Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A trio of chaotic boys had been walking around the worthless, messy terrain for centuries now. Every tree began to look the same & every flower- Well, those were no longer there. You could be pretty sure Jataro & Kotoko had taken every flower on the map by now, excluding the few the former had given to Nagisa. Every village had looked just as burnt down as the last, yet every horse looked nothing like Hannibal II.

At this point, the hero in the center threw a pointless fit. "Come on, let's just find a cave already! We'll get a good place for a house after we get some diamonds!

The sage on his right let out a sigh as he explained, exasperated "It's best if we find a place to settle down & gather our materials up before going into a cave, where every day we risk waking up with a spider on our face. Besides, this would be taking way less time if we were still at one of our old villages pre-getting burned down. Or, if Hannibal II weren't ruthlessly killed because of you-"

Masaru glared "Oh, stop it already, I was just tryna protect you! That villager gave me some shifty eyes & I wasn't gonna let that demon go!" The kid with orange hair laughed at his own answer.

On the contrary, Nagisa rolled his eyes, as he quietly gave out the final reason. "Plus, Jataro's inventory is full of flowers & spare leather helmets."

As if on cue, the kid in nearly all leather (Excluding his chest plate) had perked up, yet mumbled "If I died, it’s like you wouldn't even need to hold a funeral, cuz there's all the flowers that’d drop on my body!" He tacked on, even quieter “Also since I just don’t deserve a funeral in general.”

Nagisa shook his head with a stern, sympathetic frown, assuring the other "Jataro, you're not going to die. Even if you like having on your leather outfit, don't forget about the diamond armor I got for you. You're pretty good at this game & I promise, as soon as we get a nether portal, I'll get you a blaze rod & you could get your brewing stand back."

Despite his feelings for the majority of the monologue, the young artist felt himself forget his criticisms as he heard the final few words, cheering "Yay, I love making potions!"

The athlete, who'd been resisting the urge to laugh while the other two spoke, mumbled with an evil grin "Simpsayswhat"

"What?"

"Caught him! Got the simp! Right here, red-handed!"

Blushing, Nagisa stuttered out claims of how immature a ‘leader’ could be, but no rebuttal to the accusation. The trio conserved just as sophisticatedly as they continued to venture on their search for a home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About 3 threats to blow up any nearby villages later, the boys found themselves in front of a cave, without a place to set their items yet. It was quite deep, & as such, difficult to get inside. Fortunately, for situations like these, Nagisa had prepared a couple of buckets of water for a stealthy, safe entrance.

Noting the impulsive athlete’s eager expression, the sage attempted to cut through whatever horrible idea he could read from such a smile "We can't go in, at least not yet. We should be finding a place to store our things & put our beds before going into a cave, during the night, too."

However, that was not the advice the ginger wished for, so he insisted, angrily “What? Is it because of that one song, cuz if so that’s actually wrong. There are more enemies on the surface at night, so that-"

During the erupting fight, the masked boy informed himself aloud “Hm, who knew Masaru could be smart, it just has to be about video games."

Replying quickly to protect Jataro’s comment from receiving a response, the vice leader fought back “Even so, we could still die & lose our stuff, or worse, have it burned in lava & never be able to retrieve it again. Be patient & think about this.”

The childish boy felt no reason to be patient. The sooner the group was down there, the sooner they could have diamonds, & the sooner they could have more diamonds… Well, diamonds were just cool. Wanting his way through any means necessary, Masaru tilted his head, looking around before making clucking noises. He asked "Is that... is that a chicken I hear?"

The blue-haired kid was planning on ignoring the remark, entirely unphased, & leaving with Jataro if the pretend leader wanted to die so much, until a well-intentioned priest jumped into the situation, “Bak, bak, Nagisa’s a chicken! He can lay eggs for us & we can finally make a cake!”

Hearing his masked friend joining in on the teasing, a wave of embarrassment washed over the stressed elementary schooler. When Masaru teased, it felt like just that, a friend teasing. But when Jataro teased, he couldn’t help but feel genuinely embarrassed. Not knowing what exactly to do now his rhythm was thrown off, Nagisa stared helplessly at the two before defeatedly allowing "You know what? If this is how you wanna play the game, play."

Putting the water on the side of the cave, the other boys cheered until they noticed Nagisa walking in the opposite direction. Masaru paused & Jataro followed, curiously asking "Hey, why are you tryna leave us? We haven't even gotten any more diamonds yet!"

