Chapter Text
Scaratar woke up in his bed after a night of slumber. He didn't quite remember getting into bed though, and the more he thought about it the weirder he found it to be; he had spent the previous evening observing the insects of the night, such as moths and fireflies. Once he was finished with this activity he had not-so-graciously flopped onto the couch in his living room and had fallen asleep there.
Scaratar should have probably known better; his cousin Attmoz, who happened to live with him, loved that couch almost as much as he loved his fuzzy lover Glaishur. Obviously he especially loved sleeping on it, which meant that if he were to be motivated enough he would totally have moved Scaratar out of the way to get on it himself. This is exactly what had happened, but it was too early for Scaratar to come across this simple explanation and, instead, he simply assumed he must have been brought there by some benevolent spirit of the night.
This was the explanation he had accepted as truth as he moved on with his day, hopping off of his bed and going to the dining room.
Attmoz had already finished eating breakfast, now focused on cradling a little wooden sculpture of himself with Glaishur. This reminded Scaratar that his cousin's partner had been dabbling in other types of sculpting, in hopes they would last longer even outside of the snowy tundra he lived in. This was probably the first of many gifts Attmoz would receive; but at the end of the day it was none of the ladybug's business. After greeting his cousin and eating his breakfast himself Scaratar dashed up and left his little cottage in the middle of the woods; he and Attmoz lived in the lower zones of the sky islands, close to a deep, dark forest and nearby a beach. This was ideal for both! The closeness to the sea allowed Attmoz to easily travel to the cold islands, while the forest provided a vast diversity of insects for Scaratar to take care of, or simply to observe.
There was one thing Scaratar had never dared to do; he had never ventured deeper inside the forest. He wasn't exactly sure why he had avoided this for as long as he did, especially since he had always been curious on what kind of creatures would live deeper in it. Contemplating his choices, the ladybug quickly realized he had nothing relevant to do on that day.
Eyeing the forest again he finally made his choice and started exploring the woodland.
At the beginning orientation came easily, he could tell the trees apart and what each location looked like, but as time went on and as he got further away from his home, he started feeling like a lost puppy; probably because he was basically just that. He had taken frequent turns in order to observe insects he found interesting, which meant that following the steps he had taken to get there was near impossible; he was going in circles.
As this fact sunk in, the forest had begun getting dimmer, meaning it was sunsetting; to Scaratar what felt like mere minutes of feeling lost was probably hours and hours of walking aimlessly through that maze of trees. He hadn't even realized the sheer amounts of cobwebs that covered the area he was walking in, not even when he walked straight into one.
The cobweb was thick and sticky, made by something, or maybe someone, at least as big as himself; struggling was pointless, in fact the more he struggled the more he was getting tangled into those fibers. He tried flying, desperately trying to take off the ground, but it was useless. Scaratar was getting tired, he was hungry but he barely realized it, as adrenaline was filling his veins. Eventually he passed out, hoping that the following day was going to be alright.
The owner of the cobwebs finally emerged from the shadows; Loodvigg. It wasn't his intention to stick actual sentient beings to his cobwebs, in fact he used them merely as chairs or as beds. Nobody had even gone through the forest like that until then, so he didn't think of putting warnings! Hell, he didn't even know they were THAT sticky!
The celestial quickly realized who was the one laying down in the cobwebs. He had seen him a few times; often he was observing insects just outside of the forest Loodvigg called home. He felt bad, but it wasn't his fault, so he shrugged it off.
The spider, carefully picking up the motionless ladybug (not without great difficulty: that monster had a lot more body mass than the scrawny Loodvigg), detaching all those strings that had restrained the celestial's movements, made his way outside of the forest. He knew it like the back of his hand, so it took him maybe 20 minutes.
He halted his movement just before stepping out of the shadows; there was a mostly pink creature with horns outside of the ladybug's house. Loodvigg made a few quick judgments and chose that it's best if he didn't see him with a passed out monster in his arms. His look wasn't exactly the most inoffensive one, which meant that the pink monster might assume Loodvigg killed the celestial, when that really wasn't the case. Besides, the creature already looked alarmed, shouting "Scaratar", as if looking for someone.
Thanks to Loodviggs spider-like anatomy he could easily climb inside one of the windows of the house without being seen, and after successfully and, might I add, rather easily locating the ladybugs bed, he carefully set him on it, under the blankets, to warm up and possibly rest more comfortably.
Loodvigg weighed his options briefly and carefully, before grabbing a random piece of paper and hazily scribbling something on top of it; there was something that bothered Loodvigg a lot for the longest time and this was the best way to finally do something about it.
Whenever Loodvigg saw the creature just outside the forest, he always wanted to greet them and introduce himself, but he was always afraid the ladybug would be put off by his appearance- rightfully so! He looked like he was JUST built to scare monsters, but he still wanted to try, at least once, to make a friend besides the spiders that often inhabit his "furniture". Besides, those ones were more like siblings to him.
