#the-astrumnauta

[syilcawrites]

for your zelink prompt,,,how do you feel about a modern AU where the two bike to the beach and have a picnic?

a/n: I added ‘high school’ to the prompt too hope you don’t mind asghjjhas (’: Also this turned out a lot longer than I planned hope that’s okay ;-; I want to practice writing in Link’s voice more so this is in his pov!! Anyway! I hope you enjoy this, and thanks a lot for the prompt <3

ao3

hot buttered apples with chamomile tea

There are two types of monsters: ones that sleep under your bed and ones that sleep behind your eyes. For Aryll, it's the former.

And Link saw a lot in the latter.

He rubbed his eyes to try to erase the bags that rest stubbornly underneath them, but he wondered if he was just making it worse. Probably. But why did it matter anyway? He usually got three hours of sleep tops, so he always liked to think that darkness had become a permanent edition to his features. He tapped his toes against the pavement, waiting, peering around the corner of the school's brick fence, trying to catch a glimpse of the black car that Zelda usually pulled up in. With five minutes left until school started, he was beginning to worry—she was never late. And for the first time in his entire high school career, he was early.

It was a last minute trip they had planned, when they had snuck onto the school roof after class yesterday.

"I want to see the ocean," she had told him, under the summer's unrelenting heat. They were both sticky with sweat, even though they were sitting under a shady area, and the next thing she said made no sense to him. "I've never been to the beach before." Living here and never once going to Hateno Beach? He thought she was kidding at first. But she stared at him dead in the eye with her lips pressed into a thin line, as serious as ever. When he jokingly proposed that they ditch school the next day to go to the beach, she didn't hesitate to say yes.

It had taken him practically the whole day yesterday to convince her to sneak up onto the rooftop, and yet she was completely fine with ditching an entire day of school to go to the beach.

She was weird and unpredictable and he loved it.

He decided to check his backpack again for the twelfth time in the past hour, just to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. His memory was pretty terrible to begin with. He always found something new that he had forgotten whenever he went to check his backpack. The first time he checked, he realized he didn't bring any cups. Just that one thermal bottle whose lid doubled as a cup. The second time he checked, he realized he had forgotten napkins. If worst came to worst, he guessed he could just offer up his jacket or something, if she really needed to clean her hands or wipe her mouth—would that be any better though? When was the last time he washed his jacket?

"Link?"

Before he could try to sniff his sleeve, Zelda's voice pierced his thoughts.

He zipped up the backpack once more and peeked around the corner again—and finally, he saw her familiar twin braided blonde hair bobbing up and down as she ran toward him.

With… a frenzied kind of pace.

"Link!" she shouted again, breathless, as she waved her arms up and down in panic. Behind her he could hear another person shouting—but it was hard to hear their voice, since it was drowned out by the sound of Zelda urgently telling him to go, go, go.

Fumbling, Link lifted the bike away from the brick fence and rolled it out, hopping onto the front seat.

"I thought you said you had two bikes!" Zelda exclaimed, quickly tossing herself over the second seat without missing a beat.

"I mean, this is kinda like two bikes isn't it?" She only learned how to ride a bike three days ago and he wasn't comfortable with leading her down a rather windy road to get to the beach on her own. The last time he taught someone how to ride a bike was Mipha, years ago, and she almost face planted into a cliff because he let go of her bike and had forgotten to tell her how to brake.

Besides, he had to bribe Aryll fifty rupees to take the tandem bike out today. If he wanted to borrow her regular bike, she would've asked for a hundred. That was equivalent to a week's worth of mowing Tokk's front lawn.

Link was probably getting scammed by Tokk, but he was only 40% sure about that.

"Won't we look ridiculous riding this around?" Zelda scoffed as they began pulling out onto the road. "I thought we were supposed to be discreet? A tandem bike—Oh Hylia!" She kicked his shin with her foot, urging him to hurry. "Impa's coming!"

"Who?" Impa? He didn't think Zelda had mentioned her before.

"Miss Zelda!"

Link glanced at the direction that Zelda had come from, and he saw an angry looking young woman in a black suit racing toward them at an alarming speed. A chill ran down his spine as they locked eyes.

"You!" Impa shouted, pointing a furious finger at him. "Who are you!"

Without a second left to waste, Link clicked into gear and pedaled away fast before that angry finger could intentionally poke out his eyeballs. They shot down the road, with Zelda's exhilarated laughter mixing in with the sound of the rushing wind whistling by them.

For some reason, it was a strange and distinct sound, like it was reverberating all around him; he felt trapped in it.

