I'm back, AND WITH A CHAPTER!
I would've updated this three day weekend, but I had a lot of things to do.
Other than that, here it is. I hope you enjoy it, it's the usual plot progression, and I hope that you enjoy it, it's been delayed too long.
As usual, review to be awesome, and enjoy the chapter!
"Bye Sheriff! Thank you for coming!" I shouted as I waved to Caitlyn as she walked down the streets of Bandle. She turned her head momentarily to give me a nod and she kept on her way. I was glad that she took the time to come visit Bellanina in her time of need…especially since she was getting worse. I took in a big breath as I walked back into the hospital building and made my way to the elevator, where I took a short ride to the floor where Bellanina's room was. I went to her door and knocked on it, not getting a response.
"Hello?" I said somewhat loudly to the door. I didn't hear anything this time, too. I decided to let myself in and open the door, only to come into a room with only Rumble in it, who was crying into the now-empty bed. I ran to Rumble's side, where I placed my hands on the bed, knowing not to touch him. "What happened here?" I asked quietly. Rumble looked up from the bed, which was soaked with tears, and looked over to me.
"She's gone." He said to me.
"What? What do you mean?" I asked back, he sniffled and let out a quiet sob.
"She's gone. It was her time, she left, to go live with Fortunella." Rumble said to me, his eyes wet with tears and red from crying.
"What are you talking about?" I asked him as I slowly sat in the chair behind Rumble, in disbelief of what had happened in the room before I had come in. Rumble eventually got himself off of the bed and he made his way to the chair next to me, while still sniffling.
"Fortunella was Bellanina's husband. She went to the spirit world with him, so she basically passed onto the spirit world." Rumble explained to me, still sniffling here and there.
"I see…" I said quietly as I looked down at my hands. I felt a hand on my knee and I looked over to Rumble who was showing me a small smile. "Rumble." I said quietly, he smiled bigger.
"Bellanina…I guess you could say, got me over my fear." He said to me, I nodded.
"As much as I would love to believe that, I don't think you're ready at all." I said back, Rumble chuckled.
"So you go from wondering about Bellanina to wondering about me?" Rumble asked back sarcastically.
"Fine, I won't wonder, then." I said back mockingly as I crossed my arms. Rumble laughed. It was like…all the sudden, the old Rumble I loved was back. He looked happy again, almost like Bellanina's passing had helped him…despite how negative and immoral it sounded, it did seem to help him.
"Whatever. I think we're ready to go home, I would actually love to not go to the nurse and tell them that she passed just to freak them out." Rumble said with a chuckle as he stood up. I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Rumble…what happened to you? All the sudden you're back to your cheery self? I think it's kind of scary, to be honest…" I said quietly, Rumble scoffed.
"Alright then. You've been dying to hug me, kiss me, touch me, and this is how you react?" Rumble said back grittily.
"Sorry…it's just that I think you're getting ahead of yourself too much than you can handle. One day you barely talk to me, almost like you don't know me, and the next you're putting your hand on my knee like you used to do?" I said back. Rumble kept his gaze on me for a few seconds, moving his topaz colored eyes back and forth until he sighed. He sat down in the chair next to me and placed his face in his hands, almost like it was in shame.
"You're right…" He said back in a disappointed way. We stayed in silence like this for a few minutes until Rumble finally decided to stop his moping. "So do you want to go back home now? There honestly isn't anything for us to do here…" Rumble said quietly. I shrugged.
"Sure, but I thought we'd stop by the candy store first. Tristana may want to know about this…" I said back, thinking to how Tristana may react.
"Alright." Rumble said with a sigh as he stood up. I did the same and we walked out of the empty, sad room together.
"Do you think we should tell her?" Rumble asked me as we neared the candy shop.
"I'm not sure…I mean, she deserves to know, that's obvious, but the issue is that it may hurt her…you never know. I guess you could call Bellanina Tristana's second mother, because she sure acted like it." I said back, Rumble nodded as we finally reached the store. I could see Tristana through the windows and shelves of candy through.
