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"Thanks! See you tomorrow!" Hat said, a subtle, sweet giggle coming out with her words as she walked out the cozy bookstore to the cold weather outside. Despite she wasn't fond of books on her younger years, she had found out that they were possibly the clossest she would get of an adventure on the current situation.
She knew better than to complain. After all, she spent years walking to her homeplanet, and all this effort wasn't without a cause. It was impossible to deny, she missed her home. She just had forgoten how gloomy that city was. Not a Subcon-level of gloomy, but still.
It had been two years since she finally arrived. The choice she made years ago made it so she couldn't travel anymore, due to the lack of fuel. She had no choice, but to walk home. And if you asked, not even herself could explain how she did it. It had been long and tiring, most of her juventude was spend in the walk. It was good, in a sense, she liked to visit other planets every now and then, but she was so glad to finally arrive on her objective.
However, soon enough Hat discovered an hidden truth about herself that became her haunting plague, something that didn't came out of her head, constantly pounding in her brain like a hammer on a especially stuborn nail.
She wanted to go back.
For the most was comfortable to be on her home, breath the icy air of everyday, look at all that familiar faces, her adventurous side couldn't just stay quiet. It wanted to jump, to run, to make new friends, and maybe fight new enemies along the way. She tried to deny it, but it was clear that something had grown on her.
Earth had grown on her.
An childhood episode, the planet she had longed for ever since she arrived home.
Sure, she didn't want to live in Earth and abandon her planet completly. At least, not yet, she assumed. She had a job to do, responsabilities to fufil, more than ever now that she opened her own little bookstore, Time's End. Bow was taking care of the nightshift, but she couldn't just throw the entire store on the woman's arms so she could run away to across the galaxy. Bow had her own dreams and wishes, too.
What Hat wanted was to, at least, visit all the friends she made in there. She wanted to see if DJ Grooves and the Conductor were still trying to overpower one another in the field of the 7° art, maybe apologize once again to the seals for... You know, sinking SS Literally Can't Sink, hang out with her bestie Snatcher!, find out more about the mysterious tale of the Subcon, even if Moonjumper didn't want to give her answers the last time, go to Nyak- okay, peharps it was a good idea to stay out of Empress' way, just to be safe-, visit Mafia Town and check on Mu...
Ah, Mu.
It was a regret she had to this day. If she wasn't so focused on her own necessities, she could have helped her "partner in crime" more. All she could hope was that the time-piece was in good hands, after all. Well, she would never know.
Shaking her head, Hat tried to stop thinking on Earth. It was impossible to travel to Earth now, because the only way she had to locomote herself was, ironically enough, on Earth. She could walk back to there, but she suspected that if she tried, she would arrive back home when Time literally ended for good. Resigned, she walked downstairs, huming an little lullaby about an tragic prince and his princess who went insane. It was one of the multiple lullabies she had stuck on her mind while she wrote the script of her Storybooks, wich she wanted to send to her younger self, despite of two problems:
- The obvious "can't travel" issue;
- She wasn't the best at drawing, so it was kind of hard to do a serie of books with only pictures.
Oh well. Maybe in the future, she thought to herself.
As she walked through the dark street, her eyes caught an peculiar image.
In a alley, an figure stood imobile, the form of their body was covered by darnkess and a long cloak. Two shining eyes shred the curtain of shadows, looking directly at Hat.
The woman, taken by curiosity, started to move towards the figure, who, imediatelly, run to the oposite direction.
And so started an game of cat and mouse, with Hat trying to reach the cloacked creature, always tantalizing close, but too fast to compete. People on the street looked at them with confusion, but didn't dare to intervene. It was propably a case of pick-pocket, and the inhabitants of Hat's planet were usually to focused on their own lifes to pay attention to minor things as such.
Starting to grow exausthed, but still determined to find out who (or what) the figure was, Hat kept hot in the tail of the fleeying creature until it was cornered in a one-end street. Perfect! It was cornered now!
What she didn't expect was to the figure to jump into a dumpster, then to a roof, now getting out of her view.
