Important A/N at the end of the chapter! Title is still a work in progress 🙄
Grim runs around the courtyard, looking around to find an appropriate spot to hide. "I gotta find it before she catches me..." He mumbles as his eyes land on a bush in the corner of the courtyard, an idea appearing in his head. He quickly heads towards the bush, and jumps in, settling himself in. "Heh heh heh..." he chuckles. "She won't be able to find me here. No one will be able to find me here."
"Man, I can't believe that we barely passed the potionology assignment," Ace sighs as him, Deuce, and Jack walk the hallway. "How'd yours go, Jack?"
"It went pretty well," he says. "The smell got on my nerves, but still good."
"And yet you still passed with flying colors," Deuce states.
"Just because my nose itches in potionology doesn't stop me from assignments like some people," Jack states with arms crossed.
"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Ace says in annoyance. "We did very well with our potions."
"If only Ace stirred the claudron the right direction, we wouldn't have 'barely' passed the assignment," Deuce states.
"Hey! If you gave me the correct ingredients the first time, we would have been done with it way before time ran out!" Ace exclaims.
Jack sighs. "I don't know how Angel and Grim could deal with the both of you."
"Just so you know, it's more of an Angel thing to deal with all three of us compared to just her and Grim," Ace corrects. "If anything, we deal with her and Grim."
"Hm?" Deuce hums in thought, looking around, seeing a speck of black. "Speaking of Grim...did anyone see him running around?"
"What?" Jack says as he looks around the courtyard, trying to see what Deuce was talking about. "I don't really see anything."
"You sure that assignment didn't mess with your eyesight, Deucey?" Ace smirks. "It could explain a lot about everything, ya know."
"I know what I saw!" Deuce snaps. "I just saw Grim run around in the courtyard. Looked like he was frantically trying to hide."
"If you say that, and he's not in front of us, then either you're lying or he found a place to hide, and I refuse to admit that you're right, so I say you're lying," Ace says with a sigh, making Deuce glare at him. "Deucey, you almost worry me."
"You wanna say that again?!" Deuce says to Ace.
"Wait a sec," Jack says as his ears twitch. "I don't think Deuce is telling a lie," he says making Deuce smirk at Ace and Ace glares at him. Jack looks around, his ears picking up a slight noise in the courtyard. "I think it's coming from over there," he says as he walks into the courtyard, letting his ears guide him around and the two follow. He look at the bushes, ears twitching as he approaches the bushes, picking up slight moment from them. He looks around, seeing that it couldn't been birds or squirrels hanging around the bushes. "It's coming from here specifically."
"Man, sure is useful having your intense hearing sure is useful," Ace comments as he and Deuce look around in the bushes. "Does this help your investigation?" He asks Deuce.
Deuce looks around, trying to figure out what he saw. "I mean, if you think about it, there's isn't many places to hide in the courtyard aside from probably the bushes or trees, and I'm pretty sure that Grim would have easily given himself away if he was hiding in a tree." He looks closely, his eyes seeing something black. "Huh...?" He says as he puts his hand in the bush, only to recoil it back. "Ow!"
"Huh? Was something in there?" Ace asks as he and Jack looks at the bush, seeing that it was swaying, only for blue eyes to look at them in anger.
"Myah! What are you three doin' here?!" Grim exclaims, trying to keep quiet. "I'm tryin' to hide here!"
"Hide? From what?" Jack asks.
"Don't tell me," Ace sighs. "You did something to Trein again and he's looking for you as a culprit to some elaborate thing that made you get into trouble?"
"No!" Grim adamantly answers.
"You...started a fight by stealing students' food at lunch again?" Deuce guess.
"No!"
"You caused trouble for Vargas and he's trying to get you to do his make up lesson?" Jack asks.
"Grrr....No, no, no, and NO!" Grim says in a loud whisper. "For your information, I'm hiding from Angel."
"So you did do something," Ace states.
"Why are you hiding from her?" Deuce asks. "More than likely, she'll probably forgive you."
"'Probably' is the key word there," Jack comments.
"It's because she won't forgive me that I'm hiding," Grim shivers, making the three confused. He looks to the three and a thought occur to him. "Hey..." He smirks. "Maybe you three can keep me hidden for a while until Angel stops looking for me."
"Uh huh..." Ace says. "And what's in it for us?"
"The thought of helping out a good friend?" Grim pleads.
"No way," Ace says.
"Not a chance," Deuce adds.
"No thanks," Jack adds.
