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“Y’see, it started right here. There was sum strange knockin’ on m’ door last night, but none was on th’ other side!” Yellow explained, gesturing to the door that loomed in front of the flowers. Orange watched it warily, her body tense and prepared to fight if need be. Usually, she rolled her eyes at the label above Yellow’s room. He had a tendency to be a bit dramatic, overreacting to the smallest mistakes, and Orange usually found his room to be more relaxing than anything. But at that moment, its moniker as ‘The Bad Way’ certainly wasn’t doing anything for her nerves. She was very brave, but the prospect of any part of the castle being haunted…even she could admit it was unsettling.
However, Orange kept reminding herself that Yellow came to her for help with the ghosts, flattering her with all kinds of compliments on her bravery, talking about how she was the first person he thought of when deciding who to ask for help. Of course, she wouldn’t have expected him to have thought of anyone else, but it was nice to hear. She also came because she really, really wanted to prove Seth wrong. They wouldn’t even consider that Yellow’s room could be haunted, and they were being very pompous about it.
“Alright, someone was knocking on your door, and…you opened it to no one there?” they questioned.
Upon hearing Yellow ask for Orange’s help, Seth immediately insisted on joining the pair, because “it was impossible for the room to be haunted” and “if left to their own devices, they would end up fighting air”. Orange would have preferred they not come, but Yellow expressed how relieved he’d be if all of the happenings in his room were, as he put it, ‘co-inkydinks’, so along Seth went.
This, of course, led to Aqua joining as well. She always seemed to be listening whenever Seth talked, but her takeaways managed to be completely different than what they wanted. Naturally, this meant she wanted to play with the ghosts rather than disprove their existence, and thus added herself to the group by eagerly bouncing on Yellow’s head until he conceded. Now, she was trying to see which of her limbs fit inside the keyhole to Yellow’s room. Every time she managed to successfully get an arm or leg inside, she would wave excitedly to Seth, who would sigh while shaking their head. The attention was still enough for her to giggle and move on to the next limb.
“Err, well, I didn’t wanna make no noise by openin’ the door, so I jus’ looked through that there peephole. But there really was nothin’ out there!” Yellow asserted. He pointed at the peephole in question, which the rest of the flowers turned to see was…the keyhole Aqua currently had one of her legs in.
Seth stared at the door, then at Yellow, disbelief painting every facet of their expression. They moved to launch into one of their rants, but a pointed look from Blue stopped them. They opted to shake their head in incredulity.
Blue, who accompanied them under the guise of wanting to have a polite conversation with the ghosts rather than fight (though Orange knew it was actually because Yellow was afraid of ghosts, unlike her), placed a delicate hand on Yellow’s shoulder. “Yellow, dear,” he began gently, in the tone he always employed when explaining something that Yellow didn’t quite understand, “Our doors have no peepholes. I believe…you were attempting to gaze through the keyhole, my love.”
Yellow jumped in surprise. “Huh?! So, yer sayin’...I can’t see outside from inside?” he asked.
Blue shook his head. “No, you cannot,” he replied, rubbing Yellow’s shoulder.
“So…there may’ve bean a feller outside afterall?”
“It seems that may be the case, yes.”
Yellow stared at the door for a few seconds. The keyhole on his side was now empty, Aqua having moved on to shoving her left arm into the one on Blue’s door. “Oh,” was all he said. Seth pinched the bridge of their nose. Orange looked at him awkwardly.
In the silence, Flowery finally decided to interject, stating, “Hey guys, I think Green has something2say.” The group all shifted their gazes to Green, who was, in fact, waving their arms, though the motion wasn’t carried out with any urgency.
They and Flowery had been standing toward the back of the group since they arrived, given their decision to join the ghost-busting quest could essentially be boiled down to “sure, why not”. Neither seemed all that invested – Orange knew Green was just happy to be with everyone, and the way Flowery announced his attendance indicated he already knew whether or not the room was haunted. She also knew neither of them would be afraid of ghosts anyway, a trait she looked up to. Hopefully, helping Yellow would make her more like them in that regard. Not that she was afraid. She just wanted to be even braver.
With everyone’s attention on them, Green smiled guiltily and whipped out a sign. ‘Sorry that was me haha’ it read.
“Y–you?!” Yellow exclaimed. Green nodded, tapping the sign for emphasis. Yellow looked between Green and Blue in shock. “Green, you were a’knockin’ on my door? Why?”
Green rustled through their pockets for a new sign. Once they found the correct one, they pointed a finger at Blue while raising it into the air, the sign reading, ‘You owe me $2’. Blue’s typically-content smile tightened, as did his posture. “Ah, we’re returning to this, I see…” he mumbled, his tone unusually bitter.
“Blue, you STILL haven’t paid them back?!” Orange shouted. Green moseyed over to her and gently patted her on the head – their way of saying thanks, Orange had come to learn.
