#lalapril!

Sphene hunched herself down closer to the ground and wondered how her life had all been leading to her being in this exact spot, at this exact time, in this exact place. 

Inside of a moderately sized empty container, with the only light source coming from a few openings uptop and surrounded by three other people and waiting for some sort of signal before the plan could continue. 

One moment Sphene was living in the palace, worrying about the growing danger of lightning and how they were going to handle all of that and now here she was, helping Babycorn commit some sort of robbery.

A heist even. 

Apparently this is what Babycorn had meant when she asked Sphene if she wanted to help her with something ‘super duper mega important’. Sphene figured Babycorn just wanted help tying her shoelaces or reaching something from the top shelf, you know, something simple! 

Babycorn seemed like a nice girl, even if for the first few hours of meeting each other all she did was silently stare at her with her huge scary eyes. Sphene would have never guessed that something so sneaky and conniving could come out from that fluffy head of her’s. 

Not only that, somehow Babycorn had also recruited Cherrypit and Gulool Ja into helping her too. Instead of wondering if what they were doing was right and morally just, both children were busy singing some macabre nursery rhyme that Cherrypit was teaching Gulool Ja. 

Though she really shouldn’t have been too surprised. Cherrypit was Babycorn’s little brother and it felt like Gulool Ja never ran out of good things to say about Babycorn, he admired her that much.

The star of the show herself, Babycorn, was busy talking with someone on what Sphene learned was called a linkshell. “Just act natural! It's like all those movies say-! If you act like you’re supposed to be there no one will say anything!” Babycorn helpfully explained to whoever she was talking to. 

There was just a second of silence after her explanation. After which Sphene could barely make out the sound of someone talking very fast at Babycorn from the other side of the call. 

It sort of sounded like they were panicking, a lot. 

“Just trust me! When has anything gone wrong when I planned it?”

There was even more panicked talking, it lasted almost twice as long as last time. Babycorn just kept smiling and nodding. “Egg-sactly!” She confidently answered, it sounded like she just completely ignored whatever completely legitimate argument was just said to her. “Just stand by and wait for my signal!” 

Signal? That was the first Sphene had heard of there being any sort of signal. Now that she thought about it, Babycorn hadn’t told her much about her plan besides that they were sneaking into an Arcadion warehouse to steal something.

Babycorn had failed (i.e completely forgotten) to elaborate on what they were taking but Sphene hoped it wasn’t anything too important. Everyone in Solution 9 seemed to really enjoy The Arcadion. 

During her time walking around the city Sphene had already seen countless advertisements for it on every single billboard. It would be a shame to disrupt that. 

Sphene carefully scooted closer to where Babycorn was standing. Turns out whatever crate they were inside was much too small for her to do anything but sit. However, it was the perfect size for Babycorn, their accompanying baby brother and young Mamool Ja friend. 

“Who are you talking to?” Sphene asked. 

“Coco!”

Now Sphene had known Coco for about as much time as she had known everyone else but even she knew by now that he didn’t seem like the type of little guy to help with something like this. “Is Coco really helping us?” Sphene asked. Call her skeptical but something wasn’t adding up.

“Yup!” Babycorn smiled. Not like Coco had a choice in this matter. “I told him if he didn’t help us I would tell Melmeltan about that time he hit me with his car!”

Sphene’s eyes widened, “He what?! Were you alright?!” 

Babycorn nodded with a smile. “You’d be surprised how hard it is to kill me!” 

As much as a relief it was to hear that it was pretty concerning that Babycorn encountered enough life threatening situations to be able to know that.

Then again, Sphene had already seen Babycorn’s resilience first hand. After getting struck by lightning drawn from all of Solution 9’s power it was reassuring to see her relatively unharmed after she woke up. 

It made her wonder for a bit what other situations Babycorn found herself in… 

Something about it was also making Sphene a little excited. Maybe she could ask Babycorn to tell her stories about the adventures she’d been on? Then after Sphene practiced her healing magicks she could go ahead and lend a hand too! 

Especially if she was going to put Calyx in his place for the heartless stunt he pulled with her memories of Zelenia.  

Sphene flinched in surprise when Babycorn’s linkshell went off again. Babycorn answered it immediately. “How’s it looking out there now?” There were a few more seconds of tense silence, even Cherrypit and Gulool Ja had paused their game to try and listen in. 

