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It was a good day for Oz, heck it was a great day! Not only had he avoided being injured or maimed by the daily accidents and mishaps that occurred at spooky high but he had also managed to impress Miranda during the latest dodgeball game this morning by decimating the other team with the strength and tact that only a monster as thirsty as him could have, all in her honor.
Or at least she had assumed it was in her honor, honestly Oz was just trying to keep his title as one of the most dangerous dodgeball players in spooky high, but he’d never tell her that.
As for now, he was on his way home with one of his best friends Vicky.
Normally they’d be accompanied by Brian and Amira but both of them had prior engagements: the zombie was accompanying Liam to a post-post modern alternative eastern zhang era art showing (whatever the hell that means); while the djinn was doing god only knows what with Vera, neither of them were willing to share their plans for tonight which meant it must have been all sorts of shady.
But that was none of Oz’s business, right now he was trying to focus on getting a date for prom so he wouldn’t die a lonely virgin.
“So how’s operation prom going on your end?” Asked the fearling
“Great! Thanks for putting in a good word with Damien last weekend, even if I ended up getting shot by him.” Replied Vicky, displaying the bandaged bullet wound on her abdomen.
Thankfully he had three friends backing him up with him returning the favor; they had all made a pact at the very beginning of the school year to help each other out in getting girlfriends/boyfriends for prom, which was coming up very soon, any way they could. Of course he couldn’t rely completely on his friends to help him seduce his classmates, he had to put in the effort too.
“And how have things been with Miranda?”
Oz tugged at the collar of his shirt “they’re….they’re alright.”
“Oop, my troubled friend sense is tingling. Oz what’s going on?”
“It’s just that I feel like Miranda only talks to me when she needs something. Like help with school work, advice for dealing with her kingdom, that letter I delivered to her aunt. Be honest Vicky, do you think she’s just using me?”
Vicky pondered that statement for a moment, on the one hand Miranda did have a bad habit of taking advantage of the monsters around her whether she realized it or not because of the way she was raised; however on the other hand the Frankenstein monster of a girl was great at reading people and she could tell that Miranda was not only aware of Oz’s flirtations but clearly flirting back, which was something that may have gone over her friend’s head.
“Oz, trust me when I say this, Miranda is totally into you and even if she’s not, you’ll win her over eventually. I mean come on” Vicky reached over and pinched Oz’s cheeks “who could resist that adorkable face!”
Oz grabbed ahold of Vicky’s arms and tried to pry the patchwork girl off of him “Vicky! Quiiiit it!”
“I’ll stop pinching those cheeks when they stop being so soft and squishy.”
Eventually Oz managed to get his friend to release his face, a clear blush coming across it.
“You’re right though. I’m probably worried about nothing, if I just keep things up I’ll-” Oz paused as the two of them approached their house, noticing something seriously wrong.
The door was wide open.
“Aw crap. Did someone break in again?”
“Looks like it Oz, welp we’d better see what they took and make a list.” Vicky replied as she walked into their shared dwelling.
To their utter surprise however, the entire place seemed to be in perfect order, in fact it seemed even better than it was when they left this morning; all the pizza boxes and soda cans had been taken out to the trash, the shelves dusted, floors vacuumed and waxed, and all the spoiled food had been cleaned out of the fridge (which was really for the best, the chocolate had gained sentience and was plotting world domination)
“Did we hire a maid?” asked Oz.
“No I don’t think so.” Vicky replied. “I don’t know what to think of this.”
Oz was going to continue but stopped when he heard the sound of footsteps coming from down the hall.
“Well whoever did this….” Oz whispered. “They’re still here….”
Arming themselves with a kitchen knife and a frying pan the dynamic duo snuck towards the sounds of the intruder, eventually coming up to Oz’s room.
“Go in on three?”
Vicky nodded.
“One ...two….”
CRASH!!!
Oz’s countdown was cut off by the sound of breaking glass, causing the two to rush into the room to find that the window had been broken.
