him wander off, before she threw a look at Tubbo. He had nearly the same reaction but also added, “Do you think his brain will shut up to meditate?” “I don’t think so.”

The day passed, and even after Lunch, Foolish still tried to meditate in their room. Though without any success. But he wasn’t the one to give up easily and therefore kept going at it even on the second day. The only interruption he had was Tina finishing her healing, after which he felt as good as new, at least when he wasn’t doing any physical labor. And so, round came the third day, on which he was finally allowed to train as well.

Just like Tina, Foolish was dragged out of bed in the early hours of the morning. And maybe he had it even a bit better, since Tina was sharing his agony. “Okay, let’s get you fully accustomed to my training methods”, Tubbo announced, while Tina was already working out on the training equipment.

“As for building muscles, you will do the same as Tina, aka one hour of training, followed by running. Only difference is that you will start with less weights.” “Less weights?”, he asked as he couldn’t believe what he had heard. Tina was working out with more than he was? “My dude, my bro”, Tubbo started, while Foolish wondered where his sudden French accent was coming from. “You had multiple broken ribs and internal bleeding”, he reverted back to normal English.

“At first you will start with less, but because of the muscles you already have, it will be way easier to come back to your original form and train with more. Besides it has only been a week of bedrest for you. It’s not like you went months without physical activity.” A bit deflated Foolish looked at the training equipment, before slowly marched over to them.

“Fine”, he agreed and Tubbo started explaining. After his one hour of workout, he followed Tina’s lead of running, who had already gained a good amount of stamina, just in this short amount of time. Other than Foolish, who felt like a bag of sand. Overall, he felt pretty defeated, when he noticed that he had some catching up to do.

Once again, they stopped when Sunny poked her head through the door, and had breakfast, with now two tired people at the table. And while breakfast was good, Tubbo didn’t leave them much time, before he ushered them back into the training room.

“Now begins the fun part. For me, because I can see you suffer”, Tubbo giggled to himself. “Uhm, do I do the same as Tina, or what?”, Foolish asked, as Tina already took her position in the middle of the room.

“Not at all. Because you don’t need the shield to protect. Quite the opposite. But sitting around and having your shield up won’t do any damage. Therefore, your training consists of walking around while concentrating your mana in your fists. When you think you have it, you walk over to that punching bag and give it a good beating”, Tubbo explained while pointing to an equipment at the side of the room.

Foolish looked like he already had enough of running, and walking was just a milder version of that. “I’ll try, but how do I know it worked?” “Oh, you will know”, was the only thing that Tubbo said, as they heard a call from the other room. “ Hello? Someone there? ” It was Vegetta, who they all kind of forgot about.

“Oh boy.”, Tubbo remembered what he had forgotten. “I will be right there”, he shouted towards the curtain and promptly left the room. During the time he was gone Foolish had managed to walk some laps, as he returned, carrying a bowl and a grumpy looking Vegetta.

Gently he set both of them down, but Vegetta didn’t make any effort to actually touch his food. “I am sorry, really”, Tubbo apologized, which seemed like it wasn’t the first time. “ No puedo creer esto. ¿Eres así con toda la gente pequeña? espera, sólo espera. Cuando vuelva a ser grande te lo pagaré diez veces más. ”, Vegetta started complaining like an old Spanish grandma.  And even Tubbo didn’t understand him, as he was too slow to put his goggles on.

“Uhm, Sí?”, Tubbo tired but received an eyeroll from the man in front of him. “ idiotas, todos vosotros son idiotas” , he grumbled a second time, before he finally turned to his bowl. Confused Tubbo and Foolish exchanged a look, before Vegetta started speaking English again. “ So, what is going on? ”, he tried to get an input on the situation.

“Tina is training like the last two days, and Foolish is walking around and concentrating on his mana”, Tubbo said, as he watched the half shark walk around in circles. To be honest, it looked a bit funny how he wandered around seemingly aimless, while his face radiated concentration.

“ Hmm ”, Vegetta hummed, as he looked down at his own body. “ Can I do something? ” he finally asked, and Tubbo could tell that he seemed to be a bit depressed because of the circumstances. “You might not need it when you are tall again, but why don’t you write them down to remember? Being able to defend yourself is always a nice skill to have”, Tubbo offered.

“And with what, bro? Un pequeñopen and paper?”, Vegetta asked as he narrowed his thumb to his index finger, as if symbolizing something small. But that was not what Tubbo cared about. “Did you just say bro?”, Tubbo asked puzzled. “Yes…?”, Vegetta hesitated, because he didn’t think Tubbo would draw attention to it. With everyone around him being a native speaker, he always looked for an opportunity to pick up on the language.

“Damn Bro, you got some nice swagger there, for real”, Tubbo unloaded his full lingo on Vegetta, who just stared up at him in hopes that Tubbo would continue saying something that he would understand. “But uhm about the pen and paper, I can make them tiny for you”, Tubbo switched back to the original topic. “ Really? ” “Mhm”, Tubbo nodded. “Just give me some time.” And with that, Tubbo disappeared again. As he came back, he held out his flat hand, in which he really had a tiny piece of paper and a tiny pen, that perfectly matched Vegetta’s size.

“ Thank you, my friend ”, Vegetta replied and already started writing away. And so, they spend their day, with Foolish and Tina training, and Vegetta writing down everything he would notice. As they did the next day as well, and the day after that too. It had become a routine, which had brought them to a week before Full moon.

Which, for Tina and Vegetta wasn’t that big of a deal anymore. Sure, Tina still had respect for it, but with her growing abilities she felt more confident than she ever had. And Vegetta couldn’t do anything against it anyway, so he had to accept it. But Foolish. Foolish grew more and more restless.

Where before he had made good progress with focusing on his mana, he lost more and more concentration and just delivered a normal blow to the sandbag. Or when he was counting his reps, he would lose track and either do too much or too little.  And that wasn’t even the worst. The worst were the nights on which he would start dreaming.

“Good night”, Tina said like the nights before, as the room would grow quiet. One last time Foolish turned in his bed, away from Tina and Vegetta, when sleep slowly claimed him.

