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mino-minotaur · 3 months ago

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And here we go (4662 words)

<Smajor1995 whispered to you> Joel, meet me at that field, the one between our house and the mountain

<Smallishbeans whispered to you> Why?

<Smajor1995 whispered to you> It’s a surprise ;)

<Smallishbeans> Omw

Joel was, in fact, not on his way. He was internally freaking out in The Food Crew Bakery with Jimmy and Bdubs trying to help him out. There were so many flowers, and he just wanted to get the right ones for Scott. They had gone over cornflowers, blue orchids, and irises, but none seemed right. If he was going to ask Scott out, it had to be right the first time. He wouldn’t get a do over.

(Unless Scott rejected him and he had to try again in the future, but he didn’t like thinking about that. Who even knew if these feelings would last until the next game?)

When he got the message, his jaw dropped and he widened his eyes. Joel had to choose now, he couldn’t keep Scott waiting. That was just bad etiquette. Sure, he wasn’t known for his etiquette, but becoming a princess does things to you. Lizzie had graciously taught him how to be nice to people, actually nice instead of whatever teasing thing he had going on with most people.

Most people had once been Scott. Joel thought back to how the game had gone so far. At the start, when the chains had led them to each other, he had been disgusted with the game's choice of team. It was almost a joke to him. Joel knew that the hatred was one sided, but he couldn’t help it if Scott was annoying to him. It was just the way it was, end of story.

But then, Scott had made a promise to him. He had promised to ‘not let him down’. Something about him had seemed off that day, like someone else was pretending to be him. Joel had let go of that suspicion right away, because he had never been one to believe in magical beings and fantastical plots. Even the potions and mobs could be explained logically somehow. Scott had had moments like that after the first day as well, where it was like someone else was controlling him.

Like when he kissed you. The small voice in the back of his brain told him. He tried not to think about that too much. It was before he was yellow, when they were just preparing for another night of mob fighting inside their house. Gunpowder was imperative for this game especially, since being the boogeyman was no joke. They had both stood together to walk out the door, when Scott had surged forward and given him a kiss on the lips. At first, Joel was stunned, but he had- regrettably- leaned into it.

After a moment, he pulled back. Joel's first response had been to half-yell at him ‘What are you doing?!’ to which the response had been ‘I didn’t mean too!’ and then the cyan haired man had run off to chase something Joel couldn’t see through the house. It was a strange night, to be sure, the way they had both avoided each other. Scott had tried to talk to him throughout the night and apologize, but Joel never let him. He was scared that Scott actually hadn’t meant it. It was ridiculous really, the amount of avoidance he had been doing-

“Earth to Joel!” Bdubs voice rang in his ear, snapping him out of his crush-ridden trance. He scowled at the shorter man -plant?- and snapped back.

“What?”

“Calm down, man,” Jimmy said from beside him, hand planted firmly on his shoulder. “He just wants to know if this flower works.” Bdubs held up a small blue flower, dark blue, in a clay pot. The top of it was circular, with quite a sunken down center that faded to yellow. It looked like the petal would be soft, and when he brushed his fingers against it, it was.

“What is it?” He asked, all anger gone from his demeanor. It was a nice flower, maybe even nice enough for Scott.

“Blue Morning Glory.” Bdubs shrugged. “Nice and blue, like him, and yellow, like you.” He smiled cheekily. Joel sent him a harrowing look, but considered it anyway. He hadn’t expected to be yellow this early in the season, but he couldn’t change it now. Maybe it would be nice to have a little bit of both of them in a flower, however cheesy that was. He glanced at the chains around his wrists when he reached out to hold the flower again.

“How fast can you get me a bouquet of these?” Bdubs just smiled and sped off. Jimmy chuckled next to him, leaning against a raised bed of potatoes. Joel sighed and started tapping his foot, not in an impatient way, but in an anxious way. The canary seemed to notice, because he furrowed his brows.

“You’ll be fine, yeah? Scott’s going to love it,” Jimmy reassured. Joel supposed that this meant something coming from the man’s ex-husband, but it didn’t do anything to clear up his worries. He started tapping his foot harder, trying to dispel some of the anxiety clouding his brain.

“I know that, it’s just…” He trailed off, gritting his teeth. One of Joel’s least favorite things was to talk about his emotions, but what better person was there? Grian? (He would actually be a viable option if he wasn’t so hung up over BigB today.) “I’m scared he’ll say no?”

It sounded like a question. It was not a question.

Jimmy shook his head. “He won’t. He cares about you, remember? He tells you he loves you all the time!”