"Peck." Hat murmured. She could follow the figure if she wanted, but she wasn't a child anymore, and her bones were already crying due to her sedentary lifestyle. Peharps was better to just forget about it.
Defeated, the librarian started heading home, longing for an warm bath and dinner, when someone screamed.
"HEY YOU! DOWN THERE!"
She looked up, only to find the mysterious figure in top of the clocktower, it's light shinning against an cocky grin. The person looked much like Hat, aproximally same age, maybe a bit shorter, but it was hard to tell as it was crouched, hands resting loosely on their thighs.
"Don't think I didn't see you stalking me." The figure cooed, an tone of mockery evident on their deep, melodic voice, marked by a thick Brittish accent.
Hat titlted her head. That speech was familiar, awfully familiar. But it couldn't be, there was no way she was there, on her planet. Or there was?
Even though she could get disappointed, it was still worth the shot.
"M-Mustache Girl?"
The figure's smirk grew wider, a soft chuckle coming with her ragged breath.
"That's good, I was starting to think you forgot about me." Getting up, she aimed to jump, but due to a miscalculation caused by the ice in the clocktower, her feet slipped and she ended up falling right on Hat, making both fall on the ground.
The hatted woman wasn't hurt, despite the fall had surprised her. Mu, however, rubbed her sore elbow until she noticed eyes on her, making her quickly get up, patting her clothes.
"It was... Totally planed." She said, giving a hand to help Hat up, who looked at her, head to toe.
For some reason, Hat was pictured a child everytime she thought back on Mu. It didn't had came to her mind that she would be an adult by now, but she also didn't change so much. Her golden locks were hanging loosely underneath her vivid red cape, that now came all the way down her feet. Her green shoes had been replaced by brown boots, and her hands and face had a few scars that she was afraid of asking about. And, of course, her iconic blond mustache seemed tamer, still molding itself in a tiny curl. But essentially, her appearence looked the same.
What surprised her more was what Mustache Girl, an Earthling, was doing on her planet, that were literally the other side of the galaxy! An human couldn't walk that much, could they?
"How did you came here?" Hat asked, far too surprised with the situation.
"Good to see you too." Mu replied, looking somehow offended that she didn't got an warmer greeting. Since Hat didn't corrected her act, she shook it off. "I spend a good amount of time searching you, you know?"
Hat gluped. Her latest interaction with the mustached girl didn't end as well one would imagine. In her brain, Mu was possibly there for a revenge. It was just what made sense, correct?
She apparently noticed the other's uncomfort, as she laughed, crossing her arms. "Are you afraid of me?"
It took Hat off guard. "No, I-"
"It's understandable, don't worry." Mu laughed a bit more, putting a hand inside her torn cape. "I actually came here to give this back to you."
On her hand, was something Hat would never, ever expect to get back.
A timepiece.
Her timepiece.
It was opaque, it's structure stained and rusty, the light it emited was dim and weak, but it still seemed to work. She had heard about it, a timepiece wich is afasted from other timepieces would get old and less powerfull. That's why most time-travelers stocked them together.
"It helped me lots. You should see how Mafia Town- I mean, Mustache Island is now!" She continued, an excited glimmer on her amberish eyes.
The hatted one kept silent for a few seconds, confused, as if not believing what was there, before her eyes. Her blinked, expecting the blonde to dissapear in thin air the moment her eyelids fluttered open once again. When it didn't happen, she pinched herself in another attempt to wake up. Still nothing. She couldn't understand. She wasn't used to people... caring so much about other's things. Carefully, she wanted to confirm.
"And you... You kept it all this time just to give me back?"
Mustache Adult tilted her head slightly. She was expecting at least a hug after all the troubles she had.
"Of course. I may had been a thielf, but when someone lend me something, I return it. My people's words are as good as their mustaches. We are proud, honored folks." Buffing her chest, she glared slightly at the other woman for daring to doubt her trustfullness. Moving the time-piece fowards, she tried to hand it over, only to be refused when a delicate hand moved it back.