He didn’t really know how he got there, but before him laid the room he shared with Vegetta at the first hostel. It was day outside, and faintly the birds chirped in a tree close to the window. The bed sheets were still disheveled and on the bedside table stood a jar. ‘Wasn’t that the one that broke during their fight with Cucurucho?’, Foolish thought as he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

“Come in”, he answered, and as the door flung open, it revealed Vegetta behind it. But… he was tall? “Would you come downstairs? I made food for you and your mom”, Vegetta asked, completely unfazed. “Wait, hold on. My mom? And you are tall?” Foolish didn’t know what was going on.

But Vegetta didn’t seem to hear, as he turned around without a second look and started walking. “Hey, wait!”, Foolish called and ran after him. Once he was close enough, he reached out his hand and took Vegetta by the wrist to make him turn around. But the man wouldn’t budge. On the contrary, he even managed to break away, with the strength he seemingly had.

With confusion and a bit of fear, Foolish hesitated, and let Vegetta go on, as he vanished down the stairs. ‘What’s going on?’, but nonetheless, Foolish followed him. Down the stairs and into the kitchen.

But as he had just crossed the corner, his eyes rested on the puddle of blood that slowly ran over the floor. In the middle of it laid a young woman, unrecognizable by the damage that had been done to her. And over her towered he, Vegetta, fully transformed with big claws and fangs and these soulless white pupils on a dark background. “Oh sorry, I meant to say I made dinner out of your mom.”

In an instant Foolish was wide awake. Cold sweat ran down his temples as he sat hunched over and was catching his breath. His hands were shaking and probably the rest of his body was too. As if he was still in the dream, he looked around panicked, but all he could find were Tina and Vegetta, sleeping calmly in their beds. Their chests were heaving slowly and on their faces laid a gentle expression. As if they were actually having a happy dream.

“Fuck”, Foolish cursed during gasps, while he dug his palms into his eyes. “Shit.” A breath in and a breath out. The next feeling that washed over him was despair. Why was he the only one that wasn’t fine? Why did he feel like a loser in comparison to Tina, who seemed to have gotten over her fear so much faster than him. What was wrong with him?

Another look to his side. To the man, that had turned his world upside down. If he imagined a life with him, without the werewolf and the shrinking, it was pretty much perfect. They shared their passion for building and creating, which they both had turned into their profession. Would they work in the same workshop? Side by side and help each other out? Probably they would even build things for one another. They probably would, if it wasn’t for their circumstances.

Well, they were on the way to fix the shrinking, but you couldn’t change someone’s race. And ultimately, Foolish couldn’t ignore the looming truth that lay in wait in the back of his brain, that the problem was with him. He couldn’t stay away from Vegetta and hope for something that could never happen. He could only change himself.

Which was scary. Not that it was comfortable before, running away from it and pushing it to a dark corner in his mind, but actively facing it meant accepting that it was there. It meant to endure it, even if it seemed like it became too much. At least he could rely on his friends, right?

At this point, Foolish didn’t know how long he had observed Tina and Vegetta next to him, but even just that gave him a feeling of relief. The only thing he could have still asked for in this situation was a hug, but he didn’t want to wake Tina. But as he was lying down again, he for sure knew that he needed to change something.

From the first second Foolish was awake the next morning, he was determined to speak to Tina. But that was when he realized how little one on one time you could spend, when there was always an eager coach breathing down their necks. He was the one chasing them out of bed, the one watching them do their work out, spending breakfast with them, where even more people joined, and eventually all five of them spent their entire day in the training room.

So, if you could describe Foolish as restless the past days, he now felt pretty much that, plus being fidgety and nervous as he desperately tried to find a moment where he could at least tell Tina that he wanted to talk to her. But it didn’t work out. He rather attracted more attention, since Tubbo started to notice his strange behavior.

“Foolish, is everything all right?”, Tubbo asked him, as Foolish was taking a break. He sat at the table Vegetta was on, as there were no other comfortable resting spots in the room. “Yeah, I am fine”, he clearly lied. “Hmm I was just wondering, since you seem to lose your concentration, even more than the past days. You only have a week left”, Tubbo reminded him painfully.

Tina had switched to training her physical shield just yesterday. She managed to defend herself against Sunny’s strongest spells and also managed to fully shield someone else from it. As a test, Sunny had used a spell on Foolish once, which Tina immediately caught onto and protected him from it.  Now, she needed to defend against Sunny’s punches, but just there, where she would actually hit. It saves mana, Tubbo had said.

And it’s not that Foolish didn’t make any progress. He had overtaken Tina by lifting weight and speed really fast, also thanks to her healing, and was now in a physical top form. Just the mental part was lacking. “I know, just… give me a day or so.” He really had to talk to Tina today.

Foolish ended his break and got back to training, until the evening arrived and they called it quits. “Tina!”, Foolish rushed over to her, who was about to pick up Vegetta, to carry him to their room. “What’s up?” “I uhm… have a question”, Foolish tried not to give himself away.

“Sure, what question?” “One I want to ask you, you know, alone…”, he said as he took a look downwards at Vegetta, who already had an annoyed look on his face. “Oh, all right. Tubbo?”, Tina called over to the young adult. “Can you take Vegetta? Foolish and I gotta talk”, she announced to the room and Foolish could feel himself cringe.

“No problem”, he replied and came over to take Vegetta out of the room with him. Now they were alone. “Okay. But let me have a guess beforehand. It’s about Vegetta, right?”, Tina correctly  made out the conversation topic.

“Uh, yeah…”, Foolish admitted and deflated visibly, as he let out a sigh that he didn’t know he was holding. He tried to find some words, but as soon as Tina realized how serious the conversation was going to be, she took him by the wrist and dragged him to the chairs to sit down.

“It was pretty obvious that something was going on, I had my suspicions, but I also didn’t want to make you tell me something you didn’t want to”, Tina started, in the hopes that it would give Foolish some better idea where to start from.

“I didn’t think there was anything wrong… well there was. It’s just, I thought it would go away on its own”, he started, which reminded Tina an awful lot of herself, after the talk she had with Vegetta about three weeks ago. “I appreciate you coming to me. Was there anything that made you do it now?”, she asked as she wanted to understand what was going on. Up until now, she thought that they were doing better. That’s also why she went into the conversation the way she did, but that was about to change in a second.

“I had a nightmare about Vegetta”, Foolish admitted. “And in that I saw him kill our mom.” Tina’s eyebrows lifted in shock, as she needed to find a point in the room to fixate on, to process that information. Once she looked at him, she didn’t say anything, but her expression held an expectation for him to say more.

