After the morning rain the woods were cool and smelled nice. With lots more little flowers poking through the ground for him to discover as he searched for more dropped letters. Love letters, that was, that she had written- and here he couldn't stop himself from smiling- for HIM!
The ground was spotted with blue forget me nots and yellow dahlias- but there weren't any more letters. In some areas, he had to shift through blankets of dropped cherry petals under wild cherry sweet trees looking for any more dropped letters. But there was nothing.
He was disappointed and sat down on a fallen branch, surrounded by white and pink petals in a puddle. He took out his found letter and reread the first two words- "Dearest Lemongrab." He lent back and was about to start daydreaming about his girlfriend (having completely forgotten about the diplomatic meeting he was meant to go to) when he spotted another scrunched up paper trapped in the branches.
He hadn't considered that LSP could float so he should look above ground as well as on the ground. He hauled himself up into the tree and quickly reached the mesh of branches that had caught the discarded letter like a net. He straddled one of the thicker boughs and carefully picked it like a fruit.
Lemongrab instantly recognised her writing as he smoothed the letter out to read it. It was much longer than the other one he'd found so he eagerly started reading it. It said:
Dearest Lemongrab,
A strong beginning.
You're always so angry with everyone-
That was technically true but not exactly what he wanted to know was the first thing she thought of when writing a letter to him. Maybe Mother Princess was right and he really should work on his temper…
-but you're always so kind to me.
That was much better.
I think deep down inside you're such a sweet guy, and I'm like really happy I get to see that side of you. The truth is the last time I liked someone so much things ended kind of really badly so sometimes I'm afraid. And I get scared that nobody really likes me, and whenever I go out and hear people laughing I'm always sure they're laughing at me.
Lemongrab frowned. While he was happy to read her compliments, he knew exactly what it felt like to be an outsider and feel like there was no one who liked him. To think she felt the same way- that was unacceptable.
Sometimes I get really anxious but whenever I'm with you, it all just goes away. I know you'd never make fun of me. I feel so nice when we're together, like I'm eating nachostaking a bath in a house I broke intopicking my nose looking at the sea or something idk.
He couldn't help but smile at her words. It was so nice to read that he meant so much to her but her choice of words… "I feel so nice when I'm picking my nose" – that's a line he was going to tease her about.
Don't tell anyone but when I see that lumping idiot Br**kfast Princess-
If there had been any doubt about the writer's identity it was now gone. Only LSP would censor her worst enemy's name like a swear word that was too rude for even her to write.
-she says really mean things to me- like she said I was a fat purple cloud hobo pretending to be a princess because I'm too selfish to admit that I'm not as special as I think- in FRONT OF EVERYONE! SHE FREAKING HUMILIATED ME! I HATE HER YELLOW GUTS SO LUMPING MUCH (noah fence about the yellow tho I'm not being racist) BUT AAAAA I LITERALLY WILL BITE HER STUPID FACE ONE DAY!
He hadn't known about this. He'd have to do something about this… Br**kfast Princess. Who did she think she was saying these sort of things to his girlfriend? He'd have to launch an invasion against the Breakfast Kingdom.
But sometimes when that happens I actually get really hurt and embarrassed and I have to pretend that you're next to me to feel confident enough to answer back. I need to look at the pictures of you I have saved on my phone to feel calm enough to sleep, and I miss you all the time when we're not together.
"I miss yoouu too…" he softly said and planted a kiss where she'd signed her name.
He carefully placed the letter in his breast pocket next to the other one before standing up. Balancing on branches, he looked around the treetops for other letters. The cherry sweets were beginning to grow, with their wrappers forming instead of buds, but while they were very lovely to look at they weren't letters so he climbed higher to scan the horizon for her.
His yellow head burst through the pink foliage and he took off his monocle to see properly. The green tree tops were speckled with buds and flowers so they looked like hills rolling away from him, and he could see the white blobs of thrown away papers forming a trail away from him. A trail that would no doubt lead to LSP.
