Sorry for the wait. Enjoy! (。•̀ᴗ-)
"You must really hate water, huh?" Bennett commented as he watched Diona form a cryo roof over their head. Not even a trickle of raindrops that fell through the great oak tree leaves could get to them.
Diona blushed. "I-I just don't like getting soaked, okay! Everyone has something they're scared of after all..."
Bennett just chuckled. Any other day he'd have a bruise on his shoulder for laughing at her, but she had been rather nice lately. Well, to him at least. She was still snappy with other people.
Bennett watched her freeze the drizzling water from her hair and explode them into thousand tiny cryo dusts. His method wasn't as elegant. Just channeling pyro through his hand to dry his hair off. Off course, he removed his glove first lest he started a fire without realizing.
"How do I look?" Diona asked, combing her hair with her fingers.
Bennett shrugged. "You look fine."
For some reason that appeared to be the wrong answer. She scowled.
"You said the same thing when I asked if having my hair down is better. Hmph!"
And there was the Diona he knew and loved. Grumpy as ever. He rolled his eyes, smiling.
"But it's true," Bennett defended himself. Hair up or down, she'd look pretty either way. Not that he'd say that aloud. "You look fine whatever you wear."
"Whatever." She turned away, focusing her gaze on the raindrops instead. She whined. "Barbatos, stop this rain please. I need to go home."
"You could just use your vision to shield you while you walk," Bennett offered.
"Too risky. What if I stumble on a stone fall face down and my cryo screen shatter to pieces because I lose focus? And then I'll get soaked."
Though she was saying it with a calm expression, her hitched breathing indicated how scared she was of the scenario. So Bennett did the next best thing and took her hand into his. The other option was pulling her into a hug. His dads used to do that when he had a nighmare, but he'd rather not get home with a dislocated shoulder. He'd be too embarrassed to do it anyway.
"Relax. I'll stay with you until the rain stops, okay?" He smiled. Diona nodded, gripping his hand tighter.
They sat under the great oak tree in silence, watching raindrops endlessly cascading onto the earth, its splashes safely landing far away from where they rested against the tree.
"A shame though," Bennett said, fully aware of the warm, soft skin under his palm. Diona's own thin glove didn't help any, barely concealing what lay beneath it. "I wanted to invite you to go fishing, but it doesn't seem like a good idea now."
Diona whipped her head at him, her face glowing. "Fishing?!" She asked with a wide smile.
Considering what they just discussed, Bennett had all rights to be confused, so his deadpanned "huh" was justified.
"I thought you hate water."
She shrugged. "I hate water, not what lives under it." She then licked her lips, grinning. "Fresh fish taste the best! And it's not like we need to jump in the water, so it's safe."
While talking, Diona gradually leaned onto his shoulder, her teal-green eyes looking up into his. He did his best not to panic and shifted his gaze somewherenotin his friend's direction.
This affectionate side of hers was new, and Bennett hadn't quite gotten used to it. It was sporadic too. One day she could be lil miss grumpy and the next she'd be all smile till sundown. This was one of the good days he supposed.
"H-how about tomorrow then?" He asked, admiring the beautiful cryo screen above his head. He was the epitome of calmness and totally not nervous at all. "Oh, let's bring Prince too. I bet he'll like it."
"Oh... Okay then." He didn't miss the disappointed tone her voice took. He looked back down when she pulled away from him, an annoyed expression on her face. "What?" Diona snapped when he stared for too long.
"Nothing, nothing," he said. If he elaborated, he feared she'd give him the silent treatment for a whole month. When she sulked, she did it for real.
When she wasn't looking, Bennett would stare at the girl beside him, her face expressing her boredom. He admitted he had more than just a liking for her, but he'd rather not lose another good friend just because he read too much into their friendly gestures towards him.
They sat under the tree until the rain receded. If Diona forgot their hands were still locked, he didn't remind her.
Springvale welcomed Bennett with the nauseating smell of blood, fresh dripping from newly butchered boars. Bennett covered his mouth in case he threw up his breakfast. Prince had much the same reaction.
"Mrow..."
Last time he was here he ended up spending a whole morning commiting genocide on a flower species and didn't get to see much of the settlement itself.
Aside from the heavy blood stench, the place mostly looked homey and welcoming. The houses were built in a different style than the ones in the city, and there was a windmill in the middle towering over the place.
A man in the middle of chopping off a boar's head noticed him and greeted him. Going by the cat ears on his head, he must be Diona's dad.
Bennett tried not to puke from the stench then and there, managing to greet the man back with a nervous smile.
"Mr. Kätzlein?"
The man nodded, wiping the blood from his hands with a cloth.
"I'm Bennett. Is Diona in?"
The man's face lit up in realization.
"Ah, so you're be Bennett. Nice to meet you." The man extended a hand that Bennett reluctantly shook. He regretted not bringing his gloves today. "Diona's over there waiting."
Mr. Kätzlein pointed at a low cliff overlooking the river not far from them. Diona was sitting there by herself, fishing equipments and all.
Prince didn't wait to bolt in her direction, probably to get away from the stench. Bennett as a human had to have more tact than that.