The fearling rushed over to the window to see two figures running away from the house.
“HEY GET BACK HERE!” he shouted only for Vicky to put a hand on his shoulder.
“Forget about it Oz, they’re not worth the trouble. Besides it doesn’t look like they took anything.”
Taking in a quick scan of his room Oz quickly realized that his friend was right, much like the rest of the house his room had been similarly cleaned and organized with nothing stolen at all.
Until he took a closer look at his closet to see a few of his favorite cardigans missing.
“Wait they took my clothes?” said Oz while holding up an empty hangar. “What kind of monster breaks into someone’s house just to steal clothes?”
*********************
The two monsters in question were currently sitting in a bush, completely out of breath, having narrowly escaped their target’s notice.
“Dear me that was too close of a call, you just had to insist on cleaning the place didn’t you?” said the first one.
“I’m sorry but that place was a pigsty! There was garbage everywhere, mold growing on food in the fridge, we did them a favor!” the second one replied. “Besides we got what we wanted in the end!”
He motioned to the yellow cardigan clutched in his cohorts fins.
“I suppose you’re right. We’d better get this to the princess at once, if we keep her waiting she’ll have our heads!”
The two of them quickly hopped into the sewers and rode the currents to the shoreline, swimming a few miles out until they came onto a deep underwater kingdom full of miserable merfolk going about their daily lives under the Vanderbilt monarchy, swimming in and out of quaint and modest coral homes.
The Vanderbilt palace on the other hand was the exact opposite of quaint and modest. It sprouted out from the dreary kingdom like a pearl within an oyster’s mouth, a massive estate adorned with gold and ivory colors on it’s towering walls, every inch of it was expertly designed and crafted by the best architects and construction in the kingdom’s history, their blood, sweat, and tears went into its birth (literally as the labor conditions were nothing short of torturous). A mixture of grace, beauty, and intimidation would be the best way to describe the general feel of the palace towards the surrounding area.
Just like the royals that lived there, yes the vanderbilt crown had been ruling the merfolk kingdom for generations under an iron fist; the current generation consisted of King Triton, Queen Ariel, and their four daughters: Laudanda, Amanda, Bellanda, and Miranda Vanderbilt.
(okay enough with the history lesson, I’ve got like five textbooks here that covers the entire legacy of the Vanderbilt kingdom and I know none of you have the patience to sit through a half an hour of me explaining the significance of silverware to the Vanderbilts so I’m just gonna cut out all of that part for your sake and skip to the good stuff. Sincerely, the narrator.)
The two merfolk quickly had their identities checked by the palace guards along with the package they were carrying and were ushered into the castle.
Then they rushed through the halls as quickly as they could, they were running late as it was and they didn’t want to keep Miranda waiting any longer.
Though it would appear fate despised them that day for when they came around a corner they collided face-first into King Triton, knocking both serfs to the floor.
“What the- alright, you both had better have very good excuses for what you just did. Otherwise I shall have you thrown to the sailors and keelhauled.”
Quickly bowing down to their king the merfolk replied. “Apologizes your excellency! It’s just that Miranda has requested that we bring this package to her at once, we had already been stalled long enough in obtaining it and it would be a sign of disrespect if we kept her waiting any longer, please! she appeared to hold this item in great importance and we must deliver it to her.”
A well known fact amongst those who served the Vanderbilt family was that King Triton had a big soft spot for his daughters, willing to do anything and have anyone executed for them, nothing was too good for his little girls. So at the mention of Miranda, his expression softened for a moment before turning to one of stern understanding.
“Very well then, be on your way and don’t let it happen again.” Triton replied with a wave of his hand.
“Of course my lord.”
It only took them a few more minutes for them to rush to Miranda’s room, politely knocking on the door before receiving an equally polite ‘come in’ resonate from the otherside. They pushed their way in to see Miranda with her hairdresser and manicure serfs.
“Ah, there you two are, I was starting to get impatient.” said Miranda. “Did you manage to get it?”