Blue’s left eye twitched, though he was able to maintain his composure otherwise. Orange knew he was very good at doing so, because every time Green sent her to hassle him for his payment, she liked to see how close she could get to making him snap. He was too perfect! She wanted to see if he could get angry like she did! The closest she’d gotten was a cold smile and a quiet utterance of, “Not all of us get free meals from the only chef around”, which she was positive he was thinking at that moment.
This time, however, he opted to stay quiet as Yellow asked, “But if y’all need somethin’ from Blue, why’d ya come t’ me?”
Green’s response was to stare at Blue with a deadpan expression, one Blue just so happened to turn away from so he could look at Yellow instead. Yellow looked at them both inquisitively, not quite understanding that the answer to his question was being actively carried out right in front of him.
“If I may, it’s most likely because–” Seth began, though Orange was quick to interrupt them.
“Because Blue IGNORES Green everytime they ask!! So they were probably gonna ask YOU to ask him instead!!!” she announced. She smirked at Seth triumphantly while they sent a frustrated scowl her way.
“Oh…but…I couldn’t ask Blue t’...so…it wasn’t a ghoul?” Yellow stuttered, beginning to fidget with his hat. Seth shook their head and opened their mouth to say something, but they were once again interrupted, this time by Blue, who sensed Yellow’s growing distress and also desperately wanted to move on from the conversation.
He took Yellow’s hand in his and began to lead him closer to the door, handing Yellow the key on the way. “Come now, Yellow. You said there were other ghostly happenings in your room, yes? I believe the time has come for our little bouquet to address them,” he urged.
Yellow warily took the key from Blue. “Yeah…you’re right, Blue. We came here t’ do a justice, so…” he replied. Blue flashed him a reassuring smile, which Yellow returned. He inserted the key and unlocked his door, motioning for Blue to head in first to be chivalrous, but then realized they were there to hunt ghosts and walked protectively in front of Blue instead.
Green shook their head before turning to Orange, holding out their palm for her to jump onto. She gratefully obliged, eventually climbing onto her rightful spot atop their chef’s hat. She looked behind her and saw Seth call out to Aqua, who lit up once she noticed they were finally going inside. She darted in ahead of Orange and Green. Seth yelled at her to wait, but she was already too far ahead; or, more likely, not listening. They sighed and ran in as well, nearly tripping over their robe.
Flowery took up the rear, strolling his way to the room while sporting an amused grin. “C’mon, hurry, big bro!” Orange shouted, waving her gloves.
He chuckled, speeding up just a bit to satisfy her. “Coming, coming,” he replied, falling into step beside Green. With everyone accounted for, Orange began readying herself to face what could possibly be a real ghost. She practiced punches atop Green’s hat, doing her best to warm herself up while not wrinkling their toque – it was the one thing Green made her promise not to do if she wanted to travel on top of them.
They traveled for only a few moments, until Green came to a halt behind Seth, who managed to wrangle Aqua and was skeptically scanning the room. Orange hopped off of Green to join Yellow at the edge of the pool. She glanced back to give her thanks for the ride and was met with two proud smiles from both Green and Flowery. The gestures invigorated her, and with a quick, loud expression of thanks, Orange darted to Yellow’s side, ready to face any ghost that came her way.
“Now this here hauntin’ happened real quick after the knockin’,” Yellow explained. He pointed at one of the lilypads decorating the pool and continued, “My lilypads was movin’, n’ there was splashin’ in the pool, but I didn’t see no one swimmin’! There’s was also laughin’, n’ even though laughin’s great, it ain’t so great when it’s a durn ghoul.” He shook his head disapprovingly toward the end of his explanation, and his expression was decently serious; at least, for Yellow. It was a far cry from the goofy cowboy Orange was used to, and a reminder that when he wasn’t trying to “do a justice” on himself, Yellow took everything he perceived to be unjust very earnestly.
Orange focused intensely on the water. Perhaps if she stared hard enough, she’d somehow become aware of the ghost. Seth told her about how humans sometimes experienced the odd intuition of knowing when someone was watching them, and the ghost would certainly be watching them at that moment, so naturally, that intuition would come to her as well. It was also a good way of ignoring her lingering nerves.
She knew Seth probably had something annoying to say, so she prepared to tune them out. Aqua’s high-pitched, ever-energized voice was certainly a surprise, and it must have been for Yellow as well, given he and Orange were startled out of their focused states.
“Last night? Swimming? Uee hee hee, I was swimming last night! It was fun!” she cheered. Seth’s grip on her torso made it difficult for her to hop in place, though it did not stop her from trying. She knocked their glasses from their face and onto the floor. Seth immediately let go of her and dropped to their knees to blindly search the ground while Aqua took the opportunity to jump right into the pool.
Like a gust of wind to a lone leaf, the resulting splash almost knocked Orange off her feet, though Yellow did try to take the brunt of it. “AQUA!” Orange yelled, “BE CAREFUL! YOU…wait. You were swimming last night? In HERE? In THIS pool?”