Until her laughter abruptly stopped.

"Look out—!"

He looked up; but by then, it was too late. An apple that hung low from the tree smacked him square on the forehead with a resounding thud.

——————————————————————

"You know," Zelda said, accepting his hand as he helped her down the rocky cliff that led to the shoreline, "the beach looks different from above."

Link hadn't been to Zelda's home before, but he knew what it looked like from below. It was an odd-looking building that used to be an abandoned lighthouse, but then someone moved into it a couple of years ago, and that someone had hammered on weird platforms and objects to it, so now it looked like Hateno's novelty sculpture.

"Your room's at the top of that lighthouse building right?" Link asked, grunting as he jumped down onto the sand with a hefty thud. He turned around and held out both of his hands to her.

"Mhm. Purah let me have the upper loft when I moved in with her. The view's amazing at night, you can see all the stars." Zelda crouched down and gratefully accepted his hands. Her hands were rough. She jumped down.

Link couldn't see the stars from his bed, because a gigantic tree was right in front of his window.

Her prickling stare withdrew him from his thoughts—she studied his face as if she was observing every detail on it. He could count the sun freckles that had begun appearing around her cheeks; heat climbed to his cheeks as he leaned back a little, finally aware of how close they were.

"I hope that apple won't leave a bruise on your forehead," she muttered, her eyebrows furrowing together, with that little crease appearing between her brows. Always one crease, never two. "You took quite a hit back there."

"I—" he paused, his mouth still slightly ajar.

What was he gonna say? That he was too focused on the sound of her laughter to the point where he wasn't paying attention to the road?

She tilted her head quizzically, waiting for him to speak.

Link let go of her hands to adjust the straps of his stiff backpack. "I know a spot near the rocks," he muttered, turning to a cluster of boulders near the water. It was flat enough that they could place the blanket down and set the lunchboxes and thermal bottle without having to worry about them falling over.

They walked side by side.

"The patterns on the rocks are so symmetrical," she murmured, tapping her chin with her finger. "Like the cliff we just climbed down from—you could tell during high tide the water reaches it, just barely though. I've always found it fascinating that exposure to water erosion could create such beautiful patterns. Don't you agree?"

Link nodded, and a smile quirked up on her lips. The hop in her step was a little higher than usual as she sped up to reach the cluster of rocks faster. He liked listening to her observations of little details, even though he didn't offer much opinion of his own. It was nice to hear and see Hyrule through a different kind of lens.

She was already climbing up the rock by the time Link reached it, and she stood there proud and tall with her hands on her hips, facing the vast ocean.

"We should eat before the food gets cold," Link called up to her, unzipping his backpack to hand her the picnic blanket. It used to belong to his mom. At one point he stole the key to his dad's chest and opened it up to find a bunch of things that used to be hers, probably, because there was a picture of her in there, squished in with a bunch of other stuff. He stole that picture too. And to this day, his dad still hadn't noticed anything was missing.

Link wondered if his dad knew, and just let him... have it.

"Of course," she said, her eyes glinting hungrily. She grabbed the blanket from him, and with it, his thoughts.

She spread it out as he climbed up to her.

Her reactions were always funny whenever Link brought food for her. For some reason, she always tried to mask her excitement—but she was terrible at hiding the anticipation that gleamed in her green eyes, and even more terrible at trying to keep a smile from erupting on her face while he pulled out the two lunchboxes.

"Chamomile tea," Link stated, as he pulled out the thermal bottle next. He paused to watch her, and her mouth formed an 'o' as she greedily grabbed it from him, opening the cap up. He popped open the lid of one of the lunchboxes and slid it toward her.

There were sliced hydromelons, egg pudding, honey crepes and fruits, and her favorite—

"Hot buttered apples!" Zelda exclaimed, reaching for one.

In the other box he had a handful of savory foods—maybe he should've opened that one up first.

"I'm glad you took my suggestion." Her fingers paused just before she picked the slice up. "But first, the tea," she said quickly, as if she was reminding herself. She poured it into the lid of the thermal bottle, handing it to Link.

"I want to see your expression when you try it," Zelda insisted, beaming. She was smiling a lot today—more than she has in the past two years that he'd known her. "You take a bite out of the apple first, and then drink the tea, and then it tastes amazing."

"Just like that?" he asked, eyeing the light crisp color of the chamomile tea she handed to him. It reminded him of apple cider.

