Beware of fluff overload.

Additional disclaimer: I don't own Charlie the Unicorn. ;)

Chapter 12: Sushi

Kendra was laughing so hard that she was trying to keep from snorting. This day had been full of "firsts" for Bracken, and this particular one was pretty hilarious in her opinion. Perhaps her strong reaction was the result of a mixture of tremendous nervousness, an excess amount of sugar, the fun atmosphere of the county fair, and the sight of the boy she fancied with a ridiculous look on his face.

On the way to the fair, Bracken told Kendra that he'd never actually been to one before. Kendra was surprised at first, but then thought better – he'd been stuck in a Turkish prison for years, after all. Maybe even hundreds of years. It's not like the Sphinx would have randomly let him out for a day-long rendezvous to America to experience a fair of all things. So instead of being surprised, she'd grinned and gripped the steering wheel of the car a little tighter as she said, "Well then, you're going to get the full introduction. One rule – you have to try whatever I throw at you."

"So long as whatever you throw at me doesn't wind up decapitating me, I think I can agree to those terms." There was definite teasing in his voice.

"I doubt I could ever decapitate you even if I wanted to," Kendra responded, still smiling cheerfully.

"Well then I don't have anything to worry about, do I?"

"Just a sugar high and some silly human kid stuff," she agreed.

So far she'd introduced him to the giant slide, the tilt-a-whirl, a small roller coaster, bumper cars, and the carousel – he'd quickly tried to sit on the sole purple horse out of all the different colored horses to choose from, but gave it up with a sheepish grin to a demanding four-year-old girl as Kendra had giggled at the whole situation. His eyes had been the size of dinner plates when he saw a stand that advertised elephant ears and he relaxed at Kendra's reassurances that no, they did not in fact sell actual ears of elephants but rather fried dough that sort of resembled them. She'd purchased one to share with him, appropriately doused with butter, sugar and cinnamon, and he'd quickly declared that they were amazing. "Just wait until you try a funnel cake," Kendra had insisted.

They had just finished getting their faces painted. Kendra had opted for an elegant butterfly look that was purple and blue and had glitter in it. The butterfly design covered the top left third of her face. She'd been willing to let Bracken sit that one out, but he decided to give it a shot. "It'll be a nice contrast to war paint," he said before he sat down and selected the picture he'd like painted on his face while Kendra closed her eyes to allow the woman painting her face to color her eyelid. Both of their faces were done at about the same time and when Kendra turned to look at Bracken, she'd erupted into laughter as they walked away. He'd apparently gone the funny, childish route and had opted for what looked like a mountain with a rainbow curved over the top of it, lollipops sprouting out of the sides of the mountain itself.

"What's so funny?" he asked, smiling at Kendra's obvious mirth.

"It's Candy Mountain, Charlie!" she managed to choke out, still continuing to crack up.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he responded, but the way he said it made it sound like he might have understood the reference Kendra had made, which just made her laugh even more.

"Was that sarcasm I just heard?" she eventually asked through a stream of giggles.

"Oh no, I'm always serious," Bracken answered happily, taking hold of her hand. "Especially when I'm on a date with a pretty girl."

"You have seen that video, right? Charlie the Unicorn?"

"Yes. Seth showed me a while ago. It was quite inaccurate, but I had to admit it was funny."

"You know the best part about this?" Kendra asked, her face still shining with recent laughter. "All of these strange people who are staring at us, even the ones who have watched the cartoon, have absolutely no idea just how funny that is. It's our joke."

They walked along for a couple of minutes until Bracken surprised Kendra by suddenly pulling her in the direction of the game booths. "We have to look at these," he insisted. She smiled in return and said, "They're scams, but alright."

He looked at her quizzically and said, "I'm pretty sure I can beat these. I've seen them on television before. They don't look that difficult."

Her inner voice agreed with him – he'd probably be able to win all of the prizes if he wanted, no matter what the game was. "Don't bankrupt the poor game owners," she teased.

"Don't worry, I'm only planning to get that giant stuffed clownfish," he answered as he made a beeline for the challenge the fish was hanging from the top of. It was one of the traditional games that could be found at any carnival; milk bottles were stacked on top of each other about fifteen feet away from the front of the booth, which was where people could stand and throw baseballs in an attempt to knock down the stacked bottles. "Neither of us have any use for a pile of toys, after all." Kendra smiled and rolled her eyes at his confidence.

Well, he wasn't confident without reason.

Five minutes later, Kendra was in possession of a four foot long, almost two foot wide stuffed orange clownfish. The bored gamekeeper had been skeptical about Bracken's aiming skill, but quickly grabbed the fish and handed it to him once the unicorn had demonstrated his ability to knock over all of the milk bottles in the booth, no matter how far away he was or what angle he approached them at.

"See? That wasn't so bad," Bracken smiled as he once again grasped Kendra's spare hand and they started walking back to the car so she could deposit the fish.