"Alright. Thanks, mister Kätzlein!" He said, waving at the man before quickly trailing away. Hey, he said more tact. He didn't mean a lot of it.
"Have fun," Mr. Kätzlein said and went back to chopping the boar's flesh.
Diona waved him over once she noticed him.
"So, this is the place?" Bennett said more than ask as he took a seat beside her. She told him there was a good fishing spot at her home yesterday, and she certainly didn't lie. Fish of all sizes swam back on forth under the water.
Prince was perched on the edge of the cliff, his short paw vainly trying to reach the creatures down below.
Diona puffed her chest.
"Amazed? Hehe. This is the Kätzlein fish farm. We put a net over there to make sure the fish stay inside."
Bennett squinted at where she was pointing and saw the criss-cross lines of a net jutting from under the water, tightly held on by metal tubes.
"We farm basses over here. There's also tuna if you want to fish that instead."
Bennett shrugged. "Bass is fine."
Diona handed him a fishing rod and after quesily attaching the bait to the hook, Bennett threw it into the water. Prince watched them, mewling every now and then to point at an approaching bass.
"Dad said we can only catch twenty fish today," she said, hands tightly gripping her rod as it shook from the fish struggling to escape on the other end. With a grunt, face scrunched, she pulled with all her might. A bass flew out of the water, flapping in vain to escape. Smirking, she turned to look at him. "So whoever gets eleven catches first wins."
Finally recovering from the surprise, Bennett mirrored her smirk.
"Oh it is on."
Prince ignored them and went straight to the basket where Diona's freshly caught fish resided. He cheered, snacking on it. "Mrow!"
As it turned out, getting eleven basses wasn't something that could be done in a few minutes. So they ended up filling the silence with small talks.
"I haven't fished for a long time, you know," Bennett started, wiggling his fishing rod hoping for a bass to magically fall for the bait. "My dads used to take me everywhere. Taught me everything I know. Now they can't even walk outside the guild without stumbling here and there."
Diona hummed. "Old age does that to people. It's catching up to my dad too. He doesn't look like it, but he's ancient."
Bennett flinched at the faint shout of "I'm thirty four!" coming from behind them, but Diona didn't seem to be bothered.
"Like I said. Ancient. Also," she said before twisting her neck, an annoyed look on her face. "I told you not to eavesdrop, didn't I?!"
Diona huffed and turned back to look at the water, swiftly pulling another successful catch while doing so. "Annoying old man..." she grumbled.
Bennett shook his head at her antics. A purr from the basket drew his attention to the cat lying inside it. It appeared Prince had a case of a bloated stomach after snacking on all the fish they caught, leaving only bones where the fish once were.
"Great. You ate all our lunch," Bennett half-heartedly chided him, though it didn't seem like Prince cared at all.
He just kept on purring. "Mrow..."
"You're lucky you're cute."
Diona rolled her eyes. "You spoil him too much."
Bennett laughed. "Are you jealous or something?"
His laugh was cut short when she muttered just loud enough for him to hear.
"...yes."
Bennett couldn't even jokingly ask if she liked raw fish too, because the growing tint of pink on her cheek made him realize she was being serious.
"Diona..." She turned her gaze on him, leaving him with a full window of her teal-green eyes that he'd grown fond of. "Do you–"
He didn't get to finish the question because something just ate his bait. More than that, that something turned out to be a huge bass as big as grown dog.
"D-Diona! Help me pull this!" He got on his feed to pull on it better. Diona followed him and wrapped her hands on the fishing rod, her skin touching his. He grunted. "It's heavy!"
"It's moving too much. I'll send some cryo down there. Just pray the line don't break," she managed to say in between huffs as they fought against the fish.
"What?" Bennett asked to which she promptly answered by almost freezing his palms off. Cryo trailed down his fishing rod, through the line, towards the struggling bass. The line stayed firm thankfully, but he did almost lost grip on the rod from surprise.
It was gradual but the bass soon stopped struggling and stayed still. They heaved a sigh.
"There we go." Diona grinned, celebrating their victory. Bennett was about to do the same when the fish suddenly pulled back full force.
One moment their feet was on solid ground, the next they found themselves submerged in the water.
Bennett gasped once he managed to pull himself to the surface, the fish splashing as they ran away from him. His relief turned to fear when he noticed Diona wasn't next to him.
He coughed water, frantically looking around him. "D-Diona?!"
Before he could dive back in, a figure jumped into the water. Not a minute later, the figure, Mr. Kätzlein, emerged back with Diona in his arms.
Bennett didn't know what scared him more. The look of horror on the man's face as he hastily carried his daughter back to the ground, or the utter lack of light on Diona's usually vibrant eyes, unfocused and void of any emotion.
"Diona?" He tried calling her but both her and her dad ignored him. He followed them to their house, dreading what awaited him.
He would apologize later to Prince for leaving him in that basket with not so much as a word until late into the night.
"You have pyro vision, right? Warm her up and don't stop," Mr. Kätzlein sternly ordered after giving him a towel to dry himself. Then he left for the kitchen in a hurry.
