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necrokittytales · 5 years

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Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 29)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font. If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here. NSFW here!

(A long time coming - sorry about this, totally on SPKC for this one - got nailed by life in general. An extra long, action packed chapter to make up for it!)

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“What is taking him so long?!” Sullivan said, dress up in a blue Hawaiian shirt, a white cap and white shorts. “It’s only been like five minutes! Calm down already. You’re making me nervous,” Hilda snapped. She was similarly disguised, wearing a white cloth on her head, red sunglasses and a white dotted red dress.

Carlos had told them he would get the tickets and asked them to wait for him near the bridge to the third isle. The waiting was starting to make both of them antsy but Sullivan’s whining was the straw to break Hilda’s back if he kept yapping. Thankfully, after a few more minutes, Carlos returned. He walked calmly towards them with a big smile on his face.

"Finally!” Sullivan yelled, “What took you so long?” “You can’t rush love, mi amigo…” The cat said, holding two tickets. Sullivan and Hilda looked at each other, preferring not to ask any more questions and just took the tickets. “Two tickets…So you’re not coming?” the salamander asked. “I will accompany you, my friend, but I don’t need one to get in,” he assured with a wink. They arrived at the hive and got in the line for the visitors. When they arrived at the door, a very slim male bee asked to see their tickets. Sullivan and Hilda showed theirs. The bee turned to Carlos who smiled charmingly at the bee. “I’m here for Beatrice,” the cat informed him. The bee narrowed his eyes. “…There’s 235 Beatrice’s in this hive, sir…” “I’m here for THE Beatrice,” Carlos repeated. The bee opened his eyes wide. “THE Beatrice?” Carlos nodded, smiling even more. “…A moment, please.” He stepped behind the reception desk and made a phone call. The three saw the look of surprise in the receptionist’s face. He hung up the phone wordlessly before returning to the group. “..eh… Mr. Buenaventura?” “At your service.” The cat tipped his hat. “.. She’s asked for you to wait for her at the Main Hall,” he said, still looking at the cat, skeptical. “Muchas gracias!” Carlos waved and walked, whistling happily next to the other two, who were as surprised as the receptionist. They entered the hive and quickly followed the group of tourists before finally arriving in a circular hall as tall as several stories of the hive. There was buzzing sounds and movement everywhere they looked. The visitors group gathered in the center and four guards accompanied them. A very small female bee greeted the tourists and started explaining the history of the hive. Sullivan and Hilda tried to remain behind the group and be as discreet as possible as they tried to figure out where the prison was. After the speech was over, the guide asked the group to move forward to a corridor that would take them to the honey factory. “Vaya! That was surprisingly interesting,” Carlos said, happy to have learnt something new. “Say, how much do we owe you for the tickets?” Sullivan asked, grateful. “Your friendship!” Carlos replied patting him in the back. “I would do anything to help love soar. Now you two go ahead and save your loved ones, and live your happily ever after!” Sullivan’s eyes brightened. “Thank you, Carlos! I will never forget this!” He shook his hand. Hilda rolled her eyes. “Happily ever after…pff…” She mumbled, crossing her arms and blushing slightly. “Carlos!” A female voice called from behind the hispanic cat. The cat turned around to see an impressive bee fluttering toward him. “Oh! There you are my beautiful sunshine!” He greeted the large female bee guard wearing her uniform. “Sorry I made you wait.” “No need to apologize, it was actually very instructive,” he explained, gesturing to the tour group. The bee looked at her wrist watch. “I only have an hour before I need to go back to work…” “Then let us not waste time!” He offered her his arm and walked towards the mess hall. Carlos turned and shot a wink at Hilda and Sullivan before disappearing into the crowd. “Hey! Keep up or you’ll be kicked out” One of the guards flanking the tour group yelled at Sullivan and Hilda, forcing them to return back to the group.

____

Amber bounded through a beautiful field full of catnip. She wasn’t sure how she arrived here but it was a welcome respite from her ordeal in the hive. The wonderful sun felt warm on her fuzzy body and she couldn’t help but rejoice in this new experience. She pounced and leapt and napped. This was the best day ever! She thought it couldn’t get any better when a dark shadow rose over from behind. She turned around to see a very monstrous looking Cagney. “I’m gonna to eat you!” He roared. Her eyes went wide. “No! No! Don’t eat me!” She tried to run away but found she couldn’t move. She looked down to see the field was turning to mud under her feet. She tried to run faster only for his large gnarled hands to seize her. She waved her paws pathetically. “Wait, wait! I’m not very tasty! I’m all fur!” “You’ll be a delicious pussy!” He growled as he lifted her up in the air above his face. She almost groaned at the pun…until she realized it wasn’t a pun. The flicking of his tongue between her legs made her tail shoot straight up. “Wait, wait!” Amber shrieked, pushing down her suddenly way too short skirt.

He continued to lash at her entrance and she bucked and squirmed helplessly. “Ooh, uh wait? No, a little to the right. Yeah, ah!” Amber mewled starting to enjoy the attention. She threw her head back and felt something sharp poke her. Amber woke up with a startled gasp, looking around wildly. When she realized she wasn’t being stabbed, she sighed. “Just a dream. Just a really messed up dream!” She exhaled, trying to shift only to find herself unable to do so. She looked down to see a pair of green, leafy limbs wrapped around her body, holding her snuggly. She glanced behind her to see Cagney dead asleep to the world, snoring. Was he…cuddling her? That was kinda cute? He was mumbling something about a blimp and rubbing his petals into her back, every now and then poking her with a thorn. That thorn part was less cute. She remained where she, scrunching her nose as she couldn’t remember why they were here together. There was a knock at the door and Amber jerked fully awake as Cagney groaned. Holy crap, how could she forget? They were in the hive. Queen Rumor’s hive, to be precise. And it was quickly becoming a dangerous place to be for anything non-insect.

Although Cagney would probably disagree with that statement, she remembered, spotting the bandanna around his neck. It was imbued with some form of magic curse that turned this flower into a mindless vegetable, subservient to the crazy Queen. The Queen would be most displeased to find the feline here within Cagney’s quarters and Amber did not want to stick around to find out what punishment would lie in store for her. “Gotta go, stay safe, Cagney,” Amber whispered, wriggling out of his grip as the door started to unlock. She climbed up the wall into the rafters just as the door opened. Cagney felt around and blinked unsuredly. “Amber?” He asked. The cat was gone.

Rumor opened the door slowly, holding the scepter tightly in her hand “..Sorry for waking you up,” she spoke coldly, glancing at the salted water and locking the door behind her. “Just came here to check on you.” She pointed her scepter at the water and turned it back to dirt.

Cagney brightened considerably at seeing the bee. “Good morning, Rumor…it’s morning, right?” He stood up, still hesitant eyeing what used to be the salt water. “Listen, I kinda want to apologize for what happened yesterday. When I’m in that form, I don’t have the best control and it just really wrecks my ability to think.”

Rumor’s heart melted at the carnation’s apology, but she kept her cool facade. “You’ve turned into that before?” She asked, a bit relieved that it wasn’t her bandanna's doing.

He nodded. “Yeah, one of the ‘perks’ when I traded my soul to look like this,” he gestured to his body. “It’s kind of my body’s way to defend myself if things get really bad…or if I get really angry.” He stretched. “Still wasn’t strong enough to stop Cuphead and Mugman when they collected our contracts,” he chuckled.

The Queen’s look softened. “Why where you angry before? Was it something I said?” She played the scene again in her head, blushing heavily.

He hesitated. “I don’t think it was anything you did. Maybe I was just anxious about becoming a royal gardener. I mean, do I have to make public appearances and stuff?” He asked.

“That’s what’s bugging you?” She smiled sweetly, getting close to him and taking his hands. “You just have to keep doing what you’ve been doing in your own garden. Except, in here… with me…” She got closer to his face, encouraging the plant to kiss her.

The carnation perked up at the touch of the bee and nuzzled her with his petals. “You’re a doll, Rumor,” he sighed happily. He eyed the spot on the bed that had been occupied just a few minutes before and brightened even more. “By the way, I really want to thank you for sending in your special service guard last night.”

Rumor’s soft look disappeared. “what are you talking about?”

Cagney nodded, not noticing the change. “Ya know, Amber. The cat I was fighting with? She came in and told me all about how you recruited her for the special guard thing ya had and how she was here to protect me.” “And I gotta admit, I never petted a cat before, but she was pretty soft. Definitely helped relieve some of my stress!” He exclaimed with a chuckle, “I don’t even know when we fell asleep but it was probably one of the best sleep I’ve had in a while! It was like holding a warm teddy bear. With teeth.” The carnation showed Rumor his hand where the cat had bit him. “She bites pretty hard if you touch the wrong spot. Gotta make sure to stroke correctly.” He pressed a kiss to Rumor’s cheek. “So, what’s the plan for today?” He asked cheerfully. He paused at the expression on her face. “Something I said?”

____

The Queen Bee stormed out of the room. “Guards! GUARDS!” She screeched loudly and almost instantly a couple of guards, armed with spears, appeared on the corridor. “Yes, my Queen!?” They both answered. “Seal the hive. Nobody gets in or out! Look for the small cat we caught the other day at the docks with Cagney, and bring me the responsible bee of the prisoner transfer to the camp!” The guards nodded and immediately flew to carry her orders. An alarm blared and the hive became a buzz with commotion with windows and gates quickly being sealed.

Cagney followed Rumor out, looking really confused. “But she was wearing one of these?” He pointed out, gesturing to his bandanna. He doubted Rumor could hear him.

Rumor turned to Cagney, even more confused and angry. “What? What did she tell you? What did you do in there?” Jealousy started to sting her heart. “My Q-queen!” Beatrice, the giant female bee guard, flew towards them, exhausted. “I-I’m sorry - I was-!” “Silence! Escort Cagney to my chambers. Nobody but me goes in or out!” Rumor yelled at the tired bee who nodded and made a sign for Cagney to follow her. “We’ll talk later” Rumor said to Cagney before flying down the corridor, leaving him alone with the bee.

____

“And that’s how we manufacture the delicious honey we all enjoy!” The small female guide announced, holding a jar of Rumor’s honey. “Are there any questions?”

Hilda and Sullivan seemed a bit traumatized by what they had seen but at the question of the tour guide, they quickly snapped out of it. “This is a waste of time,” Sullivan loudly murmured to Hilda. “We got to find a way to get out of the group!” As if an answer to his prayers, an alarm suddenly blared loudly throughout the hive. “Attention please! A fugitive has escaped. For your safety, please remain indoors and cooperate with the guards!” The bees started to fly in an organised fashion to their homes and places to shelter themselves. The tourist group though, started screaming and running to the nearest exits. The guards were trying to keep them together but they were too many to control. Hilda smiled, grabbed Sullivan’s hand and ran away from the group, back towards the main hall.

____

Cagney allowed the large guard bee to lead him away as Rumor flew off. He couldn’t help but notice the fur on her uniform. “I think you got some fur on your pants…and your chest,” he pointed out, realizing midway through his observation that this was probably not the time to be pointing this out to the clearly stressed out but yet simultaneously relaxed looking bee. He cleared his throat and changed the topic. “So, eh, any chance I could go looking for the intruder too?” He asked hopefully.

Beatrice immediately cleaned the fur from her uniform and cleared her throat, ignoring her red cheeks. “You heard the Queen. No one in, no one out” They reached Rumor’s office and the guard opened the door for Cagney, signaling him to enter. “I’ll be guarding the door."

Cagney entered the room only to hear it lock behind him. He turned around and tugged on the door knob uselessly. "I’m getting really sick of being the damsel in distress around here,” he grumbled. He looked around his surroundings, trying to see if there were another exit.

The big window that allowed the light to come in, was now sealed shut. The only light came from several small lamps hung around the room. The lamps illuminated the walls in Rumor’s chambers revealing them to be covered by books, perfectly arranged on the shelves. A few books were laid on the ground opened and stacked.

With no easy exit, and nothing else better to do, Cagney flopped himself down on Rumor’s bed and began to play with his petals. “Ugh, hopefully Rumor fixes things up so I can get out of here.” He hummed to himself, “Maybe I could make friends with some friendly woodland creatures or sing a song or…” He jerked back up. “Oh my God, I AM turning into a damsel!” He spotted Rumor’s patch of garden and gave a slight smile. “Well, at least that’s something.” He rooted himself within the dirt and started to strengthen himself, especially since he was still feeling pretty sapped from the salt water.

____

Having escaped the tour group, Hilda and Sullivan now looked around, trying to find a sign or some indication of where the prison cells were. Although there were thankfully no guards in sight, there was also nothing else but hundreds of bees flying in perfect lines to their shelters. “Arg! How can they live without any signs?!” Sullivan groaned in desperation. “Let’s just think for a second!” Hilda exclaimed. She paused and thought. “If you build a prison here, where would you put it?” Sullivan seemed to be thinking but before he could come up with an answer, Hilda spoke again. “Underground! No windows, only the doors you build, it’s perfect to lock up people!” She exclaimed. They found a set of stairs going down and they ran towards it. “I can’t help but be nervous that you were able to think of this so quickly!” Sullivan admitted as they descended, “and so enthusiastically…” he couldn’t help but add.

____

Amber ran like hell through the halls, using all four paws to propel her tiny furry body like a speeding bullet, whizzing past confused bees and tourists alike. Looks like Cagney had blabbed and very soon she wouldn’t have an exit. And without an exit, then it was only a matter of time before the guards found her. Then she might actually end up wearing a real piece of jewelry instead of the fake one she currently sported. One that turned her brain to mush. She scurried along the top part of the main hall but paused at the sound of a familiar voice.

Amber knew that voice. That was Sully! She saw him and an unfamiliar looking woman running toward the set of stairs leading into the dungeon and she nimbly leapt down behind them. “Hi, Sully! Looking for me?” She called out, striking a pretty pose.

Sullivan turned to the voice behind him and his eyes brightened at the sight of his beloved feline. “Amber!” He hugged her tightly. “I was SO worried about you! What did they do to you? Did they hurt you?” He asked, turning her around to look for wounds.

Amber allowed Sully to check her for wounds. “Aw, I’m okay! Nothing I can’t handle."

Hilda looked around, hoping to see her friend any second now. "Where’s Cagney?” Amber looked at the woman and realized who she was. “Oh….you’re Hilda, aren’t you?”

Hilda lowered her sunglasses to have a better look at the cat. “Have we met?”

“Officially? No. From what Cagney told me or, uh tried to tell me when he could,” Amber admitted, “I figured you had to be her."

She glanced aside and pulled them into a side hallway as a patrol buzzed by. She glanced at Sullivan. "This place is a looney bin, Sully. You shouldn’t have come, although it’s awfully romantic that you have,” she purred.

The salamander blushed. “Gee, well, of course I had to come. They took you without even hearing you out! It was all a misunderstanding.” He paused, looking at the patrol fly by. “Yeah, yeah, get a room!” Hilda snapped at them. “Where’s Cagney?” She hesitated. “…And what exactly did he say about me?” She asked, her curiosity stronger than her survival instinct.

Amber would have to break the news to Sully eventually. Especially considering there were nearly a 100 eye witnesses placing her at the scene of the crime, it was only a matter of time before he found out. But now was not the time. She turned to Hilda. “Well, last I saw, he was locked in his room. And do you wanna know what he said before or after he got brainwashed?” She asked, smoothing down her fur.

Hilda raised an eyebrow. “His room? Since when does he-brainwashed!? What are you talking about!?”

The cat groaned. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here. After we got arrested and tossed in jail, the Queen talked to Cagney and he must have pissed her off something royal-” she hated herself for the accidental pun- “Because the next morning, they came down to the prison talking about taking us to reprogramming camps or something like that.” She shuddered. “A lot of the bees are acting really weird, more weird than normal after they all went to this reprogramming thing so I busted us out. We were doing pretty well until we ended up in the Queen’s office and uh…Cagney couldn’t hide in time.”

Amber motioned for them to duck down with her behind a cleaning trolley. “It was the Queen and some scary ant lady. And guards. Lots of guards. She scampered down another hallway. "He and Rumor started yelling at each other until she made him put on this stupid cloth and the next thing I know he’s acting just as weird as those bees, going all gaga for the queen!”

Sullivan noticed the cloth on Amber’s neck. Before she could speak any further, he grabbed the feline and pinned her facing against the wall. Hilda nearly jumped in surprise. “What are you doing!? Has everyone gone insane today?!” She exclaimed, yanking off her glasses. “I’m so sorry!” The amphibian apologized profusely as he carefully removed the bandanna. “How do you feel now?” he asked once it was removed from Amber’s neck, “Are you still mind controlled?” Hilda facepalmed herself.

Amber turned bright red, feeling the salamander press into her from behind. “Sully, trust me I’d love to but now is not the time-oh!” She chuckled. “Oh, that’s just a cleaning rag I swiped from one of the janitorial trolleys! Fooled old grumpy petals last night into letting me crash the night with him so I didn’t get caught.”

Sullivan released Amber. “Oh boy! I-I-I’m so sorry!” He blushed and felt horrible for being so bold with her.

Amber’s face turned serious. “No, the real one doesn’t come off. And that’s a big problem. It’s messing with his mind. Every minute he’s starting to forget stuff. He’s having trouble remembering why he came here! He can’t even say your name anymore!”

Hilda felt a slightly jealous at twinge the mention of the cat sleeping with Cagney, but the thought quickly stepped away at the idea of her dumb weed forgetting completely about her. She shook away her thoughts, focusing on their situation and how dangerous it had quickly become. She paid more attention to the bees around them and noticed that the worker ones had a bracelet, while the higher ranking bees had bandannas around their necks. “The cloth must be more powerful than the bracelets,” Hilda concluded, talking more for herself than for them. She pulled off for her own cloth on her head and tied it around her neck. “Sullivan, wear the cat’s cloth! We’ll pretend we are brainwashed that we found the fugitive and we are on our way to deliver her to Rumor." She turned to Amber. "You think you can take us to Cagney?”

Amber nodded. “Yeah, I last saw him locked into the room. But there’s a good chance Rumor moved him to hers when the alarm went off.” Amber scratched her ears. “Which one do you want me to take you to?”

Hilda sighed, starting to get anxious. “I guess the best option is going to Rumor’s directly. That way if he isn’t there she might tell us where he is.” Sullivan nodded as he tied the fabric around his neck.

Amber nodded once more. “Okay, then hold onto me like you’re taking me prisoner and I’ll whisper directions to you."

Hilda, Sully and Amber traveled through the hive, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, which was rather hard to do when you were a human, a lizard and a cat in a hive full of bees. However, Hilda had that natural 'approach me and die’ look to her that deterred most bees from asking any questions and they were able to make it to Rumor’s door soon enough. As they neared the door - and the large bee guarding it - Amber’s fur suddenly went on end and she hissed.

"HALT!” The guard shouted. “ What’s going on here?” She demanded, extending her arm signaling them to stop. They obeyed but Sullivan couldn’t help but tremble, nervous at the sight of the imposing figure.

“We are taking the fugitive to Rumor” Hilda said, keeping her cool. Beatrice eyed them skeptically before looking at their bandannas. “Rumor is not here. Who gave you the order?” She growled. Hilda gulped but remained still. “Beatrice,” she said, knowing that there where more than 200 Beatrices living in the hive. “Beatrice who?” The bee started to reach to her gun. Hilda was about to reply 'Smith’ when Carlos appeared from another hallway. “Ah! Ahí estás, my sunshine! You left me wanting more,” he smiled charmingly, leaning against the door and waving a pair of handcuffs, one side still attached to his wrist. The large bee looked at him, surprised, and then reddened. “H-how…?” “I told you I was full of surprises,” he purred. He noticed the group and gave them a smile. “Is this the fugitive I keep hearing about?” “Y-yeah,” Beatrice admitted, “But, uh, I’m not sure~” “Great! Then YOU can turn off the alarm and WE can finish what we started.” He shook the cuffs, smiling mischievously. Beatrice was really tired of guarding the door. She took one more look at the group, trying to figure out if they were really brainwashed. “Who did you say gave you the order?” “Uhh..” Hilda was caught by surprise, but Sullivan quickly intervened. “Beatrice! You know… the one with the…” He did a gesture with his opened hand circling his face. The guard opened her eyes widely. “Oh! Beatrice Smith?” Hilda grunted. “I thought she had to leave because of the wax incident.” The bee mimicked the same gesture around her face. “Y-yeah, uh… ” “The fugitive hid in her home,” Hilda intervened, noticing Sullivan was running out of material. Carlos signaled Beatrice to get lower and whispered something in her ear. The group saw the bee blushing and they both started giggling. It was comical to see the large, tall bee being all cute with the smaller skinny cat. “Fine! Fine. You can leave the prisoner here.” She unlocked the door. “I’ll go call Rumor." Beatrice flew away through the corridor. When she was out of the way, Carlos applauded the trio. "Bravo! Bravísimo! Honestly, I never thought you were going to make it”

Amber cautiously watched Carlos. “What’s he doing here? Who is this?” She asked Sully as Hilda strode towards the door and fiddled with it

“He’s a friend, he helped us get in the hive,” Sullivan answered Amber, letting her go when the bee left. Carlos made a small bow and smiled charmingly.

Amber stuck close to Sully. “If you say so,” she acquiesced. Hilda opened the door with a shove, eager to see her friend again. “Cagney! Cagney?” She called out looking around the office and noticing the Queen’s chambers door open. Cagney’s head jerked toward the office at the familiar voice. “Hi-hello?” He tried, peeking out..

“Cagney!” Hilda smiled and ran towards him to give him a hug. “What are you doing in here?”

Cagney saw the slender woman running toward him and instinctively put out his hands to stop her from touching him. “Woah! Lady, ya can’t just run at a guy like that!” He cocked his head. “And how do you know my name? Have we met?”

Hilda stopped and looked at him, surprised, not really certain if he was joking or not. “How do I know your name? It’s me! Hilda!” She waited for his reaction. “Hilda Berg? The sky witch? Your best friend?”

Amber heard the shouting coming from the bed chambers and face palmed. “Oh shoot, it doesn’t sound like he remembers. Give me your bandanna, Sully.”

Sullivan gave Amber the fabric, wondering what she was planning to do. Cagney twitched at the name but he didn’t know why. His throat started to itch but he ignored it to keep looking at the woman. “Best friend?” He echoed before shaking his head. “Nah, Rumor and me are besties. You sure you don’t have your flowers messed up?” He asked, uprooting himself slightly.

“Wha…?” Hilda felt a knot starting to form in her throat. “I’M your bestie!” Tauros was starting to take room in the woman’s head. “You only like her because she’s a bee!”

Cagney scoffed. “Uh, no! She’s actually a very intelligent bee. And nice…when you know, she’s not turning dirt into salt water,” he admitted with a chuckle. Amber scampered in, wearing her bandanna. “Hi, Cagney!” Cagney looked past Hilda to see Amber. “Hey. Did you know Rumor’s looking for you?” His eyes hardened. “And did you also know she also says you’re lying about being a secret guard?” Amber pshawed. “Whhhattt? No way! If I was lying, why would I be here? Wouldn’t I be running away?” He raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you run away this morning?” Amber paused. Shoot. He had a point. She broke into a wide smile. “Seems like you’re having a really stressful day so far!” “You can say that again. Rumor’s furious, this broad says I’m her friend,” Cagney jutted a thumb at a disbelieving Hilda, “And no one’s explaining anything.” Amber crept a little closer. “Would you like to pet the kitty?” She offered. The carnation’s eyes lit up. “Really?” “You can even pet the belly!” Amber insisted. “That would be great!” “Excellent, just reach down, yes that’s it, rub the belly,” Amber coaxed as Cagney reached down to pet her. Just as he was about to touch her belly, she latched on, nails out and sank her teeth into his hand. He swore and ripped Amber off of his arm. “Goddammit, Amber! That fucking hurt!” He turned toward Hilda and demanded, “Hilda, what the hell?! Did you know she was going to do that?!”

Sullivan looked unbelieving what Amber was doing, and Carlos laughed at the trick, for it reminded him of the many times it helped him get out from a sticky situation.

Hilda smiled at him. “You DO remember me, you dumb dandelion!” She couldn’t help but hug him tightly.

The carnation felt like a ton of bricks hit him as the memory of who Hilda was came back heavy and strong. “Hilda?!” He wrapped his leaves around her tightly and returned the hug. “Aw man, I’m so happy to see you!”

The cat and the amphibian looked surprised as the Carnation seemed to recover his memory.

“Cagney we gotta get out of here!” The witch grabbed his hand pulling him to the door. “And take that bandanna off!” She managed to keep her voice steady, terrified her friend would forget her again.

The carnation couldn’t help but snuggle her hand, blowing off the tightness in his throat. “You can say that again. All I did was come here to ask Rumor for help but… Rumor!” He suddenly remembered where they were and he stopped snuggling her. “Hilda, Rumor’s nuts!” He insisted.

“And you just noticed now?” Hilda chuckled. “You can tell me all about it later! C'mon!” She pressed on.

Cagney stopped following Hilda. “I’m serious. She’s never been acted like this before.” He pulled away from her and grimaced. “Something’s really wrong and I can’t figure out why because I can’t think straight! And every time I try to think about it, it just hurts more, Hilda!” He grabbed his head with both hands. “Why does it hurt so much to try to say your name!? Or even think about you?!”

“Cagney!” Hilda drew close to him, not sure what to do. It was painful to see him like this. It reminded of her when she found out about the constellations living in her head.

Amber hesitantly eyed Cagney as he looked almost frantic. She psst the other cat, trying to get his attention.

Carlos ear twitched and looked at Amber curious.

Amber pointed to her neck and made a pulling motion toward Cagney, hoping the other cat would get the hint as the carnation proceeded to become more panicked by the second.

Carlos nodded at Amber and discreetly came closer to the carnation as he struggled with his thoughts. He got in position and waited for Amber’s signal.

“Cagney,” Hilda said softly, noticing the cats moving closer. “I know what it is to have a mess in your head. Just, uh, think about something that made you very happy. Like, eh, the first day of spring? Or uh…” She was getting really nervous as he started gasping. “I don’t know! Mineral water? Focus on that!”

“Mineral water?? Are you kidding me right now?” He gaped at her, “What kind of stupid idea is that?” His eyes widened as the bandanna tightened and he fell to his knees, choking. One of his arms reached back toward the soil in the room. “Now, now, now! Before he touches the dirt!” Amber yelled pouncing on the carnation with Carlos, trying to rip off his bandanna. The carnation plunged his hands in the soil and immediately started changing form with a snarl. He flung the cats off and turned on Hilda with a glare. “You’re just using me, just like she said you would. Just like you always do!” He sneered.

Hilda stepped back frightened. Her heart broke to see the hatred in his best friend’s eyes… again! “Cagney, what are you saying?” She felt Tauros wanting to take control in her mind.

He tried to continue speaking but any further speech Cagney had been capable of vanished as he continued to warp into his monstrous form. Carlos shook his head and saw the flower growing bigger. “I think it’s time to leave now!” He suggested, hopping to his feet. Sullivan immediately came to aid Amber. “You ok? Where does it hurt? ” He worriedly asked.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Amber groaned. She unsteadily got to her feet with Sullivan’s help and turned to see the carnation approaching a scared Hilda, the bandanna still snugly around his neck. She looked around for something but saw nothing she could chuck at him. “Kick his ass!” She finally shouted at the woman. The carnation turned away from Hilda at the sound of her voice, sharp teeth exposed.

“You ALWAYS have to ruin EVERYTHING!” The group turned to see Rumor screaming as she barged through the door, glaring daggers at Hilda. Beatrice and a bunch of other guards accompanied the queen and took positions surrounding the intruders.

Sullivan stood between the nearest guards and Amber, extending his arms to protect more with his body. Carlos, used to these kinds of situations, remained calm and discreetly tried to approach Beatrice. “Rumor! What did you do to him!?” Hilda shouted pointing at the monstrous carnation. “I opened his eyes, Hilda! You can no longer control him, you manipulative witch! He’s FREE!” Rumor shouted, waving her scepter and throwing a strange purple sphere towards her. Hilda dove behind Rumor’s desk, barely managing to dodge it in time. The sphere exploded just inches where she was standing before, leaving a burnt mark on the floor. She popped her head out from under the desk. “You fucking crazy BEEch!” She shouted, surprised that she would blast her without a second thought. She knew they weren’t good friends, but they never fought this serious before. “Seriously!? Bee puns? Now?” Rumor answered angrily and, very bothered by it, threw another sphere, destroying her own desk. “Jesus Christ, Rumor! Did you brainwash yourself too?!” Another blast from the queen’s scepter forced her to jump near Cagney. “Snap out of it, Cagney! Do something” The meteorologist pleaded with the huge flower. “Oh! Good idea!” Rumor chuckled maliciously, flying in the air and waving her scepter, pointing to the ground. "Do something, Cagney. Get rid of the intruders!” A bright blast turned the floor into dirt. All the bees started to fly in place, avoiding contact with the ground.

