Reviews :

chuckiboo : Thank you, friend! :) Yeah, I'm happy to be adding Beaux into the mix, he's not around often, and he explains why that is, but it'll be nice to bring him around briefly.

Burgie : Yep, too true. This chapter helps, though!


*Chapter 134*

Gideon squinted as Lash successfully teleported the two to the arena's main hub. Although Turbotime was a cabinet pushing closer to its fortieth birthday, Lash had done a masterful job of upgrading the whole of it, crowning the main arena with modern touches, everything inside their luxurious arena home held a proper essence of Sugar Rush's palace while maintaining it's own retro style. The arena's main teleportation hub was securely held inside the main building's gorgeous foyer, one that branched into a few different corridors right from the center boastfully crowned with a huge dome of a glassy skylight. Gideon was certain his temporary studio home was somewhere down these corridors, though Lash gently nudged Gideon's chest and gestured for him to follow along. As the two men strolled down one of the warmly lit, high ceilinged corridors off to the left, a murmur of cheery voices began to drone to something a bit more excitable as they pressed deeper into it. As they both quietly rounded the corner, they popped out into the arena's main, airy common room, a room of which was alive with a final, celebratory hang out. This celebration included Throttle, Turbo, Nox, Theo, Wren, Berri, Koko, Tatum and Mara.

"Alright, guys, I snagged a straggler, we gotta catch him up with drinks and food and all that other bullshit," Lash sternly instructed as he raised his arm and waggled his hand.

Gideon shyly peered to the group of mildly separated family members he and Lash pressed into, though as everyone gently murmured from their boisterous conversing and turned to see just who Lash was referring to, Gideon felt his heart leap clear out of his chest at the sheer, joyous reaction suddenly given. Everyone's faces lit up like an eruption of fireworks, the loud coo of Gideon's name that oozed out of everyone's grinning faces, Turbo and Wren lifted their drinks to cheekily cheers in Gideon's direction. Gideon scoffed a shaky noise as Lash looked over his shoulder and gave Gideon a knowing wink of a smirk, as if to simply convey that maybe, just maybe, the very thing he was desperate for was perfectly plopped right before him.

"Uncle Gideon," Berri chimed excitedly, she leaned over the counter mostly everyone was lazily splayed at. The common room was a huge and breezy room with a gape of rounded bay windows on each end, and right in the dead center of the room was an open format of a kitchen and cooking area, crowned with comfortable seating. Berri waggled the glass of soda she drank, she eagerly gestured him over, Gideon was stunned to see everyone all grins with his addition, "C'mere! It's been way too long since I've seen you."

"Yeah, man, I think the last time I saw you was that one silly dinner we had at the palace a few weeks ago," Wren staggered, Turbo rolled his eyes and nudged Wren's arm. Wren shook his head and shrugged, "What! It was silly!"

"It's not silly," Turbo muttered cutely.

"He's future King, nothing in Sugar Rush is silly any longer," Throttle muttered into his glass.

"Speaking of Kings, Gideon has had a productive night of getting into trouble with a certain blue haired ruler," Lash muttered as he joined everyone at the huge, round gape of a counter area. Everyone was dressed in nice, formal attire, though ties were loose, buttons of shirts were unbuttoned, it looked as if the night had previously started to grow tired and then was revived with a rowdier second wind of drinks and food, late into this evening. Lash cocked an eyebrow, cleared his throat and also began to loosen his tie and the buttons of his black dress shirt, "Why don't you fill everyone in, Gid, you'll find all the inclusion you want, here."

"You got in trouble with my dad?" Berri cooed cutely, she shrugged and shook her head, her gorgeous light blue eyes glinted with the warmer house lights overhead, "You know once that crown gets handed to Turbo, he'll lighten up immediately..."

"And THIS one will become even more of a stick in the mud," Wren muttered loudly as he wildly gestured in Turbo's direction, though he choked a hefty laugh as Turbo grunted a noise and wrangled Wren into a light show of shoves and mild wrestle-fits.

