Chapter Text
There was a long pause after Vegetta’s confession, in which Foolish just looked at him. Watched the tiny man beside him while butterflies whirled in his stomach. To him it was a precious but also a fragile moment. He believed that Vegetta’s confession was honest, only that the confession was uttered right after his breakdown.
This talk alone wouldn’t fix everything. And even though he suddenly felt an emotional high, one wrong word and it all could plummet again. So, he rather sat there and watched. To burn the sight and the feeling in the back of his skull. The tiny face, the curved back and the arms that reached from it, to hug the knees that were pulled close.
It was, just like Foolish did before, a pose that promised a sense of veracity. Somehow natural and calling. And without paying any mind to it, his legs shuffled closer to his chest as well. As next, he folded his arms and laid them down on his knees. Like that it was almost like a cocoon that had formed a safe space around his stomach, which allowed the butterflies in it to spread their wings further and reach his limbs as well.
It was like a warm wave that washed over Foolish, as his eyes shifted into the distance to fully sense the feeling within him. And in that moment, it was Vegetta, who lifted his head and watched the giant beside him. But only so long Foolish was looking away. One moment and two turned heads later, the roles had switched again. It was like a game. A push and pull. But it seemed like both liked to play it.
The mustering of the others features, each tiny crevice in their expression, as suddenly there wasn’t a pair of eyes anymore that looked for the other. Instead, the two pairs had searched a point far away before Vegetta began to speak.
“I want to know you”, he said in a slow single breath. It didn’t take long for him to look up at the half-shark again, to confirm that he was heard. And though Foolish’s gaze still lay before him— he had buried his face up to the nose in his arms, which hid his red face with naught — he looked like he was concentrating.
“Then, what do you want to know?”, he muttered into his sleeve, shyly like he wanted to come up with something, but the flapping wings of the butterflies blew every thought away. “Just… everything”, Vegetta replied. Again, both of their eyes were focused on something in the distance.
“My name is Foolish Brown...” His words started to fill the room, but just after a couple of them, Vegetta interrupted. “Foolish Brown?”, he wondered. “What, is something wrong with that?” Playfully upset, he took a peek at Vegetta before it drifted away again. There was a chance that their eyes would meet, and that would likely make the butterflies burst out of the cocoon that he had so carefully built with his body.
“No, nothing wrong. I just never heard it.” Vegetta explained his question. “Hmm, then what is your last name?” “De Luque.” Vegetta’s answer followed an acknowledging hum, which gave both of them enough time to play with the said words in their head. ‘Foolish de Luque’ was running on repeat on the taller man's mind, getting familiar with the other's last name. And it wasn’t much different for Vegetta, as he combined “Brown”, with his own name.
“Okay uhm, going on, I am 24 years old…” Foolish reeled his thoughts back in and continued telling things about himself, just as Vegetta was interrupting him again. Not with a question, but a visible reaction. “Ay, dios mío. Veinticuatro? Me siento viejo.”
“Now what is that reaction supposed to tell me?”, Foolish asked intrigued, without even noticing that the air took on a more comfortable, familiar feeling. “Ah, I was just uhm… commenting your age”, Vegetta explained while he clearly tried to find the right words. “Okay, what about it? Is 24 that bad of an age?” Finally, he tilted his head towards Vegetta in an act of irritation.
“No… Its just…”, Vegetta stalled, thinking about how to enlighten Foolish without making the situation too awkward. “You’re older than me. It’s that what you wanted to say?” Vegetta nodded with his head. “But… it’s a bit, you know. Much”. Lured by such an unusual reaction he raised one eyebrow and pressed further.
“So…. Five years?” Vegetta shook his head. “Six years?” Another headshake “Seven?” With every added year Foolish’s voice rose, as he slowly started to realize the reason behind Vegetta’s reaction. But Vegetta shook his head again. “Well then, how much?” A bit embarrassed, Vegetta held out both of his hands, all fingers extended.
“Ten years!?”, Foolish got a bit louder as he saw the indicated number. “Is that bad?”, Vegetta asked in a tone, that made it become apparent, that he really was afraid that that was something that would stop making Foolish want to be with him.
