Chapter Text
Buddy led the way as he and Chase walked along a wide forest path, in unusual silence. Normally, they'd be bickering or at least trading insults, or even blaming each other over whose fault their current situation was. Then again, normally they wouldn't both be completely exhausted to the point where they were even stumbling on occasion.
They also normally wouldn't be covered from head to toe in slime. Neon green slime that had somehow managed to ooze its way into places neither boy had known, or had ever wanted to know, was even possible for slime to access!
Somehow, the obnoxious colour made it even worse.
Finally, Chase stopped walking. "Buddy." Even his voice was far softer than usual. The blonde teen's exhaustion was clearly audible in it. "I know you said we couldn't, but why can't we just go out of this book right now? If I don't get this slime off me, I swear I'm going to scream. I'm not even sure I have the strength to scream, but I will do it anyway!"
Buddy had stopped walking as well but he didn't turn around. Truthfully, he wasn't sure he had the will to even start walking again and if he looked at his nemesis, he knew what little strength of will and body he still had would leave him completely. It would just take one look at the other boy and he knew he'd give in to his wishes on this.
Their battle against the King Monster Slime that had been threatening their town had been brutal, but all Buddy, in the role of Evil Queen Desmonda, had needed to do was wield his magical staff and use powerful magic attacks against it, to keep it distracted. It had been his character's daughter, Chase in the role of Good Princess Annaleesia, who had been physically fighting the massive creature with his magical sword. As tired as Buddy was, he knew Chase was worse.
Even when the Slime King had exploded upon its defeat, Chase has been the one who received an easy three-quarters of the resulting flying slime. Buddy was drenched with just the remaining quarter and he was certain if there had been even a teaspoon of slime more, Chase would not have been the only one threatening to scream.
It was incredibly uncomfortable to be covered in slime.
Even so, Buddy knew his duty.
Just as he knew how deeply selfish he was being.
He sighed. He must be going soft to be even considering saying… No. Not soft. Soft would be continuing to take the coward's path in this matter.
"As I said right after the battle, if we don't finish the story, we get less narratonin. Considering the story so far… I doubt we'll get that much even so, but to leave now would likely make all this for nothing. Also, we just need to leave the forest and go back up the hill we crossed to get here. When we reach the top, we are supposed to see our town and the lands of our kingdom laid out before us and have the realisation that we saved it, together. The story ends there. I need to see it through but… if you're willing to accept only the narratonin you've earned to this point, that's up to you."
Chase had not only been quiet and let him speak, which was unusual, but even after he was finished talking, the other boy stayed silent. Buddy frowned slightly. That went beyond 'unusual' and well into 'concerning' territory.
Reluctantly, Buddy turned just enough to be able to get a look at Chase. His eyes went wide and it was only out of habit that he managed to withhold an instinctive gasp.
The blonde teen wasn't merely too tired to talk or argue. He wasn't even simply exhausted. His cheeks were flushed, but the rest of his face was paler than Buddy's own very fair skin. From head to toe, he was trembling and he was even using his sword as an awkward sort of cane just to stand. He looked ill.
Something was wrong. Buddy hadn't looked at him since right after the battle, but he definitely hadn't looked so bad then. What was going on?
Buddy quickly scanned what he could see of Chase and almost cursed out loud when he spotted a patch of blood on his pants. He was injured. The monster slime had hurt him at some point. Worse, it was an open wound and the slime was all over it. Chase wasn't just ill, he'd been poisoned!
"No, forget everything I just said. Go home. Right now."
Chase winced. "I look that bad, huh? Don't answer that. I don't really want to know." He sighed. "I know you're right. About all of it, including the conflicting bits. I really don't want to leave you here alone, though."
"The character you're playing will appear when you…" Buddy trailed off, his eyes meeting Chase's and seeing the slight flinch at his words. It wasn't as if he didn't understand. It really wasn't the same to do this sort of thing without another real person in the story.
Suddenly, Buddy was just too tired to argue. What he was saying didn't even make sense to him! He didn't believe a word of it.