Aqua nodded eagerly, continuing to splash water outside the pool. Orange wondered if she was doing it intentionally or simply trying to tread water. “Yeah, swimming is fun! You should try, Orange!” she exclaimed. She flew out of the pool, her arms outstretched in Orange’s direction.
“AGH, STOP!” Orange shouted. She scurried up Yellow’s back and tried to hide herself on the back of his neck.
As Aqua tried to catch Orange, Seth jumped up from the floor, their glasses back in their rightful place. “Hah! So this wasn’t a ghost either! It was just Aqua,” they boasted with a smirk so prideful it made Orange want to tackle it right off their face.
Yellow grabbed Aqua from the air and gently placed her on the ground, ruffling her hair a bit once her feet were securely planted. “I dunno, lil’ Aqua,” he hummed. “Ya’d have t’ be underwater for a while, else I’d’ve seen ya.” He tapped his foot, the panel walker in his horse-pen of a brain turning in thought.
“I was playing the holding your breath game! The Shinobeetles said I did it for ten minutes!” she announced with a spin.
“T–ten minutes?!” Seth stammered. “That…that’s not possible! The average human can only hold their breath for two!”
“Huh? I thoughts it was thirty sec’nds…” Yellow murmured, still deep in thought. Blue placed a delicate hand on his back.
Orange hoisted herself onto his shoulder, and despite being directly next to his ear, still thought it appropriate to yell, “That’s just how long it takes for one of us to pull you OUT, dummy!! STOP using your pool to PUNISH yourself!!”
“Hey, that’s pretty good, Aqua! Try getting to 20 next time!” Flowery encouraged. Beside him, Green clapped for Aqua, amazed by her lung capacity.
Seth blanched at their responses and vigorously shook their head. “N–no, don’t try 20, that’s highly dangerous!” they called out to Aqua. They then turned to Flowery and began reprimanding him. “Why would you encourage her to do that?! You know she will!” they scolded. Flowery brushed off their worries with an unconcerned hair-flip. Seth grumbled.
“Ugh, whatever! The pool stuff was Aqua, can we move on now?” they demanded. They aimed the question at Blue, who they knew they could rely on to refocus the group and actually be listened to – a quality they envied greatly.
Blue, being very familiar with cues, gifted Seth a nod and once again gripped Yellow’s hand. “I am inclined to agree with Seth. Lead the way to the next area of intrigue, won’t you, Yellow?” he asked, slowly attempting to lead Yellow away from the water’s edge.
Yellow refocused himself, expressing his agreement, but insisted he remain in front at all times. “We’re headin’ deep into ghoul territory now,” he warned them. “Y’all can watch, but make sure ya leave these criminells t’ the profeshinells.” He aimed his words and gaze at Orange, who giddily realized that Yellow meant both him and her. She excitedly scurried to the top of his head and burrowed herself under his hat. When she stood up, one could see her (perfectly sized) human form peeking out from beneath.
“Yeah, to the PROFESHINELLS!” she echoed, jumping enthusiastically.
With a nod, Yellow set off into the next part of his room, labeled with yet another sign about punishment. This time, however, Orange took the label not as a bad omen, but an encouraging message regarding how she and Yellow were going to handle the ghosts. They weren’t going to get away with haunting Yellow’s room – not if she could help it!
There was a lull in conversation as the bouquet made their way through the room. It was an uncommon silence, especially considering Aqua, who couldn’t focus to save her life, and Flowery, who loved hearing the sound of his own voice, were part of the group. Orange spared a quick glance back at everyone, trying to make sure a ghost didn’t snatch them from behind. Blue was gracefully tiptoeing directly behind her and Yellow, a fond smile resting on his lips as he watched his lover take the lead. When he noticed Orange watching, he shifted his gaze to her, and his expression metamorphosed to an encouraging one meant just for her. She flushed and looked elsewhere. Of course, Blue would be happy for her, too. His focus on Yellow sometimes made her forget how much he loved them all.
Behind him was Seth, who walked arm-in-hyperactive-arm with Aqua. She looked curiously throughout the room, sometimes pointing out the little contraptions Seth designed themselves. A soft smile would bloom on Seth’s face in return. As pompous as Seth’d been since everyone assembled for this mission, Orange really did like their genuine smile. It was not seen often, but when it was there, it meant Seth felt appreciated. Orange could never fault them for wanting to feel appreciated. And Aqua always seemed to know when they – not just Seth, but any of the flowers – needed some appreciation.
Taking up the rear, as had been the case previously, were Flowery and Green. Both held content grins as they watched the rest of the group. Flowery saw her and lightly elbowed Green, pointing to Orange once he had their attention. Green’s eyes lit up and they happily waved to her, while Flowery gifted her an encouraging thumbs-up. Orange waved eagerly to both in return. She wanted to show them how brave she was, so with the knowledge that the group was still there and that Flowery and Green were watching, she turned back around to face the ghosts. She couldn’t leave Yellow by himself to handle them, after all.