"But I didn't lend it... I gave it to you. You didn't have to give it back."
"I know but, after all that work you had to join them all, and to take them back from me, I suppose it was something important to you... I tried to give it back earlier, but you weren't in your spaceship. I passed some years trying to find where you were, just teleporting randomly from planet to planet, but I never had been sucessfull. Well, not until I met this Timmy guy some planets from here, and he told me I could find you here."
Timmy, Hat thought. She knew he was on vacations in the neighboor solar system, so it should not be an surprise to her. But for some reason the idea of them both talking about her was still weird. She wondered if it was only her localization who had been revealed, of if they were talking behind her backs. I was an irrational thought, but it still let her curious. Mybe was better to change the subject.
"And how did you get here?"
"Using the timepiece... I figured that if a bunch of them could take you from Earth to here, one of them could do the same to me...I'm not expert on this time-space thingy but it works, and that's what matter to me."
"And how will you come back to Earth?"
"I... Was expecting you to use it to bring me home... If you're not too busy. This way you can see how the city is now. And maybe take back your spaceship before the Mafia does 2+2 and realizes your timepieces are still stored there, I would say their stupidness just goes on for ten, maybe fifteen years and the deadline is coming closer."
Hat facepalmed at her own carelessy. She let the safe at Earth! Knowing how much the other people she knew where fascinated with it's power, if anyone got their hands on it, the timelines would be an chaos! There was folks there that could make an damage ten times bigger than Mustache Girl would ever dream of! Desperate, she grabbed the other's shoulders, looking at her eyes with deep fear.
"The timepieces! I forgot about them! Did someone-"
Mu put her hands on Hat's, gigling slighty in a way that said that she was worrying too much for a little matter. Of course, it was everything but a little matter to the time-traveler.
"Relax, nobody went there. Mostly, because I didn't let them. It was... The least I could do." She said, looking at her side, a soft hint of shame hidden on her always confident tone.
Hat was, in lack of a word, touched. She didn't understand why the amateur hero was being so kind, and to her of all people. Would someone like Mu, who cared so much about justice, treat her in that way if she knew everything she had done on her so-called missions for the time-pieces?
Trying to contain her conflictling thoughts, an sigh that sounded far more tearfull than she expected came out of her throat.
"R-really?"
One bites her lip, the other look down, avoiding her glance as she thought in how to respond. And than she talks, bashfull, but trying to sound more brave than she felt.
"Yea, what did you expect? After all I did, you still helped me... I didn't want any other Mustache Girl to happen."
It seemed Hat wasn't the only one feeling their past mistakes eating her from the inside. Holding her shoulders more firmly, she gave an lovely smile, intending to make her feel better.
"To be honest, I don't blame you. Too much power can drive even the most modest and kind person insane."
Mu laughed, warming up to the feeling. "Heh. Tell me about it."
Both got silent, not knowing how to proceed. Mu frowned at the chimneys expelling thick, dark smoke to the sky above, making it impossible to see the stars. It reminded her of Mafia Town, an memory she was not fond of at all. Even knowing that it was Hat's home, she knew she couldn't stay there for much time, the cold and the poluition were making her feel not so good.
"So, uh... Do you want to go? We can... Talk more when we get there, and there's a lot I want to show you, if you have some time to spend with your ex-nemesis, that's it."
Hat thought for a little. She wanted to, and Bow had said to her to have a break from work, as she had been working non-stop since she arrived, to the point she had fainted a few times due to overworking. Maybe...
"Let me just take care of something first! I-I'll be right back!"
It had been more than "right back".
In the end, Mu had to sleep on her couch while the librarian talked to Bow Adult (who literally begged her to take some time to herself when Hat told about getting work with her, and that she would be fine taking care of the bookstore on her own, since the town was serene and peacefull), programed Rumbi to look after her house for the duration of her trip and talked to every single person on her planet that she was going to be out for a few days.
It was already day, but the Earthling couldn't tell since it was still dark.