"Well…let's just go in and break the news. Hey, Bellanina's happy now, that's all that matters." Rumble said back, I nodded. We entered the candy store together and saw Tristana get confused to us visiting her.
"Uhm…why are you two here? Aren't you supposed to be accompanying Bellanina?" Tristana asked us as we approached her at the counter. We didn't say anything until we had gotten to the counter, where she gasped. "She didn't…did she?" Bellanina asked, her hands covering her mouth. I gave her a slow nod.
"Yes, but-" I began, Tristana let out a loud gasp as I saw the news settle in. Her eyes slowly began to tear as a few sobs came out of her covered mouth. "But! But, Tristana, listen," I said as I grabbed Tristana's hand in mine in an effort to calm her down, she kept her other hand no her face as she began to cry into it. "She left happily." I added, Tristana placed her face flat onto the counter and began to loudly cry into it, the sound traveling through solid amplifying the noise. I put my hands on her back and began to slowly run my hand up and down her back, trying to comfort her, while Rumble whispered things to her.
It took a while, but she had finally calmed down. Once she was, she was sitting on the stool behind the counter overlooking us. She sat there looking over to us, rubbing her eyes here and there.
"Explain to me what 'she left happily?'" Tristana asked us, unconvinced.
"She left to the spirit world. To be with her husband." Rumble explained, she raised an eyebrow.
"Spirit world? Who is this husband?" He asked us, all the sad emotion from her body seemed to drain away.
"Fortunella." Rumble said back, she nodded.
"I wouldn't have suspected that to be honest…she had spoken about him in the past, but it never told enough about him to know who it was, especially since Fortunella is basically a voice in a candy to most people in Valoran." Tristana said.
"Well, she left happily to go with him. I opened a Fortunella, and she spoke to him. He asked her if she wanted to join him, and she did so. So she's in the spirit world, wherever that is." Rumble said, I chuckled.
"I don't really think it's a physical place like, say, Piltover or Freljord. Just…" I said trying to think of how to explain it.
"An alternate world?" Tristana asked.
"I guess. I don't know what the right word is, but I would guess that it isn't someplace where you can just travel to easily." I added.
"Well, whatever that is, it finally means that I can do something that Bellanina trusted me with doing." Tristana said as she got off the stool and walked beside the counter to the doorway that led to the backroom. Before she entered it, she turned around and waved us over to join her. We did so, going around the counter and down it to the doorway. Once we were in the backroom in which Caitlyn, Tristana and I tried our best to figure out the riddle, we saw that Tristana was in the corner of the room, beside one of the counters of the backroom. There was a big, blue metal steel box with keypad and a digital display. A safe.
"What does this have to do with anything?" I asked as I watched Tristana punch in the keys. The screen showed that she had entered in 'FORTUNELLA.' The safe released a quiet click and Tristana opened the door.
"There we go. Bellanina had told me that when she had passed, that I would have to open this safe up. She said the password to is was of her husband, but it wasn't his real name, which at first confused me, but now I understand." Tristana said as she looked into the safe, not touching anything.
"So…what's in it?" Rumble asked impatiently. Tristana shrugged as she stuck her hand into it and brought out a tiny black box, it was the only thing in the safe.
"Really, another box?" I asked as Tristana took the box over to the table in the middle of the backroom. She placed it on the table and sat down at it, Rumble and I doing the same.
"We'll see what this is, at least the box doesn't have a lock." Tristana said as she opened the box up. Inside was a rolled up paper, and nothing more. It seemed a little bit anticlimactic to go through all that for only one piece of paper. But once Tristana unrolled it, it showed us that it was in fact two pieces of paper inside, once of which had a massive wall of text and the other looked like a letter.
"What is it?" I asked to Tristana as she began to read the letter. Once she was finished she looked up from the piece of paper over to Rumble and I, who were sitting across from her.
"The letter is in a sort of way, a will. It talks about leaving the candy shop to me and anyone else who I think it eligible to take care of this place." Tristana said to us, her news brought us into an awkward silence.
"You're kidding, right? How in the world are we going to take care of this place?" I said back, Tristana let out a quiet scoff.