"Trust me, Link. You'll want to keep eating it," she promised, tugging down at her two braids. She always did that when she was waiting for something—every time she was standing in line at the vending machines to get the both of them candy pop sodas at school, she did that same little tug. "I'm picky with my food, so you know I wouldn't simply be saying this without meaning it."

Link picked up the slice—the hot buttered apples had turned into warm buttered apples by now, but he figured it wouldn't change the taste all that much. As soon as he took a bite out of it and took a sip from the tea, her eyes sparkled.

The combination of the two warmed his stomach—the pinch of cinnamon she had recommended he put on it really kicked it for him, and he had to refrain from shoving at least ten more into his mouth. Considering how much she was staring at the hot buttered apples, he wanted to save the majority of it for her.

"Good? Right? They both have that toasty taste but it's a different kind of toasty. The chamomile tea, when brewed correctly of course, has that touch of floral kick to it too! And the hot buttered apples with that sprinkle of cinnamon just melts in your mouth and it's the most wonderful thing ever, isn't it?" She quickly thanked him as she accepted the tea when he handed it to her, and she picked up a slice to take an eager bite of her own.

"It's really good." He wasn't the best at expressing himself through words, but despite their simplicity, it seemed to have gotten through to her, as that gleeful glint in her eyes only gleamed brighter. "Did your parents—" He paused mid-chew, realizing just a little too late that his question was going to dampen her brightness.

And it did, just a little.

Idiot.

Whenever he asked about her immediate family, she would tense up—just like now. She cast her eyes down at the lunchbox, eyeing all of the food that he had prepared, her lips pursed. She would always be on the brink of telling him, but then she would turn away in the end.

Maybe… she needed a little push, to talk about it.

"My mom hated apples." The words felt weird in his mouth—he's never spoken about his mom to anyone, and he only brought her up once to his dad. Link raised his eyes to meet hers. Zelda had stopped chewing too, and looked at him with wide, curious eyes.

"That's what my dad told me at least, when I asked him what she hated the most." No one in his family ate apples that much, and it all made sense when he found out about that little fact a couple of years ago. It was hard for his dad to talk about her—time didn't heal the pain behind his voice when he told Link those three simple words: She hated apples.

And behind those three simple words were years upon years of grieving, and he never asked his dad about her again.

He watched as Zelda picked up another slice, her mouth parting slightly. "My mother loved making all sorts of meals with apples."

Loved, Link thought.

Past tense.

They sat in silence for a bit, just munching on those hot buttered apples, while passing the tea back and forth between each other.

"My mother made a snack for me that always involved apples in some way—whenever I was sad, angry, or when she was proud of me." He expected her to look lost in thought as she spoke, but she wasn't. She was as present as she could've been, and he was... it made him feel a little better. Less alone. "Hot buttered apples with chamomile tea was my favorite. She made it for me quite often," she said, chuckling. "What was your mother like?"

She gave him the last slice.

He hesitated; both in accepting the last piece and at her question. The only thing he had was a worn out picture of her, weathered down by age. And that blanket. "I don't know, I don't remember anything," he admitted, taking the slice from her.

Her gaze softened.

Link once punched another classmate in grade school because they asked him, how could he be sad? If he had no memories of his own mom? What was there to be sad about, since he couldn't remember anything? And for the longest time, he didn't let himself be sad over her. How could you be sad about someone you had no memories of?

But one day, Aryll barged into his room—her face red, with snot running down her nose, crying, because she had an argument with their dad. "What if I forget about her, Link?" Aryll had said to him in between her choked up sobs. "I feel like if dad never talks about her, she'll disappear forever."

He knew then that there was pain with memory, and pain without memory. One wasn't more valid than the other.

Because either way, no one won anything in the end.

"I wish I could've met your mother," she said. "I'm certain I could've changed her mind about apples."

There wasn't a lick of a tease on her face. She was serious.

For the first time in a while, Link laughed.

[mistress-light]

hello !! i love your gifs; they're so pretty. do you think you could make some sets featuring the Komo shoreline? thanks !

Hi!! Thank you you so much for your request! I love beaches and shorlines and water in general, so this was a joy to make! Here you go! 

[swanwinged-princess]

@astrum---nauta cont. x

“...Oh!”

Tutu sat bolt upright, scrubbing at her eyes hastily- she would hate having to show weakness to the Raven’s Children or any of his minions. Had she... heard a voice?

Sliding off the bed and wrapping herself in a thin robe- that, her room slippers, and her nightdress were the only things that came with her from her real room- she hurried to the door- locked from the outside, of course- and pressed her ear up against it.