The sage answered "You two wanted to go in the cave, so I'm letting you, while I go make us a house that wasn't burnt down."

The artist pleaded, immensely worried "B-but the cave noises are creepy... I don't like being down there alone... "

The athlete stood with an expression of betrayal & confusion, almost to remind 'I'm still here', though he hadn't gotten the chance to argue with the brunette before Nagisa said "Masaru will be with you, you'll be alright... "

Still, the nervous kid shook his head, near tears "But he's not as good at making them sound less scary... You say things that make me actually feel better! And you’re just really smart & cool & great & Masaru’s really loud!" The hero would be ready to snap at Jataro were it not for the fact he found Nagisa & him silently simping for each other funny.

Turning from the horizon to the cave, the vice leader let out a drawn-out sigh as he placed down three chests at the top. "Jataro, put your flowers & other things you wouldn't need in here. Masaru, this one's for you. This last one will be mine-"

"Craft! It'll be Minecraft!" The 'leader' giggled, met by a chuckle from the boy in mostly leather.

The blue-haired boy did not find it as humorous. "I'm getting in this cave before you make another stupid remark like that one."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By now, the three had gotten pretty deep in the cave, with around 8 torches remaining, though a few sticks, if they had to make some more. Being the 'leader' of the troublemakers, Masaru held onto the majority, selflessly leaving the other boys with 2 each.

As he predicted, Jataro hadn't been very fond of the cave, virtually clinging onto the other student’s sleeve. Cave noises are understandably terrifying. He'd stayed by the sage's side, trusting he'd be protected as promised. Though focused on protecting Jataro, Nagisa couldn’t say he didn’t wish to mine some ores for himself. He'd found his fun in the game making contraptions for several purposes. Anywhere from screwing with Masaru, to getting himself a fancy house, to making Jataro gifts, or just making machines the child found intriguing, the first time he felt he could really create for the sake of having fun. He’d been due the chance to gather these supplies again.

After such a long time searching the area, the red-haired fury was feeling the despair of impatience, as he yelled out "Ugh, there's no good ores anywhere! I wanna go back now!"

Nagisa, trying to advise the 'leader', somewhat smugly replied "Jataro & I have found plenty of iron, & even a handful of gold. If you can't find anything, you're just not looking hard enough."

Hearing this information, Masaru stood there in shock. How dare they mine in a cave, where ores were bound to be all over the place, without telling their leader of where to find them! While such thoughts were the first, & temporarily, the most prominent to come to mind, a sneaky idea formed instead.

It was so good, in fact, the red-haired kid had to resist laughing so as not to draw suspicion when asking "You smelted any of it yet? Cuz… I'm all out of torches & could use some light... "

Of course, that'd been a lie. Masaru had been piggybacking off of the torches used by the sage & priest, still having the three torches in his inventory he began with. But of course, there was no way Nagisa was paying attention to something so minor with Jataro to protect & finding all these ores, rumored to be laying around.

Deciding to give him this one thing, the vice leader sighed & replied "Fine, but since Jataro & I still have torches, we're gonna explore some more. You stay here so we won't lose our things for good."

Giving the two a suspiciously satisfied smile, the athlete nodded, stating "Don't worry, I'm the bestest protector ever!"

And with that, Nagisa & Jataro headed away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pair of kids ventured through the cave, searching for some more materials in silence. However, by the time they'd reached a far enough distance from Masaru, the anxious boy began to talk. "So, what are we looking for now?"

For some reason, the sage hadn't seemed annoyed by the question, though tolerant as he answered "I'm mostly looking for some iron, redstone, or anything I could use to make a new mechanism. You could look for whatever you wanna use."

Jataro tilted his head, confusing himself “Like a coping mechanism?”

The little nerd got defensive swiftly, specifying “What? No! Well…” He gave himself a moment to consider the mix-up, realizing it not to be that wrong, though not correct in the way the child intended, so that hadn’t mattered. “Mechanism as in a redstone contraption.”

The artist giggled at the clarification from the vice leader, commenting "You sound so smart, you know. Hearing you talk like that just makes me happy."

In slight shock from his peer's words, while trying to cover it up, Nagisa responded calmly "That's just me talking normally."

Giggling a bit, Jataro emphasized "Yeah, that's the point."

"L-let's talk about something else… " the sage implored, hoping the darkness of the cave hid his blushing face well. "What materials would you like to find?"

