#LMFAOFJNSJDS

[myketheartista]

Gracefully hallucinate

Stardust up in my veins

Can’t let the feeling fade

hell tunastime may i request a 34 sending you the smirking cat image

you are an enabler of the worst kind. don't send me that freaking cat smirking image I can't stand you. anyway myke this is for you, the only tuna and lovelace enjoyer that I know besides myself. this is on my MCCI playlist, so that's the ONLY reason I have for writing this. besides myke.

(574 words)

Tuna stands outside of the third parkour course with their eyes squinted. It's bright, and the everlasting sun is blocked only partially by the big green fishing hat balanced on their head. Their tail flicks agitatedly as they rock forward and back and fold their arms. They're still shaking off the heat and exhaustion of their last run, hair pushed back and sticking to their forehead where it still manages to fall forward.

5 minutes and 37 seconds.

That's their best time right now—which is to say, not what they're looking for in a parkour run. Another annoyed flick of their tail. Right now, the Shepherd's most advanced run is 2 minutes and 16 seconds. Luckily, nobody else in their party had run the third course since it reset, so really, they were only batting against themselves for the basic. They could afford the few mistakes that came with learning a run and go from there, hopefully to a higher score. Out of the corner of their eye, Lovelace tilts her head.

"Standin' around for fun?" She asks, leaning back on her hands. From under the brim of the hat, mask tied tight through the belt loops of their black cargo pants, Tuna furrows their eyebrows. They stretch slightly, their now tanned, bare arms pulling this way and that.

"No," they grumble. "I'm trying to figure out how to mentally prepare myself for the second worst parkour run of my freaking career."

Lovelace laughs. 

"Well can I follow?"

"Are you actually going for time or are you just gonna laugh at me?"

Lovelace shrugs.

"Probably just laugh."

Tuna sighs. Not much else they could do.

"Fine," they huff. "Just don't trip me and I'll be fine."

Lovelace bounds over, all smiles and hands stuffed in her pockets. She looks them up and down for a moment, head slightly cocked. Tuna squints. 

"You don't trip, you just don't jump," Lovelace teases, still smiling. Tuna rolls their eyes, laughing to themselves. The smile that worms onto their face is instinctual.

"I do jump—it's—I'm not good at this, so I just fall. I over-jump. I don't do it 'cause I'm good. I do it for fun."

"I think that's cute."

Tuna blinks at her, grinning confusedly.

"What? Me being a tryhard and still failing? Do you think I’m cute?"

"Pfft—" Lovelace snorts. "No." Then she looks away, expression faltering. "No I don't. actually. I don't. No."

"Well,” They muse. “I'm gonna try really hard to do well, but... you know how I am."

"Mhm," Lovelace manages to eke. Her eyes flick over them again. 

"Last longer if you take a picture," they hum, putting their hands on their hips. The irritated flick of their tail has turned now into a slow sweep, keeping their balance as they rock back and forth again, testing the weight on their heels. Lovelace raises her eyebrows. She seems to regain some of her composure as she tilts her chin up.

"I'll do that when you beat your time, how about it?"

"I'll hold you to that," Tuna smiles, a mouth full of sharp teeth. Lovelace smiles back, but not without the wobbly falter of someone trying to ignore an internal ping to their system. If Lovelace could blush, she'd probably be red by now. 

Cute.

With a huff of a laugh, Tuna shakes out the tension in their hands, drops into a lunge, and hits the start timer around their wrist.

(send me a number 1-100 and I'll write a little thing based off the song!)