“Is.... Is anyone there? Hello?”

[realcube]

pillow fights!

characters ♡ bokuto, nishinoya & suna

content warning ♡ fluff, violence, mentions of death & minor injury 

kōtarō bokuto

♡ bokuto had been really fixated on practise recently so the time he spent with you was sparse. and what little time you did get with him, he was way too worn out to be his usual, chatty self

♡ finally though, he was able to take a few days off so could make up for the last few weeks with you :))

♡ he took you to a spa resort so you could both relax and spend time together in a calm, non-hectic environment.. but ofc y’all started a pillow fight in your hotel room

♡ so y’all are in your shared hotel room, admiring how soft and comfy the pillows are until he throws one right at your face and it almost knocks you off your feet

♡ he’s on the floor cackling so ofc you take this opportunity get a bit of revenge and smother his face with the exact same pillow he tried to take you out with 

♡ you purposefully don’t press it against his face too hard but he frantically squirms underneath you, before suddenly stopping after 10 seconds, pretending to have passed away

♡ unimpressed, you remove the pillow from his face but only so he can see how you rolled your eyes at his poor acting skills, ‘no one dies after 10 seconds with no oxy--’

♡ unbeknownst to you, he had led you straight into his trap

♡ now that your grip on the pillow had loosened, he snatched it from your hands before slamming it down against the top of your head 

♡ he doesn’t know his own strength so if you’re not on defence then your head will be wiped clean off hjkxjhkx (/h)

♡ ‘bokuto!’ you yelled through gritted teeth, clenching your fists and gluing them to your side so you didn’t use your knuckles instead of a pillow 

♡ he wasn’t a fan of you using his legal name rather than the cutesy nicknames you gave him, so his blood ran cold and his perked up slightly, clutching the pillow to his chest, ‘who is bokuto? you mean ‘kō’ ? you mean ‘babe’ ?’

♡ you couldn’t help but scoff at how he gazed up at you with longing, puppy-eyes, complemented by a pout —as if he was your innocent, sweet boyfriend who didn’t almost give you a concussion a few seconds ago. ‘no. i meant bokuto.’

♡ before he could respond with more whining, you swiped the pillow from his clutches and slapped him across the face with it, to the tune of your chaotic, somewhat sinister laugh

♡ after that, bokuto literally pounced on you with cuddles- it had gone to far, in his opinion. you had gone mad with power so the only way to bring you back down to reality was with hugs <3 plus, he hadn’t found the opportunity to spend quality time with you in ages, so ofc he tried to make the most out of this situation

♡ ‘babe!’ he cried, pressing his lips against your as he picked you up and dumped you onto the bed, jumping on shortly after to smother you with his affection, ‘i missed you!’

♡ your eyes widened, slightly shocked at his sudden change in attitude but you weren’t too surprised as bokuto always ends up doing this after weeks of dedicating himself to work. and honestly, you anticipated it. 

♡ ‘we’ve barely talked because i’ve been so focussed on practise and i’m so sorry! i still love you — i always have and will!’

♡ you weren’t too sure how it went from a pillow fight to this, but either way, you were now reassuringly stroking his back while he cradled your head in his arms, ‘it’s fine, kō.’ you giggled, placing a kiss upon your considerate boyfriend’s temple, ‘i never thought you didn’t love me but it’s always nice to hear it. i love you too.’

♡ absolute bliss was the only visible emotion on his face after you placed a kiss on the tip of his nose, ‘great! oh!’ his eyes lit up as he whipped his phone out of his pocket, ‘do you wanna watch that show we started?!’

♡ it took you a moment to realise, but once you did, you blurted out, ‘oh, that show? babe, we started it like months ago; i’ve completely forgotten what was happening.’ 

♡ he shrugged, his usual boyish grin gracing his features, ‘that’s fine! we can start from the beginning.’

♡ you smirked, prying your gaze off his cheerful golden eyes to search the beside table for the tv remote, ‘sure. but we’re not watching it on your phone. i mean, we paid for this expensive hotel room so we may as well use--’

♡ then, you felt a sudden yet soft tap against your shoulder. your eyes immediately darted to look at bokuto, who was wearing a mischievous smirk while holding another pillow 

♡ ...

