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“Move aside! I can’t see anything!”
“No, Kel, you move!”
Kel and Aubrey were hidden behind a bush, both shoving each other as they tried to get a better view of the couple sitting just beyond the shrubbery. The two had accidentally stumbled upon them when they were exploring the forest, and their curiosity led them to stick around so they could try and get a peek at what the couple were getting up to.
The couple in question was Hero and Mari. They were sitting on a picnic blanket that was laid out on the grass, sharing kisses and whispering God knows what to each other...
When Kel and Aubrey got a good view, though, they both reeled back in childish disgust and slapped their hands over their eyes. It was sort of surprising that the other two hadn’t heard them, considering how dramatic their response was.
“Eww... They’re weird!” Aubrey whined as the two turned away from the couple.
Kel willed himself to take a peek, just in case the two had stopped shoving their tongues down each other’s throats, but all he saw was Hero’s bright red face. “He looks like a tomato...”
Aubrey follows his actions, peeking from between her fingers, “Can they.. like... get a room..?” She says as the two shudder at the sight in front of them and turn away once more.
They both chose to ignore the fact it was them that chose to stick around, and technically the couple were in a secluded spot.
“I wish... What’s so good about kissing anyway? It’s so...” Kel trails off, not knowing how to describe the weird feeling he got in his stomach by the thought of kissing somebody else... Especially Aubrey.
“Gross..?” Aubrey suggests, deadpanning.
“Yeah! Gross...” The boy awkwardly averts his eyes.
Aubrey huffs, realising the boy isn’t telling her something. It’s not like she really cares though, so the two quickly leave the scene of the crime to continue their aimless wandering.
Soon enough, the two found themselves in the Junkyard. Crates full of trash lined the path through it, and Aubrey swears the sun beaming at them from above is making it smell worse than usual. She was rather against the idea of coming here, she hated how bad it smelled... But, Omori was away, so it wasn’t like the two had anything better to do. They were going to invite Basil, but since he wasn’t anywhere to be found, they both assumed he was with Omori and gave up on looking for him.
“Eugh...” Aubrey frowned, trying to sidestep around all the pieces of junk littering the ground.
To her surprise, and disgust, she sees Kel rummaging through the trash. Aubrey’s forced to wait for him, despite her better judgement, as she doesn’t wanna be alone. It was rather disgusting for her, her ideal day plan wasn’t sifting through trash! But, she’d gotten quite used to Kel’s antics at this point. She silently prayed he’d wash his hands afterwards this time, though...
It seems Kel’s found something of interest, as he plucks some trash from a pile and shoves it in her face, “Yeah! Look what I got, Aubs!”
Aubrey groans, a disapproving look on her face as she takes a few steps back from Kel, “Can you like... not..?”
“You’re no fun...” He mumbles quietly, but Aubrey picks up on his words.
“Digging through trash isn’t fun, it’s gross!” Aubrey complains and Kel pouts, though he soon moves on from his disappointment as they continue exploring the Junkyard.
Aubrey begrudgingly follows behind the far more enthusiastic boy and they continue their stroll through the Junkyard, taking down a few foes along the way. Everything was going relatively well until they ran into a far more powerful foe that had intimidatingly large teeth— Kel throws his ball as an advantage as the foe was in the air, however, he’s not so great at aiming... So it ends up bouncing off one of the Junkyard’s crates and smacking Aubrey right in the face.
“Ow! Kel!” Aubrey yelps, stumbling back as she cups her face.
Ugh, Kel was so annoying...
“Heh, my bad...” Kel gives her a halfhearted, apologetic smile before returning his focus to the enemy that was just about to attack Aubrey.
“Move out of the way, Kel! I can hit him!” Aubrey yells and pushes him to the side, trying to get in line with the Shark Plane as she readies Mr. Plantegg.
“Yeahh, sure you can...” Kel sarcastically replies, but he tries to intercept with his ball anyways, which ends in both their attacks missing.
As they both struggle, fighting over who gets to hit the foe, the Shark Plane takes them off guard with a strong blow, making Kel lose his footing.
“Ow...!” Kel instinctively latches onto Aubrey, taking her down with him, and they both hit the concrete floor. Hard.
It’s enough to leave a scrape on Aubrey’s knee.
“Ugh! Kel, this is all your fault!” Aubrey accuses as she shifts into a sitting position, glaring at Kel.
“You probably wouldn’t have even hit it, anyways!” He replies. “I bet I could’ve taken it down if you weren’t here!”
Aubrey grumbles something unintelligible beneath her breath, before shouting at the boy, “You know what? Fine! I didn’t even wanna hang out with you anyways.” Aubrey storms off with her head down, running in a random direction.
Kel huffs, he’d really done it now... But, she totally deserved it! She threw the whole fight! After stalling on the Junkyard’s floor for a few moments, he got up and decided that he should probably go find her. It wasn’t like he wanted to see her or anything... He was just bored and had nothing else to do...
“Aubrey... Where are youuu...?” He calls out in a sing-song tone as he wanders around the place, she must be close! Aubrey wasn’t that fast of a runner...
