Thank you for all the support! I'm glad that people are liking it so far.

"Your mom is…."

"Annoying," Bog grumbled and kicked a leftover decoration from his mother 'surprise' from when they came back yesterday from their flight. It was the most cringey thing he had the disgrace of witnessing. He was ashamed that Marianne had to see it too, and probably she was a vessel of his mother's obsession as much as he was now. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know -"

"Don't worry!" She rushed to stop whatever apology he was starting to say. He had already done that enough the previous day after both had their moment to vent about love and how useless it was. It was kind of therapeutic, to be honest, and it got them closer than before. They even shared the story behind their hatred for love. Well, she just talked more about Roland, as he already knew what happened on the wedding a week ago.

"I know, I know," he sighed. "It's just that… mom has been trying to…uh, play matchmaker with me for a long time and-"

"Yeah, after what happened with… the love potion," Marianne consciously avoided the girl's name. He had looked so broken and depressed when he told her how he failed to gain a girl's affection even with a love potion. He said that it was because he was too ugly to love, but she didn't think that it was the reason why it failed. The goblin was too stubborn, though, and no matter how many times she said that same thing he didn't listen.

"Yeah…"

An uncomfortable silence fell upon them. Both wanted to talk about what transpired the previous day, but they were too awkward to actually say something.

Was she upset? Did she find it horrible to even think about being with him? Bog was dying to know all of this. It wasn't like he actually expected her to like him (at least, not more than friends), but a tiny voice in his head, the one who usually brought his insecurities to the spotlight, was nagging him almost as much as his mother.

(Does Marianne find him hideous at all? Or is she saying that he isn't just because they are friends?)

Marianne, on the other hand, was dying to know more of him. Yesterday's revelation made her realize that she actually didn't know that much about him, and that while she shared everything about her life (she was a talker by nature, just like Dawn, but she usually tried to control it), she didn't expect him to share the same amount. They hadn't needed to talk about anything personal so far, but still… Marianne hadn't even met his mother and she spent the last week in his home.

(Does he think of her as an annoying fairy or the comfortable flow and friendship was inside her head? Was she seeing what she wanted to see, just like with Roland?)

"Hey -"

"Do you- ?"

Both talked at the same time, looked at each other with surprise on their eyes and started to laugh. They didn't know what exactly was hilarious of the situation, but they just couldn't stop laughing after such a tense moment.

"This is weird," she commented as she was trying to breathe normally, and as he usually did, knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Yeah, I agree."

Marianne smiled and was about to say something else, when Stuff walked into the throne room and announced that a fairy emissary was asking for entrance to the Castle.

"What? I don't know anything about this."

"Then hide," Bog murmured and gestured to his assistant to bring in the fairy. "Hurry!"

Marianne flew to the nearest tunnel and almost crashed into Griselda. She shushed the woman and told her that a fairy messenger was in the Castle and that they should hide until they were gone.

"So…," the goblin mother was smiling from ear to ear once they entered a more secluded room, far enough from the throne room. "How are things going with my son?"

Marianne scoffed and whispered:

"We are just friends, Griselda! We told you already!" But the goblin was shaking her head with a tiny smile on her lips, like she knew something that the fairy didn't.

"We'll see, darling."