Chapter 6: The Festival

Festival day had dawned upon Hometown, and the true depths of the daft frenzy was set to reveal itself.

 

Frenzy, however, was not where Dess’ day started, for by 11 that morning she was still groggily laying in bed, regretting her life choices. Maybe staying up until 3 in the morning wasn’t the best of ideas when she couldn’t afford to wake up at 1 in the afternoon.

With the speed of a tortoise, she lazily slid herself out of bed once the fifth alarm on her phone began to ring. A small voice in the back of her mind asked why she was even bothering with this, knowing how much she detested the festival and everything surrounding it. Especially after last year.

But finally standing up, stretching her arms skyward, and letting out a vicious yawn, she peered over to her side table for the reminder she needed. There, a framed photo of her and Asriel, the only picture she had of them together, sat collecting dust in her ill-kept room. Seeing them together in a tender embrace at the festival the year prior filled her with determination. Not just to go, but to do something unusual for Azzy.

She was going to take a shower.

Lightly smacking her snout to wake herself up some more, she lifted her Ostrheinland jacket off of the chair it was draped across, fished through her nightstand for a bra, jeans, and a shirt (her Unknown Pleasures graphic tee), and meandered her way out the door and down the hall towards the bathroom.

Now, showering was something Dess rarely ever liked doing proactively; she would prefer if she could just rot in her stench for months on end, or be absent self-care at all for the rest of time, but someone would always come along and demand she shower. Usually it was her mother, but even Asriel would get fed up with her if it went on for too long. So to actively take care of herself like this was unaccustomed to. Maybe she did wanna put out for the festival after all.

Locking the bathroom door behind her, she made sure everything was in order. Clean clothes in a pile by the door, towel draped on the hook on the wall, her bottle of specialty Fur and Body Works shampoo placed in the shower, all ready for her. The last thing she needed was hung on that hook, which she nabbed when she placed the towel on.

Her shower cap.

It was just about the only thing that kept her sane throughout her bathing ritual. She only liked to shower hot, and if her hair or antlers were to get wet, then all of her dye would run, and she’d be stuck looking like Carol. And she would frankly rather kill herself than be like Carol. The shower cap was the only reason she even showered at all; it had been a week since she’d last washed her body, which was absolutely laden with sweat and musk from a hot early autumn, but the last her hair was washed was over a month ago, when she last had it dyed.

Once the cap was affixed, she made quick work of washing herself, making sure to really rub in her fur shampoo this time, and stepping out all before the mirror could even fog up with condensation. Slipping on her clothes, and clipping on a bra for once, a rarity for her, she binned the rest in the hamper and stepped out into the hall once more, ready to greet the day with breakfast.

Marching downstairs, she quickly realized from the eerie placidity of the house that nobody else was there; only the sound of the A/C greeted her in the kitchen. “Ah, must’ve already run off to the festival,” Dess mumbled to herself. No big surprise, with her mother being the mayor and all that; they were probably off busy preparing for the big ribbon cutting and all the other saccharine ceremonial junk. She didn’t mind missing that.

She also didn’t mind the fact she could make whatever the fuck she wanted for breakfast.

Reaching into the fridge, she grabbed for herself some pastrami, cheese, and dressing, before taking some bread out from the cabinet and pulling out a loaf of bread. In a flash, she assembled for herself a reuben for breakfast, popping it in the toaster oven to warm up a bit. With how she ate, it was a miracle she wasn’t 300 pounds or something like that, especially with how much weed she smoked, but then again that was one of the reasons she got off of her mood stabilizers. No need to relive that dysmorphic hell again.

Still feeling groggy, she decided that the only thing worth pairing with such a meal was an ice cold Bepis Max from the fridge. “Mmm… caffeine….” She gargled in delight as she swiped the can from the fridge, cracking it open and taking a sip as she made her way over to the dining table with her sandwich fresh from the oven, already feeling perkier as she sat down to eat.

Wasting no time, like the animal she truly was, she scarfed down her reuben in about a minute flat, taking no time to reflect on the overwhelmingly greasy taste of it in the slightest, before chugging her can of Bepis and crushing the empty can in her hands. With a loud, rumbling burp, she got up from the table, bussed her plate over to the sink, and kicked her can into the recycling bin.

She was finally ready to start the day.

Foregoing her bat for once, she strutted out the front door of the manor and made her way down the drive, before pivoting and making a beeline down the road towards the north end of town past the gate. Finally reaching the Dreemurr household, she went up to the door and playfully knocked out the tune to “She’s Lost Control,” her favorite Joy Division song.

She could hear a flurry of footsteps in the house rapidly make their way toward the door, and in a flash, Asriel was there to open it.

“Ready?” she asked with a knowing look.

Excitedly, he bounded out the door and gave her a kiss on the cheek, before the pair turned and made their way back down into town. “Lemme tell ya, Dess, you had me waiting for a while there. I was almost worried you weren’t gonna show up!”

“Yeah, sorry about that… and sorry about being absent for so much of the past week…” She held off on the last part, but decided it needed saying. “...and sorry about that fight last week. This whole portfolio’s just got me wound the fuck up.”

Asriel tilted his head. “You’re still working on that?”

“I just finished it, actually,” she said excitedly. “The post isn’t running on Festival Day, so I’ll slot it all in the mail tomorrow.”

Nodding, Asriel turned back forward as they walked. “You don’t have to worry about the fight, by the way. I forgive you.”

Dess couldn’t believe he was so ready to move on and forget. “Really? After all of that?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “No sense in letting things linger, I got pretty heated in all of that myself. Let bygones be bygones, y’know.”

But Dess couldn’t let well enough be in her mind. She recalled how hurt Azzy was in the days after their fight, how they barely talked at all in class. Was he really just going to move on like that? Was it right to accept that?

One look at his infectious smile, however, made all that moot; no way could she ponder that today.

“Anyway, any plans for what you might wanna do today?” he asked.

Dess pondered the question, before a long-held idea came to mind. “Probably perform,” she said matter-of-factly. “With all the music I’ve recorded for my portfolio, I’d love to get up on stage for the amateur contest and blow all of those other schmucks out of the water! Fah!”

She chuckled to herself over this, and expected a laugh from Azzy, too, but was met with a questioning silence. “Uhh… Dess?” he finally asked. “Are you sure they’re gonna let you… y’know… perform?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” She was dead serious in her questioning of him.

“Well, it’s just… after last year’s performance, I woulda thought they’d blacklist you, right?”

“Oh, right,” she grumbled. “The Doors incident. Yeah, look, I’m the mayor’s kid,” she sassily said while pimping her Ostrheinland jacket. “There’s no way they’d stop me! Hell, I’d even sing ‘The End’ again if I felt like it.”

“Unless Carol tells them to put the kibosh on that,” Azzy reminded. “Remember, the controversy started because of what you implied about her.”

She looked at him quizzically. “Um… the ‘kill, kill, kill’ segment? Guess a sixteen year old singing that was a little much…”

Azzy facepalmed. “No, Dess, I mean the family annihilation segment, and how you butchered the lyrics to make them worse!”

“How was I supposed to know what Jim was singing?!” she protested. “It was hard to make out his voice with how gruff it was with the mic feedback!”

“I dunno, the liner notes?!?!” Azzy was just gobsmacked with how nonchalant Dess still was over this whole thing even a year later. “Morrison didn’t even sing anything there! He was just howling incomprehensibly!’

“See? That’s the point! Incomprehensible!” Dess raised her hands and voice in junction. “All I did was fill in the gaps some!”

