I'll think of something later...

Read it on AO3 HERE

Chapter One: All That’s Left of You

Chapter Two: Last Chance

Chapter Three: The Monster Ambassador

Chapter Four: My Only Friend In The World

Chapter Five: The Lost Children of Mount Ebott

Chapter Six: Bargaining Chips

Chapter Seven: Stay With Me

Chapter Eight: Broken Heart Syndrome

Chapter Nine: Thaaat’s Politics!

Chapter Ten: *B U T   N O B O D Y   C A M E

Chapter Eleven: “It’s Rude To Talk About Someone Who’s Listening...”

Chapter Twelve: Awakened

Chapter Thirteen: Cracked Reflection

Chapter Fourteen: Who You Are In The Dark (Darker, Yet Darker)

Chapter Fifteen: Everything I Love

Chapter Sixteen: Henry Stickmin Investigates

Chapter Seventeen: Beware The Man Who Speaks In Hands

Chapter Eighteen: A  W O N D E R F U L  IDEA =D

Chapter Nineteen: Your Very Best... Friend?

Chapter Twenty: You’ve Gained love

Chapter Twenty-One: A House, Divided

Chapter Twenty-Two: Another Lifetime

Chapter Twenty-Three: Fighting Fate

Chapter Twenty-Four: Frisk Believes in You!

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Healing Incantation

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Lost Ones

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Despite Everything, It’s Still Us

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Descend

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The World DEVOLVING

Chapter Thirty: And The Earth Stayed DETERMINED

Chapter Thirty-One: The Power to SAVE

Chapter Thirty-Two: Those Who Climb Mountains

Chapter Thirty-Three: Someone Else to SAVE

Chapter Thirty-Four: KINDNESS

Toppat Epilogue: Someday

Frisk Epilogue: Moving Onward

So they did. Puk stepped back and flipped the switch, and the tiny engine within the tiny lift began to purr to life. Then it clunked a few times. Then it sparked, brilliant white bolts of energy exploding from the device and out in every direction. Smoke billowed from the tiny machine; not enough to choke the room, but enough that Puk found it prudent to preemptively grab hold of the fire extinguisher they had prepared in advance. After the electrical light show went on for a few moments, it finally died with a gentle whimper, nothing but the dark smoke as a reminder of the engine’s short, miserable life.

Puk huffed and let go of the extinguisher. “Yeah, that figures,” They grumbled.

It was only then that the tiny machine caught fire.

With a flinch and a stuttered curse, Puk grabbed hold of the extinguisher again and blasted it at the fire as quickly as they could. The flame died out just as fast as it started, and Puk was left with a smoldering mess of metal where their carefully designed lift once was.

“And that is why we wear safety goggles,” Puk declared out loud to themself as they tapped the rim of their eye-wear. A part of them was disappointed in the result, of course, but a larger part was more excited by the prospect of dissecting their dearly departed machine to find out what made it go kaboom. There was a special joy in creation by trial and error, of building upon the ruins of the old to create something newer and better. Not to mention that a potential new method of blowing stuff up was always welcome, what with the war against the empire and all.

…Oh, who were they kidding. A new method of blowing stuff up was always welcome period.

The next step was for Puk to write down their observations in a little notebook. Halfway through recording the suspected cause of the fire, the door slammed open with a dramatic thud. Puk looked up from their work just in time to watch Kim flop face down into their office sofa, bury his face into a pillow, and scream.

While the noise was muffled, it was still a shock for this kind of tantrum to come from their sweet, goody two-shoes nature mage. “Whoa,” Puk couldn’t help but mumble, instinctively reaching to pull their safety goggles up onto their head. An awkward silence filled the air between the two. Tension pooled in Puk’s gut; emotions and friendship had never been their strong suit, and even now, some part of them wanted to run and get Ren or Hannah rather than handle this themself. But despite it all, they took a cautious step towards Kim and forced themself to ask aloud, “Hey, uh, you good, man?”

A dramatic sigh escaped Kim, before he forced himself up into a sitting position. Thankfully for the rebel camp, he appeared unharmed, “Aside from being completely and utterly humiliated? I’m fine. Totally fine.” And with that, Kim flopped backwards against the couch.

Puk stroked their chin, tracing their steps back for any clue as to why Kim was being so melodramatic. The Wildflowers and the school’s staff had met with the rebellion’s leaders, including some nature mage that Kim had a tearful reunion with. After a near disastrous introduction of Ragnar to the mix, they’d manage to make peace long enough for some sort of strategy meeting. It had dragged on, mostly discussing the events at the academy, and afterwards Puk had immediately retreated back to the ship to try and solve the issue of the many many staircases the students now had to climb. Hence, the exploding lift prototype.