"Oh shit.“

That was all Amber managed to get out before large green tendrils shot out from the newly formed ground and seized Hilda, Sully, Amber and Carlos, hoisting them into the air. The intruders struggled to free themselves, trying to unwrap the vines around them with minimal success. Cagney chuckled darkly and looked toward Rumor, as if waiting for her next order.

Hilda had a déjà vu feeling. She couldn’t hear the constellation’s voices but she could definitely feel their panic. All except Tauros. He filled the woman’s body with enough anger and adrenaline to keep struggling. "So we’re doing this again, you overgrown weed!?” Hilda was so scared that she allowed Tauros to take over. “Well, this time I’m not holding back!” But when she was about to turn she realized nothing was happening. She looked down at herself. “What the-?!” “Hahaha!” Rumor laughed. “What’s the matter, witch? No sky to drain power from?” She delighted herself to see the woman powerless between her lover’s grasp. She flew closer to Cagney and sweetly stroked his petals. “We do make a great team! Right, Cagney?” She gently kissed him making sure Hilda was watching.

The witch’s heart broke into pieces and her eyes started to get glassy. “You… fucking… is all this just to get at me somehow!? IT’S NOT MY FAULT HE DOESN’T LOVE YOU! You-you-” “Oh! But he DOES love me, Hilda. He ALWAYS did. But you kept luring him away from me! For your own benefit! Always taking advantage of his kind heart” She turned to the flower. “But now he sees the truth, what you really are. And what I really am…” She almost whisper tenderly to the carnation, stroking gently his petals.

Cagney leaned into Rumor’s touches, the bee knowing exactly where to touch on the monstrous flower’s petals to entice him further. At the sound of Hilda shouting, he turned toward the distraught woman and paused briefly, something flickering in the back of his mind at how upset she was. His vines loosened ever so slightly on the prisoners.

“Alright, screw this,” Amber finally growled, freeing her front paws. She grabbed the vine wrapped her chest and bit down on it as hard as she could, drawing sap. Cagney roared and smashed the cat through the honeycomb wall leading to the next room. He lurched himself blindly toward the new opening of the wall. Rumor attempted to hold him still but this only led to him shaking himself wildly, knocking the gloating Queen out of the air and into her flying soldiers. The scepter flew out of the bee’s hands and clattered to the floor, shooting out a stray purple laser. It narrowly missed Hilda’s head, instead searing and blasting a large portion of the ceiling clean off. Large chunks of roof like honeycomb crashed down on everyone in the room, pinning some of the vines down and scattering the soldiers. The carnation could see nothing but red even with the sun now shining down on them. He whirled on everyone else left and opened his mouth, revealing very large sharp teeth. More appendages sprouted up and restrained both bee and mammal alike now.

“Amber!” Sullivan shouted, struggling to get out of the flower’s tendrils. He bit and scratched, but his tiny fangs and claws barely sunk into the monstrous carnation’s skin, and only made him tighten his grip, making it more difficult for the amphibian to breath. Carlos, feeling the loosened grip and taking advantage of the chaos, decided to follow Amber’s way and bit the vine as hard as he could before being thrown against the wall near the entrance door. Hilda’s eyes widened at the view of the sky and felt the constellations getting stronger. Her eyes and bracelets shone brightly and a thick mist started to cover her body and the rest of the room. “Let’s put an end to this!” The witch’s voice resonated like a thunder within the walls of the hive.

The carnation heard the loud boom of a voice and shot spiked vines toward the cloud of mist that billowed from where Hilda had been, leaving the rest of his captives trapped on the ground. The vines grabbed nothing but air as they attempted to seize where Hilda had been.

From the thick fog, a bull charged forward, avoiding the thorny vines, and headbutted the carnation. He recoiled after the impact, cackling, happy to finally be able to strike a blow. Rumor shook her head and looked at the transformed Hilda with horror. “Cagney! Stop her! Get her away from the sky!” She yelled, searching for her scepter.

Cagney reeled back from the impact, shaking his head as he saw stars. He looked around, slightly confused, but upon Rumor’s order, hardened his expression and attacked Hilda. He coughed and hacked up dandelions toward the rampaging bull, trying to knock her out of the air, flaring his petals angrily when he continued to miss.

Taurus kept avoiding the tumultuous dandelions with quick turns and swirls. “Hahaha! Looks like the bigger you are, the dumber you get! You’ll never hit me with those! But I bet I can hit YOU!” Taurus did a swirl, creating a strong draft that flipped the dandelions back toward Cagney. A few of the dandelions hit some of the guard bees as well as Sullivan, who started to feel dizzy and confused. Carlos withdrew a knife from his coat and started hacking his way toward the scepter, dipping and ducking under dandelions. Rumor buzzed her wings rapidly, creating a draft to shoo dandelions away but still found herself struggling to completely get out of the tendril’s grasp.

A couple dandelions hit Cagney right in the kisser and he grew very disoriented, inadvertently releasing whatever captives he had retained. “Stop moving!” He yelled, his voice strained, even as he rocked back and forth, trying to keep his balance. He winced as something cut him again and took a wild swing in the direction of the attack.

Carlos got hit by the swing of the vine, knocking him against Rumor making both to fall down.“Ouch! Perdone, señorita!” Carlos apologized only to be pushed by the angry Queen. Taurus groaned.“Oh! NOW you remember me!” Noticing the flower’s confusion, Hilda saw her chance to get the bandana and flew quickly around Cagney’s head. To make sure the flower would stay disoriented, she flew in circles several times to confuse him even more. With each turn she drew closer and closer. “Don’t worry, Cags! I’ll get you out of this!”. “What are you doing!?” The queen shouted at her guards. “Get her! Don’t let her get close to Cagney!” Most of the bees were still disoriented. They tried, without success, to chase the fast cloud turning in circles, confusing them even more.

“Beat this!” Cagney snapped, plunging his hands back into the soil. Large vines shot up from all around, effectively surrounding and closing around him until it was almost a cactus like cocoon. He continued to cackle from inside his makeshift fort.

“Oh! You bastard,” Taurus groaned but his mouth turned into a twisted grin. “Let’s put you to the test. How much can you take?” The mist grew thicker again around Hilda’s body and turned into a giggling Gemini. “Fair warning!” They spoke in unison towards everybody. “Get out while you still can!” And with a sinister laughter, Gemini created a golden sphere that started shooting projectiles in all directions, most of them hitting Cagney’s cocoon, leaving some significant burnt marks.

Sullivan was still disoriented, but at the warning he started calling out for Amber.

Amber stirred awake in the next room at the sound of her name. She limped back over to the hole she was flung through and peeked inside. Her eyes widened at the chaos as projectiles, vines and bees flew in all directions.

She spotted a disoriented Sullivan and grabbed him by his shirt before dragging him back through the hole. She waved her paw in front of his face. “Hey? You okay? What’s wrong?” She worriedly asked, not liking how confused he look. She continued to snap fingers at Sullivan, growing increasingly worried when he didn’t respond. “Hey! You in there or not?!”

Sullivan started to recover. “A-Amber? You ok!?” He grabbed her by the shoulders. “You gotta get out of here!” He looked around trying to find a way out.

Amber nodded along with Sullivan. She looked around the room they had been launched into and scowled when she realized there were no other exits. That crazy bee really did have everything sealed off.

“Ay! Otra vez no!” Carlos lamented, helping a confused Beatrice to dodge some projectiles. Rumor was livid, having been the painful recipient of quite a few golden shots. She clenched her fist, seeing red. “Kill her! KILL HER!” She ordered finally reaching for her scepter. “YOU WON’T TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME AGAIN!"

The least disoriented bees started to wonder about their queen’s sanity. The way she was yelling orders, not caring for their safety was unlike the monarch. Even Beatrice, one of her most loyal bees was starting to have her doubts about whether or not she should follow the orders.

When the last of Hilda’s projectiles finished firing, the cactus cocoon crumbled, revealing a large hole. Before Gemini could react, Cagney emerged from the dirt behind them and seized the women with his hands. He was fairly beaten up, the fiery ball of death having done its job well and damaging everything - including all the plant material that was part of him. He stared at Gemini, a confused but still upset expression on his face. "Turn back into Hilda,” he finally panted.

Gemini struggled in the flower’s grip and the mist surrounded them. Cagney felt how the delicate figures merged into one and suddenly he had to tighten his grip to the feeling of something trying to burst out of his hands. The mist cleared and in front of the flower was Sagittarius trying to push the carnation’s hands apart with his powerful hooves. “Transform back to Hilda? So you can squish us again!?” The constellation glared at the flower, showing more fear than confidence. Sagittarius was still Hilda, and he didn’t want to hurt their dearest friend. Gemini had already done enough damage. “M-my queen… it’s dangerous here! We have to take you to safety!” Beatrice managed to say to Rumor, as Carlos held her up by her arm. Rumor didn’t listen to her guard, instead watching Cagney’s movements intently, waiting for the moment he would crush the witch and putting an end to all this. Beatrice and some other bees trembled noticing the craziness on their beloved queen’s eyes. Sagittarius was incredibly strong but Cagney was determined not to release his grip. “I don’t want to let go!” He growled, and he wasn’t talking about the constellation. Memories were starting to come back and it was a struggle to hold on to them. He wasn’t sure if he was going to pass out first. He looked desperately at Sagittarius. “Hilda! Please! I don’t want to let go of you again!” Sagittarius saw the despair in Cagney’s eyes and felt his heart quiver. The mist started to cover the constellation, revealing a very worried Hilda trapped in his monstrous hands. “Cagney?” She almost whispered, tired of the struggling and fighting. She looked deep into his eyes, hoping to find her best friend again. Her eyes were glassy and it was getting really hard to hold her tears.

Cagney looked at Hilda, immediate relief seizing him at seeing her alive and…uh, not exactly well, but in good enough condition. He saw how worried she was and he could only imagine what she had to get through to even get here. He clasped her to his chest and enveloped her in the biggest hug he could. “I am so happy to see you,” he exclaimed, trying not to crush her in his excitement. He nestled his petals against her even as the bandanna began to tighten. “Hilda, please don’t let me forget you,” he choked.

Hilda returned the hug as hard as she could, a couple of tears escaping through her cheeks, when she noticed the bandanna. She immediately grabbed it and looked for the knot. Rumor couldn’t believe her eyes. “What are you doing!? CRUSH HER!” “NO! Cagney, please!” The witch tried to whisper calmly but it was hard to talk with a knot in her own throat.

“CRUSH HER!” The queen repeated. “Cagney! Hold it! I almost… got… it… ” Hilda said going as fast as she could.

Cagney felt himself dipping back under Rumor’s influence and he panicked at the loss of control. Hilda was starting to fade into a target again and it was only another second or so before he made do on the order to crush her. He needed to get hurt again. He spotted one of his sharp spiky plants still erect, with a particularly long thorn protruding from the side. It was within reach. He winced preemptively as he seized it, continuing to hold Hilda to him with his other hand. “This is going to hurt,” he chuckled before he thrust the thorn sharply inwards, stabbing himself in the stem. His grip weakened on Hilda and he continued to chuckle, shooting Rumor a dirty look even as he felt himself bleed sap.

Hilda, noticing the loosen grip, saw her friend stabbing himself. “Shit, Cagney!” She finally untied the bandanna and she held it tightly in her hand. “I GOT IT!” She shouted, happily waving the fabric, victorious. “Cagney, I got it!” She hugged him again. “No…” Rumor whispered. Her eyes narrowed and her fingers tightened on the scepter within her grasp. “WHY DO YOU ALWAYS RUIN EVERYTHING!” She screeched, launching herself into the air.

Rumor flew in dangerous zig zags before aiming the scepter at the embracing couple. A dark smile formed on her lips as she instead flipped the scepter downwards and blasted the ground, obliterating the entire floor of her office. With the exception of Carlos who held onto a levitating Beatrice for dear life, everything that had been on the office floor, furniture and folks alike, plummeted downwards into the depths of the hive.

The moment Hilda had pulled that bandanna off his neck, there was a second of clarity and nothing else. The next second, Cagney was hit with an intense pain from his self inflicted stab wound and a deluge of memories about Hilda, both good and bad. It was so staggering, he swore he was falling backwards into darkness just from the sensation of it all.

Well, until he realized they really WERE falling. Not that he could do much about it. Without the dirt around his roots, he had no powers to stop them from the fall. Seeing Hilda’s face near his and realizing that the memory of her wasn’t going away did make him smile. “Thank you, ya dumb blimp,” he chuckled, returning the hug once more.

The action made him wince. The lack of dirt also meant he lacked any ability to heal. “Man, I really wish I hadn’t stabbed myself so hard,” he finally managed still laughing, even as he felt like passing out.

Hilda was still hugging the carnation. She was so happy to hear his insult she didn’t realize they were falling until they hit the bottom floor, Cagney’s body breaking their fall. The plant’s grip slackened on her with the impact and she was aware he wasn’t moving much. “Cagney! Shit! You ok!?” She reached down to check for wounds only to be stopped something violently yanked her off of him.

Hilda struggled to pull herself free and looked up to see Rumor had been the one to grab her, making sure to bruise her skin with tightness that the bee held her. Before the sky witch had a chance to fight back. Rumor flew up as fast as she could and threw Hilda against the wall with all her strength. Cagney definitely did not feel so good either. One minute, Hilda was holding onto him and the next he was hitting the ground and she was getting dragged off. “Ugh, wait come back…” He groaned quietly.

____

Amber walked back over to the hole in the wall and blinked in surprise. The floor was completely gone!! And everyone was in the process of tumbling down the new large hole. Which was probably the only way out. She grimaced and turned toward the salamander.

“Hey, how good of a climber are you?”

Sullivan nodded and got to the door to climb down. His amphibious body was perfect for latching onto the sticky huge wall. He secured his grip before looking up at Amber. “You need help going down? You can hold onto my back.”

Amber nodded. “Yes please.” She carefully climbed onto Sullivan’s back and held on tightly as the salamander quickly scaled the wall. She glanced below to see the Queen bee tossing Hilda like a rag doll and winced.

____

For a few seconds, Hilda saw more stars than what she was used to. When she recovered, she was on the floor next to a few drops of blood. She reached for her head with a shaky hand and realized that it was her blood when the crimson liquid decorated her fingers.

Her eyes glinted with a combination of anger and pain. “Fuck is WRONG WITH YOU, RUMOR!?” She managed to stand up, her bracelets and eyes shining very brightly as Rumor descended upon her in her bomber jet form. “Since when do you want to kill me?!” She quickly turned into a blimp and rocketed up in the air just as Rumor launched towards her, missing her and hitting the wall with her face. “This!” Rumor spat, recovering from the hit. “This time, I WON’T LET YOU WIN!” She charged again against the confused blimp. The bees tried to recall their queen back to her senses, but the royal bee wouldn’t listen. Carlos had been watching the fight from the side but upon seeing Cagney on the ground barely moving, signaled Beatrice to take him down to the ground. “Petals! Petals, groan twice if you’re still conscious” He asked, surprisingly worried. He barely knew the guy, but seeing how he hugged the crazy moon lady, it melted his heart. Plus, he was losing a lot of sap at an alarming rate and that couldn’t be good for a plant. Sullivan and Amber arrived shortly afterwards to the ground floor.

Amber spotted Cagney and bit her lip. “…uh, Sully. The flower doesn’t look so good.”

The amphibian carefully let Amber get down from his back and saw the flower’s bleeding wound. “Oh boy…”

Amber scampered over to the carnation. “Hey! Hey! Wake up!” She yelled but the carnation only groaned again and waved weakly at her.

“Does anyone know any first aid?”

“I do!” Sullivan and Carlos answered at the same time as Beatrice left Carlos on the ground and looked at her queen, terribly worried. “We have to remove the thorn,” suggested Sullivan. “Not before making sure we have something to stop the bleeding,” Carlos added, looking closely at the stab wound.

Amber pulled off the yellow bandanna off her neck. “What about this? Can we use this?” She asked hopefully.

“That might work!” Carlos said to Amber with a smile.

“I’ll call for reinforcements!” Beatrice flew quickly out of the room and made a signal to the other confused bees to tend to the other wounded bees.

____

Hilda had never seen such a furious Rumor in her life. She kept avoiding the plane’s charges, hoping that Rumor would come to her senses once she figured out she was destroying her own hive, only to realise the queen didn’t care what she charged to. Everyone was in danger. Hilda looked to the hole in the roof and flew quickly in front of it. Perhaps, if she could lure Rumor out in the open, she would have a chance to knock her outside without hurting anyone. “Rumor! C'mon! I know we had our differences but brainwashing!? Aren’t you taking it a bit too far?” “Ha! You’re the one to talk!” Rumor yelled. “You’ve been controlling him ever since you met him!” “Stop saying that!” Hilda was getting tired of hearing that. Or maybe it was exhaustion from transforming so much. “Cags and I have been friends since before we met you! It’s not my fault you don’t have friends, only these-these brainwashed zomBEES!” She chuckled. “DAMN YOU, HILDA!” Rumor shouted, charging towards her again, but this time, with saws on her wings.

Hilda waited until the last second to dive out of Rumor’s way, an error she paid dearly for by getting slashed on her leg, making it really painful to pedal. Rumor flew through the hole, making it bigger with her deadly wings. So manic was she that she acted in a bloodlust, hardly aware of the pieces of ceiling that tumbled down…nor the falling scepter that had slipped from her grasp during her transformation.

____

“Ok, then, listen up,” Sullivan signed Carlos and Amber to get closer as Beatrice left. “Carlos and I will take the thorn out. As soon as it’s out, Amber will tie the bandanna and put pressure on it."

"C'mon Petals! Don’t fall asleep now!” Carlos said, getting ready to pull the thorn. “His name is Cagney,” Sullivan corrected him. “Petals is easier to remember”. Sullivan rolled his eyes. “Ready, Amber?”

Amber nodded. “Ready!” On that, Sully and Carlos pulled the thorn with a yell. She immediately dove on the wound, bandanna on hand and applied as much pressure as she could. She smiled but then looked at Sully. “Uh….now what?”

Cagney gasped in pain at the thorn’s removal. “Shit,” he muttered, “now I know how Hilda felt.” He listlessly looked around for the woman only not to find her. The sounds of explosions and destruction clued him into the fact that she was probably up in the air. He tried to focus on her but his vision was hazy. She looked like she was moving slower somehow. Which didn’t seem right. The crash of honeycombs smashing near him didn’t really get his attention until the clank of something metallic followed it. He looked over to see Rumor’s scepter sticking out of a honeycomb and his mind started racing. He remembered all this craziness started as soon as Rumor pulled out that dang scepter. Which didn’t make sense. She always had a scepter. But this one looked different from what he recalled. Almost dull and warped. Whatever the change, he had to get it. He reached pathetically for it, just out of his fingers’ reach.

“Now we should find a way to disinfect and stitch the site,” Sullivan explained, looking for something they could use, unaware of Cagney’s attempts.

“Say no more!” Carlos opened his jacket and pulled out a flask, a needle and a thread. Sullivan looked at him strangely. “You just walk around with that all day?” “Of course!” The Hispanic cat replied, gesturing for Amber to remove the bandanna and spilling the alcohol over the wound.

The splash of alcohol on Cagney’s wound burned like hell, forcing him to jerk upwards with a girly scream before Amber could slam him back down with a surprising amount of strength from such a small feline. “Ow! What the hell?!”

Carlos continued. “Mi abuelita used to tell me: 'Carlitos, it’s a very big world out there, and you’re a very clumsy boy! Always take a first aid kit with you’ ” He spilled some on the needle and thread. “Ok Petals! Not gonna lie to you, this is going to hurt… I think. I’ve never had to stitch a tree before…"

____

Hilda wasn’t sure how much blood she was losing from her leg wound but it had to be a lot. She knew she couldn’t keep up pedaling for long and she rested on the roof of the hive, turning back to herself. She struggled to stand, but she managed to stay still as Rumor did a U turn in the air and back headed towards her again.

"CAGNEY IS MINE!!!” Rumor shouted, completely mad, her eyes full of hate, and her grin twisted with anger. Hilda was very angry herself, her bracelets and eyes glowing like a fire. “You’re gonna have to kill me to get to him!” Her voice was distorted with the voices of the twelve constellations. She lifted her arms and thick clouds covered her entirely in a magnificent spiral.

Rumor couldn’t see anymore and, although she was very angry, knew better than to fly through the sky witch’s cloud. She halted just outside of it as clicking and tinkling sounds emerged from within. The mist parted as Hilda emerged in crimson moon form, a malicious grin upon her lunar face. “Let’s put an end to this!” Rumor didn’t waste a second and fired missiles as Hilda did the same. The aftershocks of the projectiles exploding in the air produced some twisted fireworks visible from the other isles.

“Cagney would be so much happier if he never met you!” Rumor shouted as she sliced the moon’s cheek. “You keep using him to boost your weak, pathetic ego!” She jabbed again, inflicting another wound. “What is wrong with you, Rumor?! You’ve never been this crazy for him! Or anybody!” Hilda argued, hoping an appeal to reason would slow her down. “I found a good friend, Hilda. She warned me about you. She showed me what you really are!” The plane charged again but this time Hilda was ready for her, deflecting the attack. The counterattack infuriated Rumor and she instinctively reached for her scepter only to realize she didn’t have it. “W-what? W-where is it!?” She started to panic, a moment that Hilda took advantage of to launch one last attack: throwing missiles, stars, and even herself towards the confused plane.

____

“Can’t you let me just die or something?!” Cagney whined as Carlos haphazardly stabbed him against with the alcoholic needle. “No! You need to stay alive, you petal for brains!” “The only one who’s allowed to call me that is…Hilda!” The carnation looked up to see Hilda in her moon phase. That was her last resort attack which meant she must be really faltering now. He looked around for and spotted the scepter again. It must be connected to all this. He had to get it. He tried to reach for it only to recoil in pain with another jab of the needle.

“You call that stitching?” Sullivan shook his head seeing the poorly attended wound. “As long as it holds, mi amigo”. “It’s not going to hold! Argh! Gimme that!” The salamander took the needle from Carlos and begun stitching gently, doing a better job than the Hispanic cat. “Help Amber hold Cagney down,” Sullivan ordered. Carlos obeyed and held the flower’s stem down to the ground.

Cagney struggled against their help. “No, I gotta do somethin! Hilda ain’t gonna last much longer!” The flower reached for the fallen scepter one last time, this time grasping the base of it and dragging it to himself. He panted and collapsed again, holding the dumb metal rod to his chest.

“Hey!” Carlos exclaimed, noticing the scepter. “How did you get that?”

The whole world spun for the carnation but he finally managed to stand up, shoving off Carlos and Amber’s attempts to lay him back down. He waved the scepter. “Hey, Rumor!” He yelled, attempting to get the attention of the Queen Bee.

Hilda and Rumor looked fairly war torn, having taken some serious damage from their special attacks. Despite their exhaustion, they still glared at each other, neither women determined to give up the fight. They were about to charge into each other again when Cagney’s voice from below drew their attention and they looked down. “Cagney?” Rumor called back sweetly, glad to hear her beloved call out her name and not that of the witch’s.

Cagney smiled weakly. “I’ve been thinking about us and, ya know what?” He held out the scepter toward her. “I think we should take a break!” And with that, he slammed the scepter into the ground, shattering it into hundreds of pieces.

“NO!” Rumor screamed, transforming back into her royal self. She rapidly landed and attempted to scoop up the pieces of what remained of her scepter. “What have you done!? What have… you…you…?"

Her voice died in her throat. Her mind flooded with blocked and distorted memories that the scepter had prevented from her remembering. The queen felt like everything was swirling around her as flashes of memories kept popping in her mind confusing her. Hilda turned back into herself and cast a cloud with what little energy she had left. She slowly levitated back into the hive, putting pressure on her leg wound before she landed close to carnation. Sullivan, Carlos and Amber didn’t dare move a muscle, expecting the Queen bee to burst angrily any minute.

Finally, Rumor took a shaky breath and looked up to see the two island bosses. "Hilda? C-cagney…?” She asked softly, uncertain if she was hallucinating, looking more like herself again.

“Hey, Rumor,” Cagney painfully managed, “Glad to see you being you.” He made a motion to step forward only to wince and clutch the side of his stem. Hilda approached him and he pulled away his leafy hand to reveal it was now coated in thick sap. Her eyes darted down to see the wound now free flowing, the sutures having popped during his exertion.

He looked down at himself before back up at Hilda with a strained pale smile “…I’m just gonna stop standing now, ok, Hilds?” And with that, his legs crumpled from underneath him, passing out without another word.

———————————————————————————

CHAPTER 28 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 29 (You’re here) ; Next (not ready yet)

#necrokitty #tales #smallpersiankitten #necrida #fan art #fan fiction #cuphead #amber alleycat #Sullivan Wells #carlos buenaventura #hilda berg #cagney carnation #rumor honeybottoms #submission

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ostrich-on-a-rampage-blog · 7 years

Text

Get to Know Me Meme

I was tagged by @jackscrutchie ( Thank you so much! )

Rules: Tag 20 blogs you’d like to get to know better

Nickname: Lyz (but only by one close friend and after much arguing), AlleyCat, Does Ostrich count? That’s what people on FFN call me

Zodiac sign: Pisces

Height: 5'4″ (same height as AKB!!)

Last Thing You Googled: ...my zodiac sign... I couldn’t remember. But before that, it was the military history of Morocco. You know, just casually...

Favourite Music Artists: Right now, All American Rejects. N*SYNC will forever remain a guilty pleasure. Styx, always. William Joseph. Chase Holfelder. George Gershwin.

Last Movie you (re)watched: That old 80s Clue movie that no one has ever seen, but remains one of my favorite comedies.

What are you wearing right now: Black shirt and sweatpants. It’s a Sunday. I don’t work. What else would you expect?

Why did you choose your URL: It was my username on Fanfiction, so I kept it here. I originally chose it because I love ostriches and I wanted a fun sounding ostrich name and I thought that this fit the bill. Plus, I feel as if it is acceptable to say that I am constantly on a reading and writing rampage.

Do you have any other blogs: Nah

What did your last relationship teach you: Don’t just make out with someone because they’re hot. Kidding. More of something along the lines of learning to accept the differences and unique aspects of my partner and respect them for who they are.

Religious or spiritual: I’m religious. I’m not going to shove my religion down someone else’s throat, however, and I would hope others would not do so as well.

Favorite colour: ORANGE. IT IS SO HAPPY. HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE ORANGE?

Average hours of sleep: 7-8. I need sleep to function.

Lucky Number: I’ve always been partial to 11 or 14. Maybe 17, if I’m feeling crazy.

Favorite Characters: Crutchie (Newsies), Riley Poole (National Treasure), Shawn Spencer (Psych), Miguel (Road to Eldorado), Dr. Reid (Criminal Minds), and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, NOT from Hamlet, because they don’t do anything there...)

How many blankets do you sleep with: Generally two at winter, but one in the summer. LAST NIGHT THOUGH (I’m so freakin’ upset; people are starting to make bets on whether it will snow on graduation (in MAY) like it did last year) it randomly got cold here and even snowed at the Canyon, so I needed to pull out a second blanket. Moral of the story: when people tell you to move to the Southwest because it is warm, they are LYING.

People I want to get to know better: I feel as if @jackscrutchie already tagged a bunch of people, but here’s a couple others: @lonely-moon-princess, @musicalsandtrees, @liebythoceanside, @gayjackkelly, @imacrazedfangirl, @amber-irises, @rice-crutchies. Anyone else is welcome to play along as well!

#me!#get to know an ostrich

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listlesslady · 5 years

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Wicked Girls

I’m back on 4thewords! This is technically the beginning of volume 2 but I wanted to share.

She'd overheard the negotiations, refused to believe that it might be true yet here was Greymane the Awful sitting with an arrogant smile in her father's office.

“You understand that this is for the greater good, don't you Elaina?” Her father's normally soothing voice did nothing to calm her frayed nerves. “This will strengthen business with the pirates to the North.”