He climbed through the trees, harvesting her letters. After the fifth one, which she'd mostly crossed out, she switched to writing love poems. He pulled a ripped piece of paper from the slender branches of an apple tree and discovered a few lines that read:
"Love taught me
Each Cruel lesson
Many times until
Only sadness remained-
Nothing but sadness. Though
Gradually you
Repaired my heart
And now all that remains there is your
Beautiful yellow face"
He felt all the lemon juice rush to his face. Did she actually think he was… beautiful?! No one had ever said anything nice about his appearance before, but she didn't have any reasons to lie about that so it must be true! He felt so dizzy he nearly fell out of the tree.
He regained his balance at the last minute. He grabbed hold of a branch and peeked over the side of the huge bough he was standing on. He couldn't see through the green leaves, but he seemed to have climbed pretty high. It would be bad if he fell. He'd probably hurt himself, or worse.
There was a loud rustle outside below him, followed by what sounded like somebody… chewing? He listened closer and the strange noises continued. Then there was the sound of angry muttering. And even though her mumbling was muffled by the leaves he'd recognise her voice anywhere. Lemongrab shuffled along to bough to where it was thinner and then dangled from it upside down, hooking his legs over it to lower himself.
He poked his head and shoulders through the leaves and was shocked to see LSP bobbing up and down right in front of him. She was turned away and unable to see him. And she was too busy doing what seemed to be writing another poem to him to even pay attention to anything around her. Looking over her shoulder (or what he assumed was her shoulder, she was made out of purple lumps so he was never really sure what was what with her body) he saw that it was covered with the angry scribblings he'd already encountered. She darted out her hand to grab a fistful of orange cheese puffs from the bowl she'd suspended in the tree branches next to her. That explained the angry chewing.
She swallowed and started writing. Maybe it was hanging upside down, but in anticipation of what she was going to write he felt all his lemon juice rush to his face again.
"Roses…are….red…" she muttered as she scratched with her pen. He continued happily eavesdropping. "Lemons… are… yellow. You stupid mom is… made out of… Jell-o."
Lemongrab had to bite his mouth to stop himself snickering at that. Made out of Jell-o! LSP was so funny, he was so lucky to be dating her.
"AAAAA NO NO!" She tore the paper in half and threw the pieces into the air with a "Nyeh!"
Now Lemongrab had initially been planning on pulling a little prank on her and staying hidden behind her for as long as he could, but he decided to reveal himself a little earlier as she seemed quite… unhappy.
He leaned forwards and whispered "Hello. Lemongrab here."
LSP screamed and whirled around, about to stab him with her pen, and stopped herself just in time.
"L-Lemongrab what the stuff!" She said in a flustered whisper and quickly hid her pen and the notebook she'd been writing in behind her back. "What the junk are you doing here… you're meant to be at the freaking… candy diplomacy boring… business thingy!"
"OH YES I AM!" Lemongrab suddenly remembered, but then shrugged, "But I care no for it, this is aaa…. Far more acceptable use of my time. I… may have found aaaa little-" he grinned and waved the poem he was still holding at her, "something something."
LSP looked horrified. "WHY DO YOU FREAKING HAVE THAT GIMME GIMME!"
He hid it behind his back as she lunged for it. "Ah but you wrote it fooor myyy sour self did you not? Why are my lemon eyes not allowed to read your sweet little words, hm?"
"B-Because… omg this is so freaking embarrassing," LSP hid her face in her hands, "I'm so sorry oh my glob…"
"Sorry?" Lemongrab asked in confusion, "But why are you apologising? Yoouu have not done anything wrong?"
"But it's so bad… it's lumping terrible… you probably think it's so dumb and stupid."
"Nnngh what? No!"
"-I bet you don't even like it!" she continued dramatically.
"Well of course I do not like it!" Lemongrab said crossly, "Because I adore it! This is theee… sweetest and most acceptable thing I have ever read in all three of my lives! No lemon or candy has ever…" and now it was Lemongrab's turn to get so embarrassed he had to hide his face behind the piece of paper, "called me beeeautiful before…"
"What really?" LSP asked in disbelief, "Nah no way you're sooo pretty and handsome: I bet everyone is always saying nice stuff way better than…" she looked away sadly, "I can to you."