“Come on, out with it,” Puk commanded, crossing their arms as they stared Kim down. “Did someone do something to you?” A surprising surge of protective fury shot through Puk, but they forced themself to breath it out through their nose. No point in jumping the gun, just wait for Kim to come out with the whole story. Then they could go start cracking heads.

“Oh, no, nothing like that,” Kim immediately objected, his sincerity temporarily assuaging Puk’s fears, “No, it’s just… well, it’s kind of a long story,” When Puk’s only response to that was to plop down on a nearby chair and give Kim their undivided attention, he sighed but continued anyways, “After the meeting, we all just kind of agreed to go and explore Vinhaven on our own? Ren went with Ragnar to look around, Elias and Hannah were investigating what resources the resistance has, the teachers all went somewhere to talk, I think Catherine and Regitze went to, er, volunteer for aid services,” That caused Puk to snort in amusement. Oh, how times have changed. Then Kim’s eyes shifted away from Puk, to try and hide the obvious worry they’d glimpsed, “Julian said something about asking around for news regarding your family. I don’t know if he found anything, but if you wanna-”

“Not interested,” Puk shut down, their tone so nonchalant they’d almost manged to convince themself, “C’mon, Kim, I know you’re stalling. Get to the point.”

Immediately Kim began stuttering, because Kim was a terrible liar, “Th-that- I wasn’t- I didn’t-”

“Did you forget who you’re talking to?” Inquired the tinkerer, a cheeky grin spreading across their face, “I know a bluff when I see one, Kim. Now,” Here, Puk’s voice turned as sickly sweet as their family’s candy, “Tell me what happened. Or else I’ll march outside and start asking around.”

The threat, or perhaps Puk’s ear to ear grin, caused Kim to immediately scramble up off of the couch, “No, no!” He protested, arms up in a gesture of surrender, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! It’s just…” He then sighed and fell back into his seat, “Well, after the meeting, Quinn told me that… my brother’s here.” That got Puk’s attention.

Over their time at the academy, all of them had heard a myriad of stories about big brother Ronan, who Kim absolutely adored. He’d carried the photo of his brother from when they’d saved it from the Restricted Section to when he’d finally had his own space again here on the ship. The stories he’d shared were nostalgically sweet, and while Puk knew the brother had been possessed by a demon at some point, Kim had been rather scant on the details of that encounter, and for the first time no one saw fit to press him. With the exception of maybe Ren, none of them knew the full story.

Judging from the tiny nostalgic smile on his face, though, his brother wasn’t the reason for Kim’s episode. At least, not directly. Without prompting Kim continued, “I haven’t seen him in seven years, and when I found him, he… he’s changed so much. He has tattoos now.” The little smile quirked up into a mirthful grin, “On his arm, a sunflower for me and a daisy for Quinn. He grew out his hair, and he’s bulked up a bit, and- and he’s short!” That seemed to be the thing Kim had the most trouble believing, if the laugh in his voice was anything to go by, “When I left for the academy I barely came up to his chest, and now I’m a good three inches taller than him. That’s so weird!”

“I can imagine,” Puk responded. Something about the words made their guts twist up in knots, and they suddenly had to resist the urge to get up and race after Julian. Kim first, unresolved familial issues later. “It sounds like it went well. So I’m a little confused about why you interrupted my very important work to scream into my very nice pillows.”...Well, okay, maybe the pillows were only middling nice at best, but the point still stood.

“Ah. That.” Like a switch was flipped, excited Kim turned back into bashful Kim, “Well, we got to talking about the letters I sent, and the last one last one before everything went down kind of talked about Sullivan… but mostly talked about the cute mender who asked me to the New Year’s Gala.”

Suddenly the last pieces clicked into place, and Puk couldn’t stop themself from grinning like a madman as the realization dawned on them, “Wait, wait,” They leaned forward, staring their friend straight in the eye, “You mean to tell me that you’re freaking out… because you had tell your brother about your partner?”

“Oh, I didn’t have to,” Kim sighed, long-suffering and tired, as he buried his face in his hands and mumbled, “Because guess who magically appeared just as we started talking about it?”

Puk laughed, “No way!”

“Yes way!” Exclaimed Kim, throwing up his hands, “It’s like they knew we were talking about them and just showed up!” He then collapsed back onto the couch, “And then they take one look at us and know immediately that we’re talking to my brother, even though they’ve only seen one seven year old picture of him, because of course they would recognize him immediately, of course, that stupid, perfect-!”

Barf, Puk thought, though refrained from speaking their disgust out loud because enduring the KimRen schmaltz was a small price to pay for this glorious disaster of a story.