Meanwhile, Diona was sat on a chair by the wall. Her soaked clothing was exchanged for dry white shirt and a pair of shorts. It disturbed him that she still had that empty look in her eyes. Though it was subtle, her hands kept going back to rest on her left stomach as if something was there.
Bennett wasn't in any mood to disobey and went to sit on the empty chair next to her. He took her cold and shivering hands, channelling pyro into her palms. To his relief, her eyes regained their focus and fell on him.
"Bennett?" she said barely above whisper.
He responded with a sad smile. "I'm sorry. I knew you were scared of water. I should have been more careful."
Curse his bad luck, he supposed. Always his bad luck...
"It's okay," she smiled back, if a bit shaky. "It was an accident. And I wasn't careful either."
Mr. Kätzlein's approaching footsteps echoed inside the house as he came with another towel to dry Diona's hair off. He kneeled in front of her, shaky hands rubbing the towel on top of her head.
Mr. Kätzlein's approaching footsteps echoed inside the house as he came with another towel to dry Diona's hair off. He kneeled in front of her, shaky hands rubbing the towel on top of her head.
While he did that, Bennett took the opportunity to look around the living room.
The Kätzleins' house was just like any typical house. Pictures of family members hung on the wall, toys piling up in a small box by the corner of the living room, and the hearth which was currently burning courtesy of a very horrified Mr. Kätzlein. Though if their position were switched, Bennett would likely do the same.
After he was satisfied, Mr. Kätzlein let the towel hang on Diona's head and cupped her cheeks with both hands.
"How do you feel?" He asked, worry evident in his voice.
"...cold," she answered simply.
The man's breath hitched. "And that thing?"
This time, she didn't answer. Instead, she stared down at her left stomach as if the answer lay there.
"Diona, please. Tell me. How is it?" Mr. Kätzlein tried again.
Bennett felt Diona's grip tightening around his hands. He squuezed back, assuring he was there for her, whatever it was that scared her and her dad so.
After a few more seconds of pregnant silence and a staring match between the father and daughter, she opened her mouth to answer.
"It grew, dad" she choked out, unshed tears finally beginning to pool in her eyes. "It grew..."
The answer only added to Bennett's confusion at the whole situation, but it seemed to be all Mr. Kätzlein needed to collapse on the floor, the same empty gaze on Diona's earlier taking residence on his face.
"Mr. Kätzlein–" Bennett was about to help pull him up but the man's hand stopped him.
"Don't. Keep her warm. You're the only one that can do that here," he said, voice so desperate Bennett couldn't do anything but hesitantly comply.
He sat himself back on the chair and kept his hands on Diona's, feeling her grip on him as if her life depended on it.
"This must be very confusing for you, huh?" she tried to joke but all that came out was a sad chuckle.
"What's going on?" He asked, having withholding himslef from asking out of fear of intruding as he had caused this whole thing in the first place.
Diona shared a look with her dad before turning back to him.
"Have you heard of the Overflowing?"
He shook his head.
"It's a disease," she explained. "It happens when too much elemental energy condenses around a spot, in this case being my body."
Bennett trailed her gaze down to the left of her stomach, the same place he saw her worrying about earlier.
"It's also called the Slime disease," Mr. Kätzlein said as he stood up only to plop himself on a nearby chair. "You city folks don't see much of it, but it happens to lifestocks a lot."
Slime decease. Bennett felt like he'd heard of it before, but his memory failed him. Looking down at his and Diona's hands, he connected the clues and came to a horrifying conclusion.
"You have hydro energy inside you. That's why you're scared of water. And when you said it grew–" He didn't have to finish as she was more than willing to do it for him.
"It grew because I had contact with a large body of water." She then gently pulled one hand up, to Mr. Kätzlein's great worry, and made it as if she was holding a pea. "It was about this size when I was seven. Now it's this size." She widened the gap between her finger to the size of a small ball.
"Is there no cure?" Bennett asked, to which both Kätzleins shook their head.
"If there is, we need to find it in seven years. Maybe less after today," Mr. Kätzlein said. "That's how long we have."
Bennett didn't show how right then and there, his world shattered before his eyes.
"Mrow!"
"Oh, Prince! I'm sorry I left you. I... forgot..."
"..."
"You must be really mad at me, huh, bud?"
"..."
"Right. Let's just go home..."
"...mrow?"
"It's nothing, Prince. Just a lot on my mind."
It's the 3rd day of Ramadhan and here I am writing romance fanfiction instead of tarawih (๑•﹏•)
Regardless, happy fasting for my Muslim readers, if any, and I wish you a happy month ahead for everyone, Muslim or otherwise.
Bit of a disclaimer. I've never written romance before, nor do I have been in any relationship. This is a first for me, so if some scenes feel cringey, you're probably right.
I'm also taking some liberty with this story and changed the canon a bit. Diona being scared of water? Yeah, I turned it into a full blown disease, mwahahaha. And poor Bennett having to learn someone he likes has a terminal illness. Hooeey, that's a lot to drop on someone.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. See you next chapter :v
