More Fedex? More Marellinh?
Um, YES.
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✩Fitz's POV✩
The chilly breeze of Rimeshire brushed against my arms like it usually did whenever I went to visit Dex. However, the air felt slightly warmer than usual today. As I got closer to the house, I saw something odd. Flames?
A bright bonfire flickered over the outdoor fireplace Kesler and Juline use for their dates every Sunday when Dex takes the triplets to Everglen to run around and use up their energy. A blonde girl with bright blue beads braided into her hair and a taller girl with black hair that faded into a whimsical silver color held sticks topped with white little balls roasted around the edges. Another strawberry blonde boy with periwinkle eyes held his own stick above the flame; his periwinkle eyes gleaming with delight as he turned the stick in his hands.
"Dex!!" I yelled, running up to the fire.
"Hey, Fitz!" Dex said cheerfully. "Come join us!"
Dex handed me a wooden stick and tried to pretend to not notice when our hands accidentally brushed against each. But as he turned away to focus on Marella and Linh, I could see his ears slightly darken to a pinkish hue to match mine.
"These are marshmallows," Marella explained. "Some dessert from the human world. Apparently you get to set them on fire, which I am, like, SUPER happy about." Marella grinned at her free hand which she was using to blast the fireplace to life.
Linh smiled and kissed Marella on the cheek, causing the fire to die down a little as Marella lost her concentration before springing back to sparking embers.
"Don't do that," Marella whined, her face about as red as the fire she was igniting.
"But it's fun!" Linh said, giggling at Marella's annoyed face, which looked more like a puppy than mad.
Dex chuckled, skewering my stick with a marshmallow. "Now you try!"
I nervously inched my stick into the fire, almost losing my grip and dropping it when the marshmallow set ablaze, shriveling into a burnt husk.
"Oooh, I love the burnt ones!" Dex said, snatching the stick away and popping the burnt treat into his mouth. "They're the best."
"You're so weird," I teased.
"I know, that's why you love me," Dex said smugly. I shook my head with disbelief while smiling. He wasn't wrong.
"Fitz has a point, that's super gross," Marella said. "Even I don't eat burnt marshmallows."
"You eat them raw," Linh pointed out to her girlfriend. "That's even weirder."
"You eat them raw too! I saw you take one literally two minutes ago!"
"Raw is gross," Dex agreed, shaking his head.
"Team raw marshmallows!" Marella exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air chaotically.
"Team burnt marshmallows!" Dex argued, and glanced at me as if he expected me to agree.
Marella noticed that, too. "Why don't we let Fitz decide?"
"Hey, that's totally unfair, he's too biased! He's literally dating Dex!" Linh argued.
"How about we call Tam?" I said nervously. "I don't want to be stuck in the middle here."
"Tam is also biased," Dex complained. "He'll just pick Linh's side."
"Why don't we ask the triplets?" Marella offered. Everyone turned towards her, then nodded in approval of her suggestion.
"Hey, Bex!" Dex yelled over his shoulder.
A short girl with ginger hair matching her mother's straight long ginger locks cut to her chin popped up in front of us. "What do you want?"
"Burnt or raw marshmallows?" everyone asked her in sync.
Bex snorted. "Burnt, obviously!"
Dex smiled with satisfaction while Linh and Marella groaned with annoyance. "We need a tie breaker, and since Fitz is too much of a coward to answer the question..."
"Hey!" I protested, but Marella ignored me. "Let's ask Rex."
"I buried him in snow," a small voice said as another strawberry blonde Dizznee popped up next to their sister.
"Lex, burnt or raw?" Dex asked his little sibling.
Lex wrinkled their nose. "Neither, just toast it the normal way," he replied, sending the group into a fit of chaos and complaining.
"Get Rex out of the snow so he can settle this!"
"We can't, we can't find him!"
"YOU WHAT?!" Dex said loudly, scaring everyone. He buried his face into his hands irritably. "Oh my god, Mom's gonna kill me with an icicle dagger!"
