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With the King in Yellow finally gone, the duo eventually started to get close, forming a deep friendship. Without an eldritch horror getting in their way, without time running out... Just peace and quiet.
After some time, Avery developed some romantic feelings for D3rLord3, but they were thinking that 'the day they'd get a chance to ask him out is the day when it's raining in the Nether'. The knight was so smart, selfless and handsome... Basically, out of the slime’s league. So when Avery discovered that he reciprocated the same feelings, they were on cloud nine.
Fast forward to the present, they were dating! Any of them couldn't feel happier than now. Going on little dates, doing random activities or simply spending time together—it was perfect! Well, almost...
You see, Avery couldn't help but notice something going on with D3rLord3. Everytime the situation would get slightly intimate, the knight would just... stiff. Puffed feathers, rigid shoulders, avoiding eye contact. At first, the slime thought they did something wrong and would check on the avian only for him to dismiss it immediately. That made Avery worry a bit, but wouldn't push the situation further to not make him uncomfortable. They were together for only a couple of weeks, after all, they did not want to screw things up. They just have to wait and see, it seems...
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It was evening. The duo just got inside after a long day of completing chores around their house. Avery went straight towards their bed and dropped their body flat into the soft mattress.
"Maaaaan, what a daaaaay...! I don't want to do that again..." The slime whined, voice muffled by the pillow their head was resting on.
"It was not particularly bad..." D3rLord3 replied from across the room as he removed his armor, carefully placing each piece onto the armor stand.
Avery's head cocked to his direction. "Well, maybe for you! My feet still hurts from all of the standing..." They complained, rubbing one foot in a futile attempt to soothe the ache.
"Please, Avery, you had more than enough breaks... Is your attention span truly that horrible?" The knight asked, a faint hint of teasing slipping into his voice.
"Y'know, at least I know when I should take a break." Replied Avery back defensively while shifting to sit up straight and crossing their arms at their chest. "I mean, you can't even stand still without finding something productive to do! I should probably give you a fitting nickname for that..."
"...Please don't—"
"Oh, I know!" The slime exclaimed, cheerfully ignoring his plea. "What about 'Sir Always-Busy'? Seems perfect in my opinion."
The knight answered answered with a long deadpan stare. "No comment..."
"Aw, man, you're not fun..."
"I apologize, Aves, but I'm also feeling exhausted, y'know..."
'Oh, right...' Thought Avery, his grin fading ever so slightly. Sometimes they forgot that beneath D3rLord3's calm, collected nature was someone who got tired just like anyone else. Not because they actually forgot, it had simply taken him a long time to lower his guard around them. Whenever he let those quieter, more vulnerable parts of himself show, it always caught Avery a little off guard.
Not in a bad way, of course.
If anything, moments like these only reminded the slime that there was still so much to learn about the person they loved. And every new piece they discovered somehow made them adore him even more.
"I'm sorry, Derek! I guess that slipped off my mind..." Apologized the green goop, rubbing shyly the back of their neck.
"You're fine, don't worry."
"...Say, how about we take a small pause from work and do something more relaxing tomorrow instead? Like a... date, or something."
"Hm." D3rLord3 stopped mid-action and thought. "Certainly, I see no reason to object. What did you have in mind?"
Avery's smile grew slightly at the confirmation. "Well, I was thinking something nice but simple—like a picnic! Maybe around the Meadow biome? That place seems lovely."
"You only intend to go there for the purpose of collecting flowers, don’t you?" D3rLord3 lightly teased.
"Well, that's a bonus... but—!" The slime popped the final 't'. "I want to go there merely to have a good time with you. I love spending my time with you a lot, so..." Their voice lowered in a soft tone, a bit vulnerable and sincere.
The knight became silent for a moment before he looked away, one of his headwing slightly twitching.
...Was that bad? Did they said something weird?
"...Dork." He mumbled under his breath.
Huh. Doesn't seem like it...
"I’ll take 'dork' as a compliment, then." They accepted the title with a big grin. "Besides, I was also thinking that you could use that time to continue yapping about that book that you didn't like. Honestly, if you're going to make such a big fuss about it, might as well drop it completely!"
His wings twitched again, this time in annoyance. "I'm not making a big fuss about—"
"Der, please, you wrote like a paragraph with 6 freaking pages about the reasons why you don't like the book. And I'm very sure you didn't even got to the middle of the book!"
'Correct. I need evidence before I can hate it properly." Argued the knight defensively.
Avery placed his slimy hands over his face and rubbed his eyes. "And can you remind me again of why you must complain to me...?"
"If I suffer, you must suffer with me." Explained D3rLord3 with a huff.
That unexpectedly got a chuckle out of the slime before they rolled their eyes. "Pft, whatever you say, nerd..."
The knight moved in front of the bed and sat besides Avery. The slime’s attention moved towards his headwings.
"Hm, I think you need your wings preened again..."
The avian cocked his head slightly at the green goo, taking a small glance at them. "Hm? I mean, sure. You can do that once I'm done in a moment..."
The room was filled with silence, but not the uncomfortable one. It was peaceful, nice and welcoming. However, it was quickly interrupted when Avery decided to start talking again. A little flirty this time...
"Y'know... after everything is done, I can’t wait to fall asleep beside you. I know we're just at the beginning of our relationship and still trying new things, but I was thinking that we could maybe cuddle this time? Like, to hold onto each other and feeling the other's warmth. I could maybe snuggle, kiss or caress my hand across your skin. To play with your hair lazily or to preen your wings while we talk sweetly to each other. Sigh, that would be amazing, would it be Der—?" The slime stopped from rambling when they realized that D3rLord3 wasn't besides them anymore. What? Where did he went?
