(Bruh the notebook was at the very bottom of my bag. How did it get there)
(Anyways—)
Death. Dying. Flatlining.
It doesn't exist in the dreamscape, that's what y/n was told. So just what the hell was this guy yapping about?
'Couldn't I just have a normal vacation?' she wondered with a weary look, 'First the Cocaine Dragon and now this... crack head.'
"...so, let me get this straight. You're asking me, an Emanator of Abundance... about death in a dream?"
"Mhm."
"I mean... I could definitely kill you." 'An Emanator of Abundance is still an Emanator, killing a normal person is about as easy as breathing. That bastard tree was proof enough of that. But... it won't be pretty.'
"Of course you could."
"But you've already tried other methods that returned you safely to reality." "Yep, that's correct."
Y/n stared at her glass of water, the bartender called her basic when she ordered it, before giving Aventurine a look of disbelief, "So what the hell do you need me for?"
"Your little friend with the weird infatuation with stellar jades said you were quite strong, enough to split something like the Ambrosial Arbor in two. Maybe just give killing me a try and see what happens."
"I know what dying over and over feels like, don't you want... a break, maybe? A breather or something?"
"Nope, go ahead."
Y/n looked left, then right. Aventurine waited patiently as she continued looking around, almost as if she were keeping an eye out for trouble.
"There's no rush, take your t—"
Y/n punched him in the back of the head, slamming his face right into the bar and cracking it. He fell right off his chair but y/n quickly leaned her body over to cover the crack in the table, smiling innocently at the bartender when the confused man glanced back at her.
"Good evening."
"Err..." the bartender nodded, "Hey."
It was a couple of minutes before Aventurine walked back into the bar and took a seat next to y/n, retrieving his drink. He didn't say anything, just sat there contemplating for a long moment.
"Didn't work, I'm guessing." y/n commented.
"Well I definitely saw something, but you're right. I was sent right back to reality and woke up in my room." Aventurine hummed, "Maybe it'll work if you stabbed me... where's that sword you used on the arbor?"
"First of all, stop being a nosy bastard. Second, you should probably give yourself a break. Dying over and over isn't good on the mental health, you know." y/n pointed out, "I won't ask why you're so intent on kicking the bucket, specifically because I want a relaxing vacation, but..." she hesitated, wondering whether or not it would be alright to share her rather odd experience prior to finding him, "I did... have a strange encounter before I came here."
Aventurine tilted his head, the slightest look of interest in his gaze, "I'm listening..."
Y/n recounted the encounter with the Cocaine Dragon, leaving out details on the crow which had come to her aid as well as the rather unpleasant experience of being trapped in a cell she couldn't leave without help.
She told Aventurine about how the thing chased her through the weird... wrong version of the hotel halls and how it proceeded to bash her head against the wall a couple of times before she made her narrow escape.
"A Cocaine Dragon, huh?"
"It looked like a cocaine enjoyer."
"What's that supposed to— you know what, nevermind." Aventurine waved away the question he decided not to finish, "This... supposed Cocaine Dragon," y/n snorted and covered her mouth to silence her snickers, "How did you find it?"
"I think it found me instead... I was sitting around when it popped out of the wall and attacked me. It can definitely get hurt, I punched it and it got stuck in the ceiling." y/n recalled with a thoughtful look, grimacing a bit, "After it realized that I was gonna fight back, it tried a different approach and gave me another damn concussion. I dunno if it was watching me when I suddenly no clipped out of the dreamscape we're in now or something, but it didn't follow me here."
"If you were to return to this place you stumbled into, do you think you could find it again?" Aventurine inquired, receiving a baffled look in return, "No? I suppose it is a hefty request considering you're here on vacation... still, do you think you could find it again?"
"Probably. In the past I've never encountered an enemy only once," y/n replied with a shrug, "Well... unless I killed them during our first encounter. It's likely that I'll run into that thing again, but why does it matter?"
Oh boy, she wished she'd never asked.
You ask questions, you lose your vacation.
Caelus, on the other hand, was having a far more enjoyable time. He visited Dr. Edward and happily received a dream bubble that supposedly contained a memory belonging to Akivili.
Due to a lack of a voice for the Aeon, he had it replaced with the voice of someone familiar! Miss Himeko and Mr. Yang! Sure, he blew a bunch of credits on purchasing those dream bubbles, but it was TOTALLY worth it.