“Platonically! Like friends! And I say I hate him first!” He didn’t mention that he only said he hated him because he knew Scott’s automatic response each time would be to say ‘I love you too, Joel’ in his annoyingly cute Scottish accent. He had stopped trying to avoid calling Scott cute in his mind by now, just letting his brain do its lovesick thing.

“Joel.”

“Jimmy.”

“I-” But he was cut off from whatever he was going to say by Bdubs bustling back into the room with a frankly huge bouquet. It was almost as big as his face, which both men could see smiling victoriously behind the flowers. He shoved them into Joel’s hands.

“What do I owe you?” He asked hurriedly, for he had just remembered that Scott had texted and asked to meet up.

“Later.” Jimmy waved him off before the plant-man could speak. “Go get yourself a boyfriend, yeah?”

Joel grinned his usual sarcastic grin, but now it was overshadowed by a hint of graciousness. “Will do.” And he walked out of the store as fast as he could, determined to show up fashionably late.

-----

Scott had just finished setting out the blanket and basket when Cleo came up to him, finished with their job of actually making food. Sure, Scott could have baked for him and Joel, but he would prefer not to eat burnt food on his date.

(Hopefully it was a date, hopefully Joel would see it that way.)

“Scott, you’ve adjusted that blanket five times now. It’s fine.” Cleo set down the plate of cookies, careful not to step on the blanket. He would have had to fix it again. It needed to be perfect for Joel, maybe to make up for all the times he had failed to be adequate. Pearl told him it was fine, none of them thought any less of him for knocking Joel down to his yellow life this early in the game, but it wasn’t everyone’s opinion he was worried about. It was one specific person.

“Thanks, Cleo, you’re amazing,” he sighed. She nodded to him and turned to leave, but caught sight of how distressed he looked.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, sitting on the grass next to him and putting their hand on his knee. He smiled and leaned against them little, relishing in how cold she always was. Being almost-dead had its perks, like constantly being cold.

“I’m scared he won’t like it,” he admitted, beginning to pick at the grass. Scott pulled a few strands out and pinched them between his fingers, rewarded with the small snap! Of the stems. “I’m scared he’ll say no, Cleo.”

“If he says no, he’s an idiot.” Blunt as always, Scott thought. “But I know he won’t say no, because he seems to find every excuse to hang out he can get. I haven’t seen you two interacting all that much, but I can tell your smitten-“

“Cleo!” He felt his face heat up. She did not have to point out how obviously in love he was.

“Aaand,” she smirked when she got a reaction out of him. “I bet he is too. You worry too much.”

“I really can’t help it, but fine. Now go away, he’ll be here soon!” He shooed her off, to which she huffed sarcastically and disappeared into the forest to the right.

Scott had set up in a field, specifically the one between their house (although Joel called it a castle) and the mountain range that boxed them in. Even though it was February, The Watchers had set up this world so it always had late summer weather. It was perfect for a picnic now, with the slight breeze in the afternoon air. Scott took off his cape, it was much too warm for that, and tucked it inside the basket. He sat down, expecting Joel to be coming from over the mountain or through the forest, when he was interrupted.

A date? Is this for the princess, Star?

“I told you, I don’t want you metaling in my love life. Go away.” Scott knew that wouldn’t work on the Speaker, but he had hoped that maybe today of all days they would be remorseful. He just needed a day, just one day-

I don’t think I will! They laughed, and Scott closed his eyes and groaned. So much for a peaceful picnic. This will be so fun to watch, you know. Maybe even shift the narrative to help you. Scott opened his eyes wide, and saw the small black form sitting on the blanket across from him. It doesn’t crease the fabric, they are just an illusion, but that doesn’t stop him from getting mad.

“If you even try anything with us, I will personally march down to hell after this game and strangle you, you little shit.” He didn’t actually know where they resided, but hell was a good guess. Their invariably open mouth widened into some sort of beastly smile, and the Speaker showed off their sharp teeth. It was unnerving, but he made no move to show how it affected him. He was about to open his mouth to say something else when he heard a far away curse and a thump in the woods, so he settled for sending them a glare and mouthing ‘go away’ before getting up.

Joel was at the edge of the trees, wiping off his skirts and grumbling something about flowers. As far as Scott could tell, he had tripped over the rock cluster that he had definitely warned him about before. He couldn’t hold back a small giggle, which made Joel’s head shoot up to look at him. Scott could see the fear in his eyes as he started bumbling about, looking for something, which only made him laugh harder.