One of them held out the carefully wrapped item and Miranda quickly snatched it from them with her free hand, squealing out in joy while bouncing in her seat.
“Oh yes! It’s been so long!” Miranda shouted before turning to her serfs. “Alright, I believe we are done here, everyone out, I wish to be alone for the time being.”
“But my lady I’m only half way-”
“I said out!”
The serfs new better than to incur Miranda’s wrath and quickly dashed out of the room, leaving Miranda with only one and a half hands of painted nails and untamed hair, but she didn’t care; all that mattered was the item in her grasp.
She quickly drew the curtains on her room, covering it in shadow; then with the grace only a princess could accomplish, she daintily unwrapped her package.
Sitting there in the middle of the wrapping paper was nothing more than a simple yellow cardigan, well-worn but still clean and maintained, just as it’s wearer was.
Now why you ask would Miranda care so much about a yellow cardigan? Well she would never wear it herself, she had a preference for light blue in her outfits not to mention it was a bit more low class than what she typically wore. But what made this cardigan special was that it belonged to….him.
Miranda carefully lifted up the pilfered clothing and held it up in front of her.
Oh how she loved him; from his odd little quirks to the cute little beings that hung off his form to his well kempt hair and tight butt. The mermaid simply adored Oz, before he had been just another face in the crowd but after coming to rescue her from one of the interdimensional prince’s advances (honestly with how he behaved Miranda had to ponder if he even was a prince) last year she had gained an interest in him.
As she got to know the fearling more interest turned into admiration and admiration became obsession.
It wasn’t as if she woke up one morning and started drawing up plans for their future wedding...actually no she did do that, but her obsession with Oz was a gradual feeling that came very slowly to her, one that the boy nurtured with every act of kindness he paid towards her.
Miranda knew they were destined to be together, he was her prince and she was his princess, and she would do anything to make that dream come true; including making any girl that would dare try to steal away her true love disappear.
At first she had her suspicions about those two friends of his: Amira and Vicky. But after a few conversations with them she quickly realized that Vicky had eyes for Damien and Amira wasn’t even interested in the males at school which meant that neither of them were threats to her fairytale ending. While she hadn’t seen other females attempt to make a move on her Ozwald, she (or rather her serfs) remained vigilant.
Of course that brings us around back to one of her creepier habits; stealing his clothes.
It had all started a few weeks ago when Oz left one of his gym bags unattended after a particularly brutal dodgeball match in the aftermath of which he had to attend to one of his wounded allies; in a moment of impulse Miranda saw that one of his spare shirts sticking out from his bag and ran over and snatched it up after ensuring no one was watching her.
The princess pressed her face into the yellow cloth, nuzzling it like one would a stuffed animal, taking it deep breaths of Oz’s scent still on the cardigan. He smelled like a mixture of fresh linen and a musky city alleyway, it was almost like a drug and she just couldn’t get enough of it.
Ever since that day she’s been ordering her serfs to steal bits and pieces of Oz’s clothes every so often just so that she could experience the same feeling she was now, constantly rotating out whatever she could get her hands on and storing the rest in a locked box under her pillow.
However for all her affections there was one fatal flaw to her beloved: he was all sorts of dense. Miranda wanted him so badly but he seemed completely oblivious to her advances, sure he was always happy to help her out with whatever problems she may have been having at the time for better or for worse (which was yet another reason she fell so hard for him) ranging from advice on how to better wage war against the air people to simple aid on school assignments all of which were merely ploys to spend more time with him, but none of them seemed to get the message across that she held a romantic interest nor did it instigate any romantic behaviors from Oz; if anything he only appeared to like her as a friend rather than a lover.
Miranda let out a sigh as she cuddled Oz’s shirt. Monster prom was coming up soon and while she had a few potential candidates to accompany her to the dance all of them paled in comparison to her beloved, conversely her biggest fear is that Oz won’t ask her to prom and she’ll end up as a lonely old queen on the throne, adopting seventy-two catfish to keep her company.