Time for Azzy to pull out the specifics. “Did you never consider how bad of an idea it was to sing ‘mother, I want to rape you’ IN PUBLIC, AND IN FRONT OF YOUR MOTHER?!?!?!” Azzy wasn’t even angry, he was just so unbelievably beside himself over how incredibly daft Dess was being right now.

“It was meant to be dark and edgy on purpose, Azzy, shit!” Dess moped. “How was I supposed to know it would end so badly…”

“How??? The hell do you mean ‘how???’ It was obvious that was a bad idea from the start! THAT’S NOT EVEN WHAT HE SANG!!! Heck, if you asked me to listen, it sounded like Jim sang ‘I want to… oh I hate you!’ That actually would’ve worked well for you! It would’ve gotten your hatred across in a way that would’ve still been palatable to the town at-large. You picked literally the WORST option out of the bunch!”

He waited for some sort of snappy response from Dess, but was merely met with a guilty, somberful silence. Sighing, he rubbed his face and went on. “Look, Dess, I’m not looking to fight again now, I’ll drop it. Just know that if you are blacklisted, I won’t at all be surprised.”

“Okay,” she meekly replied; another apology right now just felt like it would ignite things further.

They spent the last quarter mile of the walk to the site in silence, both quietly stewing over the fact their conversation had descended into an argument again. By the time they reached the place, however, both had mellowed out, and excitement had taken hold once more.

Turning around the corner, and met with a mob of people, they both knew that they had arrived. And peering down the center aisle of the main drag, and seeing how ramshackle the entire operation was, Dess felt whatever excitement was in her body deflate.

That was one of the things, probably the main reason, actually, of why she hated Festival day. She could maybe stomach the entire thing and all of the social pressures if the festival itself were a truly gargantuan extravaganza. But instead, it was just some lousy, typical small-town festivities, maybe even lamer than other similar towns in Maine. Even when she tried to amp herself up, it always fell flat. The fact that everyone, Asriel included, seemed to delude themselves into thinking it was just as good as a night in Megalopolis just made the lackluster sight even more egregious.

Front and center was, of course, the main drag of Carnival Row, where a slew of shoddily set-up booths and games were set up, cheap prizes lining their walls. Stuffed animals, mostly, but there was also some other cheap novelty faire at the fair, such as some plastic whiffle balls and bats to win.

Azzy’s eyes immediately gravitated towards one of the booths, a bottle-knocking game, where there was a giant stuffed deer plush prominently displayed out front.

“Ooh, Dess,” he excitedly pleaded, “you’re good at baseball, you should totally play that game for me! I’d love it if you could win me that deer plush, it’s almost as cute as you are!”

With how smarmy he was over the whole plush, you’d think Dess would take the hint and show out for her lover. Instead, she acted in the cold way that was typical of her. “That thing was probably made for fifty cents over in the Far East,” she dryly commentated, before cruelly joking. “Dollars to donuts some poor schmuck kid worker lost their fingers in the sewing machine that made that thing. Fa ha hah!”

Azzy didn’t laugh at her joke. In fact, nobody was, and the stall manager was giving her a nasty stink-eye for putting that image into the minds of the youngins around.

“Err… I mean, it’s all cheap crap, anyways,” she pivoted. “You could probably get that online for, like, not even a dollar. Not that I would; that’d be such a horrible thing for a socialist like me to-”

“Okay, lady, we get the point,” the manager scolded. “Either buy a ticket to play or move along already! You’re killin’ business here!”

Sheepishly, she sighed and turned away, dragging Asriel along with her; now wasn’t the time to pick a fight. “Fine, we’ll find something else,” she mumbled, completely oblivious to the longing look Asriel gave towards the deer plush. Eventually, though, he too looked away, and turned his attention back towards his girlfriend.

“Any of the other games at least look fun?” he gently prodded, hoping for some sort of affirmative response. “I mean, hey, there’s a bobbing for apples tank right there! No cheap child-made plastic junk there! Just good old fun!”

The sight of an overweight human man dunking his entire head, messy beard and all, into the tank really turned her off. “I really would prefer not to contract oral herpes today,” Dess joked, hoping that the curt response would be received as well as she found it to be. The awkward silence spoke otherwise.

“...Right,” Asriel nodded, sighing to himself as they walked along. “How about the dancing pavilion? We both like music, that seems like a good time!”

Dess took one glance over towards the flat pavilion, where scores of couples, both human and monster, were getting down to a hootenanny. Her face scrunched up in disgust. “If they were flash dancing, maybe, but hell if I’m gonna be caught dead doing a damn square dance.”

“What’s wrong with square dancing?” Azzy asked, now clearly annoyed with how little Dess was interested in any of the day’s festivities. “Is it too ‘old-timey’ for you or something? CCR and Lynyrd Skynyrd aren’t even that old!”

Rolling her eyes, Dess crossed her arms in a huff. “Azzy, first of all, you know I hate Southern Rock, so drop that. But beyond that, you really think I wanna square dance? Who do you think I am, a conservative?’

Asriel grimaced over her reaction, mentally preparing for another diatribe. “Whuh… Dess, how is square dancing conservative?”

“It’s the dance of the country bumpkins, the rural fools, the ideological üntermenschen of this country,” she monologued, eliciting an eyeroll from Azzy over the use of that “Ü” word once more. “It’s not a cosmopolitan, metropolitan, superior dance like flash mobbing. Intellectuals don’t square dance, Azzy! And I’d be remiss how it only grew popular due to a car manufacturer back in the day hating jazz so much that he-”

“Okay, I give up,” Azzy admitted, sticking his arms up as he shouted his surrender. “You clearly aren’t having much fun here, I’m starting to faintly see a point in all of this if you’re just gonna bitch about everything.” Waving his arms in the air for emphasis, he continued, “Is there anything here that tickles your fancy?”

Dess lazily gazed around, admittedly not really awe-struck by anything around her. That was, until one giant thing caught her eye.

Well, admittedly it wasn’t giant. The ferris wheel the town had rented out for the festival was actually quite small as far as rides go. But compared to literally everything else there, it was enticing nonetheless. Plus, the sight of the big wheel gave Dess some nostalgic butterflies in her stomach; she used to ride with Noelle all the time back when they were younger, back before she became so jaded and cynical. Back when she was happy,

A warm smile crept out over her face. “Y’know, a ride on the ferris wheel wouldn’t be so bad,” she admitted, turning her head towards Asriel. “Wanna give it a spin? For old time’s sake?”

Relieved to hear those words, Azzy nodded in kind. “I’d love to.” With that, the pair strolled down the promenade of the fair, down past all the carney stalls and knick-knack displays…

…only to reach a sign that read “closed.”

“Are… you… kidding me?!” Dess was incensed; the one thing she wanted to do at the festival, the one thing, and it was closed. “Hey, carney!” she shouted out to a worker. “Why ain’t it open?”

The worker wolf turned back with a wrench in hand, and oil speckled all over his fur. “This thang’s down for maintenance,” he replied. “Issue with the bearings. Don’t worry, though, we’ll hopefully have her up and running by tonight… maybe.”

With the wolf turning away, Dess turned back towards Asriel, profoundly dejected. “I was actually excited for that…” she mumbled. “And I don’t even get a chance to ride it!” She kicked the dirt beneath her in a furious huff, pissed at how the world itself seemed to mock her as the dust blew right back into her face.

“Are you okay?” Azzy asked.

