Walking out through the front door, I noticed the smell of nature accompanied by the warmth of the sun and the sound of birds singing their songs. This place felt different from home. It had a fresh, clean feel to it that could easily put someone in euphoria in an instant. It felt so beautiful and lovely to be outside for once without my parent's worrying about me or accompanying me. Instead, I'm arm in arm with a sweet, adorable cup-headed man. Wait, did I really just think that? I shake the thoughts out of my head as he escorts me down a gravel-filled pathway with the sight of a garden patch nearby. I slow down a little, feeling as if someone or something may live here and that I'm going to have to meet them. I grip onto his arm a little and begin biting my lower lip. Cuphead notices and stops walking, turning his head to look in my direction and down to face me.
'What's wrong?' He asks with a slightly distressed tone in his voice.
'Uh...' I pause, looking down at my feet, 'I'm not ready to meet everyone yet... I'm a little scared.'
'Don't be scared, they're my friends.' Cuphead smiled reassuringly lowering his arm, causing mine to drop and fall by my side. I continued to look down at my feet, unable to shake this feeling from myself. My long hair falls from my shoulders and covers the sides of my face, making Cuphead unable to see my reaction completely. As my eyes stare at my own two feet, I see another pair of brown shoes stand in front of mine as I felt the gentle touch of a gloved finger under my chin raise my head.
'It's okay, if you don't want to meet my friends right now, I won't force you.' Cuphead explained, giving me a soft look in his eyes as he continued to hold my end of my face. I smiled shyly, blushing a little as he exchanged the same smile back at me. 'Listen, doll, why don't we just head on over to town? It is more crowded over there but you don't have to interact with anyone other than me. Plus, there's a lot more stuff to do over there.' I nodded in agreement. A huge grin appeared on his face as he took my arm in his and began to walk us over there. I couldn't help but blush a little and fluster over the fact that he called me doll.
A few minutes passed with playful chatter along the way and I got to know Cuphead a little more. He was surprisingly really open to me and he was incredibly sweet. When we reached the town, the sign we stopped at read 'Inkwell Isle III', so I guess we already passed Isle II. I looked to my right and noticed Cuphead taking in all the sights and smells this place had to offer with a grin on his face.
'Fella's wait up!' A familiar voice could be heard shouting behind us. We both turned around and saw the unmistakable Mugman dashing towards us, stopping to a halt when he reached us and catching his breath. 'Golly, you two are fast.'
'Well, we didn't really spend much time in Isle one.' Cuphead added.
'What? How come?' Mugman questioned with a curious reaction. I got embarrassed and hung my head low again. Cuphead noticed and turned back towards Mugman.
'Just... reasons...' He exclaimed, sounding as if he didn't want Mugman to know just how fragile I truly am. Mugman shrugged it off as he reached into his pockets on the sides of his blue shorts.
'Anyway, Elder Kettle gave me some coins for us to share. So what should we do with them?' Mugman pulled out six coins, sharing two of them amongst the three of us.
'Why don't we go to the Carnival?' Cuphead suggested with a huge smile spreading across his face from cheek to cheek.
'No Cuphead, the carnival is closed today.' Mugman responded. The smile on Cuphead's face almost instantly dropped, bringing out a heavy sigh from his chest. The boys pondered for a moment as we began walking around the town. To my left, I saw a building with big, bold letters on the front of it that read 'Cinema' on it.
'Hey guys, what about there?' I asked, pointing to the entrance. They both turned their heads to examine the building towards us.
'That's a great idea!' Cuphead beamed once again. 'C'mon!' He immediately grabbed my hand by surprise and began running us both to the ticket booth entrance. We stopped to have a look at the films being shown. I had my heart set on a specific film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Growing up, I'd been a fan of watching the Mickey Mouse shorts and other Disney animations, but when I heard their first feature length animated film was coming out, I almost screamed with joy. I heard the heavy breaths of Mugman from behind me as he stood alongside us and groaned.
'Don't leave me like that.' He scolded to his brother.
'Whoops, sorry.' Cuphead said with a cheery smile, almost as if he didn't mean it. He turned to me with a curious look. 'So doll, what do you want to see?'
'Uhm...'
'Snow White!' Mugman boasted before I could even get a word out. 'I heard it's really great.'
'Yeah, I wouldn't mind watching that.' I commented, trying to hide my over-excitedness. Cuphead nodded as he held his palm out. We each gave him one of our coins before he walked up to the man at the ticket booth.
'Three tickets for Snow White please.' He asked the ticket seller, handing him three gold coins. The man behind the glass took the coins in exchange for three small pieces of paper with the movie title on them.
'It'll be through the second door to your right.' He explained while handing Cuphead the tickets. 'Enjoy your movie!'