Elaina kept her eyes trained downwards. He'd certainly see the fear and loathing in them if she looked up. Greymane was known for his questionable morals and horrible treatment of women. The leer he kept sending her way made her skin crawl. The meeting went by in a blur, she barely registered the words. Finally, her father sent them away with his blessing and a prayer. She ignored the unspoken apology in the strong press of his hand.

“Alright then, bride mine,” Greymane said picking her up, “we've some business to attend to before I can unravel that delicious frame of yours.”

A carriage awaited them in the warm sunset. Elaina had to bite her lower lip hard to stop the tears from coming. She didn’t even spare her home a last backwards glance for fear it would prompt her to run away. In what seemed like no time in the dark silence of the carriage, they arrived at the inn the rogue occupied near the docks, paid for of course by her doting parents. Two of his trusted men stood guard right outside their room.

“Now sweetheart,” he sighed as he sat down on the bed. “Your father said he was giving me an invaluable treasure and I'm fairly certain he wasn't referring to you.” He crossed his arms. “My guess is you're the only one with a map and what's yours is now mine. I suggest you give up the goods.”

Elaina remained silent, eyes to the ground. She would never yield to this brute. He caught her chin in a grip infinitely stronger than it appeared, something evil lurking in his foam green eyes.

“You will tell me where the map is, wench. I will get the precise location from your pretty lips one way or another.”

She looked at him then, defiance clear in her straight backed posture. “You will get nothing out of me.”

Greymane smiled at that. “Oh we shall see.”

The terrible monster finally revealed itself, punching, slapping and kicking her whenever she refused to answer him. Finally, in a last fit of rage, he held her against the wall by the neck. The two guards outside ignored the noises inside, used to their boss' violent antics.

“If you won't give me the map, no one will have it.”

Elaina found it in herself to smirk. “Good.”

Her neck snapped and he dropped her limp body. Suddenly spent, he sat next to the corpse. His men entered then, noting the lifeless girl, and closed the door behind them. They sat in silence, observing the her.

“How are we going to explain this?” One of them finally piped up.

Grey grunted, lost in thoughts; the map had to be on her...

He never saw it coming. The knife was in his shoulder a second before it landed in one man's eye and across the other's neck. He hollered half a second before she was back on him. Fortunately for him, his men burst in before she could finish the job and unfortunately for her, not before he noticed the pattern drawing itself dark red against her skin.

She swore, filthy enough to get a smile out of him and leapt out the window, agile as a fox. The men swarmed their captain and their two bleeding companions, a few running back out the door.

“Out of my way, fools!” Greymane growled, pushing his men away to stand. “This oughta be fun.”

Elaina zigzagged in the streets, rage still throbbing in her veins. She didn't know where she was going, only knew she had to get out of there. The smell of salt lured her to the docked boats as Greymane's men screamed and chased after her. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up this pace. She spotted another girl running when she burst into the open chaos of the seaside. Instinct told her to call out.

“Wait!”

The blonde girl turned her head towards her, still running. For a moment, they stared at each other then she nodded her forward, still running towards a ship with a red flag. The Alleycat loomed in the distance, its crew busying themselves like ants. A flame haired figure stood at the prow, watching their approach as the anchor was drawn up. The blonde nimbly jumped up, catching a dangling ladder then leaned out to extend her hand to the running Elven princess. At the same moment, Greymane's crew reached the docks as well, weapons in hand, a mass of angry murderous men. Elaina gave a last burst of energy, grabbing onto Merkate's hand.

With surprising strength, the ex-mermaid pulled her onto her back then rapidly scaled up the ladder pulling it in as the boat sailed away from the swearing men. Elaina sat shivering as she caught her breath, the red marks slowly fading from her skin. Captain Alixiel Ravencroft jogged up to them, brows furrowed.

“The next time you pull a stunt like that, Kate, I'm leaving you on land. What in Poseidon's name were you doing?” Her eyes rested on Elaina, slowly registering the royal garments and fast disappearing red swirls. “And what fresh Hell is this?”

Kate shrugged, looking from Elaina to her lover. “She looked like she needed help.”

Alixiel looked back towards the dock, where men stood cursing. “No kidding.” The bruises were starting to show. “Who did this to you?”

“Greymane the Awful.”

A strange smile twisted Alixiel’s lips. “Imagine that.” Turning back to Merkate she followed. “She’ll be bunking with you. See if Seren has anything to warm her up then bring her to my cabin.”

Merkate nodded, standing the shivering princess up. “Come on. We’ll take good care of you.”

Seren gave them the evil eye when they showed up at the doors of the kitchen but once Merkate had explained the situation, his glare dimmed and he let the princess be seated at the counter where he was eternally chopping vegetables.

“What happened to her?” He asked.

“I reckon we’ll learn soon enough.” They both observed the shell shocked girl for a moment. “The Raven wants to speak with her after this. Think you have some brandy to kickstart her?”

The albino boy thought for a moment then bent beneath the sink to pull out a shabby bottle full of amber liquid.

“Not quite brandy but I doubt she’ll have any complaints.”

Merkate poured out a shot and pushed it against Elaina’s lips. “Come on, little princess, open up.”

The first swallow made her blink and cough violently. She pushed Merkate’s hand away, spluttering, tears beading at the corners of her eyes.

“What is that?!”

“Dragon piss.” Seren replied, unperturbed.

Elaina blushed. “Why, I never!”

“I bet.” He turned to Merkate. “Out.”

Nodding, she brought Elaina up to Alixiel’s cabin. The captain was already waiting for them, staring intently at a map of the world. She waved them to her desk when she heard the door. They stood in silence for a while, Elaina fidgeting nervously as the tension grew. Finally, Alixiel Ravencroft turned around, every inch the ruthless captain she was rumoured to be.

“State your identity.”

“Elaina Draken, Princess of the Elven kingdom.”

Alix raised an eyebrow at that. “How did you come to be aboard the Alikat?”

Elaina faltered. “T-the alley cat?”

“My ship, this beauty. She is the Alikat.”

“U-um,” she glanced at Merkate who sat in the corner, looking studiously bored but not looking directly at either of them. “I uh…”

Alix struck the table with her hand, startling the elven princess. “Look at me when answering. She is not in charge here.”

The captive bit her lip. “I was running away from Greymane’s men.”

“And why, pray tell, were they pursuing you?”

She faltered once again. “I-I…” She fought against the urge to look at Merkate again but avoided Alixiel’s eyes. “My father sold me and Greymane killed me. For treasure.”

She missed the greedy light that entered the Raven’s eyes when she mentioned treasure. “You look very much alive.”

Elaina’s hands tightened in fists, her swimming gaze focused on her knuckles. “He killed me.” She amended fiercely. “My blood gift saved me.”

“Blood gift?”

She regained some of her haughtiness, staring Alixiel in the eyes as she replied. “It is none of your concern.”

In little to no time, the captain had vaulted over her desk to stand behind the elven princess with a knife to her throat. “Listen chickie, if you want to stay, you need to be cooperative or I don’t have much use for you either.”

Elaina swallowed with difficulty, mind racing. “If you kill me, you won’t be able to find the treasure.”

There was a pause before Raven walked back around the desk to stand in front of the elven princess once more. “Alright, we’ll go with that. Where’s the treasure?”

“I… don’t know.”

Alix threw her hands in the air. “There you go being useless again!” The void in her eyes chilled Elaina to the bone. “Don’t think I can’t throw this knife between your lovely eyes, Princess. My patience is not without limits and you are very quickly reaching the ends of it.”

The elf looked away, her heart beating in her ears like an 808 drum. Would it be safe to tell her? After all she’d just be putting the secret in another fiend’s hands...She shook herself quickly. No! Her father had told her to keep it a secret but it was her secret now. Her father had sold her. She was on her own and she would take whatever help she could get.

“There is a map in my skin that leads to a great treasure.” She announced clearly. “It can only be called by blood.”

Once again, the captain of the Alikat raised an eyebrow. “Fancy talk all that, where’s the proof?”

Elaina maintained eye contact with her as she answered. “You will pay the blood toll or I cannot help you.”

Merkate and Alix exchanged a look. Blood magic was extremely powerful and it only took a drop of your blood to put you under a magician’s control. Merkate gave a slight nod of her head, poised to intervene in any case of trouble from the elven princess. The captain of the Alikat rolled up her cuffs, set the knife to the meat under her thumb and sliced deep. A line of red immediately welled up. Elaina watched the blood roll over the pale flesh and fall onto her dress. Slowly, she raised her own hand to catch the blood onto her skin. A warmth spread like wildfire under her skin, the map drawing itself in burning lines. It felt like being cut with a knife. Elaina gasped softly, withdrawing her hand as the rest of the map drew itself onto her.

Alixiel retreated, whistling long. Merkate watched impassively. Elaina watched the lines she could see.

“Now you know.”

“Well.” A rakish smile now lit the Raven's face. “Welcome aboard, Princess. You're our precious hostage until we find your treasure.”

#writeblr #writers of tumblr #writing #my writing #mine #oc #pirates #wicked girls #wg #im #invented memories #mermaid #elves #elf #fantasy #wip #4thewords

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hellomynameismm · 7 years

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@Harves10 : Ending the first night in california in style. Slept 2 hours in the las... (Alleycat Amber) https://t.co/g6KyUROUYT #photo

Ending the first night in california in style. Slept 2 hours in the las... (Alleycat Amber) https://t.co/g6KyUROUYT #photo

— mwh (@Harves10) May 29, 2017

May 28, 2017 at 10:03PM via Twitter https://twitter.com/Harves10

#IFTTT #Twitter

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necrokittytales · 5 years

Text

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 28)

———————————————————————————

Hilda woke up to the loud sound of machinery, making her entire house shake. Her first thought was that the actual dragon came back to finish what it started. She leapt out of bed and ran to the observatory, already started to transform into one of the constellations. But she stopped abruptly when she recognised the giant robot from Dr Kahl standing outside her observatory.

“Mowrning Miss Berg!” The man, and the robot, saluted her with a happy grin on their faces before seeing her outfit. "Hoho! You might vant to cover a little! I can tell you’re cold!” He chuckled, noticing Hilda’s breasts through the thin nightgown.

The woman immediately crossed her arms and frowned at the man. “You could have called before starting!” She shouted up to him.

“Calling is offerrated! Hologram or nothing,” Werner shouted, walking past Dr. Kahl with a scientific little doohickey . “You’re not blanning on sdaying inzide totay, are you? Ve may need to sbray zings zat do not like zee human skin,” he mentioned, eyeing Hilda.

Hilda raised an eyebrow at Werner. “Eh… actually I’m planning on seeing Cags today.” She looked at the two men working with their machinery. For every piece of debris they picked up, another two fell from another place. It felt like they were destroying more than what they were clearing up.

The woman sighed and tried to comfort herself with the thought of a free telescope and a 50% reduction on the cost. “I see you guys have everything under control… just… please don’t destroy my house…”

“Ja, ja. Ve are professional!” Werner turned just in time to duck as one of Kahl’s inventions nearly sliced him in half. “Vatch vere you’re svinging zat zing, you idiot!”

“Hello, Hilda!” The woman turn to see a familiar large carrot hopping her way with a friendly greeting. He paused as he got a bit closer to the observatory and then whistled. “When did you decide to start renovating?”

“Oh! Hy Psy! Well, I wasn’t really planning for it. Ya see, what happened was…."

The woman explained what happened to the observatory, excluding the details of her evening with Cagney. Psy nodded his head, making the appropriate facial expressions at the various points of her story.

”..and now, Dr Kahl and Werner are clearing all so I can start building up again. IF I can get the funding for it, that is!“ She sighed, a bit sad. "Anyway, you need something? I was about to head to Cagney’s.”

Psycarrot brightened up. “Well, I just decided to pop by after hearing all that noise. It’s awfully convenient for you to be heading that way as well. I got to give him back the key to his shed if he’s home. Do you mind if I join you?”

Hilda thought for a moment, and came to the conclusion that it would be less awkward if somebody else was present. Plus, it would be a good test to see if they were really back to normal or if there was still some tension left. “Eh, sure, let’s go.” With a wave of her hands, she cast a cloud big enough for both of them. “Hop on!”

Psy hopped onto the cloud and away they flew toward Cagney’s field. “I haven’t seen him in a few days so it’d be nice to touch base with him about some of those honey suckles he’s been growing. Figure out what type of mulch he’s been using to get them as bright as they are.” As the cloud cleared the forest and Cagney’s field came into view, the carrot peered inside. Psy groaned. “Darn, still not here.”

Hilda squinted her eyes and saw a figure in Cagney’s favorite tree. “Hey! Somebody IS down there!” She immediately approached the tree to find Carlos lying on the branch with his face covered by his hat. “Hey! I know you!” She yelled, waking up the cat and nearly sending him falling from the tree. “What the heck are you doing here?”

“Señorita Luna! Oh, por favor! Don’t hurt me!” Carlos held on to the branch with claws. “Petal’s said he wasn’t gonna be here for a few days, I’m just keeping his spot warm.” He smiled nervously.

Psycarrot glanced at Hilda slightly suspicious. “You haven’t been scaring guys again, have you Hilda?” He teased.

She looked at Psy confidently. “M-me? Naaah. I just had a very civilised conversation with him when he trespassed in my home the other day.” She looked at the cat and his multiple wounds and bruises, and shrugged, feeling slightly guilty for coming down so hard on him.

Carlos looked at the woman with wide eyes. “Well, if that was civilised, I don’t want to see what’ you think is barbaric!”

“Yeah, you don’t. Now get down from there before I make you get down,” she threatened the cat.

“Fine, fine!.” He climbed down. “But I don’t see why I can’t stay. I’m not bothering anybody, I have a place to sleep and I’m keeping an eye on his property. It’s a win-win!”

Psycarrot brightened up. “Say! You don’t know where that grumpy weed is, do you? He was all hush hush about it with us! I think he was going to another isle.”

Carlos and Hilda chuckled at Psy’s pun.

“Maybe something happened to him on the way?” Hilda said, worried. “It’s a long way for him…”

“Hmm…I remember he was in a hurry. He needed to take care of something really serious.”

Psy flexed and cracked his fingers. “I see that my vast psychic skills are necessary to see more than what this simple minded feline realizes he can provide us! Step this way, my good fellow and allow me into your mind!”

Carlos raised an eyebrow. “Read my mind?” He got closer to Psycarrot and crossed his arms. “Are you one of those charlatans at the circus?” He said not convinced of the carrot’s habilities.

“No, the real deal, my feline fellow!” Psycarrot had the cat stand in front of him and he began to massage his own head. “You…originally thought he was a girl. A very angry girl…your mind is telling me about a different flower in New York that you…oh. OH! Oh, eh, well looks can be deceiving I suppose!” Psy managed, seeing an image he would have rather not seen, or at least not in public.

Carlos paled and stepped away from the carrot. “I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Hilda laughed. “You looked a little too far, Psy, hahaha!”

Psy nodded, wiping his brow. “Ye-yeah.” He had to admit he wasn’t quite sure what he would do if he ever saw the flower from the cat’s memories but he doubted he could keep a straight face. So he concentrated on the day Cagney left. “Cagney said he was going to…well either fix things or fuck things,” Psy admitted sheepishly. “Sorry, just wow, uh…”

“Fix things?.” Hilda started to have an idea of her best friend’s plan. “Shit! I think I know what that dumb dandelion is up to…”

____

Cagney woke with a clanging and a yelling outside of his prison. He blearily blinked and looked up to see bee guards storming through, smacking their batons along the bars of the cages as they walked through. “Rise and shine, sweethearts!” one guard yelled.

“What’s going on?” Cagney grumbled, wiping his eyes. He didn’t know how long he was asleep or if the sun was up or not and the yelling was certainly not helping his mood. Granted, he did feel a lot less pent up than he had the last few days, but the circumstances leading up to and following that point were a bit…stressful to say the least.

The old bee shook worriedly. “They’ve come to take us to the Reprogramming camps!”

“What are you talking about, old timer?” he asked, as the bees walked toward the cat’s cage first.

“The Camps. It’s where they take problem bees and turn them into mindless drones, or "model citizens” as our Queen puts it. It wasn’t so bad at first. First, they were just taking the real bad riff raff, the ones that were stealing and have repeated violence and stuff. But lately, it’s been anyone who’s so much as hiccuped in front of her.“

"Huh, then why are you in here?”

“I stole and sold royal jelly,” the old bee admitted.

“And you haven’t been to the camps before, because…?”

“Oh I’ve been! But I’ve got a metal plate in me head from the last war, so it hasn’t been so successful! But I hear now that they got some even stronger force that could change that!”

Cagney did not like the sound of that but shrugged. “Well, I’m not a bee, so I’ll be just fine.”

“Don’t be so quick to think that!” The old bee warned, “I’ve seen fellas with twice as much spitfire and sass as you come back as tame as a kitten.”

Despite the seriousness of the threat, the carnation couldn’t help but grin at that last part. He tapped on the wall connecting his and Amber’s cage. “Ya hear that, ya dumb feline? They’re going to turn you into a kitten….hello?” There was no reply and the carnation scratched his head as the guard bees stared into her cage.

“The feline prisoner is missing, sir,” one of the guards spoke up.

“What?” Another guard fluttered over and quickly unlocked the cell before stepping in. The carnation had to take a peek as well. Sure enough, Amber was nowhere to be found.

The guards flipped over all the furniture and blankets in the room yet there was no cat. The one with the key pushed the other one. “We have to find her!”

“What about the other two? Should we bring them down?”

“And risk Rumor finding out we lost one of the prisoners?! Are you mad?!? Quick, I think I smell something furry this way!” The bees took down the hallway, leaving the two occupants still locked up.

Cagney grumbled. “Least she could have done was take me with her,” he lamented.

“Weren’t you two at each other’s throats yesterday?” The old bee asked.

“Yeah, your point?” He groaned. “How did she even get out of the cell to begin with?”

“I didn’t.”

The two men turned to see one of the walls shifting until the little orange cat dug her way out, covered in dried honeycomb wall debris. She flicked the stuff off of her fur and pushed open the unlocked cell door. She stood in front of them, beaming.

Cagney gaped at her. “How the hell did you do that?”

Amber stuck out her tongue. “Trade secrets. Now, if I unlock your cage, are you going to try to kill me again?”

“Ooh, I’d really like to,” the flower admitted, much to the bee’s chagrin.

“Fine, then you can rot in there.”

“No, no! Wait. Ugh fine!” The carnation scowled, crossing his arms. “Fine, I won’t try to kill you.”

“Great, I accept your apology and also feel bad for what happened due to your actions,” Amber responded smugly, extending out a nail and starting to lock pick Cagney’s door. After a few rotations, the satisfying sound of a click echoed through the hallway and Amber was soon pulling open the second door.

“Wait, wait, you whippersnappers (young people) have to take me?” The old bee protested.

“What? Why? You actually have a reason for being here…I think

"Well, if you don’t let me out, I’m going to raise the alarm,” the old bee threatened.

Cagney nudged Amber. “Be a good girl and go unlock his cage.”

____

The three escaped convicts started to quickly travel down the length of the passage, looking for an exit. They couldn’t stick around here. It was only a matter of time before they were caught by some patrolling guards. It didn’t take long for them to get hopelessly lost.

“Cagney, really think, you don’t remember where they brought you or how we got in?” Amber asked as they rounded another corner in the hive.

The flower shook his head. “I didn’t. Thought we would be just lead out the way we came. Wasn’t expecting Rumor to be completely psycho.“

“And yet, you still had whoopie with her,” Amber grumbled, “didn’t your parents ever teach you not to stick it in goofy?”

“Considering my parents have split up, they didn’t,” the flower grimaced, “I honestly didn’t think Rumor was carrying a torch for me.”

Amber nodded. “The thought of anyone having feelings for you is hard to believe.“

“Bees are naturally attracted to flowers and vice versa, so if you two are done squabbling, we really need to keep moving!” The old bee hollered at the two.

The group stopped as the sound of buzzing drew closer. “Quick, through here!” Amber squeaked, scampering down another hallway.

The three came to a door and the old bee immediately panicked. “Oh! No, this is the worst place we could be!” The old bee cried.

“What? Why?”

“This is Rumor’s office!” the bee exclaimed, pointing at the royal insignia on the door.

Cagney hesitated. “Shit, he’s right.” He had just been here 24 hours ago, negotiating with the queen bee. And this is one of the last places he wanted to end back up at.

Amber’s eyes lit up. “Think there could be some treasure in there?” She asked hopefully.

“Is that all you think about?” The flower grumbled.

“Well, no, sometimes I think about cream and a warm fireplace.“

The bee shook his head. “There’s no way I’m going in there!”

“Well, there’s no way back that way!” Amber hissed, pointing from whence they came. She glanced around. “The only other way is toward some place called the waste dump and considering honey is like bee throw up, I don’t even want to know what’s considered waste to them!”

“Anything’s better than the office!” The bee flew down the hallway before either Cagney or Amber could stop him.

The buzzing grew louder and the two exchanged nervous looks. “Office?” Amber suggested

“Office.”

They turned around and quickly entered Rumor’s office, shutting the door behind them. Cagney looked around some more. “Looks like Rumor’s not here.“

“Shh!” Amber shushed, putting a paw over his mouth, peeking through the keyhole. The Carnation leaned down and peeked through other one.

In the corridor, a couple of bees walked by, pushing a cleaning cart. The fugitives recognised one of the bees as the young fellow they met back in the cells, before he was taken to the reprogramming camp.

”…I’m telling you, I’ve never felt better! You should totally go!“

"I don’t know… I heard spooky stuff happens in there,” the other bee answered, cleaning some dust from the corridor decorations. "You don’t come back the same bee.”

“All lies! It was like a day at the spa! All I did was talk and enjoy massages! And I’m telling ya! Those ants really know what they’re doing”

“Ants? What are ants doing in here?”

“Oh! No no no! It’s cool! They made like a treaty or something with our beloved queen. Oh! And at the end of the day, after I let aaaall my stress and concerns out, they give you this lovely bracelet!” Cagney and Amber saw the young bee show his wrist to his friend.

“..WWRD?” He read. “What’s WWRD?”

“What Would Rumor Do! Isn’t it neat? Now, whenever I get too tense, I just look at this and think about our magnificent queen and all that she does for us, and I feel like I can do better! It encourages me!” He said, excited while leaving the corridor.

Amber heard some movement behind the royal chamber’s door in the office. The cat turned toward the door. Her fur stood on end as the door knob jiggled. “Hide!” She whispered, jumping under Rumor’s desk.

Cagney blanched. “Where the hell would I hide?!” He hissed back. The carnation wasn’t fast enough and braced himself as the door to Rumor’s bedroom opened.

“Thank you for seeing me, Queen Narween,” Rumor said to a slim winged ant, smaller than the bee, as they came out of the room. Rumor looked like she had been crying, her eyes were glassy. “You’re really a good~.” The bee opened her eyes widely at the view of Cagney. “friend?”

The ant noticed the surprise on the bee’s face. “Intruder!” She yelled, pointing at the flower. A couple of huge ants with massive jaws came out behind the royalty and threatened the carnation with their teeth.

“NO! No! Wait!” Rumor yelled, stopping the ant guards. “Its…um…my appointment. Just a pollen gardener!” She tried to calmly say. “I’ve been expecting him.”

Narween looked at Rumor skeptically but ordered her guards to stop with a gesture of her hand. "Oh… my sweet dear.” She caressed Rumor’s cheek softly. “Friends don’t lie to each other. Who is this?” She gestured to Cagney with an open hand.

Rumor’s eyes brighten at the touch of the ant. “He-he’s Cagney…"

A creepy smile appeared on the ant’s face and she took a couple of steps towards the flower. The ant guards remained defensive. "I’ve heard so much about you…Cagney.” She pronounced his name with disgust. “You’ve really hurt my sweet Rumor. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Cagney had a very bad feeling about all of this, especially with how Rumor almost responded passionately to the other woman’s touch. Was this her girlfriend or something? He hoped not, otherwise, there would be some explaining about the events from yesterday. He almost glanced toward Amber’s hiding spot but stopped himself. The ant appeared very perceptive and no doubt might pick up on the fact that he wasn’t alone.

He puffed up his chest and gave the ant an intimidating glare. “What do I have to say for myself? I have quite a lot to say for myself. Like, who the hell are you? And what the hell is going on here?” He turned to Rumor. “Because right now, it’s looking more like a loony bin than a hive, Rumor.”

Amber could have slapped herself. Her many, many brushes with possible injury and impairment had made her hyper aware of potentially deadly situations and this just screamed ‘Danger!’ to her. Cagney had no idea what he was getting into but he was smart enough not to look her way. She had crawled into a tight crevice of the desk and watched the scene anxiously through a slit in the wood.

Narween looked at Rumor to see what she was going to do about the flower’s insolence. The bee frowned at Cagney angrily.

“Looney? YOU want to talk about looney? What about yesterday? Uh? Sleeping with me to get what you want for that fucking witch!?” She took a deep breath to cool down and looked at her desk. “You know what.? I’m tired of this.” She took out her scepter. Cagney noticed something different in it, it looked as if it had loosened his golden brightness and was a bit cracked, like a branch.

Rumor waved the scepter muttering a chant and in her hand appeared a dark red silk cloth. “There!” She wrapped it up in a ball and threw it at the flower’s feet. “This bandana will allow to see the solution to every problem! You’ll be able to help her on your own.” She said sadly. “You simply have to wear it whenever you need to think clearly”

Narween ordered her guards to stand back to leave some space for the flower to pick up the fabric, and looked curious at the carnation.

“Take it and get out of my hive, Cagney.” Rumor said, crossing her arms and turning her back to him. She had to do an effort not to cry.

Amber looked at the piece of fabric fearfully. “Don’t touch the cloth, don’t touch the cloth, don’t touch the cloth,” she silently prayed to herself.

Cagney resisted the urge to snarl at the bee. “You wanna blame me for this? Really?!” He knelt down and scooped up the bandana, clenching it in his fist as he drew closer. “I’m not the one who asked for sex, Rumor. That was YOU, asking me to give you the 'greatest orgasm of your life.’ And not to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty damn sure I did just that!”

Cagney threw his arms in the air. “Yeah. I’m just as responsible for what happened next, I’ll give you that! And if I had known what I knew now, I would have had a hell of a lot more questions before I’d have done that with you!”

His head drooped and he looked away. “I came here to ask for your help, Rumor! And I was willing to work for it, sure! You could have told me no or to buzz off. You were my friend, I would have listened!” He looked back up at her, daggers in his eyes. “But you saw an opportunity and you took it. So here we are. Congratu-fuckulations!”

He didn’t dwell on Rumor’s hurt expression, instead dangling the piece of cloth in front of her. “You want me to put this on?”

“Please don’t put it on, please don’t put it on, please don’t put it on,” Amber desperately begged to herself.

“Fine! I’ll put this on!” Cagney snapped, tying the bandana around his neck. “You think it’ll help me think clearly? Because I haven’t been thinking straight for the last week and if a piece of fabric is going to suddenly change things, I’d like to see it try!”

Rumor felt worse at each word the carnation yelled at her, turning red in embarrassment for her moment of weakness. She turned slightly to see the flower putting on the fabric and she looked at him wondering if she had done right.

Seconds later, Cagney started to feel a bit light headed. His angry thoughts started to fade away at the view of Rumor’s glassy eyes. Had he just been saying horrible things to the friend who was willing to give him what he needed to help Hilda? Hilda… that name made him feel slightly angry for some reason.

Narween seemed very pleased to see what she was witnessing, the guard ants still at the defensive.

“Cagney?” Rumor asked worried. “Y-you ok?”

Cagney blinked unsteadily. “What were we talking about just now?” He asked.

Amber gaped at the scene. The carnation had been outright yelling one minute and the next, acting like someone had just kicked him in the head.

The bee looked at Narween worried but the ant reassured her with a nod.

“You-you were yelling at me for trying to help you with…Hilda.” She despised the witch so much, she could barely say her name. She looked Cagney into his eyes, trying to identify any sign of change in him.

Cagney shook his head. “Yelling at you? Why would I be yelling at you? About Hilda? Why the heck would we be arguing about her?” He asked, the very name eliciting a bad taste in his mouth.

Rumor’s expression lightened and she looked back at Narween. The ant smiled back at her. “Well, I see you have everything under control here.” She walked towards the door, accompanied by her guards. “I leave you with your…meeting.” She left the office, closing the door behind her.

