Author's note:
From the looks of it a lot of you enjoyed the fluff in the last chapter. Thank you all for your reviews and a token of appreciation I've added another scene of fluffy before the chapter begins.
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Fairies & Happiness
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"Ben it's morning."
…
"Don't oversleep, Ben. It's already morning."
…
"Geez, you're not going to wake up are you?"
…
"Ben if you don't wake up, you're going to get it!"
…
"This is your fault for not waking up!"
When Ben woke up, suddenly, he couldn't breathe. He couldn't help but pant as he opened his eyes to his surroundings. For starters, he noticed that Gwen was right in front of him and she was blushing.
"No, uh…good morning Ben."
"Yeah, good, morning."
What the? That was weird. I couldn't breathe but I felt good. For some reason, his lips smelled slightly of mint.
"So, how was waking up?" Gwen asked that, as she kept her finger on her lips.
"…Not bad at all."
"I see…Not bad, huh…" She seemed a little displeased.
"Did you do anything weird?"
"No…nothing special. Anyway, get up already. Breakfast is waiting." Gwen's face brightened up with a smile. Ben was surprised. By the way she spoke she sounded like she had made the breakfast. Who'd have ever thought that Gwen would wake up early and make breakfast? Ben sat up in Bed and looked at the clock…
"Wait! Isn't this way too early to be getting up?"
If Ben had breakfast now, it'd still be hours before it hit noon.
"Oh quit whining. Come on, get up!"
"But, I'm missing valuable sleeping hours! Plus we went to sleep, uh pretty late last night. I'm pretty exhausted from all that stuff."
"Ah! Wh-what are you talking about so early in the morning?" Gwen's face instantly turned bright red. Seeing Gwen like that made Ben recall all the previous night's events and soon he started blushing himself. After their little date, despite the warnings of not making a scene the two couldn't stay away from each other. Their lips met again and again that night.
"Don't you dare think about anything weird!"
Gwen kept hitting Ben on the head while looking really embarrassed; each blow weaker than previous one. But just then, Gwen looked at him with dewy eyes. She closed the distance between her and Ben. The two eyed each other lovingly for what felt like hours. Gwen quickly closed the distance between the two with a small peck on Ben's lips. Afterwards the two kept staring at each other until Ben broke the silence.
"…Surprise attack, huh?"
"Ah, no, it…it's just a good morning kiss. I woke you up with that earlier, right?"
"Yeah, I wonder if I'm going to wake up like that from now on."
"A-anyway, I'm going to the living room! Hurry up and wash your face!" Having said that, Gwen turned around shyly and left the room. He could her light footsteps as she ran down the small hall of the Rust bucket.
"….She's just too cute." Ben rubbed his eyes. He was still heavily embarrassed.
After a day of doing practically nothing (and flirting shamelessly with his girlfriend) Ben was left with the chore of getting rid of the trash. It was late and everyone had already gone to Ben. I just had to watch that late Sumo Slammers special he mentally slapped himself. He knew Grandpa Max would complain about it in the morning so he decided to get rid of it now. So, Ben found the nearest garbage bin in the back alley of a grocery shop. He would regret coming here for the rest of his days.
"What the heck is that?"
"Aahhhhh….." Ben heard the figure moan. The clothes it wore would rot the brain just by looking at them. Ben could have sworn that he saw her on the cover of one of the games he played before but here she was, face up, lying on top of the bags of garbage. Ben thought that she might have be a hallucination caused by the weird lunch Grandpa Max had him eat that morning.
"Hey you, human…"
He could even hear her. He told himself that he was imagining it. Besides he wanted to leave as soon as possible.
"I'm talking to you, human!"
"Ow!" Something hit the back of Ben's head. He crouched down, clutching at his head. Just then something rolled underfoot. It was one of those canes you saw magical girls used in cartoons, a magic wand. At least that's what it looked like. It was cylindrical with a star on the end.
"What kind of hallucination attacks people these days?"
"Who're you calling a hallucination? I'm real!"
"Right…"
"You meet a fairy for the first time and the first thing you do is ignore her? Roar!" She got angry and jumped towards him like a grasshopper. Since she was at least 10 feet away she didn't reach him. Meaning she mindlessly jumped through the air and crashed.
"….It's no good. I don't have enough power to argue." She laid on the concrete floor with her butt up in the air. It looked really weird. Anyhow, she said some weird stuff.
"What the heck do you mean, "fairy"?"
"A fairy is a fairy."
"You mean a crazy nut? A mental patient?"
"That's right. Asylums are more furnished than you would think…wait! Stop doing that!" She jumped up at him like a flea but this time he stepped aside dodging her attack. She plummeted towards the ground again.
"I'm telling you I'm a fairy! An elf! A sprite! Don't tell me you never heard of them!"
Okay…? He took another look. The longer he looked at her, the weirder she seemed. She wore a checkered attire; black and red on everything she wore. Though Ben could only see strands of her hair poke out of her hat, he noticed that it was sun blonde which made her eyes stand out more. Her left eye was purple while her right was bright green. That's actually kinda cool.
She wore a hat that split into two with twin bells hooked on each end. She had a white collar, joined by a checkered shirt and extremely baggy pants. She basically looked like a nine year old joker. Then Ben looked at the place where he dumped the garbage. Ben read the label on the bin.
"Please be responsible when disposing of trash…" Ben eyed her suggestively.
"I am not trash! You have some balls to put me, the great Joker fairy Ayame, out with the trash!"
"Say what?"
"It's my name foolish human. I know your name, though, Ben Tennyson."
"How do you know my name? Is that a fairy power or something?"
"Nope. I just heard your dad call it a few minutes ago."
"Oh. Wait you were spying on me?"