“I know how you feel now”, he continued, which Tina thought was a bit ironic. He knew how she felt like since the last Full moon, but only now was the time for him to come to her. “And how do you feel about it?” While he took a breath, for a moment he glanced up at her, before he focused back on his hands, that he fidgeted with.

“I don’t know how you do it. How are you just… fine with that”, his voice broke during the last words, as he felt his eyes fill up with water. He kind of felt like a failure. Wasn’t he supposed to be the one to like Vegetta. And not in a romantic way. In general, just as a person. Wasn’t he the one that promised Vegetta to stay with him and find a way to undo the shrinking? Why was he failing at the one thing he promised to do?

With a sigh, Tina placed one of her hands on Foolish’s to stop his fidgeting and calm him. Her eyes resembled the way she looked at him back at the hut, when she told him how sad he looked when Vegetta’s departure was brought up. Only now, her hatred for herself was replaced with gentle understanding.

“There are multiple reasons why I am doing the way I am doing.” Just like Foolish, her focus was on her hands, as it made it easier to recall all the emotions she had felt. “One factor definitely was time”, she said. “But another one was you.” This time she took a glance upwards. Foolish knew what Tina was talking about, but it wasn’t really helping.

“I know, and I am glad that I could help, but…” “but it isn’t helping you”, Tina completed Foolish’s unfinished sentence. “Yeah.” After a short thinking moment, Tina asked, “can you help me understand why?”

“I know that you are there for me. A hundred percent. And you are smart, and you became so much stronger. I know that you will protect me without a doubt. I just don’t think that I could protect myself. And I feel so bad about it, because this journey was my thing. A thing I dragged you into, made you feel miserable and now I should let you do all the protecting?”, he said in a bit of a frenzy.

“I also decided to get better”, Tina added to her first statement. “During the first night, where we stayed in the city, Vegetta and I had a fight”, she admitted, which made Foolish’s head snap up. “Hold on, you never told me”, he complained at least a bit. “You were too much in your own world. Besides, I bet you didn’t really want to hear anything about him anyway during that time.” “Probably you are right”, he had to agree with her.

“It started , because I was complaining about not understanding people. At which point he basically snapped at me and gave me a whole lecture in Spanish that I didn’t understand, which made me realize that he was even worse off than us. We had each other to talk to, but he didn’t”, Tina started summarizing. “And suddenly he asked me why we hated him. That’s when I realized you never told him about mom.” At this point, Foolish started to feel even worse. Because without intending to, he also loaded this onto Tina.

“I thought that… Back in the hostel, when it wasn’t bad for me, I thought it might be better for you to tell him. I wasn’t aware what that could turn into.” “I don’t think you are wrong. He was just really confused about the whole situation.”

“So, you told him, right?”, Foolish asked. And at that moment Tina saw an opportunity. An opportunity that some maybe would find morally wrong, but to her, she was convinced it would lead to a better outcome. “I didn’t”, she lied.

“You didn’t?!”, Foolish stood up from his chair in disbelief. “Please sit down again and let me explain”, she told him, which he followed. “He told me that you said that it was “my stuff”. But at that point it had become less of my stuff and more yours. Of course I didn’t just say nothing. But I didn’t say anything about mom.”

With a puzzled expression, he still looked at her. “So, what did you say then?” “I said that we had an incident with a werewolf when we were younger, and that is where our fear came from. For anything beyond that, he should wait until you tell him.” Foolish swallowed hard as he heard that.

“Moreover, Vegetta also asked me why we didn’t just leave him behind.” At that point Foolish had got so much input that he just sat there and listened.  “My response to that was that, yes even though at first, I tagged along because of you, the journey also made me start to overcome my fear. And that’s why I stayed.”

“And after that conversation, I realized something crucial. All this time up until our talk, I had hoped that me accepting him would come naturally to me at one point. And maybe I would never have changed my mind if you didn’t distance yourself from him. But things didn’t happen like that, and I realized that Vegetta is not at fault for anything that happened. And even though I am a victim, I can just as much be the problem. Vegetta took all of our emotions on himself, and he didn’t even have a chance to walk away.”

“So, regarding your question Foolish. I am not fine. I still feel guilty about how I treated him, but the only thing I can do now is to be better and change. I know I can’t tell you to get your ass up, as I acted just the same, but the least you can do is give him an apology. And explain.”

After Tina’s monologue, there was a moment of silence, as Foolish gathered his thoughts. What Tina had said matched with the realization that he tried to push away so desperately.  He had completely tried to ignore the problem, the problem that was with him and not with Vegetta.

“I had told Vegetta that you needed your time”, Tina added another comment, that pushed Foolish further to the edge. “Fuck”, he cursed under his breath, as he then covered his face with his hands and groaned into them. He dreaded what he had to do, but he had to do it.

He had to talk to Vegetta, who had no clue what was going on, and waited for three weeks for an explanation. And he never… he never complained to Foolish about it. For the entire time Vegetta was thinking that it was his fault, why else would he ask Tina why they didn’t leave him. And the more Foolish pieced together the situation, the more he put himself in Vegetta’s shoes, the more he realized how much he had fucked up.

Slowly Foolish started to spiral, which was noticeable to Tina in the form of seeing him shake. His entire body was trembling, as he tensed up and tried to stop his eyes from overflowing. “God, I am such a shitty person”, he muttered and then exhaled and inhaled quickly to further halt the stream of tears.

“Hmm, we are really complicated sometimes”, Tina whispered into his left ear, as she had wound an arm under his chin and around him, to give a hug to his left, as her arms closed on his back. It was slightly awkward, as he was still sitting, and she tried her best to comfort him, but at that point Foolish didn’t mind at all.

“So much so, that you didn’t even realize you created your paradox.” “Hmm?”, Foolish hummed a question, as he pulled his hands away from his face. “You say that one problem you have is that you think you are not strong enough to protect yourself, right?” Foolish confirmed with another hum. “Well, aren’t we here for that?”, she asked. “Tubbo is giving you a top-notch training, while you can’t concentrate on it, because you think you are too weak. How can you get better if you are keeping yourself away from that goal?”