Rumor turned back to Cagney. “Eh… d-do you remember anything from yesterday?” She needed to see if her magic erased everything prior of being worn, or simply it distorted the memories, but she knew it might be a little too soon to really know. Some magic artifacts required some time to fully act.

Cagney struggled to make sense out of yesterday. It seemed like a muddled mess but gradually pieces started to fall into place. “Well, uh, I remember coming here cause I had to ask you for a favor.”

The flower scrunched up his face. “Hilda’s dome was broken. I accidentally broke it, and she said I had to fix it. I had to come bother you to try to fix it, I think.” He made a face. “Why the hell would she have made me bother you? You’re really busy! If she wanted it fixed, she should have come here herself, right?”

“Right!” Rumor said, happy to see Cagney realizing that. He just needed a little push. “Uh… d-do you, do you remember what we… 'talked’ about… in my chambers?” she asked, blushing slightly, remembering their love making session and how abruptly it ended.

“You were offering to help but the more we talked, the more I realized how right you were about everything. And we got to flirting and we…did, holy shit” Cagney turned red in the face as he recalled their coital session.

The bumblebee underneath him, squirming and squealing in pleasure. He couldn’t even remember how long he was waiting to hear her make those sounds.

Rumor smiled shyly as she noticed his redness. “Yeah. That was… pretty amazing, actually… w-was it good for you?”

Cagney tried to play it cool. Rumor was asking him if he enjoyed their magical night together. “Y-yeahh!” He stammered before clearing his throat, “I mean you’d have to have honey for brains to not see how much I enjoyed myself.”

Rumor’s heart beat so fast. Her spell seemed to be working perfectly. Cagney now realized she was the one for him, and not that filthy human. She looked at her feet. She needed to be certain of the efficiency of the magical cloth. “Eh, and…do you remember how it ended?”

The flower concentrated. “The end?” For how muddy the rest of the memories were, for some reason the end was still fairly vibrant in his mind. Perhaps it was because it was such an emotionally fueled moment that it didn’t melt away with the rest of the memories?

He brightened as he remembered he had imagined he was making love to Hilda in that moment. “Oh, yeah I said Hil-!” His voice was cut off mid-speech as the bandanna constricted against his neck.

He tumbled down, knocking some items off of Rumor’s desk before he collapsed to his knees. The thought of Hilda moaning in sublime ecstasy within his grasp turned painful and he couldn’t breath.

Amber had been bracing herself to hear some really disgusting sex stuff about this Carnation that she really didn’t want to hear, but watching him fall to the ground almost made her leap from her hiding place. What the hell was going on?

“Cagney!” The queen yelled and she reached for him. “Cagney, look at me!” She forced him to face her. “Focus on me! Please, Cagney! Look into my eyes and breath slowly!”

After struggling a bit, Cagney finally focused on Rumor. He felt how the silk cloth relaxed around his neck, allowing air to finally pass into his lungs.

He rubbed his neck, continuing to breathe carefully, lest that happen again. “Christ, Rumor, you’d think they’d make this bandanna a little softer,” he grumbled. He softened at her worried expression. “Hey, hey, no, I’m okay, don’t freak out, dork,” he chided. He leaned in to her touch. “This feels nice though, you can keep doing this.”

The queen worried expression turned into a blushing smile, even though she didn’t appreciate being called a dork, she kept caressing his cheek.

If only thinking about Hilda almost made him choke… what would happen if he actually saw her? She would have to work fast to erase every memory of the witch before that happened…not that Hilda would show up in her hive. 'That’s it!’ She thought to herself, 'I’ll keep him in my hive until he forgets all about that blimp!’

Rumor cleared her throat. “ I’ve been thinking… Since we’re doing business together maybe-maybe you would like to work in my Royal Gardens? That way you won’t have to walk all the way here every time. You will have your own room, of course! As well as a team of gardeners. Everything you need will be take care of!” She said with bright eyes, hoping he would accept.

“That, that would be amazing! I mean, I have to get my old garden taken care of, but that shouldn’t be too hard.” Cagney eyed her sideways with a smirk. “You’re being awfully nice to me, what’s the catch?”

“Catch? Well, I guess you’ll technically be working for me. Does that bother you?”

“I think I could get used to the idea of having you on top,” he chuckled.

Rumor blushed heavily, laughed and pushed him slightly. “Oh! You! You better watch your tongue in front of my workers!” She was really liking this. It felt so right!

He stuck his tongue out and waggled it at her. “Just let me know how you’d like to see it when the workers aren’t around.”

Amber was wondering what the hell was happening.

He glanced toward the direction of where the ant went. “Unless your girlfriend has an issue?”

“Girlfriend?” She took a second to understand what he was referring to. “Oh! Narween? She’s just a friend. A very good one. And to think we used to be rivals! She bought other small hives to make honey but my high quality has always beat hers in the market.” She helped the flower to stand back up. “And then one day, she came in peace. We had a looong talk and now we’re partners and best friends!” She said, a little too excited, as if she was over acting it.

Cagney pulled a petal. “Huh. Yeah, I don’t even remember seeing the honey she makes in the village store. Best friends, huh? Well at least you’re not lonely,” he teased

Rumor frowned at him but kept her smile. “You know… I’ll be less lonely if you accept the job.” She held her hands on her back and gave him a hungry look. “I could show you where your room would be right now….” This felt incredible for the queen, to speak freely, to the point, with naughty overtones. Is this how he felt with Hilda? No! She shouldn’t waste her thoughts on that witch. If everything worked out, in a few days Cagney wouldn’t even need the bandana anymore. He would be completely free and, hopefully, they would finally be together.

Cagney nodded. “If you got the time… And the energy,” he hinted, the allure of the bee once again stimulating his interest, “I’d love to see it.”

She bit her lip and walked to the door. She stopped in front of it and took a deep breath, stood straight, changed her expression to her typical noble stare and opened the door. She had to make sure nobody would get any ideas about them. Gossip literally flew in this hive.

They both left the room, leaving the little cat burglar alone in the office. The door was closed after they got out with the sound of a few locks.

Amber popped her head up and looked around. “What the hell is going on around here?!” She exclaimed. She looked around the room for something. Magic mirror? Evil puppet? Hypnotic ant monster?

The bandana. Cagney was all ready to brawl until he put it on and then suddenly he and the crazy queen were flirting and oh man was she glad they didn’t start anything on the desk.

And the staff that the bee have been holding; it made the bandana come out! “The staff has got to be the source of this,” she realized, “I have to get out of here!”

She started to make a beeline in the opposite direction of Rumor and Cagney only to stop. That scepter was dangerous. Really dangerous. And from what she had just seen, it wasn’t restricted to bees. Anyone could suddenly find themselves wearing a bandana or a bracelet and their brains turned to mush. Plus, she really couldn’t leave Cagney to his fate. She groaned and plopped herself down on her butt. “I hate being the hero,” she grumbled.

She had to get that scepter out of the bee’s hands.

But how? Amber wasn’t good at magic, having none of her own, and so there was no way she could just confront Rumor head on. She couldn’t take on a bee and her really unsettling ant friend. And if Cagney was really zonked, he might attack her too!

She had to play to her strengths. And her strengths were being sneaky and stealthy. Amber glanced around the room, already planning out her route to follow the two bosses.

____

Cagney followed Rumor to what he assumed was his room. For the most part, the workers did not give him a second glance. Word did travel fast in a hive. No doubt they heard that he had accepted the gardening position and realized he didn’t need to be arrested.

But the cat he was with. Amber. She was still around. He really should have mentioned to Rumor that she was in the room, but something deep in his gut had prevented him from doing that. Oh well, maybe he could help her look for the cat later. After she showed him the bedroom.

She finally came to a door and opened it up, revealing a very similar set up to her own chamber with access to ground and water. Even in the privacy of the room, Rumor still remained calm and regal like. He wondered if he could get her to drop the act now that they were alone.

Or so he thought.

Amber clung to the beams holding up the ceiling of honeycomb. It was fortunate that they had some form of structure for her to even grab onto, much less hide behind. Honeycombs were strong and all but a place of this size and capacity probably needed a bit of help to stay intact. She had been following Rumor and Cagney, hoping the queen might hand off her scepter to someone less capable but no such luck. She squeezed through a gap in the rafters to get into the room only to freeze as she saw the way the flower eyed the bee.

Oh, she definitely did NOT want to see this. She turned and tried to hightail it out of there only to remain stuck. She looked to see her tail tangle on some of the nails. She tried to pull it out quickly only to stifle a pained gasp. She had to go slow otherwise they would hear her. She regrettably go to work on freeing her tail as quickly as she could.

Cagney planted his roots into the moist soil, enjoying the feeling of dirt again on his feet. When this was all over, he was going to go home and stay burrowed in his garden for a week. He paused. But he wasn’t going to go home. Not yet at least. This was his home now, right? There was a reason he wanted to go back to the isle but he couldn’t quite figure it out.

The line of thinking distressed him and he chose instead to play with Rumor. He placed his leafy hands around Rumor from behind, fiddling with top of her breasts. “Ready for round two?” He asked.

Rumor bit her lip, wanting very much to have a Round Two but stopped herself from just submitting once more. Yesterday’s events were still very much in her mind, especially how Cagney blurted out Hilda’s name at the end of what was supposed to be very stress relieving coitus. “Cagney, I don’t think I have the time at the moment.“

Cagney nuzzled against her. “You’re the queen, ain’t ya? You’re saying you don’t want to mess around just a little bit?”

She was the queen, wasn’t she? She could allow herself to indulge in this again. Besides, the bandana looked like it was already doing its job. Cagney had barely mentioned Hilda ever since he put it on. “I suppose there’s some time,” Rumor admitted, sitting down on the bed and beckoning him closer.

The flower approached her but paused. “Ya gonna hit me again?”

“Depends on how good you are,” she smirked.

“Great.”

Keeping his position in the dirt, Cagney leaned over in front of Rumor and pressed a surprisingly gentle kiss to her lips.

The bee was caught off guard, expecting the roughness from yesterday. She quickly responded in kind, taking her hands and softly stroking along the sides of his face, rubbing the sensitive spots on his petals that her bee vision could see. The flower shivered at the contact, his tongue slipping out and begging for entrance to Rumor’s. She granted entry and met his tongue with her own, enjoying the sweetness of his nectar.

His fingers crept alongside her shoulders and pulled away the royal garments she wore, exposing her black and yellow skin. She shivered at the contact with air and she reached out to pull his stem against her. She enjoyed how warm the plant felt. She started to rub down his rough stem to shamelessly try to coax out his piece already.

Cagney squeaked in surprise at the bold gesture. He pulled away from the kiss and smugly eyed her. “Guess you really don’t have a lot of time if you’re already wanting the big finish.“

Rumor blushed at being called out. “It’s just, well after yesterday…”

“Yesterday?” He asked, “didn’t we have some fun yesterday?”

‘Yes, and you screamed out another woman’s name during sex,’ Rumor wanted to remind him but stopped herself. Ugh, Hilda wasn’t even here and she was already putting a damper on this ardent affair. “Never mind yourself,” she replied sharply, “just hey!”

In his absent-mindedness, Cagney had torn a little bit of one of the garments. He looked at the piece of cloth in his large hand. “Oops.”

“Oops? That’s silk, how did you rip silk? You better fix it after this!” She gasped, trying not to let on to the fact that the thought of the Carnation ripping her clothes off was actually kind of hot.

Cagney nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m going to fix this…” there was an odd feeling inside of him as he said those words. Like he had said them before.

Rumor rolled her eyes. “I’ll just have the Royal tailor fix it, don’t concern yourself further…“

Why had he said those words? He remembered clutching someone tightly to his breast, repeating those words. Hoping he could make them true.

“Cagney?”

The flower looked back in her. “Huh?”

“Is everything alright?” Rumor asked, trying not to look too worried.

“Yeah, yeah everything’s fine,” he said, even as he swore he could feel someone small in his arms.

Rumor eyed the flower a bit worried before gently pulling him towards her lips. She focused on the moment and try to keep the thought of the meteorologist out of her her mind. 'Better keep her away from his thoughts as well…’ she said to herself, raising the intensity of her kiss and stimulating him. "On second thought, maybe you could give more work to my tailor,” the queen said, sensually looking at her torn up clothes.

Cagney returned the kiss, trying to match the intensity of it while trying to ignore the weird feeling that festered within his chest.

He ground himself into her touch and pressed kiss after kiss along her cheeks and her neck. His fingers tugged at the garments, trying to pull them off, but now shying away from outright ripping them. He already had so much to try to do, he didn’t need to add more to it.

What did he come here to do? He was here to work for Rumor, right? He came here to try to fix something but the more he tried to focus on what it was, the more it slipped away, agitating him further.

He could feel his stem starting to thicken as he continued to paw at her breasts and her hips

Rumor let some soft moans escape from her throat, rubbing her body impatiently against his. She caressed his sensitive spots behind the petals slowly leaning on him. “Take me,” she moaned between playful tongue kisses. “Take me now!” She ordered, stealing a really heated kiss from the flower.

The order reverbated deep within him and he couldn’t help but growl at the authority behind her words. He resisted the urge to just forget and submit. He grabbed Rumor and pulled her fully into him, his tongue darting out and caressing the insides of her mouth. He could feel a heat growing within him as his stem continued to thicken and his petals turn ragged with her touches. The frustration of it all, wanting to screw Rumor into oblivion yet still remember what he had come here for was proving too much for his regular form to take and he felt himself gradually transform.

The queen abandoned herself to the flower’s needy and gradually rougher touches. This was surreal for her. Two days ago their relationship was purely business, and now, here she was, quivering and almost dripping from their still covered crotch.

She rubbed herself against the thicker part of his stem looking at him with preying eyes, not paying attention to the slightly changes that started to appear in his body.

He flipped her around so her back rested against his chest and removed the garments around her pelvis, exposing her sex. His fingers dipped down and spread her vaginal folds, fingering the sensitive tissues to prepare her for penetration.

He felt so pent up. He wanted nothing more than to pollinate the queen bee, make her scream, hoping that her shrieks of pleasure would shake him from whatever lingering thoughts kept him from accepting this was what he wanted.

“Are you ready?” He groaned, rubbing his penis against the outside of her vulva, silently begging for her to let him in.

She gasped in surprise and spread her legs to allow Cagney to reach better. Her body was burning with desire. “Hhnng… yes! Don’t make me wait any longer!” she cried, caressing his neck and moving her hips to the touches.

He slipped it in easily as her entrance was already slick with desire. He lingered inside her without moving, enjoying the feeling of her warm walls wrapped snugly around his cock.

This felt even better than yesterday! He ran his hands along her body pausing as he felt the bareness of her wrists. There was supposed to be something there. He grit his teeth, growing increasingly frustrated by how his mind refused to remember. He knew there was supposed to be something there. So why couldn’t he remember?

He should start soft. She asked him to…right? But Rumor didn’t ask for that. Someone asked for that. But it wasn’t Rumor. He thrusted into her slowly at first but quickened his speed as she wiggled impatiently.

He felt like he was losing his mind. His teeth elongated and sharpened as he warped his shape. His petals looked bedraggled and his stem had thickened and fleshed out. She felt increasingly tight on his growing member as he continued to rut into her, his lustful groans turned into a growls

Rumor moaned at the slow friction and turned around when she noticed the tightness in her womanhood. “Cagney, what are you~CAGNEY!?” She yelled, surprised to see the monstrous figure of the flower thrusting and growling. The queen tried to pull him out and release herself from of his grip. “What’s going on!?”

Rumor’s desperate wriggling to escape only led to Cagney tightly grasping her, pinning her arms to her sides, and jerking her back down roughly on his enlarged penis.

He hadn’t been in this form for a while, not since he broke the dome. And he was supposed to be fixing it. But he wasn’t. He was here, abusing this sexy bee. The more he touched her, the less he started to care about anything else. Except for screwing the honey out of her.

The carnation’s capacity of speech in this form wasn’t the best but he managed another snarl, “What’s wrong, Rumor? Can’t handle me like this?”

“Handle you!?” She moaned. “Since when you can turn like this?” She was more surprised than worried. The thick member of the flower pounding her wet vagina, sending waves of pleasure all over her body, making her shiver and groan loudly.

She started to love this feeling of being trapped like a fly between Cagney’s strong vines. It didn’t take long for the bee to accompany the carnation’s rough love making with her hips.

He didn’t answer the bee, instead choosing to nip and bite at her neck. He could feel himself close to climaxing as her walls started to spasm around him, indicating she was also near her edge. He continued to keep her pinned, his vines rubbing and stroking the front of her clitoris as he erratically rammed into her.

A final thrust of his hips sent him shooting his load deep inside her, coating her with the sweet, sticky nectar. He let out a rather monstrous growl, unable to call out an unknown name. He kept Rumor planted firmly as she started riding out her own orgasm.

Rumor screamed Cagney’s name as her orgasm exploded like a bomb through her shivering and wet body. That was the best orgasm she ever had, including the one from yesterday.

“My queen! Everything o~OH GOD!” The cleaning bees from before opened the door and saw the weird scene in a flash before shutting the door again. “W-we’re so sorry my queen!!!”

“P-please don’t kill us!”

Rumor’s reaction was slow, she was still panting, lost in the afterglow of her exquisite orgasm when she tried to speak and sound like her usual self.

“Hhh… you’re…hhh… you’re dead, if hhh you say anything… hhh.” She could only think about Cagney and how much she wanted to be with him, even in this monstrous form. She wondered if the silk cloth was responsible of his transformation.

“Of course, my Queen!”

“We won’t say anything my queen”

“We heard and saw nothing!”

The cleaning bees kept reassuring the queen as they walked away from the door.

Their problems continued even into the hallway. A large female bee guard stopped the smaller workers, startling them. “Why aren’t you cleaning?” She demanded.

“AH! Oh! Eh… uuuhh… we … we thought we heard something but.. eh…~!”

“Turns out was just a bird smashing into the window….” They replied nervously.

The guard narrowed her eyes. “Get back to work,” she said in a severe tone. The little bees nodded and continued their cleaning routine.

The guard eyed the door they were standing by and paid attention to any sound. They were still looking for the fugitives and it would be horrible if their Queen found out they managed to reach this level in the hive.

____

Amber knew what sex was. She had had it a couple of times. She liked it, usually. She had actually been wanting some sex for a while now and it was getting to the point where she was seriously considering offering herself to anyone as long as she got a screw. There was only so much self loving could do for her. The point being, despite how long it had been since she had sex, she was fairly certain she could recognize it when it was happening.

This was not sex.

Amber had watched the entire thing with the expression of someone who was watching two trains not only crash but also start screwing each other like spring fueled rabbit. She had freaked out once or twice but thankfully her voice was drowned out by the vocalizations of the bee and flower. She was incredibly heated and knew she could probably pass for a furry strawberry with how red she was.

She held her freed tail in her paws, frozen to her spot until the door slammed open, jarring her back to reality. She fled the way she came, wondering how long it would take for her to forget the image of Cagney screwing the bee into oblivion that was burned into her mind.

____

After a while without hearing the bees, Rumor pulled Cagney out of her dripping sex of his big load. She tightened her thighs together, enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling inside her, and turn slowly towards Cagney, still in his last stage. He seemed a bit confused, still panting from the effort and releasing soft growls.

The queen wanted to comfort him, she extended her hand and reached for his cheek. “You ok, Cagney?”

Cagney blinked unsuredly and growled at the hand before realizing it belonged to Rumor. He allowed it to make contact with his head briefly before wrapping a vine around it and growling quietly. He was still very much coming down from his high, unsure if he enjoyed the touch or not..

Rumor didn’t dare to move and looked at the carnation worried. Did she turned him into this? Maybe she did the spell wrong…

At the sound of the growling the guard from outside stepped in, pointing a gun at the couple. “HOLD IT TheoooOOOOHMYGOD!” She saw the flower holding onto a naked Rumor who didn’t seem very comfortable with the situation. The carnation must be assaulting her beloved queen! “LET HER GO! NOW!” She yelled, pointing the gun at Cagney.

Cagney turned at the shout, still somewhat confused. When he saw the gun being aimed at him, he bared his sharp teeth. He released Rumor and advanced upon the bee. “I’m going to break you like a ceramic pot,” he snarled.

The guard shot a few rounds, planting a couple of bullets in his stem, but it only seemed to make the monstrous plant angrier.

“STOP SHOOTING!” Rumor covered herself with her clothes and shouted at the guard who obeyed immediately lifting his hands.

“B-but… my Queen?.” The large bee said confused.

Getting shot did not feel good. So Cagney was fairly sure he was about to make the large guard bee feel worse than him. Before the guard could lower his hands, Cagney backhanded him through the door with a vine. “Ha! Hahahaha!” He cackled. “Bet that didn’t feel good!”

“CAGNEY!” She quickly put on her dress, picked up her scepter and turned the dirt into salted water.

The result was instantaneous. One second, Cagney was raring to knock out the next guard. The next second, he had collapsed, the saltwater stinging his roots. Without the dirt to support his greater form, he quickly shriveled back into his second form.

He wasn’t shrinking in pain persay, but he definitely wasn’t being quiet about it either. “What the hell? What the hell is going on?! Ow, ow, ow!” He hissed, trying to get out of the water.

“I haven’t hurt this much since Tauros landed that lucky shot the last time Hilda and I went at it!” He groaned, just the memory of it making his stem sting even more.

Rumor growled, angry at the sound of the sky witch’s name. She clenched her fists and got to the door. “I hope you enjoy your new home.” She got out and slammed the door behind her. A series of clacking noises came out of the door suggesting it was being locked.

Rumor stood for a while in front of the door looking down. She was feeling horribly guilty. This was the second time her passionate time with her beloved flower had ended with him blurting out Hilda’s name and being locked up. She was seriously starting to believe their relationship wasn’t meant to be.

“My Queen!” The large bee approached Rumor worried. “You ok, your Majesty?”

“..I’m fine”

“I’m sorry I didn’t react sooner, my Queen. I will execute him inmediate~”

“No,” Rumor interrupted. “You will NEVER speak of this. You saw NOTHING.” She threatened the female guard. “And the two cleaners who were here earlier. Send them to my office.” She walked towards her room. “Cagney is the new royal gardener. Make sure everybody knows”

The guard looked at her unbelieving, but nodded softly. “As you wish, my Queen”

____

Cagney tried to follow her but couldn’t open the door. Had she really locked it?! He didn’t have the strength to break it down. And without the soil, he was stuck like this.

“UGHHHH!” He growled and proceeded to punch the bed, trying to figure out what had gone wrong once more.

____

“Ugh. Here he comes again,” one of the bee guards at the entrance of the Honeybottom building said to his colleague, when he saw a familiar reptilian silhouette, approaching fast and dripping with water.

Sullivan was livid. He had spent an entire day explaining the incident to his superiors and authorities, and no-one cared about the individuals the bees arrested. He stomped up to the guards. “Let her out!” Sullivan yelled. “Or I’ll get her out myself!”

“C'mon, pal! don’t make me throw you over the bridge again!” The bee replied.

“Go ahead! I’m an amphibian! I’ll just swim back out again! At least let me see her, you brutes!”

At that moment Hilda approached on her cloud accompanied by Carlos, who was clutching desperately to the cloud. “Oh great, more weirdos,” the other guard murmured, watching the woman land softly in front of them.

Hilda heard the salamander yelling and quickly approached the entrance of the hive. “Wow. What’s going on here?”

“Hey! Mi amigo! How are you doing?” Carlos said, happy to see the amphibian. After the fiasco at the docks, Amori ordered him to keep an eye on Sullivan and to find the masked cat he claimed was the cause of his failure.

The sailor turned to the familiar voice. “Carlos? What are you~Miss Berg? H-hi!” He said, surprised to see the meteorologist.

“Eh, hey there…you.” Hilda completely blanked. She knew the amphibian had something to do with boats, and he often came asking for detailed weather reports, but she never managed to remember his name.

“Sullivan.” The sailor said, noticing the doubt in the woman’s face.

“Suuullivaaan! Yes! Of course! I knew it! Just…you know…my head is always in the clouds,” she chuckled awkwardly.

"Oh! You know each other? What a small island.” Carlos smiled. “What are you doing here? Anything I can help you with, my friend?”

“Ugh, not really. Unless you know how to get in there and out. Alive.” The bees looked at them listening carefully. The group noticed their dirty looks and stepped away.

Sullivan explained what happened at the docks and how Amber and Cagney got arrested by Rumor’s guards and never got out.

“..and now, I’m trying to at least see Rumor and talk some sense to her! She’s not the queen of the world! She can’t just arrest people as she wishes!” Sullivan finished talking, pacing in circles angrily.

“Ugh, dumb weed! He must think all cats are burglars now!” Hilda said, a bit pissed herself. “I’ll go in Sebastian”

“Sullivan.”

“Sullivan.” She corrected, and walked towards the guards.

“Hi there, I want to talk with Cagney,” Hilda said to the guards at the door. The bees looked at each other and back at the woman.

“No visitors, miss,” one of them finally answered.

“Look, I know Cagney. He must have said something stupid and made things worse. I want to talk to him so I can make sense of what actually happened and clear this whole thing up with Rumor.” The bees were starting to lose their patience.

“Only bees allowed inside miss. Please, go away!” Hilda was about to yell at the bees when a hand pulled her roughly away from the bees.

“Señorita Luna, mire!” Carlos pointed at a large group of tourists getting inside from another large gate. The bees took a look at their yellow and black stripes badges and let them in without paying any more attention to them.

Hilda smiled maliciously. “That’s a great idea, kitty cat! We’ll CRASH the bus into the door! No-bee is gonna be able to STOP US!”

“Qué dices loca? No! The tourist group! We can get in as a tourist group, you psycho,” Carlos said, surprised to her enthusiasm to crush the vehicle.

“But that was the last tour for today! We’re going to wait for tomorrow! And who knows what horrible things they might be doing to my poor Amber!”

The woman sighed, tired. “Fine, but I like my plan better…” .

____

Amber tiredly plodded down the halls. This place was a giant maze and her normally acute sense of direction was horribly messed up by all the sweet smelling honey. She figured it had to be night by this point, right? She would need to sleep soon since she didn’t have an opportunity to take a cat nap during the day.

However, she was very wary of where she could sleep. The hive was swarming with bees and she constantly had to be on the lookout for the next patrol or cleaning crew. She had to find a safe place and there were very few places that the bees did not barge into.

Well, there was one.

The Queen had made Cagney’s room practically off limits to anyone other than herself. Amber grit her teeth. Cagney had been acting real goofy ever since he put on that dumb bandana. And he wasn’t exactly fond of her before either.

The sound of wheels clattering indicated that one of the cleaning crews was returning, and she scampered back up near the ceiling. She had to think of some way she could get in there without the large Carnation murdering her on sight. She watched the cleaning crew as they swept and dusted the hallway.

Geez, didn’t the cleaning crews ever stop? She’d imagine a hive could get very messy really quick without them, but seriously it felt like they were here every. As one of them pulled out of cloth to polish something, Amber’s eyes lit up. “Hey, that could work.”

____

Cagney grumbled to himself as he observed his stem. The wound had pretty much healed at this point, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t sore to the touch. He was glad? Yeah, glad, he’s supposed, that he got shot in his third form and not the second. There could have been a lasting injury with the second form.

He heard the door knob rattle and glanced over to it curiously. The doorknob stopped rattling and he shrugged. “Must have just been someone trying the wrong door,” he figured. He paused again, this time he swore he could hear scratching above him. A small figure landed near him and he turned on it.

It was Amber. “Heya, Cagney!” She greeted cheerfully, taking a step forward.

There was suddenly no more ground underneath her paws as the flower scruffed and dangled her in the air. “Rumor’s been looking for you,” he evilly grinned, “kind of a dumb move for you to come here, don’t you think? Maybe I oughta dunk you in the salt water before I call the guards.”

Amber’s fur raised at the sight of the water but quickly waved her paws at him. “No, no no! Rumor already found me! See?” Her little paws gestured to her neck. Tied around it was a bright yellow bandana. “We’re on the same team now! Go bees! So no need to dunk the kitty!”

“…You’re lying. I’m going to call the guards.”

Amber shrugged. “Oh, sure, sure, go ahead and call them, I guess. And I’m sure they’ll come take me away, but man, the Queen is going to be super mad about it when she finds out you woke her up to turn in her secret agent.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

The cat batted her eyes at him. “How do you think I was walking around all day in the hive? You think I’ve been hiding this entire time? No, sir. Rumor made me one of her Secret guards. And only she knows about it.”