“This isn’t how it was supposed to go!” Joel grumbled, looking under his feet. Scott tried to keep from laughing again as he strutted closer. He continued to watch the yellow life look for something, mumbling things under his breath before he made a small ‘aha!’ noise and bent over to bring something out from behind the rock he had tripped over.

Scott had to hold in a gasp when a -frankly gorgeous- bouquet was retrieved and Joel looked back at him with the flowers in his hands. He thrust them forward, trying to avoid his eyes. Scott took them in his hands, observing the flowers with his eyes and his hands. The circular flowers were soft. He traced the gradient on them with his eyes, from a light yellow to a dark sky blue. He looked back at Joel and smiled. The other man was looking down and tapping his foot, a nervous habit Scott had noticed in the past. He also noticed that a fierce blush covered his face.

“I- um…” Joel trailed off, trying to find words. Scott waited patiently. “I don’t know if you know what today is, but -um- it’s Valentine's Day, and I brought you flowers because I wanted to… to ask you something, and it’s important…”

Scott realized that Joel was dancing around the topic, but he had a pretty good idea of what it was. He himself had acquired a light flush. Joel wasn’t getting to it anytime soon, so Scott decided to speed all of this up. “Do you want to go on a date with me?”

He regretted it when Joel groaned and put his hands on his face. “I was doing so good!”

“No offense, hon, but you weren’t.” Joel’s ears, the only part Scott could see of his face, flushed an even darker pink. He giggled. “These are really nice flowers by the way, where did you get them?”

“Food Crew Bakery.” Joel dragged himself out of his hands, forcing himself to look at Scott. He smiled back sweetly, hoping it would have some effect on the man, but he just crossed his arms. “Yes.”

This made Scott falter a little. “Yes… what?”

“Yes, I will go on a date with you.” He seemed to be trying not to be too excited about it, but Scott could see through his charade. He had spent enough time with Joel to know when he was trying to hide his emotions, positive or negative. He had this vision of himself, like he was this badass guy who didn’t ‘need’ to feel anything, but Scott could easily break it when he and Joel lay in bed and talked late into the night. They were both the type to get ‘sleep drunk’ and tended to forget half of what they told each other, but that didn’t mean that all of it wasn’t put to use.

Like last week, Joel had told Scott that he loved chocolate cookies but was disappointed that the only cocoa beans had been taken in the beginning days of the new world. Hence, Cleo’s cookies.

“Great!” Scott grabbed Joel’s hand, flowers clutched tightly in the other. “I have a spot for us!”

“R-right now?” Joel stumbled, his skirts ruffling together to create a plastic-y sound. Scott looked back at him and smiled.

“Of course! When else?”

Joel stopped for a minute, mouth slightly open, looking up at Scott. He could only assume what was going through his head, but he didn’t want to think too hard about it. Instead, he pulled him up and started walking again, side by side this time.

-----

Joel could not believe his luck. Not only had Scott said yes (technically he had said yes himself, but let's not get into the technicals), but he had a pre-planned date set up for them! He had tried to hide his excitement, but some had leaked through. Scott didn’t seem to mind though, so he assumed it was fine.

Scott pulled him up from where he had stumbled to the ground, smiling down at him graciously. The sun backlit his head, acting like a halo around the mess of cyan hair. It was a sight to see, and Joel couldn’t stop thinking about how fucking gorgeous the elf had looked until they actually got to the date sight.

It was in a nice grassy spot in the middle of the field, void of rocks or roots. A pink picnic blanket was set up, with a basket in one corner and a plate in the middle. Scott gestured to one side of the blanket, glaring at the other end before promptly sitting on it. Joel gave him a suspicious look but ultimately ignored it, instead sitting down where instructed.

“When did you set this all up?” He wondered aloud, unconsciously fixing his skirts. It was something he had seen Lizzie do bunches and picked up.

“Probably while you were picking up these flowers.” Scott set the flowers down on the ground, gracefully plucking a single one from the bunch and tucking it into his hair, right behind his pointed ear. Joel thought it looked right, woven into his hair like that.

Scott drew their attention to the plate in the middle of them. Joel’s eyes widened when he saw the chocolate cookies, glancing back up to see a satisfied smile on the others face. “How did you know these are my favorites?”

“You mentioned it last week when we were up late.” Scott shrugged, as if remembering an insignificant detail about someone while half out of it was a normal thing to do. “I got them from Cleo.”

