Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As a little kid, Bow had a very… idealized version of love, to say the least.

Having been fed a diet of whimsical fairytales, cheesy rom-coms, and critically unacclaimed musicals with a less than sub-par romantic side plot gave her this belief that her love life, whenever she’d get one, would be sweeping and grand. There’d be a meet-cute, preferably at a coffee shop or a library, a dramatic love confession scene complete with an orchestral score that was somehow playing in the background, and—while she was on the topic of music—a few musical numbers thrown in for fun.

However, growing up meant growing out of that mindset, and with time Bow eventually realized that maybe that belief wasn’t all too realistic.

When Bow found herself actually falling for someone (well, someone who wasn’t a fictional character, that is) she quickly figured out the very obvious fact that love really wasn’t like the movies. It was scary. It was messy. It was unpredictable. It came for her slowly and all at once at the same time. It made her laugh. It made her cry.

But most of all, it made her really, really happy.

It made her happy not only because she had it, but because it was theirs. Unabashedly, unashamedly, and undeniably theirs. Every little moment that they spent together made up a piece in the beautifully weird puzzle they called their relationship, and it was… he was…

Wait, what was he doing?

“What do you mean, ‘look, kid, there’s no secret chicken nugget-themed crime gang in the metro, so please leave me alone because you’ve been bothering me about this for the past thirty minutes’?” Timmy interrogated the very confused and very concerned cat that was working at the main station’s circular guide desk. “If there was a regular themed crime gang here, there has to be a chicken nugget-themed one to balance it out! That’s, like, one of the main laws of science or something, dude!”

Ah, right.

Instead of asking the employee for an expert opinion on what the best stores in the metro were, Timmy instead got distracted and proceeded to ramble about chicken nuggets… for the past half hour.

Bow gave an awkward smile to a family of cats that were passing by the desk and shooting the two teens a weird look.

She really shouldn’t have expected anything different from letting Timmy take the lead on this interaction, anyway.

“First of all, kid,” the cat sighed, tiredly slumping against the desk and resting his head against a fist, “that’s not a scientific law, nor is that statement relatively scientific in the first place. Secondly, if there were some secret nugget gang, you would’ve blown their cover by now from screaming about them in a very, very crowded place, and I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate that. And finally, there’s a line forming behind you, so please make my minimum-wage job a bit more bearable and leave before the cats behind you start yelling at me.”

Timmy put a hand to his chin, humming in thought. Then, his eyes lit up, caused by what Bow could only assume was a scarily incorrect idea entering his brain. “I got it! This is some sort of test to prove that I’d be loyal to the gang, right? Well, not to worry, my guy! I’ll have you know that I’m the number one chicken nugget fan! The chicken connoisseur! I’ve got the nugget noggin! I’m—”

“Kid,” the cat warned, his eyes narrowing in annoyance. “Leave. Now.”

“Without any chicken nuggets, much less a single nugget of truth!? I know you’re lying about the gang!” Timmy cried dramatically, banging a fist on the desk. “And just who are you to deprive a poor boy of his sustenance!? A cruel cat!? A foul feline!?”

“A worker at his wits’ end who’s about to call security,” the cat deadpanned, reaching for a nearby phone on the desk.

Bow laughed nervously. “That won’t be necessary! We’ll be leaving now. Sorry for the trouble, and please take care!” She grabbed Timmy’s arm and pulled him a good way’s away from the guide desk, giving him a look as soon as they were out of the cat’s earshot. “What was that!?”

“A failure,” Timmy somberly replied. “Now I’ll never find my chicken nugget-loving brethren.” He pulled out a purple notebook titled “Bow and Timmy’s Radical First Date Plans!!!”, which was a collaboration between the two of them when they were trying to figure out what to do. Then, he sadly scratched out “find the elusive chicken nugget gang, infiltrate their headquarters, and become their new supreme leaders forever and ever”, which Bow definitely did not remember being on the original list.

“I… okay,” Bow mumbled in defeat, knowing very well what she signed up for when deciding to go on this date.

A few weeks ago, Bow and Timmy had finally admitted their love for one another and officially gotten together, much to the excitement of all their friends (and the genuine concern of anybody who happened to see them celebrating their relationship by a dumpster, of all places). For a moment, Bow worried if them being official would change too much between them, but for all instances and purposes, their relationship was essentially the same as it had always been, save for them being able to kiss a bit more.

When she had brought this realization up to Hattie during one of their afternoon chats in the pillow fort, Bow was instantly met with, “You do realize that saying you two ‘kiss a bit more’ kinda implies that you guys kissed a few times before you admitted your feelings?”

In response to Hattie’s comment, Bow had tilted her head. “Does it?”

“Yeah! I mean…” A smug grin had developed across Hattie’s face at this point. “Knowing how ‘annoyingly affectionate’ you two are, as Mu puts it, I wouldn’t put it past you guys. In fact, I’m honestly surprised that you two haven’t even gone on your first date yet, considering you’re all but proposing to each other at this point.”

At that moment, Bow had decided that the best option was to grab a nearby pillow and playfully smack her best friend upside the head with it, earning a bunch of giggles from both of them.

But as lovably annoying as she was, Hattie had a point, and Bow and Timmy decided it was about high time for them to go on their first date. So, last night, armed with a pencil and a small purple notebook, the two of them had taken refuge in the bedroom and jotted down a list of potential first date ideas. Even though a lot of their ideas hadn’t been solidified or elaborated upon, they still made their way down to the metro today, deciding to just go with the flow and use their ideas as inspiration whenever they felt they needed it.

Because of that, paired with the fact that she knew him very well, Bow honestly found it kind of strange that Timmy was the one to have said notebook with him. He was never a planner and had even once proclaimed himself as “too radical for lists”, but she supposed that during an event as important as this, even he wanted to be somewhat prepared.

…Or that’s what she assumed, at least.

“Anyway,” Bow continued, bringing herself out of her thoughts, “I know we didn’t decide on too much last night, but we said we were gonna try and find a nice restaurant around here, right? Did we ever decide on which one? I just want to make sure we didn’t need to make a reservation.”

Timmy stole a quick glance at the list, thought for a bit, and then shook his head. “Nah, I think we got distracted by that racing video game we were playing with the others last night.”

“You totally betrayed me during that, by the way,” Bow remarked, folding her arms. “I dropped so many places because of you!”

Timmy shrugged. “What can I say? I did what I had to do to come out on top!”

“You still got last place, though.”

“Pshh, last place doesn’t affect radical dudes like me! I’m still a winner.”

“Oh, yeah? How?”

As soon as she said that, Timmy gave her a cheeky grin—one that Bow had slowly come to realize was a warning. A warning that he was about to deliver one of his infamously bad pick-up lines, and there was nothing anybody could say or do to stop him.

But before she could even attempt to brace herself for whatever nonsense was about to come out of her boyfriend’s mouth, he sincerely replied, “Well, I’m on a date with you right now, aren’t I? I think I’ve pretty much won at life.”

Feeling the heat beginning to rush to her face and a fond smile starting to form, Bow turned away and covered her face with her hands. She absolutely refused to let him see (or even admit to herself) that one of his silly attempts at flirting actually somewhat worked.

“A-alright! I think we should get going now, Timmy,” she said hurriedly, her voice muffled by her hands.

Timmy gasped. “Wait a minute, did that actually work!?”

“N-no, I just—”

“It did! It worked! I saw a smile on your face!”

“It was a pity smile!”

“No, it was not! I did it! I got you! Timmy won! Timmy won!” he gloated, chanting that last part. “Oh, I can’t wait to rub that in Hattie and Mu’s faces. I’m so cool and radical!”

Bow waited for him to continue gloating, but strangely enough, he fell silent. Curious, she turned back around and snuck a peek at him through her fingers, only to see that he had opened the notebook again.

“Successfully tell a pick-up line to Bow,” the last item on the list read, which, much like the chicken nugget gang idea, Bow did not remember being on there. With a big grin, Timmy put a check mark next to it, causing a wide-eyed Bow to remove her hands from her face.

“You take that check mark back!” she cried.

Timmy snickered, putting the notebook back in his jacket pocket. “Nah, not a chance!”

“Timmy!”

“Sorry not sorry, Bow!” he laughed, before taking off towards the two sets of escalators right by the entrance to the metro, Bow hot on his trail.

She followed him all the way down both escalators to the lowest level of the main station. It was a nice little area comprised of a fried food take-out restaurant on the leftmost side, some sort of big, water display on the right, and a seafood take-out restaurant directly in front of them. In the dead center of the area were a few tables placed about, seating some cats that were grabbing a bite to eat and gossiping about the latest trends with their friends.

“Huh,” Bow said softly, the pick-up line debacle almost entirely forgotten. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been down here before.”

Timmy turned to her in shock. “Really?”

“Well, not a lot, at least. I don’t really know.” She offered him a sheepish smile. “I know I’m a lot more familiar with this place than you, but the metro’s so big that even I don’t remember every single location!”

Timmy chuckled, stepping closer to her and wrapping an arm around her. “Wanna grab a quick bite here and save the nicer restaurant for around dinner time?”

Bow nodded, her eyes immediately falling on the restaurant right in front of her. If she wasn’t mistaken, it served sushi—something Bow had been craving ever since she saw an advertisement for a new sushi spot somewhere in the metro a few weeks ago. She had heard through the grapevine that despite it not being the fanciest restaurant in the metro, it was really delicious and definitely worth all the hype surrounding its grand opening. While the restaurant in front of them wasn’t the place Bow had been thinking about, it would most certainly quell her sushi cravings for a bit before she could check it out.

Having made up her mind, she glanced back at Timmy, but the words died in her throat as soon as her eyes landed on him.

He seemed a little tense, and something that looked like a flicker of nerves appeared in his eyes for a brief second. However, when he noticed she was staring at him, he relaxed slightly and gave her his signature mischievous-looking Gremlin Grin™ (as Hattie always called it), although it seemed a bit more strained than usual.

…Oh.

While Timmy was a very easy-going person who found the joy in the littlest of things, Bow was very shocked to learn that he, at his core, could be quite anxious at times. It had seemed a little contradictory to her at first, but it made sense the more she thought about it.

He was constantly finding new ways to keep himself entertained, and by getting to know him better, Bow slowly came to learn that the ones who had the most drive to keep running typically had a lot to be running away from.

He felt everything so deeply and intensely, to the point where the intensity behind his emotions sometimes scared him. While Timmy was getting a lot better at learning to just let himself feel and experience everything, even the more… uncomfortable emotions, there still were a lot of habits for him to unlearn. Bow was more than happy to help him through it all, though, and if he was feeling a little anxious right now, then Bow would do whatever it took to help him feel better.

First dates were very nerve-wracking, after all.

Pointing at the take-out restaurant to their left, Bow announced, “Let’s go there.”

“You sure?” Timmy asked, furrowing his eyebrows. “You kinda looked like you wanted to go to the other one.”

Bow waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine! Besides, this restaurant serves fried food, right? Well, we might be able to score some chicken nuggets…”

Timmy’s face lit up with excitement. “Really!? Well, what are we waiting for!?” he grinned, excitedly leading Bow to the take-out window. As soon as they arrived, Timmy eagerly declared, “Excuse me, me and my radical girlfriend will have your biggest serving of chicken nuggets, please!”

The very tired cat working at the counter raised his eyebrows, unamused. “You really want 50 chicken nuggets?”

“Oh.” Timmy glanced back at Bow, seemingly unsure of how he should respond to his question. “Uh…”

“You better believe we do!” Bow confirmed, causing Timmy to gain his excitement back.

The cat let out a long exhale, typing on the register. “Anything else? Do you want any sauces to go along with your nuggets?”

“All the sauce!” Bow cheered.

“Yeah, all the sauce!” Timmy echoed.

As if there were some unspoken agreement or shared brain waves between them, they both began to chant, “All the sauce! All the sauce! All the sauce!”

“Great,” the cat said flatly, very unaffected by their happiness. “That’ll be 200 pons.”

Bow and Timmy both faltered. “Ah.”

Bow almost forgot how pricey certain things in the metro could be.

After splitting the cost, they decided to take a seat across from one another at the table closest to the water display while waiting for their chicken nuggets to finish.

“I’m curious,” Bow started a few seconds after they sat down, “is this the most you’ve ever spent on food, Timmy?”

Timmy let out a little laugh. “Nah, not even close!” he admitted. “It is the most I’ve ever spent at the metro, though.”

“Really?” Bow raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I find that hard to believe,” she teased lightly, a smirk beginning to form on her face.

“What!? Are you saying I’m bad with money?”

Bow giggled. “Considering I once had to stop you from spending 600 pons on a tactical military-grade stroller to ‘protect’ a literal time piece, I think so!”

“Okay, first of all, I didn’t actually spend any of that money, so that doesn’t count,” Timmy pointed out. “And second, you’re one to talk! Didn’t you drop 750 on a giant cat plush last week?”

Bow’s eyes widened. “T-that’s different! That was a necessary purchase!”

Timmy let out a playful scoff. “Oh, sure.”

“It was!”

“Uh-huh. I believe you.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like it.”

“No, I do. This is my ‘I’m definitely believing the incorrect things my girlfriend is saying to me right now’ face. Can’t you tell?”

“That’s just your regular face.”

“Well, then I guess you’re wrong a lot, Bow.”

“Really?”

“Hey, hey! No stress! We can’t all have my most excellent and totally radical knowledge.”

“Oh, and this is the same ‘most excellent and totally radical knowledge’ that somehow caused a power outage throughout the entire ship just because you decided to make toast at 3 AM? How’d that even happen, anyway?”

Timmy held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, man. Don’t blame me for that! 3 AM is a funky time to be awake, anyway. Plus, what happens in The Gamer Hour stays in The Gamer Hour, so nothing I do at 3 AM can count against me.”