“What? Of course not. As long as you aren’t a dad already” Foolish joked, but added a serious, “You’re not, right?” at the end, just to make sure. “No no, not a dad.” Vegetta assured him with a slight smirk. “That’s good”, Foolish mumbled. “Well, it also wouldn’t not be good if you had a child. But eh… more complicated. You know?”
It was the need for reassurance that made him look at Vegetta. What he didn’t expect though was that Vegetta was already looking at him, with a soft smile, that radiated acceptance. At least that’s how Foolish interpreted it. For Vegetta it was that, but it was also a deeply nestled happiness, being sure that he might just found the right one.
A murmur interrupted the moment between them two. It was both of their stomachs, which had sat empty since breakfast this morning. “Right, Tina left me here with you”, Vegetta commented, as he remembered that he was only in here, because Tina went to eat lunch. “Do you think its already cold?”, Foolish asked in the hope that there was still something left for them.
“Let’s check”, Vegetta offered, as he stood up and looked up at Foolish, requesting to be picked up. Once Foolish had let him on his hand and walked towards the entrance, where both of them heard animated chatter coming from behind the curtain, so that he pulled it aside.
With appearing in the doorframe, Tina and Tubbo stopped talking at once, and turned their heads, as if Foolish and Vegetta were an alien species that just so invited the ogling and gawking. “You uhm… left him”, said Foolish while he raised his hand, indicating that he meant Vegetta. “Yeeaahhh right. I forgot him”, Tina replied, letting the sarcastic tone be obvious on purpose.
“But really”, she switched back to being serious. “Are you okay?”, she asked, before she took an examining look up and down their bodies. Before answering Foolish exchanged looks with Vegetta. A check in on the others feelings. But of the worry and pain that happened in the training room, there were only the good feelings, that showed on Vegetta’s face in the form of a fond smile, which Foolish mirrored back at Tina. “I think we are okay”, Foolish replied too cryptic for Tina’s liking, but as long as he seemed fine, she wouldn’t need to lend a helping hand anymore.
“Anyway, come sit down and eat something”, Tubbo invited them to the table. On it were three already used plates, while one big and one small sat untouched, paired with bowls that still had food in them. “Thank god you left something for us. I was dying”, Foolish exaggerated, but promptly flopped on the chair in front of his plate, sat Vegetta down, and pulled his tiny plate towards him, as before it was placed close to Tina. It had been there every day, since they arrived here, and that Foolish now willingly changed that, meant that he wasn’t purposefully making the situation seem better than it actually was.
“So, what did you do, while you forgot me?”, Vegetta asked accusing lightheartedly, while Foolish was putting a tiny portion of food on his plate. “We were busy, of course”, Tubbo answered enthusiastic, even though the question was meant for Tina, probably because it had to do something with the technical aspects of magic again.
“Do we need to know that?”, asked Vegetta upon Tubbo’s reaction, since the last huge round of explanations was already hard enough to understand. “And there I was, hoping you guys would jump up in joy, pressuring me to immediately tell you about this insanely interesting topic you call the in-depth analysis of a magic duel”, Tubbo sighed defeated, holding his head in woe.
“I uh…”, Vegetta didn’t really know what to answer, so seeking for help he turned to Foolish, who just in this moment shoved a fork full of food down his mouth, so that all he received was an encouraging nod and a thumbs up.
“There, there”, said Tina to comfort Tubbo, before she turned to Vegetta. “You don’t need to. It is highly theoretical, so mostly talking about what-if situations. If my enemy does this, how do I stop the attack? Something like that. And since neither of you are in a position to help me with that, it should be fine.”
“Thaths nithe”, replied Foolish with a full mouth, who was also afraid that he now had to remember what Tubbo would tell them, right after all his thinking energy went into the talk with Vegetta.
Once they were done eating though, Tina started to squint at Foolish, observing him, while seemingly racking her brain about something. And he didn’t even have to ask, as she was the one opening her mouth first. “Foolish, I really hope you are as fine as you say, since we exactly only have five days left until full moon and the rescue mission of the princess”, Tina reminded him painfully.
“Right… Fullmoon…”, Foolish dragged out the words, as if that was the thing that made it come slower. “I should be alright, right?”, he threw a questioning look at Vegetta, trying to find some compassion. But before the smaller one could even answer, Foolish remembered his promise. He himself was responsible for this. No when and ifs and he especially couldn’t rely on Vegetta anymore to shoulder the emotional burden.