The fact that she could not possibly know if Oz held the same feelings for her as she did for him was maddening, the pure suspense of the matter was killing her which only got worse the closer prom got and Oz never popped the question. She’d ask him herself but it is unbecoming of a princess to ask their suitor out to prom.
“Oh why must life be so difficult?” Miranda muttered before taking in another deep breath of Oz’s scent, the smell of her true love putting her at ease, causing a lazy smile to come across her face.
“What’cha doin sis?”
Miranda screamed, throwing the cardigan in the air then immediately scrambling to catch it and hide it behind her back. The door, SHE HAD FORGOTTEN TO LOCK THE DOOR.
“N-nothing Bellanda.” Miranda stuttered out, trying to keep the object of her affection hidden from view.
“Really? And what’s that behind your back?” continued the mermaid’s older sister.
Miranda shifted back further on her mattress. “None of your concern.”
Bellanda merely shrugged and turned around. “Well if you say so, I guess I’ll just….NYYAAAH!”
The 2nd youngest Vanderbilt lunged at her sister, her combat training allowing her to immediately get the drop on Miranda and yanking the cloth away from her with ease.
“NO!!!” Miranda shrieked. “GIVE IT BACK!!”
Bellanda held her sister back with a palm on her forehead as the younger princess swiped and clawed at her, desperately trying to steal the cardigan back.
“Hang on a minute, doesn’t this belong to that piece of tuna you always hang out with? I see him wearing it all the time.”
“IT’S NOT! AND HIS NAME IS OZ!”
Bellanda smiled mischievously “It is! Awww does my little sister have a crush?”
“STOP IT BELLANDA!!!” Miranda continued to protest whilst reaching for the clothing.
“Hey girls guess-” a pair of pink hands slamming over Bellanda’s mouth promptly silenced her.
“Bellanda please, don’t tell them about this ...you know what they’ll do!” Miranda begged.
“You gonna let me in on what’s going on?”
“Fine, as long as you promise not to tell anyone else.”
Bellanda took a seat next to her younger sister, handing back the cardigan which Miranda promptly clutched like a security blanket.
Miranda cleared her throat, taking several false starts until she began to speak. “To answer your question ...yes I am in love with him, so much so that my longing for him is causing me pain.”
The princess soon went into a long winded speech about every single thing she loved and admired about Oz, all the interactions from when she formally met him to present day, it was possibly the purest expression of love Bellanda had ever heard (even if it was a bit on the creepy side at time) and at the end of it all the warrior princess could only say one thing:
“Damn, Sounds like you really have got it bad for this guy.”
Miranda nodded. “He’s just so handsome, intelligent, and selfless; the ideal prince for me. If only he would ask me to prom.”
“Why don’t you just ask him to prom?”
“Perish the thought! The prince is supposed to ask the princess to such events, not the other way-“
“Miranda.” Bellanda said, cutting off her younger sister “it’s not the eighteenth century anymore, we live in a semi-modern world where it’s totally fine if a girl asks a boy out to prom.”
“Well, what if he says no? What if he doesn’t see me in a romantic light?”
Bellanda snorted. “Oh come on now you’re just making excuses. If what you’ve told me is true he’s definitely wants you and even if he doesn’t want to go to prom with you, I can be very persuasive.”
Miranda smiled slightly, it was always nice to know that her sisters would always defend her.
“So, how should I go about this? I want to do something that will truly express the love I hold in my heart for him.” Said the youngest of the Vanderbilts.
“Oh that’s easy sis, here’s what you gotta do…” Bellanda leaned in and began to whisper her mischievous plan.
Miranda’s face went through a series of expression: intrigue, confusion, shock, and then tomato red embarrassment.
She wanted to protest, to say she was above such crass behavior as royalty, to say that there was no possibility she’d go through with such an idea.
