Chapter 12: A Night Like This

The thoughts of all the mystery and intrigue could not be pushed further away from Tristo's mind as he walked Zoe back to her home. They discussed the multi-layered topic of what it means for a fanfic to be a good fanfic. When they reached a small park in the middle of Monstropolis, Zoe walked over and her eyes glew bright green. Tristo watched in wonder as Zoe opened a small tear in reality.

I don't know if I'll ever get used to how powerful she really is…

The wavy purple portal gave way to a space of purple starlight, floating in the middle of which was a small house. Zoe turned to Tristo, holding her tentacle in her hand.

"This is my place. I can sense when people get near it, so if you ever wanted to pop in for a visit…" Zoe said, smirking at him.

"Understood." Tristo nodded, smiling at her with an obviously flustered look. Zoe stepped forward and wrapped her tentacle around his arm.

"I mean… you could come in right now if you wanted." She said, more suggestive and with a firmer grip on his arm. Tristo's face flushed red and he began to stammer.

"I…I don't know if I'm…"

"I'm not gonna be mad if you say no. Just be open with what you're feeling."

"Can we talk about it inside?" He replied, his voice coming through incredibly shrill.

Zoe nodded to him, releasing him from her grip and floating off into the purple void. She floated back slowly, waiting for him to enter. As he did, Tristo struggled with the sudden weightlessness that overcame him in this space. He floated with relative ease, but found that by willing himself in a direction, he would move. He still very pathetically swung his arms, and Zoe let out a giggle.

"Here I'll help, let's take it one step at a time." She told him, her tentacle reached out, and she wrapped it gently around his hand. Tristo began to feel a calm wash over him, and ceased his flailing. In what would appear to be a small dance, the two moved closer and floated towards the little island in the void.

They landed on the porch of Zoe's home, and Tristo let out a small sigh of relief at the feeling of solid ground beneath him. It was definitely a strange place, no sense of wind or weather, but a warm feeling of comfort. It was a feeling of familiarity Tristo realized, as this void was where he first entered this world from. There was a porch swing, taking the form of a little bench suspended from the roof. They walked over and sat down together, Zoe still holding his hand. She waited for him to speak, and smiled wanting to make sure he was comfortable. Tristo gathered his bearings, took a deep breath, and began to explain.

"So… I can be a very sex-repulsed person. For many reasons. I crave the intimacy of it, but I can find it… gross, scary, overwhelming. It leads to me needing a lot of patience from my partner sometimes. I'm just kind of slow to warm up and-"

Zoe nodded her head along, trying to listen, but she was also stemming back an onslaught of intrusive thoughts.

Z: I need to make out with him so passionately that he can't draw breath.

T: Oh I hope she's taking this well…

Tristo's tone had become more bashful and nervous the more he talked, but Zoe only found it more adorable.

"-not saying we'll never do something, but I can't really know how I'm going to feel at any given moment."

Zoe nodded, and unknowingly tightened her grip around Tristo's hand.

"We can move at a pace that's comfortable for both of us. Just make sure you communicate how you're feeling as we go. I, as you can tell, don't have too many qualms when it comes to this kind of thing. I'm more than willing to slow it down if you think I'm being too aggressive."

"Thank you, that's a really good thing to hear. I'll make sure to let you know how I'm feeling. You really have no qualms at all?" He asked, turning to her with a more confident look.

"Oh yeah. If I'm being totally honest you could come with me upstairs and-" Zoe started, in an attempt to tease him further, but was cut off as he leaned forward and kissed her. In her initial surprise, he kissed more of her cheek than he did her actual lips, but she wasted no time in grabbing his face and guiding him to a more proper first kiss. Zoe let out a small muffled squeal of delight, and the mouth on her thigh let out a little "Yay!" in response. Tristo was still very flushed, but probably would have been more so if Zoe had finished whatever graphic statement she was planning to say. They pulled back from the kiss gently, and looked at each other for a moment.

"That was alright then…?"

"Well I can definitely tell you've kissed someone before." Zoe said, teasing him. "It was lovely, so nice in fact I'd like seven more while you're at it."

And so they did, they kissed each other comfortably for a while, Zoe held him closer with every kiss. Eventually, she drifted back a bit to look at his face more clearly. She ran her palm across his chin before coming to rest on his chest.