"Not at all!" he insisted, still hanging out of the tree, "And… and even if anyone did, Iiii would not listen- you are the only one… that I love…"
"Aww… I love you too…" She put a hand on the top of his head, where his nub was, and gave him an upside down kiss.
They broke apart and gently nuzzled their foreheads together until he told her; "My legs hurt can we continue this on the tree branch."
LSP pulled him up onto the branch and they sat together, listening to the slight rustle of the spring leaves until Lemongrab said "If Iiiii have… made an error by reading your letters and-"
"OH MY GLOB THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" LSP went back to being mortified, "The letters were so freaking awful.."
"If you did not want me tooo see them, then Iiii am sorry. Please forgive me how dare you."
"It's okay. I mean… did you actually like… like them or?" LSP nervously tapped her hands together.
"Yes. Yes I like them very much, very acceptable, may I please keep them?"
"Okay fiiiine… but only cos you said so."
They carried on sitting next to each other on the branch. Lemongrab swung his dangling legs back and forth as he reread her poem. "I like this one theee most."
"Huh? Oh the uh… what's it called… acrostic?"
"It is?" Lemongrab looked at the first letter of each line and saw that it was an acrostic poem, and that it spelled out his name of all things. "OH!"
"Yeah pretty lumping smart or what." LSP's shyness had worn off and she was now back to her usual self absorbed self, "Don't worry, you don't have to say anything, I know I'm the freaking best eva."
"Yes yoouuu are." Lemongrab agreed. "Now how am I… too get down?"
"Yeeaah…" LSP smirked knowingly, "I wonder how on Ooo you're gonna get down… if only there was some kind of-" She scooped him up into her arms without even giving him time to think about it, "-super hot flying girl who can just float you down."
She floated a flustered Lemongrab down through the leaf canopy and gently placed him on the damp, sweet smelling grass. "You can like, spend the rest of your life thanking me later." she said, letting go of him to take his hand in hers.
Lemongrab couldn't even say anything. He just shyly clung onto her and they walked (or… walked and floated) under the shade of the trees.
First he'd received a letter… then another letter, and then poems! And now they were holding hands. This was all so nice and acceptable. Lemongrab swung their hands back and forth happily and said:
"I hear that the Princess of theee Breakfast Kingdom said an unnacceptable thing to your perfect self. Would you like me to invade her kingdom?"
"Hmm nah…" LSP replied thoughtfully, "it's more of a me and her problem. Like… I'm the one who needs to fight it out with her."
"Yes but she said such a truly… hurtful thing…" And there had been other worrying things in her letter. She was much more anxious and insecure than she let on and he couldn't allow her to keep feeling that way without trying to help her, especially not when he knew exactly what it felt like to dislike yourself. "Is there not anythiiing I can do?"
"No not really."
Lemongrab couldn't accept that. There had to be something he could do to make her feel better about herself. Especially after she'd been so nice to him. No one had ever written him a poem before…
"AAAA!" He screamed, having just had an idea, "Would you be happy if I, Lemongrab wrote you a poem?"
"Oh uh…" LSP said, flustered, "I mean… sure…"
They'd now looped back around to the crocus clearing, and they both stood and looked at the beautiful flowers. Lemongrab let go of her and started to snap the flowers off their stems to wind them into a flower crown, trying to think of something. He'd never written a poem for anyone before… He wasn't sure what to say so he ended up choosing the most obvious formula there was.
"Crocuses are purple." he started.
"Forget me nots are blue.
And hmmm… what rhymes with blue-
OH WAIT: I love you."
LSP smiled and rolled her eyes at him, "Stooooop… omg you're gonna make me blush."
He carefully placed the flimsy flower crown he'd made on her head, and it slipped down to cover her eyes before she fixed it.
"It… was not very acceptable…" he admitted.
"I mean…" she wrapped an arm around his shoulders, "it was an okay first attempt. You get 10 out of 10 for trying though blue and you is one of the most obvious rhymes ever."
"I see… I will… try harder next time."
She patted his shoulder, "Next time then." And they both left the field to go and look for the pegasus among the trees and flowers.