“No, I will be alright”, he corrected himself, adding determination to his tone. “Good, that’s the attitude we need”, Tubbo replied, who had snapped out of his depressive episode. “And since you are done, I will be taking this, while all of you go straight back to training”, he went on and took Foolish’s and Vegetta’s plates.
When returning to the room, Foolish used a short moment to take in the room, which had not changed at all. The conversation he and Vegetta had, left no visible traces, but the more it replayed in both of their minds. And the more it was a reminder to Foolish to change something. “Time to lock in”, he said, mainly to hype himself up, but both Tina and Vegetta shared the sentiment.
“Now”, Tubbo entered the room after them and announced himself like he already had another plan crafted to the situation. “Foolish, after you managed to use magic infused punches, you will move on to punching Tina instead”, he declared without a change in his facial expression. “Punch Tina?!", came from both Foolish and Vegetta. “Oh so you aren’t feminists, noted”, Tubbo mumbled, before he explained properly.
“Well, you and Tina both are each other's best training partners. You need to learn how to break a shield, while Tina needs to learn how to uphold it. And that also gives us the opportunity, that Sunny can attack Tina with spells again, therefore getting even closer to mimicking an actual battle. And don’t worry about hurting her. Tina had enough training with Sunny.”
“Alright then”, Foolish took Tubbo for his word and began getting ready in the middle of the room, to gather his mana. And while that was going on, there was a tiny Vegetta, thinking about Tubbo’s words and asked himself: ‘What is a feminist?” Because if they weren’t feminists for not wanting to punch Tina, did that mean it was like the opposite to a gentleman? If that was the case, he never wanted to be a feminist.
After about a minute of sitting in silence, Foolish started to feel a familiar tingle. It was like the times he instinctively used the summoning circle or the feeling during training the past days, before he tried to throw a punch but only sparsely could uphold the constant mana flow. But now, it felt like the burden that had blocked his mana stream had finally lifted, even when he stood up and walked towards the punching bag.
Although when he finally reached it, he felt a slight waver as he realized he was still a bit nervous being faced with the fruits of his labor. He had finally faced his fear and talked to Vegetta, which he assumed was the reason for his poor results, but what if it wasn’t? Getting to know facts about Vegetta had already turned out the thing he told himself after the fight. One talk alone wouldn’t fix everything.
And he was right, because he didn’t know what would happen, if he failed right now. Everyone including himself assumed that now, since he got his emotions off of his chest, it would all fix itself. But what if it didn’t? He could get along with Vegetta as much as he wanted, but if he couldn’t defend himself against his transformed body, then all of that didn’t matter. No matter if he was scared of werewolves or not, he would be a dead man if he didn’t make it now.
So he didn’t want to fail. He didn’t want to have told Vegetta that he wanted him, just that his physical capabilities were stopping him then. How would Vegetta react? And on top of that, everyone was counting on his abilities to defeat Cucurucho. Just like Tubbo said, when it came to a one-on-one magic duel, the only solution was a fistfight. And it was apparent that Tina had nowhere near the experience and training to beat that white bear.
He probably already stood some seconds in front of that punching bag while he desperately wanted to find back the feeling of the manaflow he had before. Maybe if someone noticed. But Tina was focused on blocking Sunny’s attacks, while Tubbo watched. And Vegetta…
“Vamos Foolish. You can do it!”, he heard the tiny man’s voice pull him out of his self-loathing. He wasn’t quite sure what vamos actually meant, but hearing Vegetta brought back some confidence, so that he took a deep breath and let his body relax. One thing that Vegetta’s shouting also did was catch the attention of the others, so that now everyone in the room was watching him, as Foolish reached back to gain momentum and then threw one of his fists towards the middle of the brown cylinder.
Upon contact, a slap echoed through the room as it received the force of Foolish’s punch. Which was enormous. Usually Foolish was used to making the bag move a couple of centimeters only when he gained the momentum from consecutive strikes. But now, the chain that held the bag rattled violently, as the bag itself flew up radially and tilted so high, that Foolish was momentarily eye to eye with its bottom edge.
