Vee and Masha went to the Farris wheel, leaving Cat and Gus to do whatever they wanted. The two walked around the fair for a bit looking around. Cat was in awe of everything, so much so that she couldn't decide where to go first. Gus couldn't help but find this behavior adorable. In a certain way, it reminded him of his and his friends' reactions when they first saw this world
“Ohhhhhh, Gus, what is that?!” Cat asked, pointing at a booth
“It's a fair booth, you know, like ones that have carnival games.”
“No, not that.” Cat pointed again but this time at a big plush dinosaur, “That!”
“Oh, that's a dinosaur plushie.”
“I don't recall reading anything about those, what is it?”
“It's an extinct animal that died off a very long time ago in this world.” Gus explained, “Now all that is left are their bones.”
Cat looked at it and was just mesmerized by its cute face, “Were they this cute when they were alive?”
Gus shook his head, “Nope! They made a Slitherbeast look like a puppy, they even made 6 movies in this world about them.”
Gus noticed the way Cat looking at the stuffed toy.
“Do you want it?”
Cat turned her attention to Gus, “Don't you have to win it?”
“I can win it!” Gus replied as he went up to the game and spoke to the vendor. “Excuse me, I'd like to give it a try.”
The vendor gave Gus three small basketballs, “Okay kid, all you have to do is get three straight goals in the moving hoop. Good luck!”
Gus took a deep breath, aimed, and shot the ball. Gus made the first two but missed the third.
“Can I try again?”
The vendor nodded, “As long as you got the funds you try a hundred times if you want.”
Gus tried again but with the same results. On the fifth attempt, Gus made all three winning the plush for Cat. Gus handed it to Cat who immediately started hugging it. Shortly after, they left the stall.
“Thank you, Gus,” Cat exclaimed, “but you didn't have to try so many times to get it for me.”
Gus shrugged his shoulders, “It's no big deal, I could tell how much you liked it.”
“I should use a spell to put it away until we get home.”
“Just make sure no one is looking…”
“Don't worry, I-I-I achoo!” Cat said, letting out a small sneeze, “Excuse me…” She said with a small blush.
Gus lightly laughed, “You sneeze like a kitten!”
Cat laughed back, “Makes sense considering my name.”
The two laughed together until Gus noticed Cat’s ears were out.
“Cat! Your ears!” Gus said with a worried tone.
Cat quickly hid her ears, “Must have happened when I sneezed. Do you think anyone saw?”
“Hey you!” they heard someone say from behind.
They turned and saw a guy wearing glasses walking up to them. Gus immediately recognized this guy. It was that Jacob guy who captured Vee and the same guy Gus himself had a run-in with a few years ago.
“I saw that!” Jacob yelled making a B-line towards them and pointed at Cat. “You have pointed ears!”
Cat started to get very nervous, “I-I ummmm, oh dear.”
“You're one of those witches or demons from Mars aren't you?!”
“What?” Cat replied, her mind going from nervous to confused in an instant.
Gus placed his hand on her shoulder, “Ignore him Cat, he's considered the town crazy loony toon. Let's just go.”
Before they could walk away, Jacob grabbed onto Cat's wrist, stopping them. “Oh no, you don't! I finally have proof now!”
“Leave her alone!” Gus yelled, slapping Jacob's hand causing him to let go of Cat.
Luckily security came up to them before things could escalate.
“What's going on here” the man asked, suddenly he noticed Jacob and facepalmed. “What did you do this time, Jacob?”
Gus informed the guard.“He accused my friend of being a witch and tried to keep her from leaving.”
The guard rubbed his temples, “Alright, Jacob you need to leave.”
B-But this girl's a-” Jacob tried to say, but the guard grabbed him and started to walk out with him.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jacob I've heard it all before,” The guard said before turning back around to Gus and Cat. “I'm sorry for all this, you kids enjoy the rest of the fair.”
The guard took Jacob away. Cat and Gus both let out huge sighs of relief.
“You alright?” Gus worryingly asks Cat.
“Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry Gus, I almost got us caught.” Cat said feeling guilty.
Gus lightly grabbed her hands, “It's not your fault Cat, It was an accident but it all worked out, that guy is just a creep anyway.”
Both Gus and Cat looked at their combined hands madly blushing and quickly separated their hands when they noticed.
“Um, so do you wanna go on some rides?” Gus asked, trying to avoid any more awkwardness.
“S-Sure,” Cat answered.