"Did you see his face? He totally wasn't expecting you to be able to do that," Kendra grinned. "What made you choose the fish, anyway?"

"It seemed odd enough to suit your liking," he answered. "I also like the bright orange color. It's happy."

She laughed. "Well, thanks. I think I'll name him… Sushi."

"Sushi?" he asked, raising his eyebrows as they continued to walk. "Really? Why?"

"Because it seems odd enough to suit your liking," she answered quickly.

"I get that you're mocking me, but I'm not quite making the connection. I don't eat sushi."

She just smiled and gave him a hug from the side then said, "I know. And thank you."

"You already said that," he responded happily.

"I meant to say thank you for being you."

He smiled. "Well if me being me continues to secure affection from you, I think I'll keep doing that."

"It's not healthy to be someone just to make someone else happy," she suddenly pulled back and raised her finger in the air, taking on the attitude of a teacher or a parent.

"What if making you happy is what makes me happy?"

"My mother didn't cover that one," Kendra said, lowering her finger and grasping his hand again as the unicorn chuckled.

She decided to act on her spontaneous whim and kissed him on the cheek – the unpainted one – then quickly released his hand and ran the rest of the way to the car, which wasn't far. He chased after her and met her there, where he greeted her with a huge smile as she ducked her head inside the door to the back seat to put the giant fish down.

When she emerged from the car, her cheeks were tinged pink as her eyes met his. He took hold of both of her hands and pulled her in for a close embrace. "Thank you for being you as well," he quietly said as he breathed in the smell of her shampoo. After a moment, he released her and again grasped her hand instead as he pulled her back toward the fairgrounds.

"Don't let me forget – I need to bring some cotton candy home for Seth," Kendra said as they drew close to a concession stand.

"Cotton candy? Is it really cotton?" Bracken asked, scrunching up his nose.

"It's flavored sugar that's been spun to look like cotton," Kendra explained. "We'll get two bundles of it, one for Seth and the other one for you to try out."

Bracken shook his head softly. "I'm amazed with the things people have thought to invent."

"I'm pretty sure cotton candy doesn't rank anywhere on the list of Top 100 Inventions of the 20th Century."

"You're probably right, but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to appreciate just how far humankind has progressed in the past couple of centuries." His face took on a more sober expression, although Kendra could sense he was still cheerful. "I missed a lot, and apparently all at once."

She bit her lip as she debated whether or not to finally ask one of the questions she'd been itching to ask him for a long time. Deciding to go for it, she started, "I normally avoid asking you about this…"

He looked at her questioningly as she trailed off. "About what?"

"About… Living Mirage," she hinted, warily eying the people around them, making sure none of them were focusing on her and her date.

"Ah," he answered. "You don't have to avoid asking me about that if you want to know something. It's a part of my past and, in the grand scheme of things, a very small part. I don't mind talking about it."

"Really? I thought it might be a sensitive subject." Her tone of voice held a little skepticism in it, as though she didn't fully believe him.

"Even if it is, you of all people have a right to ask." Still holding her hand, he cut through the crowd and led her to a bench to sit down.

"What do you want to know?" he prompted once they'd settled down for the moment.

"How long were you there?" she asked. "Sometimes I think 50 years, and sometimes I think more like 300."

"That's hard for me to answer, because I hadn't really been paying attention to the human calendar before I was captured," he began. "I'd spent a lot of time in the fairy realm before I went to Living Mirage to investigate the sealed shrine, and traveling from an immortal world to a mortal one is a little mind-altering after having spent as long with the Queen as I had been at that point. There is no real sense of time in her kingdom; every being that dwells there is of an immortal nature. Very few changes occur there – it's almost like nothing is ever fully real. Existence itself is experienced very differently by immortal beings in an immortal realm than by humans in a mortal one. Your lives are exciting in comparison, in a lot of different ways.

"I digress, though; to my best guess, I'd estimate it was the mid-1700's when I was captured and imprisoned."

Kendra's eyes widened. She grasped his hand tightly as a wave of empathy washed over her. "Bracken… that's a long time to spend in the dark," she said. "How on earth did you cope?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "What else was I going to do? It was the most difficult trial I've faced in my life. I would prefer to repeat the opening of Zzyzx rather than experience those years again. I craved sunlight, longed to swim in the ocean, hoped beyond hope that I could disappear and somehow find myself running at top speed through an immense, grassy field. I deeply desired the presence of my family.

"I tried to befriend many of the occupants that inhabited the various cells. I led a couple of escape attempts – unsuccessful ones, of course. Ultimately, the friends I made either wound up being relocated elsewhere or were mortal and passed away as the years ticked by.

"I had many moments of mourning. There was a lot to grieve. It was hard to hang on to any hope that I might eventually be released. Slowly, after I'd been there for decades, I came to the understanding that I had to adapt or I'd lose my mind. I tried to find beauty in my surroundings – that was a feat to accomplish – and I forced myself to continue forging friendships, even if they were humans or other mortal beings and I knew they would eventually die. I clung to the idea that I would be released at some point in the future, and I didn't want my time there to diminish my spirit."