A loud, muffled groan suddenly startled her from her thoughts, demanding the attention of the entire group. Yellow jumped, his hand warily hovering over one of his holsters. Orange assumed a fighting stance. Blue gestured for the others to huddle in closer, while Seth reflexively grabbed Aqua before she could fly ahead. Flowery and Green exchanged quizzical glances, but obliged to Blue’s silent request.
The groaning continued behind a paper wall and the bouquet watched in anticipation as the noise grew closer. At the same time, a rhythmic banging erupted much further down the hallway they’d been traversing. There were multiple ghosts, Orange anxiously realized. She took an adrenaline-fueled leap off Yellow’s head, attempting to place herself between both ghosts, her heart pounding. She was brave, and this is what she was here to do. But how would she even fight a ghost? Wouldn’t her punches phase through them?
“Right, Orange, looks like we’s gotta split up for this one. I’ll take the bangin’, you take the sangin’,” Yellow instructed her. Orange steadied herself – no way was she going to let Yellow be braver than her when he was supposed to be the scared one!
“O–okay, Yellow. I can…I CAN DO IT!!!” she yelled, moreso in an attempt to reassure herself than him. He nodded, flashing her a confident smile. As he turned to leave, Aqua jumped onto his back, insisting she go with him. According to her, the banging sounded like things being thrown, and she wanted to throw stuff, too. He resisted at first, preferring she stay with the group just to be safe, but Green moseyed over to the pair. They wanted to go as well. Yellow was still expressing doubts, but Green simply walked ahead after a firm pat on his back, not giving Yellow a choice. They pointed to their shoulders and glanced at Aqua, who lit up. She pounced on them, taking an excited seat, and pointed forward.
“W–wait for me, y’all! This might be a dangerous criminell!” Yellow exclaimed. He ran after the two, leaving the remaining flowers to listen as the sound of his bootsteps got farther away and the muffled moans of the ghost came closer.
The flowers who remained in her group were Flowery, Seth, and Blue, each presence adding more pressure. She wanted to show Flowery and Blue how brave she was, how she was strong. And she really wanted to prove Seth wrong. They eyed the paper wall skeptically while the two others simply watched on with curiosity, though Blue gave her the grace of appearing just a little bit tense.
Around the corner flew a purple book, very obviously the source of the noise, given it was now the loudest it had been. There was a mysterious eye plastered on its cover – perhaps an indication of a ghostly presence possessing it. This was it. Time to fight a real ghost, no matter how hard her gloves were trembling.
Behind Orange, Seth paled at the sight. Blue allowed an elegant chuckle to escape him, but seemed to come to a realization as to why the book was groaning and side-eyed Seth instead. Flowery simply uttered, “Huh, wood you look at that.”
Orange felt her face grow warm in embarrassment, the feeling she typically encountered when her strength or the size of her form were patronized. The others, they weren’t taking this threat seriously at all! She tried to just focus on the ghost. The ghost that was definitely a ghost and something they should be scared of and something she was going to take care of. A ghost that looked…well, now that she thought about it…oddly familiar?
“Hey Seth, isn’t that one of your books?” Flowery asked, ever the instigator.
Orange whipped around to face them. Seth looked away guiltily, nervously scratching the back of their head. “I, uh…hmm, yes, it certainly looks like one of mine…heh…” they stammered.
“SETH! I didn’t know your books could TALK! And YELL! Maybe you’re way cooler than I thought…” Orange exclaimed. The book let out yet another groan.
“They, uh, can’t,” Seth stated. They were trying very hard to avoid Blue’s gaze.
“Seth, I believe we’ve already addressed this,” Blue said, his voice dripping with something akin to disappointment, though not quite. It was a tone Toriel would use when Asgore and Rudy got themselves into trouble. Orange almost felt like she was in trouble.
She tilted her head in confusion, absentmindedly flicking one of her ears. Flowery strode up to the book and whipped it open, revealing a Floradinn trapped within its pages.
Well, she certainly wasn’t expecting that. Orange doubled over with laughter, the reveal engulfing any disappointment she had over there still being no ghost. Seth couldn’t flaunt that they were technically correct this time! “HA HA! GOOD JOB, SETH!” she cackled.
“Sh…shut up!” they cried, their face flushed in embarrassment. “It, it really is scientific! And they like it!” The Floradinn concurred with a slow nod and a wide, relaxed smile. This, of course, didn’t matter to Orange, who continued laughing at Seth.
Yellow suddenly returned to the group with Green on his shoulders and Aqua on theirs. The three had bright smiles on their faces – smiles of three humans who just took down a ghost on their own. Orange tried to reign herself in so she could pay attention to what the three of them encountered, but every time she glanced at Seth, a giggle would escape her. Until they walked over and pushed her headband over her eyes. Then she had to focus on shimmying it back up with her oversized, unopposable gloves.
“Y’all taken care of the ghoul?” Yellow asked, gently letting Green off of him. Aqua took notice of the Floradinn and flew up to them. They offered her their stick-sword, which she happily swiped and began licking.
