A Bully Turned Friend... (CroTuna)

AUs: None

Cronus' white eyes (or very, very pale violet if the light hit them correctly) followed Mituna as he walked off, head hanging. Said ochre-blooded troll had just solemnly listened as Cronus berated him for being so stupid. All he had said was "I'm th'orry" as the seadweller glared at him and pointed out how much of a failure he was.

As soon as Mituna was out of sight, Cronus slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand - hard. "Stupid! Stupid! STUPID! You alvways do this!" He sat down on the ground and held his head in his hands. Every time. He did this every time, but he had no idea how to stop himself.

"Cronus? Are you alright?" Cronus recognized the voice immediately: Kankri. Perhaps his one true friend. He looked up at Kankri's concerned expression before sighing deeply, looking away.

"Not... really."

Kankri sat down next to Cronus, rubbing his arm comfortingly. "Would you like to talk about it?" Cronus bit his lip.

"Wvell... Yes..."

Kankri smiled. "I'm all ears."

"Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Promise."

Cronus stopped and took a breath gathering his thoughts.

"I actually havwe... the biggest flush crush on Mituna."

Kankri's eyes widened. "I see. This does come as news to me, not that I am attempting to invalidate your feelings, it's just that I did not expect this. It would seem that if anything your feelings for him would be darker considering your... treatment of him. If you don't mind me saying so, I do not mean to trigger anyone."

"But see, that's exactly the problem. I vwant to be nice to him, but evwery time he's around, my brain just... freezes. I don't mean to say wvhat I do, I just do."

Kankri nodded attentively. "I see." He watched Cronus, looking out into the distance, unknown memories barely visible. "I'm honestly not sure what advice I could give you, Cronus. I think the best thing to do in this situation would be to simply apologize and ask Mituna if he is open to that kind of relationship with you. But I do not know, as I have never been in a position such as yours. I'm sorry."

Cronus looked over to the cherry-blooded troll. "Ask him if he is open to that kind of relationship?" He repeated back to him. "Kankri, he's vwith Latula. You knowv that, right?" Kankri tilted his head. "Cronus, those two broke up a while ago."

The news struck Cronus like a lightning bolt. He looked away from Kankri and spaced out a bit. His chest fluttered and his head spun. Could he really be with Mituna? Could he really stop pretending? Could they truly be together?

Then all that faded away and Cronus was left with a heavy feeling weighing down on him. No, Mituna would never like him that way. He would never forgive him. After the way he treated him? Please. As if.

Vwowv, he thought to himself, you're in that deep wvith him that you get depressed at the mere thought of him rejecting you? Wvay to go, Ampora.

"Cronus? Are you alright?" Kankri's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He glanced over at him, and sighed. "Yeah, fine..." They both knew he was lying.

"I'm gonna, uh, go take a vwalk." Cronus said, standing up. Kankri stood up as well and nodded. "Of course. Just remember if you ever need to talk about something, you can always share it with me. If you wish to impart that information that is. I completely understand if you do not." Cronus smiled a little, and with a soft "Thanks," walked away into the distant memories of the dreambubbles.

As Cronus walked, he thought. About many things. Such as Mituna, and Latula, and Kankri, and his dancestor, and Mituna, and the humans, and Mituna, and Mituna, and Mituna. He mostly thought about Mituna and every time he tried to think about something else his mind found some correlation to bring his train of thought back to that one troll.

Yes, that one ochre-blooded troll, who had sacrificed himself to save his friends, who had suffered brain damage because of that, whose strange, spastic movements and bipolar nature had somehow caught Cronus' eye. His ruffled hair, his loud, crazy, slightly worrying laugh, his stupidly cute little face... Cronus' face grew warm at just the thought of him. It was the reason he would always get uncomfortably close to him all the time, dropping not-so-subtle hints, so much so that if you were even in the general vicinity of what was occurring you would feel violated. And he really hated himself for it.

Hated how he would always go off on him for things that Mituna simply couldn't control. It wasn't his fault; It was Cronus' fault. Everything was.

That was what he told himself.

If he could just apologize to Mituna, if Mituna could just forgive him, if they could just set everything aside, if they could ju

At this moment, I stopped, because so did Cronus, and we both simultaneously realized that this was the worst monologue in the history of monologues. We both also concluded that it would be best if Cronus would just man the fuck up and tell Mituna about his feelings. If he likes him back, then great, the can be happy for all of eternity. If not, oh well, he could just move on.

So together, I as the author of this fanfiction, and Cronus, as a fictional fish alien bard with a free will of his own(?) moved Cronus to begin the long journey to confront Mituna.

... He wasn't exactly that hard to find.

He was, predictably, attempting to do radical tricks on his skateboard – and for the most part, failing miserably and falling each time. Cronus watched him for a little bit, as he did a sick grind on a railing in a Prospit memory, tried to jump off, fell on his face, threw a hissy fit, rinse and repeat. He was just so damn cute.

"So you gonna work up the courage to talk to him or what?"

The game grl's voice had startled the human greaser and he jumped and turned to Latula. "L-Latula! Hey b-babe, uh, howv long vwere you standing there...?"

She giggled. "Long enough."

Cronus blushed and searched for an excuse. "V-vwell, I, uh, wvas just, sp-spacing out, and uh... I don't havwe a reasonable explanation."

"Hah, don't worry about it. I already know."

"Uh, about wvhat...?" He already knew.

"Aww come on, you know what I'm talkin about! You're rocking mad red feelings for Tuna!"

"Howv did you knovw about that?"

Latula frowned and furrowed her eyebrows at him. "Seriously? The way you were watching him just then? And that little look on your face, boy, I know a flush crush when I see one!"

Cronus' blush became thicker as he thought for a moment about what to say, but Latula beat him to it.

"Listen, I know how stressful it is having a flush crush and being afraid they don't like you. And I totally support you and Tuna." For once, her rad girl facade dropped, just a little bit, and she smiled. Not like a cool kid, a genuine smile.

Cronus raised his eyebrows. "Vwhoah, really?"

"Yeah! Totally! You should so go and give it a shot!"

"Wvowv. Thanks, Latula." With newfound confidence, Cronus strode towards Mituna with a set goal in mind.

Tell him.

"Hey, Chief. Uh, mind if I talk to you for a bit?"

Mituna turned to him almost immediately, replying with a mixed up "I don't care". Cronus cringed, and decided to just get it over with.

"So, uh, I vwould like to apologize for, all the times I wvas mean to you or put you down, or all that." He took a breath. "I really, really didn't mean it, and, if you don't despise me by this point, I'd like to ask you something." He brought Mituna over to the railing and sat down on it, a bridge arching over a river.

"So uh, vwell, let's just cut to the chase... I hawve a really, really big flush crush on you, and I havwe for a vwhile, and I was just wvondering if, maybe... Vwe could be-"

"Yes."

"But I didn't evwen-"

"Yes."

Cronus found butterflies in his stomach again. "R-really?"

"Yes."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"And you really are okay vwith that?"

"Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes." [#Y35 #Y35 #Y35]

Cronus smiled. He leaned in to hug Mituna and –

Got pushed off.

After getting over the shock and looking up to see Mituna with a wide grin, he shouted "No fair!" and climbed up onto the river bank, with Mituna running off the bridge to go join him. He crashed into him, kissing him sloppily, and Cronus kissed back. Meanwhile Latula was watching from a distance, fist-pumping into the air.

And they were happy.