"Now that I know your name you have nowhere to run!" She ignored his question. Ben was getting a headache so he headed back into the Rust bucket.
"Hey wait! Real men don't leave girls alone in dirty alleyways!" She jumped and hanged on to his leg. She wouldn't let go. Ben thought she was more like a leech rather than a fairy.
"Sorry but I'm busy." He tried to shake her off then he heard a low growl coming from behind him. It came from Joker fairy Ayame's stomach. It lasted for ten seconds. Ben just stood there dumbfounded. She looked pathetic.
"Now look what you did. I lost even more fairy power by talking to you." She was half in tears, grumbling under her breath. "Fairies need energy to stay in this world, you know. More to the point, we need food."
Now Ben finally understood why she had been bugging him all this time. He decided to give her some food. He was the sort of guy who'd feed a hungry puppy found by the roadside.
"Fine. Follow me but be quiet."
Ben went into the Rust bucket making sure that Gwen and Grandpa Max were fast asleep. He grabbed what little food he could and gave it to her. For her it was a sight to behold.
"Ohmigawd!"
She started babbling so fast that Ben could hardly keep up. Then she began to do a stupid looking dance. Maybe she wanted to show off her dancing skills but to Ben it looked like a Native American fire dance.
"What are you doing?"
"Can't you tell? It's the fairy's thank you dance."
"Right…"
She shook her head like a stray cat with a bag over its head. Then she wagged her hips and did a back flip. She's not half bad actually. Finally, Ayame finished her dance and sat down to eat.
"Oh, this is great! Human food is so awesome!" She shoveled it into her mouth with both her hands. "You have your good points after all. Thanks to this you move up spaces Ayame's ranking."
I have no idea what ranking that is, and I think I don't want to know.
"Whatever. Just eat and please be quiet." He didn't think anybody saw him bring her in but she was making a lot of noise.
"It's so good to be alive…" She muttered.
"What are you doing here anyway?"
"I thought you'd never ask." She started telling her story, eating while she did. "I'm wandering the earth, looking for the fairies' home. But it's taking a long time and my power gets exhausted from time to time. It's kind of annoying." She was scarfing down the food like there was no tomorrow.
Ben looked up. The moon was beautiful tonight. He turned to disappear into his room, without another word but she clinged to his leg. Damn, there's no escaping her.
"Ask me anything if you have questions."
"….What the heck are you on about?"
"My home is a wonderful place, like a dream world."
"So what's it like exactly…?"
"It's a dream world, so it can't be described with words."
"If you're a fairy, then why are you looking for your own home?"
"Even if you're a fairy, you can't get in without the 'key'."
"And where is the key?" Ben felt like this was becoming pointless.
"The key doesn't have any shape so I don't know where it is. That's why I'm looking all over for it. I feel sorry for you for not even knowing that."
Ben wondered what was more pitiful, him or the state of her brain. He tried to get away (on several accounts) but she was quick to latch on to his belt. Maybe I should take off my pants and make a run for it… Then he considered selling her to a circus. American circuses still accepted freaks like those evil clowns so he might have been able to pull it off. But then he caught her face in profile and his thoughts stopped altogether.
She stopped eating for a moment and stared into space. Her eyes were clear, like a person longing for something. Her eyes said that she will persevere where others might have given up. Then she swiveled towards him.
"Ben…" She closed her eyelids and the next moment her face filled his world. She kissed him. It tasted like the bread she just ate. It gave him a strange sense of joy completely different of that of when he kissed Gwen. It wasn't bad…just strange.
"25 points." She drew back
"What?"
There was no answer because she was gone.
"That was the weirdest girl I've ever met…"
Ben couldn't help but wonder who that girl was. Maybe she was a patient from a mental hospital nearby. Ben couldn't exactly deal with someone as eccentric as her. Still he had to admit that he was curious. Ben wondered what it was like to be able to live in her own world, without paying attention to other people.
"Where should we go next? You think of something too Ben." Today the Tennyson family went out to enjoy the city to its fullest. So far they had gone to two restaurants, the cinema, and the huge mall and now they were out of ideas.
"Hey! Joker Fairy Ayame coming through!"
As one body, everyone on the street turned their heads to the voice. Ben knew that voice. He dreaded that voice. It belonged to the very last person he wanted to see at that moment.
"Who is that?" Gwen asked. Ben could see Ayame coming down the street, zig-zaging around people.
"Make way or else I'll destroy you with my magic wand!"
For some reason, she's pointed at him. Then she rushed at him. She moved quickly so Ben tried to sidestep but she probably thought that he couldn't dodge in time, so she changed course - in the same direction. So of course the two collided.
He took her head-on, literally. Their noses, foreheads and even lips touched.
"Owwww! You stupid human!"
"Hey Ben are you okay? Who is this girl?" Gwen asked as she rubbed Ben's forehead.
"Are you okay? When you crashed into each other there was a loud clunk…" Max asked as he scratched his forehead.
"This is nothing." Ayame jumped to her feet and stepped in closer to Ben. "Ah, sorry but since you kissed me, that's 10 more point for you Ben!" And with that she darted back into the crowd. Everyone else just stood there, dumbfounded.
"What the hell?" Ben rubbed his forehead. That girl was more trouble than she was worth.
"Ben…what is the meaning of this? Ten more points?" Ben tensed up. He could feel dark forces looming behind him. He felt sudden death. He was too frightened to move let along turn around.
"And it seems that she knows your name…" She grabbed Ben's shoulder with more force than necessary. Ben thought his shoulder would crack or break if she didn't let go. "You can explain right? Right?"
"...please don't hurt me."
Ben meets another abnormal girl. Just who is she? Whoever she is, she's taken a liking to our hero. Although, someone in particular doesn't agree with it.
