Victorious.

.

He couldn't for the life of him remember when was the last time he'd felt that uncomfortable.

There were a lot of people.

A. Lot. Of. People.

Wirt wasn't your party-hard kind of guy; in fact, he was the stay-at-home kind of person. He liked music, of the good quality style, with epic acoustic-sound and smart melodies, and he liked to write some of it too. When people asked about his hobbies he stayed silent, for he secretly considered himself as an amateur musician.
Obviously, only his brother knew of this little secret, there wasn't much he could hide from Greg.

So, going back to the situation at hand, he still couldn't determine if everything was still part of some initial plan, or if all that was just a bad decision taken in a moment of madness.

"What was I thinking… this is such a bad, bad idea" the teen muttered, his back against one wall, his observant yet distant eyes wandering around the masses of people dancing, taking in every possible detail so nothing could took him for surprise.

He had accepted the invitation made by his best friend, Sarah, to go and try to appear socially active.
"You're unbelievable! You can't live like a hermit your whole life! You're coming to my birthday party, want it or not!" she had angrily told him that same day after a week of avoidance from his part (he seriously thought that if the invitation wasn't made he would have found the perfect excuse to just don't go).
So not, he wasn't there because he had the choice, he was rudely forced into it by his conscience.
And Sarah.
Well Sarah and, eventually, his conscience.

Wirt saw her dancing around with her sort-of boyfriend, a big smile painted on her pretty face. She didn't have much makeup on, and that made her even more beautiful than any other overproduced girl around the room.
Sarah'd been dating that guy (he didn't remember his name) for a while and seemed pretty happy with him and, in fact, Wirt was just as happy for her. And he meant it.
They had tried it, being together in a relationship of the romantic kind, but soon realized they were more like siblings than a couple, and so decided to go back to the "just friends" status in which they found themselves comfortable with, and established they formally considered each other like brother and sister.
With Greg in the middle.
Obviously.

And so the night found a bored, melancholic Wirt who had eventually drank some mysterious alcoholic substance, which had turned his normal nervousness into a deep, lonely depression.

It seemed like everyone was having a great time.
Well, everyone except him and his social awkwardness (the funniest part being he was friends with all the people there, even that Funderberker guy).

Wirt sighed.

Playing with the plastic cup he'd been holding through the night, he had some short, shouted conversations with some random and mostly drunk people. All in all, he had to admit he had a great time confusing while verbally playing around them because, after all, he was just a little tipsy.

"So this' what you do on your free time? I could've sworn you were the never-invited guy of the town" he heard a mocking, strange yet familiar voice spoke next to him.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw it was a girl and when he turned around to look at her, a weird feeling overcame him. Wirt felt immersed in an unrealistic situation. He recognized her presence from somewhere and yet, he didn't know her.

"…Should I know you?" he asked instead, puzzled, a little of his old anxious self coming back, eyeing her suspiciously.

The girl shook her head and a big happy smile made its way through her expression, beaming at him, with such a feeling it threw him off.

"Of course you know me! Use that big, silly brain of yours for a few seconds."

Wirt could've sworn he didn't know who the hell she was, but her voice and the familiar sensation she gave off, made him think twice before answering he was still very lost.
He concentrated; frowned eyes closed and, in a serious way, told her to speak again.

"See? Still doing as you're told!" he could feel the grin forming on her face while talking.

And suddenly a connection was made inside his head. Quickly he opened his eyes and almost jumped in surprise.

"Beatrice! What the hell! What're you doing here!?" he exclaimed while, at the same time, his lost friend threw her arms around his neck and strongly hugged him, her amused laugh reaching his ears above the loud party music.

"Com'on let's get out of here so we can have a decent human talk" she said and grabbed his arms, dragging him towards the front door so as to get outside.

Wirt let himself be pushed around, though trying to somehow cover his almost blushing face from the looks he was receiving.
He understood people were confused, hell, he was more lost than any of them, but the whole situation was bizarre even by his standards so it was only natural it all resulted in unexpectedly being the centre of attention.
Attention he was never comfortable with.

"Urgh I hate people staring. I mean, I even tried wearing something more or less normal by today's fashion standards" she commented when the front door was reached.

Wirt came back to Earth and concentrated on the impossible figure next to him, taking in every possible detail: the nicely, combed, almond hair; the subtle heels, the tight jeans and loose shirt and, above all, the fresh perfume which surrounded her and made him think of a clean breeze blowing under a forest's shadow.
The Unknown came back into his mind: feelings and memories he thought long forgotten came back with such intensity he felt his blood run cold.

The teen let himself be dragged until they reached the street, away from the people and the music, before nailing his feet into the ground, abruptly making both to stop while quickly turning her around so they were face-to-face.

Beatrice found herself staring into a seriously calm pair of focused eyes, searching her over for some kind of answer of something which should had been impossible.
She smiled.

"I had to wake up sometime too, you know".

"It's unbelievable" Wirt added, still holding her hand.

"It happened some time after you and Greg left… well, I actually wasn't the only one who got out of there, it seemed as with your actions and the Beast's disappearance the Unknown balanced itself into being what it should've always been…just an on-the-way realm" she replied to the never asked questions, the whys and hows going around inside his head.

"My God… and I always thought that you were just part of a dream…it seemed crazy to think about you as someone in the same situation we were in." he told her, shocked.

"'Coma patient' if you want a word for it, and for some years… I never doubt you both were as real as I am. I started to look for you after they released me from rehabilitation but really, you're such an under-the-radar kind of person it was hellish to finally found you".

Wirt was speechless, in an awkward kind of way, for he could find neither the right words nor the right course of action and, after some minutes, Beatrice started to get impatient.

"Oh come on!" she huffed, deciding to take matters into her own hands, freeing herself from his grasp and throwing her arms around her flabbergasted friend.

Recovering from the shock, he slowly returned the hug: both burying into one another's presence.

A comfortable silence descended for some minutes.

"I missed you." Wirt whispered into her ear, feeling her warmth while her fresh scent overcame his senses.

"I missed you too, silly."

.

.

Some words...

I watched Over the Garden Wall the other day and fell in love with it. I really don't remember when was the last time cartoonnetwork made such an amazing show: only ten episodes and a whole interesting story with deep character development.
The world should have more epic tales like that one. To hell all those never-ending-long-filler-seasons series.

If you have an Over the Garden Wall fanfic/one-shot to recommend I would appreciate if you leave the name and author in a review, they're hard to come across :)

About this one shot:

-The beggining was written while listening to Victorious by Panic! At the Disco :) (Greeeeat inspiring song!)

-Its kind of an AU, in which Beatrice really is a girl who has been in coma for some years and finally awakes when The Unknown finds its balance and the Beast is defeated.. 'cause if you think about it: the forest is that dimension between life and death. Kind of crazy, no? And Wirt and Greg accidentally end up there to set things right :o

-I like the Wirt/Beatrice couple, its cute and has great potential. I suck writing romantic stuff so it ended up more like a friendship story.. but I swear I'm trying really hard! ;)

Thanks for the patience and remember to review! :)