The carnation stared at her. “I thought I was the only one to get one of those bandanas,” he mumbled, putting her down.

Amber raised an eyebrow. “Really? You’re unhappy because you think you’re not the only one to get mind controlled by a bandana?”

“What was that?”

“Oh, eh, I mean. You’re still special. Mine’s slightly different from yours. I’m here to guard you.”

He chuckled. “Guard ME? Really? That’s hysterical.”

“I don’t know, you look a little bit beaten up. And no offense, I don’t think it’s from the sex.”

His eyes widened. “How the hell do you know about that?!”

Amber smiled. “Secret guard, remember?”

Cagney groaned. “Just, whatever, fine guard me.”

“Awesome! I’ll start by checking out that bed!” The cat crawled onto the small bed and began to knead the blankets.

The carnation walked over to her and stared down at her. “Hold on, aren’t you supposed to guard me?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah, wake me up if someone comes in and I’ll -yawn- defend your honor or whatever,” Amber yawned, curling into a small ball.

Cagney rolled his eyes and sat down next to her. “Well…this sucks.”

Amber flicked an ear at him. “You know what helps make things suck less?”

“What?”

“Petting a fluffy animal.”

The carnation scoffed, crossed his arms and looked away. “Yeah, right.” Amber hummed and remained lying down. There were a few quiet seconds that passed before Cagney glanced at her. “Really?”

“Mmhmm.”

He uncrossed his arms and extended a hand out to her. “So, I just, pet you?”

“Yes. But only one direction. And not my belly unless I say so.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“Only if you’re a moron.”

He scowled but very cautiously placed a hand on her and began to carefully pet her. He raised an eyebrow. “Huh. This isn’t hard.” He froze as she started to vibrate. “What is that?!”

“I’m purring,” Amber explained, not opening her eyes.

“Is that good?”

“It’s good, it feels nice. That’s my way of saying this feels good and I like it.”

“Why don’t you just say that then?” He snorted, continuing to pet her.

“I think purring gets the point across better, don’t you?”

The cat had a point, carnation could feel himself relaxing the more he petted the small asshole, her vibrations making him feel unnaturally calm. His thorns started to recede and he could feel his leaves start to perk up. He sighed. “I wish I could figure out what’s going on with me and Rumor. Like, everything’s going well and then suddenly she’s kicking me out or turning my soil into ocean water. Something feels wrong.”

Amber grunted. “Maybe you guys aren’t as close as you think.”

The flower did not like her questioning his relationship with the bee. “What are you trying to say? Rumor’s the whole reason I came here!”

Amber sighed. “Yeah, I hear you.”

He eyed her belly curiously. “What happens if I pet your belly?”

Amber opened one eye. “…Do it and die,” she warned. The flower smirked.

“I’d really like to see you attempt that.” He reached down and stroke to rub her belly…only for Amber to clamp down on him like a bear trap and bite his hand. His eyes widened and he pried her off. “Dammit! That hurt more than Berg’s sewing needles!” He swore. He stopped midswear, still cradling his hand.

Amber licked herself. “Good, I warned you.” She squeaked when he grabbed her.

“Do it again.”

“Do what again?” She asked.

“Bite me again.” He looked completely serious.

“Are you serious?” Amber gaped at him.

“Yeah, because -AH!” Amber bit him on the hand once more, this time breaking the skin. The flower had to resist the urge to fling her off. He grasped the bed and whined. “You didn’t want to listen to why?!”

Amber giggled, leaving the carnation to swear. “Things start to get clearer when it hurts!” He growled, “And I-I didn’t come here just for Rumor! I came here to help Hilda!”

The cat released him. “Yes! Yes! And what else?” She asked excitedly. Cagney opened his mouth only for his hands to claw at his throat as the bandanna. He coughed and choked and Amber could only rub up against him. “Hey, hey! You okay?” She asked.

The carnation swallowed hard. “I, uh, really wish I had some water. Some unsalted water,” he coughed, rubbing at his throat. “You think Rumor will bring some tomorrow?” He asked hopefully, “Could give me a chance to apologize to her too!”

Amber sank onto the bed. “I’m sure she’ll do SOMETHING,” she resigned herself. She wasn’t going to try biting the carnation again. If he actually choked and perished, lord knows she would feel intensely guilty about it all.

She curled back up only to perk up once more as she felt a hand on her. She looked to see Cagney petting her again. He looked embarrassed. “I’m still kinda stressed,” he admitted.

Amber sighed. “You may pet the belly. But only for a few seconds.” She rolled onto her back, exposing her tummy to the confused carnation.

He gently touched the area, wincing although he couldn’t quite remember why. He broke into a silly grin. “This is so soft!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Amber grumbled, “Softest part of the cat.”

“Like the feathers on baby birds!”

The cat batted his hand away. “Okay, no more belly rubs!”

“Fine, fine. Man, that was really soft though.” The carnation resolved himself to petting the cat who started to yawn again. “Think things will make more sense tomorrow?” He asked.

“Hopefully,” Amber purred, nuzzling into his hand.

“You sure?” He was greeted with only the sound of snores and he turned to see Amber had fallen into a deep sleep. He exhaled. “Well, shit, it better start making sense soon. I feel like I’m going crazy here.” The carnation passed out next to her shortly thereafter, his hand still midscratch on her ear.

———————————————————————————

CHAPTER 01, CHAPTER 02, CHAPTER 03, CHAPTER 04, CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06, CHAPTER 07, CHAPTER 08, CHAPTER 09, CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14 ; CHAPTER 15; CHAPTER 16 ; (nsfw) CHAPTER 17 ; CHAPTER 18 ; CHAPTER 19 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 20 ; CHAPTER 21 ; CHAPTER 22 ; CHAPTER 23 ; CHAPTER 24 ; CHAPTER 25 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 26 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 27 ; CHAPTER 28 (nsfw)

#cuphead #fan fiction #necrida #smallpersiankitten #smallpersiankittencuphead #hilda berg #dr kahl #werner werman #psycarrot #carlos buenaventura #rumor honeybottoms #cagney carnation #amber alleycat #submission

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necrokittytales · 6 years

Text

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 25)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

This has some nsfw bits! ———————————————————————————

Hilda was sitting in the projection room, over some blankets and pillows. In front of her was Cagney smiling at her, and between them, a wonderful cake lit with candles.

“Is this what you want?” Cagney said to her, holding her hand. She didn’t understand his question but before she could say anything, everything turned dark and lit up again. This time they were sitting at the club. People around them were blurry. Cagney gently took her to the dance floor and danced slowly with her, keeping her very close to him.

“Is this what you want?” He asked again sweetly. Hilda looked at him confused.

“I… I don’t kn~.” Cagney pinned her down on a soft bed. She gasped in surprise as she felt him rubbing against her body.

“Is this what you want?” He asked again, grinning and with lust in his eyes. Hilda’s back arched as she felt him penetrate her roughly and released a moan of both pain and pleasure.

“Wh- what do YOU want?” She managed to say between the hard thrusts Cagney was inflicting upon her.

The flower started to pull vines around the bed and started to entangle around Hilda’s body. She felt the vines getting tighter on her chest. She started to suffocate. She couldn’t speak or yell.

Cagney transformed into a terrifying mix of his monstrous self and the crystal dragon. He came face to face to her, and with a deep horrifying voice, he whispered.

“I don’t want to see you again.”

The need for air woke Hilda from her nightmare with a startled shriek. She remained still in her bed, laying on her side for a moment, recovering her breath. She felt something tight in her chest. She look down to see Beppi’s arm wrapped around her - the clown was spooning her.

She looked horrified at him, as he slept sweetly with a teddy bear between them, sucking his thumb. “GET THE FUCK OFF ME!” She yelled, violently pushing the clown off the bed.

“Miss Beeerg!?” She heard a child’s voice calling her. “Mis Beerg! You ok?” She recognized it was Mina. She must have seen the mess at the observatory.

Beppi hit the ground with a thud and a whine. “Honey, not now, I have a headache,” He groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, still hugging the teddy bear in his other hand. He looked to see an irritated, yet distracted Hilda and sidled back up to her. “Looks like you woke up the kids,” he teased. He patted her on head. “Don’t worry, I’ll go get it for you!”

Beppi planted an overdramatic kiss to her cheek before hopping off the bed and running to open the door first before the zeppelin woman could recover.

Hilda stayed on her bed, unbelieving the clown’s boldness to treat her like that. This was already turning out to be a horrible day.

—

Mina and Harvey knocked a few more times, paying attention to any sound that came from inside the house.

“You think she’s ok?” The little bat asked worried. They had seen the damage from the observatory from a far and she was understandably worried about the woman.

“She’s really tough,” Harvey pointed out, “for all we know she might actually be the one who broke the roof. She’s done it before.”

The door swung open and Beppi stood there, manic grin already on his face. “Hello there, children!!!” He exclaimed grabbing the two kids and dragging them inside. “I’m about to make pancakes!”

The kids yelled, terrified and tried to escape the clown’s grip. Hilda was alarmed by the shouting and ran down stairs. “Beppi! What the hell are you doing!?”

“He’s gonna kill us!” Mina yelled, clawing at the clown.

Beppi plopped the children at the table. “I’m making pancakes!”

Harvey panickedly looked toward the kitchen. “Made with flour and not children, right?”

“Wellllll I do have a special ingredient that I like to put in the batter. It makes the children really scream.” The horrified faces of the kids left him delighted. “It’s chocolate chips,” he added with a wink.

“Sorry about Beppi,” Hilda started to prepare some tea. “He can be a bit… intense.”

The kids exchanged confused looks but remained at the table. “If you’re not here to kill us… what are you doing here? Did you destroy the observatory too?“ The little b-cat asked the clown, still a bit scared.

Beppi had started making pancakes as Hilda apologized. But at the little bat’s question, he started to giggle again.

"No, no. Hilda and I just had a sleepover is all. I’m here dragon hunting!” He explained.

Harvey paled. “You’re not hunting Grim, right?”

“Nah, that would be too easy. I’m hunting the dragon from the other night. The one you blew up with a churro.”

Harvey gasped. “You mean it is still around?”

Beppi finished making the pancakes in the shape of circus animals and plopped them on the table. “Well not now, but Cagn-eh, I’ve got good knowledge that it might be lurking around this isle.”

Hilda’s eyes twitched at the comment of the clown. Harvey would certainly tell his mom all this, and it would be a matter of hours before the whole isles knew about Beppi’s sleepover.

"Heheh! Yeah! Eh… don’t tell anyone though. It’s a secret mission!” She tried to persuade the kids, serving them more pancakes onto their plates. “If the dragon finds out there’s a hunter hiding in here, he won’t come back at all!”

“Ficrwept mifion!” Mina said with her mouth already full of pancakes. She swallowed with a noisy gulp. “How can we help?!” She said, excited. This would be a great chapter in her adventure journal.

Beppi whistled. “Wellllll, it’d be nice if we could get Hilda’s tower rebuilt so I could have a higher spot for looking out…but I’d also settle for both of you two keeping a lookout if you see something weird.”

Mina looked at the pancakes and an idea popped in her head.

“We can sell cookies! Like the girl scouts.” She said excited, looking at Harvey for his approval.

Harvey’s ears perked up. “Yeah! We can use my mom’s kitchen and we can go set up in places with a lot of people.”

Beppi waved his hand. “Feel free to use the circus. I’m sure they’ve swept up all the glass by this point.”

Mina yelled of happiness and excitement. “We will make money in no time! But we’re going to need help. We should call Spike!”

While the kids talked, Hilda sipped her tea, thinking that it was actually a good idea. Maybe she should talk to the school principal and make a whole event out of it.

Harvey nodded excitedly. “This is a really good idea!” Hopefully Spike wouldn’t try to bully them but it seemed for now there was at least an okay truce between them.

After eating a bunch of pancakes, the kids decided it was time to leave.

“The sooner we start baking, the sooner we’ll get the money! Don’t worry, Miss Berg! We will help you rebuild your observatory!” Mina said, walking towards the door and waving goodbye.

The sky witch’s heart melted at the kids’ enthusiasm to help her out. Maybe she wouldn’t have to leave after all. “Thank you, kids. I’ll take all the help I can get.”

The kids left in a hurry, heading to Spike’s house.

Hilda eyed one of the pancakes and tried one. “Hmm! This is pretty good, Beppi! I didn’t expect you to know how to do anything else but hotdogs and popcorn.”

Beppi nudged her. “My speciality is my hotdog cotton candy pancakes!” He cracked his fingers. “So what’s on the agenda for you today, Miss Berg?”

The woman made a disgusted face at the clown. “For today, I need to call someone to clear the debris, I got to talk to the mayor see if I can get some money for repairs. That baking thing might be a good idea, I may talk to the school see if we can organize something with all the kids.” She served herself a bit more tea. “What about you?”

Beppi slapped her on the back as she attempted to sip more tea. “Say, that’s exactly what I was going to do! Why don’t we go together?” He started to pick up pancakes and shove them in his pockets. “You should definitely wear that ring though. I don’t want to get smushed by an anvil because I’m walking with you!”

Beppi made her spill some of her tea. “What!? Don’t you have a dragon to catch?” She said frowning at him cleaning the spill.

Beppi threw his hands in the air. “Do you really think I’d be able to catch it if I saw one without you? I can’t exactly float very fast, you know.” The clown made sure to be even more overdramatic than necessary. Cagney did not want her out of his sight. And the last thing the clown wanted to deal with was an angry daisy AND an angry genie.

Just one of them was hard enough.

Plus, he thought as he eyed Hilda’s legs as she bent over to clean the tea spill, she wasn’t too hard on the eyes either. Since Bon Bon wasn’t working out, it wouldn’t hurt to try things with Hilda.

He had a thing for deadly women.

Hilda knew it was pointless to argue with him. He always got what he wanted, so she might as well play along. She finished cleaning and went up stairs. “I’m gonna get ready, don’t come up here.” She said, giving him a threatening look.

—-

On their way to Spike’s, Mina took the chance to explain Harvey what happened to her and Spike when they were in front of the magic mirror with the large dog that tried to come out. And how Spike had spoken fearfully that the dog looked just like his dad. “So I hope his dad is not around…”’

Harvey nodded solemnly. “If SPIKE doesn’t like his dad, I can only imagine how scary he is.”

The two children approached a shack with a fire hydrant up front. There wasn’t much to the house, a couple of big bones in the yard, but otherwise it was just a house. Harvey knocked on it hesitantly and waited.

In a few minutes, a sleepy Spike answered the door. “Hey losers,” he yawned, “What’s up?”

Mina smiled at him. “Hey, Spike! We just found out the observatory got destroyed by the crystal dragon from the carnival. We were going to earn some money to repair it by selling cookies. Would you like to help us? We’re going to need all the hands we can get!”

Spike snorted. “That sounds kinda girly but okay. Lemme just get dressed.”

Harvey paused. “Do you have to ask your dad if you can go?” He asked curiously.

Spike shook his head. “Nah. He’s busy right now. Gimmee a sec.” The bull dog pup shut the door and quickly got dressed. He opened the door again, a little wider this time, allowing Mina and Harvey to see a large figure laying on the couch, snoring heavily. There was an empty jug labeled “XXX” nearby.

Spike shut the door as he stepped out. “Alright lead the way”

Mina felt sorry for Spike. Because of her mother’s line of work, she had been around clubs, and so she was familiar of the negative effects the alcohol produced in people. She decided not to address it, though, and focus on their mission.

On their way to Grim’s, Mina and Harvey told Spike about the night they saw Venus and why was important to rebuild the observatory.

“And without it, how are going to see if there’s life in other planets? Or if evil aliens come to conquer us! That’s why we have to save it,” Mina said, hoping Spike would get onboard for the long run, and not just to use them as an excuse to get away from his dad.

Spike considered it. “If any evil aliens come, I would totally kick their butts. But I guess it would nice to see them coming. So I guess I can help fix it.”

Harvey nodded. “Great! As soon as Mina is done with her flying lesson, we will get started!”

The kids reached the dragon’s tower and knocked at the huge door. Seconds later, Grim opened the door with a smile. “I was starting to t-think you forgot about our classes.”

“Hi, Grim! Actually, we have an important mission today, and I was wondering if we could make it a short class?” Mina asked, holding her hands on her back.

“W-why?” The dragon asked, curious.

The kids explained what happened to the observatory and told him about their idea to help Hilda earn money for repairs.

“Aww, kids! T-that is a wonderful idea! I would like to help. You could cook here, I got a huge oven I barely use.” He went inside his tower signaling the kids to follow him to the kitchen.

“What type of cookies should we make?” Harvey asked as they walked in.

“If anyone says oatmeal raisins, I’m going to give you such a bad charlie horse!”

Mina wondered what was a charlie horse, but knowing Spike, it was probably something painful.

Harvey winced. “How about chocolate? Or sugar cookies?”

Grim opened the oven to show the kids, and they were surprised to see they could all three fit in if they wanted to.

They had the oven, now they needed the ingredients. A sudden realisation hit the little girl.

“Uh… guys… I just realized we need money to buy the ingredients….” She said searching in her pockets.

Harvey huffed. “Darn. I didn’t think about that. We could go ask my mom if we could have some money.”

Spike scratched his ear. “Why don’t we ask the Baroness if she has the dough we can borrow?”

Even though Grim would love to go see Bon Bon again, he knew how busy her agenda was, and he wouldn’t like to bother her for something this small.

“I t-think I have enough ingredients for a first b-batch. No need t-to bother the Baroness.” The dragon searched in his pantry and tooked the ingredients. “Hey! I even have some ch-chocolate left.” He said, happily surprised.

“Oh great! We can make chocolate chip cookies!” Mina said excited.

“And while t-they bake we can start your flying lessons,” Grim added, preparing the tools to make the mix. He also grabbed a few chairs so the kids would reach the counter and help with the preparations.

They all had fun making different shapes for the cookies and finally, it was time to bake.

As Grim said before, they went outside for a quick flying lesson for Mina, who was improving very fast. The dragon thought she was a quick learner, but the truth was he was a very good teacher. He didn’t notice, but he even stuttered less when he focused on his lessons.

Finally, the time for testing the first batch arrived. They all took a cookie and ate at the same time, only to spit it almost immediately. They could only taste the bitterness of the flour and the texture was all dusty. If it wasn’t for the chocolate chips, the cookies wouldn’t have any flavor at all.

After drinking some lemonades to wash up the taste, Grim admitted it was time for professional help, and flew with the kids to Bon Bon’s castle. They landed at the door and Grim asked politely to one of the guards if it was possible to get an audience with Bon Bon.

The Baroness was in the midst of some paperwork when one of the guards knocked on her door. She glanced up irritably. “What is it?”

“Sorry to disturb you, Baroness, but you have some visitors.”

“I’m rather busy at the moment.”

“It’s Grim Matchstick and some children.”

The Baroness raised an eyebrow. “Oh, well, that’s different.” She excused the guard and checked herself in the mirror subconsciously, patting down her hair and straightening her dress before walking out to the entrance, calm and regal.

“Grim, what a delight to see you and the little ones. What brings you to my castle? Are you having another flight lesson?”

Grim discretely wiggled his tail happy to see the Baroness. Mina did a knight salutation with her fist on her chest.

“Hello, Bon Bon! We’ve just finished t-the lesson, but we’re here for something else.” Helped by the kids, the dragon explained the situation of the observatory, how they wanted to sell cookies to earn money to rebuild it, and the fiasco their first batch was. “So, c-could you help us out? M-maybe you have an easy recipe we can follow?”

Bon Bon’s eyes lit up at the request. “Of course. But perhaps we could do accomplish this task best in my personal kitchen? I have quite the confectioneries to work with,” she suggested, beckoning the small group to follow her.

When no one immediately declined the invitation, the Baroness led them to the kitchen. It was almost surreal. Cupboards upon cupboards of every topping and sugar and flour and cream known through the isles. There was honey and molasses and cherries and raisins. Almost too much to count.

She knelt down to Mina’s level. “So what type of cookies are you looking to make?”

Mina’s eyes widened at the view of all the ingredients. There was even stuff she never saw before. The Baroness’ question brought her back from her thoughts. “Oh! Uh, we tried to make chocolate chip cookies, but, anything will do! As long as it taste good.” She chuckled looking at her friends for their approval.

Harvey and Spike nodded, equally gobsmacked by the selection of baking supplies. The Baroness nodded and began to pull out ingredients. “Grim, can you hand me the cookie cutters on the shelf up there?”

Harvey brightened up. “Hey, do you have any star shaped ones? Since we’re doing this for Hilda?”

“Oh! Good idea, Harvey!” Mina patted the little bunny.

Spike clapped his paws together. “Oh! Aliens! Got any aliens?”

Bon Bon nodded. “I’m sure I have the stars. Grim, do you see any aliens or other space ones up there?”

Grim looked on the shelves and found cookie cutters in.the shape of stars, half moon, a couple of rockets and a planet with its halo.

“Would t-this suffice?” The dragon showed the shapes to the kids. Mina nodded excited.

“They’re going to look awesome!”

Bon Bon could easily turn out rows upon rows of cookies by herself but she knew that this would defeat the purpose of the children raising the money so she helped instruct them how to put the right amount of flour and sugar ratios.

Spike learned how to beat an egg. He was quite pleased with himself and even Bon Bon was impressed by how naturally he could do it. “I’ve beaten a lot of things,” he chuckled, much to Harvey’s chagrin.

Harvey meanwhile loved to roll out the dough, putting flour on the rolling pin so as not have it be too sticky.

The Baroness had Mina pick and choose ingredients as she saw fit, making a batch of chocolate and then a batch of sugar cookies next.

Grim was delighted to see the Baroness explaining to the kids how to prepare the cookies. His imagination quickly drifted to a future with her. But that bubble quickly burst, realising the big differences between them. Even if they could, somehow, manage to do it, not to brag, but it would probably destroy her.

Besides, Bon Bon probably didn’t want him romantically. Sure they had fun together, and she often would pet him and stroke his head, but did she see him only as a pet?

He glanced nervously at the Baroness from time to time while helping the children to cut the shapes into the dough.

The Baroness was unaware of Grim’s inner turmoil, helping the children to get the first batch of cookies onto the tray. She went to open the oven only for her brow to furrow.

“The oven’s cold,” she realized, “The pilot light must have gone out.” Someone would pay dearly for that but until then, she would have to think of something else.

“Grim,” she called, breaking the dragon from his thoughts, “would you be a dear and help relight the pilot light?”

Grim nodded. “O-of course!” He got close to the oven and softly blew a small flame to turn it on. Mina was amazed at how easy he made spitting fire look.

“While we wait, we should think of a spot to put our stand. Or should we go door to door?” Mina asked her friends.

Harvey thought about it. “We should choose a spot to sell the cookies and maybe someone can go tell people we are selling cookies?” He suggested.

“Didn’t that dumb clown say we could use his circus?” Spike asked.

“You’re right, Spike! Oh! And we’re going to need a big sign so people can see us from far!” Mina started to get really excited and was imagining a neon sign guiding people to their huge stand.

The Baroness left the kids to work with the oven, catching the sight of a piece of paper to the side of the kitchen counter. She picked it up and read it over, her facing becoming slightly irritated. “It appears we are behind on a cake order,” she realized, “what with the pilot light being out.” She ran her surprisingly clean hands through her hair. “It’s a large cake…and I’ve set the baker home already.” This would take forever on her own, even with knowing the recipe by heart.

Noticing her irritation, Grim shyly approached her. “Em, well, c-can I help?” He said, playing nervously with his cookie dough covered claws.

Bon Bon nodded. “Yes, I suppose. We might get a bit dirty though. Let me change real quick into something a bit more comfortable?”

“Of c-course!” The dragon nodded and washed his hands in the sink. His mind drifted again and wondered what Bon Bon looked like without all those layers on. He shook his head to prevent his imagination to go further. That did remind him however, he had his letter to recover from Hilda! Maybe later tonight he could swing by and ask for it. He hoped Hilda hadn’t opened it yet.

Bon Bon departed to her chambers and quickly changed into a shorter dress and blushed. She almost felt naked with something with only one layer but she knew she would quickly overheat in her regular outfit what’s the oven going and working next to Grim who generally seemed to run hot.

She stepped back into the kitchen, pulling a book from one of the shelves. “How familiar are you with Grand Marnier cake?” She asked, trying to be nonchalant about it, even as she felt highly sensitive in her outfit.

Grim was astonished when he saw the lovely frame of the Baroness in that light dress, and could only mumble his answer. “Uh…um… eh… .”

The Baroness began to pull ingredients as she could hear the excited children making another flying saucer batch of cookies. “It’s a bit of a more difficult cake to bake but I think we could do it. Are you sure you’re okay to help me?”

The dragon managed to snap out of it and nodded. “Yes! I want t-to help. What do you need me t-to do?” He asked nervously, trying to not stare at her.

“I’m going to need you to start mixing with this while I pour ingredients in.” She gestured to a large bowl and whisk. “It gets really tiring to have to do both at once,” she admitted.

“Okay.” The dragon nodded again and started mixing.

After a few minutes Grim started to feel awkward and decided to say something about her dress. “Y-you look delicious, by the way….” He realised how horrible that sounded and quickly tried to correct himself. “I mean! The d-dress looks delicious cause…what is it made of? M-marshmallow? I-I-I didn’t mean as… you are delicious… just… eh…oh b-boy….” He started to rumble, red of embarrassment and whipping the mix way too hard and not daring to look at the Baroness.

The Baroness awkwardly laughed. Her family had been very concerned when Grim first showed up that the dragon would indeed eat her up along with anyone else on the isle.

Obviously by the fact that everyone was still alive and well that this wasn’t the case and Grim ended up being a very nice, innocent dragon. A little too innocent, she lamented to herself.

Sometimes when they were alone, she wanted to do a little more than tea and giggles. But there was no way such a shy dragon such as himself would be up for that. So she took care of things herself, imagining what it would feel like.

Bon Bon especially liked the daydream she’d have where he really would be eating her up…just a little further down is all. She realized she had turned a bet heated at that and tried to respond to what Grim said as she fanned herself. “Yes, it’s marshmallow…probably not the best choice. It’s so warm in here, I would love for you to eat it off.”

She froze. “Uh, take it off. Wait, I mean, I would love to take it off with you. Cause…excuse me one moment,” she calmly walked out of the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water. Only once she was out of sight did she splash it on her face.

“Control yourself, you’re a Baroness,” she ordered herself quietly

Grim was dumbstruck by what he heard, or thought he heard. She wanted him to EAT her dress off? He blushed heavily. He could feel his body heating up at the thought. But she didn’t really say that…did she?

He glanced quickly at the children to make sure they didn’t get any of what just happened. They seemed too focused on making the perfect shape for the cookies and creating slogans to boost their sales.

“If it rhymes, it will bring bigger dimes!” He heard the little bat chant to prove her point to the other two.

“How about, buy our cookies or else?” Spike suggested.

Even Harvey had to giggle a bit, enjoying the sugar high from working with all the baking supplies.

The Baroness cooled off enough to come back in, a smile on her face. “How’s the whisking going?” She asked. She saw how quickly he was stirring and she frowned. “Oh! Slow down a little bit otherwise you may beat the air out of the mixture!”

Mina shook her head. “Oh, Spike. Violence is not the answer for everything. Mind games is.” She smirked. “We need to make people believe they need our cookies, or their lives would be miserable.”

Grim was still very red and he didn’t dare to look at Bon Bon. He did slow down his movements and started to mix more gently. “Like t-this?” He asked shyly. He couldn’t get the idea of devouring her outfit out of his head.

The Baroness smiled at Grimm’s careful whisking. “Yes, that’s it. Not too rough. can’t be too rough with this stuff, otherwise it won’t be so fluffy. Now for the final ingredient.” With the children distracted, the Baroness withdrew a brown bottle from a discrete cupboard.

It was liquor. Grand Marnier to be exact. “We don’t want to accidentally pour too much, otherwise this will become quite a boozy cake.”

Hearing the Baroness explaining him with a gentle tone aroused him even more. He felt the pressure in his crotch and knew he had to get out of sight immediately.

“Uh! I g-g-gotta use the bathroom!” He said pushing the bowl into Bon Bon’s hands and running out of the kitchen to go to the nearest toilet.

Mina kept thinking out loud. “Hm… if your day sucked, take a bite back… hm… if you want to help Berg… buy our cookies, you turd!” She chuckled.

Bon Bon blinked in surprise at Grim’s rapid departure. She placed the bowl down and started to add the liquor. “Huh, maybe he was overheating too?”