All of a sudden, Foolish felt really stupid. Most of the time he did, that’s how you feel when you are with Tina, but right now, he felt extra stupid. “Oh my god, I am so dumb”, he admitted, with a hint of a chuckle at his own stupidity. “I wouldn’t call you dumb, but sometimes too stuck in your own head”, Tina replied, as she loosened the hug.

“Thank you, Tina, I needed that”, Foolish said, as he looked at her. “As long as you talk to Vegetta and don’t run away…” “I won’t.” He immediately replied. “I have to make up with him.”

Chapter Text

When Foolish and Tina came into their room, Vegetta was already asleep. There was an exchange of looks, a silent conversation of “you got this”, for another day, before the two of them also laid down to head into the world of slumber.

This time it was more pleasant for Foolish than the night before, as the only thing that woke him was Tubbo in the morning, chasing them out of their beds for training. “Good morning sleepy heads”, sounded the voice that had grown familiar over the two weeks that they have been there. And as if his conversation with Tina didn’t happen yesterday, their routine continued as always.

They were dragged into the training room and tortured, something that both Tina and Foolish had agreed on, and with having the rule of having breakfast when sunny woke up, she kind of became saint-like in the eyes of them two. But today, Foolish nearly wished that she would take her time.

Because if she did so, he would have more time to train, which meant that he was getting stronger. Thinking back to yesterday, he really did ask himself where his brain cells went, because Tina’s argument was so clear that there was only one possible reason that could explain his inability to think. And he didn’t like it. Because that reason was fear. The fear of Vegetta, but also of losing him, of not being strong enough and of burdening it all on Tina.

But he wanted to change, he really did, so that he promptly added more weight to the training equipment he was currently working at. More weight equals stronger, that was a fact. At least to Foolish. Sure, there was still this weird mixture of feelings in his stomach, of the primal urge to run away, and the logical decisions of facing Vegetta and talking about it, but Vegetta wasn’t here right now, so at least temporarily he could shove the thought to where he felt most comfortable having it. To the back of his mind.

Eventually, Sunny did come around and poked her head through the curtain, which meant breakfast. And breakfast meant waking up Vegetta, since there wasn’t a reason to already wake him during the physical training. Much to Foolish’s objection, since that meant that the back of his mind became as empty as a dried-out lake, while the active part of his brain was flooded with thoughts.

While Vegetta was carried in, he really tried to keep his eyes to himself, but he always kept slipping. And his mind did too, to the dream, the last full moon and to how Vegetta might look like transformed, when he would have his original height back. Was this the part where his fear would take over? Maybe the only reason Foolish didn’t physically remove himself from the situation was because he felt glued to his chair, by the people around him. Much rather did he endure this, than being looked at weird and concerned if he did.

But regardless, he didn’t notice how he poked around in his food, while he zoned out. “Hey  Foolish”, Tina tapped his shoulder. “Hmm?”, he looked up. “Do you still want to eat that? Otherwise give it to me”, she asked, while she pointed at his breakfast. “No, I-“, he started as he noticed how hungry he still was, because he barely ate anything. “Hey, just because I am not that fast. Get your hands away”, he complained in a very put on manner, as he lightly slapped away Tina’s hand, that was just about to grab the bowl.

And just to show her how hungry he was, he took an extra big spoon and shoved it in his mouth, all while putting on a protesting pout. “Now, there is enough for everyone”, Tubbo butted in the conversation and put a serving spoon full of food in Tina’s bowl.  “Anyone else?”, he asked into the round, as Sunny lifted hers, to show her demand.

Foolish was glad that Tina was there. Not just during breakfast, but also during the training afterwards, she made sure that he didn’t spiral, and always nagged him, whenever he seemed to be zoning out. Which somehow actually worked, because not only did she remind him of training, but here and there she would whisper a sentence of last night and his flawed logic of strength. Which therefore made him train harder and nearly forget the presence of the tiny man entirely.

Following the morning, there weren’t any big interruptions in their training, until it was time for lunch. “Let’s fill your hungry bellies”, Tubbo said and beckoned them to hurry along. Tina followed the invitation quickly, as she undid the physical shield that she was working on, and walked towards Sunny, so that they could go together.

“Actually, I might take some time alone to concentrate better”, Foolish informed them, as he made no effort to move. “Oh, alright. Just don’t take too long. Otherwise the food will get cold”, Tina noted, as he already turned his back to them, to go to the middle of the room.

With everyone having left the room, Foolish used the moment of solitude to focus completely on feeling his mana, while walking around. Because it was different, compared to always having fighting sounds as background noise. Now he felt like he could totally relax, let his guard down, and feel.

He also had the brilliant idea of closing his eyes, as he believed that it would enhance his concentration, but despite that, he still continued walking. That he didn’t know where he was going, didn’t need to be said, so just as he was about to unknowingly walk into some training equipment, a voice broke through the silence.

“Hey, Foolish!”, called Vegetta, who still stood on the table in the training room. “Ahhh!”, Foolish let out a scream as he didn’t think that anyone was left in the room, let alone Vegetta. Maybe he even had a bit of a heart attack, but that could have also been his imagination. And while Vegetta’s warning had scared him to death, he actually had jumped sidewards, which did got him away from the training equipment he was about to run into, just that his avoidance made him stumble over a bench and he fell regardless.

“Are you okay?”, Foolish heard Tina shout from the other room. But she didn’t come in to check on him. “Ugh, yeah I am fine, just stumbled, that’s all”, he called back, as he propped himself up on his arms to get back on his feet. “Jesus, you can’t scare me like that”, he halfheartedly cursed under his breath, and that even more to himself than directed at Vegetta. But he answered regardless. “And let you run into training equipment?”

“N-no…”, Foolish mumbled as he looked to the ground, before he got back to the middle of the room. He didn’t even ask why Vegetta was there. And he didn’t want to, because clearly, he was running away from his feelings again. Obviously, this was a pretty perfect situation to talk to him, but why like this, and now? He was training right now, and he couldn’t just interrupt that.

Foolish sat down in the circle that was surrounded by the running track and closed his eyes to concentrate. He intentionally had positioned himself in a way that his back was facing Vegetta, but despite that, he still momentarily opened his eyes to peek at him, as if he could see past his field of view. Additionally, though, he also felt like he was being watched, and that Vegetta’s eyes were drilling themselves in the back of his skull.