The artist pondered the question for quite some time, leaving an awkward silence. The first boy, not wanting to make the brunette feel left out, assured him "You don't need an answer right now, it'd just be easier to know where to stop & mine with you."

Jataro shook his head, trying to explain the situation he’d found himself in, with a tied tongue "No, no, I have an answer, but, I just… I dunno if you'd like it..."

Managing to catch the blue-haired boy's attention with his self-doubt, he turned to Jataro, asking with a genuine tone of concern "What do you mean?" Did he feel there was something he had to hide from him? Was he just anxious? “You don’t have to worry if I’d like it, you know.”

The priest failed to meet Nagisa's eyes, rather, yawning out "Why are hearts called hearts if they look nothing like hearts?"

Nagisa sighed, seeing the fellow kid trailing off. Oh well, it happened every so often, & no one in the friend group really seemed to know or care for why. Maybe Jataro just didn't feel comfortable telling Nagisa about whatever machine he wished to make, which was fine, &-

"I don't know if you'd want to make it with me."

The vice leader looked over to Jataro with a face of pure surprise. "Huh? That's it?” Shingetsu placed a hand on the masked kid’s shoulder, affirming “Of course I'd like to work on something with you, you're my friend. That sounds great, actually."

The once nervous boy swiftly looked up, quietly smiling. The anxiety that was there seemed to at least temporarily drift off, with such a reassuring, pretty face looking back at him, glad to talk to him "R-really..?” Kemuri giggled soon after the hesitance “Yeah, let's make something... "

So then they headed back to Masaru.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During the tender moment, Masaru had been watching the smelting iron carefully, as so generously promised. And that means he stole it. He stole it all.

Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't be alone. Not that Nagisa or Jataro would return, no, a fourth Warrior would soon be arriving.

Surrounded by her faithful pets, a pink-haired girl ran down the cave, screaming out "OMG, Masaru, hi!"

Masaru panicked, turning around & exclaiming "K-Kotoko, what are you doing here!?!"

The girl approached him, loudly wondering "Huh? I just wanted to find someone on this server, I've been all alone working on my garden all day! And yeah, sure, it’s totally the cutest garden you’ll ever see, but, like, why must everything being totally adorbs be so much work? Cute girls should really get a pass for this kinda stuff, don’t you agree-"

Masaru rolled his eyes, not wanting his plan to be foiled. Surely, she wasn't gonna hold her tongue about this. He demanded, during the fighter’s monologuing "Well, get out of here before-"

"Masaru?” A confused & upset voice interjected “Why are you taking our things?"

The red-haired athlete had been cut off by Jataro, staring at him next to the furnace. He insisted "L-Look, I can explain!"

Masaru looked around for a few seconds, as if the perfectly logical lie were to pop up in the darkness. Meanwhile, Nagisa's arms crossed with a glare & Jataro placed his hands against his chest, sweating.

"… I expected one of you guys to interrupt me, I can't explain."

Groaning, the sage tried to reason "Just give us the iron back."

"Never!"

Running away from the angry simp, Masaru tried to go anywhere possible to escape. No matter what, he’d gone too far to let the selfish couple get away with keeping materials from their own leader! This iron had to be his own.

The scene unfolding before the artist & actress was a carousel, neither getting any advantage, but rather, constantly staying the same distance apart, since neither had speed or slowness, & in Minecraft, it hadn’t mattered if you were the Lil Ultimate P.E or Jataro; you’d travel the same speed. Well, except for one forgettable factor that could control so much in these vital moments- the hunger bar. Masaru was the type of player not to eat until he started starving to death. Most of the time, he'd forget about the damn thing until the worst second, as proven time & time again. Meanwhile, Nagisa made sure to fill up his hungry bar to perfection at the moment it would falter.

So after enough sprinting around, the athlete knew what was to come to fruition. Rather than continuing down a path bound for failure, the fiery kid turned around with his sword, preparing to battle with a surprise attack.

Unfortunately for him, when he turned around, the impulsive attack wasn't attacking the blue-haired sage; Instead, he found himself attacking the queen of domestication herself, Kotoko Utsugi, who had little to no control over the response of her loyal wolves.

"Hey, what was that for? Haven’t you ever heard not to hit a girl?"

It was at this moment, the ‘leader’ knew; he’d fucked up. "It was an- oh oh GOD t-they're all attacking me-"

"None of this would've happened if you just didn't steal our iron!" sweetly reminded the logical child.
"It was just some iron- OH please give me a potion or something!"