Babycorn nodded, then nodded again, then she shook her head and gasped. 

“What?” Sphene scooted in closer, “What is it? Did something happen?” 

“Oh I don’t know. Coco hasn’t said anything yet!”

Okay, maybe that was a little funny. “Then why did he call you?” Sphene chuckled. Unless it was someone else that called Babycorn. Hopefully it wasn’t anyone suspicious of where they had gone. 

“Is the coast clear?” Gulool Ja asked. 

Babycorn leaned her head to the side, as if that was gonna let her hear her linkshell more clearly. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.” She closed her eyes and frowned, then turned to the others. “Coco says we have an opening!”

His assigned job was actually to make sure that they wouldn’t make too much of a scene being pushed into the other group of crates getting moved to a warehouse in the Arcadion.

With the first signal given, they only needed one more step till they could really get started. “We just need a second opinion…” Babycorn turned to look at Gulool Ja and Cherrypit. Both of them were doing little hops of excitement. They’d been waiting for this.

“Okay boys-! Let’s see if the second coast is clear!” 

Without wasting any time Gulool Ja held out his hands and Cherrypit jumped right in between them, then he held Cherrypit up against the walls of the crate. Sphene looked at them and then at Babycorn. “Hmm.” Clearly something was happening but Sphene wanted to see how this ended first. 

Gulool Ja grinned. “It’s clear! We can go inside!” He let Cherrypit go and let him crawl back on top of his head. 

Sphene looked up at the small openings above them. Those holes were the only view to the outside and a last minute addition after Sphene pointed out they would quickly run out of air without them. “How could you tell?” From here she could only get a tiny view of the sky above Solution 9. 

“Cherry can actually see right through walls!” Gulool Ja excitedly explained. “That was how he was able to make sure we didn’t get caught when we climbed Everkeep.” 

“Ba!” Cherrypit confirmed what Gulool Ja was saying in his own little baby way.

Well this little guy is just full of surprises isn’t he? Sphene thought back to Calyx’s attempt to get rid of the Warriors of Light. Though most of them were definitely winded after the whole thing, Cherrypit was just left standing around confused without a scratch on him. 

Good thing Cherrypit was on their side. 

“Ma! Hurry let Coco know!” Gulool Ja ran over to Babycorn, still carrying Cherrpit on his head. 

Babycorn put a finger up to her linkshell, “Coco! This is your signal! Hurry!! Get a move on!!” She shrieked. It was loud enough that Sphene swore she could hear the echo of Babycorn’s voice coming from the outside.  

Right after Babycorn hung up her linkshell a pair of distinct Coco sounding footsteps could be heard scurrying around the crate. Though they did sound a bit off. Sphene pressed her head against the crate to try and see if she could hear anything else. 

Surprisingly she did manage to hear something. It was Coco whispering to himself. “...Who hasn’t run Babycorn over with a car at this point-! Melmeltan wouldn’t be disappointed in me!” 

“Hmm…” That just made Sphene think whether Babycorn had more friends she could blackmail into committing crimes with her. 

“Alright gang-!!” 

Babycorn proudly stood with her hands on her hips and addressed her teammates. “In just a few minutes we’re gonna be inside the Arcadion warehouse! And once we’re in there we just have to find the blue-est crates we can and break into them! Then my treasure will be mine again!”

The crate started to shake slightly. It was close to making Babycorn lose her balance but she was able to somehow keep it intact.

Just a few minutes after the initial shaking Sphene could feel their crate start to move forward. ‘This must be the other job Babycorn gave Coco.’ It was just one surprise after another. 

Who knew Coco was strong enough to push a crate full of them all by themselves?

“Now let’s get in there and rob them blind!!”

Gulool Ja and Cherrypit cheered loudly.

Out of the two of them Gulool Ja probably understood what they were doing the most. He could still remember Otis teaching him that stealing was something he wasn’t supposed to do but Babycorn somehow managed to convince him by explaining that they were taking back something that actually belonged to her. 

So of course that made it okay!

Sphene, on the other hand, wanted to cry. She held her hands together and closed her eyes. 