The seconds after the punch were filled with disbelief, in which Foolish just stood there, letting his achievement sink in. What he didn’t let sink in though, was the fact that a pendulum like object, always came back when pushed. And the punching bag was such an object. So when it reached its peak at the height at around 180cm it came flinging back, with nearly as much speed that it had when it was punched there.
All of a sudden, the bag was not even an inch away from his face, while Foolish saw his life rapidly flashing before his eyes. But then… the bag stopped. Close enough that probably only half a Vegetta would have fit in between. But despite that it never hit him, Foolish still instinctively stumbled back a couple of steps out of shock.
“Holy shit!”, were the first words he managed to get out, still in a disbelieving whisper. “You can be glad Vegetta’s cheer made us pay attention to you”, Tina called out from behind him, and when Foolish turned to her, he could see her outstretched arm towards the hovering punching bag. “I was not gonna play nurse for you again”, she complained in an overly put on way, as she knew how much this accomplishment meant to him.
And not that Foolish paid attention to her complaint anyways, since he had turned around again, his chest still heaving over the shock, as he put his hands on his knees, bend over and inspected his masterpiece. And even though Tina quickly cancelled the spell, just the swinging of the punching bag alone was proof of what he did.
What he did… He did that! That crazy ass strong punch that he nearly even knocked himself out with. And somehow after actually doing it, it felt so easy. So incredibly stupidly easy. All he needed to do was focusing on the tingles. How on earth did he need so long for that. One and a half weeks for this? And the solution was one talk? One talk and a meal later and he had it figured out?
As the realization hit him with the slowing down of the punching bag and his huffs, which were shallow breaths before, became more and more voiced and gradually transitioned into a light laughter. “Pfff-“, he snorted, about to say something, but couldn’t stop himself from giggling.
“Oh my god Tina. I did that”, he eventually brought out between breaths. “I can’t believe it. It was that easy?” The first few seconds Tina was a bit perplexed by his reaction, but as she got what was going on, her mouth morphed into a soft smile. “You really did”, she replied to the chuckling Foolish, who had started holding his belly.
This was a sight that she had missed dearly. How long had it been, since no one of them had something heavy to carry and they had a solid plan to their problems. Just at the start of their journey so many worries came up, that at least always one of them asked themselves if it would be worth it. Asked themselves if they should endure all of this with an unknown future. And in the end, it seemed like their suffering had paid off.
Finally, a burden fell away from her, constantly thinking about what she could do to improve the mood. She had worried so much about everything that wasn’t in her control. But she only realized it now, when it was ultimately solved. And just like Foolish, she was surprised at how easy it was in the end. And the laughter, which made it really hard for Foolish to stand upright, suddenly started infecting her too. Maybe not with the full force, but she definitely needed to catch her breath in between.
And besides Tina and Foolish, there were two other reactions in the room. Once there were Tubbo and Sunny, who exchanged some knowing looks, almost as if they could have foretold this outcome. And then there was Vegetta. Who was still up on the table and was watching his travel partners break down in laughter. And how much he loved it. Everything was coming together and maybe he would get back his body soon.
But besides that, there was another, probably not so pleasant realization. For the fact that Tina and Foolish both had not trusted in their powers, both of them could definitely take him out, even as a werewolf. Just thinking about it made a slight shiver run down his spine.
After Foolish and Tina finally came down from their high, Tubbo made him repeat the punches a couple of times, to make sure that his success wasn’t just a one-time thing, before he got to train with Tina.
“Okay, but you are sure that I can use my full strength?”, Foolish asked Tubbo and Tina for about the tenth time now. “Yes, we are sure”, Tina reassured just as many times as Foolish had asked. But even with that, he still wasn’t completely convinced. Because naturally he didn’t want to see Tina flying like he sent the punching bag flying a couple of times now.
But if words wouldn’t do anything, then actions have to do the speaking. That was what Sunny had decided, as she got too fed up since they had to progress as fast as possible. And what she did was simple. First, deliver a blow to the punching bag in the same manner that Foolish did. And second, walk over to Tina and basically do the same.