But this was not the time. It wasn’t because Foolish had decided so. There was no room for any kind of conversation. Because Foolish didn’t create any. He wasn’t prepared. And surely there must be a better moment. Maybe if he waited a bit longer, he would be prepared… But that was when Foolish remembered what Tina had said the evening before. ‘Even though I am a victim, I can just as much be the problem’, he recalled.

At this point he was clearly fidgeting in his seat, not that Foolish noticed, as he was too occupied with is thoughts, but Vegetta, who was watching him the entire time, clearly made out the restless bounce of his knee, or his hands, that kept toying with each other.  And while Foolish was stuck in his world, Vegetta also had some feelings to fight with.

Over the last one and a half weeks, Vegetta had decided that it wasn’t love. And it wasn’t, because he decided so. It was just this stupid idea that Tubbo had planted in his head, which made him feel bad more than it made him feel good. And he probably only felt bad, because if it was love, he would know Foolish, right? But he didn’t. So therefore, he tried to gaslight himself to think that he loved Foolish, but subconsciously he knew he didn’t, because he didn’t know Foolish, so he felt bad, because he tried to feel something that he didn’t. Sure. That was the reason. That, and nothing else.

And since he didn’t love Foolish, he was only mad at him, because he wanted to be friends with him, but Foolish kept running away. Which then reminded Vegetta of the talk he had with Tina. He should give Foolish time, she had said. Which, in his opinion, was complete bullshit. Because why on earth have three weeks passed since then, and they have not had one proper conversation or interaction? Three weeks should be enough, right?

Because it was totally fine to be so upset about it, if he wasn’t in love with Foolish. It was totally fine to be frustrated, especially because he thought that they were doing better in the week that they spent in the capital. Again, not in a love kind of way. And additionally, didn’t he also snap at Tina, because he was just so done with the situation? Yeah, he totally did. And this was no different. The only thing he wanted to hear right now was Foolish speaking his mind. As a friend.

After a while, Foolish’s fidgeting had grown so bad that he also must have noticed it, as he stood up and went over to the punching bag, to let out some energy. But there were two things going on. First, none of his punches were mana infused, which meant that he either didn’t or couldn’t concentrate on it. And second, the punching bag actually stood at an angle, where he could clearly see Vegetta in the corner of his eye, which only led to Foolish staring more and more often. So much so that Vegetta had enough of it, and called out to him.

“What? If you don’t want me here, move me”, he said defiantly. In his mind, it was the perfect challenge. A challenge to get Foolish to acknowledge him. Because if he didn’t want Vegetta here, he’d have to touch him, to bring him outside. But if Foolish didn’t want to touch him, he’d have to live with Vegetta staying and watching him. Both were things that confronted Foolish with Vegetta, something that he hadn’t done in weeks, at least in Vegetta’s knowledge.

But to his disappointment, Foolish barely reacted at all. There was a sudden stop to his movement, and a look, that merely lasted a fraction of a second, but afterwards, Foolish resumed his training. But even though Vegetta thought he had no impact on Foolish at all, the half shark’s mind was torn between two simple tasks. Stay or go.

His fingers were itching. His body felt like there was electricity running through it. If he just could take a step forward. If just there was something that would make him talk to Vegetta. He didn’t want to be the asshole in the situation. He wanted to resolve the problem, so much, he begged his body to move. But he felt frozen. Frozen by fear of what’s to come, of what he had to face. It almost felt the same when he couldn’t move, as the werewolf stared down his younger self. He had wanted to run away, but now, he hadn’t even realized how much comfort he found in the pain.

“I don’t need your stupid promise, if you don’t want to do it.” Snap. At once Foolish’s head snapped to look at Vegetta, and with that ended the week long phase of ignoring him. Foolish knew what promise he meant. The one from the very start. The one where he told Vegetta that he wouldn’t leave. The one where he said that he would help him out.

“Go on and leave already”, Vegetta added another sentence. But… Foolish didn’t want to leave. Surprised by his own opinion, his train of thought stopped. He had to think about that later, but what surprised him was that Vegetta wanted him to leave. But If he left, their chances of him becoming tall again would shrink significantly. As his ponder continued, another snippet of his talk with Tina resurfaced. ‘Vegetta had asked me why we didn’t leave him behind.’ And as far as Foolish could tell, that talk was three weeks ago. Had Vegetta thought about that for three weeks?

More and more feelings of guilt piled up in his consciousness. He was a shitty person. He was an asshole that avoided the problem until he couldn’t anymore. And everyone else around him got hurt because of that. Because he was too much of a coward. And he had Vegetta standing in front of him. A soft and patient person, who did nothing wrong. None of this was his fault, and still, he took all the hurt and the pain and not once mentioned it to him. Not once did he complain and got loud. That was, until now.

‘Now he must be done with me’. Foolish thought. Now there must be nothing to save anymore. But still, at least he could try. “But I want to keep the promise”, he replied, in a whisper. His voice broke in between, as he was not only trying to get a sentence out, but also his feelings. “I want to keep the promise”, he repeated himself, louder as he let out a shaky breath, once the last word was spoken. Somehow, he was really desperate.

“Then why are you running away?” Vegetta’s voice didn’t sound that much different to Foolish’s. “What… I-“, Foolish stuttered, taken aback by the direct confrontation. “Why, why are you running away from me?” Vegetta’s expression mirrored that of pain and confusion. With being the only thing on that table, Vegetta looked incredibly lonely. And suddenly, Foolish’s fear of confrontation was overtaken by his guilt. A guilt that was buried deep in his chest and hurt so much at the image of Vegetta in front of him. He did that. This situation and Vegetta’s current state were his fault.

Driven by the feelings inside of him, Foolish took a step forward. And that followed a second and a third and even more, until he stood right in front of that table. As he did so, he didn’t directly look at Vegetta, but as he came to a standstill, his gaze rose up to the tabletop. This needed to be the moment. The moment where he had to be honest. And where he would tell Vegetta everything. All the things that kept him away.

Was it easy? Definitely not. Foolish’s ears were ringing as he looked down on the tiny man. What was he so afraid of? It was just Vegetta. The kind and funny Vegetta, who worried way too much about other people’s problems. The one that had no other option than to travel with them, as he was otherwise unable to do anything.