Bow rolled her eyes. “You absolute weirdo,” she sighed, although she wasn’t able to stop a small smile from spreading across her face. “Also, you know it’s not called The Gamer Hour, so don’t even try to play dumb to mess with me.”

Timmy laughed, but before he could respond, a voice shouted, “Nuggets are ready!” from the take-out window. However, unlike the previous cat’s voice, this one had a heavy, distinctive accent to it; so distinct that Bow practically ran to the counter to confirm her suspicions on who it was, Timmy following not far behind her.

“Mu?” Bow questioned, glancing at the person on the other side of the window in shock.

Mu grinned. “The one and only!” She held out a paper bag with the restaurant’s logo on it through the opening of the window.

Suspiciously, Bow took the bag. “I, um, thanks? I didn’t realize you worked here. Also, where’d the cat that was originally here go?”

“As soon as I told him I was gonna handle giving the nuggets to you guys, he cried tears of happiness, thanked me, like, a hundred times, and then ran off. I haven’t seen him since.” Mu shrugged. “As for me working here, I don’t!”

Bow blinked in surprise. “…You don’t work here? Then why are you here?”

Mu waved off her questions with a flick of the hand. “Ah, potato, pot-ah-to.”

“That statement doesn’t apply here, Mu.”

“Anyway,” Mu continued, paying her no mind, “You should go ahead and sit back down before someone takes your spot, because I hear there’s going to be a pretty awesome fireworks display starting here soon. Sounds quite romantic, yeah?” She said it in a way that almost made it seem like she was bragging; her words dripping with equal parts pride and self-confidence.

For a second, Bow’s face lit up, excited at the possibility of experiencing a fireworks show on her first date. However, her expression soon became one of horror when she realized just why this might not be a good idea.

“Wait, f-fireworks?” she stuttered. “In an underground metro?”

“Yeah?”

“You know, a place with barely any open space for the fireworks to go?”

“Well, yeah. I mean… oh.” Mu’s expression turned to one of horror as well. “Oh no, that’s not good. How did I not realize that sooner!? It…” Angrily, she pointed at Timmy. “It’s all your fault!”

“What? How is it Timmy’s fault!?” Bow shot back.

“Because he… hanging around him somehow made me lose all of my brain cells! I don’t know!” Mu threw her hands up in the air. “I should know better than to light fireworks in an underground metro like some dolt, but here I am, so it’s obvious that all my brain cells are gone thanks to him!”

Bow frowned. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s—”

“Okay, fine, whatever. Sorry about the brain cells, but there’s no need to freak, right?” Timmy suddenly spoke up, taking a step closer to the take-out window. “The fireworks haven’t been set off yet, so everything’s cool? We’re cool? Mu”—he put his hands on the take-out window, leaning in so close that his face was practically pushed against the glass—“tell me we’re cool! Tell this cool boy that everything’s cool and that we’re all having a cool time!”

“Er…” Mu nervously glanced somewhere behind her before giving him a sheepish smile and nervous shake of the head.

It was at that moment when Bow noticed a fuse leading from the take-out restaurant to a bunch of fireworks placed in front of the water display.

A fuse that was getting closer and closer to exploding every second.

“Peck.” Timmy backpedaled away from the window, running a hand through his hair. “Oh peck, oh peck, oh peck.”

“Wait a minute.” Bow held her free hand up. “Mu, did you actually—”

“That doesn’t matter! Look, I’ve dealt with fire so many times before, so you both need to listen to me very carefully, alright?”

Timmy and Bow both nodded, far too afraid and low on time to question anything anymore.

Mu stared at them seriously for a moment, then whispered, “Run for your pecking lives and hope that this doesn’t get traced back to any of us.”

With that, she grabbed the register that was sitting on the counter and tossed it at the window, sending shards of glass flying that Bow and Timmy just narrowly managed to avoid by jumping out of the way in time. Mu then leapt through the hole that was created, and as soon as she landed, took a deep breath and cupped her hands to her mouth.

“Attention, everyone! Clear the area right now if you don’t want your fur to catch fire!” she shouted to the nearby cats, who all made various noises of surprise and worry. “This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!”

With that, the cats all instantly fell into a frenzied panic and rushed towards the escalators, tripping and trampling over each other along the way.

“It’s every cat for themselves now!” a cat nearby the seafood restaurant cried, kicking a chair that was in his way and flipping over a nearby table. Then, running all the way up to the three teens, he shoved Timmy to the ground, and immediately bolted away from them towards the escalators.

“What!? I wasn’t even remotely in his way! Or even close to the escalators! What did he do that for!?” Timmy groaned.

“Doesn’t matter! Come on!” Grabbing his arm, Mu yanked him to a standing position. Then, taking a hold of Bow and Timmy’s wrists, she bolted far away from the fuse, expertly weaving her way through the sea of panicked cats as she did.

As soon as the last cat had tripped up the second escalator and made it back to the central hub of the main station (Bow was the one to help them to their feet after they had fallen), the fuse ran out.

The cats trembled.

Bow gripped the paper bag tighter.

Everyone held their breaths.

Only… nothing happened.

Still, there was a pretty good chance of a delayed explosion happening, so everyone braced themselves, taking another step back just to be safe.

But alas, there was still nothing.

No fireworks. No crackling. Not even a little speck of light flickered from the fuse.

Someone near the back of the crowd coughed awkwardly.

“Is this supposed to be a late April Fools’ Day prank?” a cat standing a little behind Bow eventually asked. They quickly checked their calendar, then added, “A really, really late April Fools’ Day prank?”

“No,” Mu huffed, before turning to the crowd of cats behind the three of them. “Alright, everyone! False alarm! Go home, you’re fine.”

Grumbling, the crowd of cats slowly began to disperse. They not-so-quietly complained about the three chaotic teenagers that ruined their nice lunch (except for one cat who mumbled in awe, “Woah, this is exactly what my horoscope said would happen to me!”) and were already beginning to make plans to stay far away from the metro for the rest of the day.

After the crowd had finally cleared, Mu let out another huff. “A dud,” she grumbled. “A dud! All this fuss over a pecking dud!” She stomped her foot. “That’s what I get for using those fireworks I swiped from the Mafia all those years ago. A dud!”

Bow was about to respond, but cut herself off when Mu angrily folded her arms and continued on.

“I should’ve known. Those stupid brutes don’t know how to do anything, let alone make a bunch of pyrotechnics. It’s a good thing fireworks in an underground metro were a bad idea, otherwise, I’d look even more foolish than I already do for promising a big romantic gesture and then falling short.” After a few seconds of silence, a long sigh escaped Mu as she turned to face Bow and Timmy. “You two alright?”

“Y-yeah,” they both mumbled, still a little shaken up.

“Good.” Mu uncrossed her arms, her expression changing to one of remorse. She met eyes with Bow, then Timmy, and then finally murmured, “I’m, uh… I’m sorry. About all this, I mean.”

“O-oh, it’s okay!” Bow instantly reassured, taking a step closer to try and comfort her friend. “You were just trying to help… I think?”

Mu was quiet for a moment, seemingly about to respond to that, but she instead cleared her throat and slipped right back into her boisterous persona. “Ah, it’s whatever. At least no one got hurt, yeah?” she pointed out, brushing off Bow’s concerns with a wave of the hand.

“Yeah,” Bow agreed, tightly holding the paper bag against her chest. “At least.”

“Alright, well,” Mu started, patting Bow’s shoulder, “you two kids have fun with the rest of your date. I’m gonna go, uh…” She trailed off, as if she had just stopped herself from saying something she wasn’t supposed to say, then quickly added, “Never mind. Bye!”

Before Bow could question her on anything and everything, Mu darted away from her and into the hustle and bustle of the metro, where she was instantly lost within the crowd.

“…Um, bye? I guess?” Bow watched the crowd for a moment, trying to see if she could spot a speck of Mu’s bright red hood amidst the sea of black cats. When she couldn’t, she shook her head and turned back to Timmy, just barely catching him putting something back in his jacket pocket.

He had that same nervous expression in his eyes, only this time, instead of it being a flicker, it was a lot more prominent.

At that, Bow’s own worries began to bubble to the surface. Their first outing hadn’t gone as planned, so who knew what else could go wrong?

Maybe they should’ve thought all of this through a bit more. After all, she should’ve known at least one of her friends would interfere in their own chaotic and weird way. She should’ve suggested to go to a more open location for their first date, like the Alpine Skyline or the beach in Mafia Town, to prevent the amount of potential damage that could be done by her friends. She really should’ve seen this all coming.

She really should’ve planned better.

She really should be bet—

Bow took a deep breath, knowing just where her thoughts would lead if she continued down this path. Berating herself wasn’t going to do either of them any good, and it wouldn’t change what had already happened. Besides, they still had the rest of the day left, right? There was plenty of time to turn this around. There had to be.

Plus, she would’ve been a fool to think that at least some of their date wouldn’t be filled with weird shenanigans.

Pocketing the paper bag and stepping closer to Timmy, Bow wrapped her arms around him and shot him a soft smile. She noticed he got considerably less tense, as if the mere sight of her smile was enough to quell his worries, if only for a second.

“Hey,” Bow whispered, “are you alright?”

Timmy shrugged, but didn’t say anything for a while, only choosing to hold her close for a few moments. Then, softly, “I’m alright now. It’s just… crazy, right?”

Bow nodded. “Yeah, tell me about it,” she sighed. “But, hey! Look on the bright side. We still have our nuggets.”

A small grin spread across Timmy’s face. “And all the sauce?”

“And all the sauce,” Bow confirmed. She stood up on her toes and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek, giggling as his grin became wider and a blush spread across his face. “Now, come on! We still have a few hours left until the metro closes, so let’s find somewhere to sit down and eat, and then figure out what else there is to do here. This date’s not over yet!”

“You know what? Yeah!” Timmy agreed, his passion and excitement for life beginning to shine through him once more. “Our radical date’s only just started, and it’ll take more than a few firework duds to keep us down!”

“That’s the spirit!” Bow encouraged. “And besides, we probably already got all of the chaotic and messy stuff out of the way by now. I mean, what else could possibly go wrong during this date?”

Chapter Text

After eating only some of their nuggets (Bow wisely suggested to save the rest for later so they wouldn’t spoil their appetites for dinner, to which Timmy agreed to with only a few playful complaints), Bow let Timmy choose where to go next, and he eventually decided for them to head to the Pink Paw Station. They soon found themselves in a small, yet vibrant clothing store near the subway tracks, pointing out clothes that reminded them of each other and trying on the silliest-looking hats they could find.

“Hey, Bow! Look at this,” Timmy grinned, holding up a pink, leopard print bucket hat. “You think Hattie would like this?”

Bow grimaced. “Why would Hattie like that?”

“What? What do you mean!? Doesn’t it scream sophistication?” Timmy gestured to the hat dramatically, as if he were an assistant on a game show presenting a brand-new luxury car.

“It’s… certainly screaming something,” Bow answered, cautiously poking the hat. “Probably for help.”

“Hmm… I think I’m gonna get it for her,” Timmy decided, his grin getting wider. He examined the hat for a moment, only to frown when he couldn’t seem to find what he was looking for. “Boo. No price tag,” he grumbled. “Hang on, I’m gonna ask an employee how much this costs. Wanna come?”

Bow held up her hands and took a step back. “I want no part in this. If you’re gonna ruin Hattie’s fashion taste, I at least want my conscience to be squeaky-clean.”

“Well, it’s not like I’d be doing much. Hattie’s fashion taste is already pretty bad,” Timmy commented, rolling his eyes.

“Rude!” she gasped. “I am so telling Hattie you said that.”

“What!? I’m just repeating what Mu says, like, all the time!” he laughed. “’Sides, Hattie has a terrible taste in just about everything. You of all people should know that. You’re her best friend!”

“Oh, go talk to the employee already.” Bow playfully shoved him in the direction of a nearby cat wearing a standard work polo, who froze and gave the teens a tight smile when they realized they couldn’t escape from them in time.

“You didn’t deny it!” Timmy teased in a sing-song voice. “Come on, you know it’s true. Just say it!”

“Love you!” Bow gave him a quick wave, turned on her heel, and began to walk towards another section of the store.

“Did you just dismiss me by saying ‘I love you’!?”

“Yup! Love you!”

From behind her, Timmy let out a playful scoff. “Rude!” he echoed.

A few moments later, Bow found herself in the dresses section of the store. Every so often, she would pick up a dress and gaze upon it with a smile, only to put it back with a grimace when she saw the price tag.

“Why is everything in the metro so pricey?” Bow muttered to herself. “First the chicken nuggets, now the dresses… I’m really hoping that new sushi restaurant is relatively cheap, because I’m not about to empty my pockets whenever I get the chance to go to it.”

Between random things in the metro skyrocketing in price and her heart still recovering from the fireworks-almost-exploding-in-an-underground-metro incident, Bow couldn’t deny that what had started out as normal first-date jitters was slowly beginning to grow. While she was able to stop her negative thoughts from creeping in and taking over at the first sign of things going wrong, her more anxious feelings were unfortunately still lingering in the back of her mind. 

This date was incredibly important to both of them, and all Bow wanted was for it to be special and for them to have a good time. However, their overall unpreparedness and the possibility of their friends interfering again was seemingly starting to put a damper on things, though.

Not that she didn’t love her friends and appreciate the things they were doing, of course. It was just…

Bow let out a small sigh. It was just a lot.

She stole a quick glance at Timmy, who had put the hat back on its rack (it was probably way too expensive for him to actually commit to the bit and buy it), and was now trying on a pair of sunglasses. He stepped in front of a nearby mirror, and—in what would most definitely be his words—began to strike a ton of cool and totally epic poses that most definitely did not make him look silly at all.