"This has been wonderful, but I'm going to devour you if you don't go home right now."

"Okay… and I just want to make sure one more time. Is it okay with you for us to continue on like this for a while?"

"Yeah, it really is. It isn't what I'm used to, but I've done a lot of adapting in recent years. You're perfectly fine, are you feeling well and affirmed now? Because I feel very physically attended to for the evening."

"I am. I'm grateful too, for you being so understanding about my whole deal."

"There are worse things than a boyfriend with an adjustment period." She joked, standing up and offering him her hand. "Do you need a hand to get back up?"

Tristo looked up at the portal entrance, which seemed quite a bit farther than he realized, as if the tear in reality was getting further away. He turned and nodded.

"Please."

He took Zoe's hand, and they floated up together. After some time spent, Tristo could feel a relief as he became used to the space. He looked at Zoe.

"Could we fly around for a bit? It's actually a lot of fun." Tristo said, looking at her with his same goofy and toothy grin.

"I would really like that. C'mon let's fly!" Zoe said, yanking him along.

After another hour of flying and cheesy romantic comments, Tristo returned back to the Oberlin home. The only one up when he arrived was Vicky, who seemed to be working on something in the living room downstairs. She gave Tristo a glance as he arrived.

"Well well well, if it isn't our resident human. Back from his date with his eldritch darling?" Vicky said. She gave him a soft grin, and waved him over.

"Hey Vicky, what are you working on there?" Tristo said nervously, trying to dodge the subject.

"Using my weakness of having to talk about my projects against me. Damn you Tristo... Well, since you asked it's actually a prototype for a knife deflector. Vera's latest assassination attempts have been from throwing knives, so I figured I would make something for her. It will repel any sharp metallic objects that fly towards her, or in theory it should."

Tristo nodded, looking at the device with interest. He was starting to feel like less of a high maintenance choice for a partner as Vicky discussed Vera. Of course, that was only if this mystery that involved them turned out not to be reality shattering. Tristo turned to Vicky with a sudden idea.

"I don't know if it's your area of expertise, but I got this snazzy new laser pistol-" Tristo started, but Vicky was quick to snatch it from with starry eyes.

"What kind of modifications are you looking to make?" Vicky asked, the passion oozing from her voice.

"Oh I don't really know, whatever you think is best. Maybe make it a little more comfortable to hold?"

"Gotcha, it'll be ready for you in the morning."

"Don't you have this to work on though?"

"I can multitask."

"Alright but it is late, so try to sleep when you can."

Vicky was already lowering her goggles and beginning on the pistol.

"Sleep is for the dead Tristo… and I'm very much ALIVE!" Vicky yelled, electricity buzzing at the bolts in her neck, and visibly flowing around in her eyes. The collective Oberlin household from upstairs groaned her name, causing her to sink down into the couch.

"Sorry!" She yelled back, as she began her experimentation. Tristo shook his head with a small smile, and made his way up the stairs to his room. It wasn't long that it took him to find himself in his bed, lying down and staring up at the ceiling.

Everything is so crazy here…

Tristo smiles however, as he thinks back to the conversation he had with Zoe, and how much closer they'd gotten today. They've begun to see more sides of each other, and enjoyed them.

I know I've got my hang-ups, but I should've expected that Zoe would be so understanding. I've just got to work on getting my mind where it needs to be. I forgot to tell her to stop calling me honeytrap… but if it makes her happy then maybe I'll let her for a little while longer.

On the other side of the story, Zoe very much sat unable to get their first kiss out of her mind. The various smutty situations in which she imagined herself with Tristo was near infinite. As exciting as it was there was one worry that crossed Zoe's mind. She gently curled her tentacle around her fingers nervously as it did.

What if I'm too much for him…

Back at Spooky Academy…

Behind the fourth wall, there was a whirring sound of the machine formerly dubbed as a "disintegrator." The room was empty, until a figure stood tall from the device. Two dimly glowing green eyes opened, followed by a third blue one located on the figure's forehead. The sound of a wooden cane struck the floor as they stepped down from what was revealed to be a teleporter.

A single fly buzzed around their head.

The figure stood tall, and spoke out with a proper English accent.

"I suppose this world will require a more personal touch, wouldn't you say little drone?"