"Give back the iron!"

"I said never!"

While those two fought loudly & the dogs restlessly approached, Kotoko quietly turned to the artist, proposing to her peer "Would you wanna find some cave flowers?"

The silent boy naively tilted his head "Cave flowers?"

Smiling widely, the fashionable girl nodded at a million miles an hour "Yeah, I heard someone say if you find two flowers next to each other in a cave with a friend, they're your best friend!” “... Come to think of it, that might've been with mushrooms, but close enough."

Jataro shrugged, willing to go along with either plan for the sake of finding friendship in the pink kid. And with that, the new duo walked off, in search of more flowers, since they each so desperately needed more to add to their collections of mere trillions. Amidst the chaos, Nagisa & Masaru argued until the latter was violently mauled by adorable puppies.

And that, kids, is why you don’t steal.

Chapter Text

Igniting his flint upon the messy array of obsidian, Masaru brought his fists to his side, grinning at his work as the flames created his path to a new dimension.

Of course, Jataro was the one to gather the obsidian, & when Masaru messed up the placement, Nagisa’s diamond pickaxe was used to retrieve & relocate it, but Masaru lit the portal, plus he was the leader of the group. His portal.

Jumping inside the hellish realm, he could only faintly hear the confusion of the logical boy, trying to stop his friend from making the idiotic choice he was. It was like the voice in your head telling you you got a test answer wrong right after you’d turned it in, for alas, it’d been too late.

The impulsive kid was already on the loading screen for the deadly world as the sage sighed, not surprised, yet disappointed “Did he really just enter the Nether without any armor on…”

The blue-haired kid walked off, knowing he wasn’t the one to dig that grave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The moment the new terrain loaded in, the reckless kid nearly rushed into a pit of lava.

It was at that moment, that Masaru knew:
He fucked up (Yet again
Fucking up happened to be of the most common occurrences in the life of Masaru Daimon)

Daimon promptly died.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waking up at his new spawn in Kotoko’s treehouse (One of a few of her homes) due to the fact she’d let him stay over for at least a few nights in an attempt to make up for the whole ‘My dog army mauled you’ thing, the pink-haired actress blinked in surprise, prodding “Masaru??? What happened to you?”

Jumping up from his bed, the embarrassed child declared loudly “The game glitched! It was a mistake, I didn’t die!”

Placing her hands in front of her chest, the fashionable child complied for the moment “Okay, okay, it glitched, but how did it glitch?”

Crossing his arms, the ginger complained “Well, I went into the nether portal… ”

“Uh-huh… ” The pink girl nodded, already having a suspicion the story to come would be a fib.

“... and the game just said I died for no reason!” The obvious fabrication was released.

By this point, the pink child found herself glaring ever so slightly; actors can oh so easily spot bad actors. “... uh-huh… Masaru, how’d you *actually* die?” Despite having asked the question, Kotoko came off as oddly distracted.

Being a stubborn, prideful boy, the ‘leader’ exclaimed the last time “I told you, there was a glitch!”

The insistence forced Utsugi to pull up the chat to see if there had been a notification she’d missed. When doing so, she noted a rather bizarre one, allowing the fighter to display her screen “‘THE BESTEST >:DDD tried to swim in lava”

With a smirk, the fashionable kid teased “So, did this glitch decide to rush you into some lava right from the portal, or..?”

Trying to deny the accusation as swiftly as he could, the boy acted out of impulse, yelling “YES IT DID” while swatting away at his friend with a hit. At that moment, the fiery child heard the all too familiar growls of a terrifying army.

“WAITWAITNOTAGAIN”

“STOPDOINGTHISTOYOURSELF”

“TELLTHEMI’MYOURFRIENDORSOMETHINGTHEYKEEPBULLYINGME”

As if slathered in bacon grease, Masaru got ripped to shreds yet again, as the adorable puppies approached their owner with only the cutest of grins.

“‘THE BESTEST >:DDD was killed trying to hurt TheCutestEVAAAAA”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waking up back in his bed with the pet princess beside him, she gave an awkward chuckle, before sharply sighing, promising “I’ll try to find a way to hold them back, but you shouldn’t be putting your hands all over a cute kid anyway!”