She felt the beginnings of a small smile spread across her face at the sight, but it soon faded away as her eyes flickered down to the floor.

Timmy’s well-being was—of course—a major priority on this date as well. She knew she couldn’t stop him from being nervous and definitely didn’t want to make him feel like it was a bad thing to feel, but she couldn’t deny the almost instinctive compulsion she felt to immediately do whatever she could to help him whenever that flicker of nerves in his eyes returned.

A part of her wondered if just aimlessly shopping about was interesting enough for him. Maybe she could ask him if there was anything he really wanted to do? She really didn’t want him to have a boring first date, and all she wanted was for him to be okay and not be—

“Hey, Bow!”

Snapping her head up, Bow met eyes with Timmy, who had set the sunglasses down and was staring at her in concern. When he realized her gaze was on him, his expression quickly changed to a smirk as he gestured for her to come over to him. Skeptically, Bow complied.

“No hat?” she asked as soon as she stepped in front of him.

“Nah, wasn’t worth the price,” he answered dismissively, confirming her earlier suspicions. “But hey, since I have you here, I wanna tell you something.”

Bow tilted her head. “Everything alright?”

“No worries, everything’s chill,” Timmy reassured. “It’s just”—his smirk turned mischievous—“I’ve been thinking.”

“Oh no,” Bow said, already afraid of where this was going to lead. “That’s not good.”

“All these clothes in here are getting me inspired,” he continued, paying her comment no mind. “What if I changed my look? You know, show the world a new Timmy!” He spread his hands out in front of him dramatically as he said that last part, as if he were imagining a neon sign with his name plastered on it.

Feeling some of the tension from earlier slowly starting to leave her body, Bow raised an eyebrow, her own smirk beginning to spread across her face. “Are you growing tired of your faux skater boy aesthetic?”

“Faux!?” Timmy gasped, putting a hand to his chest in mock offense. “Okay, first of all, how dare you. I am a true skater boy! You know what? I’ll show you some of my sick moves tomorrow and you’ll be so in awe of how radical I am.”

Bow playfully rolled her eyes. “Looking forward to it.”

“And second, I don’t think it’d hurt to try something new!” He wrapped an arm around her and did the same gesture, only this time with one hand. “Picture this: a polo shirt with big polka dots—”

“Oh,” Bow sighed, already disappointed.

“—plaid shorts—”

“No.”

“—a fedora—”

“You’re breaking the rules of fashion and my heart, Timmy.”

“—a big lime green belt—”

“Why lime green specifically!?”

“—and to top it all off… socks and sandals,” he finished dramatically. “What do you think?”

Bow put a hand to her chin in mock thought. “Well,” she started, “if you’re going for a circus-themed aesthetic, I think you’re doing a great job.”

“Are you calling me a clown!?”

“A clown, a jester, a walking fashion disaster in the form of a boy… all the same, really.”

Timmy gave her a fake hurt look, complete with comically wide eyes and an exaggerated pout, causing her to burst into a fit of giggles. As she laughed, his expression melted into something genuine, something sincere, something so incredibly loving… but he quickly regained his mischievous smirk as she started to calm down.

“Actually, you know what? Speaking of clowns, that reminds me of something that happened to me a long time ago,” he began, putting a hand to his chin just like Bow had done earlier. “I was on my way to get a new skateboard because my second one—rest in peace, Ryan—had just broken, and I was super bummed because…”

Timmy then began to talk about one of his strange stories from the past; the kind where Bow wasn’t sure if it was completely true or just fabricated nonsense said only for the sole purpose to try and get her to laugh.

Knowing him, though, it was probably the latter.

It was times like these where she’d roll her eyes and make a vaguely related quip about his strange story, or, if she was feeling bold, playfully pull him into a kiss to get him to shut up.

That one always worked.

However, before she could decide on which option to choose (secretly, she was leaning towards the second one), she spotted a flash of light near the subway tracks, causing her to momentarily freeze in place.

“…so there I was, barely fourteen years old and trapped inside a well, with nothing but the clothes on my back and the snacks in my pocket, when suddenly—”

“Timmy, did you see that?” she interrupted, turning to face the window of the store.

Timmy glanced at the window, then back at her. “See what? What are we seeing?”

“I could’ve sworn I saw something,” she muttered, before her eyes widened. “Wait, look!”

One of the big, electronic signs that usually displayed an advertisement of some random product in the metro was now flashing, as if it were warning the two about something—something sinister. Normally, Bow would’ve dismissed her worries and deemed the flashing as just a glitch—after all, in a place as technological as this, there were bound to be a few bugs here and there—but when the flashing stopped and white text amidst a black background slowly began to appear on the sign, she knew she couldn’t.

“To Bow and Timmy, if you’re reading this,” the message read. “This message is urgent and must not be ignored. Immediate action is required from the both of you. Please make your way to this sign for further details.”

A feeling of dread nestled its way into Bow’s heart. “W-what’s going on?” she whispered to Timmy, readying herself to pull out her bat if needed.

Timmy didn’t respond, but nervously nodded towards the front door, silently urging for both of them to follow the sign’s instructions. Bow nodded back, and the two of them crept out of the store and made their way to the sign beside the subway tracks, sticking close to one another as they did.

As soon as they were a few feet in front of the sign, the text changed.

“There is some important information that needs to be brought to your attention and cannot be delayed any further,” the sign read. “I’ve come to tell you… to have a radical first date!”  

Some happy chiptune music began to play from the sign (Bow didn’t even question how that was possible) as the text faded away. Pixelated confetti began to rain down from the top of the screen as 8-bit versions of Bow and Timmy appeared, holding hands and wearing big smiles on their faces. An 8-bit red heart was placed above the two of them, beating in time to the music.

Her worries completely washed away at this very cute display, Bow put her hands to her heart and gasped. “Holy peck! This is so cute!” she squealed, turning to Timmy. “Timmy, look! It’s us!”

“It’s us! We’re real!” he beamed. “Man, I was… really nervous about how that one was gonna go.”

“Me too, but look! We’re holding hands!” Bow gushed. “How did they know?”

“Probably because we do that. A lot.”

“Yeah…” Bow trailed off, chuckling sheepishly.

Just as she was about to question who was behind this adorable sign, Timmy commented, “Guess even a person who believes that the burger plush should go on the left can have an amazing taste when it comes to other things. Huh, what do you know? Good job, Hattie!”

“Oh!” Bow slapped a hand to her forehead in realization. “Hattie! Of course!”

In hindsight, it was pretty obvious that Hattie was the one hacking into the sign. As carefree and somewhat playful as she was, she was extremely good at understanding the technological intricacies of, well, just about everything—something Bow had always admired about her best friend. As Mu always put it, “that top hat of hers was hiding a pretty big brain”, and Bow always loved to see that side of Hattie whenever she could.

With a big grin on her face, Bow shouted, “Thanks, Hattie!” to somewhere above her, even though she knew Hattie most likely couldn’t hear her.

However, that strangely didn’t seem to be the case. The 8-bit art disappeared from the screen as the text came back, reading, “Of course, but… Timmy? What was that you said about the burger plush?”

“What? Oh, nothing.” Timmy shrugged. “Except… for the fact that it belongs on the right and your taste is trash!”

A few shocked exclamation points appeared on the screen, quickly replaced by, “You take that back! It goes on the left!”

“I’ll take it back when you admit you’re wrong!”

“I’d rather die!”

Bow let out a deep, deep sigh, watching as her boyfriend getting into a shouting match with a literal sign began to attract a crowd of very confused cats. “Not this again,” she muttered to herself.

Timmy and Hattie had this habit of frequently debating over what side of the room the burger plush should be on. This often escalated into one of them sneaking out to the main room in the middle of the night to move the plush to their desired side, only to find out in the morning that the other one had moved it back, resulting in a shouting match that occurred far too early in the morning for anyone else to deal with.

Poor Rumbi was almost trampled by either that burger or the both of them so many times.

They had tried dragging Bow and Mu into their argument on multiple occasions, but the latter had always claimed that the argument was too stupid for her to get involved in (“Just put the pecking plush somewhere, you dolts! It doesn’t matter!”), while the former, well…

To put it lightly, Timmy and Hattie wouldn’t react too kindly to her idea on where to put the burger plush, so Bow had wisely decided to keep her mouth shut whenever these fights occurred.   

Well, actually, Hattie did know about Bow’s stance, but for whatever reason, she had never brought it up during her burger plush arguments with Timmy. Whether Hattie was being nice or just flat-out forgot Bow's idea amidst all the chaos that ensued whenever one of these arguments occurred, Bow was thankful her name wasn't dragged through the mud during the process.

“Hattie! Just admit you have no sense of taste, it’s okay! It’s honestly embarrassing that you’ve been fighting this long for the wrong side,” Timmy remarked, folding his arms. “It’s never too late to join us, you know.”

“Nuh-uh! No way! The burger plush belongs on the left, end of sentence!”

“You know,” one of the cats who had gathered to watch the argument began, “that sign has a point. The burger plush does belong on the left. Left is best! It’s true because it rhymes.”

“Are you insane!?” a shorter cat piped up. “First of all, that barely rhymes, and second, right is always right! It’s literally in the name! Right!”

“Yeah, okay, go with the majority option. I see how it is.” The first cat rolled their eyes. “You know, if you had even an ounce of free will in your body, you wouldn’t be such a sheep!”

“Hey, my mother-in-law is a sheep!”

“No one cares!”

“Oh, whatever! It’s obvious that this strange boy is the correct one here!” a third cat chimed in. “If you don’t think that the burger belongs on the right, then you need to do some serious reflecting on your life! There is only one correct answer here, and those who refuse to acknowledge it are idiots!”

“Well, maybe some people like to be different and don’t feel the need to conform to your backwards ideals!” a fourth cat shot back. “Left burger truthers have had it hard enough for way too long, and it’s about time we fought back! Who’s with me!?”

Half of the cats cheered and moved to stand behind him, while the other half booed and got on the other cat’s side.

“The only thing you should be fighting back against is your atrocious taste!” the third cat responded, causing the right plush truthers to cheer. “Oh, and by the way, the garbage man called. He says he wants your opinion back.”

The fourth cat gasped. “You know what? That’s it! Left burger truthers”—he narrowed his eyes and pointed to his opponents—“sic ‘em.”

At that, a fight—nay, a war—quickly broke out between the crowd, with the cats all tirelessly fighting for their respective side. With wide eyes, Bow slowly turned back to Timmy and the sign, very ready to hear a good explanation or at least some sort of excuse from either of them.

“Agh, Bow, I’m sorry,” Timmy apologized, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t think this would happen! I promise I wasn’t trying to start an angry mob! Trust me, if I was doing that, you’d know.”

“I’m sorry too! This war I was about to win was meant to stay between me and Timmy!”

Bow sighed. “It’s okay, you two. I’m not really worried about that. I’m just more concerned about the fact that these cats are blocking our only way out, and there’s no way we can make it through the crowd without being trampled.”

“You’re by the subway tracks, right? Can’t you just hop onto a roof of one of the subway cars and speed out of there?” Hattie typed. But before Bow could respond to that, she added, “Oh, wait. I think the subway that comes through your area is down today.”

“Oh, how convenient,” Timmy muttered sarcastically, although there was a slight nervous edge to his voice.

“So, then, what do we do!?” Bow questioned, glancing anxiously at two nearby cats who were hissing and clawing at each other.

“I can try and run over to you guys to see if I can help, but I’m all the way in the Bluefin Tunnels! Even with my time stop and/or sprint hat, it’d be at least a few minutes before I got there!”

“Wait a minute, you’re in the Bluefin Tunnels?” Timmy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “I thought you were somewhere nearby!”

“Yeah, how are you hearing us if you’re all the way over there?” Bow added.

“There’s a microphone hidden on the sign!”

Bow did a double take. “There’s a what? Why is there a microphone on the sign!?”

“Well, how else was the Empress supposed to keep her eyes and ears on the metro without a few hidden cameras and microphones?” Hattie pointed out. “Anyway, I gotta go! Running full speed with my sprint hat while typing on a tablet probably isn’t the best idea, so if you guys can’t figure anything out by the time I get there, I’ll see if I can try and akadjkfjksjkfdnjsk!”

The screen switched off.

Bow winced. Hattie probably tripped or crashed into something.

Nervously, Timmy and Bow turned back to the angry mob of cats, who were screaming, hissing, and even pouncing on each other, all the while arguing over which side was better.

“Ugh, what are we gonna do!?” Timmy cried, shamefully burying his hands in his face. Right when Bow was about to reach over and say something to him, though, he suddenly let out a noise of realization and snapped his head back up.

Bow blinked in surprise. “Timmy?”

“Wait, I-I can still fix this! I have an idea!” he said, turning to face Bow. “Bow, hand me those chicken nuggets!”

In response, Bow simply stared at him. “Please don’t tell me your idea is just to sit here and eat.”

“No, I have the perfect plan! Trust me on this!”

Seeing as she didn’t have a better idea, she reluctantly reached into her jacket pocket, took out the paper bag, and opened it, handing Timmy the very big carton containing the chicken nuggets.

“What’s your plan, Timmy?” Bow hesitantly asked, not really sure if she wanted to know what was going on in that brain of his.

Timmy took a deep breath, opening the carton. “A distraction, but most importantly, a sacrifice.” Before Bow could question him on what exactly that meant, he took a step towards the crowd and shouted, “Hey, everyone!”

The cats all froze in their tracks, turning to him in confusion.

“Free food!” Timmy announced, before reaching into the box and throwing the nuggets into the crowd. “You get a chicken nugget! You get a chicken nugget! Everyone gets a chicken nugget!” Then, reaching into the bag Bow was still holding, he tossed the sauce packets as well, shouting, “And all the sauce!”