Flowery shook his head and placed a firm hand on Yellow’s shoulder. “No pepper here, Yellow. Just Seth pressing Floradinns again,” he relayed to the cowboy. “You take care of yours?”
“Nuh uh, there wun’t no ghoul, for us, neither. Just one o’ my big gun’s shootin’ bullets,” Yellow explained with a sheepish grin. Flowery chuckled and patted him on the back.
Seth sighed deeply, regaining their composure in an attempt to ignore the elephant’s-ear in the room. “Listen, Yellow. None of these ‘hauntings’ have been actual ghosts. In fact, they all seem to have been caused by us. Can you just…tell us what else has you worried so we can admit to what we did and wrap this up?” they proposed. Orange frowned at their urgency. Weren’t they having fun? For as nervous as she’d been throughout the journey, she was still at least enjoying herself! Being around and protecting the other flowers, it was fun!
“Hnn, I don’t see why not. I’ve taken heaps of y’all’s time already…” Yellow mused. He glanced at the rest of the flowers and addressed them. “What d’ y’all think?” he asked, tapping his boot.
“I wanna keep ghost hunting!!” Orange shouted while waving her gloves frantically.
Aqua echoed her sentiment, an enthusiastic, “Me too! Me too!” able to be deciphered between licks.
“I’ll do whatevers my buds wanna do,” Flowery replied. Green’s answer was the same, giving Yellow an agreeable nod.
With two eager yay’s, one nay, and two ‘whatevers’, the decision should have been final, made in the direction of the excited ghost-hunters. However, given the only one left who hadn’t given his input was Blue, Yellow turned to him for the vote that would be most important. And the vote Yellow would probably have listened to regardless.
Blue hummed in thought, his eyes closed. Once opened, he gazed affectionately at Yellow and proposed, “Perhaps you regale to us the tales of your ghostly encounters, and if the event sounds plausible enough to have been carried out by a specter, we investigate it together?”
Yellow’s mouth blossomed into a soft smile. “Right, that sounds reason’ble, I s’pose,” he agreed. Orange deflated a bit, but she tried not to let her disappointment show. There was still a chance they would find some ghosts, she reminded herself.
“Go on then, dear,” Blue urged. Yellow nodded, then pointed to a paper wall that had been ripped open just a few steps away from the group.
“First n’ foremost, that there wall’s was ripped open last night! Them floorboards nearby was creakin’, n’ I heard some skitterin’ like a lil’ creature was runnin’ ‘round,” he explained, making sure to maintain eye contact with each flower so they knew he was talking to them all, not just Blue.
Creaking floors? Ripped paper walls? Skittering…? Orange’s eyes instinctively widened. She glanced at the others worriedly, eventually landing on and fully staring Seth, because the minute they figured it out, she wouldn’t hear the end of it. Not after she laughed at them. She kept her mouth shut. She would rather face 100 ghosts than admit the ‘ghost’ being described was definitely her, and that she was basically running around blindly because it was dark and she was…maybe just a little tiny bit afraid. Just a bit.
Unfortunately, she quickly found that staring at Seth was a bad idea, actually, because they twisted their head around to make eye contact with her. They examined her for a short moment, though it was long enough to notice her panic. They smirked as her expression surely shifted to reflect being caught. Orange shook her head profusely, silently begging Seth not to say anything, but she knew it was in vain.
In fact, they knew exactly how to make Orange admit to the acts herself. “Skittering, you say?” they began smugly. They made sure to turn to her before continuing, “Perhaps, like a mouse?”
“HEY! I’M A HUMAN!” Orange yelled, stomping her foot, though the sound that resulted was less like angry kicking and more like tiny taps on the ground. “And, and, so WHAT if I was running around in here?! Don’t act like all you chibbies aren’t a LITTLE scared in the dark!!” she admitted. She looked away in a huff and tried to cross her arms. Her gloves got in the way, so she opted to place them on her hips instead.
“Oh, I see! So th’ paper walls rippin’ was jus’ Orange, n’ I couldn’t see her cuz’ she’s itty-bitty,” Yellow concluded. Orange shot him what she imagined was a threatening glare, but it looked more like a pout. Past him, Aqua began chasing the Floradinn with the book, trying to trap them within its pages again. Seth sighed at the sight and despawned it, shifting Aqua’s attention to them. She flew over to them, their head in her sights, so they started running. Aqua’s chase resumed, the Floradinn now replaced by Seth.
Flowery walked over and knelt down next to Orange while Green gave her a supportive pat on the head. “No tear’s, Orange. Those paper walls didn’t stand a chance against your strength!” he beamed. Orange glanced up at him, a bit of her anger dissipating. He always knew exactly how to cheer her up…even if what he said had barely any relation to what made her upset in the first place.
A smile slowly found its way back onto her tiny face. “Yeah…yeah, you’re RIGHT!” she exclaimed.