"I, uh..." Gideon held his breath and gently swept his eyes across the whole group. Everyone fell silent in gentle, baited wait, and it was here did Gideon feel his skin crawl with goosebumps at the sheer thought of having everyone's undivided, respectful attention. Shocked that they were all patiently awaiting Gideon's word, Gideon inhaled a full breath and felt uplifted by his peers existence, something he hadn't wholly felt in a very long time, "I discovered the separate group chat..."

"I told Aunt Tessa to get rid of that thing," Theo mumbled regretfully, Gideon tossed his eyes in his nephew's direction and lit up upon glancing at Tatum, lazily and happily sagged in a lean next to him. Having remembered that Tatum was a half breed of lion gargoyle, Gideon now felt the gears in his brain begin to whir at the speed of light. Before he could haphazardly switch topics and now glue his attention to Tatum for the rest of the night, Theo choked a happy, sarcastic laugh and caught Gideon's attention, once more, "Don't worry about the chat, Uncle Gideon... It... Was made with good intentions."

"Look, you can read it, it's just Koko being annoying," Lash muttered cutely as he began to scour his pockets for his phone, to which Koko gaped in full, unadulterated annoyance.

"Uh, excuse me!" Koko squealed as Berri and Tatum erupted into hard, knowing laughter.

"Y'do talk a lot about the wedding, babe," Nox mumbled in a warm show of dreadful, though playful knowing.

"I'm excited," Koko sagged sorrowfully, though it was here did Gideon and Koko regretfully catch eyes. Koko shook her head, inhaled a steady breath and crowned a genuinely apologetic look, "Babe, I'm really sorry about the group chat... Theo's right, it was made with good intentions."

"I warned Tessa right from the jump," Throttle cutely grumbled, he caught eyes with Turbo and donned a look of pride, "I think that was one of the first times Turbo actually stood up against his mother in law..."

"Yeah, scariest night of my life," Turbo muttered as he tossed Berri, Mara and Koko a knowing look, "That woman has a set of fangs behind that warm smile."

"Not the Queen," Wren gasped as he clutched his chest.

"Every head makes mistakes," Koko gently assured with a nod, in defense of her sister, though she softly gave her baby brother a loving smile and sagged her shoulders, "It was at your expense, Gideon... I know you and Tessa probably are overdue a proper conversation, but I know I can speak for Tessa when I say that we're sorry."

"It's okay," Gideon mumbled delicately; although not totally ready to forgive the lot of everyone and move on, he was relieved this impromptu hang out was how he was ending his night. Excited to let his head hit the pillow and not feel nearly as much dread and sorrow as he truly thought, he stood a little taller and felt happiness begin to gently tap his shoulder.

"Give your brother a hug, c'mon, let's get it all out," Lash droned loudly, as if to be playfully annoyed, he gingerly gripped Koko's hand and began to drag her towards Gideon's figure, across the stretch of the stone-tiled cooking area, and as Koko followed Lash's lead and pressed closer to Gideon, Lash finally crossed his arms and stepped back to let the two have their moment, "We're all gunna be all hugs tonight, the arena's gunna be really quiet for the next month..."

"I love you, Giddy," Koko humbly eased as she cutely sagged into Gideon's figure, her arms secured about his middle as he warmly accepted her into his much bigger embrace.

"I love you too," Gideon grumbled into the top of her head as he gave her shoulders a solid squeeze. He lulled his eyes closed and was thrilled that at least he was now properly sagging into a happy, safe space here on arena's grounds, though just as he was beginning to want to feel whole, he felt a stab of adamance suddenly pierce the underside of his heart. A plea to finally, once and for all, invite Kepa into this safe and secure space. He gave Koko a gentle, swaying embrace and shyly peered his eyes from the top of Koko's head and directly to where Tatum was standing. Desperate to figure out how to begin steering the conversation in Tatum's direction, he knew he had to do what he could to not be socially awkward about it. He cleared his throat and curiously glanced between Turbo, Berri and Theo, "Y-You guys are going on tour for the month?"