Skeptically, the cats stared at him, then the chicken nuggets, then the sauce packets, and then back at him again. Bow was about to use their calm state to her advantage and get her and Timmy out of there, but a cat cried—

“Food fight! Last one standing wins for their team and proves once and for all where the burger plush should go!”

—and chaos interrupted once more, causing Bow and Timmy to slump in defeat.

Great, he gave them ammo.

“CHAOS REIGNS!” a cat screamed, before almost immediately getting knocked to the ground with a chicken nugget.

“Oh man, oh man, oh man,” Timmy mumbled, backpedaling a few steps and pocketing the empty carton. “That did not go how I wanted it to.”

Giving a brief glance of concern to Timmy and putting the bag back in her pocket, Bow turned back to the cats, just narrowly avoiding a sauce packet that was carelessly tossed her way. There was no way for them to escape this madness, and by the looks of things, these cats would never settle this dispute unless they were proven right or knocked unconscious with a nugget. At the rate this fight was escalating, some property was about to get damaged, and Bow really didn’t feel like getting questioned by the authorities if things were to escalate that far.

She had to put a stop to this argument, but how? How could she even stop a war so strange, yet so incredibly destructive?

How could she possibly put a stop to this… this mess?

“Left is best!”

“Right is right!”

“Left is best!”

“Right is right!”

“You know, has anyone ever considered putting the plush in the gallery or lab?” a meek, lanky cat piped up from somewhere in the back.

“What is wrong with you!?” some other cats yelled, before they all began to pelt him with chicken nuggets.

Bow’s eyes widened. That was it!

If there was one thing that united an angry, divisive mob, it was finding a new thing to hate. They needed a take so atrocious, so utterly out there, so… weird, that it stopped them in their tracks and left them completely defenseless and speechless.

Normally, she’d turn to Timmy for those kinds of takes (no matter how much she loved him, she couldn’t deny that he was a strange, strange boy) but unfortunately, she was the one with the weird opinion this time. However, sharing her thoughts meant throwing herself straight into the fire, and she knew her fragile heart couldn’t take the heat.

But…

She glanced at Timmy, watching as his confident façade crumbled more and more with each passing second, revealing the nervous boy he truly was underneath.

She had to do this. This wasn’t about her.

It was time to throw herself into that fire.

All she needed was…

“Higher ground,” she spoke suddenly, snapping Timmy out of his thoughts and even startling herself with her sudden determination.

“What? Higher ground? What do you mean by that?”

Instead of answering, Bow took a moment to scan her surroundings to find something to jump on—a bench, a ledge, peck, she’d even take a trash can—but couldn’t see anything save for the chaotic crowd of cats.

“I need to say something really important to these cats, but I want some higher ground to make sure my message is heard loud and clear,” Bow eventually explained, stepping closer to Timmy. “There’s no way I can get their attention otherwise.” Not with how even more destructive they became with their ammo, she almost added, but chose not to for fear of making Timmy even more upset.

Timmy glanced around at their surroundings as well, only to frown when he couldn’t spot anything either. Facing Bow once more, he opened his mouth to say something, only for his eyes to widen instead. “Look out!”

Bow turned around just in time to see a bunch of chicken nuggets flying towards her. She braced herself for impact, but before they could hit her, Timmy reached out his hand towards them and they halted in the air, becoming enveloped in a lilac hue in the process.

“Thanks,” Bow smiled.

Timmy nodded, slowly willing for the nuggets to come towards him, gaining a contemplative look on his face. Suddenly, he gasped. “Magic!” was all he said.

Bow tilted her head, not really understanding what he meant by that.

He let go of his telekinetic hold on the nuggets, causing them all to plummet to the ground. “I know how to get you that higher ground,” he continued. “I can lift you up…”—he met her eyes—“…with my magic.”

Bow’s eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly shifted her expression back into a neutral one. “Are you sure?”

Timmy nodded once more. “I think it’s the only way you’re gonna get that higher ground,” he pointed out, gesturing to her lack of things to jump on. “You’ll… you’ll be okay,” he said, and Bow instantly knew he was mainly trying to reassure himself, not her.

She shot him an encouraging smile. “I will,” she said confidently. “I trust you.”

He returned the smile for a brief moment before he took a deep breath and held his hands out towards her. Much like the chicken nuggets, she quickly became engulfed in a lilac hue as she was gently lifted off the ground. Immediately, a feeling of weightlessness overtook her body, like she was dangling at the top of a rollercoaster, anxiously awaiting the drop.

“Oh, wow,” she whispered to herself. “I almost forgot what circling in the air felt like.”

She floated higher and higher, shooting another encouraging smile to Timmy, who had an almost uncharacteristically serious expression on his face as he lifted her up.

At that, Bow allowed herself to relax a little bit. She knew she’d be fine. He’d never let her fall, and she knew that no matter how nervous he was, deep down, he knew that too.

As soon as she was a good ways above the angry cluster of cats, she cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted, “Hey, everyone! Up here! I’ve got something important to say!”

Stopping in their tracks, the cats all looked her way.

“Look, I know you guys are very passionate about this debate—which is kind of weird, considering that you guys shouldn’t even know or care about this—but I think this entire argument’s stupid!” Bow started, gazing down at the sea of cats below her. “And besides, you’re going about this debate all wrong! You’re not even considering that there may be other places where people want to put the burger! I mean, how can you have a proper debate without taking that into account!?”

“Are you talking about putting the burger in the gallery or lab?” the meek cat from before pitched in, still lying on the floor.

Bow nodded. “Yeah, but not only that. I…” She met eyes with Timmy for a brief second. “I…”

This was it.

No going back.

She was playing with fire, so now, it was time for her to get burnt.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Bow admitted, “I think the burger plush should go in the laundry room!”

Silence.

Dead, absolute, deafening silence.

Slowly and hesitantly, Bow opened her eyes to see an absolutely floored expression on each of the cats.

Surprisingly, it was a little kitten who spoke up first with a wavering voice. “M-mommy?” he whimpered, as if his innocence had been shattered. “Do people actually put the burger in the laundry room? W-why? Don’t they know how weird that is?”

“I guess some people just want to watch the world burn, sweetheart.” His mother grabbed his paw protectively and glared at Bow. “The nerve!”

A cat standing next to the mother-son duo spoke up next. “You know, the girl with the really bad taste actually made a pretty good point. Maybe we should put aside our differences and stop all this arguing,” they said, a look of realization dawning upon their face.

Bow perked up. Was this… actually about to go in her favor?

“We should put aside our differences and stop all this arguing, because there’s no way in peck that any of our placement ideas will be as bad as hers!” they clarified, shaking their head in disapproval. “Come on, you guys, let’s leave.”

Ah, right. That made more sense.

Disgusted mutters broke out amongst the crowd as they slowly dispersed, eventually leaving only Bow and Timmy alone in the area. Gently, Timmy lowered Bow back to the ground, the lilac hue around her fading away as soon as her feet hit the floor.

“Bow… were you being for real?” he asked, a smirk slowly beginning to form on his face.

Bow made a quiet noise of confirmation, her eyes dropping to the floor to avoid his gaze.

“Aww, Bow! Your taste is terrible!” he laughed, wrapping her up in a hug. “Oh, I’m gonna have so much fun teasing you about this! Hey, just out of curiosity, where do you want the train relic? Wait, don’t tell me—the right side of the main room? The gallery? The storage room below the lab?”

“Oh, be quiet,” she mumbled, causing him to laugh again.

“It’s a legitimate question!” he defended, and Bow could only roll her eyes in response. After a few seconds of silence, he pulled away from the embrace just enough to meet her eyes. “But seriously, you alright? You know, after getting lifted by my magic and all?”

“Yes, I’m alright,” she said softly, reaching up to cup his face in her hands. “You did great, Timmy.”

He sighed in relief. “Good.” He lightly placed his hands on top of her wrists, looking away from her. “Sorry again about all this. I really didn’t mean to start a wide-scale argument.”

“It’s okay, really,” she reassured. “Honestly, knowing how you and Hattie get sometimes, I’m surprised something like this hasn’t happened earlier.”

Timmy let out a weak chuckle. “Yeah…” he muttered. For a moment, it looked like that nervous flicker in his eyes was about to return (and maybe it did, but it happened too quickly for Bow to notice), but Timmy instead cleared his throat and gained a determined look on his face. “You know what? No, there’s no need to freak, because there’s still one more thing left on the plan,” he said, stepping away from her.

“Wait, we… had a plan?” she questioned, giving him a look that somehow bordered on both confusion and suspicion.

Timmy faltered. “Uh, kinda? I was, uh, talking about the random ideas we came up with last night. But anyway, that’s not important!” He shook his head dismissively. “We said we’re getting dinner here at a nice restaurant, and we’re sure as peck gonna get that dinner!” he declared, striking yet another one of his definitely-not-silly-at-all poses, although this one seemed a bit more forced and tense than his earlier ones.

Bow stared at him for a little while until she eventually shrugged, relieved that he was seemingly beginning to feel at least somewhat better. “Yeah, we are!” she nodded, deciding that encouragement was the best way to help keep him in high spirits. “Hey, you know what? You can choose the restaurant! As long as it’s, you know, far away from this area.” She stole a nervous glance at the window of the clothing store, seeing the employees inside giving them both a death glare for accidentally causing a strange battle outside their store.

Bow winced. “Sorry,” she mouthed to them.

“Alright, then!” Timmy cheered, not even noticing the employees. “Come on, Bow! Let’s go! I’ll lead the way to victory!”

“Oh, wait, Timmy—”

Before Bow could explain just why that was a bad idea (he most certainly didn’t know his way around the metro, let alone the way to victory), he raced out of the area, leaving her alone by the subway tracks.

After a few seconds had passed, she let out a little sigh and folded her arms. “Three, two, one…”

As soon as her countdown ended, a sheepish-looking Timmy re-entered the area and walked back up to her. “I don’t know where anything in this place is, actually. I thought I did, but then I got lost, tripped and fell into a trash can in front of a bunch of cats, and now everyone’s calling me Trash Boy again.”

“Timmy, nobody ever stopped calling you that, but also”—she raised her eyebrows in surprise—“how’d you manage to do all of that? You weren’t even gone for 30 seconds!”

“Honestly?” Timmy let out an embarrassed chuckle. “Even I don’t know the answer to that, Bow.”

Bow rolled her eyes again, but this time, a slight smile was tugging at her lips. “Come on, Trash Boy. Let’s go see if we can find a directory.”

Chapter Text

Timmy eventually decided to go with a restaurant somewhere in the Green Clean Station that served Italian food—something that both he and Bow were quite fond of. It was one of the newer restaurants Bow hadn’t been to yet, but its peaceful, tranquil atmosphere made Bow instantly add this place to her mental list of favorites.

It was a dimly lit restaurant—a sharp contrast to the bright, neon lights of the metro outside—with the only sources of light coming from the warm glow of the candles placed at each table, alongside the occasional ceiling light illuminating the walkway beside the tables. A cat wearing a black bowtie was playing a calming melody on the piano near the front of the restaurant, leading Bow to take a deep breath and relax her shoulders.

“This is really nice,” she breathed, subconsciously leaning closer to Timmy.

“Glad you like it,” he grinned, slumping in relief. “I, uh, honestly just picked the first restaurant I saw on the directory.”

Bow let out a little laugh, shaking her head. “Yeah, I figured as much.”

At that moment, a cat slightly taller than Bow walked up to the front desk, and after giving them a rehearsed greeting and a tired, yet kind smile, asked, “Do you have a reservation?”

Bow and Timmy froze, briefly glancing at each other with wide eyes before turning back to the cat and shaking their heads.

The cat let out a little hum, before she took out a reservation book from somewhere underneath the counter and flipped through it. “Well, we may be able to squeeze you two in about an hour from now if you don’t mind waiting.”

“I’m okay with that,” Bow replied, looking at Timmy to see how he felt. “You?”

Timmy hesitated for a moment before shrugging. “Yeah, that’s cool.”

“Alright.” The cat grabbed a pen from a pen holder somewhere to her left. “May I have a name for your party?”

“Um… just put Bow,” Bow said, offering the cat a polite smile.

The cat nodded, about to write down her name, when suddenly, another spot on the page seemingly caught her eye. “Bow? B-O-W?”

“Yes,” Bow answered, pleasantly surprised her name was spelt right on the first try.

“And is he”—the cat gestured to Timmy with her pen—“Timmy?”

“Yes?” Bow shared a quick suspicious glance with Timmy. “Why?”

The cat let out another hum. “Well, it appears you two have already made a reservation for right now,” she observed. “It’s written right here… in, uh, crayon, oddly enough.” After staring at the page for a few moments, she cleared her throat, grabbed two menus from the counter, and gestured for Bow and Timmy to follow her. “Right this way.”

They followed the cat all the way to a table at the back of the restaurant, right nearby the double doors that presumably led to the kitchen. As soon as they were seated and handed their menus, the cat gave them a polite nod and walked away, leaving Bow and Timmy alone.

Bow let out a quiet sigh of relief, picking up the menu.

Finally, a chance to breathe.

Between part of the metro almost setting ablaze and an age-old war accidentally reigniting, Bow was beginning to wonder if they’d ever have a nice, calming, or at the very least, somewhat non-chaotic moment on this date. The weirdness they kept getting into was definitely beginning to take its toll on both of them, so finally getting some time to relax felt like a miracle and a half at this point.

After taking a quick peek at what the restaurant had to offer, Bow looked up at Timmy, who was examining the menu like his order would be the most important decision of his life. She had only meant to give him a brief glance to make sure he was doing alright, but…

She really couldn’t help but stare.

The soft candlelight shone gently on him, the serenity of the scene making Bow’s heart flutter. She found that the light captured his face perfectly, its warm glow almost making it seem like he was shining, in a way.

Maybe he was. He did have magic, after all.