Grim locked himself in the bathroom. It was a service bathroom, for the kitchen staff, so it wasn’t as impressive as the ones reserved for the guests, but it was good enough for the heated dragon.

He immediately opened the sink and splashed his face with fresh water and looked at himself in the mirror. “K-k-keep it together, Grim! You’re not an animal!” He scolded himself, feeling embarrassed and ashamed of his natural impulses.

The pressure between his legs started to turn from irritating to painful. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer.

He looked around desperately and noticed the bathtub. Maybe a cold shower might calm him down. It would be weird to explain to Bon Bon why he was taking a bath in the service restroom.

He ground his teeth and decided he would worry about that later, and opened the water to fill the bathtub.

“C'mon,c'mon, c'mon!” He whispered while the water painfully filled the tub at a slow rate. He held his crotch to make sure his piece would stay put, but it only made him want to rub himself against his own hands.

“Enough!” One of his extra heads popped out alarmed. “Shame on us! You’re in the Baroness Von Bon Bon’s castle, you perv! And there are kids and everything in here!”

“I knew this was gonna happen!” The last head interrupted. “We should masturbate more often! I keep telling ya! This is not healthy to bottle it all up!”

“Guys! Not the b-best time to argue who’s right.” Grim pointed down at his now erect penis.

“Quick! To the bathtub!” Said the first head, and Grim obeyed. The tub was too small for the dragon, but he managed to fit his rear in, spilling half of the water all over the bathroom.

“Oh, for Christ sake!” All three heads spoke at the same time. They looked down to see if the cold water was doing its job, but their piece stood there just as hard.

“Okay… let’s get this over with.” The second head broke the awkward silence. “We gotta do it.”

The first head looked at him horrified. “You want us to masturbate? Now!? Are you insane!?”

“Well, it’s either a quick relief or go back out there with a fourth head. You think she won’t notice THAT?” The second head said sarcastically.

Grim sighed. He was starting to think he was right. Since it had been so long since he paid any attention to himself. It was be quicker to just do it and go back like nothing happened.

“You are disgusting! At least let’s fly back home….”

“Yeah… haven’t you noticed the big red flag we’re hoisting?”

Grim shushed them. “K-keep it down!” He whispered and looked again at his crotch. “Maybe if I hurt myself will g-go away.” The other heads looked at each other, worried.

Grim drew his tail to his mouth. “Okay…just a little b-bite would do.” His tail was now between his teeth, but he was too scared to close his jaws.

The third head was tired of waiting and pushed Grim’s jaw roughly down, causing all three heads to growl in pain. They stood silence for a few seconds to hear if somebody was coming.

They didn’t hear anything, and now they were hurting in two parts, not just one.

“Well, that was pointless. Can we, please, just, touch ourselves?” The third head started to get anxious. “We already have the material to work with,” he smirked maliciously.

“Ugh! Fine! I still think this is filthy and we WILL regret it!” The first head said, blushing, thinking of ‘the material’ the other head was referring too. Grim blushed heavily and looked away from his crotch.

—

The Baroness was starting to become concerned when Grim didn’t return within a few minutes. She thought about trying to find him however, she didn’t want to leave the children alone with the high powered furnace. Luckily, she spotted one of the Jelly Bean Bakers walking by and quickly called him to attention.

“Watch the children while I locate Matchstick,” she ordered, keeping her voice stern and authoritative.

“Yes, Baroness, of course. I believe I saw him near one of the service washrooms.”

“Thank you.” She paused as the Jelly Bean approached the children with oven mitts. Why on Earth’s name would he be over there? He knew where the guest restrooms were. Maybe he was looking for a glass of water?

She poured a glass from the bottle next to her and quietly walked out of the kitchen to find him. She didn’t hear anything as she approached the washroom and was about to consider that her servant had been incorrect when she picked up the slightest of groans.

She approached the door, the groaning continuing, now a little bit louder and heavier. That sounded like Grim. Was he having a stomach ache? Perhaps he’d eaten one too many of the ingredients they were using. It sounded like he was trying to talk to himself, maybe to make himself feel better?

“Hmm, what did she say again? She wants you to eat her dress off… yum!” He said, slowly licking his lips with his long pointy tongue.

Grim reached down slowly and twitched at the touch of his hand against his very sensitive part. He delicately wrapped his hand around the tip and started stroking very gently. They all bit their lips at the pleasurable sensation.

“Ohh… this is so wrong,” the first head said nervously. "We better hurry up, they’re right next door.”

“Hey, hey, calm down.” The third head whispered. “Focus on Bon Bon’s delicious marshmallow dress.”

“Probably melting with the heat in the kitchen.” The fist one added innocently. He was just stating the fact, but realised how Grim was stroking a bit more vividly at the thought of the melting dress.

“I would have t-to lick all of it.” A silly smile grew on his face.

Lick all of what? The bowl with the cake mix? Bon Bon was puzzled.

Licking the bowl would just get him sicker if he was having a tummy ache. She can hear another voice now speaking and realized it was one of his heads. Goodness, he really wasn’t feeling well if those two had popped up.

“Oh yeah! That’s what I’m talking about. And we would help you out! We cover the north… and you go aaall the way south.” The third head smiled widely, feeling the more rhythmic strokes Grim was giving to himself.

That, that didn’t sound like baking. If she didn’t know any better, Bon Bon would have almost thought he was talking about…

The dragon heads all tried their best to moan as little as possible, but it was hard to keep themselves from groaning after a long time of neglect.

“I would….” Grim continued. “I would stick my t-tongue all the way inside her. I wonder if she tastes as sweet as she smells.” Even in cold water the dragon was really hot. He let his tongues hang from their heads, panting softly.

The sound of the dragon moaning made the member of royalty stiffen. Bon Bon turned as red as a tomato as the image of cute little Grim shattered as the dragon managed to purr out such sensual words.

She stifled a gasp with her hand as his words triggered a needy twitch within her abdomen. Her eyes darted around worriedly for any other witnesses but there was none.

“I want to give her so much pleasure,” the first head spoke this time, delirious from the good sensations.

"I want to bite every part of her delicate body.” The other head added breathing heavily.

BonBon sent her fingers on her lips trailing down against her neck and the suddenly very tight feeling of the hem of her dress.

Who was he talking about that had the dragon so worked up? His heavy panting and the lack of other servants emboldened her actions, the free hand having dipped further so it was needing her now very sensitive breasts. She entertained the idea he was lusting after her and a desirous thrill made her body shiver with the thought.

“I want to show her how much I love her….” Grim said stroking his piece more violently.

The Baroness froze at that line.

Grim was in love with someone? Her mind raced with thoughts of who it could be. She had always thought that the dragon had a crush on her, but hearing him like this, learning about a side of him that she had no idea existed, she wondered if she had been completely wrong about that.

Sure, the dragon had asked her out, but perhaps it had been friendship? He never said he liked her or anything. Guilt and shame began to press in, small during the desire that had sparked up at hearing him speak like this. She was the one who pressed little kisses to his cheek, not the other way around. And there were times during summer where he disappear for days, even weeks on end sometimes in the summer… Was he seeing someone else?

Without realising they had an audience, Grim and his heads all started to moan and groan a bit louder. “I want her… only her…. I need her to scream my name!”

Bon Bon felt so foolish. She backed away from the door and took a shaky swig of the water, only to nearly choke as she realized should accident report herself a glass of the Grand Marnier liquor. It burned as it went down her throat, and she quickly hurried down the hallway, stifling a cough and perhaps the beginning of an unhappy sob.

Grim could feel he was pretty close to climaxing. He kept imagining the delicate frame of Bon Bon under his hungry tongues, dipping inside her as deep as they could reach, feeling her twitch and moan his name.

“Oh, Bon Bon!” All three heads growled climaxing releasing a heavy load. He tried to recover his normal breathing, caressing himself slowly while his erection, finally satisfied, softened away.

"I can’t believe we just did that….” The first head said, embarrassed.

“Wow, we REALLY needed that!” The third one added. “Maybe next time I suggest something, maybe you’ll listen to me, huh?” The first head rolled his eyes and Grim was still in the blissful afterglow to pay any attention.

He stood up, emptied the bathtub and washed himself. The fresh water was very welcome. Now that he was relaxed, the other heads returned to the body and he started to get ready to come out again.

—-

As a future explorer, Mina was very observant, she figured out something was wrong between Bon Bon and Grim and now that they both left she dared to ask.

“You think Grim and Bon Bon had a fight? I feel like something is wrong between them….”

Harvey looked around, realizing that Mina was correct. Both the Baroness and Grim were gone. “Maybe we should go look for them?” He suggested.

The kitchen doors opened abruptly and the children jumped up in surprise. The Baroness had walked in, looking slightly just shoveled. Upon realizing she was being watched, the woman straightened herself out, placed an empty glass she had been carrying on the counter, and coolly smiled.

“I apologize,” she began, “I was worried that Grim was having a stomach ache.”

Spike laughed. “Haha, that sucks.”

Harvey’s ears drooped. “Is he okay?”

“Yes, I’m sure he’ll be joining us later. Let me see how your cookies have come out.” She wiped her eyes and approached. Spike sniffed the air, slightly confused. "You kind of smell like my dad right now,“ he noted.

She appeared taken aback. "Does your dad smell of sugar?”

“Not exactly…nevermind. Look at my alien cookies. This one is eating Harvey’s astronaut cookie.”

—

After a few minutes, the dragon got out of the bathroom, still blushing of embarrassment, but much more relaxed. He took a deep breath before entering the kitchen, waving his hand to the kids.

“H-hey! Sorry about that. I had a t-tummy ache. Probably from the first batch of cookies we made.” He smiled awkwardly.

“Oh! You feeling better?” Mina asked, worried.

“Uh, y-yeah, don’t worry! I’ll be fine….” He turned even more red. “Are t-the cookies done baking?” He asked Bon Bon, playing with his fingers nervously and avoiding eye contact.

Bon Bon swallowed, pushing down the last of the bile in her throat and appeared very calm. “Yes, the first few batches are done. I think the kids will be ready to go sell in an hour or so.” She made sure to also not directly look at Grim nor touch him at all, not even a brush with her shoulder.

Harvey hopped up and down. “I forgot, where did we say we’re going to sell these?”

“We could try next to the third isle bridge. A lot of people pass by. Or near the balloon tree,” Mina proposed.

Spike whistled. "I haven’t been to the third isle in a while. Plus, if they don’t buy a cookies, we can throw them over the bridge!”

“I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that last part,” Harvey muttered starting to pack away the cookies for transport.

Grim hadn’t noticed Bon Bon’s cold shoulder for he was still thinking of what he had done minutes ago, and that made him lose focus on what was going on. He did hear the Baroness and he nodded.

“G-good, good….” He wanted to leave but leaving the Baroness alone with the kids would be kind of rude, so he decided to stay until the batch was done. “Eh… what about your cake, Bon Bon? Anything else help with?” He asked looking for the bowl they were working on.

Baroness hardly heard Grim initially. She realized what he had asked and that a response was probably necessary. She looked at the half finished cake batter and shrugged. It had been whipped too harshly, she doubted it would rise. She probably could have saved it, but the idea no longer appealed to her.

“No, that will be all. Thank you, Grim,” she responded politely.

“O-okay.” Grim answered, starting to suspect something was wrong with her, but he shook his thoughts, thinking it was probably him being paranoid. He helped the kids to finish packing up all the cookies and they were soon ready to go.

“Thank you very much, your highness.” The little bat bowed to Bon Bon. “Thanks to you we will save the observatory!” She smiled at her, truly grateful for her help.

“Yeah, t-thank you very much, Bon Bon.” Grim smiled and forced himself to look at her, turning really red, afraid she would see through his eyes to see what he did earlier.

The Baroness politely nodded. “Of course. I’m afraid I don’t have the type of dough that Ms. Berg could really use, but my kingdom would like to help in any way that we can.” She motioned for one of the jelly bean guards to approach.

“I’ll have you escorted safely to the bridge when you are ready. I would hate for somebody else to just steal them away before you get a chance to sell them.”

When they were at the door, Grim said goodbye to the kids who left with the escort Bon Bon had assigned them.

The dragon gathered the strength to talk to the Baroness. “S-say.. uh… t-thank you again for helping… hmm… I was wondering… if you’re not t-to busy, perhaps … you would like to come by later? I bought this new forest t-tea blend I think you might enjoy….” He said shyly, smiling trying to sound normal.

The Baroness almost instinctively said yes but stopped herself. Knowing that Grim was involved or at least romantically interested in someone else, it would not look good for her to continue her frequent visits to his home. People would talk, especially if any of them had spotted Grim’s beau.

The last thing she needed was to tarnish both her and Grim’s name with people thinking they were engaged in something sordid.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I have some delegations I need to attend to. Perhaps another time?”

Grim dropped his ears sad to hear that. “Y-yeah, whenever you’re free. Uh… I’m gonna g-go now…. t-thanks again… .” And with a couple of powerful flaps, the dragon flew away to his tower.

—-

Amoury sat in front of a wounded and tired Carlos. They were in a simple hotel room, and at the door there was Francis and Connor, the gorilla and toad who were assisting Carlos in recovering the cargo.

The spider was furious, but you could only tell by the deadly look he gave to the cat, for he didn’t spoke a word to him. In his hand, he held a glass of brownish liquor, making a tinkling noise with the ice hitting the glass.

“Amory… I know I… kinda messed up things… but it wasn’t all my fault. The guy wanted to check the cargo! Mc Crabbe didn’t tell him about our… arrangement… and this masked cat, popped out of nowhere!” Amory hold a hand to signal him to stop talking, and took a sip of his glass. Carlos rolled his eyes. He knew Amory had a taste for the dramatic acts, but this ‘silent type’ was starting to get to his nerves.

“You said you were ready for the job, Buenaventura.” Amory said calmly.

“You can just call me Carlos.” The cat smiled. “Buenaventura is kind of a mouthful.”

The spider didn’t find anything amusing in his comment, and glared at him with his five eyes. Carlos gulped. “Buenaventura sounds fine!” The cat quickly added. “And, again! I was ready! just… I miscalculated… I should have listened to my mamá and stayed in school.”

Amory left the glass roughly on the table with a loud thud. “Three quarters of the cargo, Buenaventura. Three quarters, gone….” He kept that disturbingly calm tone.

Carlos dropped his ears. “Well, let’s stay positive! Thanks to Francis and Connor here….” He pointed at the two at his back. “We recover one quarter! That’s better than nothing! … right?” He forced a smile but it erased from his face when he noticed one of the spider’s eye twitch. “Mmmkay… I’m going to shut up now.”

The spider finished his glass with one gulp and left the glass softly on the table this time. “You will keep an eye on Sullivan Wells, and you better pray that this… masked cat won’t interfere with our business, Buenaventura. I can get us out of this one, but we won’t be so lucky next time.” He gestured the cat to leave. “You have two days to recover. Then, come see me here.”

Carlos nodded and, with a bit of difficulty, he stood up from his chair and left the hotel, heading toward Cagney’s garden.

—

Cagney had probably had one of the worst sleeps he had ever had in his life. Grim hadn’t really been up to taking visitors, so he kind of made camp at the edge of his garden. But the city kept him up. All the loud noises and screams from Beppi’s circus kept jostling him awake. And he could have sworn he heard fireworks coming from the third isle.

So, he was irritable, a little more than normal at least. He was tired, sore and maybe just a tad pent-up. He did have quite a few lewd dreams with Miss Hilda that he would have greatly enjoyed except for the fact he was getting woken up every 30 to 45 minutes.

As he crossed the bridge connecting the second and third Isle, he can hear the whistling of the boat coming into harbor and could smell the salty air. Plants weren’t so much a fan of the ocean water, due to its high concentration of salt, but Cagney could appreciate any form of natural thing in this part of the industrialized Isles.

He was close to Rumor so now he was starting to run what he was exactly going to say through his head. If he could even get an audience. The bee was a peculiar one. His mind was so preoccupied, he hardly noticed the orange furry cat darting to and from between nearby shipments on the dock.

—-

Another day, another heist. Hopefully. Although this one was slightly different than Amber’s normal targets. According to Sully’s charts, this was a honey delivery. But not just any honey. Royal jelly honey. The premium stuff, the top shelf stuff, the stuff that they kept locked behind the counter to avoid people like her getting her paws on it.

Oh, not that Amber should probably touch that stuff. She could only imagine how sticky it would get her fur, and how much it she’d have to groom and bathe herself before would finally come out. But, it was worth a lot, and considering what a bust last night had been was losing the rest of the weird magical exploding gems, it was a risk she was willing to take.

Actually, it was probably a slightly greater risk as she was doing this in the afternoon. Trying to steal when the sun was up at any point, was never the best idea. But if at night, people with guns were going to shoot her, she was willing to deal with a possibility of getting spotted rather than getting shot..ted.

She watched the dock workers carefully unload the stuff and noted the absence of bee guards. Amber would have thought the cargo of this quality would result in the Queen Bee’s own guards standing guard but it didn’t appear to be the case.

Amber sidled a little closer to the boxes of honey, holding in her hand a sturdy flask. Even one glass at the stuff could net a hefty sum and would have her rolling in catnip for weeks if she so desired.

—

Sullivan had just started his shift. His coworkers kept asking him questions about last night and he started to grow tired of the attention. He tried to focus on his schedule for today and he sighed tiredly. Royal Jelly for Rumor Honeybottom. He hated to deal with the bees. They were all very pompous and spoke down to him, even though he was the one making sure their cargo was safe.

The big boat arrived and Sullivan order people around to get the crane’s ready for the unload, while he went to the shack to notify the bees of the arrival of their honey. The corkers did as they were told, and carefully stacked the boxes at the dock, next to many other bigger ones hiding them from simple view.

“We will send our people immediately to pick up the honey.” A male’s voice answered on the other side of the line that Sullivan dialed. “Please, take good care of it! And in the name of her highness Honeybottom, thank you, once again, for your service and we apologize for our delay.”

Sullivan rolled his eyes. “Its ok, Gary, you don’t have to be so formal with me.”

“Actually, I do!” The voice whispered. “ Our beloved queen has ordered to do an inspection in all sectors of the hive. Her majesty wants to do 'adjustments’ on the personnel.”

“Adjustments? What do you mean? Like fire you?” Sullivan couldn’t help but ask.

“No… her graciousness prepared a program to turn every bee who’s not working 100% into a model worker. Robert got busted resting his eyes for a minute after a ten hour shift, and when he came back from the program…it wasn’t the same Robert. If you go tonight at the joint, I’ll tell you more about it.”

“You’re just exaggerating!” Sullivan grumbled, “Robert is a lazy ass, and you’re no better either. You should have been here forty minutes ago! I bet the program is just a friendly reminder of your obligations as workers or something like that,” Sullivan tried to rationalize. “Now hurry up, we’re running out of space and we’re still waiting for more shipments.”

They both said goodbye and Sullivan hung up, picked up some more papers and got out of the shack walking back to the honey cargo.

—

Cagney watched the dock workers unload whatever shipment they were getting in next. It didn’t really concern him too much and he was about to keep walking toward the hive when the flash of brown caught his eye.

He looked again to see a familiar looking feline lurking near one of the isolated boxes. He felt himself tense up, but stopped himself. He had literally attacked two other mammals in the last week in a case of mistaken identity. he shouldn’t just be jumping through violence whenever he thought he found the burglar.

And then he saw her take out a bag and slip on a mask and start to dig a hole in the box and realize that this was her. He grinned, realizing this was her and he was well within is right to beat the ever living shit out of her.

—

Amber had just about punctured the box when she felt something tap her in the shoulder. She froze. She had counted the number of workers, there was no way she missed one. It tapped again and she turned around to find herself looking up at a large carnation.

“Hi there,” he greeted.

“Hey-?” Quick as lightning, he backhanded her hard enough to send her flying over the honey box and crashing into a pile of boxes.

Sullivan’s team just finished unloading the last box when something passed flying the boxes. A couple of workers turned their heads where they thought they flying thing landed.

Amber grunted painfully as she sat up from where she had been slapped. Pieces of wood chunks lay everywhere. She wondered how she wasn’t more seriously harmed, until she realized she had crashed into a box carrying several large bags of flour. It looked like Rumor wasn’t the only Royal resident expecting a shipment of something.

She didn’t have much time to thank her lucky stars as she saw the carnation bearing down on her. Amber’s eyes widen as she realized where she have seen him before. He was the flower from the observatory. And he looked pissed enough to kill her. “Woah, woah, wait,” she started, “listen, I only took one thing, I’ll bring it back!”

“There is nothing you can do to bring back Hilda’s dome!”

“Hilda’s…dome?” Amber was really confused. She hadn’t stolen any domes. “Wait, Mr. Flower…”

“It’s Cagney, dammit!” He snarled, lunging for her.

She struggled to escape, but her foot was stuck under heavy bag of flour. And when flight was off the table, that only left one other option.

Before he could grab her, she grabbed one of the bags of flour and smacked it down on his petaled head.

Cagney saw stars and white powder as he reeled back from the surprise attack. He blinked unsuredly before growling and opting to swing around wildly instead, hoping to make contact with something

The workers around the flour shipment saw the giant flower get hit with one of the precious cargo.

“Hey! What’s going on!?”

“Somebody’s fighting!”

The crew mates started to gather around the carnation.

Amber freed her foot just in time to take an acorn to the gut, sending her rolling backwards in a clumsy somersault. Cagney dizzily pulled out another one, shaking his head to regain his senses. “Next one’s going for the head!”

Amber scowled. “If that’s how it’s gonna be, then fine!” She picked up the acorn, climbed up one of the rafters and chucked it at his face, smacking him hard in the nose.

Cagney drop the other acorn and grabbed his nose. “Argh, you bitch!” He couldn’t stretch up after her but he still had his thorns. He wrapped his thorny stem around the rafters beam and squeezed tightly, sending the pole shaking as he sent cracks up and down the sea soaked wood. It wavered dangerously close to the edge of the water.

Amber hissed, her fur raising. She crouched and pounced on the carnation, latching onto his hand and clawing him with an angry yowl.

Cagney squealed, unwinding himself and tried to shake her off by slamming her into things but the cat had sunk her claws in nice and deep.

Amber went to pull out something from her bag, loosening her claws. Cagney saw his opportunity to yank her off and slammed her in the ground, breaking through the bottom of the deck of the porch. The cat clunk desperately to his green fingers and looks down fearfully at the cold choppy water underneath.

She scrambled up the length of his arm, back on top of the shipyard, before clinging to his petals. the Carnation tried to pull her off, but this time she wasn’t letting go, biting at hands that got too close. “Get off me, pussy!”

He head-butted the rafter once more, hoping it would just dislodge her, but it only made both of them dizzy. Amber hissed and yanked a petal. “Thought you were tougher than this, I’m going to prune you, you dumb daisy.”

He flinched at that comment. Hilda liked calling him a dumb daisy. It is much as he dislike the term, he hated that anyone else would dare to use it other than her. A burst of vindictive rage finally allowed him to pry her off despite her biting and scratching and he held her aloft by the scruff. “I’m a carnation, you flea-ridden rat!” He pitched her at a box and she hit it with a thud.

Amber felt around for something to use, only for her paw to touch something sticky. She looked down to see she had touched honey. Where the hell was the honey coming from? She turned behind her to realize the honey was leaking from a small hole in the box. The force of the carnation’s throw must have led to her accidentally puncturing the box. It was only a small hole though and just one of the boxes… Amber realized at the site of one of the insignias stamped on the box, but this was the royal jelly box. She panicked but tried to remain calm. As long as nothing else hit it, the leak could be fixed and the box could be saved.

At the sight of the carnation approaching, she realized the flower was oblivious to how weak the honey box was, so she held out her paws. “Wait, wait, the honey, hold on!”

Cagney stared at her in disbelief before snapping. "My name’s not honey, it’s Cagney!“ And with that, he slammed both his fists down toward her.

"No, you stupid-!” She didn’t even finish her sentence as she couldn’t quite move in time, splintering the box open behind her with a loud snap. Honey gushed out, coating the combatants in its sticky yellowness.

Cagney slipped and fell to the ground when he tried to keep his balance and Amber screamed angrily as she looked at herself.

“Do you have any idea how long is going to take to wash out of my fur, you stupid carnation!?” She hissed, leaping on the fallen flower. “It’s going to take weeks! Weeks!”

“Weeks?! Do you even know how long it’s going to take Hilda to rebuild that dome, even if she had the money!?” Cagney snapped back, trying to push the sticky feline off of him. At least her claws were pretty much useless with amount of yellow gunk covering them.

“You broke it!”

“After you broke in her place!

"But you broke it!”

“Shut up, I know!” Cagney angrily admitted, “and I’m ruining everything I had with her trying to fix it, you dumb bitch!”

Amber paused slightly at that. “Wait, you and the meteorologist…?”

“Not anymore!”

“I didn’t know.”

He finally managed to get a scruff on the slippery cat. "Of course you don’t! You’re a thief! You don’t care at all!“

Amber felt something inside of her that she didn’t normally feel at that. She didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t like it. So she hit Cagney a little less hard. Still hard enough to cause bruises if he was an animal.

"I’m going to fix this,” Cagney continued, “beating the shit out of you is going to make me feel a lot better about it!” He tried to toss only to have her stick to him even more.

Sullivan was on his way to the honey containers when he saw a bunch of working bees and some guards arriving in their trucks. He greeted them and took to their shipment, only stop abruptly at the view.

A few of the priceless royal jelly boxes where cracked and leaking the precious amber product all over the docks and into the sea.

In the middle of the mess, Sullivan recognized the giant flower, struggling to stand up, and somebody else was with him. He got closer and recognized the voice.

.“..Amber?” He said in disbelief.

Amber cocked her head at her name and looked around only to stop in her place as she saw Sullivan staring right at her. “Uh…hi Sully?” She managed, “this looks bad but…”

Cagney managed to catch the cat off guard and smack her into one of the broken boxes. “Didn’t see that coming, didja you bi-hey! Hey! What the hell are you doing?!” His attention turned toward the guard bees who had appropriately swarmed the flower and were in the process of trying to restrain him.

Amber likewise managed to pull herself out of the honey only to get pinned to the ground next to Cagney with an indigent yelp. “Hey! Watch where you’re putting those antennae, you perverts!” She hissed, struggling uselessly against the guard

“What the…! .” Sullivan dropped his clipboard and got closer them. “W-wait! This is a misunderstanding! A-a-an accident! GET YOU HANDS OFF HER!” He wanted to pull one of the guards away from Amber but was violently restrained by another bee.

“This is Royal business now, Mr Wells,” the big bee holding him said in a deep voice. “And you better watch it, or we will take you too.” He threatened him.

The worker bees tried their best to fix the leaking boxes while the guards took Cagney and Amber to their truck. Sullivan struggled to get loose. “No! It’s a misunderstanding! They’re not even supposed to be here! Please! No! AMBER!”

But the guards ignored him and drove their sticky prisoners to the hive.

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#Cuphead #fan fiction #smallpersiankitten #necrida #trouble in inkwell isles #cagney carnation #amber alleycat #hilda berg #Beppi the clown #grim matchstick #Baroness von bonbon #mina betchstein #harvey hare #Spike #Sullivan Wells #submission

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necrokittytales · 6 years

Text

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 26)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

THIS HAS SOME VERY NSFW PARTS AND YOU KNOW YOU WANNA READ IT! :D

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Finally, Cagney and Amber reached the cells, although definitely not without some hiccups. Huge walls of cement in the same shape of the geometrical structure as the rest of the hive as they were brought to the jail cells. The guards released their cuffs and locked them into cells adjacent to each other.

“You will remain here until our gracious Queen Honeybottoms decides what to do with you,” one of the guards explained before they left.

Cries of laments and begging from other prisoners filled the air. In front of their cells was an old bearded bee locked in as well. He looked at them curiously, noticing they were covered in honey. When the guards finally left, he asked in a shaky voice. “Stealing royal jelly? Ha! You must have a death wish.”

Cagney crossed his arms. “Apparently! Nothing but rotten luck since I crossed paths with this cat. And she’s not even a black cat-what are you doing?” He looked over at Amber.

Amber froze mid lick of her inner thigh and glared at him. “Taking a bath! Can’t a girl get a little privacy?!”

Cagney turned bright red and looked away awkwardly back toward the bearded bee. “So that death thing…how often does that actually happen? I don’t remember Rumor being so… violent.”