“Thank you.” Joel reached out and took one, biting down on it and letting the flavors play over his tongue. It was something he hadn’t had in a while, and he missed it dearly. He chewed, letting out a noise of happiness before clamping a hand over his mouth. Scott was looking at him like he was some kind of mob mutant, and he flushed out of embarrassment. “Sorry…”

“No!” Scott grabbed his free hand. “No, it was cute. Don’t apologize.” It most definitely was not cute, Joel thought, because he would do almost anything for Scott, so he shut his mouth and kept eating. He didn’t fail to notice how they were still holding hands. After a few minutes, he tried to strike up conversation again. “How did you know I was going to ask you out?”

Over the next few hours, they settled into comfortable conversation. More food was brought out through it, and they ate as they talked. They spoke about everything from their favorite things to what they felt about each other (a subject Joel wasn’t very good at, but working on). Scott told him about how his past seasons had gone, and Joel told him about what he was working on in his current home in Hermitcraft. They talked about irrelevant things, things that neither would remember about each other but they would sure try.

It was shifting from afternoon to evening when they finally quieted down, and the cooler air of the night started settling in. Joel had ended with his head in Scott’s lap, with his finger sifting through his loose hair. Scott was leaning back on his other hand, relaxed and looking up towards the sky. They sat in silence for a minute, just enjoying each other's presence.

It was all ruined when Joel shivered, bringing up his hands to rub at his arms. The thin cotton of his shirt did nothing against it. The fingers in his hair stopped and Scott grabbed something and pushed him to sit up. He did, reluctantly, and something soft was draped around his shoulders. He grabbed at it and felt the long flowing fabric. It was easy to figure out what it was.

“But you’ll be cold without your cloak!” He objected, trying to give it back. Scott just smiled at him and placed his hands on his shoulders, keeping it in place.

“I’ll be fine.”

They sat there again, and in that time Joel leaned against Scott’s shoulder. The elf started whispering a few seconds later.

“I don’t think I can pinpoint the moment I fell for you.” Joel closed his eyes and listened to him talk. “It was an eventual thing. One day I would admire your hair, then I would notice how you would react when I said I loved you, and I you were just always there…”

“I think I can.” Joel spoke up softly. He had fallen into the habit of talking softer around Scott, less carefully and more of just speaking his mind. He trusted him. “Pinpoint a moment, I mean.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I think it was when I died and went yellow.” The shoulder he was leaning on flinched slightly. “I was so… mad at you and you still tried to make me feel better. Why do you think I wear my hair in a braid now?” He smiled at the memory.

“I remember.” Scott said softly. “I just wanted to see you happy.”

“I’m happy now.” He replied. Joel sat up and reached up to Scott’s hair, tucking a price behind his ear. “I’m guessing you see that plenty.” His hand settled on Scott’s cheek, and he felt him lean into it.

“I can tell. You're not very good at hiding your emotions around me, you know.”

“I can be soft when I need to be.”

“What if I want the strong, uncaring side of you?” Scott asked, but from the way he said it, it was a lie.

“I don’t think you do, babe.” Scott opened his eyes, and Joel bit his lip. He had not meant for the pet name to slip out, it had just felt so natural. He almost took it back before Scott’s look of shock fell into one of satisfaction. He subconsciously rubbed his thumb against Scott’s cheek.

“Your right, honey-“ Scott was making fun of him, but the name still struck a part of his mind and made him smile. “I like this side of you.”

-----

The stupid little shits that whispered in his ear were doing it again. Scott had been trying to avoid them for the night, tried to pretend not to see them out of the corners of his vision or when they whispered in his ear things he would never repeat, thank you very much.

But now, as he and Joel were having a sweet moment, being all cute together, was when they messed with him the most. Throughout their time sitting up together, half of everything he could hear was the words ‘kiss him’ and they weren’t coming from the back of his mind. Maybe some of them were, but not most of them. The words teetered on the edge of power, but not quite yet.

It was getting hard to think straight by the time he called Joel ‘honey’. The words in his mind seemed to overflow, becoming just part of his thoughts. There were more voices, which seemed impossible, there was only one Speaker as far as he knew. So he decided to take action before they commanded him too.

A quite large part of him wanted it too, so it was likely a good idea anyway.

“Can I kiss you?” He blurted out, a little louder than he meant to. Still, it was worth it to see Joel’s face go red and have him nod. He leaned in, the voices quieting for a moment. His arms found their way around Joel’s neck and his hands were on Scott's face. When he leaned in, their noses were almost touching, he whispered. “Are you sure?”