Once Kim was done listing adjectives, he sighed and flopped back against the couch, hands running over his face as though to wipe away the stress of this entire conversation, “And naturally my brother somehow immediately knows that Ren was the mender I was talking about,” Given the general expressiveness of Kim, that hardly surprised Puk, “So Ronan literally squares up. Like, he steps between Ren and me and puffs up his chest like he’s about to throw down.” Puk couldn’t help but snort again, given that Ren was a stick of a mage only slightly taller than themself. “And he asks Ren – just straight up, without any hesitation or embarrassment – what their intentions are with me.”

“Holy Paragons,” Puk chirped, delighting in the chaos.

“And Ren,” Here, Kim sat up straight, losing his embarrassment as he went full on rant mode, “Looks him dead in the eye, and says, completely seriously,” He breathed out slowly, as if preparing himself, and then shifted his pitch to mimic Ren’s voice, “’I would die for Kim’.”

That burst the dam. Suddenly they were on the floor, rolling around in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

“It’s not funny!” Kim screeched, face red from embarrassment. Or maybe anger. Puk was too busy dying of the giggles to really check.

After a minute or so of joyful laughter, Puk finally managed to ease their roaring fit into a much softer chortle. They wiped away the tears prickling at the corners of their eyes, “That,” They forced out, voice still heavy with the remnants of their chuckling, “was the best thing I’ve heard all day.”

“You could at least pretend you’re not enjoying this,” Grumbled Kim as he sulked against the back of the sofa.

“True,” Puk agreed lightheartedly, “But we both know I am, so why bother?” Kim’s resulting groan of exasperation was almost as satisfying as getting their first prototype air machine off the ground. Almost, “So, is this the part where you run off to cry into my couch?”

“I wasn’t crying,” Kim protested. He then shifted his eyes as he muttered, “But, no. Believe it or not, that was all my brother needed to hear. He clapped them on the back, and just like that, they were talking and joking around like old friends.”

“Oh, what a nightmare,” Puk quipped, not unfamiliar with Ren’s mysterious ability to turn the most hostile of foes into friends. Something about that stupid grin on their face was just impossible to deny, even if it took a bit of perseverance on Ren’s part.

Kim only glowered at them for the comment, but elected not to dignify Puk with a response. Instead he continued, “I left because my brother – my own flesh and blood brother! – started telling Ren stupid stories about all the embarrassing things I did as a kid!” Like a ship in a storm, all the repressed memories of an embarrassing childhood came crashing down, and Puk only had a second to relish Kim’s red face before he once again buried it into a cushion.

Another laugh tickled Puk’s throat, but for the sake of friendship they swallowed it back and let the moment pass with only a muffled snicker and an unseen grin. A few quick strides brought them to Kim’s side, where Puk plopped down next to him and patted him gently, if not condescendingly, on the back. That was enough to pull Kim out of the cushion again, if only to glare at Puk.

“Look,” Kicking back on the couch, Puk made themself comfortable next to the boy and cautiously placed a hand on his knee – a simpler, but more sincere gesture that Kim could brush off if he so desired. He let their hand linger, so Puk continued, “I don’t get why you’re freaking out so much. Sure, they’re both being embarrassing about it,” Already Puk had come up with three different ways to tease Ren about their gross declaration. One involved pretending to be shot with an arrow. It’d be a blast, “But it’s not like your old classmates going out of their way to harass you for the stupidest reasons, you know? They just… love you.”

That, at least, got Kim to remove his face from the cushion, “I know, I know,” He joined Puk in reclining backwards, though his recline was more like a resigned flop, “It’s just… I’ve spent seven years without my brother or any real friends besides Hyben,” Just his name still made Kim wince. Puk pretended not to notice, “And now he’s gone, and I have my brother back, a whole bunch of friends, a partner… I love you all, don’t get me wrong, it’s just…”

“Overwhelming?” Puk guessed.

“So much,” Agreed Kim in a heartbeat.

Puk hummed contemplatively, then replied, “Yeah, I think I get it.” In their years as the Candy Dealer, and before that as a noble child of the Ellehammer family, Puk had learned how to read people, how to scope out their intention, how to find out what they wanted and use that to their own advantage. For years it has worked for them – kept most people at a distance, unless they wanted something, but that was how Puk had preferred it. Less friends to manage meant more time for their baby, the very airship they were on now.

Except then they’d gotten detention just before midterms, and despite their better judgment they had grown attached to the nervous nature mage and overly friendly mender. Before they knew it Puk had changed, from cold and callous and only caring about themself to sabotaging candy for revenge on Kim’s bullies and letting an inexperienced nutjob with a knack for trouble drive their baby through a flock of geese just to see that stupid smile on their face. It was bittersweet. It was exhilarating. It was…

A lot.