Bow really didn’t expect to fall for Timmy as hard as she did (“you tripped and fell right into that dumpster he crawled out of,” Hattie always joked), but in hindsight, it made complete sense. Everyone who had eyes could see that they were incredibly affectionate with one another even at the beginning of their friendship, and they had admitted things to each other that they had never told anyone else before. He had always made her feel so safe and secure, and every time they hugged or took ahold of each other’s hands, her feelings for him only amplified, even if she wasn’t aware of the true depth of her feelings early on.

But even when she didn’t know she had loved him in the way she did, Bow instinctively knew that she cared for Timmy immensely. She had always admired his passion for life and his spontaneity, and she couldn’t deny that her heart skipped a beat whenever he cracked up a little too hard at one of his own silly jokes. She used to find herself thinking a bit too much about how sweet he was to her compared to everybody else, and had to stop herself multiple times from rambling on and on about did you see that stupid stunt Timmy pulled I cannot believe he managed to get away with that scot-free that adorable little gremlin gets into too much trouble sometimes and wait I meant that adorable comment platonically please stop looking at me like that Mu—

Simply put, she really, really loved him.

That’s why this date was so important to her. He deserved to have an amazing time, especially after everything he had been through—after everything they had both been through, actually—and all she wanted was for him to be happy.

She didn’t want this date to end up as a chaotic, weird mess, and she really didn’t want all their hard work to get to this point to end up a waste.

But most of all, she really didn’t want him to be—

“Hey, Bow? Do you think I should order the spaghetti or the lasagna? I mean, I’m kinda feeling the spaghetti, but they’re doing a lasagna special tonight and it looks really…” Looking up from the menu, he trailed off when he noticed Bow staring at him. “What?”

Initially flustered at being caught (and very relieved that Timmy didn’t pronounce the “g” in “lasagna” like he sometimes did to mess with her), Bow found a fond smile creeping onto her face the longer he met eyes with her. “I love you,” she said earnestly, finding that those were the only words she had at that moment.

Slightly caught off-guard, a faint blush dusted Timmy’s face for a second before he developed a fond smile of his own; one that never failed to send Bow’s heart racing. He always looked at her like she was important, and Bow couldn’t even begin to describe how wonderful that felt.

“I love you too,” he whispered, setting his menu down.

Bow barely even registered that she had gently moved the candle placed in between them to the side, or that they were both slowly leaning across the small table towards one another. She only came to when the distance was finally closed between them, and for a moment, the earlier chaos of the date faded away, as if it were nothing more than a distant memory—something they could laugh over and joke about in times to come.

Wanting to relish in the moment, Bow slid her hands across the table to try and find his own, but was unfortunately interrupted by—

“Alright, alright. We get it, you lovebirds. Are you ready to order now, or what?”

—and the two of them reluctantly separated, both letting out an exasperated sigh.

“Since when have two people kissing ever been ready to order, Mu?” Timmy grumbled, settling back into his seat.

Sitting back down in her own chair, Bow did a double-take when noticing that, indeed, Mu was standing there instead of the cat that led them to their table earlier.

“M-Mu? Again?” Bow asked, staring at her in disbelief. “Did you relieve yet another cat of their duties?”

“Well, maybe word travels fast around the metro about a very chaotic date happening, so I used that to my advantage and covered the shifts of those who wanted to get out in one piece while they still could. Or maybe I brute-forced my way into this restaurant and heroically stood up to any cat that dared to cross my path. What’s it to you?” Mu shot back, but a smirk was visible on her face. “Anyway, can I start you off with some drinks?”

“No, hold on. What’s going on, Mu?” Bow narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “First, you’re trying to set off fireworks in the metro, then, Hattie hacks into a sign and somewhat causes an entire angry mob to appear, and now, you’re back again as our waiter? What, is Hattie secretly a part of the staff now too?”

Mu stole a quick glance at the kitchen doors. “I am not allowed to confirm or deny that statement,” was her response.

“Alright, well,” Bow huffed, “can you tell me what you’re planning to do here? You know, so I can locate the nearest fire extinguisher if need be?”

“While I can answer that one, I’ve been recommended not to do so without a lawyer present, so…” Mu shrugged. “That one’s a no-go.”

“Lawyer? Wh—” Cutting herself off, Bow shook her head. “Can you at least tell me why you and Hattie have been doing all this?”

“Can’t answer that either. Sorry,” Mu said. “But I can take your orders, so… you want a drink, or do you lot just want to sit here and dehydrate?”

Bow let out a long exhale, knowing that Mu was just too stubborn to be properly questioned. “Fine, fine. I’ll just have a water,” she relented, too tired to think of anything else.

After looking at Bow for a brief moment, Timmy added, “Yeah, same here.”

“Ah, just water. Making my job easy for me,” Mu commented, flashing them a toothy grin.

“You don’t—” Bow took a deep breath, finding herself getting a little too worked up. “You don’t work here, Mu,” she tried again, trying her hardest not to let her frustration show too much.

“Eh, who knows? Maybe I’ll get so good at this whole waiter thing that I’ll actually get this job, become the best waiter here, get famous, that whole thing.”

Most likely sensing that Bow was about to lose her mind, Timmy spoke up before she could. “Can you even become famous just by being a waiter?”

“If no one has, then I’ll be the first!” Mu declared proudly. “Anyway, I’ll be back in a sec! Try not to catch on fire or anything while I’m gone.” She gave them a two-fingered salute and slipped through the double doors, leaving Bow and Timmy alone once more.

Propping her elbows against the table, Bow buried her face into her hands. “Oh, I do not trust her in a kitchen as nice as that one,” she muttered, her voice muffled.

She heard Timmy let out a little laugh, although it sounded a bit more strained than usual. “Yeah…”

After a few seconds of silence passed by, Bow felt Timmy tap on her hands, causing her to peek out at him through her fingers.

Giving her a kind, yet concerned look, he asked, “You doing alright over there?”

For what felt like the hundredth time that night, Bow sighed, slowly removing her hands from her face. “I’m fi- …I’m okay, I guess,” she answered as honestly as she could. “Just… I have no clue what Hattie and Mu are doing.”

Timmy let out another strained laugh. “Yeah.” His expression turning sheepish, he quietly added, “Guess Hattie and Mu getting involved was a pretty chaotic idea, huh?”

“Yes, but I don’t really blame them, you know?” Bow’s eyes momentarily landed on the double doors. “I mean, it really wasn’t their fault that all of these things went wrong. Things just kinda happened,” she said, looking back at Timmy. “That’s just destiny, I suppose.”

“Yeah, destiny caused all this,” Timmy mumbled, although he didn’t sound too convinced. He seemed like he was considering saying something else, perhaps something to contradict her (oh, that’s right, he didn’t believe in fate and destiny like she did), but he instead moved the candle on their table back to its original spot in between them.

The flame flickered. The nervous look in his eyes returned.

“Timmy?” Bow said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. “Are you okay?”

Timmy remained silent for a few moments, simply choosing to fiddle with his skull necklace as he thought to himself. Finally, he slowly shook his head.

Immediately, Bow was struck with the want—the need—to do whatever she could to try and make him feel better. Maybe they didn’t have to sit here and take whatever weirdness their friends decided to throw at them. Maybe they could go to another restaurant in the metro; something that was a bit more suited to his tastes and would make him happier. Maybe they didn’t even have to stay in the metro at all, if that wasn’t what he wanted.

Taking a deep breath and willing her thoughts to stop racing until she at least got to the root of his problem, she asked, “What’s wrong? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but… you know I’m always here for you.”

Timmy silently fiddled with the skull necklace for a bit longer until a shaky exhale eventually escaped him. “I—”

The kitchen doors burst open, effectively cutting Timmy off and causing both him and Bow to jump in their seats.

Hattie, who was wearing a chef’s hat, wheeled out a tray carrying a metal dish with a lid towards their table. “Dinner is served!”

Bow gave one last concerned look to Timmy, catching him frantically making cutting motions against his neck with his free hand, as if signaling her to stop. When he realized Bow was looking at him, he froze for a second, before giving her an awkward grin and chuckle.

Cautiously, Bow turned back to Hattie. “We didn’t order anything yet.”

“Oh, it’s on the house! You’ll love it, don’t worry! It’s the spaghetti special of the night,” Hattie reassured, beaming from ear-to-ear.

Timmy slowly let go of his skull necklace and cleared his throat. “Uh, dude?” he said through gritted teeth, a slight waver to his voice that only Bow caught onto, “I’m pretty sure the special for tonight was lasagna, so there’s no need for all this. Thanks a million, though!”

Hattie waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it! I had fun making this, anyway.”

“Oh, that’s not a good sign,” Bow muttered to herself.

Luckily (or unluckily? Bow wasn’t quite sure), Hattie didn’t seem to hear her, seeing as her grin became even wider as she announced, “Now, bon appetit!”

She lifted the top off the dish, revealing, quite possibly, the worst-looking spaghetti Bow had ever seen in her life.

But this couldn’t even possibly be considered spaghetti. No, spaghetti wasn’t slimy.

Spaghetti wasn’t blue.

Spaghetti certainly also didn’t have two big eyeballs that were staring directly into Bow’s soul.

At that moment, Mu exited the kitchen, scanned the room for a few moments, and let out a sigh of relief when her eyes landed on Hattie. “There you are!” she smiled, walking over to the table. “I thought we were gonna prepare the dish together, but as soon as I told you what we were making, you just ran off to another part of the kitchen and—” Mu stopped in her tracks, staring at Bow and Timmy’s so-called dinner in horror. “What in the peck is that!?” she shrieked.

Hattie gave her a weird look. “Isn’t it obvious? It’s spaghetti, duh!”

“Hattie,” Bow said finally, tearing her eyes away from the not-quite-edible abomination, “that is not spaghetti.”

“Sure it is!”

“Uh, hello? Are we seeing the same thing? No, that is absolutely not spaghetti!” Mu argued, gesturing to whatever was sitting on the plate.

“Well, I don’t see the problem.” Hattie folded her arms. “I used to eat this all the time back when I was collecting all my time pieces! It’s delicious, it’s nutritious, and it’s only poisonous to about 80% of all general life forms! What’s not to like!?”

“Not to like?” Mu’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Okay, all of that concerning stuff you just said aside, I’m pretty sure your quote-unquote spaghetti—that is most definitely breathing, by the way—just winked at us! How is any of that even remotely hygienic!?”

“Okay, you know what? I’m done with everybody here judging me on my food tastes! It’s always, ‘Hattie, stop putting mustard on your cake’, or, ‘Hattie, don’t eat that cookie, there are mushrooms growing on it’, or, ‘Hattie, please stop sneaking into the kitchen at 3 AM to eat all the forks and then convincing Timmy you’re his sleep paralysis demon when he asks what you’re doing because it’s making him upset!’ Two can play at that game! You guys have some weird food here on this planet, and it’s about time I said it!”

“What could possibly be weirder than that abomination!?”

“Uh, hello? Cereal! Have you ever stopped to think about it? You’re essentially just eating rice with milk! That’s weird!”

“That is not what—”

“Also, your classifications for certain foods are just downright stupid! Like, a strawberry isn’t a berry, but a banana is? What’s up with that!?”

“Why are you acting like I’m the one who—”

“Also, what the peck is a corn dog!?”

“I don’t know! It’s—”

Mu was cut off by the sound of snickering. Confused, she, Hattie, and Bow all turned to Timmy, who was trying his very hardest to hold in his laughter. He had clamped a hand over his mouth in order to stifle his giggles, but when he realized that they were all staring at him, he broke, doubling over in his chair laughing.

Mu raised an eyebrow. “Care to share what’s so funny with the rest of us, Timmy?”

In between giggles, Timmy managed to squeeze out, “Sorry, it’s just… after everything that went wrong today… Hattie’s weird spaghetti just seems really tame compared to it all!” he laughed. “I mean, look at it! The little dude’s just sitting there, vibing! Why does it look like that!?”

Bow was the next one to start chuckling. “It is pretty funny-looking, actually.”

After making eye contact with one another, Hattie and Mu burst into laughter as well—and just like it had always tended to be with the four of them—they were all soon in hysterics, thoroughly worrying any nearby customers who just wanted a nice, peaceful dinner.

After they had calmed down a little bit, Hattie wiped a tear from her eye. “Well, I guess this all means I’m ending my very short-lived chef career,” she announced, switching her chef’s hat for her regular top hat.

Mu let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Good riddance!”

“Careful, keep talking like that and I’ll cook for us next time,” Hattie warned, a joking smirk on her face.

Mu playfully rolled her eyes. “Great. Guess I’ll get someone to plan my funeral, then.”

Hattie stuck her tongue out at her, bumping their shoulders together.

“Well, I guess it’s time for me and Timmy to have some actual food and end this date on a good note!” Bow grinned. “Thank goodness nothing really bad happened this time. I was really worried when I saw that you both were here.”

Timmy hummed in approval. “You can say that again!”

“Well, then, you guys are lucky that I decided not to use my fireworks this time,” Mu pointed out. “Trust me, I learn from my mistakes, unlike Timmy or Hattie.”

Timmy and Hattie frowned. “Hey!” they cried, both shooting her a playful glare.

Mu laughed. “Ah, calm down, you two! You know I’m just messing with you.”

“Wait, hold on.” Bow turned to her in shock. “You still have fireworks with you?”

“Well, duh!” Mu responded, as if that was a silly, obvious question. “Of course I have my fireworks on me! What kind of person do you think I am?” When a hint of fear crept into Bow’s expression, she quickly reassured, “Don’t worry. Like I said, I’m not using them in the metro again. Trust me! They’re all right here, safe and sound.”

She patted her pocket for emphasis, but instead of continuing on with her fireworks rant or even changing the subject to something thankfully not fireworks-related, her eyes widened in horror.