"Hehe~! Y/n is gonna be so jealous!" Caelus thought with glee as he wandered with a bag in tow, a smile upon his face, "Now, time to grab some—WOAH!"
He was nearly toppled over as a silver haired girl ran past him, sprinting away and leaving him a little disoriented as he watched her skedaddle.
Before he could cuss her out, two more people almost trampled him as they barreled past him with a, "She went that way! Get her!"
"Sheesh... what's that all about?" Caelus wondered aloud, "It's really not my business... but I'm gonna go investigate anyways!"
Caelus followed the two people who had almost run him over, finding that they'd cornered that silver haired girl. The trailblazer tried not to make it obvious that he was looking, but the girl's starry gaze found him.
She perked up a bit.
Caelus tensed and shook his head.
Girlie clearly missed the message and ran to him with a, "S—Sorry for bothering you! Please, I need your help!"
"Uh... je ne comprends pas."
"Oh, excusez-moi, j'ai besoin de votre aide!"
"🚚!"
It was too late, the two people who had been chasing the silver haired girl approaching with angry looks.
"Hey! Look! She has an accomplice!" one snapped and Caelus crossed his arms with an indignant look.
"Good work! Now we can ban them both in one go!" the other idiot exclaimed. The trailblazer was not having this.
"Accomplice my 🍑, I don't know this chick!" Caelus snapped, taking a few steps back much to the girl's dismay, "Here! Take her!"
"What?!" the girl demanded, "What are you doing?!"
"I've had enough of getting in trouble with the authorities, I'm on vacation! Deal with your own problem, lady!" Caelus hissed as he tried to push her away while she clung to his arm, "Let go!"
"Please, I'm begging you, help!"
"No way! 🚚 off!"
As they were bickering back and forth, the pair who was prepared to arrest them both exchanged a puzzled look.
"So... are they accomplices or not?"
"Who cares! Get them!"
Caelus gasped in offense before shoving his bag of goods into the girl's arms with a, "Take this! And don't drop it, or I'm yanking out those choppy 🍑 bangs of yours!" before the girl could protest, the gray haired trailblazer put his fists up and docked the first idiot in the face with zero questions.
The fight was... brief. Let's just say that.
Within a couple of minutes, the pair who had been chasing the girl were on the ground groaning.
One clutching his nose which was bleeding rather heavily — quite concerning considering they were in a dream, and the other curled up in a ball after being gut checked and punched in the liver. Twice.
Caelus was dusting off his hands with a scowl before picking up one of the two idiots by the collar of his shirt, giving him a shake, "I'm not this chick's accomplice, got it? I'm just here trying to enjoy my vacation and you 🚚ed it up!"
"If you're not her accomplice... then why did you attack us?!" the dude demanded and shrieked when Caelus punched him in the rib cage.
"You were gonna arrest me for zero reason!"
"You've gotta understand, we didn't mean—!"
"Understand the palm of my hand, ♀🐶!"
There was a loud SMACK as Caelus slapped the man before dropping him, leaving the poor dude to cry on the ground. He returned to the silver haired girl who looked absolutely dumbfounded as he retrieved his bag from her with a huff.
"Uh... thank you." she began hesitantly only to receive a sour look from Caelus, "...err, sorry."
"50,000 credits for my services." Caelus demanded, "I don't dish out 🍑 beatings for free, you know?"
"Oh! Uh..."
"Woah, what happened here?"
The girl immediately hid behind Caelus again while the young man turned around with an exasperated look, "What, you want an 🍑 beating t— HOLY MAN BUNS!"
Caelus's jaw dropped as he laid eyes on the tired looking security officer, specifically his chest, immediately recognizing him from the photo y/n had sent to the group chat.
'Holy boobas, this man is hotter in person.' Caelus thought with sparkling eyes as the dude he'd slapped scrambled to his feet upon spotting the brown haired man.
"Uh S—Sir!" the dude who had been slapped stammered, looking rather alarmed, letting out a squeak when he got a death glare from Caelus, 'EEK! THIS PSYCHO IS GONNA BEAT ME UP AGAIN, ISN'T HE?!'