The leader rolled his eyes, packing up some things as the girl continued to blab on. “Oh yeah, & one more thing, I’m gonna be doing some redecorating, so things might look a little different when you get back. I’ll probably move the crafting table over there, my bed over there, & I was kinda wondering if…”

Kotoko proceeded to trail on for a few seconds longer, but the hero had heard all he’d needed to hear. The most perfect & intelligent idea had already formed, as the ‘leader’ destroyed, picked up & rushed off with his bed. “THAT SOUNDS TOTALLY COOL & ALL BUT UH, I FORGOT TO USE THE BATHROOM”

Jolting back slightly at the idiot’s instinct, Utsugi tried to warn “Wait, where are you going? Why did you delete your bed, you’re gonna lose your spawn point!”

But Masaru was swiftly out of earshot. Well, within earshot, outside saving. With a short sigh, the decorative kid was left to ponder alone how to get her bed next to his.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why it was just brilliant. Ingenious. Pure intelligence in a single idea.

If he couldn’t survive for long in the nether (As proven so well by his single attempt), then what he could do was set his spawn in the nether!

It was almost humorous how someone could have enough self-awareness to realize they’re going to make an impulsive, bad decision only to make an impulsive bad decision that would attempt to remedy the first.

Running back towards the portal, the gamer managed to not immediately run into any lava this time, placing his bed right beside it. When the hero had entered hell in Minecraft, he’d managed to recall the overworld was daytime, & so, he should wait a few moments before trying to save his spawn here. As such, the fiery child attempted to navigate through the flames with all the materials he’d brought; nothing. He’d just been left to pat away the red threats & maneuver around the pits of lava (character development). He soon peaked around the corner & noticed structures of sorts; long bridges, with moments in which a rather thin tower stretched the hellscape.

Masaru would have stayed close to his bed, but there was that really cool light coming up from the top of the set of stairs &- oh that was some fire. The ginger turned up around a spawner, swiftly grumbling to existence.

This proved to be helpful, though not directly as Masaru intended. He’d found himself at the feet of the flames, then, as if really repelled by the heat, rushing away, for he now realized who he was up against.

“Woah, blazes!!!”

And so, yet again proving himself to be the himbo in training he is, the gamer started running over to the fiery monsters with the plans of… I guess, punching them to death??? I dunno man, I don’t even think Masaru knew.

That was, until the only one with brain cells in this dimension started to scream out. “Maaaaaaaaasaru! You forgot your everything!”

Turning as his stupidity was called out, the impulsive child paused, yelling back to the voice he couldn’t see, but could most definitely recognize. “HUH? JATARO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

Though his own sentence made him feel an odd déjà vu, the gamer boy could ignore it as the artist restated without explaining “You forgot your everything!”

In all fairness, having known the masked kid for that long, & given the context of the situation, such a phrase should have been enough, but it wasn’t, because Daimon is dumb. (Affectionate.) “WHAAAAAT?”

Being very aware of what the redhead had been asking, (/s) Kemuri repeated trice now “You forgot your everyth-”

“I HEARD THAT PART” The confused child commented with a slight groan. “BUT, LIKE, WHAT DOES IT-”

It was only after three rounds of screaming out into the void that Daimon pieced together the calmer, commonly accidentally scary child was standing right behind him.

“MOTHER TRUCKER, DUDE, THAT WAS LIKE A BUTTCHEEK ON A STICK!”

The lil Ultimate frowned, coming a bit closer to the athlete “Hey… Nagisa doesn’t like swearing!”

The likely cheeto dust-fingered gamer sighed at the level of simping he was forced to witness every time Jataro or Nagisa opened their mouths “You’d jump off a bridge if Nagisa liked that.”

For once, the little introvert shook their head, responding thoughtlessly “Nagisa wouldn’t have to like that for me to do it.”

Not wanting to think & helping both himself & his friend bottle up their emotions like the manly men who were dealing with their feelings really well, (/s) Masaru ignored the depressing connotations of that comment & continued with his escapism. “So, whaddya mean by ‘I forgot my everything’ exactly?”

Recalling why it came to the Nether, Jataro perked up “Oh, right! You’re not wearing any armor. Milk chocolate & chocolate milk are both real, but they’re very different, but very good too. And you don’t have your weapons. Why did you do this again?”

The hero didn’t even blink, but rather smugly folded his arms together & smirked, instead “Oh, trust me, I won’t be needing any of those.”

All the little masked kid could think to say in response to a remark so profoundly stupid was “What.”