Green lightly tapped her on the shoulder, taking her attention away from any lingering anger, and held up a sign. ‘What were u doing in here Ory’ it read, Green echoing the words with an eyebrow quirked in curiosity.
Orange paled, her eyes darting to Blue. “Uhh, umm,” she stuttered, though Blue looked composed as ever. If he held any of the worry Orange was feeling, it was delicately tucked behind closed eyes and a calm smile. As though he sensed Orange looking at him, his eyes fluttered open, a reassuring glint residing within them which was aimed specifically at her.
“I requested Orange’s assistance on the stage yesternight. She was truly quite a help. Mr. Butterfly would have been befuddled without her,” he interjected, making sure an appreciative grin flitted its way over to her. She beamed back.
Green nodded and gave Orange a warm thumbs-up. However, Yellow gasped, gripping Blue’s shoulders.
“Th–the STAGE?! Blue, there was a GHOUL at th’ stage last night! It didn’t git in th’ way of one o’ yer beautyful performantses, did it?” he yelped. His hat cast a shadow over his eyes as he began ruefully shaking one of his fists. “If it did, then I oughta…” he mumbled.
Blue covered his mouth in surprise. “Oh my, there was?” he asked.
At the same time, Orange looked at Yellow questioningly. “There was?” she echoed.
“Sure was. I heard music playin’ n’ voices chatterin’, but when I went to check m’self, they were gone! N’ I saw the lights shut off with my own two cowboy eyes!” Yellow explained. Orange frowned, once again looking to Blue for direction. He watched Yellow concernedly, likely contemplating the same thing as her.
Blue glanced over at Orange, nodding in finality. He gently grasped Yellow’s fist and admitted, “Yellow, dear, that was no ghost. It was I, practicing a performance dedicated to you. I’d hoped to surprise you with it, therefore I employed a graceful Sheary to keep watch. She rushed me backstage at the sound of your boots.”
“Oh, it woulda been you, huh…” Yellow lamented, “I shoulda known…n’ now I ruined the sur-prize…I…I can’t believe it…I’m no better than a ghoul…”
The hand not in Blue’s slowly made its way to one of Yellow’s holsters. Blue swiftly grabbed it, intertwining it with the hand already being held. “Oh, my love, please do not fret. You couldn’t have possibly known,” he reassured Yellow with a delicate smile. He stared deeply into Yellow’s eyes, gently caressing his hands. Orange made a face, but didn’t vocally react like she usually did. Sure, they were sappy, but it was helpful how Blue could calm Yellow down when he was having…issues.
The quiet moment was suddenly interrupted by a familiar bit-crushed voice clip – “I’m falling!” it exclaimed, while Seth let out a yelp of surprise. Orange, Green, and Yellow instinctively turned to Flowery, who held his hands up in innocence. Blue turned to Seth instead. They were on the floor and Aqua finally got her hands on them, wrapping them around Seth’s shoulders. A frustrated groan escaped them.
“Seth, are you alright?” Blue asked. He continued to hold Yellow’s hands, the commotion only partially distracting him from his lover. The utterance caused the other flowers to turn their attention to Seth as well.
“Ugh, I ran into one of Flowery’s stupid signs!” they grumbled, pulling Aqua’s arms away from their neck.
“Signery,” Flowery corrected. Completely earnestly.
“Whatever!”
“Huh? ‘Signery’? That there is one of them paintin’s whose haunted peepers follow me at night,” Yellow remarked.
Flowery eased into an amused smirk. “Haha, no it’s not, silly. It’s a Signery! I put them in your room!”
“Yeah, Yellow, there are no paintings in your room. I would know. Heh, I designed it,” Seth flaunted, adjusting their glasses.
Yellow quirked an eyebrow. “Ya did?” he asked, very genuinely. He moved to tilt his hat up, but his hands were still intertwined with Blue’s. Blue let go of them so he could complete the gesture, making sure to gift Yellow a soft pat on the head, to which he blushed.
“Wh–yes! I did!” they replied, offended. Yellow simply stared at them blankly. Seth pinched the bridge of their nose in annoyance.
“Uuu, I helped!” Aqua chimed in. Seth winced at her volume, given her head was right next to their ear. Yellow’s face lit up in realization.
“Oh yeah, that was y’all’s lil’ project! Ya did a real great job. Thanks a bunches!” he beamed.
Seth’s cheeks turned pink, the praise immediately going to their head. “Heh, it was nothing…” they gushed. “Uh, but, yes, we didn’t add any paintings, so you definitely just saw the…ugh…’Signerys’.”
Orange scurried over to the Signery that Seth ran into, tapping it curiously with a glove. This time, it exclaimed, “The Diner!” and caused Orange to jerk back in surprise. A tiny smile began to form, and she tapped it once more to the voice clip, “Sustingus!”. Orange giggled at the sign. How could Yellow have been afraid of it? The voice clips were funny!