_
When Scaratar woke up the next morning he felt drowsy and disoriented. He had just gone from being stuck inside a cobweb to being in his bed, carefully tucked in with a small piece of paper gently splattered on his forehead. He thought about the day prior with a vague feeling of dread, but he was also positively surprised to be perfectly unharmed, and, most surprisingly, in his home. He carefully picked up the little square of paper, hoping to find an explanation, but to his bewilderment there was a very odd request instead.
The note was hazily scribbled, like whoever wrote it was either in a rush or hadn't written in a long time. Maybe both, even? The request was vague, asking Scaratar to wait just outside of the forest in the morning, and that someone wanted to talk with him. It probably wasn't meant to sound this ominous, whoever wrote it even sketched a smiley face in the bottom right corner, probably in an attempt to comfort the reader, but Scaratar couldn't help but feel unsettled. Still, the curiosity won him over.
He glanced over at the sun, forgetting clocks exist, to check what time it was, and concluded it must have still been morning since it was still low. He stretched, his exoskeleton cracking slightly, and went to the dining room, just like the previous day.
This time Attmoz greeted him enthusiastically; he appeared to be extremely worried, for reasons Scaratar could understand.
<<where were you? When did you get here? Are you ok?>> his cousin bombarded him with questions, overwhelming Scaratar just a little bit.
<<I'm fine, I think. I'm gonna go outside now! I want to check something>> Scaratar replied, appreciating the concern but not quite knowing what to make of it, as well as disregarding all the questions that he was just asked. Attmoz was about to say something but by then the ladybug had already left, leaving him hazed.
Scaratar stood still in front of the forest for what felt like hours (in reality they were just a lousy 5 minutes) when something, or better, someone, emerged from the shade. The creature stepped out from the shadows, appearing much smaller than what they looked like in the dark; it had red hair, in a unique style that Scaratar immediately linked to clowns and circuses, it's head looked cold and was extremely pale, this contrasted the dark coloration of the rest of its body, as well as his bright yellow feather-like mane; its skinny limbs were the same shade of red as the hair, but it turned more purple the closer it got to its chest. The lower part of the body looked exactly like the one of arachnids. This meant that the monster resting in front of them was almost definitely the owner of the cobwebs that he had walked into the previous night.
It all clicked, to Scaratar at least. The creature in front of him must have been the one who brought Scaratar back home on both nights he hadn't gone to bed: he was half right, I'll give him that.
Loodvigg cleared his voice before speaking up. <<Hello. I am Loodvigg, I wanted to apologize for what happened yesterday and I wished to ask you if we could possibly hang out. I apologize yet again if this sounds weird>> he muttered; he looked terrified, as if he secretly wanted to just shrink in a corner and become invisible; it was clear he didn't socialize much, especially because of how formal he was being. Loodvigg and Scaratar were around the same age: both young, maybe comparable to teenagers.
Scaratar was not put off by Loodviggs uncertainty in the slightest and instead flailed his arms around vigorously, excited <<That's ok!! I don't mind, me getting stuck in the cobweb was completely on me, and besides you brought me back home, didn't you!" Scaratar was beaming with excitement, which in turn gave more confidence to Loodvigg.
<<I'm Scaratar! What do you wanna do?>> he quickly added. Loodvigg didn't expect to get this far: he hadn't planned something to do with Scaratar. This made him freeze for a tiny bit, what were they gonna do?
Luckily for Loodvigg, Scaratar was already coming up with a thousand plans before Loodvigg could even think of replying << Oooh!! We could explore the forest! Or we could go to the mall at the city center! Have you ever been there? If not I can show you everything around there! Oh I could also tell you about insects if you want or we could go to my home and we could read or play or d>> and then he kept rambling, Loodvigg carefully listening to him in silence all the while.
He liked the sound of his voice; sadly he forgot to listen to the actual words. Eventually Scaratar piped down and let Loodvigg decide. Him, remembering only the first few things he said, had to choose only between those.
<<how about we explore the forest? I can show you the most gorgeous places in it, if you wish to see them>> he said, subtly smiling. Scaratar glanced at the forest and then back at Loodvigg. You see, if Scaratar were a bomb, he would have positively exploded from the sheer excitement he was feeling, but since he wasn't one he settled for “holding” Loodvigg's hands and excitedly jumping up and down <<let me go tell my cousin Attmoz! He was worried after yesterday and I want to let him know that I'm with you and will be 'till evening!>> he said, sheepishly smiling and darting back into his house, dragging Loodvigg with him.