"Yeah, band's headin' out," Turbo grunted as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his ankle over his left knee. He cutely eyed Berri and smiled, his prominent canines peaked from his handsome face, "Gunna be a blast."

"Lucky," Mara muttered as she sagged her chin into her palms and looked off in a glower of playful annoyance, though she giggled as Berri cutely lulled her arm over Mara's shoulder and shrugged her into a snuggly hug.

"We'll miss you," Berri squeaked cutely, which finally had Mara shyly smiling.

"We'll miss you guys too, it's always so empty and boring when the lot of you are gone," Lash stated through a long sigh, though he eyed Gideon with a twinkle of hope and nodded, "Got Gid staying though."

"And Beaux," Mara included with zest, Gideon nodded and looked down to his bare feet.

"Gotta get outta Sugar Rush, my guy?" Nox mumbled knowingly, "All those sugar particles will get to yah, after awhile."

"Yeah, I just need a bit of space," Gideon sighed as he made himself a bit more comfortable inside the group about him.

"Rumor has it you have a lion gargoyle for a girlfriend, yeah?" Tatum chimed in cutely, Gideon raised his eyebrows and tossed his eyes to hers in a sting of elated warmth, relieved that she was the one to break the ice first.

"I-I do," Gideon staggered a shy little laugh and hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his lazy, tattered grey jeans. He assessed Tatum, and though she wasn't a thoroughbred, she still had a striking, molted pelt. Kisses of marbleized whites and creams all delightfully splayed with dark brown markings down her arms. She had warm, beautiful maroon colored eyes that held to Gideon's in a narrow of emphasized eagerness for whatever he had to say on the topic, a smile with the cutest, daintiest fangs, far sweeter and less intimidating than Kepa's, "She lives on Juniper's coastline."

"She's from the unplugged version like me, right?" Tatum politely asked, everyone fell into a gentle silence to show eagerness for how this conversation would unfold, though Lash began to gently converse with Turbo, almost in his ear.

"Yeah, she lived at the castle," Gideon explained, "She, uh... Truthfully, she's really reserved about it. She hasn't told me too much, I think she has a lot of trauma around her past."

"Hey, if I lived at the castle, I certainly would, as well," Tatum crossed her arms and blurt a chuckle, "Those cats are not treated well. I lived in the city, my mother had escaped castle life, my father was a human."

"The greatest sin," Gideon darkly teased, him and Tatum shared a laugh, causing everyone else to happily join as Tatum gestured to Gideon.

"Looks like you and Kepa aren't too far behind on that trend, I see," Tatum giggled, she tucked her shoulder-length, pristine white hair behind her pointy ears and side-eyed Gideon, "You introduce her to Sugar Rush's palace, yet?"

"Oh! I met her," Koko flung her arm upwards with a happy grin, Gideon flinched due to her close proximity to him.

"Me too, she's awesome," Nox added.

"She's one of my best friends, I adore her," Mara chimed cutely, Berri sagged and now playfully began to give Gideon, and everyone else, a forlorned look of exclusion.

"Well, wait! I want to meet her, Gideon, why don't you invite her over?" Berri sweetly encouraged, and though Gideon stiffened and could feel the vicious, knee-jerk urge to totally abandon this hang out, there was something in the way Berri's, Turbo's and Wren's eyes lit up with genuine warmth that had Gideon shyly peering from the proverbial shadows he was cast in.

"N-Now?" Gideon bravely staggered, he could see Mara flinch in his peripheral, as if that response was so far from the typical relay of a rejection she was used to hearing from Gideon, pertaining to Kepa meeting any of his family members.

"Yeah, now!" Berri stood and grew excited, as did everyone else.

"I'd love to meet her," Tatum held her hand to her chest to show warm sincerity, Gideon felt his heart begin to pound away in his ears.

"I've heard nothing but good things," Theo shrugged with a nod of smiling encouragement.