The old bee turned red as well and looked away from Amber, trying to focus on the carnation’s question. “Oh! Uh, well, she’s always been a bit intense, specially after the whole deal with the Devil. But from what I’ve heard, she’s kinda coo-coo now.”

“She’s insane….” A voice came from above the old man’s cell. It was younger bee, and he looked scared. “It was my first day as a servant, and I entered her chambers to clean up. She-she was at her desk, surrounded by books and she was so furious…It’s been three weeks since she locked me in here! I was just going to change her sheets! How is that a crime?!”

Even Cagney had to admit, that sounded a little severe for Rumor. “Oh, well, yeah I guess that’s a bit weird.” Rumor was a bit strict but he expected all members of royalty had to be like that. He jokingly thought to himself that maybe the bee had caught her doing something illicit with another bee. However, the bee royalty did seem to be on the prudish side and he doubted it. “Do we get a trial or anything?”

The old bee burst into laughter. “A trial he says! Hahaha!” He wiped his tears. “I’ve been waiting for my ‘trial’ for thirty years now, boy!”

“What!?” The younger bee exclaimed, surprised, holding onto the bars of his cell. “ But… we all have the right for a fair trial! It wont be long now ‘till I get mine.”

“Keep telling yourself that, kid. Dreaming is free… for now.”

At that moment a couple of guards flew in towards the young bee’s cage.

“Neddie Nibley, you’ve been accepted into the Royal Reforming Program of our gracious Queen Honeybottoms. You will now be escorted to your new chambers at the reformation camp.”

The little bee tried to process what they were explaining him. “Uh…w…what about my trial?” He asked confused, but the guards ignored him and cuffed him, roughly taking him out of his cell and escorting him out of the prison.

The old bee sighed and laid down on his wax bed.

Cagney had a bad feeling in his gut at this but decided to shrug it off and start wiping the honey off. Maybe once he had a chance to talk with her about this, he could clear the air. He glanced over at the cat and groaned. “For Gods sake, are you done yet?”

Amber giggled but secretly continued to scope out her jail cell as she over dramatically groomed herself. There had to be a way out. Every cell had its weakness.

After a while the female bee guard returned and stopped in front of Cagney’s cell.

“Cagney Carnation, you have been summoned by our beloved Queen Honeybottoms.” She opened the cell and signaled him to come out. “I will escort you to her office.”

The old bee looked curious.

Cagney cocked his head at her. “Uh yeah, sure. Thanks.” He followed the bee down the hallway. He realized what the guard had said as he stepped out of his cell. “Office? Don’t you mean her throne room or something?”

The guard smirked, feeling the nervousness in the flower. “I know what I said. She probably wants to kill you personally, you know, for old time’s sake.”

They passed a few doors before reaching the elevator. The guard tried not to get too close to the sticky carnation, and pressed the button for the highest floor, 127.

The elevator’s doors opened revealing a tall golden hallway decorated with columns and paintings of the past Queens. At the end, there was a beautifully carved wooden door. The guard knocked.

“My Queen, I brought you Cagney Carnation.” There was a noise at the door, as if several locks were being removed.

“Let him in, you’re dismissed.” Rumor’s severe voice could be heard through the door.

“Yes, my Queen.” The guard opened the door for the flower and as soon as he passed she closed it behind him.

Rumor’s office was round and as golden as honey could be. The floor was covered in a soft red carpet and the walls were tall, decorated with paintings and pictures of members of royalty, antiquities and other artifacts Cagney couldn’t recognize. There was only one huge window and siting in front of it, on a tasteful wooden desk, was Rumor, surrounded by towers of books and papers. There was a door on the right of the office. If Cagney had to guess, it was probably Rumor’s chambers. Her personal chambers,

The Queen lifted her eyes from the documents she was reading and looked up and down at Cagney. She didn’t show it, but she was delighted to see him, especially covered in royal jelly.

Ever since she met him in high school, Rumor had felt an attraction towards him. At first she thought it was an instinctive attraction, him being a flower and her a bee. But as years passed by, she got to know him better, and to her misfortune, she found herself falling hard for the carnation. If Hilda wasn’t around, she liked to think she might have had a chance with him.

When she had to leave high school to start her royal education, she lost touch with Cagney. Fortunately, when she was finally Queen of the hive, she immediately started a business relationship with him. Not only his flowers were exceptional quality, but that allowed her to have a perfect excuse to see him.

She cleared her throat and placed some papers back to their folder. “Why are you covered in my priceless royal jelly, Cagney?”

Cagney was really hoping she wasn’t going to ask that question, but it was kind of impossible not to expect her to do so, considering he indeed was coated in the stuff. He clasped his hands together. “Yeah, funny story about that. See, I was actually coming to see you about something totally unrelated to this. When I passed by the docks, I got into a fight. Unprovoked, by the way,” he casually explained.

“Anywhoo, one thing led to another and I threw a bitch-uh assailant at a box and we got smeared with the stuff….your majesty,” he quickly added, remembering that Rumor was a Queen after all.

It was a bit surreal to see her like this. He hadn’t really spoke with her on a personal level since high school. And when she came and offered to do business, he wasn’t exactly sure how to interact with her and ended up resorting to his normal brash gruffness. Which still landed him the contract much to his smug delight and Hilda’s bewilderment.

He waited to see if Rumor believed the story.

Rumor had to do extra effort not to smile at the flower. She found him adorable trying to talk in a politically correct way.

She raised an eyebrow, not fully believing his version of the facts, for she just read a detailed report of the situation in which they where found. And it seemed the adorable flower was the main reason of the incident. “I take it that the assailant is the cat we caught with you.” She looked back at the report. “Who is she?”

Cagney had to bite his long tongue not to blurt out the first profanity he could think of. Instead, he shrugged. “I don’t know, some cat burglar from the first isle maybe.”

“Burglar?” She couldn’t hold her smile. The cat would be a great subject for her reforming program. “I see.” She pressed her hands together. “You mentioned earlier you wanted to see me for something else. If its not urgent, I would suggest you go clean up at one of the guest chambers, and we can talk afterwards.” It sounded more like an order than a offer. She pressed a button on her desk to call service.

Cagney abruptly reached forward and put a green sticky hand on hers, physically preventing Rumor from completely pressing down the button to give the order. “Uh, actually, well it kinda is…”

The look she gave him, which he could only interpret as barely repressed lethality, made him realize that touching her at all was probably a pretty severe line to cross and retracted his hand before he could lose it.

He backpedaled especially as he saw he dripped some jelly honey on her desk. “Actually, maybe it’s not so urgent, just like a favor but you’re right i should go clean up first…”

The unexpected contact took Rumor by surprise. “How dare y~!” But she managed to keep her cool. It was obvious he didn’t know anything about protocol. And she realized she liked that.

She was tired of all those endless rules and manners that everybody had to keep in mind if they had the chance to speak to her. But Cagney didn’t know half of it. He was a wild flower. Her memories of those teenage years flew back to her mind, reviving the flame of her feelings for the carnation.

For a moment, she got lost in her thoughts and unconsciously she licked the honey from her fingers. When she realized what she was doing, she hid her hand and blushed heavily, looking at Cagney, hoping he wouldn’t make any comment about it. She cleared her throat and tried her best to keep a poker face.

“I-it seems important…we should talk about it now.” She offered him to sit with a motion of her still honey covered hand. “Don’t worry for the mess, I’ll call somebody to clean up later.”

The fact that Rumor was still willing to listen after he dripped honey all over her desk was a humongous relief. He was more wrapped up in the realization that he didn’t just screw everything up to notice her slight indiscretion. He took a seat and began to try to explain.

“So, a couple days ago, the observatory on the first isle was broken into. There was a lot of damage. The worst part is, the dome got broken. You know, the big glass lens that Hilda uses to show people planets and stuff?”

Cagney was choosing his words as carefully as he could, not wanting to indict himself further than he already had. When Rumor slightly nodded to indicate she understood, he continued. “It was insane how hard it was to even get the dome in the first place, but now we’re trying to rebuild it and we definitely don’t have the materials to do that.”

He swallowed. “I guess that brings me to why I’m here. Other than the folks at the casino, you’re the only one who has the cash to fund the observatory’s repair. And well, none of us are going back there after what happened, so I came to ask if you’d be willing to loan the money needed to fix the observatory.”

She was very quiet after this and he cleared his throat. “I don’t got a lot of collateral I admit, but I’m willing to do anything - make more pollen, clean up the mess, be nicer to the worker bees, whatever you want.”

Her eye twitched at the mention of Hilda’s name. After all this years, he was still hanging with her even though she didn’t show any signs of being interested in him. It was as if she was using him for moral boost, a simple toy to play with when ever she was bored. Rumor despised Hilda for it.

She looked at the spell books next to her with an air of satisfaction. From what Cagney was telling her, her spells might be doing their effects. Everything precious to the sky witch was crumbling in front of her, and there was nothing she could do… But Cagney! He was willing to do it for her. 'Dumb carnation! Can’t he see she’s using you!’ The bee thought to herself with an angry sigh.

When the flower finished explaining his problem and what he needed from her, she felt a knot in her throat. So that was it, he needed money to build what she tried to destroy. Looked like their relationship was bound to be a professional one, and nothing more.

Dark thoughts started to fill the Queen’s mind. If that horrible witch wanted to use Cagney for her own benefit, then why not take advantage of it? Maybe that’s what Cagney found so attractive in Hilda. She could order him around, and he would gladly obey. Well, she could give orders, what was better than a Queen in giving orders.

She hoped by forcing him to do her will, he would realize Hilda wasn’t worth the trouble and he would be free from her once and for all. She looked at the honey on her hand with a smirk. “Hmm. That is a lot of money, Cagney. I’m going to need a little more…convincing.” She slowly licked the honey at the back of her hand and looked at him to check if he understood what she was suggesting.

A sexual proposition would surely dissuade the carnation, and Hilda would have to find a new errand boy, or better yet, leave the isles.

Cagney stared blankly back at the Queen as he watched her lick her own hand. More convincing? What else could he do? He glanced around. “Did you want me to get you a towel or somethin?” He asked.

Rumor blinked unbelieving. Maybe she wasn’t being as clear as she thought. She sighed and stood up, walking sensually towards the flower and leaning on her desk. She slowly ran a finger along one of his honey covered petals.

“I meant. What arguments do you have to make me more…inclined…to give you what you need?” She sensually sucked the honey from her finger.

The flower suppressed the shiver that ran through his stem. He tried to focus on her words. Arguments? was she asking him for evidence or debating material? Wasn’t really good at that. Mostly he just yelled at something until it either went away or he threw something at it to make it go away.

He subconsciously pulled the petal she touched. “I don’t know, uh, please?” He groaned. “Shit, I didn’t really think this through,” he admitted, “Do you want like data or something? Like, how many kids go to the observatory a year something?”

He couldn’t help but have an awkward chuckle at his situation. “Probably should have gotten information like that. I kind of just hurried over here. Hell, I was such in a rush I didn’t even tell anyone where I was going, so if you want something like that, give me a few days to go back and figure it out.“

Rumor raised an eyebrow, confused, dropping her sexy act. "What do you mean? Hilda didn’t ask you to come here her behalf?”

“What? No,” he scoffed. “Hilda is way pissed off at the universe at the moment. This was my own idea… Well…not the dock thing, and again, sorry for that even though it totally wasn’t my fault.”

The bee backed a little from the flower, trying to make sense of it all. “So you’re selflessly willing to go into serious debt to help HER? Are you together?” She finally dared to ask, although she was terrified of the answer.

He remembered Hilda’s words before shaking his head. “No, we’re not. In fact, I’m the one who broke the dome…” He figured he might as well come clean with the bee. She seemed reasonable enough

Rumor couldn’t help but feel relieved by the answer, but notice the sadness in his tone and felt a bit bad for him. “I thought you said someone broke in. Did you guys argue again, like you used to?” She knew how bad tempered they both were. In high school, they would get in stupid arguments that almost always ended with something broken, or somebody, besides them, getting hurt. “Old habits die hard, uh?” She crossed her arms.

She looked at the honey covered flower imagining how amazing it would feel to jump on him right now and make him forget all about the sky witch.

Cagney grimaced. “Well, it didn’t help things that’s for sure. We did fight. And that was pretty messy. We’re back to being friends at least but yeah, nothing else. Figure the least I can do is try to fix the dome?” He asked hopefully

She frowned at him. She wondered how far was he willing to go to help that witch. “I can’t believe you’re still friends. After all your fights, I don’t think I ever saw her apologizing to you. It was always you who had to go after her.” She crossed her arms and looked at the flower serious. “You want to do business?” She smirked. “Let’s do business. I want you to triple your pollen supply.” She waited for his answer.

Cagney started to argue with her that this wasn’t always the case. “Well, I mean, sometimes Hilda does bring me…wait, t-triple my pollen delivery? Are you insane?” He realized, his eyes widening. When Rumor’s gaze didn’t break, he started to think about it. He’d pretty much have to work from sunrise to sunset nonstop. He would be burnt out in no time.

Perhaps he could ask some of the gardening students from the school for help. They had been hassling him for the chance of an internship and he had been violently rejecting the offer. He settled down. He could play nice for Hilda’s sake. “I think I could do that,” he finally nodded, “Is that it?”

The corner of the bee’s mouth twitched. It was insane for him to accept that. “So you will work three times as hard for a woman who only cares about you when somebody else is interested. That’s why you didn’t tell her you where coming here. You knew she would overreact.” She would have to push harder. “You will also repay the Royal Jelly you made me lose in public service hours.”

Cagney grit his teeth and felt them threaten to turn sharp but he exhaled quickly instead, forcing them to remain dull. He wrecked the jelly, and from what he remembered, it was something that only Rumor was capable of producing. Hence her royal status and the reason it was so expensive.

“Fine,” he grunted. “What did you have in mind for the public service?”

“Well, for starters you will clean up your mess. Including the cells you and your friend were in.” She could see how he was starting to realize her demands were being too much. She smirked at him.

Cagney realized “friend” referred to Amber and he scowled. “I’m not going to even try to take a sponge to the cat unless she takes a break on that whole licking herself thing. Who just licks themself?!” He saw her continue to smirk. “Fine. Hope that flea bag likes a hose.”

She leaned in. “For how long are you going to follow her, Cagney? She’s obviously not interested in you. Just last night, my workers saw Beppi going to Hilda’s place, and this morning they were leaving together. It doesn’t take a genius to see they spent the night together.” She paid attention to his reaction. Hopefully that would be enough to dissuade him from helping her.

He calmed down as she continued to speak about Hilda. The flower was starting to feel his resolve shake as Rumor continued to point out the glaring flaws in his relationship with Hilda. He thought back to the night of the date, where Hilda admitted she was jealous. It was only then that things progressed further, only for her to practically mock him mid coitus about the likelihood of a romantic future between them..

The thing with Beppi made him break out into a wide smile. “Now as far as Beppi goes, I actually had him go to Hilda. He’s supposed to keep her somewhat sane or at least give her some relief if she snaps and has to attack someone!” The carnation chuckled. “So unless you got something else about those two I’m not aware of, I can tackle thing that cleaning stuff!”

'Dang, that last one backfired.’ The Queen thought to herself. She couldn’t believe what he was willing to do for that manipulative bit~witch. Time to get out the big guns. She would present him with an indecent proposition. One he would definitely refuse, and the deal would be off.

She slid onto her desk, getting closer to the carnation, with a malicious smile and hungry eyes. “Well aren’t you sweet? Worrying so much for somebody who only cares about you when boredom strikes. It warms my heart.” She put a hand on her chest. “I’ll help you, Cagney., IF you can meet all my demands: triple your pollen supply, public service hours until you pay your debt, and… .” She drew closer to his face. “Satisfy me,” she almost whispered. “Make me feel the biggest, most intense orgasm of my life.” It was really hard to keep a straight face saying this, but she was confident he would run out that door as soon as he processed the info.

Cagney nodded at the first two requirements. Although they would suck, it was something he ultimately would be able to pull off. Granted, not without a lot of pent-up rage, but it was technically doable.

“How long do I have to triple…?” Rumor’s last demand hit him right in the chest and his jaw dropped. “Wait, what?! Is that a joke?” He stammered. There was no way she was serious. He looked at closer and nervously chuckled. “Y-you’re screwing with me right now, right?”

The Queen smirked at him. Her plan worked. “I guess there’s no deal then. Hilda will have to find another puppet~way! Another WAY to finance her observatory! It has been nice seeing you, Cagney. You can use the guest rooms bathroom to clean up before you leave,” she said, extending a hand, showing the door.

That puppet comment really stung and he felt a few thorns slip out. He wasn’t a puppet. This was HIS idea to make up for what he and the universe had accidentally done to destroy her life. And it’s not like Rumor wasn’t attractive or nuthin.

He could have slapped himself. No, what was he thinking?! He couldn’t do that to Hilda…could he? She would never want anything more than a friendship with him if she saw he would stoop this low to even considering sleeping with the royal Queen. It was pretty much cheating-If they actually had a relationship and a mutual attraction, he realized.

Rumor’s words made him angry, sure, but they were starting to feel true the longer she looked at him. Hilda wouldn’t have even gone as far as she did on their date night if she hadn’t been jealous of Isabella. And when they actually were having sex, the way she emphasized that this was a one-time thing, to enjoy it while he could, it made him feel kind of like a dog getting a treat for “being a good boy.”

Yet, despite all of that, he was still crushing on her. It was kind of pathetic. And one of the things he wanted most was for her to be happy…and maybe fall down the stairs of her repaired observatory while he got to watch. That would be pretty fucking funny. Plus, this might be one of the few things he would have to do that could be enjoyable, he noted, checking out Rumor’s thick but curvaceous frame.

Cagney leaned back in his chair, looking disinterested despite the fact he was freaking out. “I was just wondering if you were joking because you only wanted ONE, but I guess not. Haven’t had anyone take care of you in a while, huh?” he scoffed, trying to appear fine with this.

The Queen blushed and blinked in surprise. “E-excuse me?” As a proud Queen, she never showed weakness to the lower class, so she immediately recovered from the unexpected answer, clearing her throat.

“My personal life it’s none of your bees wax!!” She was really bothered by his comment, not because it was rude, but because it was true. It was hard to find time for that when you had a hive of incompetents to run. “And I have to warn you, I’m very hard to please!” She declared proudly. “Are you really that confident in your skills that you think you can satisfy a Queen?” She was full of royal confidence. He wasn’t talking seriously… was he? Her inner teenager secretly hoped he was.

He caught sight of her brief weakness and realized he had a shot. He grinned, his teeth a bit sharper. “Why don’t I go clean this stuff off and then you can show me how to make a bee buzz?” He said, gesturing to the royal jelly still coating his body.

Cagney was already very nice to look at, but covered in royal jelly really made the Queen melt. She felt the familiar tingling sensation between her thighs, and bit her lip to not lose it and jump on him. She had to stay strong. He was bluffing! He was in love with the blimp, he wasn’t gonna go through with this. He was obviously testing her.

She pointed at her chamber’s door on the side of the office with a shaky hand. “T-there’s a shower in my chambers…” She tried to keep her confidence but the view of the honey dripping from the carnation’s petals made it very difficult and her voice came out as shaky as her hand.

Her voice continuing to waver, spurred him on in this show of bravado. He took her hand that was pointing to her chambers, letting a few drops of honey fall on her fingers before wrapping his tongue around them and and sucking the honey off them slowly.

Only once he was done did he wink at her. “Can you show me where that is exactly?”

Rumor was as red as a tomato. The tingling feeling was now a bell sending waves all throughout her body. Her brain was no longer in control of her body and, as if it was an order, she took Cagney to her room without letting go of his hand.

To the surprise of the carnation, the room was a beautiful Arabian garden. Soft grass covered the floor, small bushes and flowers were carefully planted to create a harmony. And in the middle of the room, right in front of a gorgeous, curtain covered bed, was a fountain, set on floor level, as big as a small pond, filled with crystal water and lotus flowers.

'Cagney Carnation is in my room! OMG OMG OMG!’ Rumor’s teenage girl was yelling like a fan girl inside her head. With an even more shaky hand, she pointed at the fountain in the middle of the room to show the flower where he could clean himself.

Cagney was impressed by the state of the garden. It was beautifully well-maintained and as his leafed feet touched the soil, his petals flared happily. The city was no place for a big flower so it was indeed a welcome surprise to be brought here. There’s was only so much his body was capable of without access to the soil, but this would do just nicely for what he had in mind.

He looked eagerly at the waterfall. He was pretty dehydrated from picking fights in ports and getting arrested. He glanced at Rumor. “You planning on watching me while I wash off?”

Cagney’s question brought Rumor back from her thoughts. She let go of his hand and she shook her head. “Oh!” She thought this might just be part of his game. He knew she was bluffing so he was testing how far she was willing to go. 'Ok, the finger licking was very convincing, but he won’t dare to bath in front of me’. She thought eyeing the flower.

“This ARE my chambers, Cagney. No-one is in here unless I’m present.” She said with a bit more confidence, crossing her arms.

Cagney shrugged. “All right, fine by me.”

Considering he was already naked, he was hardly fazed when he entered the fountain in front of the Queen bee, rinsing himself. That honey stuff was sticky, but he was able to eventually scrape it off. He finished his wash, taking a long drink from the fountain, before stepping out and shaking himself dry.

He gave her a sly grin. “So, got anything you don’t want me to do? I know it might be hard to think about if you haven’t done it in forever, but just thought I’d ask.”

Although it wasn’t very sensual, the Queen still enjoyed watching him scrub the sticky substance from his sturdy stem and delicate petals, although she didn’t like at all when he dried himself like a dog, splashing her royal clothes. She wiped some drops from her face and looked at Cagney angrily. He was having a blast, she thought, humiliating her like this. She was a Queen and he acted and spoke to her like she was a nobody!

'Why do I find that so attractive?’ She couldn’t help ask herself, blushing with both embarrassment and anger at the flower’s comment.

“Very nice of you….” She replied angrily. “Number one: you will obey me. When I tell you to stop, you WILL stop. This shouldn’t be a problem, since you have a lot of practice following Miss Berg’s orders.” She grinned. Maybe she could rile him up enough to make him drop his act.

Cagney humorlessly chuckled and approached her until he was to his full height over her, prompting her to step back. “Heh, do you know why she calls me a stubborn weed?” He asked as he rooted himself. Before she could respond, he had wrapped an arm around her and drew her against his rough stem. “Because I ain’t good at following orders.” And with that, his mouth crashed against hers with a quiet growl.

Rumor buzzed her wings in surprise, trying to get out of his grip. Since she couldn’t release her arm to slap him, she kicked him on the bottom of his stem, making the flower release her mouth but not his grip. “How dare you!?” She yelled, even though she found this very arousing, “I could have you killed for this!”

Cagney hissed painfully at the unexpected kick. He glared at her and let her go. “Okay, YOUR MAJESTY,” he grumbled, “What do you want me to do?”

She rubbed her arms where Cagney held her and stepped back. Her heart was beating so hard in her chest, she never felt like this before…being handled roughly, getting a kiss stolen… Adrenaline and arousal was rushing through her body, clouding her judgment.

Still, lingering doubts continued to ebb at her and she stared at him, confused. “You really would sleep with me just to help her? Do you even like me!?”

“Of course I don-” Cagney stopped mid-speech. If he told Rumor he didn’t like her like THAT, then what would happen? That would probably crush her. She’d kick him out and then the observatory might be forever domeless. If Rumor didn’t go on a murder sting spree. So Cagney decided to rethink his previous outburst.

Rumor was hot. Flowers naturally found bees attractive, so that wasn’t the issue. Cagney decided to go with that. “Of course I don’t-wouldn’t do it for that! I like you,” he explained. Besides, he’s thought, as he waited for her response, there’s no way that Rumor actually liked him like that or something. This just had to be one of those weird royal power things monarchies did.

“Y-you do?” The bee gave him an skeptical look. “You…find me attractive?” She needed to hear it again, even if he was lying. It felt really good to hear him say it. She had waited for so long to hear him say something like that to her.

Ah, he smiled, now that one he could definitely answer (fairly) truthfully. “You’re pretty hot,” he reassured her, wrapping a leaf around her waist and drawing her close to him again to emphasize the point, “Ya know, when you’re not hitting me,” he added.

Rumor’s wings buzzed at the touch, but this time she didn’t fight back, allowing him to pull her closer. She was still unsure as she studied him. Her bee vision allowed her to see the special UV markings in his petals, inviting her to get even closer to him. This, combined with his sassy personality, made him irresistible to her. She couldn’t hold it any longer. If she didn’t do anything now, she would forever regret it.

She gently pulled his petals and kissed him passionately. “Oh, Cagney! I’ve been wanting this for sooo long!” She kept kissing him and caressed the sensitive spots on his petals.

A warning bell went off in his head at those words but he quickly theorized she was referring to sex. His mind went blank and couldn’t stifle the pleasured groan that fell from him as she petted the sensitive parts of his petals.

The bee knew exactly where to touch and very soon he found himself wriggling needfully against her. His hands stumbled, trying to find a sensitive spot on Rumor’s chest before he just ran his long tongue along the sides of her neck.

The bee moaned between his arms, surrendering completely to his touch. To help him out, she unbuttoned her striped dress, exposing her generous bosom. She pressed herself more against him, enjoying the attention the tongue was giving her, and lowering her hand to caress his stem. “What do you like about me?” She managed to ask, blushing heavily and petting his sensitive spots, as if she was trying to motivate his answer.

Cagney tried not to pant but Rumor was too determined in her attentions that the carnation could only hang his head. He realized she had partially disrobed, and quickly seized upon her chest, kneading the thick skin between his fingers. “Well, definitely this,” he lewdly purred, nipping down her neck toward her chest.

A shy smile showed in the Queen’s face. She pet his petals again while he was working his way to her chest, and noticed something sticky. “Looks like you missed a spot,” She gently pushed his head to her level and slowly licked the honey.

“Holy shit!” He exclaimed as her tongue lapped at the leftover honey on his chest. He instinctively started to wrap around her but quickly pulled back. He bit his lip trying to reset his brain and decided to play along with what Rumor had started earlier. “Now what part of this old flower do YOU find attractive?” He teased, sliding a hand down the side of her waist.

The bee smiled maliciously. “All of you!” She groaned and pushed the carnation pinning him on the grass, sitting on his very sensitive spot, her hands pressing him down on his shoulders. She rubbed against him and kissed him passionately, looking for his tongue with her own.

It was a bit strange. He had just been in this position with Hilda not even a week ago. The memory of the woman moaning on top of him sent his piece slipping out. It nudged against Rumor’s entrance as she ground against him but he wasn’t able to stick it anywhere. He desperately bucked against her but she held him down pretty well. That bee was stronger than he remembered. His eyes darted around, realizing they were on soil and his fingers started to dig into the dirt.

Rumor noticed Cagney’s eagerness to go further and she broke the kiss to quickly remove her bloomers, for she was just as eager as him. She went back to be on top of him, but when she felt the carnation’s piece poking at her entrance, she stopped.

She had waited for this moment for so long, she wanted to savor every second of it. She looked directly into the flower’s eyes, radiant with confidence, and gave him a mischievous smile while she slowly allowed his entrance inside her. She moaned softly at the sensation, delighting herself at the expression of the flower underneath her. Finally, he was hers.

The flower really dug his fingers into the ground as his piece was surrounded by her tight, hot womanhood. He never stuck his dick in a warm honeycomb before, but he imagined it would feel just like this. His tongue lolled out as he groaned and squirmed, “Hil-holy shit,” he finally managed, nearly blurting out something else instead. “Rumor, you’re so tight!” He panted.

She bit her lip and kept grinding him very softly, letting him reach the bottom of her honeycomb before pulling him away from it. She leaned over Cagney and used her tongue to play with his, tasting his sweet flowery saliva, ending in a wet, sensual kiss.

It was one thing to roughly kiss, it was another to do it sensually. Cagney wasn’t sure what Rumor’s sexual history had been, but her kissing was almost seeming like that of a lover and not that of one needing a rough screw. She kept teasing him below, never letting him remain hilted for more than a few seconds at a time. Her dangling her sex just above his tip, leaving him to go nearly crazy trying to put some friction on his piece once more – it was too much.

He could feel himself wanting to grow and take control, but he remembered what happened when he tried to do that in the beginning, so he let Rumor set the pace.

Gradually, she ended the kiss. She stopped grinding him and fully sat upon on him again, feeling his manhood reaching that particular extra sensitive spot, and releasing a moan of pleasure. She then moved up and down his piece, still taking her time, caressing his chest and enjoying every single one of his groans. “Do you like it like this?” She asked, softly.