But, Bellanda did have a point. If she was to get Oz’s attention this would be the best way of going about it and if she did not act now, who knows how long it would be before some lustful harpy comes in and snatches him up.
No, Miranda was not one to admit defeat and she was not about to start now. Come tomorrow Oz would be hers….
**********************
“I take it things didn’t go so well with Vera.” said Vicky.
It was lunch time in spooky high, with the cafeteria acting as one big melting pot for all the cliques and factions that made up the student body; ironically it was one of the calmest times of day despite the utter tension created by having all of these semi-dangerous groups in one place. Our four main protagonists typically spent this time sitting with one of their love interests or all together to hold discussions with how they had each been doing, today was the latter.
Amira looked at her frankenstein friend, bruises and cuts dotting the djinn’s body, bandages around her biceps and forehead (naturally fireproofed.), and a frown upon her face.
“Let’s just say I can no longer legally set foot in tokyo ever again….” replied the hothead. “Thankfully vera didn’t blame me for what went wrong and even complimented me on keeping a cool head.”
The unintentional pun gained a laugh from the rest of her friend group.
“For what it’s worth my night with liam didn’t go much better.” muttered Brian. “All the art was just piles of garbage randomly stapled to pieces of fabric without rhyme or reason, I didn’t get it at all but liam did; I was just lucky that I managed to fake it long enough to fool him into thinking I understood it.”
“So that’s why you seemed so exhausted when you came home last night.” Oz replied, feeding his phobias pieces of an apple.
“Well at least I’ve managed to stay on his good side, I love the guy but sometimes he can grate on ya. You two probably had the right idea staying home for pizza and video games.”
“I still can’t figure out who broke in though.” said Vicky.
“Wait somebody broke into our house?” asked Amira between bites of her own meal.
“Oh did I forget to mention that? Yesterday when we got home from school, somebody had snuck into our house, found them in Oz’s room right as they were leaving. We both lost sight of them before we could get a beat on em’”
“Really?”
“Yeah but that’s not the weirdest part: we took a look around and there wasn’t a single thing missing apart from some of Oz’s clothes, that was the only thing they took, and the whole place had been cleaned from top to bottom.”
Oz grumbled. “It was one of my favorite cardigans too.”
Brian gave his friend a pat on the head. “Ah don’t worry about it, you can always get another one Oz. Just be thankful they didn’t take anything else.”
They all stopped mid conversation of someone clearing their throat rather loudly behind them, turning around they saw that a slightly flustered Miranda was standing there with her typical army of serfs that followed her around.
“Excuse me, but I was hoping that I may be able to speak with Ozwald...alone.” said the mermaid princess.
Oz began to sweat, or the fearling equivalent of such; Miranda wanted to talk to him? Alone? Away from everybody else? He turned to look at his friends for guidance and they wordlessly replied with a series of nods and thumbs up that said ‘go for it!’.
“S-sure thing.” the fearling replied as Miranda lead him out of the cafeteria, serfs still following behind.
“Ooh, this is getting good.” said Vicky. “I bet she’s gonna confess to Oz”
“How do you know that?” said Brian with a raised eyebrow.
Vicky giggled. “Oh Brian, Brian, Brian. There are a lot of things you don’t know about girls and I will never tell you what they are.”
That only served to increase Brian’s confusion over the whole affair.
************************
Miranda steeled her nerves as she approached the empty classroom, the perfect setting for what she was about to do, she wanted this to be intimate without risking any interruptions.
As she shoved her beloved into the room she quickly instructed her serfs to guard the door, nobody gets in or out without her approval.
The servants nodding, closing the door behind her and locking it; thus leaving the two alone together.
Miranda gulped, it was now or never.
“So Miranda what did you want to talk about? Is it problems with school? Need help planning something?” Asked Oz.
Miranda turned to the fearling and slowly approached him, all while repeating her sister’s words in her head like a mantra.
‘Be bold. Be bold. Be bold.` Miranda thought to herself.