“I’m fine,” she tersely replied, wiping the dirt out of her eyes. “Let’s… ugh, let’s just go get something to eat. I’m just about done.”

Quietly, the two slowly made their way over towards the concession stand, with Dess hoping to drown out her sorrow and boredom with some soda and fried food. Unfortunately, as the world spat upon her one last time, the line for the sole stand was backed up by a good half-hour’s wait. She had had it, she was probably gonna break down crying right then and there.

Asriel could see her emotions begin to unravel, and gently wrapped his arms around her. It was a small gesture, but a well-informed one, as she fell limp into his embrace. No words had to be spoken, but he knew that she was thankful for him at least.

“Hey, Dess,” he gently said, “I’m sorry this whole day’s been a bust for you. I know festival day isn’t your favorite…”

“Why’re you apologizing?” she asked right back. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know that, I just… I feel bad, y’know. I hate seeing you so miserable, even if it’s self-inflicted.”

She took minor offense to that. “Self-inflicted?”

“Yeah, I mean, you’re not exactly going out of your way to make your own fun, which is… kinda draining, admittedly,” he said, eyes wandering, before a certain thing caught his eye. “Hey, wait, there’s something you might like!” Asriel pointed at a photo booth right next to the concession stand. “You did say you wanted to have more pictures of us together earlier!”

Well, she did say that, about a month prior on one of their dates. She didn’t expect Azzy to actually collect on that, but hey, a few more pics wouldn’t hurt.

“Yeah, sure,” she shrugged, brushing off the slight from earlier. “No line, either. I’m down for that.”

“Great!” Azzy was practically dragging Dess into the booth, who herself shared very little of the excitement, but at least didn’t actively detest this idea. It was something that she could tolerate.

Sliding past the curtain, the pair sat down on the wooden bench inside of the booth, where Azzy then slipped a dollar into the slot and the old machine whirred to life.

“Okay, so we’ve got four photos,” Azzy said matter-of-factly as he read the instructions. “All I gotta do is press the button and it’ll snap one five seconds after.” Now turning back, he asked Dess, “Do we wanna do a normal one first?”

Dess just nodded along, going with the flow of whatever was being asked. “Yeah, sure.”

Pressing the button, Asriel assumed an upright position with a polite smile, Dess following his lead as she did the same. Looking at the camera, there was a flash, and then a ding to let them know the photo had been made.

“Alright, can’t wait to see how that one turned out!” Azzy was clearly trying to ham up his excitement for Dess’ sake, although his attempt to get her all-in on the fun was clearly falling a bit flat, what with how she wasn’t responding to him at all. “Now how about a silly one?”

Nodding along again, Dess pressed the button this time and reached into her breast pocket. As Asriel made a goofy face with his tongue stuck out, and stretched out his cheeks with his fingers, Dess pulled out a blunt and stuck it in her mouth, pretending to light it just as the camera flashed. Azzy seemed to recognize what was happening just at that moment, and a bit of shock showed on his face.

“D-Dess!” he stammered. “Really?”

“What?” she protested, stuffing everything back into her pocket. “You wanted silly, so I gave you silly,” she sneered with a mocking grin.

“Ugh…” Asriel grimaced. “I meant like old-school ha-ha funny, like when we were kids, not this cynical- you know, whatever, we can do it again.” Pressing the button once more, Asriel prepared another silly face. “Do something classic!” he said.

“Classic, eh?” A wry thought crept into Dess’ mind. If he wanted a classic gag, then he’dd damn well get one. In one fluid motion, she snagged his glasses straight off of his face and donned them herself, putting on geeky, mocking airs as she grinned. “I’m Azzy, I’m a big fluffy nerd who’s in love with a manic depressive! A-hyugh hyugh!”

Azzy, for his part, blushed at the mockery and made a play at frantically grabbing his glasses back. “Dess! I need those to see!” he protested, unable to get a hold as Dess pushed him away. In the middle of all of the ruckus, the camera flashed, the ding of it registering snapping the two right out of it.

“Dammit!” Azzy cussed. “When I meant classic, I didn’t mean second grade shenanigans!”

“Hey, you wanted a classic funny picture,” she said slyly. “You should’ve been more specific, fah!”

He crossed his arms, clearly peeved by the whole ordeal, more than mildly so. “I’m serious, Dess….”

“Serious about being funny? Fa ha hah!” She could see he clearly wasn’t amused by the jab. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry, geez…” She trailed off, a bit hurt by the fact her boyfriend was so clearly not having fun the way she was, but quickly bounced back with an idea. “Hey, though, we still have one photo left. And I may have something in mind for this one!” she said all cutesy-like.

Asriel perked up at this; at the very least, he was elated to hear that Dess was willing to actively do something today, for once. “Aight, what’cha got?”

Her lips curled in anticipation. “A kissing one!” she excitedly said. “Like all the couples do in these things!”

He pondered for a moment, but his face betrayed the fact that he was very much on board with the idea. “Alright, sounds like a plan! Only if you give me my glasses back, though!” Asriel said, still a tad bit chuffed his silly photos didn’t turn out the way he thought they would.

“Sure thing!” Dess started, before another sly idea crept up into her brain. A little bit of playful humiliation still seemed in order, the type of devilish streak both she and Kris shared. “I’ll give you back your glasses… IF you agree to let me practice my makeup on you! I need to get some more work in before Noelle’s big choir concert, she needs to look tip-top for… that…..”

What she was expecting Asriel to do was reluctantly agree in a huff, where they’d exchange the glasses in turn for a kiss in the booth and some dignity lost later. Instead, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. “You promise?!” he excitedly blurted.

“Uh… yeah, sure. I’m honestly surprised you’re so on board with-”

She didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence. Jamming in the button, Azzy swiped back his glasses, donned them once more, and then in a properly amorous display of affection, took Dess by the shoulders and pulled her right close to him, jamming his tongue into her mouth just as their lips touched and the camera went off.

This was a total shock; Azzy was always a bit more of a passive, timid romantic, one that preferred to express adoration through words rather than physical action. So for him to be so domineering, so forceful, for him to be the one to initiate with the tongue for once…

Well, it was the hottest damn thing she ever felt.

Finally pulling apart, both of them were a blushing, giggling, blithering mess. They each were stunned; Dess by Azzy’s active, passionate display of love, and Azzy by the fact he had actually just done all of that to Dess.

“W-wow, Azzy,” she finally said, stumbling through her words in a flustered manner. “I didn’t know you had that sort of thing in you!”

Azzy was somehow even more flustered, despite being the one to initiate. “...Neither did I…” he finally stammered. He quickly turned to face her. “You do promise to do my makeup later, right?”

“Yeah,” she answered, still unsure as to why he was so excited by the prospect of having that done to him.

Nodding gleefully, he scooched himself out of the seat and past the curtain, with Dess following. Outside, they found two sheets of photos printed out just for them, each grabbing a copy and gazing at it.

“Wow… you… *cough* …you really went all-out with the kissing,” Dess remarked. Asriel silently nodded in agreement; that one photo was the only one they were staring at, fully enraptured by the image of such a passionate kiss.

Dess, for her part, couldn’t get that moment out of her head. She desperately wanted to feel that again, to feel… more. She wanted something deeply sensual. Her lips curled as her eyes fluttered, a floozy of an idea coming to mind. “You know, I really enjoyed that, Azzy,” she started. “If you’re up for it, maybe the two of us could head down by the lake, find a nice quiet corner for us to, heh… ‘take a quick nap.’”