"As if you're going to be one of the people she spoke about." Tristana said back sarcastically, I chuckled.
"You're right, but you can't take care of this place by yourself. Bills and stuff." I said back.
"You're right about that, yes, but I can't take your money." Tristana said back, I did one of those dismissive hand waves that Bellanina did, although I didn't notice that I had actually done that.
"Nonsense." I said back. Tristana didn't say anything while she looked over the letter again.
"Alright, I guess. She left it in my hands, sure, and I guess I'll see if I can tackle owning a candy shop. If not, I can sell the place, as a candy shop or just as space. We do need to do something to get more customers, because honestly, we didn't get all that many with Bellanina around, not to sound rude or anything." Tristana said back.
"Don't talk ill of the dead, right." Rumble added, Tristana nodded to him.
"Are you sure, though?" I asked Tristana for clarification, she nodded back and gave me a small smile.
"I am. This place has kind of become more of a home than my actual home, if I could, I would retire from the gunners to do this, but you know, I can't really do that…" Tristana said with a sigh.
"That's true. So what now?" I asked back, Tristana shrugged as she placed the letter on the table and looked at the other piece of paper. It had to be the deed.
"I guess this place belongs to us. That seems like a big responsibility." Tristana said with a sigh as she placed the deed back on the table.
"And I have other things to do…like go to the academy, I'm really overdue for a visit." I added, Rumble scoffed.
"Really? The academy?" Rumble asked me.
"As much as you hate that place, yes. I'm sorry if that doesn't make you happy, but you can choose to join me." I said back ruthlessly. Rumble just stared at me, emotionless and his reaction hard to notice.
"Well whatever. I'm going to stay here until tonight and then leave to the capitol building to get some things for this place. The will will get me the keys to this place and stuff." Tristana said as she crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.
"Do you need any of us to come with you?" I asked her, she shook her head.
"I'm alright. Go home and enjoy your time, you've been somewhat busy with all the things that have happened recently, if anything, this is the first day you guys will actually have to yourself in a long time." Tristana explained as she stood up from the chair and began walking away from the table back into the actual shop section of the store.
"Alright then…" I said back as I followed behind her. When I didn't hear anyone follow behind me, I turned to see Rumble reading over the will.
"I can't believe she's gone, and not only that, she left the store in our hands. I find that ridiculous, but at the same time extremely farfetched for some reason." Rumble explained.
"What do you mean?" I asked back. He sighed as he looked up from the will.
"Not sure. If anything, I would expect Bellanina to sell the candy store after her death, but the only thing that says otherwise is that this store is one of the only stores around this area that sells Fortunellas. I think that possibly, the Fortunellas may be the reason the store is still here, along with the store still being in business." Rumble explained.
"Alright, that makes sense…" I said back.
"So what I'm trying to say is, Bellanina still wants Fortunellas sold after her death? It doesn't really make sense to me, although what I think may happen is that Bellanina may become a fortune teller in the candy like Fortunella, since she went to the spirit world with him." Rumble explained.
"And that means…?" I asked, confused by this whole thing.
"Nevermind. I don't know where I'm going with this train of though. Wanna go home?" He asked me as he began walking over to me.
"Sure." I said back with a shrug. We made our way back to the main section of the store where Tristana was locking up.
"Alright guys, I'm going to head out. If you guys feel like coming back tomorrow or something, you can, I don't really know. You can feel free to take over the candy store along with me, but for right now, I can hopefully take care of it. This place isn't ever crowded, but it gets enough costumers to keep it in business and everything." Tristana said as she walked around, locking things and moving things.
"Alright Tristana, have fun doing your things." I said as I began walking out of store and out to the sidewalk, Rumble said something on his way out, too, but I didn't catch it. I began walking down the sidewalk by myself when Rumble caught up to me, laughing.
"So what now?" He asked me, ending his laugh.
"Not sure." I said back as we got to the intersection. We stood there awkwardly as a few vehicles passed by us.
"Why are you being so awkward?" Rumble blurted out. I shrugged back.
"I'm sorry, it just…feels weird to have you back." I admitted.