♡ y’all stayed up to 2AM- and no one on your whole hotel floor got a wink of sleep that night due to both of your chortles and screams

♡ but y’all had fun ^^

yū nishinoya

♡ just bc you are his boo, the love of his life, his bitch, his guardian angel, the reason he gets up in the morning and the deity he pray to every night, does NOT mean he’s going to take it easy on you during a pillow fight 

♡ it not even a pillow fight tbh.. it’s a pillow WAR

♡ his whole love language is decking you while you’re trying to pound him into the mattress with a pillow

♡ and he screams a lot too pfft like war cries

♡ he just goes absolutely feral when you try to pillow fight him

♡ and you better be ready to go hard bc if you light hit the back of his head with your cushion, with the thought that the pillow fight would be playful, sweet and fun- you could’ve been more wrong 

♡ it’s only fun for the person who’s not getting the daylights smacked out of them 

♡ but since it’s only pillows, y’all never usually get hurt or sustain injuries from it 

♡ nishinoya was close tho- flashback to that one time he fell off the bed and missed hitting his head off the sharp corner of the wardrobe behind him by like..a millimetre

♡ that could’ve been a trip to the infirmary :o

♡ but one time, the metal part of the zipper on the cushion scratched the back of your hand

♡ it wasn’t anything awful, there wasn’t even blood. it was just a scratch. it was on the joint of your finger though so it hurt slightly to move your thumb..

♡ ‘ouch..’ you muttered, staring down at your hand which you cradled with the other. you were quick to back out amidst the chaos of the fight with noya

♡ nishinoya quirked a brow, hesitantly setting his pillows down to approach you, peering over your defences to see what you were looking at that was concerning

♡ ‘what’s up, babe? are you o--’ he cut himself off with a sharp gasp as he laid his eyes on the small mark on your skin. his hands instantly shot up to cup yours, ‘did i do that?! i am so sorry!’

♡ you shrugged, smirking slightly at how his whole ‘warrior’ exterior had now fallen, revealing the soft noya who genuinely cares too much for his own good, ‘i’m not sure. it’s no big deal though, i’ll just put a plaster on it.’

♡ before you could even head in the direction of the drawer with plasters in it, nishinoya had already dashed over there and back, brining the whole whole of first-aid stuff with him

♡ ‘are you okay? does it hurt? do you need a painkiller? should i call someone?’ he asked, frantically looking through the tray until he found two boxes of band-aids, ‘ok- do you want the cars one or the plain one? wait- should i disinfect it first? and how big should the plaster be?’

♡ needless to say, your whole hand was wrapped in bandages once dr nishinoya was done with you-

rintarō suna

♡ he can’t even fight with you playfully for long with getting tempted to pull you in for a kiss

♡ also he doesn’t get as into the fight as the other two- like night time is for sleeping and the fact you are trying to start a fight with him just results his natural instinct to play-dead kicking in

♡ the way he just lays there while you ruthlessly hammer him with your pillow is honestly quite funny

♡ what he doesn’t know though is that there is a tiny grin tugging at his lips since he gets a whiff of your sweet scent on the pillow whenever you slam it against his face, which is reason you continue bc you can tell he’s enjoying it

♡ he doesn’t put up much of a fight tbh

♡ eventually gets tired and pulls you into his embrace with one arm while snatching the pillow from your grip with the other 

♡ he chuckled as you struggled against his chest, bonking your head with the pillow lightly before loosen his grip on your head slightly, allowing you to finally breathe instead of being suffocated by his chest, ‘are you done yet?’

♡ you shook your head, which he reciprocated when he noticed your grabby hands towards the pillow — aka, your weapon. 

♡ ‘your not getting this back.’ suna replied monotonously, petting your head with a honeyed smile and slipping your weapon behind his head to relax on.

♡ ‘sleep.’  was the final thing his said before his eyes fluttered shut, looking exactly how he did while you were attacking him..but more serene

♡ and that’s usually how it ends when you try to start a pillow fight with him- it ends with nap time 🙄

♡ UNTIL he gets an energy drink in him

♡ then it’s a different story 

♡ the roles quite literally reverse

♡ except suna is now chasing you through the house- 

♡ his pillow swings aren’t even that hard but he has a really freaky expression on his face so you just run lmao 

taglist: @scftfairyking @the-astrumnauta @thefutureastronaut @itsmeaudrieee​

fill out this form to be added!

[theamazingchickenman]

"Ah...those are the price. Gotta pay for your ice cream, y'know?" He shrugged. Guess she wasn't familiar with the concept. Probably a good idea to keep a close eye on her.

She didn't strike him as the dishonest type or anything, but even innocent misunderstandings had a way of attracting the wrong sort of attention.

"Buuut, this is my treat. I'll take care of it."

🍴perhaps for when they get out of there?