“Hey big bro, I want one of these for my room!” she called out. He simply laughed – a genuine laugh, which was one of Orange’s favorite sounds, especially when it was in response to something she said. She grinned brightly in return, missing the eye roll Seth carried out as they finally unhooked Aqua from their shoulders.
“You got it, Orange! A Signery’ll be outside your door by day’s end,” Flowery said, flashing her a toothy grin.
Seth groaned, “Fantastic, are we about finished now? There are no ghosts in this room, Yellow, just a bouquet of idiots who decided to mess around in here!” Though they were proven correct about the existence of ghosts so far, Seth was very clearly over the hunt and believed they had better things to do. Even Orange could admit she was a little disappointed. She expected a bit more excitement.
“Seth, would this “bouquet of idiots”, as you so eloquently put it, not include yourself, given your book was thought to be a phantom?” Blue noted innocuously. Orange snickered, making extra sure Seth heard it.
“N–no, of course it–er, I didn’t mean–” they stammered. “Gah, just say we’re done!” Seth snapped, whipping their head to face Yellow. Their face dropped once they saw him scratching the back of his neck as a guilty smile made itself at home on his lips.
“Sorry, Seth, but there’s jus’ one more misteree we gots t’ solve,” Yellow admitted. Seth sighed, but accepted their fate and motioned for Yellow to continue.
“Behind a tree ‘n the pool room, I keep hearin’ a lotta voices. Sometimes, I even hear real loud yellin’. N’ this’s been goin’ on for a while! I’m worried…there might be a hole ghoul family back there,” Yellow explained.
As he spoke, Orange carefully examined the rest of the flower’s reactions, attempting to gauge who might have been the culprit of this “haunting”. Oddly enough, however, no one had any strong reactions. And with each bit of information Yellow relayed alongside the lack of clear guilt from the others, Orange felt herself grow more excited and nervous. It sounded like, finally, after all of these false alarms, there was something happening in Yellow’s room that might – might – be a ghost.
There was a pause once Yellow concluded his explanation. Orange guessed the others were doing the same thing she was. The one to break the silence was Flowery, who knowingly smirked as he asked, “Well? Should we make like a tree and check it out?”
“YES!!!” Orange cheered, scurrying up to Yellow’s head and pointing toward the room in question. She was aching for some excitement, and it seemed the rest of the bouquet was, too, considering how quickly they followed her lead.
They fell into the same arrangement as before: Yellow protectively in front with Orange keeping a lookout beneath his hat, Blue tucked closely behind them, Seth and Aqua in the middle, and Green and Flowery happily following at the end. They moved at a brisk pace, and Orange noticed how everyone seemed to be curious about this one. Seth’s focus was less on Aqua and more on their own thoughts, something Aqua noticed and made her ease up on her antics, since Seth’s intrigue did tend to influence her own at times. There was a subtle curve of Green’s lips that separated their content smile from their eager one. Blue peered past Yellow rather than watching him, searching for the potential ghost himself. Flowery shifted his gaze between each of the flowers, finding amusement in their quiet enthusiasm.
Finally, they came to a halt at the illusive tree in question. And, just as Yellow had said, a cacophony of voices could be heard from behind it. The yelling he mentioned would interject, too. Interestingly, though, Orange wasn’t afraid. In fact, the yelling almost brought her comfort…weird. Maybe it was a result of…how brave she was! The bravest humans weren’t afraid of a few loud voices, after all.
Orange allowed this to fuel her as she turned to the group and courageously announced, “I’ll check it out first!”
Facing the tree once more, she noticed Green begin clapping in the corner of her eye. This further fueled her confidence, and before she could give it the chance to slip away, she valiantly leapt off Yellow’s head (knocking his hat off in the process) and straight through the tree’s leaves. They brushed past her tiny body like a breeze, guiding her into the room behind the tree.
The room behind the tree..?
Orange landed on her own two feet in sand, just barely catching herself before she toppled over. And what she saw was…many of the Dark World residents, paired up, talking to each other. Some were deep in enriching conversations, others blushed hard at one another, and a few were standing there awkwardly without direction.
At the center of the room was a chair, its aesthetic technically clashing with the rest of the room as though it were an uninvited guest, but still managing to make itself look ‘correct’. Fitting, considering Orange thought she saw a face on it…
The figure sitting on the chair suddenly called out to her. “Ory!” it cheered, launching itself at her before she had the chance to register who it was. It cheerfully scooped her into their hands, rubbing her against their cheek. “I’m so happy to see you, mew!”
“Big sis!” Orange beamed. Now that she knew who the figure was, Orange hugged Pink’s cheek.
“What are you doing in here? Actually, hang on,” Orange started. She separated herself from Pink, though remained in her gloved palm, and yelled the loudest her small form possibly could, “HEY GUYS! THERE’S A ROOM BACK HERE, C’MON!”