“Forgive me Otis…Zelenia…”

The ride to wherever they were going was a little bumpy so everyone made sure to hold onto whatever they could. Which turned out to be Babycorn herself. Sphene held onto both of Babycorn’s horns like they were a pair of handlebars while Gulool Ja and Cherrypit held onto both of her arms respectively. 

If Babycorn minded at all, she sure didn’t show it. She looked pretty content about the whole thing honestly. It was more of a wonder that she wasn’t bouncing all over the place with them. 

After a few tense minutes of shaking the crate came to a sudden stop. 

Babycorn was still able to keep her balance and help the others at the same time. “Weeeeeee!” Cherrypit cheered, luckily the sound of the crate screeching was much louder than he was. Once he felt the crate stop moving the let go of Babycorn’s arm and walked up to stand up on the top of the box, upside down. 

Babycorn raised her arms in the air, cheering. “I think we made it-!!” She tried to whisper, but her excitement got the better of her so she was just as loud as she always was. 

Gulool Ja let go of Babycorn’s arm and tugged on her sleeves. “Careful Ma! Cherry says there’s still people out there!” Once he told her Babycorn’s eyes widened and she quickly covered her mouth with her hands. Not even wanting to risk making a single noise that would give them away.

From up above Cherrypit put a finger over his mouth and smiled. “Shhh!” He went ahead and made his way to one of the crate’s walls and placed his face square on it. 

Sphene looked at him curiously. Could it really be that easy for Cherrypit to look outside? She crawled over to him, making sure to watch her head. “Cherry? Do you need any help?” She recalled how Gulool Ja held him up to the wall last time he did this so maybe she could do the same?

Cherrypit’s smile lingered for just a few seconds before he frowned and looked away. “Mm! Mmm!” He shook his head and looked away, ignoring her. 

“Ah…Well…” 

Babycorn noticed Sphene’s dejected look and quickly spoke up. “I’m Sorry Sphene…Cherry is still really small so he’s still having trouble telling the difference between you, the other Sphene and that other Sphene.” Honestly, Babycorn sometimes had her moments where she swore she was talking to another Sphene. 

That was a big part of the reason that Babycorn invited Sphene to come. A little bonding time committing a robbery never hurt anyone!

“I’ve been trying to help him tell the difference!” Gulool Ja explained. With the help of handy photo references and audio recordings of Sphene herself, “I think he’s listening but honestly I can’t really tell…” 

“I think you’re doing a good job!” 

Gulool Ja smiled and did a little hop at Babycorn’s praise.

It took only a few minutes for Cherrypit to declare that it was safe to come out now. No one was around to catch them or ask them how they got in there. “Okay! Let’s do it to it team!” Babycorn raised her hands to let Cherrypit know it was time to lift the top of their crate up. 

He copied Babycorn’s movement to a tee, except he was able to increase the size and length of his arms by a large degree. It was easy for Cherrypit to push the lid of the crate completely off.

So off as a matter of fact that the top of the crate flew all the way up to the ceiling, hitting it with a sort of muffled bang.

Sphene kept looking up at the ceiling even as she climbed out of the crate. “Is that going to come down?” Surely it would make some sort of loud noise once it fell that would give them away? 

Cherrypit shook his head and pointed to himself. While babbling a bunch of incoherent baby noises. Which Babycorn was quick to translate. “Cherry says he’s keeping it up there until we’re ready to leave! So don’t worry Sphene!” As for how he was doing that, well that didn’t really matter did it?

“That’s amazing…” Sphene whispered to herself while helping Babycorn and Gulool Ja out from the crate. Both we’re just a little too short to climb out by themselves. It made Sphene wonder if this was another reason that she was invited to come along. 

…Nah.

Babycorn soon gathered everyone around her. She lowered her voice to be as quiet as she could as she explained part two of the plan. 

Which is to say she was speaking at her normal speaking volume, she just thought she was whispering. As Babycorn often did. “Okay gang! Our target is that big blue box over THERE!” Babycorn twisted her body around to point at another crate that looked remarkably similar to the one they used to sneak in here.

Except that one was probably not made of paper mache and a prayer. “I’ll hazard a guess that’s why they let us in so easily.” Sphene joked. Especially since none of them had made any sort of effort to be quiet inside of a practically paper thin crate. 