"Look, we know you want to protect Sugar Rush's identity, and... Surely, if she sees me, she'll put two and two together, I mean, surely the girl has a smartphone," Berri mumbled dully as she waggled her hand in Gideon's direction; he stiffly nodded and looked as if he was en-route to panicking, though he sagged a little as Koko sweetly hooked her hand into the nook of Gideon's lower arm and the bend of his elbow, she glanced up at him in a show of delicate though stable support, as if to prove to him that maybe the group had previously faltered from showing unwavering support, and tonight was the night that wrongs were righted, pain was due to being tenderly cared for. Berri gestured to herself and began to show signs of mild scrambling, as if she had to hurry with all of her words lest Gideon say one simple 'no' to shut it all down, "I-I can put on my alter, she'll never know."

"What about Wren, Theo and Turbo?" Throttle cutely choked a laugh, though Turbo rolled his eyes and grinned.

"Theo hit drum," Theo muttered in a teasing show of dejectedness.

"Wren smash key," Wren joined, Turbo heaved a long, dreaded sigh and lulled his eyes closed.

"Turbo strum guitar," Turbo groaned, the group erupted into happy laughter as Berri lulled her head back in whole annoyance and closed her eyes. Turbo eyed his eldest brother with cheek, "If it's not obvious, Berri is the face of Archived Chaos. Her face is on everything, no one knows we exist."

"Dude, that one fan didn't even know you were Turbo, from this game, she didn't put two and two together," Wren reminded, Turbo looked into his half-empty glass of alcohol and choked a playful cry.

"Don't remind me," He squeaked a whimper as everyone continued to roar with laughter; Gideon sagged in Koko's gentle care and suddenly felt as if his face was working double time from all the smiling he was doing.

"What do you say, Uncle Gideon?" Berri pleaded cutely, Gideon heaved a shaky sigh and nervously looked down in a sag to Koko's eyes. She cutely smiled up into his nervous gaze and eventually erupted into giggling as Berri began to whimper the word 'please' over and over. Berri shook her head and now clasped her hands together in a show of begging, "We'll be good..."

"We won't call you Uncle," Theo muttered warmly, him and Gideon caught eyes in a swing of understanding.

"No one will mention the band, or Sugar Rush, or anything pertaining to royalty," Turbo skillfully and sweetly added, everyone's eyes were glossed in enchanted, baited readiness, and it was here did Gideon do a solid reading of the room and feel as if all stars had aligned.

"... Okay," He huffed nervously, Koko perked up in a gasp and stabbed her eyes into Berri's, across the way; everyone stiffened with electric excitement.

"REALLY?!" Berri squealed as she grappled Mara's shoulder, she grunted a noise of playful annoyance and looked to be only sarcastically unenthusiastic about this whole ordeal.

"This hits different when you're with the girl every day," Mara barked to the group that was now becoming rowdy with excitement.

"Don't rub it in!" Tatum argued, Mara teasingly stuck her tongue out, to which Tatum snottily reciprocated.

"Here, Berri," Lash mumbled cutely as he cued up his portable code room controls, and with a few presses to the smaller holographic display before him, Berri's rosy gold coding flickered a bit before she was saddled with the only difference of her alter ego, Bailey, which was dark, shoulder-length, wavy brown hair.

"Okay! Ready," Berri hissed as she quickly clapped her hands a few times and bounced on her heels, to which Turbo uttered a cute laugh and held his hand to her lower back.

"Y'gunna call her?" Koko questioned, "Is she even awake?"

"Yeah, she's awake," Gideon grumbled in a very heavy show of playful dread, and though said playfulness was genuine, the dread was also equally as honest. He heaved a shaky sigh, pulled out his phone and began to thumb for Kepa's contact information, "J-Just... Tell her to come hang with Lash and his brothers and my cousins, then?"

"Yeah, just tell her my brothers want to meet her, their swap mates are here, some of your cousins, we're having a get together and the only ingredient missing is her," Lash lazily rattled as he waggled his hand. Although both men just had a jarring time in the code room, due to discovering Gideon's unaligned coding, both men held eyes in gentle, bittersweet knowing. Lash was almost positive this get together was doing work to begin reversing the damage to the singular stressor planted in the center of Gideon's upper back. Lash blinked Gideon a brotherly wink and gestured to the readied phone in Gideon's hand, "It's time, Gid. Give her a dose of family, the poor girl is desperate for it."