"No. You're the one who's right. We're both exhausted, you're poisoned and we both know that was no 'small hill' we came over on the way here. Not to mention that, when we left the town, it was in a bad state from that slime's attack. Reaching the top of the hill… If we saw the town as it should be, that would just be depressing. On the other hand, seeing it all perfectly idyllic would be…" He was actually too tired to remember the word he wanted.
"Weird. It would be really weird. Parts of it were on fire." Chase sighed tiredly. "How could a slime even set a town on fire? He didn't use fire magic against us in the battle, which would seem the obvious thing to do if he had it!"
That was… a good point. Buddy sighed as well. "The fire happened the same way as everything else that happened in this story despite all reason, logic and common sense. The author wrote it like that."
"Yeah. I'm sorry, Buddy. This one's on me. My… friend told me it was a terrible book. That's why he's doing another book right now. I should have listened to him. I was an idiot to think fighting a King Slime with a magical sword sounded fun. It wasn't." Chase looked so defeated at that moment that Buddy didn't think twice about his reply.
"No. It wasn't your fault. It's just a bad story. We'll both go out of it. Now. It's not worth any more of our time."
Chase nodded slightly as he reached for his key. "Yeah. Home, please." He immediately vanished in a burst of light.
Buddy didn't hesitate for a moment as he followed him out of the book.
* * *
Buddy had been right about getting less narratonin by not finishing the story.
He'd also been right that the rest of the story had been so terrible, it wouldn't result in a lot of narratonin.
Unfortunately, it hadn't occurred to him that the story's length meant he'd been inside the book long enough for someone to have noticed his absence.
Buddy arrived back at the headquarters of Ex Libris and turned, only to be startled to find himself facing the Old Man.
"Well, Boy? Where's the narratonin? You were gone so long, I'm sure it must have been well worth your time. How much did you get? A full vial?"
The younger male forced himself not to shake as he silently took the vial from a terrified Violet and handed it over.
The Old Man took one look at the pitiful couple of drops in the bottom of the vial before slowly lifting his head to meet Buddy's eyes. "You pathetic…"
As the insults erupted forth from the sneering elder, Buddy bowed his head and stood silently. He did his best to let the words just wash over him but it was harder than usual. He was also fighting the urge to shudder at how he could still feel the slime on himself. He knew it was physically gone, of course… but he could still feel it there.
The longer the Old Man went on at him for, the harder it was for Buddy to endure the feeling, but he had no choice.
It was some time before the lecture was over, however it was the punishment given afterwards that truly took the young man to the limit of his patience.
He had just wanted a shower and some sleep, but he'd been denied both. Instead, he'd been ordered to make himself useful and complete a list of chores that made the Wicked Stepmother's list in Cinderella look like a nice, peaceful day of rest and relaxation. Completing the list took the rest of the night and a good part of the following morning, also.
By that point, Buddy was barely able to stand, let alone concentrate on what he was doing.
It didn't help that he hadn't been able to have any breakfast, either. He'd known better than to ask for a break to eat, not wanting another lecture on how he needed to finish his work first. He'd heard that one before and really didn't want to hear it again. Lunch wasn't far off and surely he'd be finished his chores by then. He could wait.
When he finally finished the list, he just stood there for a moment, looking at it in disbelief that he'd really completed all of his work. Could he go have a shower now? No… He was too tired for that. He'd likely fall over if he tried. Sleep. He needed to sleep.
He'd barely taken a step before the Old Man spotted him and stomped over, already beginning to berate him for being lazy. He clearly wasn't even willing to consider the fact that Buddy might have finished the work he'd been assigned.
Buddy had never been so glad to feel the tingle of magic signalling that the Heroine Key had just gone into a book and he was about to follow.
As light flashed around him, the last thing he heard was the Old Man snarling at him that he'd better bring back a decent amount of narratonin that time, or else he'd regret it.
* * *
The light faded around him and, as he looked to see where he was, Buddy knew a moment of dread. He was in a forest. Surely it wasn't the same one from the slime monster book?
He shook the thought off immediately. No. There was no way Chase would willingly put them through that a second time. He'd hated it just as much.
Which meant, this was another book with another forest scene. He should know the book. Normally, it would have just come to him.
Normally, he wasn't completely exhausted in mind, body and soul.
