Ness

There he is, sitting on the cliff. He was looking out over to the sunset. The orange turning to purple sky, attracted him it seemed. The city of Smashville under all of it. He's been sitting here for hours. He even missed the funeral. I can't help but feel awful for it. I feel it's my fault for her death. I didn't protect her as well as I was supposed to. I...I failed. I looked down at the rocky ground. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and when I looked I saw Ninten. He's normally known for his lack of seriousness, but he knows how to be serious when needed. He motioned his eyes toward Lucas, his tears most likely falling off the cliff. I looked back at Ninten, and he nodded. He gave my back one good pat and walked into the forest that stood behind us. I slowly walked up to Lucas and saw next to him. Our feet dangling off the cliff.

I stared at the sunset. Today has been very somber, the sunset is the brightest thing to happen in town today. I tried to see if I could see anyone in the town, but no. Everyone was mourning, and it's all my fault. "I miss her," Lucas cried. I looked at him and saw he was already looking at me. He allowed a tear to fall from his eye. He then embraced me in a tough hug. I hesitated a bit, but then wrapped my arms around him. "I...I miss her." I could hear the despair in his voice. He sounded lost. She was everything to him, and now she's gone. He pushed out of the hug and collided his forehead into mine. Our eyes were as close as they could possibly be. His ocean eyes are wetter than eyes should be. I push his head slightly away and place my hand on his red cheek. I wipe away some tears with my thumb. He planted his hand on mine and forced himself to smile. I shook my head and the smile disappeared. "I miss her." I gave him a small hum then stood up. His hand was still on mine so he stood up with me.

We then walked through the forest, no words spoken. No words were needed to be spoken. We walked and listened to the crunches of leaves and sticks. Our hands were in each other, the fingers interlocked, but neither of us felt awkward, or at least not me. I looked over at him, I could tell he was trying to hide his tears. I stopped moving and looked down. I saw a broken stick. This stick was oddly familiar. I let go of Lucas' hand and kneeled down to grab the stick, that is now broken in two. I looked at Lucas. "I can't do it anymore, I have to forfeit." This stick is the special stick Lucas uses to fight with. He broke his weapon, even though he barely used the weapon, he still broke it.

"I...I'm sorry," I finally had the right frame of mind to say. I dropped the stick, but Lucas grabbed my chin and made me look up into his eyes. He tilted his head, forcing yet another smile. I shook my head, and once again he destroyed the smile.

"Y-you have nothing to be sorry about Ness...This is all my fault." The way he said it, full of somber and regret, made me want to curl up and cry.

"Where is he?" I asked as I looked at the ground.

"I...gave him back to Duster. I don't want to lose him too." I looked up and saw he was on the brink of tears. I looked around the forest. There had to be something in the forest that'll cheer him up, just a little bit at least. That's when I remembered something, it's a rumor but I don't have much to go off of now. I grabbed his hand and started to walk through the forest. This time, without the intent to leave the forest, but rather, to find the field. The Sunflower Field. There is a rumor that after a loss this field will open itself up for those mourning. It's said to be in this forest, but a rumor is just that, a rumor.

After a long while, we see loads of yellow. I could see Lucas' eyes brighten up slightly. I smirked slightly and walked toward the yellow. The closer we got, the more we became aware that it was the Sunflower field. Lucas ran toward the field, with a seemingly genuine smile on his face. I slowly followed him with a smirk. He gently ripped a sunflower from the ground and turned toward me. "You brought me here...why?" I walked up to him and held the hands that held the stem of the flower. We held the flower between us.

"I know you and her loved sunflowers, thought it'd be best...do you hate it?" He let go of the flower, leaving me with it. I was a little worried, but then he embraced me into a hug, with the sunflower between us.

"I couldn't have asked for anything better...Ness thank you." His voice sounded so innocent. He didn't seem to be crying this out, he seemed so innocent. Like nothing in the world could bring him down. I love this about him. One minute he can be crying waterfalls, but the next minute, he's innocent and happy.

He pulled away from the hug but kept his hands on my shoulders. Some tears were coming down his face. These tears weren't cold, they were warm and happy. He had a smile, one I could tell was genuine. I chuckled at the smile, it was a nervous chuckle. "Boop" I say happily as I boop his nose. He gave me a cute little chuckle. He took hold of the sunflower and started to walk further into the field. I followed him through it. We soon got to a cliff. This cliff overlooked an ocean. Lucas took in a deep breath of the ocean's air.

He looked up and smiled. I looked where he was looking, and saw her. Hinawa, Lucas' mother, floated above. She was smiling. She floated down and stood in front of Lucas. "Mom?" Lucas asked.

"Yea, Luke?" Hinawa asked. Her normal voice was with a ghastly and echoey tint. Lucas looked over at me. I smiled and handed me the sunflower. I took it and hovered it over the cliff. I smirked seeing the ocean's waves splashing behind the sunflower.