Asriel tilted his head. “...A nap? Are you really that tired?”

Shaking her head, Dess mentally cringed at how daft he was. “You know… take a ‘quick nap,’ ‘sleep together,’ feel the warmth of your body pressed up against mine.” She leaned up right next to his ear and whispered seductively, laying her wishes on nice and thick to break on through to the other side. “And hey, maybe we can both get naked and see how good that tongue is between my other pair of lips.”

In an instant, Asriel shot back, the breath taken right out of him and his face overcome with blush. “D-Dess! That’s… no! I’m not doing that!”

She didn’t wanna hear “no” for an answer. “C’mon, Azzy! It’s like that one movie we watched earlier said, the one with the vampires: the quickest way to a woman’s heart is licking that button right towards the top-”

Asriel grimaced at the visual description. “Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, no! I’m not getting naked for you, Dess! For anyone! Not… not now!”

Great, she thought. More of THIS shit again. “Oh dammit! Why? You better not give me that ‘wait before marriage’ crap, Az!”

He was insistent. “I said NO!”

“That ‘How To Draw Dragons’ book gets more action than I do! I know you know what it looks like down there, and you LIKE IT! You LOVE IT!”

His eyes shot wide open as he yanked her by the jacket collar and pulled her close. “SHHHH! SHUT UP!” he said in a panicked whisper. “You said you wouldn’t talk about that!”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” she shrieked sarcastically as footsteps drew near. “I’m sorry that you fucking led me on! That you’ll happily masturbate, but you won’t let me see! I WANT MY SEX! YOU NEVER FUCK ME!”

“There’s a reason, Dess! OKAY?!?!”

The echoing sound of a third voice cut right through between them from behind. “Oh ho ho! Sounds like there’s trouble in paradise!”

Hearing the mocking voice ring out from across the fairgrounds, both Dess and Azzy turned and saw who had interjected. A gaggle of teenage monsters their age, the group straddling the gulf of adulthood, made their way over to the pair, headed by a tan feline at the front.

“Wazzup, my man!” the cat greeted, dapping up Asriel, who reciprocated, much to the annoyance of Dess.

“Ah, not much, Pizzapants,” Azzy said, taking the earlier comment in stride as a joke, and making one of his own; whatever animosity was in his voice had faded.

“Ugh, for the last time, the name’s Josh!” he insisted. “Drop a pizza on yourself one time and it sticks with you!”

“Ironic, since you can’t get a girl to stick with you,” Dess spat, still visibly upset, before addressing the group as a whole. “What the hell do you all want, anyway?”

“Dess!” Asriel chided. “They’re my friends, it’s all cool! Just a little bit of ribbing!”

“Yeah, zombie,” Josh poked, “just a little bit of ribbing, we’re totally not looking to hurt your feelings… and for the record, I do have a girlfriend!”

“Oh, you do?” both Asriel and Dess said, although Dess was more out of bland disbelief and disgust rather than Asriel’s excitement.

“Yeah! She… uh… lives in one of the Northern Provinces,” Josh replied. “Yeah, Mont Noble, I think.” Dess rolled her eyes at the obvious lie, but Azzy fell for it all - hook, line, and sinker.

“Oh, dude, that’s sick!” Asriel congratulated. “Tell me more!”

“Ah, well, ah… I haven’t actually met her yet, it’s all been long distance so far,” Josh began, slowly leading Azzy away from the photo booth. “She says she works for the Alouettes, I’m guessing as a ballgirl or in concessions….”

Eventually, the pair fell out of earshot; Dess tried to follow, but was cornered next to the booth by the rest of the gang: Bratty, a flame monster, and a tentacle monster.

“Aw, why’re you so in a rush?” Bratty mockingly asked. “We haven’t even talked yet!”

Dess fought back the urge to just spit in her ex’s face right there. “We broke up on bad terms, and I know you haven’t moved on from that… and neither have I,” she sheepishly admitted at the end.

“Aww! Tenta, Ember, look! She’s still a mess for me,” Bratty faux-gushed. “How sweet.”

The trio cackled as Dess continued staring them down, now starting to get frantic as she saw Azzy and Josh vanish off into the distance, out of sight.

Tenta picked up on this fact pretty quickly. “And I think she’s already missing her man!” he sneered. “Y’know, for such a punk rebel, you sure as hell act like a traddy with how joined at the hip you are with him. I mean, what does he even see in someone as clingy as you!”

“Yeah, between you and Kris, I guess the poor sap just likes being surrounded with freaks!” Bratty chimed, eliciting another round of laughter from the group.

This was a bridge too far. “H-hey! Leave Kris out of this!” Dess shouted. “They’re barely even a teenager! Let them be weird!”

The rest of the group chucked at her insistence, but the flame elemental appeared to show some mercy. “She’s right,” Ember concurred, seemingly standing up for the soul-stricken deer, only to take the knife out and twist it right back in.

“Fight the real enemy.”

The trio encircled the dark-haired doe, staring daggers at her as they made their perimeter. The jabs weren’t even close to being done.

“What the hell are you all doing?!”

“Oh, Dess… Dessie, girl… you genuinely might be the most misanthropic person I’ve ever had the displeasure of dating,” Bratty snarled. “Like, for real. Everything you say or do is just in the service of making people more miserable! You literally don’t know how to have fun!”

“B-bullshit! I know how to have fun!”

“Do you?” Tenta questioned. “Seriously, do you? Because whenever I talk to Azzy, it seems that you’re one of the most miserable people he could possibly be with! Every time he suggests something for you to do, some grand romantic escapade, it seems like half the time you turn it down to whinge about it not being ‘socialist’ enough, or whatever you say!”

“I bet you were whinging to him just now about the funfair!” Ember interjected.

“And I bet you’re not even a real socialist, you bourgeois bully!” Tenta finished.

“Look who’s calling me the bully,” she mumbled under her breath, before continuing. “But okay, I’m sorry, you’re right, I have been a bit of a whiner today, and for the past while. I’ll do better!” The fog was creeping in from the recesses of her mind already.

“But will you?” Bratty asked cutely. “Will you grow and be a better person? Or will you forget everything we told you by next week and regress back to where you are now. Because let’s face it, that’s what you do. That’s what you’ve always done.”

Her grip on reality began to loosen. “N-no, that’s not true, you brat!”

“But it is!” Bratty asserted. “I put up with dating you for three months, that kiss we shared formed a rift between me and Catty that’s never healed. I CHEATED on her, for YOU, at YOUR INSISTENCE! And what did that get me?! Sweet, sweet nothing! Less than nothing, because I had to put up with YOU. The constant whining and bickering and yelling, the threats of physical violence, an attempt to choke me out in a blind rage that you claimed to somehow not even know was happening! And what was it all for? You brought next to nothing to the table, NOTHING! I don’t have the faintest clue what Azzy even sees in you besides childhood nostalgia, you blazed, chronically wasted freak!”

Freak.

That word. That one, singular word, she thought, that’s what sent her over the edge. Because it was all true. She really was just a freakish bastard, a waste of a life, a waste to love.

She broke down.

Right there, in front of them all, she fell to her knees and wept, pathetically, head in her hands, full-on whimpering and crying. Frankly, she shocked the three of them by how quickly she folded; they had expected, and were prepared for, a violent outburst, but instead were met with a blubbering mess of a doe. Turns out regression really might’ve been the word of the day for her.

After a pause, Bratty nodded; there was no more sense in staying, they had already whittled her down more than they could’ve hoped for. She and Tenta turned back, heading out to find Azzy and Pizzapants. Ember, however, stayed back to whisper one last blow into Dess’ ear, kicking her while she was down.