Buddy sighed heavily and eyed a nearby patch of ground, covered in grass and fallen leaves. It looked softer than his mattress back at headquarters. Maybe if he just lay down for a little while, he could at least recover enough strength to work out what story this was. Then he could go find the brat. That sounded like a plan!
He just needed to make his legs work well enough to get him to that patch of ground. Three steps. Maybe five if they were smaller than usual. He could manage that. Couldn't he?
A rustling sound from off to the side had him turning to look, just as a familiar blonde teenage boy pushed through some bushes. Buddy blinked. It seemed one part of his plan wouldn't require him to do anything, after all. Good.
Chase looked up and spotted him. A bright smile lit up his whole face. "Buddy! There you are! Great! I was worried when you didn't arrive in the same place we did. Listen, I think we might have a bit of a problem with this story."
One look at his nemesis... Seeing him safe and no longer hurt or ill eased the concern that had been pushing at the back of Buddy's mind since the last story.
The sound of his voice… There was a warmth to it that seemed to calm something deep inside that had been shaking with pain, sorrow, loneliness and fear for even longer.
The knowledge that the other boy's smile was because he was happy to see him… It restored a little of his spirit and the confidence that the elder's words had taken from him, the night before.
Chase was clearly relieved to have found him in that forest.
Buddy hadn't realised just how lost he had been, until that moment.
A couple of minutes earlier, he hadn't been able to muster enough strength to walk a single step.
At that moment and without any hesitation, he walked over to Chase and did the unthinkable.
Buddy hugged Chase tightly. Silently.
Chase was surprised, at first. Then, he looked sad for a moment before he returned the hug just as tightly.
A few bushes down, where there was actually a trail so he didn't need to push through the brush as his cousin had done, Deacon arrived just in time to witness the hug. He stared in shock. "Uh… What's going on?"
Chase shot him a look that was clearly intended to make Deacon reconsider whether or not he wanted to interrupt them.
"Um. Right. I need to go… check on the horses. Yeah." Deacon slowly backed away, out of sight again.
Once his cousin was gone, Chase tightened his hug and rested his head against Buddy's, where it lay on his shoulder with his face hidden from sight. Chase swayed a little, lightly rocking Buddy until he sighed and started moving away.
Chase let him go, watching him closely. When Buddy was standing on his own again, he spoke very softly.
"Just so you know. I don't mind. We can hug whenever you want to. You don't need to say anything. Not now or any other time. I know. Sometimes hugs are just the only thing that helps the world to make any sense."
Buddy nodded silently in agreement, then sighed softly. He tried to speak but just couldn't. There was too much to put into words and his mind still refused to cooperate. As he made a soft, frustrated sound, Chase rested a hand on Buddy's shoulder and gently squeezed.
"At least part of that was from the slime, wasn't it?"
Buddy couldn't stop himself from grimacing.
"Yeah. No argument here! Who even thought of writing something like that? Good thing you waited until a new book, though. A slime hug would have been… really awkward."
That startled a very quiet huff of laughter out of Buddy.
Chase grinned at him, relieved that his nemesis seemed to be feeling a bit better.
With his concern for the other boy no longer taking up all his attention, another thought was able to nudge at Chase's mind enough for him to notice it.
"Uh. Wait. Did my… friend… say something about going to see the horses?"
Buddy arched an eyebrow. "Yes. Why?"
Oh good. It seemed he could talk again, as long as it was short, simple and didn't require him to think much about what he was saying.
Chase looked somewhere between horrified and worried. "Oh no. Horses hate him. No, really. Which means… I'm gonna have to go rescue him. Great."
He sighed, then looked at Buddy. "You coming?"
Apparently he still wasn't completely back with the whole thinking thing, as Buddy couldn't make any sense of that question. "Why would I wish to rescue your… friend?"
Chase shrugged. "I was thinking more that you might like to stand there and snicker at whatever horsey mess he's gotten himself into."
"Oh." Buddy considered that, carefully.
Although he still desperately needed to rest, time was different in stories and the hug had lasted for long enough that he had recovered at least some of his strength. He knew he could walk at least a short distance and his mind was finally working well enough to tell him that the horses must be close.
"Fine." He headed off with Chase.
Oddly, considering they were supposed to be going to rescue Freckles, Chase didn't seem to be in any hurry.
* * *