And just as Tina had guaranteed Foolish, nothing happened, as a nearly transparent shield stopped her fist merely centimeters before it made contact with Tina’s skin. With raised eyebrows and a visibly annoyed expression, Sunny turned to Foolish, pointing at her, as if she wanted to say “Look, she is totally fine.”
“Okay, okay, I get it”, he answered while he finally got in position to actually start the training. If they had more time, Foolish could have trained longer on the punching bag, allowing him to be able to control the strength of his punches, but they had to make use of what was available to them, thought Tubbo, who was watching from the sidelines, while Foolish’s first hit landed against the shield.
And like that they went on training, Tina putting up her shield only at the small area where Foolish was about to punch, while Foolish twirled around her like the seed of a dandelion in the wind, trying to create a real combat situation as much as possible.
But eventually, Foolish grew slower, his punches weaker just as much as Tina had a harder time keeping up with the physical shields. Since other than Foolish, her mana was constantly being depleted. The final blow though was the moment when Tina was just deflecting another punch, when she got swept off her feet by an invisible force, letting out a yelp in the process.
“That was foul”, she complained from the floor, while glaring into Sunny’s direction, who had taken place close to her father. “There won’t be much fair play to find in a real battle”, Tubbo answered in Sunny’s stead, while he pushed himself off the chair.
“But I think that’s it for today”, he announced while clapping his hands together. “It’s been a long day, and I can safely say that we haven’t had that much progress in a while.” He paused, looking into the round and their tired faces. “Which doesn’t mean that tomorrow will be any less hard”, he added, followed by a united groan of Tina and Foolish.
“Do you think if I stay down here, I will wake up ready to go?”, Tina joked, while having a bit of difficulty getting up. “But the bed is a bit softer, don’t you think?” It was Vegetta who replied rhetorically from the palm of Sunny’s hands. And so, Tina did get up before everyone got ready to head to bed.
During the next four days, it really did become apparent that their departure was closer than ever. Besides the training, which now only consisted of working out small weak points to their overall attacks, they also started forming a plan on how to infiltrate the castle to free Niki and her parents.
But that meant that another thing was coming closer as well. Something that Foolish said that he would try to deal with. The full moon and Vegetta’s transformation. The less time he had, the more his thoughts started circling around it, and now so much that the night before, he again couldn’t find any sleep. And much like last time he was tossing and turning for a while, until he got at least a little bit fed up with himself, thinking he would rather do anything else than this.
And so, he pushed his blanket aside and quietly sneaked out of the room into the kitchen, as if there he would find the solution to his problems. Gently, he pushed the curtains back into their original position, before he observed the room before him.
The shadow of the window frame was painted on the ground, only for that shadow to be cast by the nearly filled out moon. The silence that surrounded him was the perfect invitation for Foolish to dive into his thoughts, so after he got himself a cup of water, he pulled a chair close to the window, to watch the omnipotent celestial body, that seemed to wish to make his life a living hell.
With not much beside the moon on his mind, Foolish stared up in the sky, studying it closely. With everything tuned out, it seemed like there wasn’t much more that existed besides it, which strangely made Foolish relax quite a bit. He continued looking for a while, until he zeroed in on the moon so much that he could see something that he believed to be craters on its surface. How could they have gotten there, he pondered all while sipping his water.
And slowly his brain slipped somewhere else and he started to push away the anger towards the celestial object, since the longer he looked at it, the more he realized, that the transformation of the werewolf was simply just a natural phenomenon, and not something the moon did intentionally because it hated Foolish especially much out of everyone else.
But then a question was what followed up in his mind. Precisely how was the full moon causing a werewolf’s transformation? How does it make sense, logically? Does it still work if they are not exposed to the moonlight, like when it’s cloudy? But then does it really need to be full moon at all, if it’s not the exposure to light?
Slowly but surely, Foolish piled questions upon questions, that started to changed his view, although more puzzled than before, into a more curious attitude. And following that attitude, he realized, that even though he literally confessed to a werewolf not a week ago, he had no idea how any of the transformation things worked. How did it feel like to transform? Was it painful? Did Vegetta know about the things he did while being transformed? At what age do werewolves start to transform? Are there werewolf babies?