"Put her on speaker," Berri loudly whispered as she cupped her face, to which Gideon cocked an eyebrow and now felt as if he was having an out of body experience; although nervous to do all of this and really put Kepa on the spot, he somehow felt entirely safe in this brand new breed of familial love he had in his grasp, something right under his nose this entire time.

"Okay, here'goes..." Gideon mumbled with a nervous smile, and as his thumb sagged into the screen, he began calling Kepa and concluded said task by putting the call on speaker; it rang twice before Kepa picked up in a rustle of removing her phone from her pocket.

"Hey, you okay?" Kepa's warm, loving voice cued in an eternal embrace of unconditional care; such statement had Berri's, Koko's and Tatum's faces silently sloping into adoring, bittersweet swooning.

"Hey, yeah, I'm okay," Gideon staggered with a wide grin he was absolutely shocked he couldn't contain, the group could practically hear the confusion written on Kepa's face as she blurt a confused giggle and grunted to get comfortable.

"What's got you all grinning, my guy? What's going on?" Kepa mused sweetly, though as if the group could hardly contain it, everyone erupted into happy, excitable laughter as Gideon's grin genuinely couldn't get any bigger.

"I-I'm sorry," Gideon shakily laughed as he held the phone closer to his head, the group about him continued to laugh though did what they could to stifle so the two could hear each other.

"Whoa, what's... Going on?" Kepa now sounded reserved and sweetly nervous, "A-Am I on speaker? Who are you with, right now?"

"Yeah, you are, uh... Lash and his brothers and their swap mates, my cousins, are having a get together at Turbotime's arena and they wanted me to call and invite you over," Gideon politely chimed, his hand now shook, as did his voice, it took effort for him to swallow, and it was here did the group silently coo warm notions of reassurance in Gideon's direction due to just how unglued and nervous he was becoming.

"...Wow, really?" Kepa verbally lit up, she heaved a shaky giggle and grunted as if to unglue herself from the comfortable position she was in, "Right now? Y-You..."

"Yeah, Lash can teleport you here, are you up for it?" Gideon pressed cutely, his voice continued to shake, though instead of Kepa asking him just why he was getting so nervous, her voice now equally began to shake.

"Yeah! Absolutely! Wh-what do I even wear?" Kepa prod nervously, she muttered a small notion and came in and out of forgetting that she was on speaker phone.

"Literally anything, we all look like chumps," Mara suddenly called, the group burst out into hard laughter, once more.

"Oh, Mara!" Kepa loudly chimed, "Is Lash there?"

"Unfortunately," Lash loudly grumbled as he lulled his eyes closed.

"Y-Yeah, got a decent amount of people and family here I'd like to introduce you to," Gideon stated confidently, and although his voice shook, he seemingly glowed; it was here did Koko's adoring eye contact begin to come glassy with just how much shaky, elated joy Gideon's whole aura was radiating. He cutely glanced down into Koko's humbled eyes and jostled his phone a little, "W-We're gunna teleport you here in a minute or two, is that enough time?"

"Yeah, yeah! I'll text you when I'm ready," Kepa called, she now sounded as if she had put her phone on speaker and had run off so to get changed.

"Okay," Gideon shyly glossed his eyes about the sea of smiling faces about him, such an embrace of welcome and warmth he was desperate for, and as he caught eyes with Lash, he felt his heart now begin to throb in excited terror as Lash pulled up the waypoints of Gideon's and Kepa's precious, sacred lighthouse.

"You just say the word, chief," Lash stated with cute confidence and a nod in Gideon's direction, and though the rush of it all was quick and untimed, Gideon sagged and felt as if the stars had aligned, as if this small introduction was a delicately beautiful precursor for more dire introductions tight on the horizon.