They looked around and—oh, he was just at the edge of the bed... He could almost fall off.
He was facing his back at them, arms wrapped around his body and wings covering his face. His wings were puffed up, his shoulders were rigid and he looked a bit stiff...
What? Again? What even happened this time...?
"Der?" Called Avery out, worry filling up their voice. No response, but the knight's body seemed to relax a bit. Kind of... Barely...
The slime couldn't brush this off again, not this time. Especially when the situation started to get vulnerable. So, slowly, they shifted their body close to D3rLord3, but keeping an respectful distance since he was probably overwhelmed.
"Derek..." Avery called a second time. "D3ar, are you feeling okay?"
After a moment of quietness which felt like forever, they got a silent nod from him.
'Oh, thank goodness...' They let out a sigh of relief, but the concern didn't left their face.
"...Then what happened? You look tensed up just like a chicken that just remembered it can't fly." Joked Avery, trying to light up the mood a bit, but it seems that their little joke didn't landed quite like they imagined, judging by D3rLord3's lack of response. Hm. Alright. No more jokes, then...
"Um..." The green goop hesitated. "Did I... did I did something wrong? If so, I'm so, so sorry!"
"No!" Added the knight quickly, cocking his head suddenly at the slime, wings parted slightly so he can look at them better. "No, Aves, you're fine. It's just..." Then the avian let out groan in frustration.
Wait, something was different... Avery squinted their green eyes at his face and noticed... blush? An abnormal amount of pinkish blush covering his face. Was D3rLord3 flustered? D3rLord3 and flustered were two things they never thought would be in the same sentence. The knight is usually so composed, serious and— wait, no, they're doing it again! Concentrate, Avery! You need to be more careful with your words this time!
After a long pause, Avery slowly raised their hands towards the knight's covered face, but stopped shortly after. Their hands lingered in the air from the hesitation.
"Can I remove these, D3ar...? Asked the slime with a soft, low tone.
"...You may."
At a snail pace, Avery grabbed the avian's wings and pushed them aside, revealing his pink flushed face. Oh, their theory was right. He was flustered.
"Oh my goodness..." All managed the green goo to spill out.
The slime stared with wide eyes at the knight for a moment, clearly taken aback by this discovery. Was it too late to take his words back?
"...Uh. Aver—?"
"YOU LOOK SOOO CUTE!" They squeaked loud out in excitement.
Then they leaned closer, practically on top of him now, and grabbed his cheeks to squeeze the life out of them.
"I didn't took you the shy type! I mean, you, out of all people?!"
"Mmp, Avery—" Called out D3rLord3, placing his hands over Avery's slimy wrists, but not making an actual move to get away.
"Man, I can't believe this! I just want to scop you in my arms and never let go!" Then Avery peppered his face with light and quick kisses over and over again, going on the same spots repeatedly. They kissed his cheeks, nose, moving down to his lips's corners and jaw.
"Pft, A-Avery—..." Called out the knight, again, giggling despite himself.
"I swear, you could give me cuteness aggression or something right now!" Fake threatened Avery as they snuggled their nose against his.
"I think we're past that..." Teased softly the avian again.
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After another rounds of kisses and giggles, Avery's excitement finally ran out. They decided to rest and switch positions—Avery leaned on their back against the mattress with their arms loosely wrapped D3rLord3's neck while the knight rested on top of them with his arms wrapped around the slime’s waist and head laying on their collarbone.
"Are you enjoying this, Der?" Checked the slime on the knight as they lazily rubbed their slimy finger in small circles against the back of his neck.
"Mhm, a lot... I'm glad I took your suggestion." Offered D3rLord3 a sluggish response, one of his headwings twitching again slightly.
"I'm glad to hear that." Responded the slime with a small squeeze from their grip, their hand trailing up and down D3rLord3's lower back again. "Just a small question..."
"Hm?"
"Were you always feeling... flustered when you became tense?"
D3rLord3 felt how his face started to flush pink again and went and his wings puffed up again. "Wouldn't you like to know...?"
"Wha— I'm being serious, Derek! I'm genuinely curios because... because—!"
"I could tell you, but then I'd have to make up a lie..." He interrupted them cheekily.
"Wow, what an jerk you are..." Huffed Avery as they placed their chin against D3rLord3's head, but there wasn't any real bite behind their words. "In all seriousness, please don't feel the need to hide yourself when you're out of your shell. It's completely normal to feel this way. I love you just the way you are and wouldn't trade anything for it!" Then the slime kissed the top of the knight's head.
The avian let out a pleased sigh. "Mm, I love you too, Aves..." Then he snuggled into the croak of Avery's neck.
"For the record, I still think you're cute..." Snickered the slime.
"Alright, enough, Avery..."
"For real! Man, you had to see the look in your fac–" Their sentence was interrupted by an involuntary yelp from them when D3rLord3 kissed gently the side of their neck. The action made them freaking shudder, speechless and flustered.
"Aww, is not so nice when you're the one feeling flustered? Isn't that right, Aves?" The knight asked with a small smile creeping his face, moking him.
"Y-You—... You can't just do that! Wha— I—" They tried to talk, but nothing came out anymore.
"Oops. Looks like I just did..."
"Asshole!" Then Avery punched one of D3rLord3's sides—not enough to hurt, but playful enough. Both of them ended up in a bunch of giggles and another round of kisses.