“A-ah, silly me, they’re in my other…” Trailing off, Mu patted her other pocket, only for her eyes to somehow get even wider.

“Mu?” Bow asked cautiously. “You do have your fireworks, right?”

“I-I should!” Frantically, Mu dug through both of her pockets, haphazardly throwing a various amount of miscellaneous, concerning, and downright dangerous objects onto the table, none of which were fireworks. “Uh...”

“Oh!” Hattie slapped a hand to her forehead. “You gave me the rest of them before all this, remember? I was gonna set them off around my sign, but you came up to me right as I was about to place them and told me that was a bad idea, so I just didn’t use them!” she explained. “See? They’re right…” Hattie dug through her own pockets, her eyes growing wide as well. “Oh no.”

“D-don’t panic! Maybe you just lost them?” Bow suggested, trying her hardest to keep everyone, especially Timmy, from worrying. “Things get lost in the metro all the time, right? I’m sure that if we just check one of the lost and found stations, we’ll find it! When did you last have them, Hattie?”

Hattie thought for a moment. “I remember having them when I was heading towards that angry mob Timmy and I definitely didn’t accidentally create. Maybe they fell out of my pocket somewhere nearby as I was running?”

“Probably! We’ll check around there, then. Guys, it’s really okay!” Bow attempted, giving everyone a big, albeit slightly nervous smile. “Besides, the ones that Mu used were all duds, so what are the chances that the ones we did lose actually work? Plus, who would even take them, much less set them off, anyway?”

At that moment, the rest of the lights that were deliberately left off in the restaurant switched on, causing everyone to gasp and rub their eyes.

“Attention, patrons of this restaurant!” a voice called, prompting everyone to turn their heads towards a table a few feet away from the four teens. A cat that Bow recognized as that lanky cat from the mob was standing on top of the table, wearing a small, white hamper on his head as if it were a hat. “I’ve come to make an announcement!” he shouted, his meek nature from earlier completely gone.

In different circumstances, Bow would’ve been proud of this random cat’s character development, but considering every single thing that had happened on this date (specifically everything that had happened during a certain argument), the only thing Bow could feel was dread.

“Uh… Mu? Timmy? Bow?” Hattie stole a quick glance at them. “Do any of you know what this is about?”

Bow laughed nervously, deciding to try and not assume the worst. “That’s probably unrelated to us! M-maybe it’s some kind of proposal happening, or- or a flash mob!” she tried. “Yeah, a flash mob! That’s probably it! Can’t wait to see all the fun choreography that they do!”

“The burger plush doesn’t belong on the left or the right,” the cat began, a few other cats gathering around his table in support. “In fact, it doesn’t even belong in the main room at all! It belongs in one room, and one room only.”

Mu raised her eyebrows, shooting an unconvinced look towards Bow. “Considering everything Hattie told me about what went down at that store, are you sure this isn’t related to us?”

“Um, well, who’s to say? I mean, the burger plush debate really transcends all of time and space, if you think about it. It’s gone so far beyond our reach now at this point, and honestly, because it’s so widespread, what are the odds that any of us have anything to do with this?”

“It belongs in the laundry room, and I am so fortunate that I finally realize that now,” the cat declared, as if he were giving an emotional, inspiring speech like the main characters did to motivate their teammates in certain movies. “And my realization is all thanks to this girl right here!” He pointed to Bow, causing everyone in the restaurant’s eyes to land on her. “Yep, her! That girl with the bow! The one who looks like she’s about ready for the earth to just open up and swallow her whole!”

Oh.

Great.

Perfect.

Bow had never been so embarrassed—no, mortified—in her entire life. That cat was right; she did want nothing more than the earth to just open up and swallow her whole, considering that would definitely be less painful than sitting through whatever this was. Bow could only remember being even remotely close to this level of embarrassment two times in her life.

One was when she was singing karaoke and accidentally cracked on a high note (in hindsight, she definitely cared more about that than her friends did, who probably immediately forgot that happened), and when shakily stepping off the stage, tripped on a cable and fell down the stage steps (she was certain her friends definitely didn’t forget about that).

The other was when she was catching up with DJ Grooves, and upon curiously being asked what Timmy was to her, she forgot the word “boyfriend”, panicked, and instead answered that he was her “emotional support gremlin”.

Nobody let her live that one down for a while. Especially not said emotional support gremlin.

“You know, when I decided to break out of the background and embrace my own spotlight and identity and whatnot, this kind of attention was not what I was looking for,” Bow mumbled to herself, sinking into her seat and trying her best to avoid everyone’s gaze. Then, raising her voice just enough so that her friends could hear, “At least he doesn’t have the fire—”

“And with this ceremonial lighting of the fireworks, the good word of the laundry plush truthers will be spread!”

Bow slumped even further in her seat. “Oh…”

The bowtie-wearing cat that was playing the piano earlier walked up to the laundry plush truther, and for one beautiful, hope-filled moment, Bow thought that he was going to put a stop to all of this and call for someone to kick the other cat out.

Unfortunately, all the bowtie-wearing cat did was hand him a candle from one of the nearby tables, causing the other cat to grin an almost maniacal grin.

“Join us, my brethren!” The no-longer-meek cat cried. “Help us fight for the side that is truly right! We are the laundry plush gang, and we will not be defeated!”

The cats surrounding him cheered and hollered as he began to light the fuse with the candle. Hattie, Mu, and Timmy all turned back to Bow in horror.

“Um,” Bow attempted, “it could be a dud?”

Smoke began to pour from the fireworks, causing Bow’s heart to drop and an icy sense of dread to shoot through her veins.

“Well, that doesn’t look like a dud,” Mu wisely observed. “Which means… run!”

Thinking fast, Hattie switched to her time stop hat and tapped it. Then, before Bow knew it (and before she could even blink), Hattie had grabbed them and led them far enough away from the restaurant, just in time for them to see what would have been a lovely fireworks display, save for the screaming and panicking mob of cats scrambling out of the restaurant. Some of the fireworks caught a few tablecloths and even some of the curtains on fire, causing the cats that were still stuck inside the restaurant to panic even more.

“Holy peck!” a cat screamed.

“Get me out of here!” yelled another.

“I will not perish from a laundry plush truther’s actions! It’s every cat for themselves now!” a third cried, before they took a nearby chair, tossed it at the window, and escaped into the night, shoving a few other cats to the ground in the process.

This wasn’t even a date anymore.

This was just chaos.

Complete, pure, fiery chaos.

How did it all come to this?

Letting out a shaky breath, Bow took a step towards the burning restaurant, only to be stopped by Hattie, who was wearing a remorseful, yet equally determined look on her face.

“Stay here. Mu and I got this,” she said quickly, adjusting her time stop hat. “We’ve… we’ve messed this date up enough, anyway. It’s the least we can do.” Then, looking at Mu, “I’ll use my hats to get the rest of the cats out of there. Can you put out the fire?”

Mu nodded, taking out a few bombs from her pocket, which Bow recognized as the water bombs Hattie had made for her as a gift a few weeks prior. “On it! We’ll handle this, you two!”

And with that, the two ran towards the restaurant, ready to solve another problem they accidentally had somewhat of a part in creating.

Bow knew she still should’ve run in after Hattie and Mu—after all, Hattie had made Bow her own set of hats to use—or even called for Timmy to help get people out of there with his powers, but she found herself unable to move. She internally screamed at herself to do something, anything, but her whole body was numb and her feet felt glued to the floor. She should’ve been in there right now, helping and saving, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t.

She just simply watched as Mu began to put out the fires while Hattie switched between her sprint and time stop hat to get the cats out of the restaurant. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Timmy take a step back from everything, staring at the burning restaurant with nothing but fear and horror in his eyes.

A whisper at the back of her mind told her she was to blame for all of this (after all, she was the one to suggest putting the burger plush in the laundry room), but she took a deep breath to steady herself, doing her best to will away the tears that were beginning to well up in her eyes.

It…

It didn’t really work.

It just wasn’t fair.

It just wasn’t fair.

Why did it all come to this?

All she and Timmy wanted was a nice, sweet date. Something they could reminisce about and look fondly back upon in times to come. Something to celebrate them finally taking the leap and admitting their true feelings to one another, despite how scared they both were in the process.

Something special.

Instead, all they got was this… this…

Bow barely even registered Mu putting out the last fire or the last few cats managing to escape unscathed thanks to Hattie. She didn’t even react when she saw Timmy take a few more steps back, whispering something to himself that Bow couldn’t quite catch.

That deep, innate desire to help clawed at her heart and yelled at her for not doing her part, but still, all she could do was stand there, unmoving.

Bow took another deep breath, attempting to steady herself once more. Everyone was going to be fine, and she knew she’d be okay as well, but things were so… it was all just…

“This is all just a mess,” she finally whispered to herself, burying her head in her hands.

She stood there in silence for a few more minutes, recollecting herself to the best of her ability, when suddenly, she felt someone pulling her in for a tight hug. Removing her head from her hands, she looked up to see Hattie, now wearing her signature top hat, her expression completely full of remorse and regret. Letting out a shaky sigh, Bow hugged her back.

“Everyone okay?” Bow asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Hattie responded. “Just a little shaken up. And, uh, not happy, to put it lightly. How are you doing?”

Bow let out a dry laugh. “Honestly? Probably the exact same as all these cats.”

In response, Hattie just simply pulled her a little bit closer, the remorseful look on her face somehow growing even stronger. After a brief moment of hesitation, she shamefully muttered, “Look, I’m really sor—”

“Not your fault,” Bow said quickly. “I don’t blame you guys for any of this.”

Hattie blinked in surprise. “You don’t? Really?”

“No,” Bow answered earnestly. “I mean, I know you guys lost the fireworks and all—which wouldn’t have even happened if you guys didn’t interfere with this date in the first place—but I don’t think you guys planned for this specifically to happen.”

Hattie stared at her in shock for a moment before she slowly let go of her. “Wow, okay.” She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “I… huh. I really thought you’d be upset at us after everything.”

“…Well, I never said I wasn’t upset,” Bow clarified, although a hint of a smile began to tug at her lips. “I just said I didn’t blame you. Those are two separate things.”

“Yeah, that… that’s fair,” Hattie conceded, causing them to both let out a tired chuckle despite themselves. “Still, Mu and I weren’t trying to ruin your date on purpose, we just… we were…” Instead of finishing that thought, Hattie trailed off with a sigh. Then, choosing to pivot away from that topic, she added, “But it’s not your fault either, if you were thinking that. If anyone’s to blame, it’s that cat! I don’t know what he was thinking.”

“Yeah,” Bow mumbled. “Me either.” For a moment, she thought about asking something else—something she had been wondering since the very beginning of this date, and something she had actually already asked but didn't get an answer to—but she shook her head, choosing to wait until both her friends were here to voice her concerns out loud. “Where’s Mu?”

“Oh, I think she’s—” Hattie was cut off by Mu, who had just weaved in and out of the crowd of cats that were still staring at the charred restaurant in horror, running up to them, slightly out of breath.

“Alright, so,” she started, pausing for a few seconds to completely catch her breath, “I just did another sweep of the restaurant—or what’s left of it, I guess—and there doesn’t seem to be any more fires, so we’re good on that. It’s completely empty as well, so you got everyone, Hattie.” Mu then turned to Bow, quickly adding, “Look, I know you’re probably really upset at us, so I’m sor—”

Bow held a hand up to stop her. “Like I was just telling Hattie, I don’t blame you guys. You’re okay,” she reassured. “But now that you’re both here, can I finally ask you guys why you’ve been doing all of this? Like, did you both just really want to help, or is there something else going on that I should know about?”

Hattie and Mu hesitated for a brief second.

“Well, it’s, uh…” Hattie started, nervously trailing off.

“We were… it was…” Mu overlapped her, awkwardly clearing her throat when she realized she was talking over Hattie.

After a few seconds of silence passed, Hattie and Mu met eyes for a few moments. They seemed to be having some kind of silent conversation with one another, complete with subtle expression shifts and the occasional silent gesture or two. Finally, they turned back to Bow.

“Alright, fine. We were…” Before Hattie could continue the rest of her sentence, her gaze moved away from Bow and instead ended up landing on the person standing to Bow’s left, causing an alarmed expression to quickly spread across her face.

Or rather, her gaze landed on the person that should’ve been standing to Bow’s left.

“Oh no,” Hattie said shakily. “Uh… guys?”

Bow followed Hattie’s line of sight, her heart stopping when she noticed the empty spot beside her. “Wait, where’s Timmy?” she asked, whipping her head around to face Hattie and Mu once more.

“He was standing a little behind you last time I checked!” Hattie answered. “I’m sure of it, I swear! Mu, did you see him?”

“He- he wasn’t in the restaurant! I definitely would’ve seen him if he was!” Mu responded hastily, beginning to look around the cluster of shaken-up cats surrounding them.

“You sure?” Hattie’s eyes started to dart around the area as well. “Did you check the trash cans in there?”

“Now, why would Timmy be in an on-fire garbage can?”

Hattie briefly paused her panicked search to give Mu a look.

“Right, right. Because it’s Timmy,” Mu conceded. “But still! Where is he? Did he leave?”

“I don’t know! He was right here!” Bow cried.

Hattie opened her mouth to respond, but her eyes landed on something before she could. “Wait, look!”

She pointed to somewhere in front of her, revealing Timmy haphazardly darting his way through the crowd away from them, his back turned towards the girls.

“Timmy!” Bow’s eyes widened. “Where’s he going!?”

Mu held her hands up. “I-I don’t know! Hattie?”

“I don’t know either! He didn’t… I never…” Shaking her head, Hattie met eyes with Bow. “Go! You need to follow him!”

“B-but what about—”

“We’ll be fine! Go!” Hattie encouraged, gesturing for her to chase after him.