"Have me back?" Rumble asked, I scoffed.
"Really, we're going to talk about this again? Yes, the actual you back, the Rumble that talks to me, that keeps a conversation and laughs, smiles and has that twinkle in his eyes." I said back to Rumble as I looked over to him. He turned and smiled to me, giving me the same warm feeling I used to get before the whole thing that happened with him and GP.
"And are all those back?" Rumble asked me, I shrugged.
"Yes, but," I added, Rumble smiled but his smile vanished at my but. "I don't think you're ready. I think you're rushing this, sure, Bellanina opened your eyes and showed you the light, but I don't think you can handle anything. I think, if anything, the most you can handle is sleeping in the same bed. For now." I said to Rumble, he looked down and sighed as we entered the greywood forest. It felt cold this time around, telling us that fall was here now.
"Alright." He said back, disappointed.
"I know, I'm sorry, but I don't want you to have an emotional breakdown if I end up kissing you or holding your hand for too long, alright?" I said, nudging him with a smile. He turned his gaze over to me and gave he gave me a small smile.
"Alright." He said back quietly. We spent the rest of the walk in silence until we got to the house, where I opened the door for Rumble and told him to go first. This made him smile, which made my happy. I was glad to have the Rumble I loved back, despite it being so quickly. I didn't think someone could get heal so quickly, mentally, but I didn't want to go too far with him.
Once inside the house, we both immediately made our way up to my bedroom, where Rumble ended up getting into the shower. I undressed myself into some pajamas and laid down in my bed, the blankets over my body. I took in a big breath as I kept my gaze up on the red ceiling of my room, thinking about the future. I would love to be able to hold Rumble again, to kiss him and to hold him, but I couldn't yet. I would have to wait, like I have been for the past week or so. I ended up falling asleep without noticing, not knowing the Rumble had skipped into bed and had put his arms around my waist.
I woke up to a few sounds. I opened my eyes and sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes. My window told me that the sun wasn't up yet, so I looked over to Rumble who was turning in bed, a few whimpering noises emitting from his mouth.
He was having nightmares. Terrible nightmares. It was known as common symptom after being raped, and it hurt me to see him like this, as he turned in a rush here and there, his body obviously sweating, leaving sweat spots on the sheets. I hesitated to wake him as I watched him continue whimpering, along with more turning. In the end, I put my hands on his shoulders and softly shook him.
"Rumble." I said quietly. Rumble got startled in his sleep, followed by another shake, then he opened his eyes in a fast movement, his eyes filled with fear. He let out a quiet yelp with this.
"Ziggs…Ziggs." He said quietly as he noticed he was no longer in his nightmare.
"Are you okay?" I asked him. He let in a big breath as he turned over, facing me.
"Not…not really." He admitted to me. I didn't want to force him to tell me what was wrong, so I would wait.
"What's wrong?" I asked him. He kept his topaz eyeballs on me, the black retinas moving here and there. He finally spoke.
"I had a nightmare." He said to me.
"About?" I asked him back patiently, my hand under my head as we were facing each other in the bed.
"About what happened, Ziggs, what else." Rumble said to me impatiently.
"Alright…" I said back, unsure of what to say.
"It scared me. It felt so read, it felt like I was back in the storage room or in the lighthouse." He said to me, his voice quivering. I could see that he was about to cry.
"Do you want a hug?" I asked him, unsure if I should have contact with Rumble. He nodded to me and inched closer to me until my arms were around his chest. He put his head against my chest and he began to loudly bawl and cry into it, releasing his agony.
"I'm so scared, Ziggs." Rumble said to me as he began to cry.
"I know, Rumble. I'm so sorry, sorry for what I did to you to leave, for letting you go through that." I said back as I placed my chin on to top of his head, his limp Mohawk rubbing up against it. I rubbed his shoulder blades as he cried into my chest. I didn't tell him anything as I comforted him as he cried, just comforting him with my actions.
We had ended up both falling asleep, Rumble in my arms and his head on my chest, both of us together. It was something that I missed, but despite the circumstances, I still loved it.
I missed this.