Babycorn continued, “We’re going to open up that big box and take everything that’s inside of it! Because-! Because…!!!” She paused, her tail was whipping itself into a frenzy and Sphene noticed her horns glowing a bright pink. 

“Because…E-EVERYTHING in there is mine!!” Babycorn shrieked. 

“Ya!” Cherrypit let out a tiny cheer and was the first to run over to the crate Babycorn pointed at. He ran directly towards it and Sphene was afraid he was going to run right through it like some sort of battering ram. Thankfully he stopped just short of that and instead jumped up to the top and started trying to bite it open.

“He learned from the best.” Babycorn smirked. 

Sphene was almost mesmerized. “It’s like he’s some sort of can opener…” Who knew what else Cherrypit could do that she just didn’t know about yet? Full of surprises indeed…

“Cherrypit is so cool!” Gulool Ja cheered. “He even made me a toy that looks exactly like Otis!” The toy that he made for him was a lot softer than the real Otis had been but Cherrypit wanted to make sure it would be soft enough for Gulool Ja to hug. 

Oh…

“That sounds nice…” 

Juggling herself between listening in and watching as her brother sawed his way into the container, Babycorn couldn’t help but smile. ‘Cherrypit you’re so sweeeeet! Where did you learn to be so niiiceeee.’ Babycorn was filled with so much pride for him she wanted to forgo everything and just up and hug him but she had to concentrate right now! 

Speaking of concentrating…

Babycorn turned to Sphene and Gulool Ja. “I’m sorry it’s taking a while! Cherry likes to be really careful with his biting so I promise he’ll be done soon!” She was feeling really bad about making them just wait. They were both her guests and she was so totally not being a cool host. 

“It’s alright! Cherry can take all the time he needs!” Sphene would prefer it this way. This way Cherrypit wouldn’t accidentally hurt himself trying to rush things.

Though considering prior events Sphene wondered if Cherrypit was even capable of being hurt. 

Well, now that they were here with nothing to do but wait for Cherrypit to finish, Sphene figured this was as good a time as any to ask. 

“Say, Gulool Ja?” 

Gulool Ja looked up, still hanging off the top of the crate. “Yes?” 

“Why do you keep calling Babycorn, Ma?”

He looked just a little surprised to hear someone, anyone ask him that again. “Uh, well, the reason is…” It had been a while since he last explained this. Somehow it was a little harder to explain this time than before. Probably because he actually knew who his mother was now.

“...When I was younger I used to try and spy on my father from far away. To try and get to know him better!” 

Now Sphene didn’t know a lot about Zoraal Ja (there hadn’t really been an opportunity to sit down and ask about him.) All she knew about him was that he was one of Lamaty'i’s older brothers and that he was Gulool Ja’s father. 

Even with the little info she had on him, aside from some scattered whispers here and there, Sphene was positive that he wasn’t the greatest guy. Especially if he treated his own son like that. 

If only she had woken up sooner. Then she really could have given Zoraal Ja a piece of her mind. 

“I kept seeing him look at this drawing of a girl I didn’t know.” Gulool Ja remembered his father would take it out and just stare at it, for the longest time. Probably the only time Gulool Ja could recall seeing his father show any form of emotion. “I thought it had to be my mother he was missing!” He was so sure of this fact that when he first met everyone he made a beeline towards Babycorn to ask her where she’s been. 

“Even after Lamaty'i explained everything to me I already called Babycorn Mother for so long that I just got used to it. Even after everything…” 

“Doesn’t seem like she minds!” As far as Sphene could tell. 

“Yeah!” Gulool Ja grinned, “Babycorn said I can call her Ma for as long as I want! She’s really nice! And she always has yummy snacks!” They usually came from her hair but lately Babycorn was making an effort to use literally anything else. 

Their conversation came to an abrupt end with a sudden sound that sounded suspiciously like a lid of a crate being lifted up and crushed into a small metal ball. “All done!” Cherrypit victoriously cheered, bouncing the remains of the metal lid in his claws. 

“Did he learn that from you too?” Sphene asked Babycorn.

“M-Maybe…!” Yeah probably. 

Babycorn shook her head. “Anyways! Come on and help me carry all of this out!” Babycorn ran forward then very impressively jumped up and then straight into the crate. It was like she jumped right into a pool as the contents inside the crate splashed around everywhere. 