Picturing tiny werewolf babies in his head, Foolish didn’t know what to think about that. Another time he looked up, as before his questions made himself lean on the backrest and stare at a blank spot at the wall. “You give me quite some trouble”, Foolish spoke, before he took the last sip out of his cup.
“Do I now?” words sliced the silence, that surprised Foolish so much, that he nearly choked on his water. But when he turned around, he found Vegetta standing on the floor in the middle of the room. His tone was rather sarcastic, but nonetheless, Foolish replied to it like Vegetta meant it. “Not you. Gosh no. I was talking to the moon. That little troublemaker.”
He spoke the last sentence with a soft smile, as if the moon was nothing more than a rascal, pulling some silly pranks on them, instead of totally fucking over their lives. During Foolish’s explanation, Vegetta had come closer and was offered a hand, so that Foolish picked him up and put the tiny man besides him on the windowsill.
“Hmm yeah a little troublemaker”, Vegetta agreed with him, while sounding out the words with his typical accent. After Foolish and Vegetta had talked out their feelings, Foolish started to pay attention to that again, and grew quite fond of it. In general, he grew fond of a lot of things that Vegetta was doing. Even he just existing on that windowsill and looking outside, made Foolish want to observe him up-close.
“Hmm”, Foolish hummed agreeingly, before he noticed the time of day, or rather night. “Why are you still up, actually?”, he asked, not accusing, just genuinely interested. With a sigh, Vegetta sat down. “Take a guess.” “The moon?”, Foolish asked. “Yes, the moon.”
“Well, me too then.” After that comment, both of them stayed quiet for a while. It was as if at this moment, both of them seemed to have found a mutual understanding of their feelings for the object in the sky. At least Foolish hoped so.
“How does it feel like? You know, to transform?”, was what eventually broke the silence. A bit surprised Vegetta turned around to read Foolish’s facial expression. This did fall under the category of getting to know each other, and was what Vegetta wanted. Though he didn’t think they would reach this topic so soon. He didn’t think he had to answer this question so quickly into resolving things. Because this would probably not be the only one that Foolish had.
“Do you fully remember what you did, after you turned back?”, Foolish asked more specifically since he believed that Vegetta’s silence stemmed from the inability to put it into words. After a bit of hesitation, “It’s like you’re underwater. Sometimes I remember details, but most times, its just emotions.” “Like anger?”, Foolish followed up, which Vegetta confirmed with a nod.
“And sometimes my head hurts after.” Foolish hummed acknowledging, before he remembered the other questions he had, before Vegetta came in. “So does that mean that in some part of the world there are going to be transformed baby werewolves tomorrow night?” The question sounded quite ridiculous, especially if you tried to picture it in your head, but Foolish was a hundred percent serious.
Which Vegetta didn’t seem to copy much, as he had to suppress a giggle before he replied. “Ah no, there are no baby werewolves. We transform when turning sixteen.” “Oh, is there any reason why?”, but Vegetta’s answer was just a shrug with his shoulders. “But now you make me want to see baby werewolves”, Vegetta pouted slightly, as Foolish had given him a concept he could never actually find in real life.
“That’s what I am saying. Do you think they would also be aggressive? Maybe they would try to rip out your hair even more than normal babies do.” Vegetta giggled before he followed up. “That sounds like you know lots of babies”. Defeated, Foolish sighed. “Don’t even get me started. Back in Tina’s and my village, there were quite a few babies around. And since we are a big community, everyone took care of each other. So yeah, I held a baby once or twice.”
“Do you think you can get uhm… get along well with babies?”, Vegetta probed further, which made Foolish pause at least for a second, as he processed the implication of the question. “Well, I could manage, I would say”, he mumbled a bit while avoiding Vegetta’s gaze. “But if I had to babysit in the village, I preferred the older kids. But only because you could do more with them, you know?” he shot Vegetta a quick look, assessing his reaction. “What about you?” he added quiet, but Vegetta heard it, nonetheless.
“I don’t have any siblings. And I didn’t live in the main village. So, it was just me and my parents.” “Then I can say from my experience with people, I think you would be a good dad”, Foolish complimented and for a second it caught Vegetta off guard, before a cheeky grin formed on his lips. “You too, my friend.” He answered out of habit before he paused. “My friend?”, he repeated as a question as he caught himself, throwing the term into the room, hoping that Foolish maybe would comment on it.
