Chapter Text
Band practice had wrapped up and Strong Bad had made his way back over to Marzipan's house, secretly a little nervous about the whole thing. Of course, he would much rather keel over and die than admit this nervousness, but it still stubbornly stuck. Stewing over his thoughts about all of this, he begrudgingly made his way up to Marzipan's door. He had a brief fleeting impulse to ring the bell and bolt off to the bushes, giggling to himself the whole way. He couldn't be pulling those sorts of shenanigans right now though, because as much as he hated to admit it, he did genuinely need a little bit of her help here.
His mind did start to wander to the idea of the favour he'll owe her, however. It almost was terrifying how it could be quite literally anything. It gave him the jibblies, admittedly. He unconsciously shivered before shaking his head clear and finally actually ringing that damn doorbell. He stood there, stewing in his discomfort and anxious energy. Marzipan had finally swung the door open with a cheerful expression stuck to her face.
"Oh! Hello, Strong Bad," she chimed, holding the door open wider for him. He nodded towards her as he slinked inside, avoiding her eyes the best he could. She shuffled out of the way and back to her couch, sitting down carefully before nodding towards the other side of it.
"Come, sit."
He grumbled slightly to himself, a little embarrassed, as he sat down beside her but refusing to look her in the eye. "Okay, so, I'm here. Now what do we talk about, like how do we exactly go about…" he paused, swallowing thickly as he had to will himself to continue, "...well, all this I guess. You know I'm not about this mushy feelings crap. It's weird. And gross."
She shook her head and clicked her tongue in disapproval, "Strong Bad, I can't decide if I'm happy to say this or not, but outlooks like that are going to actually kill you." He felt his mask flush in utter embarrassment, completely ashamed of her immediately digging her metaphorical claws into his insecurity and revealing it with such ease. Maybe that's why Strong Sad hung out with her so much. Regardless, it was awful for him and he felt like he was going to be sick from feeling exposed.
She quickly picked up this mild shift in his demeanour and opted to try to carefully dance around this. Don't point out his insecurity, she reminded herself carefully, it would cause him to literally drop dead on the spot. While as funny as that would be, she wasn't exactly in a good position to have to clean up a dead body right now, maybe if it was a different day or time she could. But right now? Right now was not an opportune time.
Back to the subject at hand, she shifted in her seat as she mulled it over. She immediately perked up as soon as a thought sparked her, "Hey, I have an idea."
He hesitated, eyeing her carefully, "...what's your idea?"
"Ask him out on a date and I'll follow you there, I'll make sure you don't screw it up from a distance."
" Huh ."
She snorted and had she had arms they would be crossed right now, slamming her head back against the couch cushion. "Look, you know like in the movies? I'll be at another booth close by, in a disguise or something. I'm sure I have a costume lying around from acting in your silly Dangeresque movies."
He narrowed his eyes at her, "First of all, take that back. The Dangeresque movies are not silly, they're totally cool and totally serious."
She snorted once again. "Right, right. Totally serious."
"Secondly," he continued, intensely scrutinising her face for any sign of genuine judgement, "I don't even know how I'd go about working that out. Y'know, like getting it in motion and stuff." She nodded slowly along as he spoke, visibly taking it all in. Which was, to be completely honest, a bit of a relief for him. As much of a hard time as she liked to give him, she did seem to genuinely understand him and his circumstances.
She inhaled sharply through her teeth, "Well, I suppose I could also push you in the right direction. And I do mean push, I am going to force this into action if I have to." He chuckled awkwardly to himself as he grabbed at the base of his own neck, desperately rubbing at it in an attempt to self soothe in this very moment. The notion of being forced into a state of vulnerability, it was uncomfortable, he was uncomfortable. She perked up as she quickly picked up on the discomfort aggressively radiating off of him. Grimacing, she started to reel back, "Well, maybe not force, but you get what I mean. You have to get out of your comfort zone, especially considering we both know that your 'comfort zone' is just a state of pure denial."
He scoffed with a snort, "What? No, that's not true. I'm totally comfortable, mushy stuff is just lame."
"See, there you go, denying and proving my point."
That got him to shut his trap, not without a bit of a grumble however. She gave him a smug, knowing look that immediately made him want to retreat even more into him. "Okay. Fine. Whatever," he groaned, crossing his arms with a little huff. She hummed in content, pleased with his admission.
"I'll play your stupid little game and when it goes up in flames, you'll be all like 'Oh Strong Bad, why didn't I listen to you and your awesome brain? You knew this was going to happen because you're so smart and '-" he sneered before she cut him off.
"Strong Bad," she stated sternly with a furrowed brow, "You'll be fine. Shut up, you sound so ridiculously insecure that it's literally comical at this point. Just bite the stupid bullet already, I'm already tired of this."
He tried to hide his reflexive wince at her words, but she did have a point, he was kinda starting to spiral there. He snorted as he gave her a smug look of his own, " Regardless , I'll just do the stupid thing and I'll rock it all by myself without your stupid help. So. Take that."
He stormed off in a hurry, huffing proudly to himself, as he left a distinctly smug and prideful Marzipan in his wake. She did her part, now he had to do his.