On the table, Vegetta waited until Foolish had reached him. On the one hand, he was glad that he finally acknowledged him, but there was only one reason for Foolish to do so. It was to pick him up and carry him out of the room. Would Vegetta take offense in that? Probably not, as he knew the reason why Foolish acted the way he did. The killer of his mother was haunting him, as Vegetta just happened to be the very same thing. But he didn’t want to know that, because Tina told him. He wanted an explanation from Foolish. An explanation that would make him face his fear and accept it. That was the first step to getting better.

But it didn’t seem like that was the route that Foolish was taking, as he lifted his arm, and held out his hand, allowing Vegetta to get on it. The action was without words, just like Vegetta got on without saying anything. He felt like he had said enough even though he could scream so many more words at the half shark.

If Foolish would carry him out now that would be it. Because that would mean that Foolish really didn’t want him. ‘So, I would also need to give up my feelings’, Vegetta caught himself thinking. Which was ironic, because there were no feelings. Since again, he himself decided that there weren’t any. How could there be any if… if… Vegetta’s breath fastened, the higher Foolish lifted him.

‘There are no feelings’, he told himself, as that weird sensation inside of him grew. ‘There are no feelings’, he repeated inside of his mind, as his emotions started bubbling inside of his stomach and traveled upwards, past his lungs and his heart, as they settled as a lump inside of his throat, that made it impossible for him to speak.

‘There are no feelings’, he thought one last time, as finally he had no energy anymore to keep up the act. There were feelings. So many feelings that made him want to cry out to Foolish and tell him not to leave him behind, as the same made him want to blink away the tears that were gathering in his eyes. All he wanted was answers and comfort, something that he was denied nearly all the way on their trip. And he was tired. So tired of trying. But in this situation, where he wanted to try one last time, call out one last time, his body felt frozen.

But what Vegetta didn’t know was that Foolish was filled with just as much determination. He had the same wish to just speak and let it all out, but the moment had paralyzed them both. The only thing that Foolish noticed now were his shaking hands, as he tried to keep them still for the man that he was holding. It was absurd, wasn’t it. The man he met at a stall and swooned over was now standing on his palms.

And this situation, all caused by an unchangeable thing of nature. “I­­­­­—”, Foolish paused right after he began, which was then followed by clearing his throat, as he noticed how wrecked his voice was. “I need to tell you something”, he started anew, as he tried to keep Vegetta on his hands, with the amount that they had been shaking.

“Something that I should have told you a long while ago.” This was his time to be honest. In this moment, suddenly, it didn’t feel as scarry as he thought it would. Sure, there was this buzzing in his ears and his hands felt like they were going numb, but there wouldn’t come another time like this.  

There was an inhale and an exhale, before he went on. “I am so incredibly sorry.” His voice faltered. Right now, Vegetta was so close to his face that he could see every tiny expression that Foolish was making. The sad, round eyes, that were sandwiched between two downturned lids as they were topped off with his eyebrows, that were scrunched so much, that it also made his forehead wrinkle. It was a face that was begging for forgiveness, but Vegetta didn’t know what he should be forgiving.

Was it the past or was it a future that Foolish was just about to announce to him. A future, in which they both would be separated. Was he apologizing for wasting his time like this? Was he saying sorry, because he, the help to make him tall again, was walking away. But wasn’t that exactly what Vegetta had asked him just some moments ago. Didn’t he tell him to leave?

“I am so sorry that I made my issue your problem. I never wanted it to be this way, and now, I feel like I have ruined everything. And the worst part is that you didn’t even get a proper explanation.” At that point, Vegetta really didn’t know where Foolish was taking this. Really, he was so overwhelmed, since in his mind, Foolish’s words didn’t really fit in any of the scenarios besides where he had to leave. That there were other scenarios, he knew of logically. But in his mental state, there was no other option. But one good thing that came with his confusion was that as before, he couldn’t bring out a word, so that he wasn’t interrupting Foolish’s monologue.

“I feel like a dick, and probably an asshole too. In general, you could say that I am not that much of a nice person. Yeah, probably that’s how it is. An asshole and not a nice person. I mean, that is what an asshole is really. Besides the body part, but I think you know what I mean.” At this point, Foolish completely had derailed into rambling, which he only noticed when he had run out of breath.

“Oh shoot. Ah my bad…” Foolish took in a sharp breath of air. “I will… I should… eh yeah. I should uhm, get on with it.” He finally settled on what to say, while internally he was cussing himself out, because he interpreted the way that Vegetta was looking at him as an expression of a person that didn’t understand a word he said. In reality it was an expression of a person that didn’t get the whole entire situation, but in the end, it had the same outcome.

The outcome of Foolish slowing down and putting on some seriousness. “I have been running away. You are right with that. And I wanted to tell you why. Since, as far as I know, you have been sitting with that for a while now .” He took a quick peek at Vegetta, to confirm that he understood what Foolish just told him. And indeed, from the small man, there was an even smaller nod.

After the confirmation, Foolish noticed how his heart had started racing again. Somewhere during the conversation, he must have tuned it out, as he didn’t believe that he actually had a calm moment in the last fifteen minutes. “So, it turns out that I am also affected by the thing that made Tina so afraid of you.” In another situation, this would have probably made Vegetta take the lead and speak some encouraging words, because he already knew what was going on, but since these words still fell within the range of explanations why Foolish was going to leave him, he was too trapped by his own worries.

“When I was a kid, Tina and I had a… confrontation with a werewolf…” After the sentence, Foolish’s breath picked up. But not only that became a hindrance in explaining further. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears, and his hands had actually reached a stage where he couldn’t feel them anymore. “Hold on… I think I need to… set you down. I don’t—“, Foolish choked on his words, but at least he managed to lower his arms so much that Vegetta could get back on the table again.

But Foolish didn’t want to stop. He needed to tell Vegetta. It was the least he could do. “My mother was—” a chill ran down his spine, as he took another gasp of air. “She was—” Foolish wanted to speak, but there were no words coming out. Air. You need air to speak, but as he wanted to breathe in, there was nothing. After the first attempt there was a second, but even that didn’t work. Confused, he directed all of his attention at his lungs, however his third try also didn’t bear any fruit.

Panicked, he looked at Vegetta, who still didn’t seem to get what was going on. Maybe if he were to call out, he thought, but that just made him run into the same problem. ‘Breathe, breathe’, he told himself again and again in vain. But that was the last thing that Foolish could articulate in his mind, as his body was taking over completely.