Since yes, they did kind of confess to each other, but their circumstances were simply special. They hadn’t talked about everything, and Vegetta was still stuck in this body, which made having a normal relationship really hard. Not that their relationship would be normal either way. “You can keep it like that. For now”, Foolish answered. “We can get to it once all of this is figured out”, he said, while gesturing towards Vegetta but also towards the other rooms. “If that’s fine with you”, he added lastly.
“I think so, yeah”, Vegetta replied after he quickly reflected on his inner reaction to the explanation. It would probably take a while before this was over, so nothing needed to be rushed.
All of a sudden, a yawn escaped Foolish’s mouth. “You are tired.” A statement made by Vegetta, that Foolish agreed to with a hum. “Then I got what I wanted”, he replied pleased. “And you helped me with it. Gracias”, Foolish slipped in one of the only words he had learned from Vegetta. And it seemed to be effective, since a light red tinted Vegetta’s face and he just replied with a quick and mumbled, “No hay problema” Not that Foolish knew what it meant, but he lived for the expression Vegetta made when Vegetta was flustered, and really couldn’t wait to see more of it in the future.
“Alright then, should I take you with me back to the beds?” Foolish offered, which Vegetta accepted with the nod of his head. “Let’s do this”, the tiny man sighed, before he climbed onto Foolish’s hands.
The next morning, both of the midnight moon stalkers, actually woke up relatively well rested. And even though Foolish still had a shit ton of respect for the day, it seemed like Vegetta was carrying it with him. Though that didn’t mean that he was less rigid.
To Foolish, it felt like he was right about to take an important exam in school, and even though he had learned for it, there still was this deep-rooted anxiety of never knowing 100% if what he had learned was right.
Well, he did start to feel better about this whole thing. For once because he actually started to face his feelings, but also because he got much stronger in the last days. But then there was the part that he couldn’t control. He couldn’t just decide not to feel the need to run, when seeing a werewolf. Just as much as he couldn’t control the past and the things that had already happened.
And the other thing was. Last time Vegetta couldn’t just walk around, but now that they didn’t have the jar anymore— “Are you in the need of a jar?”, Tubbo popped into his field of vision, which made Foolish come out of his thoughts and refocus his eyes on the man in front of him.
Excited the half brunette, half blond stood there, and dangled a jar between them, only holding it by the rim, which made it extremely likely to fall. “Ah yes, but woah—“, Foolish couldn’t finish, as the jar slipped from Tubbo’s grip and the former just barely reacted in time to catch it.
Once Foolish was sure that it was secure in his hands, he turned his hand to look at it properly. And it looked really nice. “Where did you get this from?”, Foolish asked perplexed, as Tubbo had basically read his mind in that moment. “Ah you know, from here and there. The place where jars come from”, Tubbo answered in a cryptic manner, but he knew that the story couldn’t be called my future husband in a jar, when there was no jar anymore. So of course he needed to fix that.
“Uhm, I actually don’t know. But I suppose its fine”, Foolish replied slightly confused, but was still grateful for the container. With his thumb, he slid over the glass to feel the patterns. The ridges formed lines squares, that decorated the first few centimeters on the top and bottom, so that Vegetta could still see the outside from the middle.
“Wanna try putting him inside?”, Tubbo asked and after Foolish looked at the jar just some more second, he agreed, with a determined look on his face. He was going to handle this night. And he was doing it for Vegetta, himself, but also Tina, who just as much had needed to deal with all these emotions.
“Hey Vegetta”, Foolish called him, when he entered the training room, where Vegetta was sitting on the table in the middle of the room. Since they had lost the jar, this was their improvised setup for the upcoming transformation, with lots of space, so that Tina could handle him. “Yes? What’s up?”, he asked, as he saw Foolish coming closer with his hands behind his back.
“I..” Foolish’s determination faltered slightly, as he realized, that Vegetta never expressed the wish to be in a jar again, but he finished his sentence anyways. “got this jar from Tubbo”, he said, while he pulled his hands to the front, one holding the glass container. He held it, like a waiter would a wine bottle, when presenting it to the guests. And like the guests, Vegetta took a close look, before eventually he said, “Can you put it on the table, please.” And so Foolish did.