He stopped talking as he realized that Kendra's eyes were watering. "Oh no," he said, his expression shifting as his relaxed stance turned slightly tense. "Today is supposed to be a happy day. No tears," he insisted, pulling her toward him to embrace her again.

"No, this is good," Kendra insisted. "It's good for you to talk about it. I feel like I'm getting to know you a little better."

He chuckled. "You know me pretty well already," he stated.

"Well… yeah, I'd like to think so, but your past is still mostly a big question mark to me. There's so much more about you that I want to know." She wiped her eyes and sat up straight.

"How about this," Bracken began, "Let's get back up and continue walking around the park, maybe buy some lunch, and you can ask me whatever questions you want – so long as they're ones that won't prompt depressing discussion." She agreed, and they deserted the bench. "I get to ask you questions too, though," he added as they sauntered aimlessly amid the sea of people. "After all, there's much about your own past that I don't know."

"I get the feeling that there's a whole lot more to your past than there is to mine," she stated.

"That doesn't mean yours is any less interesting," he insisted.

"Alright, you have a deal," she answered. "I'll go first."

"You already went first," he said as he smiled.

"Your new terms were introduced too late," she said, beginning to smile again herself. "I'll make it an easy one. What's your favorite color?" she asked.

He laughed. "Green," he replied. "Yours?"

"Blue. Favorite place in the world?"

"That one isn't easy," he protested. "There are a lot of beautiful places on the earth."

"Okay then, pick one of your favorites and tell me why you like it so much."

He thought for a moment and then responded, "Japan."

"I said a place, not a whole country."

"Japan is a place," he said. "More specifically, I think their gardens, temples and shrines are some of the most peaceful places to go on earth."

"That's still cheating," she said.

"I gave you an answer, and now you get to give me an answer," he teased. "How did you meet Raxtus?"

Kendra bit her lip. "That's a really long story, and a lot about it is not very happy."

"Okay then, I'll put that one back on the shelf for another day. Let's switch gears. How did you find out about my world? And when I say 'my world,' I mean my general world of whimsy and not the Queen's realm."

"That's a much better question. I was thirteen, Seth was eleven. Our Grandparents Larsen had passed away, or so everyone thought…"

Evening had fallen, and the view of the carnival lights from the top of the Ferris wheel was intoxicating. Kendra rested her head on Bracken's shoulder as the car they sat in rocked slowly back and forth. He put his arm around her and smiled happily at her and their surroundings.

Through their questioning earlier, Kendra learned that Bracken was the oldest of the 5 children he had mentioned forever ago on a cursed island far away. She had assumed as much, but was glad to have her suspicions confirmed. His sisters' names were Coral, Fern, Petal and Nova – she hadn't known that yet. In return, he'd learned that Kendra's favorite extracurricular activity back when she'd attended public school had been volunteering at the daycare (the one she'd eventually been abducted from, however she left that part out). They'd exchanged a lot of simple facts about themselves and as Kendra sat with Bracken in the deepening darkness and reflected on their conversations from the day, she realized she was starting to feel more for Bracken than a simple crush. The thought both excited and terrified her as she wondered if he reciprocated, and then conflicting thoughts started to play through her brain as she pondered whether this was a wise path to travel. There were so many differences between them – how could they ever get past those differences? Surely it would be easier to meet another human and venture down this road with that man rather than this one.

But was easier necessarily better?

'Stop it, you're only seventeen. You've got a long time to figure that one out,' Kendra mentally berated herself.

'Well… almost eighteen, actually,' she added a moment later.

'Oh, like that makes a huge difference.'

'Maybe. Maybe not.'

"Today has been wonderful," Bracken interrupted her thought processes. She snuggled further into his side and responded, "Yes, it has been. Thank you for… all of it."

"You're the one who drove us here," he answered.

"That's beside the point," she replied flatly.

He smirked. "Thank you for agreeing to come with me."

"I get the feeling we could get stuck in an endless circle of thanks very shortly here," she teased.

"Probably," he cheerfully answered. "I'll take that as a sign that the day went well for both of us and not just me."

Kendra let out a contented sigh. Bracken responded to that by kissing her forehead. She looked up at him in mild surprise, and her heart leapt into her throat when he smiled and leaned back down to softly kiss her lips.

Forget about easier… this man was definitely better.

Okay, I think that's enough fluff for now. *gushes*

And no, they're not going to rush off into the sunset and elope or anything crazy like that. ;)

You guys… I can't believe I've written over 30,000 words. WOW. When I first thought about writing this story, I pictured something… much smaller. Hahaha. I like where this has gone for the most part, though.

Once again, thank you for reading. Your comments are greatly appreciated, as are your favorites and follows. Thanks!