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take him all that long to find her. She was atop a stack of crates, sitting on an old couch that was for some reason up there. He figured it was probably because you could get a pretty good view of the moon from up here, so the locals might come visit or something...
As he takes a few steps closer, he gets a better look at the girl. She has her knees drawn tightly to her chest, and she was hugging Mr. Plantegg with enough force to crush him. If that wasn’t bad enough, she’d also buried her face into him.
Oh... Kel kinda feels bad.
Normally, he’d just blame it all on Aubrey, it was mostly Aubrey’s fault anyway, but today he was feeling a little nicer. Not enough to actually say sorry, though.
“Aubrey, come on, I didn’t... really mean that.” Kel called out to her, not sounding the most convincing. He looks at the ground, sighing loudly.
After a moment of silence, Aubrey finally replies, “Go away, Kel!”
Deciding to simply brush her words off, Kel plops himself onto the couch, sitting next to her. He doesn’t leave her any room, practically glued to her side as he stubbornly waits for her to address him.
Aubrey raises her head to give him a sidelong glare. He can see her puffy red eyes. He can’t help but feel a little uncomfortable at the unpleasant sight. Aubrey never cried, so why was she upset over such a small argument?
“Did you.. cry?” Kel asks, despite the fact the answer was rather obvious.
Aubrey avoids his gaze, muttering a weak, “No...”
“Come on! Cheer up! It isn’t like you to act like this...” He pouts. What was he gonna do if Aubrey wasn’t going to listen to him? It’d be dangerous to split up, especially after what had just happened.
Since he was a little bored, and wanted to stop Aubrey from feeling so down, he pokes her without a second thought. After all, he’d rather them engage in their usual banter than her for her to sit sulking in a Junkyard by herself.
Aubrey flinches, clearly not expecting the contact, as she sends Kel another glare, “Stop that.” She grumbles, shifting a few inches away from Kel where they sat on the couch.
Kel regained the inches and then some, until they were pretty much pressed side by side. His face started to feel warm, warmer than usual, though it didn’t feel too dissimilar to after they’d just taken down a big enemy.
“You kinda look like Hero...” Aubrey tilts her head to the side a little, trying to get a better look at Kel’s face, annoyance seemingly replaced with a slight curiosity.
“Heh, well of course I do!” He smiles proudly at the comment. After all, being compared to Hero was a compliment, right...?
At least, he hoped it was.
“No, I mean like...” Aubrey pauses, trying to find the right words, before pointing out, “You’re all pink.”
“What d’you mean?!”
He can see a slight hint of frustration cross Aubrey’s features, she never really liked having to repeat herself, “I mean, you’re... blushing. Like Hero was.”
Kel’s brows furrow. Was he? He didn’t really know why he would be. Don’t you blush when you’re like.. in love? Ew. He wasn’t in love with Aubrey!
“I— No I’m not...!”
“You totally are.” Aubrey countered impassively.
They sit in awkward silence, simply staring at each other. Kel breaks the eye contact first, favouring looking up at the moon. Aubrey’s eyes linger on him for a moment, before she follows his gaze up to the big rock in the sky.
She wonders if this is how Hero and Mari feel.
What if she tried kissing him? Like Mari did to Hero! She kinda wanted to see how it felt. She’s a little confused with her feelings right now. And just a little bit curious...
She fidgets with Mr. Plantegg in her lap, biting the inside of her cheek.
Before she can stop herself, the words slip out. “You know... I wouldn’t mind if we...” Aubrey mumbled under her breath, immediately regretting what just came out of her mouth.
“Huh?” Oh.. Thankfully he didn’t hear a single thing she said.
Her grip on the plush aubergine tightens, the air in the Junkyard felt a lot tighter than it did when they’d first arrived here. She wouldn’t say it was a bad thing, though, it was just a little tense.
Without exchanging any more words, Aubrey shifts ever so slightly closer to Kel, deciding to just go for it. She tilts her head into his space before kissing him lightly on the cheek, catching him by surprise.
Kel jumps, almost falling off the couch. “W—What was that for!?”
“That’s for hitting me with your ball.” Aubrey huffs, trying to play it off, as her eyes dart away and she fiddles with the hem of her oversized shirt.
Kel can see a soft pink blooming on her cheeks, just like how she’d described his own.
“You’re blushing too...” He mumbles.
Kel moves closer to Aubrey once again, not saying anything, nor making eye contact. Instead, he hesitantly lets his hand travel to rest over Aubrey’s, like he’d seen Hero do to Mari before. He was stuck between wanting to pull away and call her gross or pull her closer.
Aubrey feels nervous. Really nervous. She wants to say something, anything, but the words escaped her.
After taking in a deep breath, she finally speaks up. “Well... I forgive you.” Aubrey mumbles, resting her head on Kel’s shoulder as they both look at the moon.
“...Wanna try out what Hero and Mari did?” Aubrey offers.
And so, before they know it, it’s just them in this world. There’s nobody to bother them, and no more petty arguments to be had...
Maybe Kel isn’t so bad after all.