“Remember, you musty skank, Azzy boy is so far out of your league, don’t be too surprised if he comes back from college with another girl, cuz you sure as hell aren’t going with him!” Ember then smiled cruelly. “And hey, maybe it’ll even be me! Hue hue hue!”

With that, she turned away and rejoined the rest of her friends, leaving Dess alone by the photo booth to clutch her print dearly and weep.

 

…

 

Hours passed, and the late afternoon was firmly established as the sun began to dip further in the sky.

Dess had spent most of that time alone by the lake; she had run off earlier soon after her ego was blown, not wanting to be publicly seen having a mental break. People had probably seen, however; she figured that the gossip mill was likely already running, how the crazed daughter of the mayor had another fit again, the mess that she was.

Most of the time she wasn’t crying, she was looking at the photos she had taken, those four snapshots of their love in succession, how it dipped from polite smiling, to a mockery of Asriel’s desires, and then of himself, before snapping back to passionate smooching.

Why did he even put up with it? That was the thought that swirled her mind like water in the drain for much of that lonesome time on the shore. It wasn’t even a cold acceptance, but a warm radiance that he carried himself with around her, despite all of the squabbles and misery she had inflicted upon him. Was he just a masochist? Was she just abusive, and he too battered to speak up? Or was it something else? Something that defied even her imagination?

Whatever. Pondering wasn’t helping; the wallowing only amplified her misery. She needed to distract herself somehow, find a way to get her mind out of the rut she was in.

And if there was one thing that could do that, it was music.

Finally back at the festival, she caught sight of the amateur music competition, and strolled right up to the booth, confidence flowing in her every step. Surely, this would be the thing to kickstart her heart today.

Up at the sign-in table, she spotted a bear in a black tee looking down at his phone, and ran up excitedly, preparing herself for the mental toll of having to converse with a stranger.

“Hi, I’m here to sign up for the music competition!” Dess excitedly said with a plastic face.

The contest manager looked up from his phone and, seeing who it was, immediately responded in a gruff voice. “Oh, hell naw! After last year? We ain’t lettin’ you into this shit again!”

“Come ON, man, you know I didn’t actually mean any of those words!” Dess protested. “It was just me being edgy, like normal!”

“If that’s your definition of ‘normal,’ then I’m thinkin’ that you need to be sectioned in a mental ward, girl.”

The cold reply was really messing with her head. Was Azzy right? Did she really fuck herself out of music in Hometown forever with that past performance?

There was one last thing she could do. She hated to play this last card she held, but there wasn’t really much of an option, now was there? “Um, I should probably let you know that I’m the mayor’s daughter, m’kay, and she said-”

“-that you’re not allowed to participate,” the manager filled in, a smug grin on his bearded face. “Yeah, she already spoke to me, December. Nice friggin’ try.”

Dess was flabbergasted and struck down by the reply. “She… she already spoke to you?”

“Yeah, dawg. Already did. And fuck you, by the way. I lost my piece because of you.”

This segue just confused her more than anything. “Wait… what?”

“You know that firearm ordinance your mother passed not too long ago? The one that restricted access to the police and militia members?”

“Yeah, vaguely.” Truth be told, Dess was just rolling along with the conversation; despite being the daughter of the mayor and an ardent socialist, she rarely ever paid attention to local politics, ironically enough.

“Well, it wasn’t out of the kindness of her heart, that’s fo sho! She did it because of YOU.”

She actually chuckled at this so-called revelation. Yeah, no surprise there, then, what with all the violent arguments they’d had up until recently. “What, did she think I was gonna kill her or something? Or someone important, like our senator?”

The manager shook his head, then glared straight into Dess’ soul. “No, there’s only one person your mother was scared of being hurt, Dess. YOU.”

“Me?!?! That can’t be right, Carol doesn’t give a shit about my well-being!”

“Bullshit,” the manager spat. “My father works in the town hall and overheard your mother’s own admission at the water cooler. She’s afraid you’s gonna blow your own brains out, and now nobody can own a piece in this town, not even me for huntin’ ferals. And it’s all. Because. Of YOU.”

Dess could only stammer in disbelief. No way this dude was telling the truth, he just had to be lying to get under her skin, right? There was no way, just NO FRIGGIN’ WAY Carol actually cared if she lived or died.

Knowing the conversation was dead regardless, she just stared the organizer down and turned away. “Fine, then,” she muttered. “Whatever, fuck the contest anyway, I’ll just dance along to it.”

“Not in those clothes, you ain’t,” he chimed in as she stormed off. “Carol says there’s a strict dress code for the 80s Semiformal tonight-”

“Angel-be-damned, I already know!” Dess spat out as she turned around violently. “I live with that bitch! I’ll just… go back and change….” Sulking, she turned away for the final time, and began the long trek back home just as the sun really began lowering.

 

…

 

She wasn’t going.

There was no way in hell she was going.

Staring herself down in the mirror, she felt just about ready to vomit as she gazed at her body in disgust. There was a reason she never wore dresses, or even skirts, but especially dresses like this one. She hated the way the air flowed up and through her legs; she felt naked and exposed despite being covered up and wearing biker shorts underneath. The vibrant orange color and frills of the dress also looked disgustingly femme on her butch body, and with her black hair, she thought she looked like a pumpkin. Not to mention the exposed shoulders meant her vitiligo was even more visible.

The worst was the arms, though. She couldn’t bare herself to look, but she knew her scars were fully visible now. Her wretched, jagged scars that ran up and down her arms. Even if she liked the dress, she’d probably be sectioned if someone spotted her like that.

No, she couldn’t go out. Fuck all of that….

…And yet, she felt guilty. Guilty that she was staying back home, guilty that once again, she had to be antisocial vermin. Yes, Bratty was right, she was a misanthrope that ruined things for everyone, especially Azzy, but the thing she hated the most and hurt first and foremost was always herself. She was just a miserable mess of a monster that didn’t know the first thing about fun. She wished she could, for Azzy’s sake especially, but feared deep down that was impossible.

She was pathetic.

Hearing a knocking at her door, she quickly stomached her concerns and slipped on a robe and rushed over to answer. She had no idea who it was, but best not to let them see the scars.

One peek through the peephole, however, assuaged whatever worries she may’ve had. She opened it without hesitation.

“Azzy?” she answered, gawking at his fresh appearance. He had on a brilliant three-piece suit in sky blue, which matched well with a pair of white dress boots that covered his paws, and a white rose pinned to the outer jacket. He looked positively sharp, straight out of a disco flick. “Come in! You look great in that suit!”

Oddly wincing at the compliment, Azzy nodded as he stepped into the Holiday Manor, the cold air blasting him as he crossed the threshold. Shutting the door behind her boyfriend, Dess stood trepidatiously by his side, before sighing and undoing her robe. Before he could even comment, it fell down lightly by her feet, revealing the brilliant orange dress she had on beneath.

Asriel couldn’t help but stare, overwhelmed with passion as he looked on. “You look beautiful,” he finally muttered.

Dess could only look down sheepishly. “I don’t feel beautiful.”

She felt Azzy take ahold of her hands. “Hey, I know you’re sensitive about your scars and vitiligo, but I just wanna say there’s only one other person in the world you need to care about when it comes to that: me. And I still think you’re beautiful, however you are. Don’t let the others get in your head.”