Giving one last look to Hattie and Mu, Bow turned on her heel and began to run after him, hastily apologizing to any cats she bumped into in the process.

“Timmy!” she called. “Wait! Where are you going!?”

If he heard her, he didn’t seem to show it. He only quickened his pace after pushing past the last of the cats in the area, nearly tripping over a pair of shorter cats as he did.

“Timmy!” she shouted once more. “Wait!”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t stop. He simply kept running, far away from the destroyed restaurant and the thousands of pons worth of property damage.

Far away from the shaken-up customers, who were muttering in concern to one another and wondering if this had anything to do with the other destructive incidents that occurred earlier today in the metro.

Far away from the mess.

Their mess.

Chapter Text

Bow followed Timmy as closely behind as she could while they hastily backtracked through the metro, trying her best not to lose him once they reached the hustle and bustle of the main station.

“Timmy, wait!” she called after him. “Timmy!”

Timmy weaved in and out of the crowd of cats, paying no attention to her shouts. For some odd reason, his movements gradually became a lot less sporadic as he made his way through the area, as if he was beginning to figure out where he was going and wasn’t just running away aimlessly.

…Wait, was he starting to figure out where he was going?

Shaking her head, Bow continued to follow him, gently pushing past a small family of cats and nearly knocking into a lamppost in her haste.

“Timmy, please!” she shouted, slightly out of breath. “At least slow down so you can hear me out!”

Before Bow could try and call out to him once more (would screaming “free chicken nuggets” get him to at least turn around and face her?), Timmy took a sudden, sharp right, causing Bow to stumble over her feet in shock and go crashing into some poor cat.

“I’m- I’m so sorry!” Bow quickly apologized, jumping away from the cat in embarrassment. “I… oh.”

The cat, who Bow now recognized as that one mother from the burger plush argument, scoffed and folded her arms. “Oh, well, isn’t this rich? What are the chances that I’d run into the girl with terrible taste again?”

Bow huffed. “Sorry. Look, can I squeeze past you really quick? I’m kind of in a hurry, and—”

“You know what? I’m actually glad that I’m seeing you again, because now I can show you the damage you’ve done to my poor child!” she cried, gesturing to the kitten standing beside her.

Instead of being met with the shell-shocked and downright horrified expression he had on during the argument, said kitten was staring off into space with a big, innocent smile, not even paying attention to the current conversation at hand.

Bow stared at the kitten for a second or two, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. “He… seems fine to me?” she responded, wondering if this was some sort of trick. “Look, I really need to—”

“You’ve poisoned him! Your radical ideas got through to him and infected his young, susceptible mind!” the mother cried, clutching her heart with a paw.

Bow blinked in surprise. “Oh, r-radical? So, it’s good?”

She scoffed again. “I meant radical in a bad way!”

“Huh, kinda forgot that word had another meaning,” Bow mumbled to herself. After a moment, she cleared her throat and continued on with, “Actually, speaking of radical, I should really—”

“He stood firmly against your beliefs for a while, but I guess even the brightest of kittens can’t last against a taste as terrible as yours! Oh, the agony!” The mother whined, turning to her kitten. “Look, show this girl what I mean. Tell her what you told me earlier. She needs to see the damage she’s done with her own eyes.”

The kitten turned to Bow, his wide smile never faltering. “I wanna put the burger plush on the moon!”

“You can’t put the burger plush on the moon!” she sobbed, tears beginning to stream down her face. “That’s not even possible! Why did this girl give you the idea that you should put the burger plush outside of the main room!? Oh, sweetheart, you didn’t deserve to be corrupted! I’m so sorry!”

“…Okay. Look, this all seems really personal, and I don’t think I should be involved, so…” Giving the mother-son duo an awkward smile, she pushed past them and continued on, deciding a wide berth from them would be best for everyone.

However, she stopped only a few feet away from them, realizing with horror that in the midst of that concerning conversation, she had completely lost sight of Timmy.

“Oh no. No, no, no, no, this isn’t good,” Bow whispered to herself. Panicked, her eyes darted around the metro for a few moments, eventually landing on a group of cats that were passing her by. “Um, excuse me?” she called out to them, getting them to briefly pause in their tracks. “Have you seen my boyfriend anywhere? He’s tall—and won’t shut up about it—has these blue face markings, and he’s wearing a bright red jacket!” As soon as she said that, she stopped. “Or is it orange…? I don’t really know. My friends and I debate about that a lot. Um, the point is, have any of you seen him?”

The cats all stared at her in confusion for a brief moment before they shook their heads and continued on their way, gossiping loudly about the two firework-related incidents that occurred earlier and wondering if she was one of the teenagers that had to do with either of them.

Starting to become a little irritated, Bow sighed, breaking into a run once more. She stopped periodically to ask the occasional cat if they had seen Timmy anywhere nearby, but was sadly only met with confusion, indifference, or something along the lines of, “I just got off my shift and I refuse to deal with any of you chaotic teenagers again, so please get out of my face before I either scream or break down crying”, which happened a few more times than Bow would’ve liked to admit.

As her search continued on, Bow grew more and more exhausted, until she finally collapsed on a nearby bench in frustration. She let out a tired huff and closed her eyes in thought, deciding to try and figure out some sort of game plan while she was attempting to catch her breath.

Unfortunately, no matter how much her brain raced or what train of thought she decided to follow, her mind was completely devoid of any idea of what to do next.

Timmy could’ve been anywhere in the metro by now, and even if Bow got Mu and Hattie to help search, the chances of any of them finding him in a place this big and crowded were slim. Plus, even if one of them did manage to find him, he could just run away from them again, leaving them in the exact same spot that they were before: Timmy-less.

Bow’s shoulders deflated.

She really didn’t want to be Timmy-less again.

But how on earth could she possibly find this boy?

…Maybe she was onto something earlier when she thought Timmy was beginning to figure out where he was going. He had seemed so incredibly determined to get to wherever he was headed, which was something that he had rarely ever shown in a place as unfamiliar to him as the metro. It was almost as if he knew where he was going by heart.

A path walked by him many times before, to the point where the steps to it taken became muscle memory to him.

A location that was so incredibly familiar to him—one that Bow would actually trust him to lead the way to.

A place that bore some sort of emotional significance to him and that he would most likely go to in times of distress.

A place like…

Bow’s eyes flew open.

She knew exactly where he was.

Practically flying off the bench, Bow darted through the main station once more, avoiding the glares of the poor cats that were unwillingly subjected to their date chaos and glancing awkwardly at that mother-son duo when she passed them by.

Was that cat still crying?

Choosing not to stay and question it any further, Bow finally skidded to a halt at the entrance of the alleyway by Le Félin, the jewelry store. Her eyes instantly landed on Timmy, who was sitting at the back of the alley, right in front of a certain dumpster that Bow had grown far too familiar with for her own good. He had just finished putting something in his jacket pocket—Bow couldn’t quite catch what it was in time—and let out a solemn sigh, curling himself up in the fetal position.

“Oh,” Bow murmured softly.

She slowly and quietly crept towards him, trying her hardest not to startle him with any loud noise or sudden movement. When she eventually came to a stop right in front of him, though, she knelt down after a brief second of hesitation, deciding that it was probably best if she made her presence known.

“There you are,” she said gently.

Jumping a little at her voice, Timmy lifted his head from his knees, clearly shocked that she had found him. “O-oh,” he said, sitting up a little. “Hey.”

“Hi,” she whispered, giving him a soft, encouraging smile. “You doing okay?”

Timmy stared at her for a moment, seemingly trying to figure out what to do or say, until eventually, a weak, dry chuckle escaped him. “Oh, yeah,” he muttered sarcastically. “Just, uh… hanging out.”

Bow tilted her head, feeling a small glimmer of déjà vu at the somewhat familiar conversation they were starting to have. “By the dumpster?”

Seemingly trying to lighten the mood, he nodded, continuing to go along with it. “Yeah. I do my best thinking here, you know?”

“Well,” she started, scooting a bit closer to him, “I’ve never heard of anyone doing their best thinking by the dumpster, of all places.”

Timmy opened his mouth to respond to her quip, but ended up only being able to sit there in silence for a few seconds. Finally, he faltered, slumping in shame. “Sorry I ran from you,” he apologized, looking away from her. “I know I should’ve at least tried to see if there was anything I could do, but I just… I don’t know. I guess I didn’t really wanna stick around and watch everything burst into flames, you know?” Another dry chuckle. “Literally.”

“Yeah, I get that. You’re okay.” Delicately, Bow reached out to cup his face with her hand. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

Timmy shrugged, leaning into her touch. “I guess I’m kinda okay now. Or… maybe not. Don’t really know what I’m feeling, honestly.”

“Well, that’s okay,” she reassured. Moving her hand, Bow then began to gently trace over his face markings with a finger—a gesture she had recently started doing whenever he got stressed or when she just simply wanted to be close to him. “I’ll be here with you until you figure it out. If you want to, that is.”

Timmy offered her a weak smile. “Thank you.”

A comfortable silence fell between them, yet Bow’s mind was anything but quiet. Her brain scrambled and raced to figure out the right words to say to Timmy. She could tell that there was something still bothering him, and she so desperately wanted to find that magic phrase, that perfect metaphor, literally anything that could lift his spirits, but… nothing was coming to mind.

Maybe she could do something instead? After all, actions spoke louder than words, and maybe all Timmy needed was a break far away from the chaos that was plaguing them throughout this entire date.

She should ask him what he wanted to do. Bow felt so, so terrible that their date hadn’t gone as planned, and she’d go as far as to move a mountain if that meant making him happy.

But before she could even open her mouth, Timmy quietly spoke up. “Hey, you okay?”

Bow, who had just begun to delicately trace the spiral on his forehead, paused in her tracks as soon as he said that. “What?” she asked, removing her hand.

“You okay?” Timmy repeated, a little louder this time. He shifted his position so that only one of his knees was propped up and leant against it. “You seem… I don’t know, lost in thought over there,” he explained, before sheepishly adding, “I, uh, I’ve been pretty worried about you throughout this whole thing, so…”

“You’ve been worrying about me? I’ve been worrying about you!” Bow confessed. “I can tell you’ve been really nervous during this entire date, and I just really wanna do something about that, you know? Is there something I should do? Something I shouldn’t do?”

“Bow—”

“I don’t know how or why this date became such a huge mess, but… but I don’t just want to sit back and watch it all go wrong when there’s something I can do to help! So, tell me what you want! We don’t even have to stay in the metro if there’s somewhere else that’s better suited for you!”

“Okay, but—”

“We could go to the beach in Mafia Town, go sight-seeing in the Alpine Skyline, or… or go to the Conductor’s train? T-that could be cute! Maybe? A little train date? I don’t know, but the point is, we don’t need to worry! There’s still plenty of time left in the day—or, well, evening, I guess—to do something fun and salvage what’s left of this date, so, come on! Let’s figure out what you want to do and hopefully not set anything on fire in the process!”

Timmy stared at her with an unreadable expression, perhaps waiting to see if she’d continue on, but when she didn’t, he eventually said, “Bow, not gonna lie, that sounds really rad for me—”

“Alright, then! Let’s—”

“—but aren’t most dates supposed to be at least some sort of combination or compromise? You know, so not only one person gets what they want?” Timmy pointed out. “I mean, I know I’m not, like, a good old-fashioned lover boy or whatever, but… I don’t think I feel comfortable only doing what I wanna do knowing that there might be something that you really want.”

“N-no, that’s… I…”

“Bow,” he started gently, “let me know if I’m talking crazy, but… did you choose to do anything on this date? You know, just because you wanted to do it?”

“I…” Bow trailed off, looking down at the ground in thought. “Well…”

There had to have been a moment where she chose to do something solely because she wanted to, right? Yes, there definitely was. There should’ve been. She just had to think.

Going to the metro in the first place had been a mutual decision between the two of them, so, unfortunately, she couldn’t really count that. While she did choose the fried food restaurant over the seafood restaurant, it was something she had instinctively done the very first time she noticed Timmy’s nerves, so that didn’t count either. Shopping at that clothing store in the Pink Paw Station was his choice, as well as attempting to eat at that Italian restaurant…

…Oh.

Huh.

Timmy was right.

In the midst of all the chaos and throughout this entire mess, Bow forgot about something—someone—important that she should’ve been looking out for as well: herself.

Bow sighed, putting a hand to her head. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

Timmy could only shoot her a sympathetic look in reply.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, moving to sit next to him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out on you like that, it’s just… when I saw that you kept getting anxious throughout the date, something inside of me just… snapped? I guess? That’s not the word, I know.” Bow shook her head. “But I just really, really wanted to help you feel better, so I became so focused on wanting to meet your needs that I panicked and, well, you know.” She let out a sheepish chuckle. “I really do love you, and if this date was going to go right for one of us, I wanted it to go right for you. Guess that didn’t end up happening, huh?”

Timmy wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to him. “Honestly, Bow, it’s chill. Really, you’re okay, you don’t need to be sorry,” he reassured. “But, uh, if anyone should be apologizing, it should definitely be me.”

“You?” Confused, Bow glanced up at him. “What for? I mean, it’s not like you’re somehow responsible for every single chaotic thing to happen today.”

Timmy hesitated, looking away from her. “Well...”

Confusion turned into concern. “Timmy?” she asked cautiously. “What’s wrong?”

After a moment, he let out a small sigh. “You’re not the only one who really wanted things to go right today.” Slowly, he took the purple notebook out of his jacket pocket with his free hand and gave it to Bow. “Here.”

“The notebook?” Bow glanced at it, her eyebrows furrowing. “Why are you giving this to me?”

Timmy hesitated once more. “Just, uh, open it. You’ll see.”

Bow gave him another cautious glance, but opened the notebook anyway. She was greeted with the same stuff they wrote last night, alongside Timmy’s chicken nugget gang and pickup line additions, but there were a few new ideas that caught Bow’s attention.