<<Hey 'Moz! I'm gonna be out on a date with my friend Loodvigg and won't be around for a bunch of hours!>> He said, shoving Loodvigg in front of the doorframe of Attmoz's room, where he was currently laying down on his bed. Attmoz, initially confused by the words "going out on a date with my friend", then got worried when he did not recognize not the name nor the look of this supposed "Loodvigg". <<Wait, who is Loodvigg>> he asked, to which Scaratar awkwardly pointed to, well, Loodvigg.
The spider's usual skittish mannerism was very much visible, it was clear he was a little afraid of Attmoz for whatever reason. It was like trying to hold a cat while bathing it: he was trying his best to somehow flee, even if he had no real way to. In the process, he looked very goofy.
Attmoz sighed, defeated. If his cousin wanted to go out on a date with a random creepy looking guy he found God knows where, he could do that. He did a very nonchalant "whatever" motion and let the two go, the two complying. Whoever this Loodvigg guy was, he didn’t seem like a threat.
The reason Loodvigg was so paranoid about being around Attmoz is because he feared that he had noticed him the previous night, but looking at how neutral Attmoz was to all of this he stopped being so tense.
Now, it was time for Loodvigg to ask more questions, while walking through the forest towards a place only Loodvigg knew about.
<<did you… mean to call this a date? Like, is this a date to you?>> if he had normal blood maybe he would have turned red, or even yellow like bugs' blood is. But he had colorless blood. Anyway you get my point, he blushed, even if it wasn’t visible.
<<why, it's not?>> Scaratar asked, struggling to see the difference between "hanging out" and "going on a date". <<It could be, if you want it to be so>> The spider complied, actually quite excited at the idea of a date. <<Then so shall it be!!>> Scaratar brought out his pincher so that Loodvig could hold it, and so he did. Neither of them had a very clear idea of what romance is, in fact they weren’t even sure whether or not to call this such, but they felt comfortable around each other, that’s for sure.
Eventually, they reached the place Loodvigg wanted to oh so desperately show Scaratar. It was a small clearing inside the deeper parts of the forest; a beautiful lake in the middle of it, a tree growing right from the waters. Loodvigg didn’t like water that much, but even he couldn’t claim that this place looked anything but gorgeous. Scaratar approached the water and promptly started diving in it, briefly concerning the spider.
Scaratar giggled from inside the water, returning to the surface and looking at Loodvigg.
When he understood Loodvigg was not gonna go in, he swam up to him and rested his head on the cold ground outside of the mild water. Almost automatically the spider sat next to him and started brushing his hands between the beetle’s smooth hair.
Bliss.
It felt like time stopped, for those few minutes. Scaratar was talking about something, but the words were all blurry to Loodvigg, who couldn’t manage to focus on them. Scaratar didn’t seem to mind, in fact he kept babbling on whatever he found interesting in that moment. Soon enough, what seemed to be a random discussion turned into confessions, all directed towards the spider. This time, Loodvigg paid attention.
<<I have never felt this way before>> Scaratar admitted, which made Loodvigg tilt his head like a confused puppy. Scaratar played with the water with one of his pinchers, spinning it like the lake was a cauldron. <<I mean. You aren’t my first friend.>> he gestured vaguely <<But I also know you for less than a day and I’ve already felt more than I’ve ever felt with anyone. Did I fall in love with you or with my interpretation of you?>>. This was the first time Scaratar had clarified his feelings for Loodvigg, which made the spider skip a few beats. The arachnid had spent months longing for the ladybug, wishing he could find the courage to ask them out, and now the time had come. This was like a dream come true, he couldn’t mess this up. He thought about this for a bit, before gently cupping his hands around Scaratars face. Scaratar understood what was about to happen and started spinning his pinchers around a little bit, from the excitement. The two moved their heads closer together before clasping each other's lips together.
Loodvigg didn’t exactly have lips, but it was better than nothing, at least they had a mouth.
This was a first kiss for both of them, so they didn’t quite know what to do. After like 5 seconds they both got bored and stopped kissing, not because they didn’t like it! But because kissing happens to be extremely boring.
Scaratar was still extremely excited though, which in turn excited Loodvigg, who shared his own opinion on the argument. <<I believe that we fell in love because it was meant to be. I do not think you have to worry about such frivolities. I have loved you ever since I have laid eyes on you, and I do not believe that feeling love immediately is weird. If you, for any reason, ever feel like we are not meant to be, I will understand. But please be aware of the fact that I will always be in love with you.>> Scaratar nodded excitedly before jumping out of the water.
Quite a lot of time had passed and it was nighttime. The moon had risen and the lake was inhabited by fireflies. It was a sight to see, but they had to hurry back to Scaratar's home by then.
When the pair made it back home, Scaratar and Loodvigg had to say goodbye. It was safe to say that that wouldn’t be the last time they would have met up to do romantic things.
When at home Scaratar started oversharing about the night he had alongside Loodvigg, stimming happily while doing so. Attmoz, although worried, ultimately accepted their relationship. Afterall, it was none of his business.