"Myah! Some good friends you three are!" Grim exclaims in anger. His eyes look around, spotting Angel entering the courtyard, looking around. "Yikes! Uh...okay! I got something for you three if you pretend if I didn't exist!" The statement got the three attention. "See, Angel was planning on making this stew with some high-quality meat the ghosts brought in the other day. I guess...you guys can have some if you hide me from her for a while." The three think about the proposal, with Grim looking passed them, seeing Angel looking around in the trees. "A-and to add an added bonus, I'll give you guys Angel's homework so you can copy it!"
"Hmm...Well when you put it like that..." Ace says in thought.
"I mean...having her homework would be a good reference..." Deuce says. "But how will you get her homework?"
"I have my ways," Grim smirks.
Jack sighs. "I can't believe you two are thinkin' about this."
"True, but we get a free meal out of it as well," Ace adds, making Jack think about the offer.
"C'mon, c'mon! Hurry up!" Grim says in a hurry, looking at Angel getting closer to his hiding spot. "Do we have a deal or what?"
Ace sighs. "Fine. We'll distract her away from you."
"N-not that it's only for the homework though!" Deuce adds.
Everyone looks at Jack, waiting his answer. He sighs. "Fine, only because I'm hungry and interested in the stew she's making."
"Great!" Grim happily exclaims holding his paw out and everyone shakes it. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta hide." He quickly heads back in the bush, leaving the three confused at how prompt it was.
"Oh, hi guys," Angel says to the three and they turn around, seeing her look at them in confusion. "Um, why are you guys looking at a bush?"
"Oh, nothing," Ace says with a smile. "Just enjoying nature."
"Y-yeah! Nothing wrong with getting a breath of fresh air!" Deuce says while Jack sighs.
"O...kay..." She says in confusion. "Anyway, have you guys seen Grim?"
"Nope, not at all," Ace answers. "Thought he was with you, like always."
"No," she pouts. "He rushed out when I needed him after potionology and ran off somewhere. I need to find him ASAP though."
"Why?" Jack asks.
She sighs. "Well, during our assignment, Grim accidentally put a stink sack in the potion and the potion blew up in our faces. Luckily, it was after Professor Crewel checked our potion, but the thing was that smell was in everything. I cleaned myself off to get the smell out, but it only did so much and Grim avoided me, running off before I could grab him to take him back to the dorm to give him a bath."
"Wait, a stink sack?" Deuce says, eyes widen. "Doesn't those stick on you despite what you do?"
"Don't remind me," Angel sighs. "I'm trying to get him to I can bathe him since the smell can rub off on other people, but he ran off, saying he didn't want a bath, but I need to give him a bath. There's only so much smell people can take before it becomes a but too much, right, Jack?" He nods.
"For beastmen, we can smell something a half of mile away and it can irritate us depending on the smell, so it's not that far of a truth."
"Wait, a second here," Ace speaks up. "The smell can stick on you..." He lifts his hand, smelling it, only to recoil at the stench. "Whoa! Rancid!"
"Huh?" Deuce says as he does the same thing, making a disgusted face at the smell. "Ugh! My hand stinks!"
"Wait, you guys got the smell on you?" Angel asks, the two realizing their mistake. "You wouldn't have the smell if you met Grim."
"W-well, I mean, he could have just passed by, and we got caught up in the stink!" Deuce adds while Jack sighs.
Angel looks at the two for a moment. "Well...it does make sense..." She says, making them sigh in relief. "Oh! Apparently, that would mean that you guys would have to wash your clothes if it got on you as well. If you let it linger for long, it'll be stuck to your clothes forever, I think. I at least had to change my clothes before heading off to find Grim."
"WHAT?!" Ace and Deuce exclaim, shocking Angel. "That little rat, he didn't tell us about that!" Ace mumbles.
"So it's either tell her the truth or deal with the stink," Deuce says. "I don't think everyone in Heartslabyul would want to have this smell around them, especially if it's during laundry day."
"You guys are serious thinkin' about this?" Jack asks, making Angel look at him in confusion.
"What are you guys talking about?" She asks curiously.
"Well..." Deuce says, shifting his attention on anything other than her question.
Suddenly, the bush behind the three started to shake, getting Angel's attention as she looks at it, seeing it sway for a moment before stopping. "Oh? What's in the bush?" She asks as she walk past the three, heading to the bush, making Ace and Deuce's eyes widen.
"Hey, Annie!" Ace calls out. "How about we do that thing you aways wanted to do? You know...our hair! That's it!"
"Yeah! You can do my hair!" Deuce adds. "I'm sure it's better than what's in the bush." Jack only groans at the two attempts to divert her attention.
She looks in the bush, using her hands to move the twigs and branches around, only to see the culprit staring back at her in fear. "Aha!" She says as she grabs Grim by the back of his neck and pulls him out of the bush, making him thrash around. "I finally found you Grim!"