“Oh, bloody-“ Joel cut himself off, pulling Scott’s face forward and connecting their lips.

Joel kissed like he argued, or at least he did today. It was hurried, like they would lose each other any second. It was warm, certainly not from the cold air around them. It was wild, unpredictable how their lips would move together next. Scott tried to calm it down, and eventually they found a rhythm together. Joel had calmed down as well, going slower with him, although he was still unpredictable.

Scott had lost his breath the moment Joel kissed him for the first time, but now he actually needed to pull away. He did, with his arms still around the others neck to keep from falling backwards. He took a few breaths and giggled. “Anyone ever told you you're a really good kisser?”

Joel shut his still slightly open mouth and blushed. “Shut up.”

“Oh, I think you know exactly how to make me do that.” His normally flirty demeanor had come back in full swing, after hours of sweet nothings it felt nice to return to his normal self.

Joel did shut him up, pulling them back into a heated kiss. This one lasted longer than the other one, maybe because Scott had more breath this time around, or maybe because he didn’t want to let go. His arms never moved from around the other’s neck, but Joel’s hands had shifted from his cheeks to one on the back of his neck and the other on the nape of his shoulder.

When Joel broke them apart this time, he was breathing heavily. Scott giggled best he could when he was out of breath. “We should do this again.”

“The date or- huff- or the kissing?” Joel asked.

“Both sound good to me.” Scott released his arms from around the others neck, but moved his hands so one was on his knee and the other was on his shoulder. Joel smiled for a moment, before worry crossed over his face.

“Oh no.”

“What is it?” Scott was sent into a momentary panic before Joel moved his hands to take the flower out from behind his ear, showing it in its damaged state.

“I ruined it.” He looked genuinely sad, and it almost made Scott laugh for a second before he took the torn flower (it had probably been ruined when they kissed) and placed it on the blanket below them. He twisted and took two flowers out of the bouquet, tucking one behind his ear and then one behind Joel’s ear.

“Now we match.” He could tell Joel was holding in his own laugh now.

“That was so cheesy.”

“But you liked it!” Scott practically sing-songed.

“I did.” Joel smiled at him genuinely. “I really did.”

Neither made it back inside before they fell asleep, mumbling nonsense as they lay next to each other.

-----

Two women high-fived from their place in their tower when they saw both men take their place in the afternoon. Now they watched the stars together, and one pointed out that they were both still there.

“I like to think that we brought this together,” Pearl said, angling herself towards the moon. Lizzie chuckled softly.

“I think they would have gotten there on their own,” she replied, bumping Pearl's shoulder with her own. She earned a sigh from the moth hybrid, and glanced over at her with a grin.

“Forever the optimist.” But Pearl grinned back, bumping their elbows together. “They were so dumb for each other, I don’t think they would have.”

“Reminds me of you and a certain other girl,” Lizzie poked, reminding Pearl of her failed proposal (she hadn’t been rejected, she had just procrastinated it so long that the day was over and she hadn’t done anything).

“We aren’t dumbly in love, I’d say I’m very smartly in love, thank you.” Pearl turned away again. “Isn't this supposed to be about them anyway?” She gestured to the figures on the blanket. It was hard to tell now, but they seemed to be leaning on each other.

“We should give them privacy,” Lizzie suggested.

“That we should.” Pearl popped out of the window and back onto her bed. She sat there for a second as Lizzie sat daintily on the edge of hers. “We make a good team.”

“Maybe we should become the love princesses or something!” Lizzie exclaimed, drawing a laugh out of Pearl. She ignored the fact that she was a prince to nod and smile at the other girl's excitement.

“We could work on Grian and BigB next.”

Both girls talked late into the night, excited about their matchmaking prowess. Afterall, if they had gotten one couple together, why not the rest?

-🌻

I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS SO MUCH AAAAAAJ KFKDBXFJDJ!!!!! The romance is so good!!! I love all your damsel duo writing so much!!Despite all the glorious romance some parts had me laughing out loud, like Joel’s recollection of the ‘NOW KISS’ scene and the moment when Scott was shooing away the Speaker and said he’d ‘personally march down to hell and strangle them’ was very very funny.

I really like that you’ve kept things consistent with your other fanfics and all the small details I’ve mentioned in past posts, like Joel keeping his hair braided on his yellow stage.

I feel like I can’t truly express my appreciation for all the effort you have put in for all the writing you’ve done, especially for this one(like 4662 words is insane). So just thank you.

Expect some drawings of this at some point because I’m gonna be brainrotting over this for the next few days.

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