“Fireworks display?? (get Mu to help)”

“Maybe a rad little sign wishing us a happy first date?? (Hattie can kinda code and hack into things, right?)”

“Romantic dinner (let’s hope Hattie and/or Mu can cook…)”

They were all hastily scratched out, much like the chicken nugget gang idea was. In fact, the only one of the additions that had a check mark by it was unfortunately the very last item—the pick-up line one.

Wait a minute…

Bow gasped, glancing back up at him. “You were—”

“The one that got Mu and Hattie to interfere in the first place? Yeah,” he muttered solemnly, still refusing to meet her eyes. “I thought if I made a plan—well, a loose one, because I’m allergic to planning and too radical for lists—things might actually somewhat work out. But, uh, I guess I didn’t realize the flaws in, well, every single part of my plan.” He let out a humorless laugh. “Guess I just messed everything up like I always do, huh?”

“Timmy...”

“I just wanted this date to be special, you know?” he continued, shifting his gaze upwards. “I tried so hard to give you that perfect first date you’ve always been dreaming about, but instead, all we got was chaos, chaos, more chaos, property damage, and some kind of laundry room cult.”

Bow tilted her head. “Wait, perfect first date?”

“Ah, yeah.” A faint blush spread across his face as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I know you’re probably gonna make fun of me for being a sweet boy and all when I say this, but, uh, after we wrote down all that stuff in the notebook last night, I got really nervous and wondered if what we were doing would be, like, cool enough for our first date? But then I remembered that a really long time ago—around when we were first getting to know each other, actually—you put on this movie musical for us to watch or something. I don’t really remember what it was about, but it had these, like, big romantic gestures and stuff?” Timmy cleared his throat. “I-I don’t know. But you got really excited about it and started talking about how nice it’d be for someone to do all that for you. When I remembered that, I went to talk to Hattie and Mu about our date, and…” When his gaze landed on her again, he trailed off, staring at her in concern. “Bow? You’re- you’re crying.”

In response, Bow had said nothing to him, only being able to let out a choked sob when attempting to reassure him that she was alright. She had really tried to hold it all in until he at least finished talking, but like always, she found herself unable to conceal how she really felt around him. That, combined with the stress and anxiety from earlier still looming over her, caused her walls to come crumbling down, leaving her a crying mess in front of the dumpster—something that had happened in her life a lot more frequently than she wanted it to.

“Oh no.” Timmy reached his free hand out towards her. “Did I say something wrong? I—”

Bow rapidly shook her head as a few more tears began to fall down her face. “No, no. You didn’t say anything wrong, I…” She sniffled. “I just… I… this sucks!”

Retracting his hand, Timmy stared at her, momentarily taken back by her sudden outburst. “Huh?”

Bow wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “It’s just so unfair,” she whispered. “You tried so hard, a-and this date just blew up in our faces, which made us both so anxious, and all we wanted was a nice date, and… and it’s all just so unfair!” Bow shifted in her spot to face him, feeling more tears beginning to prick at her eyes. “But it’s not your fault, Timmy! So many things went wrong today, but you didn’t plan for any of that to happen! None of us did!”

His gaze softened. “Bow…”

“I don’t know how or why the universe decided to give us the weirdest date ever today, but it did, and there’s nothing we can do about it except, I don’t know, move on?” she attempted. “I don’t know, but what I do know is that you didn’t mess everything up, Timmy, I swear. You’re so sweet for trying to do all of this for me,” she reassured, wiping her eyes once more. Then, after a few seconds passed, Bow added, “And besides, I was the one that accidentally started that laundry room cult. Don’t give yourself too much credit here,” with a slight smile that was starting to form despite herself.

A little chuckle escaped Timmy at that. “I guess, yeah,” he conceded, his own small smile beginning to appear on his face. “But you’re not at fault either for this mess, if you were thinking that.”

“Yeah, I kinda was at one point. You know me way too well,” she sheepishly admitted. Her solemn mood from earlier was quickly beginning to drift away—another effect that this boy had on her. “But I get what you mean by everything, though. I really wanted this date to be special too.”

Timmy nodded. “Yeah. I just wish I tried to spend more time enjoying myself with you instead of just, I don’t know, freaking out over Hattie and Mu being terrible waiters.”

“Same,” Bow agreed. “I just got in my head about so much, you know?” A few moments of silence passed, and with a shaky sigh, she finally admitted, “I just didn’t want you to…”

“I was so scared that you would…” Timmy overlapped.

“…be disappointed in me,” they both finished at the same time.

Timmy’s eyes met her own, and for a while, they just stared at each other, purple on purple.

It was Timmy who eventually broke the silence with a snicker, causing a little giggle to escape Bow as well.

Then, for the second time that day, they began to laugh, knowing just how silly they were being. Of course they weren’t going to be disappointed in the other one. They had been through so much together, from seeing each other at their worst to watching the other grow and thrive. What was one little weird date against all the memories they’d made and what they truly were to one another? What was one little weird date against every single challenge they’d been through and come out on top of, despite all the odds and everything that was stacked against them?

What was one little weird date against two weirdos that were now more than happy to take all of their messes in stride?

When they were finally beginning to calm down, Bow playfully shook her head and pocketed the notebook. “Leave it to us to turn the most simple of things into a wide-scale event of destruction,” she commented, her voice dancing with humor. “I don’t really mind, though. In fact… I actually kinda enjoyed myself despite all the chaos.”

Timmy raised an eyebrow, his smile remaining. “Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah!” Bow said, before faltering. “Well, for the most part, that is. But anyway, it’s us, you know? We were both fools to think that this date wouldn’t end with at least one thing catching on fire, especially with Hattie and Mu involved.”

Timmy laughed. “You got a point there. We can’t even make popcorn for movie night without the popcorn becoming sentient, starting some kind of uprising against humans alongside all the food in the fridge, and then trying to shove me in the microwave when I tried to stop their efforts.”

“Exactly!” Bow nodded, then blinked in surprise when she realized what he just said. “Wait, what?”

“Hmm?”

“…You know what? Never mind,” she sighed, deciding that it was probably for the best that she was kept in the dark about that whole debacle. “Anyway, I don’t care that this date didn’t go according to plan. I don’t even care that this date wasn’t like any of those big, romantic gestures from the movies! I had fun because I was with you, Timmy.”

Right then, his expression melted into that fond look that never failed to send her heart racing. “Yeah, me too,” he breathed. But before Bow could figure out a way to make fun of him for being a sweet boy for that (he was the one who brought that nickname up, anyway), he mischievously added, “Plus, now I know that my radical girlfriend can start revolutions! …Despite her, you know, terrible taste in what should be revolutionized.”

Bow pouted. “Timmy…”

Timmy laughed. “Ah, Bow! You know I’m just teasing.” He winked. “Your taste isn’t terrible, it’s atrocious!” 

“Timmy!”

“It’s always the ones you love the most, I guess,” he commented, shaking his head in disbelief. “I mean, who would’ve thought that someone so cute would have a take so awful? So terrible? So horrifying that it should be illegal in every single timeline?”

“Timmy!” Her pout got even bigger as she nudged him with her elbow. “You’re not funny, you know!”

“Number one, yes, I am. I’m the funniest guy that ever lived, and I actually even invented comedy itself, so you’re welcome,” Timmy proudly declared, leading Bow to roll her eyes. “And number two, despite your awful, awful stance in the burger plush war, I still love you very much.” He planted a gentle kiss on her forehead, causing Bow’s pout to turn into a soft smile.

“Still don’t forgive you for insulting my taste,” she grumbled, despite her smile.

Timmy kissed her forehead again. “How about now?”

“…Maybe.” She leant against him and put her head on his shoulder. “I’ll think about it very long and hard over the next several days and get back to you on that.”

In reply, Timmy snickered.

A comfortable silence fell between them once more, but this time, it was without the underlying feeling of nervousness or the fear that they would disappoint the other. This time, they were simply enjoying the other’s presence, as if all the weird and strange things that happened on their date was truly a distant memory.

Bow closed her eyes, choosing to just relish in this peaceful moment (and to ignore the weird looks from any passerby cats due to the two of them literally cuddling by a dumpster), noticing for the first time during this date, she felt genuinely relaxed.

But eventually, Bow’s eyes fluttered open once more, one final question entering her mind.

“Hey, Timmy?” she started, lifting her head off his shoulder. “Because we didn’t decide on where we were specifically going throughout this entire date until literally the last second, how you get Hattie and Mu to help us? Better yet, how did they even find where we were in the first place?”

“Oh! Well, they, uh...” Timmy furrowed his eyebrows. “Huh. You know, I actually don’t know the answer to that.”

“But I do!” Hattie poked her head through the entrance of the alleyway, successfully startling the both of them. Her eyes were shining bright, just like they always were when she was able to talk about the things that she was extremely passionate about: her time pieces and her hats. “That was because of me! You see, I have this really useful feature on my top hat that whenever I tap it, it shows me where I need to go. It’s really useful when—waugh!” Suddenly, Hattie was yanked away from the entrance, interrupting whatever ramble she was about to go on.

“Come on, give them some privacy!” they heard Mu scold, having presumably been the one to yank Hattie out of view. “You can ramble about your dorky top hat later.”

“Call it dorky all you want, but it helped us out today!”

Mu scoffed. “If by ‘helping us out’, you mean ‘helping us accidentally cause thousands of pons worth of property damage in the metro’, then sure. What a useful hat.”

“You act like the hat was the one who told us to do all that stuff today. It can’t do that! It’s not sentient! …I don’t think… I really hope not.”

“Knowing how weird every single object you own is, I wouldn’t even be surprised if it was.”

Eventually, their banter faded out of earshot. Timmy and Bow glanced back at each other, shrugging.

“I guess that answers that,” Timmy said.

“Guess so.” After a moment, Bow separated from Timmy and rose to her feet, brushing a few specks of dirt off of her skirt. “Anyway, the metro’s probably gonna close pretty soon, so… wanna head back to the ship?”

“Yeah, sure.” Timmy got to his feet as well, giving her a sheepish look. “Sorry again about all this.”

“Yeah, me too,” Bow muttered. She was about to move on and declare their first date a lovable, but weird bust when an idea popped into her head. “Hey, you know what? Just because the metro’s closing doesn’t mean that this date has to end!”

Timmy shot her a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“Look, we were so focused on trying to make this date all elaborate and stuff that we forgot that this”—she gestured between them—“is more than enough! It doesn’t even matter where we go or what we do! Know what I mean?”

Timmy pondered on her comment for a few seconds, a look of understanding slowly spreading across his face. “Yeah.” He nodded. “You’re saying that… maybe the real first date was the friends we made along the way.” 

“Uh, no.” Bow instantly shot him down with a playful glare, earning a few snickers out of him. “What I mean is… do you wanna try this first date again, but a bit more, I don’t know, simple this time? We can just head back to the ship and make fun of a so-bad-it’s-good movie together, or play a few co-op video games, or something.”

“A date at home? Sounds sick!” Timmy said. “Ooh, maybe we can get something to-go from a place that’s still open. You know, since we didn’t have dinner and all.”

Bow beamed. “Yeah, that sounds good! What were you thinking?”

“Nuh-uh. You know I’ve done enough picking for today, so”—he pointed to her—“your pick.”

At being called out, Bow let out an embarrassed laugh. “Well… there is a new sushi place that I’ve been dying to try for a few weeks now. Wanna see if they let you order to-go?”

“Deal!” Timmy whole-heartedly agreed.

“Great! So…” Clearing her throat, Bow took a step closer to him and clasped her hands together, oddly a little nervous despite her somewhat doing this before. “Timmy, would you, um, do me the honor of going on a first date with me? Again?”

Timmy grinned. “Aww, Bow… wait, hold on.” He pretended to take something out of his pocket (was it supposed to be some sort of small book?) and flipped through it, letting out a thoughtful hum every now and then.

Bow sighed. “What are you doing?”

“Checking my schedule!” he responded, flipping another imaginary page. “Hmm… well, it appears I have ‘Timmy’s Radical Shenanigans’ scheduled from now until 3 AM—”

“Yeah, I don’t even want to know what that entails.”

“—but I guess I can move that until tomorrow,” he finished, a mischievous glint appearing in his eyes. “You know, since I think you’re pretty rad and all.”

“Well, I’m honored,” Bow smiled, holding her hand out to him. “Now, come on! Let’s try this date again, shall we?”

Timmy looked at her hand and gasped, putting a hand to his chest. “Holding hands? On the very first date!? Wow, don’t you think we’re moving a little too fast, Bow? What will Hattie and Mu think!?”

For what felt like the thousandth time that night, Bow rolled her eyes. “Holy peck, why do I put up with you?”

“Because you love me very, very much,” he pointed out, intertwining their fingers.

“Ah, that’s right.” Bow slapped her free hand to her forehead. “I almost forgot.”

“Yeah, but luckily, you have me and my very radical memory to remind you.”

“Oh, the same radical memory that left the stove on and almost caused an electrical fire throughout the spaceship? Oh, I’m for sure set!”

“Hey!”

Bow giggled and squeezed his hand. “Come on, weirdo. Let’s go,” she said, leading him out of the alleyway.

Maybe making fun of a bad movie and trash-talking each other while playing video games wasn’t the flashiest way to spend a first date—or even remotely close to what Bow would have dreamed of in the past—but now, she knew without a doubt that it was perfect.

It was perfect because it was their idea, simple and cute and just as weird as the both of them. It was perfect because it was their date, and even if it somehow ended with the ship catching fire, Bow knew they’d both have a blast, simply because they were with each other.

It was perfect because it was theirs.

And that was more than enough.

“So, since we’re walking around again, do you think we could try just one more time to find that chicken nugget ga—”

“No.”

“Yeah, fair enough.”