Weakly, she smiled back, but ultimately pulled away and held the sides of her dress tightly. “I’m glad you like it so much,” she confessed, “but… that’s the problem. Beautiful.” She ruffled through her hair. “I don’t wanna be ‘beautiful,’ Azzy! I wanna be hot and sexy, but not femme! I just… hate how un-butch I look in this thing.”

Her expression fully dropped, and her body matched with a depressed slouch.

“I don’t think I’m comfortable going out dancing tonight, Azzy.” She wiped newly formed tears from her face. “I’m sorry I’m like this!” she bellowed.

He paused for a moment as his girlfriend was about to cry, feeling that the pain in his own heart was matched for once, before an idea popped into his head. “Hey,” he said, taking hold of her hands once more just after he wiped the tears from her face. “You don’t have to go in that dress, y’know. If I found something else for you to wear, something more butch or masc, would you go then?”

She pondered for a moment, her breath bated as she put two and two together as to what he was suggesting. “Are you saying we…?”

Asriel only smiled. “I think I have an idea….”

 

…

 

The scene on the main dance square was bustling as dozens of monsters, and some humans, milled about on the pavilion, grooving out to the sick beats of the ‘80s cover band up on the stage. The scene had been just as wily as it had been since the end of the amateur music show that had wrapped a half-hour prior, where Kris and Noelle had just won best in show for their performance of “Piano Man” (Noelle singing and Kris on piano, of course). As lush synth sounds filled the air, a gaggle of monsters near the edge of the pavilion were standing about, gossiping rather than dancing in their throwback attire.

“...and he’s just run off?” Tenta asked.

Josh nodded. “Yeah, dude apparently saw his girl fuck off towards her place, and that was that.”

Ember butted in. “What does he even see in her, anyway?” she lamented. “She’s a total wreck!”

“Well if I had to guess,” Tenta posited, “dude just might be into goths or grunge-types.”

Ember continued grumbling as Bratty now chimed in. “Azzy needed to change, anyway; like, I think he forgot his suit.”

“Oh yeah, right!” Josh noted. “He wasn’t already decked out for some reason. He seemed… weirdly hesitant once I mentioned that fact, actually. It was really weird….”

As the band finished up their cover of “Rebel Yell,” announcing that their next song would be a deep cut from The Cars, Bratty spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, like, I think I see them off in the distance,” she exclaimed. “And it looks like… OH.”

“OH.”

“MY.”

“ANGEL.”

The quartet were all blown off their feet as, just as if on cue for the music, the pair rushed out from the darkened evening streets and crashed the dance floor. It was just like it was out of an ‘80s teen drama.

Except Dess was wearing the suit, and Azzy was wearing the dress.

The four stood mouths agape at the sight for a good few moments, silent as the opening lines of the song rang out over the brilliant synth lines. Dess, much to their shock and dismay, actually looked quite sharp in the three-piece. They were expecting, silently hoping, actually, to be able to mock her for her failure and femininity, but that seemed to be off the table for once.

Azzy, surprisingly, also looked great in that dress. Sure, he barely fit into it, and wouldn’t if it weren’t so elastic, but with the way he was smiling, it was almost… natural-looking? Like he was truly himself for once. The group couldn’t pin it down, but they knew light ribbing could still be in order.

“Hey, Azzy!” Tenta shouted. “Nice dress! Where’d you find it, the closet you came out of?!”

“Dess!” Bratty hollered. “You pull that suit off of a corpse or something?”

“Oi, Dess!” Ember jabbed. “I can see your cameltoe through those pants, you whore!”

Everyone in the quartet laughed at the jabs, playfully at Azzy, and cruelly at Dess. Yet, despite their cackling, and the clear flash of a grimace Dess flashed, a whisper from her dress-clad lover seemed to bring a smile back onto her face.

“Hey, uh… did youse hear us?” Josh called out. He got no reply, though; the pair only continued on dancing in joint ecstasy as the lush synth transitioned into the second verse.

 

Walkin' on the footbridge

High above the clouds

Listenin' to your yesterday

Didn't make a sound

Dazzled by your sweet lips

Touchin' on me

Here comes trouble

Can't you see?

 

The pair twirled around each other as the chorus rang out once more.

 

Why don't we go?

Why don't we go?

Why don't we go away?

 

Why don't we go?

Why don't we go?

Why don't we go away?

 

The beautiful sound of synth picked up in fervor as a short solo began to play, Azzy and Dess spinning playfully around a pivot, arms outstretched as they moved. Gleeful smiles sat upon both of their faces, and for once, Dess cared not what others thought of her. She in his suit, and him in her dress, it only felt right.

Seeing the happiness abundant between the two, the quartet just gave up. Josh made his way over towards the snack table first, followed by Tenta and Ember as a pair. Bratty was the last to leave, giving a disgusted glance over towards the joyous pair, before also retreating just as the song was wrapping up its third and final verse.

 

Well I think of you when I dramatize

The things we never did

And I think of you when I'm flyin'

Or when I'm feelin' just like a kid

 

Why don't we go?

Why don't we go?

Why don't we go away?

 

Why don't we go?

Why don't we go?

Why don't we go away?

 

As the band hit their last few notes and ended the song, Azzy and Dess slowed down their spinning, giggling with dizziness as they each came to a stop, leaning on the other in order to stand upright. It was funny; the dress was a hair too tight on Azzy, and the suit a hair too baggy on Dess, yet both would probably admit that they felt more comfortable wearing the other’s clothes than they did their own. It felt of them, it had their scent, it was as if they were caught in a neverending embrace with their lovers. And for Asriel especially, he was living it and loving it. For as much as he smiled on the daily, he never smiled as much and with as much pure euphoria as he had now.

This was what he wanted to be.

The band announced that the next song would be the last of the night before the firework show would start up. A slow dance. Commanding the couples in attendance to take the floor, Asriel and Dess looked at each other knowingly, before nodding.

Their moment had arrived.

As the opening guitar chords ushered in the climax of the night, the pair walked out towards the center of the pavilion, hand in hand. Parting for just the briefest of moments, for their own spectacle, Dess bowed and, as the woman wearing the pants, offered her hand up to Asriel. In a heartbeat, he accepted, and their slow dance began.

 

I never meant to cause you any sorrow

I never meant to cause you any pain

I only wanted, one time, to see you laughing

I only want to see you laughing

In the purple rain

 

Purple rain, purple rain

Purple rain, purple rain

Purple rain, purple rain

I only want to see you bathing

In the purple rain

 

With the second verse kicking in, their rhythm held firm, swaying back and forth, their steps in unison as they stepped back, left, forward, and right, slowly starting to spin as they kept up their motion. It was like a dance between planets and stars, their coordination unmatched by anyone else on the floor. They didn’t notice, and they’d scantly mind even if they did, but the eyes of everyone else fell upon them for that one shining moment.

As they danced, and as the chorus came in once more, Asriel leaned his head and whispered into Dess’ ear. “It’s a beautiful song, don’tcha think?”

Dess nodded along as she swayed. “Mmm hmm.”

Chuckling at the thought about to pass from his lips, Asriel’s smile somehow grew further. “It’d be better if you were up there singing, playing guitar. You’d kill it up there.”

Her own smile also grew, and she could feel her face begin to blush. “Well, then, maybe once we’re in uni together, you’ll have to come and visit me at a party sometime. And I’ll make sure to do this at the climax.”

She leaned in and kissed him right on the lips. He didn’t fuss even for a moment. Their tongues touched, and it felt like the fireworks began early.