“Masaru, you realize weapons & armor & fighting is all kinda a crucial part of this game, right? Especially in this game’s version of hell where there’s ghosts & lava &-”

The boastful leader laughed uproariously, shaking his head slowly. “Oh, Jataro, Jataro. So young & nah-vey.”

“It’s pronounced ‘nai-eev’” The young, naive child corrected.

“I remember when I was your age.” The dumbass continued.

“Did you make a time machine because I’m literally older than you.”

Casually ignoring the entire conversation that just occurred, the impulsive genius finally explained his grand plan “I’m about to set my spawn in the Nether.”

Intrigued by whatever plan this could imply, the young artist leaned forward, inquiring “Oh, that’s smart! How do you do that though?”

Taking out the singular item he had remembered to bring, Damion prepared to demonstrate “Easy! You just gotta put your bed down & go to sleep! Like this!”

And suddenly, the concept of Masaru having any sort of intellect crumbled, even about Minecraft, apparently. “What? Don’t do that! You know you obviously can’t do that, right? That’s, like, the first thing you hear about the Nether.”

Turning to the priest & groaning slightly, the stubborn child spat out, like a conspiracy theorist “That’s what they want you to think.”

“WHO IS ‘THEY’ & WHY WOULD THEY WANT YOU TO THINK THAT????”

The bed was now placed down, right next to the portal.

“‘I’M GONNA LIVE FOREVER”

“‘THE BESTEST >:DDD was killed by [Intentional Game Design]”

“‘artsy fartsy was killed by [Intentional Game Design]”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waking up in the middle of nowhere, the lost boy rubbed his eyes & looked around, rapidly. “Huh? Am I in heaven?”

Though Masaru started wandering around a little, he couldn’t get far before a pink spec could be heard groaning from afar. “What you’re in is SANE!”

Now standing in place, though turning around just as aimlessly as he had been waking, the leader scratched his head “Never heard of ‘sane’ before.”

Within seconds, the chaotic fashionista jumped behind Masaru, almost tackling him to the ground “That much has been clear since the moment we met!”

Though he’d freaked out from the surprise attack, once he processed it was actually Kotoko there, & once she started giggling up a storm, the gamer found any fear or confusion the setting would usually provide subside, even if just for that moment. Still, he felt that must have sounded ridiculous to the dog queen. Besides, Masaru’s never had fear. He’s never been confused. He’s never blushed at the thought of holding that crazy kid’s soft hands, being the reason she was smiling, making her feel comfortable… hearing her cheer for him, each teasing each other while knowing if anyone needed anything, at a moment’s notice, they could lean in & feel safe, & that one day, they could- OH GOD THIS IS MINECRAFT TIME

The stationary simp slowly pushed off his peer’s hands. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

Smirking proudly, Utsugi rocked from her tippy toes back down to flat feet repeatedly, circling the athlete “Oh, Masaru, Masaru. So young & naive. I remember when I was your age.”

Though he originally opened his mouth to comment, as to correct he was older than her, in allowing the teasing girl to continue, he could slowly piece together more of the story.

“I saw that you were so smartly destroying your bed & realized whatever you were doing, you’re probably gonna die soon. From there, I wrapped up my decorating & it was just a matter of seeing who beat who to that first spawn point. I figured with such a huge headstart, me & my adorbness would obviously victor over you, but I guess I underestimated how dumb you were.”

Damion’s takeaway from this tale was “YEAH! Never underestimate me!”

Utsugi glared so blankly at this idiot’s blinding, prideful smile, with just one thought rushing through her mind at a million miles per hour.

‘This is where my fucking life has brought me to, huh?’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carefully leading each other back, the sky was beginning to allude to growing darkness as the pair was safe up in Kotoko’s tree house. However, there would be new sights for the athlete to behold. Masaru couldn’t even control his focus when he’d climbed up to the top, as it rapidly shifted between the reordered decor. Not only had there been the pink girl’s aesthetic still remaining on the right half of the room, but there seemed to be something of a split down the tree house. The left half contradicted the right, filled with red, & some of Masaru’s belongings. On each side was a set of doors that lead out to a small balcony, designed orange & purple respectively. Just above these doors, on the inside, had been two paintings each, filling the space. In awe at the land he stood on, the red-head could only think up one response. “Wow. This place is so much cooler than before!”