In walked Yellow, his arm held out protectively in front of the rest of the flowers. He lowered it upon seeing Orange and Pink. The others fanned out behind him, each taking in the room for themselves. Blue, naturally, took notice of the blushing pairs first, gasping excitedly and spinning in place. Green waved to a Terakota that was a regular at the Flower Cafe, motioning for them to begin actually talking to the Shi they were paired with instead of standing in silence. Aqua asked Seth what kind of game was being played, to which they admitted they had no idea, and watched two Floradinn assumedly go in for a kiss, though both of their mouths were wide open. Flowery tried to swipe away some of the footprints the group left behind.
“Howdy, Pink!’ Yellow greeted with a grin and a tip of his hat. “There ain’t no ghouls in here, are there?”
“Hyuh? Ghouls?” Pink echoed confusedly. She glanced at Orange for help.
“We’ve been ghost hunting all day! Yellow said there were a bunch of ghosts back here,” she explained.
“Gh–ghosts?! No, not in here! Just, uh…umm…” she trailed off, glancing nervously from side-to-side, as if she finally noticed how odd the scene looked to an outsider. The flowers were all looking at her expectantly. A Kawkaw began singing what might have been a love song in the corner of the room.
“What ARE you doing back here, big sis?” Orange probed.
Pink caved to the almost nonexistent pressure. “Okay, okay, OKAY! I’m hosting speed-dating back here, so WHAT?! It–it was my body’s idea! But I…I got kinda into it, alright?! I mean, that’s our thing, right? Love? Just…trying to be in tune with the group, mew!” she rambled, her face completely flushed. She coughed awkwardly afterward, not knowing what to say.
“Oh, Pink, that’s simply wonderful!” Blue praised, spinning his way to her side. “Encouraging our Dark World residents to find love, I wish I’d thought of the idea myself. It would be my absolute pleasure to oversee this exquisite activity alongside you.”
A relieved smile blossomed on Pink’s face, and she gently let Orange down from the cusp of her hand. She slowly made her way back to the chair she’d been sitting on. “Ah, thanks, Blue! That’s so super nice of you to–EEK!”
Pink let out a yelp as she attempted to hoist herself back onto the chair, being met with a voice clip exclaiming, “My king!”, though it was pitched extremely high.
“Wh–what the HECK?!” Pink stammered. Her hair stood on end and she watched the chair warily as the bouquet, this time led by Flowery, meandered over to her. He stopped next to her and reassuringly patted her on the shoulder.
“Don’t worries, Pink, this is Chairery!” he told her, that being explanation enough for him.
“Ugh, again with this?” Seth groaned.
“It’s just…a chair with your face on it…” Pink observed flatly.
“Exactlys.”
Orange took another look around the room, not caring to listen to yet another conversation about Flowery’s himself-themed items. She still held a small glimmer of hope that a ghost would shoot out at her, and she would slay it, showing her glistening muscles off as she did so.
But it was just a lot of…well, love. Green was stolen by the aforementioned Terakota, who she could faintly overhear suggesting a real date to the Flower Cafe as Green nodded enthusiastically. Aqua was allowing a Netskie and a Leafling to hit her between them like a ping-pong ball. Blue was also completely tuned out of the conversation, entirely enamored with the different showings of love going on – even the more awkward ones. Yellow waved at a Shi, then wondered aloud if the child of a Shi and Shinobeetle would be called a ShiShinobeetle. Seth had made their way over to the Floradinn, the three of them now reading a book about how to properly kiss.
Orange glanced up at Flowery, who was somehow still talking about the chair. Pink managed to hold a smile – she always tried to be courteous around Flowery because she had this weird idea he would kick her out of the group if she was rude to him, even though he would never – but she definitely looked ready to snap. Orange took it upon herself to interject.
“I can’t believe there weren’t ANY ghosts…” she lamented, scuffing the ground with her glove.
Flowery immediately noticed her disappointment and knelt down closer to her height. He put on an optimistic grin and said, “Not true, there’s one right here,” gesturing to Pink.
“Whuh?” Pink babbled. “Oh, uh, yeah! I guess I am…partially ghost…ehehe…”
Orange gasped excitedly, her entire face lighting up. How could she forget?! She didn’t need to see any ghosts to prove Seth wrong, her big sis was a ghost! She wasted absolutely no time and called out to Seth.
“HA HA! I was RIGHT! Ghosts ARE REAL! TAKE THAT SETH!” she boasted, her entire demeanor bursting with pride.
Seth, startled, nearly dropped their book. “Wh…what? No, there aren’t any in here, Pink said!” they retorted, adjusting their glasses which had fallen sideways in their shock.
“Pink’s a ghost, CHIBI! HA HA HA!” she continued to flaunt. Pink even helped her by adding how she had two cousins, also ghosts. Seth shoved their face into the book, deciding that ignoring Orange was the best path. Still, she continued to laugh, because she, Orange, the bravest human, was totally right!
And, knowing her big sis was a ghost, Orange decided she was no longer afraid of them. Not that she was in the first place! But now she had absolutely no reason to be. She felt braver than ever. For all she was concerned, the ghost hunting mission was a success.