Some food meme mun can’t recall, your muse takes mine out to eat or something

     “Ahh, Chicken Man, hold up!” Heather called out, panting and extending her hand out as if to stop him. This was where they decided to meet for the ice cream, and she was definitely late. While this Earth was definitely not her own, she felt more comfortable here than on hers…and as a result, had overslept. In fact, she had been oversleeping a lot since their return from the space station. She hadn’t even gone back home, she’d just been camping out in the woods somewhere. Not like anyone would mind, right…?

     “I’m sorry, I overslept. I think my body is trying to catch up on lost sleep… Either way, it’s pretty hot out today, isn’t it?” She really meant that it felt like an inferno. Unfortunately, Heather had little to no idea of what “summer” was.

[swanwinged-princess]

🕛 (pick the muse you think would be best!)

@astrum—nauta

Victorian Horror symbol starters

🕛- Mysterious events happen every night at exactly midnight

Tutu had been stolen.

True, she was comfortable enough- the room she had been confined to was spacious and lavish, complete with immaculate washroom, thick plush carpet, a wardrobe full of gowns, and a spectacular four-poster bed. It was all richly decorated- black predominated, with shades of gray as complements and accents of red and white. All the dresses in the wardrobe were similarly designed. There was even a window- of course, all that could be seen from it was a constant fall of black feathers, like snow, stretching endlessly as far as the horizon.

Three days ago– at least, she thought it was three days– she had awoken to a cold hand over her mouth and gleaming red eyes smiling down at her.

“Hello, princess…”

Then she had been whisked away in a whirl of black feathers and deposited here, in this room. She was left alone for the most part- trays of food appeared on the desk, and fresh changes of clothes laid themselves out on the bed for her. She refused to wear them, of course, though sometimes she would blink and discover herself clad in a heavy, black silk evening gown. And as if that wasn’t bad enough–

As if on cue, the room began to shake. The endless rain of feathers outside the window increased until it was almost a blizzard. A few tarnished silver decorations fell off of various shelves and tables, while the floor moved up and down as if it was breathing. Then the noises began- horrible noises, halfway between the screeches of carrion birds and manic, high-pitched laughter. It grew and grew, until it reached an unbearable crescendo– then stopped.

The silence rang, gong-like, in her ears for a moment. When she could think again, she sat up from where she had buried herself under a pile of pillows on the bed. 

“Ohhhh…. Why don’t you LEAVE ME ALONE?!”

Furiously, she hurled a decorative pillow at the nearest wall. It rebounded, dropped on the floor, and lay there uselessly. Trying her best not to cry, she threw another- and another.

“Isn’t it enough that you already have me?! Can’t you just– just STOP IT?!”

She didn’t even know if anyone could hear her- or who her impotent fury was directed at. “I hate you! I HATE YOU!!” 

Her voice broke at last, and she buried her face in the pillow she still had clutched in her wings.

“I hate you…”

[theamazingchickenman]

"So you mean hang out and eat ice cream and play video games without all the mushy stuff? I could get behind that."

"I-uh, marry me?" Heather laughs nervously, offering a bouquet of flowers.

“You’re sweet, Heather. But let’s just be friends first, okay?” He pat her on the shoulder.

[theamazingchickenman]

He smiled, thinking back to the time he tried to pay for gas with a rake. It...hadn't gone well.

"This one's on me, remember? You just enjoy."

Pulling out a wad of crumpled bills, he laid the money on the counter before turning and joining her at one of the tables.

"You don't have to be so nervous. I mean, I kinda went through the same sorta stuff, getting out into the big, crazy world. But you know what? It gets easier with time."

He gave her a friendly pat on the back. "Sides, you got me to watch your back. I'll try to keep us both out of trouble, okay?"

🍴perhaps for when they get out of there?

Some food meme mun can’t recall, your muse takes mine out to eat or something

     “Ahh, Chicken Man, hold up!” Heather called out, panting and extending her hand out as if to stop him. This was where they decided to meet for the ice cream, and she was definitely late. While this Earth was definitely not her own, she felt more comfortable here than on hers…and as a result, had overslept. In fact, she had been oversleeping a lot since their return from the space station. She hadn’t even gone back home, she’d just been camping out in the woods somewhere. Not like anyone would mind, right…?

     “I’m sorry, I overslept. I think my body is trying to catch up on lost sleep… Either way, it’s pretty hot out today, isn’t it?” She really meant that it felt like an inferno. Unfortunately, Heather had little to no idea of what “summer” was.