Change didn’t happen overnight, especially when the change was completely antithetical to your nature. Puk would try to be more considerate, to put their unique talents to use helping others instead of themself, but they were still the notorious Candy Dealer. Sometimes they’d slip up and be selfish, or snap at someone just trying to help. Or get a sudden burst of inspiration during a dull meeting and completely take over Soren’s project, they mused as their eyes drifted to the prototype lift.

And it wasn’t just Puk. Hannah still needed to be scolded to focus on her health. Elias would sometimes catch himself in the middle of making yet another cutting remark on their competence. Ragnar on occasion still hid his pain behind proud boasting, even if it was different pain this time around. And Kim? Years of surviving by himself didn’t disappear just because he had people who loved him now.

So, yeah, Puk got why he’d feel the need to slip away from time to time. Even if what he was being overwhelmed with this time around was love.

“Well,” A part of Puk, the selfish part that would’ve sacrificed their friends to protect themself, wanted to protest, but they shoved that instinct back into its box, “If the world outside ever gets to be too much, you can always crash here, alright? That is,” Puk grinned devilishly, unable to help the teasing edge in their voice, “If you don’t mind the fragrant aroma of burning metal and smoke.”

Then, as if some nefarious spirit had been listening in and decided to make a hilarious interruption, the lift caught fire for a second time. Puk spun on their heels and gawked long enough for Kim to get a head start on the fire extinguisher. By the time they’d gathered themself enough to join him, white foam was already suffocating the new flames.

Even after they’d died, Kim continued to spray until the prototype was completely buried in the stuff. A waste of foam, potentially, but at least it decreased the likelihood of another new fire breaking out. Probably. The two mages starred in silence at the ruined device for a few dragging seconds before Kim spoke up.

“Maybe I should spend more time down here,” A coy little grin, rare on Kim’s nervous face, spread across his lips, “Just to make sure you don’t burn the ship down.”

Paragons, all of Puk’s friends were such worrywarts, “If it makes you feel better, sure,” They agreed anyways, because maybe Puk was a bit of a worrywart, too, “But if you just tell Ren it’s too much, I’m sure they’ll tone it down for you. After all, if they’re willing to die for you, I’m sure they can manage to dial it back a smidgen.”

Apparently there was foam left in the extinguisher. Puk learned this when Kim directed the nozzle at them and sprayed it straight into their face.

While Puk sputtered and wiped the gunk off, Kim replied, “Yeah, they would. They wouldn’t even make a big deal out of it,” A soft blush coloured his cheeks a pleasant red, “But… I kinda don’t want them to? It’s a lot, but…”

“But you enjoy it,” Puk teased, flicking some of the foam Kim had gifted them with right back at him.

Kim didn’t deny it, just agreed with a bashful, “Yeah…” As he wiped the gunk from his nose with a quick swipe of his sleeve, “I do. I think I’ll get used to it, eventually. It’ll just take time.”

“Good,” Puk nodded, “And until then, you’re always welcome to chill out here.”

A peaceful moment passed as Kim grinned ear to ear at the offer, his cheeks flushed a vibrant red. Puk took the time to jot down a few new notes about their lift prototype – because, seriously, why did it catch fire a second time? – and just as they finished putting down their observations a thought occurred to them.

“So, your brother was sharing stories with Ren when you left, right?” They asked.

Kim looked up from where he’d been observing one of the plants that had been added to their workshop for colour, or something, “Yeah…?” He confirmed with what Puk deemed an appropriate amount of skepticism.

“Do you know if Ren was telling stories, too?” A little bit of jovial humour intertwined with Puk’s words.

“Not to my knowledge. They seemed more interested in hearing about my childhood, for some reason,” Kim scratched the back of his head, more confused than alarmed by the question. Critical mistake.

“So,” Puk couldn’t stop a humongous grin from spreading across their face as wicked plans began to come together in their mind as easily as any blueprint, “Your brother doesn’t know that your pet plant ate my dear cousin’s silk tie?”

The nature mage froze, staring doe-eyed at Puk.

“Or that you nearly punched a bard and risked the Nightingale’s wrath ‘cause he offered to hold your partner’s hand?” The shock wore off, and Kim tried to grab Puk, who dodged neatly, “Or how you two forgot you were alone and basically made out in front of-?”

“Puk!” Kim screeched, the red once contained to his cheeks now spreading across his entire face. He once again tried to grab them, and once again Puk avoided his skinny arms with ease, “Don’t you dare-!”

Too late for him. Puk was already dashing out of the room, a delighted grin plastered on their face even as Kim came barreling right after them. The resistance, the lift project, they could all wait. Right now, this was the most important thing Puk had to do.

And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Hi, hi! It's been a little while since I've been able to finish a piece of writing (not write, just finish), and I'm trying to jump back into it with the help of these games. Honestly, Arcadia Fallen 1 is really good, but I absolutely adore the cast of AC2. They're just so cute~