Chapter Text
Tomate never considered himself a romantic. No man, woman or anything in between had ever piqued his interest in that way and he sincerely doubted he was attractive enough to gain the favor of someone else.
Or, at least, he used to sincerely doubt that.
Honestly, he had no idea how or why he’d gained the attention of the enigma that is Katie. From his very limited knowledge on romance, she most definitely should not be attracted to someone as plain as himself. She should be after someone within her “league” (as he’d heard others put it), or maybe even above it, if that were possible.
It seems that’s not how the world works, though, as she seems to have made it her mission to show him off as her boyfriend to anyone willing to stop and listen. In fact, they were currently going back to Katie’s home after doing just that.
“…and y’know, you really embarrassed me back there.” She continued on with a sentence he may or may not have been tuning out, “Didn’t your mom teach you it’s nice to call your girlfriend pretty?”
Despite not having eyes—or a face—he couldn’t help but turn his head to avoid her gaze as she turned hers to look back at him. Katie could be so… Intimidating sometimes, be it her intense gaze or the confident way she carried herself, he just felt as if she could tear into him at any moment. Or maybe he’s just a coward that can’t handle the consequences of his actions. Either one could work.
“Helloooo?” Katie spoke a little louder, her voice sounding more distant and distorted as her volume increased. She paused in her walking, a twig snapping beneath her foot as she raised a hand to snap in his face.
God, this feels patronizing… He could feel his face heating up as he shook his head in response to her question.
Satisfied with the answer, she let out a small hum, “Really? That’s, like, the first thing my mom taught me.” He didn’t really believe that, but he wasn’t going to stop her from speaking just to make that known. “Did she teach you anything about having a girlfriend or are you just winging it?”
Were he able to communicate verbally, he’d be quick to tell her how he didn’t have a mother to teach him, but unfortunately he didn’t have that luxury, so he settled for shaking his head again.
“Damn, you were kinda set up for failure then.” She giggled at him, poking at his pale cheek, before beginning her walk again.
“It’s fine, boyfriend!” Does she even know his name? “I like ‘em a little stupid! It’s like, ehh… I dunno, I’ll tell you when I remember!”
Tomate trailed behind her from a comfortable distance as she rambled on. He wasn’t really listening to what she was saying, more focused on the sound of her voice than her words. One of the nice things about Katie was how she could carry on conversations by herself, entertaining ones at that. She didn’t require much input from him when she was talking to herself like this.
Huh. Some might call that crazy. Maybe he should try and have someone check her out to see if something’s wrong with her.
“Anyways, I don’t mind teaching you some stuff, if you want.” She said with a big smile, “I’m probably the best person to learn about this stuff from, actually!”
Ah. See, he wasn’t going to deny this, but at the same time he did not believe her for a second.
Suddenly, as if she could hear his thoughts, she whipped her head around and glared at him. “Nod.” She demanded.
Now that’s a quick way to put the fear of god in him. Like a man possessed, he nodded aggressively. One of the last things he needs right now is for her to pull out TNT and blow him up for upsetting her.
With his reluctant approval, she went back to grinning at him. She slowed her pace to be able to walk next to him, leaning dangerously close to his personal bubble, and held her hand out in front of his body, making a grabbing motion.
Confused, he stared down at it. Did she want him to give her something? An item, maybe? She does seem to like getting free things. Without much thought, he shuffled through his inventory before placing a single piece of iron in her hand. He wasn’t sure where he got it, but he didn’t care for it either.
Now it was Katie’s turn to look confused. She stared at the iron ingot in her hand for a moment, just processing what he’d done before pocketing it.
“Thanks for that, boyfriend, but, uh, I meant your hand.” She chuckled, settling for just taking his hand by his side instead of waiting for him to give it to her.
Tomate watched, intrigued, as she slips her fingers between his own. It felt odd having their palms close together and their fingers intertwined, and though he wouldn’t call it unpleasant, he did wonder why it was something he had to be taught. He couldn’t name one romantic thing about this.
Looking back up at her, she didn’t seem all that excited by this either. He could be wrong, though, he’s not a master of reading facial expressions.
“See, this is a little difficult ‘cause you don’t have a mouth, but don’t you worry, boyfriend! I got this.” She says, bringing his hand up to her lips and pressing a small kiss to the back of his hand.
Yeah, nothing. He still doesn’t understand what’s so cool about this. He could do this to anyone—er, if he had lips—what’s so special about doing it with Katie?
“Normally you would’ve been the one to do that part,” She explains as she pulls his hand away from her face, “Because you’ve gotta be a gentleman, right? But since you don’t have a mouth you kinda can’t, so I did it for you instead.” How noble.
“So, people do that because it’s really sweet! A good boyfriend—or girlfriend for us, I guess?—holds and kisses his partner’s hand because it’s like…” She trails off before shrugging, tugging his hand down as she puts her hand at her side, “I’m just bullshitting actually, people just like it.”
That’s weird. People don’t even have a reason for it? He doesn’t understand people like that; people without reasons. Everyone’s got a reason for everything, so saying there is no reason for even something as simple as liking something is odd.
It’s not like he needs to tell her that, though. She probably doesn’t care enough about stuff like that.
He’s dragged out of his thoughts both literally and figuratively as she pulls him along to the shore approaching her home island and just as quickly as they had started, they stopped holding hands. It feels much better to have his hand to himself than it does to have it be someone else’s for a period of time, just another reason why holding hands isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
“Welp, this is my stop!” Katie exclaimed, nudging Tomate with her elbow, “I’ll see you later, boyfriend!”
He waves her off as she gets in her familiar wooden boat, beaten from the many poor parking jobs she’s done. He’s surprised she didn’t drag him in there as well, but he isn’t one to complain. He just gets a little time to himself before she inevitably finds him once more.