"Ready?" Mu asked, smilling a little in excitement. Hat nooded her head, not even trying to hide how happy she was with the idea.
They hold the old time-piece, hoping it would be able to transport two fully grown adults across the pecking galaxy, but even with all the rust and dust, it was still functionall. It's glow grew a little, but nothing impressive.
"T-this will work, yea?" Mu asked, started to get worried.
Before Hat cold answer, the glow swalloed both.
They blinked. Everything was dark. not a light in sight.
"W-we're not dead, are we?"
"Uhh...."
"Hat Kid, tell me we didn't died."
"I'm... not sure?"
"NOT SURE?!"
"I just-"
When Mu was about to put her hands on Hat's neck, a door opened.
"Margie, what are you doing in my broom closet, my dear?" Came the question of an small, roundy old woman. Her raven-black hair was tied in a tight bun, matching with her thin, long mustache. Smelled sligthly of food, and was using an flowery apron. She reminded a bit of Cooking Cat in such posture.
Now that she mentioned, they could notice some brooms stored in the little space.
A little embarassing? Maybe.
Baffled with the situation, the two girls got out of the closet, laughing nervously about the situation as they left the small restaurant the woman owned.
“Margie...?” Hat asked, with one eyebrow raised.
“That’s how the people out here call me.” Mu sruggered, traveling her fingers on her golden strands.
“They don’t call you Mustache Girl? Or Mustache Adult, that’s it.”
“It would be weird, since everybody here have mustaches… And my name is Margaret.”
Oh.
That makes sense.
“Wait, did you legit thought my name was Mustache Girl?” She asked, giving an soft laugh against her gloved hand.
Hat Adult doesn’t respond, her face just getting more and more red.
Noticing her embarrassment, the blonde gently placed an hand on the taller girl’s sholder, giving an reassuring smile. “Hey, you still can call me Mu, if you want. I kinda like it.”
The alien smiled back.
“Now, your spaceship is parked some blocks from here.” Mu pointed forward and upward, to somewhere next to the bell tower. Hat couldn’t not notice how the city had changed. The buildings seemed cleaner and brand new, there was much more trees and plants, and even the water seemed more pure. Fairy lights dangled from between the buildings, contrastring with the warm and cool colors of a sunset. The townspeople seemed much more friendly too, many mustached citizens walking throught the streets, selling food in little shacks, food that smelled deliciously and that surely had an less fatal look as that Mafia food.
It made her remember…
“What happened to the Mafia?” Hat tilted her head just slighty, a bit worried of what the answer could be. From what she knew of Mu, it could be something not very pleasant. And from what she didn’t know from Mu, it could be worse.
The ex-rebel laughed softly.
“Oh? Well… someone may or may not have called for Mafia Boss’ wife and told her what the ‘business trip’ he had told he was bringing his man to really was. Long story short, she was not happy.” She smirked, observing a bunch of seagulls fly around a shack of bread, the owner angrily waving them away. “Nothing I could do to the old man would be as satifying as seeying him getting dragged by the ear by his old mother while his wife gave him an earful. It was delightfull!”
The brunette sighed in relief. She was glad to know that the previously violent girl had solved the issue in a surprisingly rational manner. She was… drawned in to know how much the girl, now, woman, had changed. More than that, she was curious about all the other changes in the planet. If only she could stay a bit more…
“Hey.” Hat said, taking Mu’s caloused, gloved hands on her own. “I don’t need to hurry a lot.” She licks her lips hesitantly, thinking of her next words. “Show me around?”
Mu stood quiet for a few seconds, still processing the taller girl’s words. Finally, after what seemed like a thousand years for Hat, Mu opens a big, brilliant smile. Not a plotting one, not a malicious one, not a ‘I’m about to rob every cent you have’ one, but an sweet, joyfull, warm smile.
“Okay!” She answers, a bit louder than she intended, pulling her former-enemy-now-friend by the arm, rambling and babbling about all the places they had to visit, all the things they had to do, all the people Hat had to met.
The librarian smiled. It could be the start of a new adventure.
And maybe an new book.