AN: Just a couple of reminders for those who haven't read my other fanfics:
One, some characters are bound to be out of character, please don't point it out.
Two, Dark Pit still dislikes the name Pittoo, but makes an exception for Shulk and Lucina.
Now that that's cleared up, please enjoy!
Being sure to stay light on her feet, Lucina thrust her sword forward, striking the sandbag once more. Her attack sent the bag flying out of sight and inevitably off the stage, making her smirk. As an identical sandbag appeared before her, she stopped and took a towel off her shoulder, using it to dab sweat off her face.
"Phew! Almost got the hang of it," she muttered to herself, slinging the towel over her shoulder again. Then she returned to her fighting stance, preparing herself for another attack. When she raised her arm to strike, she suddenly heard a familiar sound ring from her phone, indicating a new text. Immediately she dropped her stance and put her sword back in its sheath, walking over to the table nearby to grab the device. Activating its touch screen, she saw that she received a text from Dark Pit.
"hav u seen shluk 2day?" was what he had texted her. Lucina snickered as she focused on the misspelling of Shulk's name, but decided to respond accordingly instead of pointing it out.
"Um no. Why?" she wrote back. She sat down as she awaited his response, which came only moments later.
"meet me my place ASAPP" he replied, making Lucina wonder if he had something serious to discuss.
Wasting no time, Lucina got up and rushed out the door of the training room. When she turned the corner, she saw Little Mac leaning against the wall, somehow managing to play on his 3DS through his boxing gloves while he waited for the room to become unoccupied.
"Er, the room's free, if you needed to use it," she informed him. Little Mac stopped pressing buttons and looked up at Lucina, then gave a curt nod and headed inside, allowing her to continue down the hall.
Bursting through the door to Dark Pit's apartment, the first thing Lucina saw was the angel himself, pacing back and forth while mumbling incoherently.
"What's going on?" she asked, causing him to stop pacing and turn to her. Lucina realized that his eyes were wide with panic.
"I don't know where Shulk went!" he shouted. "What do I do?!"
Lucina walked up to Dark Pit and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Well, the first thing you should do is calm down," she said, half joking, "and the second thing you should do is tell me what happened."
He took in a deep breath as he gathered his thoughts. "Okay. So earlier, I called Shulk over to show him this new dubstep song I like, right? Everything was fine at first, but when the bass dropped, he suddenly freaked out and ran out the door! I went after him, but I lost him..." Dark Pit explained, looking to his feet in shame. "What did I even do wrong?"
Lucina placed her hand over her face, letting out a sigh. "Pittoo, Shulk's afraid of loud noises! And he's especially afraid of noises that sound robotic or mechanical. Dubstep is probably his worst nightmare!"
Dark Pit's brow furrowed as he blinked at her. "What? Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
All Lucina did was shrug. "I just didn't think it was worth mentioning before!" she replied. Then she scratched the back of her head as she thought about it more. "But I guess I should've figured, since you like to blare dubstep until the neighbors complain..."
This caused Dark Pit to pinch the bridge of his nose, going back to mumbling angrily to himself like before.
Lucina frowned. "Look. How about we text some more people and look for him together?"
The angel seemed hesitant at first, but then he nodded and looked at Lucina with determination filling his eyes. "Alright, sounds like a plan."
The two then rushed out of the apartment, Dark Pit being responsible for texting their fellow smashers while Lucina did the searching.
The sun began setting when Dark Pit and Lucina retreated to the former's apartment once again. Their efforts had been fruitless, since there was still no signs of Shulk anywhere.
Feeling like he was back to square one, Dark Pit pulled at his hair dramatically. "Shit! Where the hell is he?!" he complained, then he let out a groan and flopped onto the couch in defeat.
Lucina sat down next to him, staring out the window as she zoned out. "I hope nothing bad happened to him..." she commented, concern becoming apparent in her voice.
Dark Pit whipped around to say something, but stopped himself and sighed. "This is all my fault..." he admitted weakly, looking down at the ground. "If I hadn't shown him that song, we wouldn't be in this mess."