With a look that Foolish couldn’t quite read, Vegetta walked around the jar, that was nearly twice his size. One hand was on his chin, while he inspected the patterns, sometimes crouching down to see it better. “You don’t have to get in it, you know. If you don’t want to…”, Foolish replied to, what for him seemed to be a silent rejection.
“Ah no, my friend, this is awesome”, Vegetta finally lifted Foolish’s worry, after he was done inspecting. “Really? Then I am glad”, he replied with a tiny, relieved sigh. “Mhm, now. Can you put me in?”, Vegetta requested, while giving the jar a light tap.
“Of course, just hold onto my finger really quick.” The half-shark offered one of his fingers, like a thicker version of a piece of rope, and once Vegetta held onto it, he slowly lowered his finger inside of the jar, until Vegetta could jump off without any problems.
“You see Foolish, I like the jar. I was checking if it was uhm… symmetrical.” He pronounced the last word in an especially heavy accent. “Symmetrical?”, Foolish repeated. “Yes, same on both sides”, the tiny man nodded fondly, like things being symmetrical was the only right thing in the universe. “Looks like you like it when things are the same”, the other commented, while he pulled close a chair, to be more on eye-level with him.
“Si, si, how do I say? Its just perfect.” Vegetta still seemed to be swimming in bliss, just thinking about it. “Now hold on a second”, Foolish interrupted. “I remember people telling me that I have quite the symmetrical face”, he recalled, while he raised a brow at Vegetta paired with a smirk. “Is that why you like me?”
Caught off-guard by the question, Vegetta’s smile dropped and some blush crept up his face, while he tried to avoid Foolish’s gaze. “Ah well, not only.” “Hmm?”, Foolish questioned, because he didn’t get it audibly as well as language wise. “Ah bueno, no sólo eso.”, Vegetta repeated. But instead of pressing further, Foolish let the topic settle.
“I really like dragons”, Foolish offered instead. “Dragones?” “Si”, Foolish replied, while kind of starting to understand what it did to Vegetta, if he spoke his language. “Oh why?”, came back as a question, without the blush becoming any less. “I can’t really tell, to be honest, they just seem really cool to me.”
And like that, their conversation kept going on and on, until the sky started to turn orange and then black, without either of them ever noticing. And since there were no windows in the training room, they couldn’t until they were told, or Vegetta turned.
“Holy shit Foolish!”, a panicked Tina came running into the room. “I was deep into preparations and…” She halted her frenzied explanation, when she noticed the two men staring at her, whose conversation she had just interrupted. The conversation? While still standing in the door, Tina threw one look over her shoulder to the one window in the kitchen, and then back at Vegetta.
It was night. Clearly night. Not like sunset, or anything. The sky was black. And despite that, Vegetta and Foolish were happily chatting away, like nothing had happened.
“Vegetta, its night”, Tina stated, as if Vegetta was actually the one deciding to turn whenever he wanted. “Why are you… still you?!” Tina was more than overwhelmed with the situation and after she had mentioned it Foolish also threw a wary look at him.
“Foolish, take me to the window”, Vegetta requested in a serious tone. And he needed to say no more, as Foolish immediately picked up the jar and did as he was told. He walked into the kitchen, followed by Tina, where Tubbo and Sunny sat at the dining table, unimpressed by what was going on. But when Vegetta finally confirmed the time, by looking outside, he knew what was going on. Something he was just too familiar with. Something that he didn’t particularly like.
“When we…”, Vegetta tried to find the right words but was interrupted by Tubbo. “Remember when he told you that he was only a half werewolf, and that he sometimes doesn’t transform? Yeah, exactly that is happening right now.”
Baffled, all three heads slowly panned at Tubbo. “How do you…”, Foolish started, but didn’t finish. “You knew this would happen?”, Tina’s voice rose at least an octave with the question, but all she got back was a shrug with the shoulders.
“Anyways, get out whatever feelings you have right now. Tomorrow we are going to rescue Niki, and potentially this entire kingdom”, He dropped another bomb in the form of a reminder, before he picked up Sunny, and took her to their bedroom.
“Good night”, he called to the three statuesque people in the living room, before he closed the curtain behind him.