 

Honey, I know, I know, I know times are changing

It's time we all reach out for something new

That means you, too

You say you want a leader

But you can't seem to make up your mind

I think you better close it

And let me guide you to the purple rain

 

Purple rain, purple rain!

Purple rain, purple rain!

If you know what I'm singing about up here

Come on, raise your hand!

 

With the final chorus coming in, and the song reaching a climax of howls and wails, the two parted their lips and tongues, readying themselves for the big finale.

“You wanna lift me up, girlfriend?” Dess playfully asked. She meant it as a joke, over the fact he was the one in her dress, but with the way his face lit up, the tides of euphoria seemed to completely send him out awash.

“W-with pleasure!”

As the lead singer reached a crescendo with his wails, and the guitar began to scream from the stage, Dess felt herself get grabbed by the waist as Asriel lifted her up and over his head, spinning around in a slow circle as she stuck her arms and legs out like a star, fully basking in the moment. Up there, with the final glint of sunlight bouncing off her eyes, and the crowd transfixed around her, she couldn’t help but laugh.

It really was some kind of magic.

Eventually, Asriel’s strength gave out. Gracefully, Dess was set down in a spinning motion, and as the song came to a loud, thunderous end, the pair slowed their orbit around each other and met in the placid middle, where as the last chord was strummed and the last drum beat was hit, they united in a kiss once more.

The entire pavilion erupted into applause; whether any individual was cheering for the band, or for them, who was to say. They didn’t care; the only person who they cared for at that moment already gave them the adoration they each craved from the other.

“Thank you so much!” the lead singer cheered from the stage, taking a bow to the deafening cheers of the Hometown crowd. “That’s it for us tonight, but the firework show is just about to get started! And I’ve just gotten word that the ferris wheel is now up and running, so make your way over there, couples!”

As the band stepped off the stage, and the opening synth lines of an MGMT song began to blare over the speakers, Dess’ eyes opened wide as her face lit up. Pulling away from Asriel, and without a word in the gleeful excitement, she yanked him by the wrists and pulled him straight out of his placid state, sending him into a sprint as she dragged him over towards the big wheel.

Just for a moment, she felt like a kid again as the first verse of “Kids” started to play out. It was like it was 2007, the music playing, her dragging Azzy along to do something, the ever-gazing eye of her mother nonexistent, and a genuinely carefree attitude.

Well, there was one care in the world: getting in line for the ferris wheel first, so she and Azzy could have some alone time as the music continued on.

 

You were a child crawlin' on your knees toward it

Makin' Mama so proud, but your voice is too loud

We like to watch you laughin'

You pick the insects off plants, no time to think of consequences

 

Control yourself, take only what you need from it

A family of trees wanted to be haunted

Control yourself, take only what you need from it

A family of trees wanted to be haunted

 

Finally reaching the ferris wheel, she darted to-and-fro past other couples and children making their way over, and rushed all the way to the front of the queue, first in line, just as the ride operator undid the rope leading in. Without a moment of wait, she darted into the area and jumped into the first ride carriage.

Now having a chance to finally relax, she realized that Azzy was in the middle of a giggle fit as he eased himself into the seat, careful not to leave himself too exposed from maneuvering with the dress. “Wow…” he finally managed to get out and say with a bright smile, “...you’re sure as hell excited for this!”

His attitude was infectious, and Dess began laughing, too.

“Huh, I guess I am! Fa ha hah!”

As the old ferris wheel creaked to life and began spinning, the sounds of both the screams of kids playing and the synth of Kids playing grew ever so slightly more distant as the carriage slowly raised skyward. The fireworks show, as if on cue, began in earnest; sure, it was on a much smaller scale than whatever there was in Megalopolis, but given the fact she had her lover by her side, that seemed to matter less and less to her.

Fun. This is what it was like to have fun. To excitedly run towards the ferris wheel, Azzy sat beside her, nostalgic music playing as a lights show rang out above. For that moment, she knew what normality was. And even if it was just for a moment… she would revel in it nonetheless.

Yet, like all things, there was that creeping doubt in the back of her mind, the wayward voice that made life a living hell, echoing the words she had heard earlier at the photo booth. Gazing longingly over at her boyfriend, in that dress of hers, it soon became overwhelming.

She had to know how he really felt.

“Hey, Azzy?” she finally asked.

“Hm?”

She choked on her words in the moment, almost afraid of what the response may be, but his infectiously warm aura soothed her just enough. “I was talking with Bratty and the rest of your friends earlier, and… I kinda realized I’m pretty miserable to be around.”

Asriel immediately went into damage-control mode. “No, Dess, you’re not at all.”

“Oh, please,” she snorted playfully. “How many things did you suggest today that I shot down? The carnival games, the apple bobbing, the square dancing… heck, I managed to even ruin the photo booth with that squabble!”

“You didn’t ruin anything,” Asriel assuaged, now tenderly taking a hold of Dess’ hand. “Look, the carnival games were lame, anyway. Even I thought so, but I guess I thought you’d like to do them with me. Now, I was wrong, but there’s no shame in that! There’s clearly stuff you like doing for fun still! I mean, you were literally dragging here! And the photo booth? Fah, we get into petty squabbles all the time. I still had fun in the booth itself. No harm done.”

But Dess couldn’t get Bratty’s words, Tenta’s words, Ember’s words, any of them out of her head. She struggled to believe what Azzy said could be true. Her mind was back at the lake, in her sty of a room, at the photo booth, and all the other places they had fought in their past. “But I mean… I guess I’m just still a little unsure and self-conscious… even through all the times I do make people miserable and we fight, how can you still love me then?”

Asriel pondered the question for a moment, not out of any internal debate, but rather just searching for the right words.

He finally spoke, calm and tenderly. “Dess… I fell in love with you because of who you were, and even through thick and thin, even as you’ve slipped, I still hold out that the person you could be, like in moments like this, is the most wonderful person in the world. And yet even when you’re not at your best, that doesn’t matter to me. I’ve fallen in love with both sides of you, Dess. I want to see you get better, I fight to see you get better, but even if you never do, I’ll still forever be in love with you.”

The doe swore she could feel her heart melt. “You… do you really mean that?”

Asriel nodded affirmatively. “I do.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Dess latched onto Azzy, giving him a death grip of a hug as all her fears were washed away for that night. Her love was reciprocated, just as Azzy promised. Together, they stayed like this, lovingly in the other’s embrace as the big wheel spun round and round. Eventually, the pair parted, but only to watch the fireworks display up above, which had really started to pick up.

Thinking back on the day’s events, and their past conversation, a strange thought popped into Dess’ head.

“Say… back at the photo booth… I know that there was the whole wait-until-marriage thing, but… I swear, it felt like there was an undercurrent of something else there….”

She trailed off as Asriel completely froze up; if he didn’t already have bright white fur, he would’ve well turned pale right there.

“Oh, I’m sorry….” Dess was just about set to drop the topic, before Asriel waved his hand towards her, to signal he wasn’t done.

“A… a lot of it is definitely still… prudishness,” Azzy began with his admission, “but… that’s just masking the real problem. It’s mostly something else. I’m… just… really uncomfortable in my own body….” He cowered in his seat, taking a deep breath as he fought to calm his nerves.

Dess was completely taken aback by the comment. “B-but Azzy… you have a great body! I’ll be the first to say it, and the most passionate in doing so, but you have a very handsome body…” She thought she figured out the reason. “...even if you put on a little winter weight after cross-country season, you’ll still be my man!”

