“Do you believe in fate, Tristan?”

Tristan looked up from polishing his blade and towards Aellae, who was staring up at the night sun with a dream like expression. He looked over at the sleeping Freya at his side, who was pretty much a three foot tall pile of transparent slime at the moment, then back over at the raven haired girl. His brown eyes scanned her strong body, taking note of how it was lost in various folds and bulges of a thick white dougi and the hard muscles that managed to peek through the gaps. The boy finally looked at her dreamlike face, which was currently painted a flickering orange from the crackling fire in front of her; her normally hazel eyes looked about as black as the sky,  silver flecks in her irises glittering like the stars up above reflecting the fire.

“I used to,” he muttered, trying to push thoughts of Daisy-Shilo out of his mind. The stupid little talks they would have about this exact sort of thing, she would ask if he believed in fate, if he thought that it was fate that brought them together, if there were such things as soul mates and maybe that they were each other’s soul mates. He would reply yes to every single question from their fort made out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bed sheets, her ash brown hair looking translucent from the yellow-orange light from the lamp in the fort. His fingers would brush her cheeks and push the loose strands of hair out of her face, seeing her blush; he would take delight in it and grin widely at her, revealing his sharp teeth.

Kaskade would be playing on the computer outside of the fort; it was always the same song every time they did this sort of thing, it was either Eyes or some other slower song by him. She would lie back onto the pile of pillows and blankets, being careful not to knock the lamp over. He’d shift her legs apart awkwardly before lying on top of her and kiss her.

Tristan shook his head, the sounds of rustling clothing, a slow beat and the sound of her voice whispering his name invading his mind. He felt sick from remembering such a thing; he was supposed to be over her by now. He was a man after all, and men don’t cry for weeks over the love of their life-

“You used to?” Aellae’s voice breaking him out of his current thoughts; he looked up to see her suddenly  sitting there right in front of him, her wide forehead practically resting on his own. The sight of her caused him to jump back, crying out as he tried to get his now pounding heart to settle down.

Tristan pushed the Monk off of him, his heart still fluttering from her black eyes boring into his. “Y-yeah, I used to.”

She tilted her head to the side, tucking in her powerful legs as close as she could to her chest and her toned arms wrapping tightly around them, “You did, and now you don’t?”

“Yes, yes, yes, Aellae. That’s exactly it,” he muttered, going back to polishing his blade. He felt irritated by her repeated question and how he could feel her eyes staring hard at him. “What?”

“…What made you not believe in it anymore?”

“Shit happened.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No I don’t.”

“I bet you told Freya about it.”

His mind went back to the first time him and the slime girl met; he was in the dark, it was damp and it was cold, and he couldn’t see his own hands. He felt fists punching him and nails dragging deeply, cutting open his flesh, in the dark. He was shaking so hard, his jaw hurt from clenching it so tightly, and he was trying not to cry. He had no idea where he was. But he wasn’t scared. Anything was better than being there, where Daisy-Shilo would see and hear from him.

Suddenly, he felt warmth wrap around his entire body, it felt slimy and as if he were swimming in Jell-O. It was unfamiliar and caused him to panic a little, but his body wouldn’t move or stop shaking. He immediately felt at ease, his arms slowly wrapped around whatever it as that was holding him.

“It’s okay…” An unfamiliar voice whispered into his ear, “It’s okay…”

He fell asleep immediately afterwards.

“S-so what if I did?” Tristan mumbled, looking over at Aellae who was now glaring and pouting at him. His lips curled into a small smirk at the expression on her face, she looked as if someone had pasted an angry baby’s face onto She Hulk’s body, if she were a normal height anyway.

“That’s not fair if she gets to hear about your life but I don’t…”

“I’ll tell you later,” He sighed, placing his sword into its sheath before sliding towards Aellae. He smiled gently at her, ruffling his hand in her already messy black hair, “If that makes you feel better.”

“…” Aellae continued to glare and pout, until her expression softened into a shy smile, “…Okay.”

Tristan gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, “Now go to sleep because that’s what I’m doing.”

“…Okay.”