(Later that night)
As the night went on Gus and Cat tried to do as many different things as possible. They played multiple carnival games and rode almost every ride. Gus got to take another witch to the human world and Cat got to finally get some first-hand experience with it. Aside from that close call earlier, everything was going well. The night was about to end and they decided to save the best for last. Earlier in the night Cat saw the Farris wheel and was captivated by it, so she and Gus decided they would end the night with a ride on it. The two witches walked up to the Ferris, got in their cart, and the ride started.
As the ride was going Gus thought that since they were alone in their cart. This might be his best opportunity to tell her how he felt.
Gus took a deep breath, “OK, here we go!” Gus mentally told himself.
“H-Hey, have you had fun?” Gus told her trying to ease his way into this.
Cat turned her attention to him, “Oh yes! Absolutely! I'm having a great time!”
Gus smiled at her, “That's good, I thought maybe spending all day with me might be a bit too much.”
“Don't say that, I like spending time with you! In fact, I've been wanting to tell you something for a while…”
Gus's face heated up, “R-R-Really.”
Cat nodded.
“I uh,” Gus cleared his throat in an attempt to calm down, “Got something to tell you too.”
Both took a deep breath and just blurted out at the same time.
“I REALLY LIKE YOU AND I WANT TO GO OUT WITH YOU!!!!!” They both yelled at the same time.
Suddenly the ride stopped indicating that the ride had ended. The wheel started to turn slowly and the operator was letting people off however the two witches were oblivious. They both stared at each other in disbelief. A few seconds of silence went by before one of them spoke up.
Cat was the first to speak although it took her a minute to find the words, “Y-You wanted to ask me out too?”
Gus nodded.
“How long?”
“Well…” Gus paused briefly to collect himself, his face so red it could almost rival Amity’s blushes. “I-'ve been wanting to ask you for a while and since your training is gonna be done and when it's over you'll be out of my class. So I figured since it was just the two of us it would be the perfect time.”
Cat was taking in everything Gus was saying with a blush on her face as well.
“Honestly, the same thing was going through my mind” Cat admitted, “I knew I probably wouldn't see as much after I left so I decided to say something before the night ended.”
Gus looked away and held his open hand on the seat of the cart, “So does that mean we are?” He paused too flustered to finish the sentence.
“An item….” Cat replied, finishing Gus's sentence. She placed her hand on his and intertwined her fingers with his. “Y-Yeah, I g-guess we are…”
The door to their cart suddenly opened. The two got out hand in hand and began to walk together. Before either of them could say anything else Gus’s phone went off.
“Everything okay?” Cat asked.
“Masha said the fair is about to end, We should meet with them, it's getting late.”
Vee and Masha had beaten them to the entrance and were just standing waiting for them. Both of them were looking around seeing if they could find them in the crowd. Vee spotted them and gasped at what she saw, getting her partner's attention.
“What is it, Vee?” Masha asked.
“Look!” Vee exclaimed in response.
Masha looked at what their partner was referring to and saw both Gus and Cat holding hands walking toward them
“It worked!” Masha whispered.
“Sorry we're late” Gus apologized walking up to them
“Are you two together now?” Vee excitedly asked.
Both Gus and Cat just nodded in response, “We are.” They both answered.
“I'm totally getting a picture of you two to commemorate this!” Masha exclaimed, pulling out their phone. “Ok, you two stand shoulder to shoulder and do not let go of each other's hands!”
Gus and Cat did what they were told and Masha snapped three or four pictures.
“Sending this to Luz immediately.” they thought to themself.
The four got into the car and left the fair. Vee fell asleep immediately in the passenger seat. Gus and Cat fell asleep in the back, Cat having her head on Gus’s shoulder. Masha would occasionally look at them through the rearview mirror with the biggest smirk on their face knowing that the plan worked.
(THE NEXT MORNING)
At the University of Wild Magic, Luz was just getting up. She took a quick look at her phone and saw a message from Masha with the picture attachment. When they opened the message it simply said: “It worked!” with a picture of Gus and Cat hand in hand.
“Amity! Amity! Amity!” Luz said excitedly, trying to wake her wife up.
Normally she wouldn't wake her up like that but this was serious in her mind. Amity slowly opened her eyes to see why her wife was so excited.
“What it's Lu-” she stopped before staring at Luz wide-eyed.
“Look Amity! They…” Luz started to say but stopped after seeing the way Amity was looking at her. “What's wrong?”
“A-Are you ok?” Amity stammered.
Now Luz was very confused, “What do you mean?”
“Your eyes… they’re… black.”
“What!?”
(TO BE CONTINUED)