He felt hot and cold at the same time, as his pounding heart was a sensation that engulfed his entire body, all while he tried to get something of that lifesaving air. And the numbness of his hands? That had spread further and acted like water, that was slowly filling his legs until they gave out. There wasn’t much that he could do, besides an unsuccessful try to slow his drop, as he fell to his knees and they scraped the floor below. But it wouldn’t stop. Not his racing heart, or the trembling, or the inability to breathe.

Desperately he tried to look up to give Vegetta any kind of hint that something was wrong, but he couldn’t. He could barely hold himself upright, not to mention reaching out in any way. And the only reason why he was not lying on the floor right now was the table, to which he still held onto from the try to stop his fall. His head was pressed into the wood between his hands, as he instinctively curled in on himself, since it was a position that promised safety, ever since the early days before he hatched out of his egg.

But those were more peaceful days. Right now, his body had taken over and ignored the command of the brain. With his head tilted downward, he could see how his body behaved. His legs were shaking uncontrollably while his tail was curled around them. What he couldn’t see though was his mouth torn open and gasping for air, as well as his eyes, that were darting around in panic.

But yet all of his focus was still on his breathing. Which was rapid. Vegetta could hear it from the top of the table, but for Foolish it felt like it never reached his lungs. He felt like he was suffocating, and it filled him with terror. Would he die here from suffocation? Was that how you felt when you were dying? A numb and cold body, that was shaking, while it felt like your heart was bursting out of your ears.

He just wanted… He just wanted to explain. What must Vegetta be thinking? That he was running away? That he was faking it to not have to tell him? But he needed to. He wanted to. He wanted Vegetta to know. About his mother. About how she died. About how they found her while the werewolf was standing over her. About the torn-up living room and kitchen, that were in disarray when they found it. About the white pupils on a black background and the blood on the werewolf’s claws. About the crimson red puddle that harbored the cold body of their mother like the life that had run out of her. About that life, that had soaked their socks and hands, and stuck to them, so that Foolish felt like he could never wash it off.

Tears had gathered in his eyes, that fell straight down onto his pants and formed tiny wet stains in the fabric. Was he going to end up the same? Would he die here? And even if a miracle would save him, that didn’t mean that he and Vegetta would be okay. The cracks in their relationship had formed weeks in advance. How could he be sure that they wouldn’t burst and break everything? Like the jar. Had Vegetta not scratched it when he transformed? And had it not broken in the fight with Cucurucho, which brought them to this place?

During all of this, Foolish felt a tiny stabbing pain, on the top of his head. At first, he didn’t even notice it, with all the sensations that flooded his brain. But the longer it went on, the more prominent it became. Sure, add a headache to the other feelings he already had to deal with. But strangely enough, the pain just stayed in one place. A tiny circular place. It was even like; someone was pulling his hair…

With all the strength that he could muster right now, Foolish slowly lifted his head. And right before his eyes stood a tiny Vegetta, still clutching the strand of that hair that he had pulled. Vegetta looked troubled, and he definitely was. The moment he heard Foolish start hyperventilating was the second he realized that there was something clearly wrong. That Foolish was okay, was way more important than if he were to leave, and the need to care for him overtook Vegetta like an instinct.

“Hey, Foolish, are you uhm… what is going on?”, Vegetta sounded nearly as panicked as Foolish felt. But he couldn’t answer. If he could, he would have said something minutes before. There was only a silent pleading look that he could give Vegetta. Would he understand? Even though Foolish himself didn’t even understand what was wrong. So, could Vegetta? Could Vegetta save him?

If Foolish were able to waste another thought on that, he probably would have asked himself why his mind came up with something like that. But he couldn’t. Because despite the fact that he had now raised his head, any of the symptoms that he had had didn’t lessen. They were tormenting him like before, and the only thing he could do was hope. Hope that someone would do something.  

But Vegetta stood in front of Foolish with worries that you could almost see seeping out of his body. What was wrong with Foolish. Even more, how did it affect him? What could he do to help? Was there even anything? As suddenly, there was a sliver of a memory that came back to him. A memory that was better left buried but somehow made him realize what was wrong.

Nonetheless, it hit him like a truck. It took him a good minute to snap out of it, but as he did the worry on his face quickly vanished and morphed into a caring and calm expression. And with that, the whole atmosphere around him shifted as well. It was reassuring somehow. In silence he walked closer to Foolish, until he stood about 10 centimeters away from his face.

There he did nothing but breathe. Long deep breaths, in and out, all while he locked eyes with Foolish. And he continued. In and out, again and again, as he showed Foolish that he was there. And the change in Vegetta also slowly changed something in Foolish. His body still felt the same, but the way Vegetta acted, made Foolish believe that he had a plan. A way to help him.

And with that hope he finally noticed that he wasn’t not able to breathe, but that he was breathing too fast. Had his shiver stopped or the numbness faded because of that? No. But with Vegetta in front of him, breathing in front of him, Foolish had a goal. To mimic Vegetta’s breathing.

A minute had passed, and then another followed by more, in which Foolish and Vegetta were just breathing with each other. After each breath his heart started to slow down, and numbness was draining out of his legs and arm. The only thing that didn’t go away was the shaking, but that would stay there for a bit longer, as he was still processing the shock of what had happened.

As his breathing slowed and his muscles relaxed, he leaned forward again to rest his head against the tabletop while his shoulders slouched forward. With closed eyes, there was one last deep breath, as he noticed his legs starting to tingle from kneeling on the floor.

With a groan, he let go of the table and used his shaking arms to gain some leverage, so that he could turn around, lean against the table and stretch out his legs, to get the blood flow going again. There was no way he had any more strength than that.

“I am sorry.” It was Vegetta, who broke through the silence. And afterwards it continued to stay silent. At least for a while, and as Vegetta started wondering if Foolish had even heard him, he noticed the taller man lifting his hand up to the table, so that Vegetta could get on. He took up the offer and promptly was lowered until Foolish put him down on one of his legs.

The air was thick between them. It had the viscosity of unspoken feelings and the lack of energy to package them into nicely wrapped words. There could and would only be the truth. Bare feelings, open and raw.

“Why even are you apologizing?”, it was less of a question directed at Vegetta and more a train of thought spoken out loud. He had his head leaned back, so that he wasn’t even looking at the tiny man. And he didn’t think he could do that. “It was me who didn’t keep the promise. It was me who kept pushing you away and the one who still cannot talk about his feelings. You are allowed to walk away.”