"You'll always be here, for us?"

"Yea, of course, I love you." I looked over and saw Hinawa had her hand on Lucas' cheek. She brushed her hand through his ice-cream hair. "Is something bothering you?" I looked back at the sunflower, I then let it go and watched it fall into the ocean. I then watched the waves push the sunflower further into the ocean, and eventually out of view. Soon Hinawa appeared in front of me. I gulped and rubbed the back of my neck.

"I'm sorry about everything," I said in a defeated tone. Hinawa chuckled.

"Ness, I made the decision, I chose to go into the battle, you had nothing to do. You were just trying to survive, and I think you surviving is more important than me surviving." I tilted my head. I then felt Lucas place his hand into mine. I look over at him, his smile warming my soul. "Ness?" I looked back at Hinawa. "Keep my boy happy, will you?" I smiled and nodded.

"Of course, I pinky promise." She smiled and she floated back up into the air. We turned around and saw the sunflowers weren't there anymore, it was the normal forest. I looked back, where the cliff overlooking the ocean once was but saw only more basic forest. Lucas grabbed my hand harder and practically dragged me through the forest. He was chuckling like a Japanese schoolgirl, it was adorable. We eventually made it through the forest that went down the mountain. We got to the edge of town and saw Ninten chatting with Popo. They looked concerned, but when they saw Lucas' happy face they cheered up.

They ran over to us and looked at him. "How you feeling dude?" Popo asked.

"Never better," Lucas smirked. Ninten looked at me and patted my back. He leaned into my ear.

"I heard Mario opened up his restaurant, he'd really appreciate it you two went. Like a date," Ninten whispered. His voice no longer filled with unusual seriousness.

"You proud of being an advert?" I asked.

"...Mario pays me at least." I rolled my eyes and looked at Lucas. Niten dragged Popo into town and out of view. Lucas looked at me. I smiled and led him into town. We walked past some people who were still mourning. Hinawa wasn't the only death, but it was the only one that truly mattered to us. We eventually got in front of Mario's restaurant.

"Didn't know he could even cook," Lucas said. I playfully nudged him and walked into the restaurant. Lucas followed me. We got to the counter and Mario ran out of the back, sweating. He started to breathe heavily.

"Boy, you guys want to-Jesus christ-eat?" Mario asked panting over the counter.

"Nah, we came to prostitutes," I said.

"Oh, you'll have to see Yoshi for that, he's the expert."

"Huh, why am I not surprised," Lucas said to himself.

"Just give us a goddamn menu," I said. After Mario gave us menus, we walked to a booth and sat in front of each other. Young Link took our order and eventually we received the food. We looked down at the spaghetti and alfredo. Lucas didn't bother to look at his food, instead he looked at me. "Do I have something on my face?" I started feeling around my face, but didn't feel anything.

"Yea, I'll get it." Ness stood up and leaned over the table. He then booped my nose like I did to him. He started to chuckle as he sat back down. He dug into his food. I felt my nose and smirked.

"You're adorable, you know that?" He looked up, with some alfredo dangling from his closed mouth. He winked.

"I try." As he said this the alfredo shot out of his mouth and onto his plate. "Dang it."

"Well, it doesn't seem you try too hard in that case." We ate the rest of our food, and I could tell he was glancing up at me constantly. Something has to be on his mind. Young Link came with drinks and noticed we had already finished our food.

"Well damn, it's literally only been 3 minutes. You guys must love shit in your mouth," Young Link winked. I glared at him and he cleared his throat and walked away after placing our cups of water on the table. I pushed our plates to the side and Lucas looked at me. He had a look in his eyes, he was wondering something.

"Luke, something on your mind?" He smiled at the name I used.

"The promise you made with my mom, to keep me happy?"

"What about it?"

"I don't want to cause unnecessary stress for you." I shook my head and reached my hand out. Lucas looked down at my hand and slowly placed his hand in mine.

"You'll never cause me stress, you'll only ever cause me joy. Knowing that you're happy...knowing I'm the one who made you happy. Is all I need. Luke...keeping you happy is not a job or a task, it's a hobby." His mouth was slightly held open and he had a blush on his face. He lifted his hand up. I took a quick look out of the building and saw the stars. The moon in the distance, brightening the night. I turned back to Lucas, who now had his pinky sticking up as the other fingers were down. I looked down at my right hand and lifted my pinky up. I planted my elbow on the table.

"Promise?" I made out pinkies embrace and curl around each other.

"I pinky promise...promise to always be here to make you happy, 'cause...I love you." Lucas smiled and curled his pinky around my already curled finger.

"I guess, I pinky promise to be here for you to make me happy...because I love you too."