Not one to take slander, the builder crossed her arms & was quick to defend “Hey! Just because I’m used to some of your cooties crossing over now doesn’t mean I love pink any less! Adorbs girls deserve the world!”

Sticking his tongue out & wiping away at it as though he could physically taste the consequences of Kotoko’s words, the stubborn boy teased on “Bleh! This place was so girly before, I coulda gone blind!”

“That would’ve been deserved! If you can’t handle a cute girl, you’ll just have to suffer!”

Such bickering proceeded until the sky was pitch black.

By this point, both sides were left tired & catching their breath, more exhausted than they had been walking over here. Walking towards her chest to put on her ‘pajamas’ (Jataro had dyed Kotoko a green leather helmet, purple leather chest plate, light blue leather pants & yellow leather boots & she loved them, wearing them to sleep each night), the fashionable kid sighed. “I’m gonna go to bed so I won’t have to hear you yapping like my doggies anymore.”

Stomping his foot like a dramatic child, “Fine! I’ll go to my cooler bed!”

It was in this temper tantrum that the feisty kid noticed there was something missing from this otherwise lovely little home. “Wait, where’s my bed?”

Sitting up in her bed, the actress simply shrugged, spouting “You mean the one thing you took with you? How am I supposed to know where that went? It’s lost wherever you died.”

A little more quietly, though likely less ashamed than most would be at the stupidity this remark suggested, the leader pleaded “Well, do you got another?”

Groaning as she pushed herself up from her comfortable bed, & rubbed her eyes to better show the disappointment she felt in him, the fighter glared softly “Masaru…”

And yet, when she saw that cheeky, dumb smile on his face, the girl who’d been similarly stubborn couldn’t help but softly reciprocate, causing her to turn away & agree. “Fine, but if I’m going to let you borrow this bed, you have to do what I tell you, alright?”

With these words, the boy’s sympathetic smile dropped. “I could just head over to Nagisa, ya know.”

The mischievous girl giggled at the sorrowful attempt of a threat. “Nagisa wouldn’t take you. He knows you’d destroy his house within seconds.”

Determined not to lose this second battle he got himself into, the gamer scowled “I could go off on my own.”

“Like you’d survive building shelter at night.”

“I could go live with Monaca.”

“Monaca hasn’t even played with us!”

“I could live with Jataro.”

Suddenly, the sassy Ultimate went quiet.

‘Shit, he’s right… Jataro doesn’t know how to say no!’

Begrudgingly seeing a little appeasement might not be the end of her, the actress spat out softly “I was only gonna tell you where to put it.”

Hearing the change in tone, Masaru flinched back slightly, as if a quieter Kotoko was more horrifying than a loud one. “… Wait, like, that’s it?”

Noting the change in the usually loud boy's demeanor, the fighter blurted, back in her usual tone “Yes, that’s it. I don’t want my house getting all cluttered, so… ”

Without looking up at it, the elementary school girl pointed to the blank area next to her bed, demanding "If you want the extra bed, you have to put it there."

Unlike his pink counterpart, the leader looked up, because he had to. He’s not a mind reader, nor is he smart. As a matter of fact, Damion is so immensely stupid, he noted no romantic connotation to his peer’s blushing confession, as he stupidly smirked. “Oh, sure! And that way, we can protect each other from all the evil mobs!”

Still giggling like the himbo in training he was, Masaru assured “As long as I’m here, I’ll keep you safe, fighter.”

And with these simple words, the little pink girl could feel her heart melt, as her sass was replaced with the same repeated thought, & her own giggles, as to assure the thought wouldn’t slip off her tongue. “Y-Yeah… You, too, hero. We’ll save each other.”

It was odd. The actress didn’t enjoy being the ‘fighter’ in their little friend group, but the idea of fighting alongside Masaru… well, that one was a little cooler. Sliding under the covers, the simp currently being addressed stared for a few moments as the leader fell right into a sleep trance. She thought about how nice it was to be able to spend this time with Masaru, how stupid he could be in the cutest way, how sweet he could be without trying, how funny it was to get him riled up or to hear his teasing remarks. He was such a good friend. And soon, in this mental monologue, Utsugi, too, fell into a sleep trance.

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The next morning, Shingetsu teased the fighter relentlessly for the house’s new design, causing an argument between the two simps over whose crush had been more obvious. Said crushes stared in confusion, neither understanding a word, but they’d eventually journeyed off to find some bees, because bees sounded cool.

And that, kids, is why you never think before you act :D

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