Walking into the theatre, it was packed with other residents of Inkwell Isle already in their chairs ready to watch the movie. It filled me with a little bit of anxiety, seeing how many others were in the same room as us. I stuck close to Cuphead and Mugman as we made our way up a set of stairs and into a row of empty seats. Mugman was the first to choose a seat, while Cuphead escorted me to a seat next to both him and his brother. It was really sweet seeing how Cuphead wanted to make me close to him. Even though I'd only known him for a day, I couldn't help but get little butterflies in my stomach whenever he called me doll or kept me close to him. It kind of made me want to ask Mugman a question about his brother, but not at this very moment. As we settled down into our seats, the sweet aroma of food fills the air, making me realise I hadn't really had anything to eat today other than a drink of hot tea Elder Kettle had made me earlier.
'Gee, we should've gotten some popcorn.' Mugman sighed, slouching down in his seat.
'I can still go get some.' Cuphead responded. 'Do you want anything, doll?' There go the butterflies again.
'No thanks, I'm alright.' I lied. Right as those words slipped out, my stomach let out a silent rumble, although it was loud enough for the boys to hear. I blushed and hid my face in my hands, trying to ignore the embarrassing sound that I'd uncontrollably just made.
'Golly, sound's like your stomach says otherwise.' Cuphead laughed, placing a gentle hand on my arm. 'I'll go get us a large popcorn. I won't be long.' And with that, he got up from his chair and proceeded down through the stairs and out the theatre. I guess now was my chance to ask Mugman that question.
'Gee, I can't wait to see this movie!' Mugman boasted fidgeting in his chair.
'Yeah, me too.' I added, thinking of what to say next. 'So, Mugman, could I maybe ask you a question?'
'Of course!' He responded with a huge, dorky smile on his face. 'What is it?'
'Um, well this might sound a bit weird but, I just wanted to know if Cuphead usually acts like this.' I asked.
'Like what?' Mugman raised an eyebrow, tilting his head to one side.
'Well, he's been really sweet and generous to me. Not to mention kind, friendly, funny... do you think he's just doing that because I'm new here?'
'What?' Mugman almost yelled with a giggle scaping from his lips. 'Of course not. I know for a fact that my brother doesn't do this sort of thing with most people. Sure, he's a sweet natured guy, but I've never seen him act this soft for someone as he does with you.' He paused for a moment, leaning in towards me with a cheesy grin on his face. 'And not to jinx anything but I have a sure feeling that maybe, just maybe, my brother does in fact like you.' Those words whispered hit my heart like a falling anvil. It made me blush so incredibly red, but I don't think a guy as cute as him would ever like someone like me. Wait, my mind just called him cute, again? Ugh!...
I was about to say something quietly to Mugman before I was interrupted by the cinema screen turning on and classical jazz music played from the sides. As the screen kept rolling, I had a look around, realising that more and more people were filling up the chairs and the delicious scent of popcorn heavily filled up the dark, confined room.
A minute or two later, Cuphead returned with a large popcorn container in his hands as he made his way back to us.
'Hey doll, did I miss anything?' He whispered quietly while sitting down in his chair.
'Just a couple of Betty Boop and Bimbo shorts.' I explained quietly as they were still showing a Betty Boop cartoon.
'Aw gees, I love Bimbo.' He silently boasted, passing the popcorn to Mugman and I. 'He gets into so much trouble.'
'He sounds just like you then.' Mugman smirked over at his brother.
'Shh, could we please not bring that up again!' Cuphead demanded with a serious tone in his voice.
'What? What happened?' I questioned, turning my head left and right to look at them both.
'Nothing, don't worry about it.' Cuphead responded, quickly making this conversation die down in an instant. I was curious, but I shrugged it off as the opening credits for the movie began to play and I focused all my attention to the movie.
As the filmed played, I was mesmerized by the entire way the movie was put together; the songs, the animation, the music, everything about this film just felt so magical. Within a few minutes, the popcorn was gone (mostly from the boys) and we were left to just sit in silence and watch the screen of rolling animation. I could see from the corner of my eye that Cuphead was fidgeting in his chair a little, looking as if he was trying to find a comfortable position to sit in. I ignored it a little, paying my attention to the movie. A few seconds later, Cuphead quietly yawned as I felt an arm reach from behind me and wrap around from behind my neck with a hand gently resting on my left shoulder. Cuphead... has his arm around me! I felt frozen as I blushed immensely, feeling Cuphead's soft arm rest behind me. It made my heart pump like I'd just run a marathon and I couldn't even focus on the movie for a few minutes, until another song came on and I fell into Disney's trance yet again.
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Author's Note: Phew! That was the LONGEST chapter I've published so far! So, whadya think about the story so far? Anything I should change? Got any ideas for upcoming chapters? Lemme know what you think in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you all!
Until next time, folks!