Was that it? Was that the end of the conversation, Vegetta thought? No fight, no nothing? Did Foolish even want to keep him here? Was he just accepting that it could never work out?  Confused, Vegetta looked up at him, whose head was still tilted upwards. He wasn’t looking and therefore couldn’t see the pain that had found its way on Vegetta’s face. Was all of this for nothing? Was Foolish just giving up on him?

“Back in the hostel, I felt like you wanted to know me”, Vegetta answered in a spur of the moment, in defiance and desperation. He thought he had understood Foolish in the moment of panic. Looking at him living through it made the memory he had even more vivid. And in that moment, all Vegetta wanted was that someone stayed. So why wasn’t Foolish the same?

The words that Vegetta said reached Foolish’s ears, and with that plugged a string in his heart, that made the moment barely bearable. How much he wanted to go back to the first hostel. How much he wanted to forget the painful memories. How much he wanted to freely love the man in front of him. But he knew that was something not possible, as he chose his next words.

“My mother was killed by a werewolf.” The words were dry and hard against the air. Blunt to the ear and it left the feeling of nails on a chalkboard. Those were the words that previously let Foolish stutter and his heart run wild, but the numbness that the lack of energy caused still occupied his body. Now, there was only some space left to grieve and mourn. Some space to remember the night it happened, but no strength to keep the feelings at bay that came with it.

What if he had just died with her that night? Or did he do that already? Because if not for that, couldn’t all of the problems he had with Vegetta been avoided. Couldn’t he be happy with him? “I want you, but I—”, Foolish started to admit, as he felt Vegetta move around on his leg.

It was then that he actually started to look down and there he saw Vegetta, who walked to the side of his leg, got down and continued walking towards the door of the room. Was he walking away? But hold on. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. Yes, he told him he could walk away. But he also didn’t want him to.

A slight panic arose in Foolish, as Vegetta continued to take one step after the other. Surely, he would stop, right? He wouldn’t just walk out and end it like this. Or would he?  One thing that he learned about Vegetta was that he was headstrong and if there was something he didn’t agree on, he would do something about it, as far as he was capable.

“Hey… hold on now”, Foolish called out, sounding more unnerved than he wanted to let on. But Vegetta kept on walking and was already halfway across the room. But no, that’s not how it’s supposed to be. That is not… Fear bubbled in Foolish’s veins. He wanted to get up and catch up with him. But his legs still felt like jelly. He couldn’t even use his arms as support as they were still shaking.

 “Vegetta stop.” A pause lay between his words. “Please.” His request was desperate. It was a beg. A beg for closure. “Please Vegetta. Please don’t leave.”

Vegetta halted. It was like he was frozen in place, for at least some seconds, before he slowly turned around. He had the expression of something unreadable. As if hundreds of emotions clashed within him and fought over which was allowed to come out first.

And at first came out pain. It was one to brace himself for what might come. For a rule he had to set with himself, or he would betray his own principles. But it was the answer to that rule, that he was afraid of. “No but”, he said. For a moment Foolish halted but then understood what Vegetta was hinting at. He had added a “but” to his sentence.

“Yes or no. You want to know me. Or you don’t. You stay with me, or you don’t. But no but.”  That was Vegetta’s rule. He couldn’t keep on living in this space of assuming and wishing and hurting each other.

He knew of Foolish’s fear. And he knew of an easier way to fix it. But that would not eliminate the problem by the root. That would not make Foolish work out his problems and want to stay with him, because he had solved them. So, the only way this would work was if Vegetta would set this ultimatum. Because he also wanted to feel like Foolish actually wanted to be with him.

“I want you.” There was no hesitation behind those words. And they were so quick that Foolish probably blurted them out, without fully understanding the meaning behind them. In a moment of silence, they both stared at each other. Foolish because Vegetta hadn’t replied and was waiting for any kind of reaction. And Vegetta because only now he understood the full insinuation of those words.

I. Want. You. That was what Foolish had said. I want you. I want you… The sentence was playing on repeat in Vegetta’s head. Was that a confession? A love confession? Well, what else did it mean? As friends? Surely not. That is not how you talk to friends, right?

But “Que?”, was the only thing that became audible from Vegetta’s thoughts. “I said I want you…”, Foolish repeated the words he had just spoken, since he believed that Vegetta didn’t hear them, but then fell silent, as he also realized what they actually meant. Did he say these words without thinking? Yes, he totally did. But did that mean that they were not true? No, they were absolutely true. Especially because that was the only way he felt towards Vegetta before he had transformed.

And suddenly his heart was back at beating full throttle. Had he just confessed to Vegetta? Did he…? Maybe? Maybe not? Did Vegetta actually understand what he said, he asked himself as his brain was actually taking in the possibility that Vegetta didn’t know these words. But who did he want to fool.

With blood rushing towards his head, he became completely red, as Vegetta continued to hold eye contact with him. It was a stare down. A stare down of questioning looks and the demand of the other one to speak first. There was only one difference in their situations.

Vegetta liked Foolish, and he knew that Foolish most likely liked him back. But Foolish on the other hand had barely any clue if Vegetta felt the same way. In his eyes, all he knew for certain was that Vegetta was mad with him, because he kept running away. But feelings? Sure, there was this one time in the first hostel, but ever since then, a month had passed. A month of miscommunication and avoidance.

But to his luck, it was Vegetta who took over the situation and started walking back towards him. Patiently Foolish watched, until he had arrived by his side and sat down next to him. “Did you mean that?”, Vegetta asked. His words were quiet, and he didn’t dare to look up to see Foolish’s reaction. He was impatient and unsure. What if he had just misread the entire situation? And as he didn’t receive an immediate answer, he blurted it out again. “Did you mean your words?”

Another moment of silence. But then, “I do. I do want you.” And it was like Vegetta could finally breathe again. “I hope you like me too. I don’t, you know… I hope that didn’t make you uncomfortable. If not that’s fine too. I just uhm… want to make sure”, Foolish fell into a ramble and made Vegetta remember that he hadn’t answered anything to the confession.

“Ah, me gustas tu.” And before Foolish could even ask what that meant, he continued, “It means I like you.” And somehow, all of a sudden, Foolish asked himself if Vegetta had always been this small.