No... yeah, no. 'I wanna call him sir too :(' Caelus thought as he glowered at the terrified dude, 'It should've been me!'
"What's gotten into you, huh? Open your eyes and take a good look," the security officer's tone was sharp as he crossed his arms, "You think this lady is the stowaway we're after?"
"Eh? Who's this?" the idiot Caelus had punched in the liver demanded and the trailblazer almost gasped.
'Such disrespect! Sit down, ♀🐶!'
Ahhh... Caelus could hear y/n already.
"Caelus, you disloyal 🚚, how dare you drool over someone who isn't Mr. Yang and Miss Himeko! Atone for your sins, you skank!"
'Forgive me, my dear god and goddess. If I see a hot man, I'm bending backwards there's no other way.' Caelus thought as the security guard sent those two goons away, "Thanks for taking care of that. And, uh... sorry for beating them up. I lost my temper there."
"If anything, I ought to be apologizing to you! Sorry about all the trouble the two of you had to go through." the man said with a shake of his head, "The name's Gallagher, I'm from the Bloodhound Family. Those two who left just now are some young Bloodhounds I've been training."
"Don't worry about apologizing, it's perfectly fine!"
Caelus chirped, suddenly all sunshine and sparkles, "Say... I think I've seen you before! You met my companion y/n already, haven't you?"
Gallagher's brows raised slightly, "Oh? You're a friend of y/n and her little pink haired companion! I should've guessed, considering how you gave those two young Bloodhounds a beatdown back there."
"So you've met March already, huh? She didn't say anything weird, did she?"
"Nope, though she seemed a bit on edge. I can tell she's very protective of that h/c haired friend of yours, they must be very close!"
Caelus shrugged, "They bicker a ton, but they care a lot for one another and so do I!" he gave his bag a quick once over and sighed before waving a hand to the silver haired girl, "Well, now that that's taken care of, you can go now. Get going."
"G—Get going?!" the girl demanded.
The gray haired trailblazer glanced back at Gallagher, "She won't have to deal with any more trouble, will she?"
"Nope, don't worry about it. I believe this was all just a misunderstanding, and it won't happen again." Gallagher assured the pair with a gentle smile, "Besides, how could such a lovely girl be a stowaway?"
Caelus observed his nails, "The same way a lovely lady like y/n could stab me twice within the same week and dish out back shots to an entire planet of undying monsters."
...
"Did I say something wrong?"
The silver haired girl gave Caelus a side eye before giving Gallagher a grateful nod, "Thanks. Without your help, I wouldn't have known what to do."
"Just part of the job, it's no problem." Gallagher hummed, "Well, I ought to get going. If you need help, you can reach out to me through the young Bloodhounds in this area. I wish you an enjoyable stay in this land of dreams," the man glanced at Caelus and added a, "Say hello to y/n for me, yeah? And maybe remind her to pay attention to where she's going while you're at it."
"Will do!" Caelus chirped with a nod, but he was internally SEETHING, 'Y/N, YOU LUCKY BINCH, HOW COME YOU GET ALL THE FINE 🍑 MEN?!'
And with that, Gallagher walked off and left Caelus and the silver haired girl alone together. They stood in silence, neither of them speaking a word to one another.
"I owe you a big one—" "Bye." "Eh— hey! Wait!"
Caelus was already walking off, a tense smile on his face as the shorter girl had to run to keep pace with him, "Wait a second, where are you going?"
"Away. From you."
"At least let me repay you for your help—!"
"No thanks, I'm good."
As they rounded the corner, Caelus abruptly stopped and caused the silver haired girl to bump into his back after being caught off guard by his sudden halt.
She peered past him curiously, following his gaze and... hey! Y/n and Aventurine were a distance away, over by that Dr. Edward dude. Y/n was going back and forth with the giant eyeball while the blond watched on with a little amused look on his face.
What the actual 🚚?
"Say... what did you say your name was?" Caelus inquired, not looking at the girl beside him as she gave him a curious look.
"It's Firefly... why?" she asked hesitantly.
Caelus gave her a smile that was anything but reassuring, "How do you feel about crashing a date?"
She glanced over at y/n and Aventurine, then back at Caelus. After a long moment of silently thinking it over, she shrugged with a, "Sure, I'm down."
(I just love men. Specifically Aventurine)