"We can help you find him," Linh assured, putting one hand on Dex's shoulder in a way that shouldn't have made me feel as jealous as it had.
"Yeah, we just gotta find a small kid within miles of two feet level snow! Easy!" Marella said, causing everyone to glare daggers at her before Linh elbowed her in the ribs.
"Ow!" Marella yelped. "Okay fine, I deserved that."
"Anyways," Dex said, narrowing his eyes at Marella as he spoke. "Since Lex buried him, they get to find Rex, while we continue roasting marshmallows."
"No way!" Lex said, crossing their arms across their chest. "You're going to help me, or I'll tell Mom who broke that vase last week!"
Dex's face went as pale as the snow, then he grumbled an agreement. Lex puffed out their chest proudly as they shook Dex's hand.
"I'm going to murder you in your sleep," Dex mumbled.
"I'd like to see you try!" Lex said annoyingly. "Happy finding!"
"Okay, Bex and Lex will search the forest, Fitz and Dex behind the house, Linh and I the mountains," Marella said. "Fitz will do his stupid Telepath thing to let us talk to each other. Meet back here in half an hour."
"Ugh, why do I have to go with them?" Bex complained.
"Because I want time with my girlfriend, and Dex and Fitz probably want alone time too," Marella explained. "Now get searching, Small Child."
"Says you!" I said to Marella as we parted, earning a less-than-friendly gesture from her as Dex attempted to cover his snickers with his hand as we walked past Juline's frozen garden to the back of his house.
Dex gazed mournfully at the bag of marshmallows one last time before looking left and right in an attempt to spot his little brother.
"Do you think we'll actually find him?" Dex asked me.
"We will," I reassured. "If he hasn't been eaten by something by now."
Dex shot me a glare. "For a Vacker, you're terrible at comforting people."
I sighed. "All Vackers are terrible at comforting people, Dex." I kicked a mound of snow angrily as images of my brother flooded my mind. Him trying to comfort when Sophie and Dex got kidnapped before helping contain them only later that day.
Dex wrapped his arms around my side, looking up at me with his concerned periwinkle eyes. "Talk to me."
"It's nothing, just...memories of Alvar."
Dex nodded in understanding before sinking into the hug and resting his head on my arm. Tears swelled in my eyes, but I pushed them back. I didn't want to cry in front of everyone, let alone Dex.
I swallowed back my tears and continued to walk, leaning my head on top of Dex's and pressing my cheek against his soft, strawberry blonde hair.
"It's okay," Dex murmured to me softly as tears slipped from my eyes and dripped into Dex's hair. "It's okay."
And wrapped in his embrace and resting against his soft hair, I had to believe he was telling the truth.
✩Linh's POV✩
"We're so not going to find him," Marella declared pessimistically after only a couple minutes of searching.
"Don't be so negative," I soothed, wrapping her hand with mine. "He's got to be around here somewhere."
"Somewhere," Marella noted. I chuckled softly, earning a smile from her and the ice blue fire burning in her eyes to glisten gently, warming my hand that was touching hers.
Marella looked into my light blue eyes flecked with silver for a moment. I tipped my head at her, noticing that we stopped walking.
"Marella?" I said softly.
"You're so beautiful," Marella told me. I turned away to hide the growing of the rosy pink spots on my cheeks, but Marella pulled my head back to look at me.
I smiled at Marella's lovestruck look as she reached up for me and took a strand of my silver hair and tucked it behind my ear gently. I grabbed her waist and picked her up to omit our height difference. I kissed her soft, pink lips and tasted the sweetness of the marshmallows on them. Marella grabbed the back of my head and pushed it towards her softly. She fluttered her eyelashes against mine, leaving a ticklish sensation against my eyelids.
I pulled away and smiled softly at Marella's grin before crashing my lips back onto hers again. After what only felt like seconds, Marella pulled her lips away from mine.
"We kinda need to look for the missing child," Marella whispered to me.
"Fine," I said begrudgingly, putting her down on the ground and taking her warm hand in mine as my mind subconsciously formed a heart from the water vapor in the air to float above us.