Then without a single sound, she took the sides of Oz’s face in her dainty hands and pulled him into a kiss.
That was about the moment every function of Oz’s brain came to a screeching halt, it a full on blue screen of the mind. His arms were shaking like crazy, moving with minds of their own since they lacked any sort of input on how they should react to this situation.
Miranda was too enraptured by the kiss to notice; she may have appeared calm on the outside for the duration of the kiss but on the inside she was going wild.
The smells she had gotten from his stolen garments could not hold a candle to what she was experiencing now, she was being bathed in his scents that felt like they had been magnified to a hundred. Then there was the taste, a bit like a mixture of dark chocolate and black licorice; she loved it, gently nipping at his lower lip. She couldn’t believe that this moment had finally come, it was everything she could have hoped for and more.
Oz was in a similar state of disbelief, or he was the moment his brain finally managed to reboot itself and get a grasp on the fact that Miranda had her lips pressed against his.
Slowly but gently Oz wrapped his arm around the princess, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss, much to her delight.
The two never wanted this moment to end, but unfortunately the lack of oxygen eventually forced them to finish up their lip lock; both of them left breathless at the end of it all.
As soon as enough air had returned to the fearling, a primal urge was sparked in him, all the repressed hormones that he had been gradually letting out over the course of the past few months was now forced to the forefront of his mind, as Oz looked over the mermaid only one thing became clear: he wanted her and he needed her, right fucking now.
Miranda let out a small ‘eep.’ as Oz’s fingers shifted into long tendrils that roped her in, pressing her form up against Oz’s. The fearling quickly attacking her mouth with his own in another kiss, far more aggressive than the first.
Within seconds Miranda felt something warm and wet pressing against her lips, poking and prodding for entrance to her mouth.
‘Is that his…’ unfortunately Miranda never got to finish her thought at the appendage decided to forgo getting her permission and forced its way in, running along her teeth and coiling around her tongue.
Miranda’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, the large appendage filling her mouth, very nearly sending her over the edge from a complete sensory overload of tastes and smells all originating from the boy kissing her.
As the hormone rush began to fade however, Oz’s senses began to return to him and he realized what he had just done and immediately broke the kiss, a line of spit still connecting the two as Oz’s mouth disappeared from sight as quickly as it had appeared.
“Oh my, I-I’m so sorry. I just lost control there and-” Miranda quickly held up a hand.
She wanted to steal another kiss, she wanted to experience the intense feeling she just had again; but she was a princess, she had to maintain some level of class and composure.
“Think nothing of it Oz, I wouldn’t say it was a wholly unpleasant experience.”
The fearling visibly relaxed, the anxiety over angering Miranda dissipating.
“Now then, there is a cirque de la mer underwater show occurring tomorrow and I was wondering if you would be as so kind as to accompany me to it.” said Miranda.
“Y-yeah! O-of course, I’d love to!” Oz stuttered out, Miranda was asking him out too?!
“Wonderful, my serfs shall pick you up at seven in the afternoon tomorrow. Be ready.” Miranda said with a smile, giving Oz a kiss on the cheek and leaving behind a lipstick mark, walking down the hallway with a bit more spring in her step than usual.
At that moment the bell finally rang, signaling that it was the end of lunch and time for everyone get to where they needed to go be it the gym to fight for their lives in dodgeball, participate in one of the hundreds plays showing at the auditorium, or screw around in the bathroom because they either had nothing better to do or had no respect for authority or both.
Oz in question was off to his classes, a massive dopey smile on his face ...or at least the equivalent for a monster without a visible mouth; he plopped down into his usual seat, still riding the high of getting his dream girl.
“So I take it everything went well with Miranda?” asked Vicky.
Oz turned to his best friend, still smiling brightly, barely even registering her comment and simply said:
“Oh you have no idea.”
Oz thought yesterday was a great day, but today essentially blew that one out of the water.
Today was one of the best days of his highschool career and from the looks of it, things were going to be much better from now on.