She was wrong, and he blurted that fact out. “But I don’t wanna be yo- er…” He held his tongue, figuring the phrasing would sound awful. “...I don’t wanna be handsome,” he admitted, “I wanna be… pretty…”

The pair sat quiet in the carriage for a good couple of beats, just silently watching as the fireworks burst up above. Azzy was too fried from stress to offer any more words, and Dess was so utterly lost as to what was the problem with her boyfriend that she didn’t know where to go with the conversation.

She finally offered up something. “You can be pretty,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. Hell, if anything, you look pretty bonita in that dress there!”

That seemed to do the trick. Azzy slowly nodded, before warmly smiling back. “Yeah… thanks, Dess.” He playfully kissed her on the cheek, to which she playfully waved in a flattered manner.

“Daww, you cutie!”

The two sat there together in the carriage, both blushing profusely over the whole interaction as fireworks burst overhead, the wheel coming to a stop with them close to the peak of the ride. If they had let things leave off there, things would’ve been just perfectly serene.

Asriel, for once, was the one who couldn't let enough be enough.

“Would you love me if I were a worm?”

Immediately shooting him a look, Dess burst out in open laughter at the comment. “I’m serious!” Asriel begged, hoping his girlfriend would take the question seriously.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she chuckled, wiping a tear from her face. “That was just so abrupt that I… fah!” She settled herself with some breathing, the technique Noelle had taught her yesterday, as a matter of fact, before continuing on. “I mean, yeah, sure. I’d love you if you were a worm. Would get you a nice big terrarium with all the appy slices you’d want,” she said cutely.

Asriel smiled, but clearly wasn’t satisfied. “What about an eldritch horror?” he asked.

Dess chuckled again. “You’ll have to be more specific with that!” she playfully added.

Giggling as well, Asriel pondered, before thinking of something. “Ohay, um… how about that weird Knight OC you drew way back when, the one you paired with my God of Hyperdeath.”

Her face lit up. “Fah! You call that eldritch? That thing was barely even horror!”

“It was like a symbiote, though!” Azzy protested. “All drippy and gloopy-like, it basically had no solid mass, yet had that jagged form, and- HEY, why’re you laughing?! I’m serious! It always freaked me out when you drew her with an open ribcage!”

Dess, again, wiped a tear from her eye, smiling. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that part… damn, that was freaky cool! But, uh… yeah, no qualms there, would definitely be down bad for you as the Roaring Knight. Real question is, would you still love me like that?”

“Oh, of course!” Azzy said without even a moment’s hesitation. “I’d love you no matter who you are…” He thought for a moment, gazing longingly at Dess as she smiled, before tacking on, “...even if you were a guy!”

“Hah, right!” Dess chuckled, unsure why Azzy felt the need to tack on such a weird addendum to the subject.

“No, I’m serious,” he pronounced. “If you came out as trans tomorrow, I’d still love you!”

Freezing up in the moment, Dess had no clue how to respond to that. It was such a seemingly off-the-cuff remark to make, and Azzy seemed almost… frantically nervous in how he said it. She needed to at least say something to clear the air. “Look, Azzy, I can tell you straight from the source, I’m not a boy.” She laughed a bit, genuinely unsure why Azzy was being so weird about gender right now. “I appreciate the gesture, though,” she politely added.

The blonde sighed a little, as if on cue, then continued on. “Okay, yeah, silly train of thought, anyway. I have one more scenario, then.” He waited a beat, doing his best to mentally prepare himself, before finally asking the real question.

“What if I were a girl… like that?”

There was no laughter from Dess this time around; she found the question honestly a bit underwhelming compared to the absurdity of the other two. “A girl? Um… yeah, I’d still love you.”

Asriel’s breath shook. “...and?”

She had no idea how to follow up to such a question. “...and what? I’m bi, I don’t mind chicks. Kinda lame question to finish with, Az, you should already know this!”

Taking the lackluster response as disinterest, Azzy nervously laughed it all off as he got choked up. “Hahah… yeah, right. How… how silly of me! I’m sorry for even asking!”

She may not have known exactly what Azzy was going after, but Dess could certainly tell that his feelings seemed to be hurt some by what she said, whatever it was that set him off. “Oh, don’t be sorry!” she cooed, hoping to assuage the goat from whatever it was that was ailing him. “Look, I don’t know what I said to get you all bent like this, but I really did mean it when I said that I’d love you if you were a woman. I’ll love you no matter who or what you are, Azzy. That’s a guarantee.”

Asriel looked over and nodded with a weak, warbling smile, although he was clearly still nerved up from the entire past discussion.

Leaning over, Dess draped her arms around Asriel’s shoulder and kissed him lightly on the forehead, hoping that would at least be enough to diffuse things. “Wanna cuddle?” she softly asked.

He paused for a moment, taking a deep, contemplative breath as he stared out over the fairgrounds below, before nodding. “Yeah,” he said. “That’d be nice.” Shifting his body around to slide his arm behind Dess, the pair held each other tightly as they gazed out over the crescendo of the fireworks show from the zenith of the ferris wheel, regularly turning to gaze longingly into the others eyes and kissing as they did so.

For all the bustle below and around them, up there alone with their tender lips locked, there was peace.

 

…

 

It was nearly midnight when the pair finally stumbled down the street back towards the manor, making their way over to the gate where they each paused to stare at the full moon and stars above. That was the one really nice part of living in such a small town; there was barely any light pollution to draw away from the natural beauty of the nighttime sky now that the fireworks were done with.

Holding hands, the pair gazed on upward, nary a thought entering their minds as they did so.

“I had a lot of fun with you tonight,” Dess finally mused.

“Same,” Azzy echoed, holding tightly to her hand as clung to the skirt of her dress with the other, enraptured by how it felt on his body. “I’m glad we were able to let loose and have some fun there at the end, even if the start was a little rocky.” He paused for a moment. “Hey… this may seem like a silly question, but…” Asriel hesitated, thinking the question would draw a sour reaction, but went on with it, anyway. “...can I keep this? The dress, that is?”

Dess was more perplexed than anything, but just shrugged it off. “Yeah, sure, I never cared for that thing, anyway. Can I keep the suit?” she added.

“Oh, yeah, sure, no problem there!” Azzy let off a chuckle, slight nervousness laden in the undercurrents of it. “I guess we can call it a trade, then. I… heh… never really liked wearing suits, either….”

His smile dropped away, and Dess noticed. “Are you sure you’re okay, Azzy?”

“Yeah, just…” He choked up on his words once more, fear gripping his throat. “I’ll tell you at some point later, okay?”

Dess wanted to press further, really wanting to figure out why Azzy was acting so weird… but deep down, she was tired, and didn’t wish to stress him any further.

“Okay, then.”

The two stood there aimless for a good few minutes, before Azzy let out a loud, long yawn.

“Eyugh… Well, it’s late, anyway. I should probably be heading off.”

“Oh, alright.” Dess tried to find some other, greater parting words, but came up empty. “Goodnight, Azzy.”

He gave her a kiss on the lips, soft and tender, but fleeting, before parting ways back towards his place. “G’night, Dess.” With that, he turned and made his way down the dark lane, slowly fading off into the distance, before disappearing down the road.

Alone at the gate, the chirping of crickets the only company she had, she quietly turned towards the lock, clicked it open, and stepped on through.

Later that next morning, she would submit her portfolio in the mail, the various copies being shipped out to all of the colleges and universities she applied to. In time, they would get back to her. And in time, Azzy would tell her the truth.

But that would be a long wait.