He almost didn’t hear her gentle, quiet question. “Yeah, this feels pretty good, but I thought you said that you wanted ME to give you the best orgasm of your life?” One of his vines had sprouted from the dirt and slowly curled around her waist.

“Alright,” she moaned, deciding to follow his game, “show me what you can do.“ She smiled, pulling him almost out of her, but she kept playing with the tip, letting it inside and out very gently while caressing the flower’s vine around her.

Cagney grinned maliciously as she granted him permission. "Good to hear,” he chuckled, clenching his fingers. The other vines that have been quietly growing underground broke through the soil and seized Rumor, pinning her arms to her sides. Before the bee could react, she was jerked up into the air off of Cagney until she was suspended slightly above his level. The vines around her arms continued to grow, fondling the tips of her breasts as more began to press and remove whatever clothes were left on the bee.

Rumor gasped, surprised by Cagney’s sudden movements. She instinctively buzzed her wings to release herself, but the vines got her tied up real neatly and in a matter of seconds, she was completely immobilized in the air. She blushed heavily, embarrassed of being handled like a fly on a spider web, fully naked in front of her high school crush.

The carnation smirked and closed the gap between them once more. Before she could protest, he wet one of his long fingers and inserted it inside her, massaging and fingering her inner folds and playing with her clitoris with his thumb.

This should be humiliating for her, for no-one has ever dared to treat her with nothing else but full respect and submission to her. However, she couldn’t help but feel excited about it, especially since it was Cagney doing all these things to her. She moaned softly at the carnation’s gentle touches.

The fact that the Queen bee was moaning and not trying to actively murder him was a good sign. He removed his finger only to stick in two this time. He scissored them inside of her and kissed her again, savoring her the taste.

The Queen was living a dream. How many times had she fantasized about being this intimate with Cagney Carnation? Way, WAY too many. When he kissed her, savoring her mouth, while fingering her, she returned the gesture making the kissing more intense. If this was another dream, she never wanted to wake up.

There was something very alluring about Rumor. Maybe it was because she was a bee and there was that natural attraction between flowers and bees. He could only imagine it would be even more pronounced due to her being a Queen. Whatever it was, it was intoxicating and he lifted her higher into the air, removing both of his fingers. His tongue darted out and started circling the sensitive flesh before plunging in and wriggling inside her, stroking and poking all the sensitive spots

She groaned softly as he lifted her up, sorry for breaking the kiss, but immediately recovered at the feeling of the flower’s tongue filling her very wet womanhood. “Oh my God, Cagney! W-what are you doing to me?” She blushed and panted heavily, enjoying every wave of pleasure that the carnation’s oral stimulation was providing for her.

Cagney drank heavily of her essence, pulling her thick body against his mouth so he could reach deep inside. He shut his eyes, blissfully taking in his partner. He ran his hands along her sides, continuing to press needfully into them, imagining if he continued to rub down, he could pull apart her thin pink legs…

Wait, no. Rumor wasn’t pink. Where did that come from? His mind started to clear as he remembered a few bits until Rumor panted his name. At the sound of his name, he could feel his penis twitch and ache. He lost focus as he spotted the bed and his hormones spurred him forward. He carried his insect companion to the bed before releasing her, dropping her on back on her bed.

He loomed over her. “Are you ready?”

Rumor was absolutely delirious, such boldness in his actions and yet, so tender, so intense! Her entire body was burning her, asking for more of the sweet touches of the flower. For her, this was more than just a natural attraction. This had to be love, or at least something really close to it.

She was panting heavily when Cagney asked her the question. She nodded and spread her legs to accommodate him.

Cagney pressed down on her and slid his piece inside her in one smooth motion. He lewdly groaned as he began to pump into her, slowly at first. He badly needed the friction. He was so pent up from…from…huh, why was he so pent up? He tried to shoo the thought away as he concentrated on screwing his companion. He shut his eyes again, increasing his speed, listening to her squealing for more.

He ran his lips along where her ears would be, hoping to catch the scent of rain but it was only an overpowering sickly sweet small that invaded his nostrils and made his mind all muddled. God, how long had he wanted to satisfy the stubborn woman? He leaned down and lavished kisses against her neck and her breasts which were no longer covered up by her red dress. Every moan sent a thrill up his stem.

He could feel his vines wrapping around her wrists, pinning her down. He was confused to find the wrists bare. Where were her bangles? Didn’t she always wear bangles? She wore the bangles the last time they were in this position. Yes he was sure of it. He saw the glint of them, even with Hilda goading him on as he made love to her.

His eyes shot open and looked down. This was not Hilda. This was Rumor. Oh my God, what was he doing? Her bee pheromones tickled his senses and he tried to resist. Mentally, at least. Physically he was still plunging deep within the squealing member of royalty, twisting and pulling at her chest.

Hilda, Hilda would be crushed by this? Right? It was so hard to think. He could remember her words that night, telling him they would return to being friends, so this should be fine, right? Why did he suddenly feel so guilty? And why did he keep hoping that when he shut his eyes again, he would open them to the vision of his feisty best friend calling out for him?

He was doing this for her. For Hilda. To fix everything and oh holy crap, Rumor knew exactly where to touch. He stifled a squeal of his own and increased his speed, his libido fighting whatever conscious thought he still possessed.

“Ah! Yes, Cagney! Oh please, give me more!” Rumor groaned out loud moving her hips to accompany his thrusting. This was amazing for her, the pleasure she got from all the roughness, being tied up in her royal bed, as he had his way with her! And those beautiful petals brushing against her skin, sending chills to her boiling body.

The closer she drew to her orgasm, the deeper she let the carnation go. Her voice increased in pitch, the deeper he plunged. This was even better than what she ever could ever imagine. She didn’t want to ever be apart from him.

Cagney could feel himself reaching his limits and with that, all his frustrating and complicated feelings about this situation were driving him insane. He swore he was with Hilda one minute and the next with Rumor. And every time it switched back to the bee, he couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of bitterness at that, despite reminding himself that was all okay. His body was certainly fine with it and he continued to moan and pant lewdly with each stroke. No wonder flowers spoke almost religiously about their sexual experiences with a bee. It was incredible!!

But when it changed to Hilda, it was an emotional euphoria. He didn’t care about trying to fix the dome, nor catching the dragon anymore. He just wanted to grab the small woman tightly and never let her go. With this was all over, he’d take her on a real date, under the stars where they could just be alone. No one for her to be jealous of, just them so he could finally ask her how she really felt.

He felt the woman underneath him let out a particularly throaty cry and her vaginal walls clamped down on him, blowing his mind with how good everything felt. The muscle contractions sent the emotional carnation over the edge and he moaned out the woman’s name as he spilled his load into Rumor. A sense of immense relief and gratification filled the flower and he could have collapsed in delicious satisfaction if he wasn’t holding himself up. In fact, it would have been perfect, so perfect except for one tiny little detail…

The name he called out didn’t belong to Rumor.

Rumor looked at the carnation with wide eyes, not able to believe what just happen….

The next thing he knew, Cagney was violently thrown back to the cage by a group of guard bees, with a bucket of soaped water and a sponge.

“And after you’re done here, you will take care of your sticky friend there.” The guard bee pointed at Amber as he locked the cage and left.

The old bee looked curious at the confused flower. “Hehe, I see you’ve reached an understanding.” He chuckled.

Amber made direct eye contact with the old bee as she licked her inner thigh, forcing him to look away. She stopped licking and looked over at the bewildered flower. “If you try to even get anywhere close to me with that bucket of water, you’re dead.” She sniffed the air. “…and why the hell do you smell like sex?“

Cagney groaned and buried his head.

—————————————

Rumor was sitting on her bed facing the fountain. Still in that bitter afterglow from her climax. Her eyes were glassy and she had to do a huge effort not to let the tears fall.

He was in love with that blimp, and there was nothing she could do about it.

… Or was there?

She reached for her spellbook at her desk and started looking for more deadlier curses to throw at the sky witch. And maybe a little something to help clear the carnation’s mind and allow him to see that the one for him, was the Queen bee.

—————————————

After making sure there was nothing else they could recover from the observatory’s destroyed exposition room, Hilda decided it was time to clear the place. And for that, she had to go to the city’s junkyard.

Dr. Kahl, Inkwell’s mad scientist, was the owner. He had bought the place to guarantee access to materials and have all the space he needed for his crazy inventions, such as giant robots with a particular taste for bubblegum.

The scientist was usually friendly (in a creepy way sometimes). There was only one individual that could set the doctor off and that would be his rival, Werner Werman. The rat mechanic always tried to sneak into the junkyard to get free materials for his weapons and machines, and Kahl always tried to prevent him from doing so by inventing creative and deadly traps.

Today it looked like Dr Kahl was having a nice day. When Hilda and Beppi landed near him, they could hear him chuckle and rubbing his hands excited. "Hi, Dr Kahl! Is this a good time?” Hilda asked, making the cloud disappeared before the clown could get off, making him fall with a thud.

“Oh! Ja! You’re chust in time to zee mein latest creazion!” The scientist pulled out a remote control in his hands. Hilda stared raising an eyebrow, hoping that her expression would let him know she needed more explaining.

“It’s a trap! Zat rat vill haffe no chance next time he decites to schow his filthy tail arround my bropriety!” . The doctor clarified. He pressed some controls and a chihuahua shaped robot dog walked towards them.

“BARK, BARK. IM ROBODOG 0.1. I AM PROTECTOR OF DR Kahl’S JUNKYARD. IDENTIFY YOURSELVES, OR YOU WILL BE OBLITERATED. BARK BARK.”

Hilda looked at it skeptical and a bit scared that it might actually blow in their faces, for it kept making a buzzing noise, as if something wasn’t connected right inside. “That is… something. Uh, it’s not gonna kill us though…right? You have the remote? Doctor?” The dog deployed a gun from its tiny back.

“BARK, BARK. IM ROBODOG 0.1. I AM PROTECTOR OF DR Kahl’S JUNKYARD. IDENTIFY YOURSELVES, OR YOU WILL BE OBLITERATED. BARK BARK.”

“Don’t vorry! I kot zis!” Kahl started to press buttons trying to find the right combination to make it stop.

Beppi whistled and slowly backed up, gently tugging Hilda along with him. “I’m sure it’s going to be fine.” Hilda looked at him. “Probably.”

“Vat a joke!”

The bosses all jumped at the sound of clunky metallic crunching. Werner Werman, the scrap metal progeny, marched toward them proudly. He was followed closely by a large metallic cat. He looked at the dog and laughed.

“Ha! You zink your zecond rate hunk of mismatched vires und lasy zoltering is not effen vorth to look ubon mein ovn masderbiece. Arh ! PattleCat 0.2!” He announced, gesturing to the large, very deadly robotic cat.

Beppi continued to whistle and hide behind Hilda.

“Ha! You und your zilly opzezion vith giant cats!” Dr Kahl laughed. “Is not zee zise dat matders is vat you can do vith it dat’s imbortant!”

“Weeell… they all say that….” Hilda chuckled remembering Cagney last sleep over.

Dr Kahl didn’t pay attention to the woman or the clown, and pressed a big red button in his remote. “Ropotog 0.1! Schow dis apominazion of a cat vat you can do! Inidiate brodocol 'Get out of mein broperty’!”

The mini dog started to vibrate violently and the gun on its back returned to its place. The sound of an engine came from the little robot’s rear, and with a huge flame, it rocketed towards the cat.

Werner lit his cigar and pressed his button. “Pattle Cat! Initiate brodocol 'Broof of mein Zuberior Intellect, you hack!’” The rat saluted the cat as the tail turned into a rocket and the robot launched itself toward the dog.

The two mechanical monsters collided with each other, both openly firing weapons as the scientists shouted commands with their very thick German accents. Ammunition ricocheted off the various objects in the scrap yard. Sprockets and springs flew in all directions.

Beppi very slowly shoveled popcorn into his mouth while he watched the battle, offering some to Hilda who just seemed equally stunned or annoyed. It was hard to tell with Hilda sometimes.

The woman smiled and took some of the popcorn the clown was offering her without looking away.

It didn’t take long for the fight to escalate causing a fire to start from an exposed wire. A few more punches and with a colorful explosion, the robots where completely destroyed.

“Nein! Robodog 0.1! You killed it! You filthy, yunk schtealing rat!” The scientist threw the remote aiming for Werner’s head.

The remote clunked the rat on the helmet and Werner turned on the scientist, equally indignant. “Pattlecat vas ein marffel of science und your clunky mechanical mongrel ruined it!” He chucked the remote at Dr. Kahl. It hit the ground and shattering into a bunch of pieces at his feet, leading the rat to yell angrily and charge the scientist with a flurry of swears.

The doctor did the same as his rival and charged waving his fist hoping to hit the rat. Hilda couldn’t help but chuckle at some of the German insults she understood.

“Five more minutes and then we should probably do something before they actually hurt eachother.” The woman said to Beppi, eating more popcorn.

“I really wish I was selling tickets,” Beppi sighed.

The scientists had resorted to flimsily slapping at each other, their limited physical prowess not allowing them to actually land any effective blows on each other.

It was a few more minutes before Beppi showed Hilda an empty bag. “Ran out of popcorn. Think we should stop them?”

“Yeah… I guess….” She sighed getting close to the men. “Alright! Alright! You’re both beautiful ladies, now break it off!” She got between them and easily pushed them from each other, making them stumble and almost fell down. “Oops! Sorry.” She apologized.

“Ouch! Miss Berg! No need to get fiolent!” Dr Kahl rubbed his chest where she pushed him. Hilda rolled rolled her eyes.

“Ja! Ve are chust haffing ein intelligent discuzion!” Werner whined.

Beppi grinned. “I know, right? She can be quite a handful these days!”

“Oh! You bunch of sissies… .” She crossed her arms. “And YOU….” She said looking at Beppi. “If I’m such a handful, you’re more than welcome to go back to your circus!”

Beppi shook his head. “Nah, this is way more fun! Hanging out with a woman like you can really make a clown’s balloon pop, if you know what I mean.”

“Vat does he mean?” Werner asked, cocking his head.

Hilda’s eye twitched in disgust for the clown’s comment, and decided not to ask what he actually meant.

“Don’t mind him! I’m here cause I need to get rid of some debris at my observatory. Are… any of you free this week to come pick it up?”

Dr Kahl rubbed his hands anxiously. “Uh! Vhat kind of debree are ve tahlkin about? Old delescopes? Avstral measurements ardifacs?”

“Yeah…” she replied a bit sad. “All that and some big rocks.”

“Uuuh!!!” Kahl tried hard to contain his happiness.

Werner shoved Dr. Kahl aside and cleared his throat. “Hilda, pleaze bermit me zee honor of helbing you manage und clean up your opzerffadory! Dr. Kahl here vouldn’t know zee first zing apout astronomical deffices!” The rat boasted.

Beppi slowly pulled out another bag of popcorn.

Hilda rubbed her chin feeling an idea forming inside her head. At that second, her cap lit up like a light bulb.

“What the~?” She gasped turning around. Beppi had pulled an imaginary cord, as if he was turning on a lamp. Hilda rolled her eyes and pushed him away, her cap turning back off. “Well, I guess I’ll have to pick one of you, huh? If only there was a way to see who’s the best for the job….”

Kahl’s eyes shined, he adjusted his googles. “If you chooze me I’ll giffe you ein 50% discount!”

“His zerffices aren’t effen vorth zat much. Arh ! Chooze me und I vill help you repuild zee opzerffadory valls!” Werner protested.

Beppi nudged Hilda. “Are we bidding or are they bidding?”

Hilda smiled at the clown and gave him a knowing look before returning to the scientist. “Wow! Werner, that’’s an offer really hard to deny….” She look at Dr Kahl waiting for his offer.

The doctor looked nervous. “oh! Uh… I’ll… I… Uh… I von’t only help you repuild it, I’ll get you ein new telescobe! Ein more boverful one!”

Hilda open her eyes wide. “Wow! Really? Those things are expensive….”

“Ja, ja! Don’t worry! I can build one.” Kahl said confident, glancing at his rival over the shoulder.

Werner glared at the scientist. “Ja, ja zat’s all vell und kood put how do you blan to atdach zee combonent to sdudy zee cosmic lights?! You vould need at least tvo beople of intelligence to effen azemple zee biece much less atdach it!”

Kahl cleaned his glasses, mumbling something to himself. He hated it to admit it, but his rival was right, it did required intelligent people to build such a precision instrument.

Hilda noticed the doctor hesitate and decided to give it a little push. “Well, Dr. Kahl, do you know any 'intelligent berson’ that might be able to help you?” She mocked a bit, mimicking Werman’s accent.

The professor put his glasses back on and crossed his arms. “Hm… zee only mind dat bearly gets cloze to mine… is zis rat here. Arh ! Put I refuze to vork vith him !” He immediately added.

“Aw… that’s too bad… so I guess the best offer is Mr Wermer’s, then.” Hilda extended her hand to shake Werner and close the deal, but Dr. Kahl jumped between them.

“NEIN! Nein! Vait! I… eh… we… argh!” He turned to the rat. “I bropose a truse, rat… vork togeder and split the brofits.. and den back to distroy each odher.”

Hilda smirked discreetly.

Werner huffed. “I zuboze, put only to vork tovard ein common interest. Arh ! Put afdervards, svorn enemies! Understand?” The rat held out a hand only to withdraw it quickly and remove the shocking trap that was attached to the underside of his paw. “Zorry, zorry, force of hapit,” he grumbled. He held out his hand again. “Deal?”

The doctor frowned and looked at his hand untrusting for a second, but finally , he shook it. “Deal.”

“Great! So, you will get rid of the debris, knock of 50% of the price, and get me a brand new telescope for free.” She recapitulated with a big smile. “You guys are hired! When can you start?”

"I can pe zere tomorrow. 10am,” Werner bragged.

“Oh, great! I’ll b~.”

“I’ll be dhere at 9!” Dr Kahl said looking at Werner as if he wasn’t done fighting yet, interrupting Hilda

Beppi clapped his hands. “That sounds-!”

“Nein!” Werner paused. “Eh, wait, I’ll be dhere at 8:30!”

“Uh….” Hilda look at them, starting to get a bit worried.

“I’ll ve dhere at 8!” Dr Kahl yelled facing the mechanic.

“Ok! You guys… just… be there at 9:15! There. Nobody wins.” She said, hoping to settle the matter with a stomp of her foot. At that moment, moved by a strong wind, a small cog started roll down one of the junk mountains around them, creating a domino effect ending into a huge ball of mechanical junk about to crash Hilda.

An exclamation mark appeared over the clown’s head at the sound of something crunching. He spotted the pile of junk precariously falling toward an exasperated but unaware Hilda. Before the pile could crush her, he tackled the irate woman out of the way.

Everything hit the ground with a loud smash, sending parts and pieces flying everywhere. Werner and Kahl stopped arguing and stared in complete surprise.

“Scheisse! Fraulein! Idiot! Are you okay?” Werner yelled, scurrying over.

It took a minute for Hilda to realize what just happened as she shook her head on the floor. But when she did, her reaction was quick. “Oh my God! BEPPI!?” She immediately ran towards the pile of junk, turning into Sagittarius and lifting the heavy scraps.

With a gasp, Dr Kahl quickly reached for another remote from his lab coat and seconds later a few human size robots got close to them and begun to help Hilda remove the junk.

“Beppi! Zay somedhing!” The doctor started calling while helping everyone.

More of the debris was lifted and lying on the ground relatively unharmed looking was a halfway covered Beppi. He shook his head a bit disoriented and blinked as he looked up at the other bosses. “Oh hey guys! Did you like my smashing rescue?”

As of the last of the debris was lifted, the group’s faces went from relieved to shocked. Beppi raised an eyebrow. “What? You don’t like my junky jokes?”

Werner pointed. “Your legs, Beppi, they’re gone!”

The clown turned his head around to see his legs completely deflated. “Huh.” He nudged the astounded rat. “See? Whaddya I tell ya? Women like Hilda really make my balloon pop!”

Hilda returned to her normal form and gasped. “Oh my God, Beppi! I-I’m so sorry! Your legs! Can you move them?” Even though Beppi wasn’t always the best company, she cared about him enough to worry. Plus, he just saved her!

Beppi made an attempt to move and shook his head. “Nope! Better tie a string to me before I accidenally float away!” He lamented, sitting up and holding a deflated foot sadly.

Dr Kahl looked thoughtfully at the collapsed mountain. “Dhis is very odd… I allvays make sure to keep my mountains sturdy prezicely to prevent dhis.” He turned angry at Werner and poked his chest. “Is dhis your doing?”

Werner narrowed his eyes. “Mein fault?! Your schoddy sdacking apilities are to plame for zis! You could haffe crusched us all, you girnverweigerer!” The rat argued, slapping away the finger and shaking a fist at the scientist.

Hilda raised an eyebrow and looked at her amulet ring. Could it be that she was actually cursed and the ring prevented her from getting harmed? Nah, she was just reading into things. This was a junk yard with skyscrapers of debris. Of course it was only a matter of time before something like this could have happened.

The woman rolled her eyes hearing the inventors starting to argue again. She cast a cloud and helped the clown to get on it. “I’ll take you to the hospit-wait! You don’t have bones….” She looked at his deflated legs, feeling very guilty. “How are you supposed to recover? Like, should I get an air pump? I have one at home.”

——

“Clowns are very special creatures!” Beppi explained as he finished wiggling up on her couch. “They thrive on happy, positive emotions like laughter and love! That’s why you always see them at circuses! All that togetherness keeps them healthy as a horse!”

“I’d normally just go to the circus and get better but I can’t go looking like this! I’d SCARE everyone. That type of negative energy could kill me!” Beppi explained, hanging his head sadly. “I’m afraid I’m stuck like this unless someone starts treating with me lots of love and kindness…”

'He’s gonna die for sure’ Taurus voice echoed in Hilda’s head, making her smile.

“I see…well…I’ll do my best then.” She accommodated some more pillows around him. “You wan’t a nice cup of tea? hot coco?” She tried to sound nicer that usual.

Beppi brightened up. “You know what would really brighten my buttons? If you sat next to me for a bit!” He exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “Maybe being close to someone as nice as you would make me feel better in no time!”

The woman skeptical look at the clown and crossed her arms. “Argh… fine.” She finally accepted and sat carefully next to him. “But I warn you! No funny business.”

“Not even a knock-knock joke?” He asked hopefully. The look she gave him made him sigh.

“Oh alright. How about some serious business?” The clown faced her and batted long eyelashes at her. “Have you ever been in love before?” He dreaming asked.

“What!? N-no… never… no-one is good enough for me.” She crossed her arms and avoided the clown’s eyes. She could hear Gemini giggling.

The woman blushed.

Beppi gasped loudly. “No one?! Never?! That’s terrible! Ohhh, I feel myself getting weaker just thinking about it!” He moaned, starting to sink into the couch.

“Wha-!? Nononono!” She tried to sit him up normally again. “Fine! I’m in love! Just don’t die on my couch!” She opened her eyes widely, realizing what she just said. “I mean I’ve BEEN in love, I’m not in love right now!” She kept turning into a deeper shade of red. Gemini was having a lot of fun. “I was in love, and now I’m not.” She felt like she had to clarify further.

Beppi wiped his brow, “Whew! That was a close one! Thought I saw my life flashing before my eyes there!” He wrapped his arms around Hilda in a gentle hug and pressed his face against her shoulder. “Tell me how you two met! Was it magical? Were there birds singing and flowers blooming?”

Hilda didn’t appreciate the hug, but she felt compelled to indulge him after he saved her from getting smashed. She sighed. “Yes to all that. It was sunny, and flowers were blooming too. Happiest moment in my life.” She truly hoped her answer would satisfy the clown.

She did, however, started thinking about her feelings for Cagney. What was going on between them? Was it simple sexual tension build up or was it something more?

Beppi nestled in closer. “Oh that makes me feel much better. But why aren’t you two together still?”

Hilda got lost in her thoughts and actually answered the clown sincerely. “Because it’s weird! We’ve been together since we were kids and, well, we know everything about each other, the good and the bad! We know how to get on each others’ nerves.” She chuckled. “We always have a good time together, even when we fight.“ She made a pause there. It felt good to say all this out loud, but she quickly realized she wasn’t alone with her twelve constellations. "But like a said! I’m not in love, I used to be, and the feeling is gone and…” She stood up nervously. “I’m gonna make some tea, you want some tea? I’m gonna make tea.”

Beppi was a bit surprised by the honest answer and let her get up without realizing he had done so until she was standing and offering him tea. Oh well. Time to make the best out of losing his cautionary cuddle companion. “That sounds nice! Can I have a lot sugar in mine, pretty please? And anything else sweet you have!” Beppi asked.

“Sure!” Hilda quickly walked to the kitchen and prepared the pot to heat the water. She reached to the closet to pick up the sugar and honey, but she couldn’t reach for the second item. She remembered the last one to use it was Cagney, and she rolled her eyes with a smile, reaching for a chair.

Cagney always took opportunities to make fun her, even when he wasn’t there. One of his favorite ways was to put her stuff in high places to make fun of her height, making her realize that, without her powers or furniture to climb on, she was just a tiny person. He found that adorably hilarious to imagine a great sky witch asking for help anytime she needed to reach for something.

“I bet he even closed the lid tighter, that dumb dandelion,” she chuckled, reaching for the jar. She stopped a second to see Rumor’s picture on the honey jar. Some memories started to pop in her mind.

One in particular made her cringe: the prom. They weren’t the best gal pals, but they got along, until prom night. Rumor somehow convinced Cagney to go with her, but when he found out that Hilda was stood up by her date, he competently forgot about Rumor and spent the rest of the evening focusing on Hilda. The evening ended with Rumor going home early and them continuing the party under the stars.

Rumor was obviously furious, but not with Cagney. No, she was very bitter toward Hilda. The bee had mentioned that Hilda was the one brainwashing the flower by teasing him and pulling his heart strings. This made her think. Was she really manipulating him?

She shook her head to clear her head and prepared the tea. Minutes later, she went back to Beppi and served him a cup of raspberry tea. “This is all I got.” She said, showing him the sweet products.

Beppi squealed happily at the selection of sweet things. “Oh this is perfect! You have the sugar and the milk and …milk.” He stopped himself from saying the last item she brought. He saw Rumor’s picture on the honey jar and remembered Cagney’s words about it. He had to be subtle.

So he picked up the bottle and chucked it out the window with a squeal.

“What the hell!?” Hilda yelled. “What are you doing!?” She frowned.

“Reducing the negativity in the room?” He suggested.

“Wha-?” She looked at him confused. She started to wonder if he could read minds or something. “What are you talking about?” She asked, leaving her trembling cup on the table. She was getting nervous.

Beppi waved his hands. “I can’t talk about it. Tooooo much stress and bad juu juu if I even think about you and Rumor!”

Hilda shrugged. “That was a long time ago. We’re grown ups now. She probably forgot all about it with her responsibilities and all.” She crossed her arms to better hold her shaky hands, but her foot kept tapping on the floor.

Beppi pretended not to care but he was grateful Hilda was uncomfortable even discussing it. Keeping Hilda away from the third isle was easier than he thought. He held her one more time. “Are you cold? Hugs are the best for keeping warm and healing clowns!” He declared.

She grunted and hugged the clown back. “You better get well soon.” She kept thinking about Rumor. She knew Cagney was still in touch with her because of the pollen business, so maybe he could arrange some sort of reunion and she could have the chance to clear the air with the bee. Also, it was a great excuse to talk to Cagney.

Beppi started to play with her shirt from behind. “So, who’s taking first watch for the dragon?”

Feeling the clown playing with her shirt made the woman think he wasn’t as injured as she thought. “I’ll take first shift.” She pushed him away roughly. “And you better keep your hands to yourself if you don’t want to loose your hands too.” She looked at him threateningly.

Beppi actually looked saddened by that only to break into a sly smile. “Oh. I’m sorry! It’s just the material of your outfit reminds me of the circus tent!” He yawned. “Wellllll, if you insist on first shift, I guess I should just get some shut eye! I’ve had a crazy last few days after all!” He tucked himself, flopping his deflated legs over himself. “Crystal dragons, crazy carnations, angry genies and magic churros take a lot out of clown.”

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#cuphead #fan fiction #smallpersiankitten #necrida #cagney carnation #hilda berg #Beppi the clown #dr kahl #werner werman #rumor honeybottoms #amber alleycat #submission

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