She stared at him sympathetically, placing her hand over his. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Pittoo. If anyone should be blaming themselves for this, it should be me. I mean, if I'd just told you about his fear in the first place, none of this would've happened!"
Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door, causing the both of them to jump. They hopped to their feet and raced over to the door, praying that Shulk would be on the other side as they opened it.
However, all they saw was Ike, who had his arms crossed and a stern look on his face.
"Did you guys lose something?" he asked in an annoyed tone.
Lucina stepped forward to speak before Dark Pit could. "Yes! Shulk's been missing for hours, and we can't find him anywhere! Have you seen him?"
Ike closed his eyes and sighed, then stepped aside to reveal Shulk standing behind him. As he stood there, he awkwardly smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey guys!"
"SHULK!" Dark Pit and Lucina shouted in unison, rushing over and enveloping him in a big hug. They remained this way for a bit before they withdrew, then the two glared at him.
"Where have you been?!" Lucina demanded.
Dark Pit lightly smacked him in the arm. "Don't you ever scare me like that again! You had me worried sick!"
"I'm sorry..." Shulk apologized with a frown, rubbing his arm.
Lucina turned to Ike and raised an eyebrow. "How'd you find him, anyway? We looked everywhere!"
Ike unfolded his arms and placed his hands on his hips."Well, I guess you guys forgot to text me the memo, because Robin had to call me about your little ordeal–"
"I didn't forget," Dark Pit interrupted, causing Lucina to elbow him in the arm.
Ike glared daggers at the angel, then looked back to Lucina. "Anyway. Robin told me about it, so I went out and searched for Shulk myself with no luck. I came back home, and guess what? Robin told me that they discovered Shulk hiding under our bed! Took us two hours to coax him out, too. After that, we hung out for a while and he told me all about what happened."
"So wait, instead of telling us you found him, you guys just hung out until he was ready to come back to Dark Pit's apartment?" Lucina questioned. Ike simply nodded.
"Thanks for making me worry, asshole," Dark Pit growled.
Ike smirked and crossed his arms again. "No problem, twerp."
The look Dark Pit gave Ike suggested he was ready to lunge at him at any given moment, prompting Lucina to step in between them. "Well, thank you for finding him for us. I'm sorry for the trouble."
"It was no trouble at all," he said while shrugging. "Besides, it was kinda nice being able to hang out with Shulk without this guy buggin' me like usual!" He then proceeded to ruffle Dark Pit's hair playfully, making him back up and slap Ike's hand away.
"Yeah yeah, whatever! Now get outta here before I kick you out myself!"
His hostility only made laughter erupt from Ike. "You're lucky I'm in such a good mood right now, or I'd kick your butt for saying that!" Then he turned around and started walking away, allowing Dark Pit to quickly guide everyone else back inside and slam the door shut behind him.
"Good riddance," he scoffed. Then he turned and looked at Shulk sadly. "Look, I'm sorry for playing that music earlier... I didn't know it'd freak you out like that!"
"It's okay! You don't have to apologize," he replied with a smile.
Lucina stepped forward and shook her head. "No, it's not okay. I think from now on, you should be more open with us, Shulk. If something makes you uncomfortable, let us know and we'll try to accommodate you!"
Shulk became silent as he thought about it, then nodded. "Okay. But only if you guys do the same."
This surprised his two partners, causing them to blink at him for a few moments.
"Alright, then," Lucina finally agreed, nodding as well.
"I guess that sounds fair," the angel muttered.
Then Lucina grabbed Shulk's hand and began escorting him toward Dark Pit's computer. "Now c'mon, let me show you some music that's less ear-grating than dubstep."
"Hey! Dubstep is not ear-grating!" Dark Pit declared, glaring at Lucina for her rude remark.
Lucina couldn't help but chuckle at him. "Oh yeah? Tell that to Shulk! It's so bad, it made him hide under Robin's bed for two hours!"
As the two continued to bicker about their tastes in music, Shulk found himself smiling at the situation regardless. He knew their arguing wasn't anything serious, and after such an eventful day, he just appreciated spending time with the people he loved the most... even if it was an earful.