"Hey, lemme go!" Grim says as he moves around. He looks to the three and glare at them. "Hey! What about not telling her where I was?!"
"Technically, we didn't tell her where you were," Jack states.
"That's true," Deuce thinks about it for a moment. "All we had to do was hide you."
"So, you three were caught up in his scheme?" Angel says to the three of them, and they all looked away from her gaze. She sighs. "I should have known. Grim promised you all something for trying to hide him, right? What was it?"
"Oh...just something you were going to make for dinner tonight," Ace says with a smirk, making Grim look at him with a silent glare. "Something about high-quality meat you were going to make."
"Oh, yeah," she says as she think about it. "I was going to make some stew. How about this, for getting caught up in his scheme, the three of you can have his share. How's that?"
"Really?" Ace says, excitement in his voice.
"Yeah, after all, Grim probably forced you guys to participate in his scheme, so it makes sense to give you guys compensation for it."
"Are you sure?" Deuce asks and she nods. "Well, if you're offering, then we won't say no."
"I don't mind," Jack says. "Haven't had high-quality meat so it'll be a good experience."
"Yeah, I'm down," Ace adds.
"That's great!" She happily says while Grim groans at the thought that his share would be taken away. "If you guys give us a few hours, it'll be ready. Just gotta wash up to get the smell out first. Now then, let's go, Grim," she says with a smile, making him shiver. "I think you deserve that bath you've been holding off."
"I've actually been wondering this, but how do you bathe Grim?" Ace asks.
"Oh sometimes we bathe together," Angel answers. "Though it's mostly him just wandering in on me while I'm bathing but most of the times I bathe him separately. This time, I'm going to have to scrub him thoroughly, getting whatever potion remains out of his fur. Isn't that right, Grim?" She asks and he sulks, succumbing to his fate. "Anyway, I'll see you guys later," she says as she takes Grim, leaving the three alone.
"I was wondering how Angel bathe Grim sometimes, good to know," Deuce says in thought.
"Why, you're jealous with her answer?" Ace smirks, making Deuce glare at him, with cheeks dusting red.
"I almost feel bad for him," Jack says. "'Almost'."
"You know, if we wait abut a few minutes we can just barge in and catch Grim at his lowest," Ace thinks. "Could be a good bargaining chip, you know," he smirks.
"Yeah, call it payback for everything that happened because of him," Deuce smirks.
"You guys are hopeless," Jack says.
"You don't wanna see it then, Jack?" Ace asks.
"Heh," Jack chuckles. "Why not?"
"Glad to have ya on board!" Ace smiles. "Hey, Annie! We're coming with you!" Ace calls out as they follow her.
A/N: Hiyas everyone! It's me here. First thing first, since I have written 31 side stories (didn't expect this tbh) I wanted to ask yall, which side story is your favorite so far? It's going to help me out with future side stories so I know what you guys expect with them. Make sure you write the title since more of them are coming and may mess up the numbering
Here's a question you all have been asking me for the past few weeks: When are you going to start Book 5????
Just so you guys know, I got accepted into nursing school and classes start this week (well I guess when the snow starts to melt I guess 🤷🏽♀️) and nursing school is a very time consuming program. Plus, I realize that I am currently broke and need to work more to support both my bills and school since I'm paying out of pocket for it, so my mind is on other things before starting on Book 5. That isn't to say that Book 5 isn't going to be posted, you have to understand that I'm a bit stressed at the moment and trying to at least have a steady ground before writing. I do not write for a job, I write for fun, and I thank you all for understanding. Anyway, soon the chapters of Book 5 will be available as a "test" post, meaning that I'll be writing the chapters during a week while nursing school is in full swing to see if there's a good schedule release I can do per week. The plan is to follow what I did the last half of last year of releasing 2 chapters 2x a week, but know that Book 5 is 76 chapters long so it's gonna be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG book to write. If you do the math right, then that's 19 weeks of content, which is exactly how long my nursing school program is for the semester so I'm going to have my hands full trying to keep the schedule with nursing school, AND working, so if you know I'm going to suffer. Anyway, I know I'm making excuses but that's literally the situation at the moment. Tbh I wanted to wait for an event story to show up before started Book 5 but eh, oh well. Anyway, that's the situation and I'm going to try and write a few chapters of Book 5 ahead of time so I can get the test week going and I hope that you guys enjoyed the side stories that tided you over (I'm still having ideas of side stories but hopefully it's only one more before I start Book 5 or just start Book 5 anyway). I still enjoy your input on them and remember to tell me which is your favorite so I can write more chapters like them! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 (1/16/24)