One of them  just happened to land right on top of Sphene’s head. “You have something on your head, Sphene.” Gulool Ja pointed out. Whatever it was it was sprawled out on her head. From down here he couldn’t really tell what it was. 

It just sort of looked really soft, it had to be if it didn’t hurt when it landed on her.

Whatever it was, it must have been really important if it was being kept somewhere as secure as this. 

Sphene looked up, from her point of view she could see a pair of legs dangling in front of her eyes. “A stuffed toy?” She was familiar with them, having amassed quite a collection of them herself when she was younger.

Knowing that these somehow belonged to Babycorn, Sphene carefully reached up on her head and grabbed it. 

Once she held it up in front of her and finally got a good look at it Sphene instantly recognized who she was holding. “Butter?!” Or ‘Butts’ as she first thought was his name thanks to someone. Not naming names. 

There was no mistaking it. The plushie she was holding onto was Butter Moontide, the kind and little long eared boy with very spiky hair that almost seemed to defy gravity and this doll was perfectly imitating that in every way. 

Sphene also recognized him as the Unstoppable Upstart from the Arcadion. All thanks to a conveniently placed billboard that they just happened to pass at the right time.

…Come to think of it, it was rather hard to rip Babycorn away from staring at the billboard. 

Now this was something Sphene immediately caught onto. “Hmm…” Sure she had her suspicions before, but this was the nail on the coffin of love that she had just been waiting to see for herself. 

Waiting for an opportunity to be able to talk to Babycorn directly didn’t take long. As Babycorn decided to go ahead and trade places with Cherrypit. So while Cherrypit was busy grabbing as many plushies as he could, tossing them outside, Babycorn was quite busy catching them in her arms and giving them a big ol’ hug.

Sphene couldn’t hold in her giggle. This was probably the most intense case of lovesickness she had seen in…well more than a century now that she thought about it. It almost rivaled the soap opera level of yearning she witnessed on a daily basis from Sir Otis. 

As Sphene watched Babycorn nuzzle a Butter plushie on her nose she slid closer, a playful smile on her face. “Is this really what you said belongs to you?” Those were Babycorn’s words exactly and now Sphene was firing them right back at her. 

“Mhhmmmm!” Babycorn giggled. It looked like she was in her own little world.

God, this was dire. Sphene couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Did anyone else know about this? They must, right?? Why didn’t anyone tell her about this? She looked back at Gulool Ja and gestured towards Babycorn in a manner she hoped would say something like, ‘Is she always like this?’ 

Gulool Ja looked up at her, as if he was thinking very hard about Sphene’s question. Which he was, but ultimately he gave her a shrug and a nod that very much said, ‘Yeah! Pretty much.’

No wonder Babycorn went through all this trouble

When Sphene looked back at Babycorn she was holding around twenty Butter plushies in a big hug, she was grinning from ear to ear  like she just received the best news of her life. “Hehehe…” Babycorn laughed to herself, she was stomping her feet quite quickly.

Now was the time to strike. Sphene leaned in closer to Babycorn, waving the Butter doll she was still holding onto in front of her face. “Babycorn! I found one!” Well if she was going to be specific it found her but who had time to explain that? 

Then in an instant, Babycorn’s eyes flew wide open and her eyes began to twinkle. “AH!” 

Before Sphene had time to react Babycorn jumped up and bit down on the doll, snatching it right out of her hands. “Babycorn?!” Sphene took a step back and stared at her hand just to make sure it was still there. “I know you have feelings for him but try and show some restraint?!” 

“Mmh?” The Butter plushie was still in Babycorn’s mouth. Eventually she spit it out and added it to the pile in her arms. “What do you mean? Who’s restraint?!” Once again the point had flown right over Babycorn’s big head. 

Sphene decided it would be in her best interest to skip that line of questioning. She had much better questions to get to anyway. “You must really like Butter?” Like was probably not the right word for it, but given earlier events Sphene doubted that Babycorn would understand the phrase completely enamored. 

Because this girl had it bad. 

Babycorn snuggled the plushies closer and nodded. “Yeah…!” She smiled, none the wiser. “Butts is a bestest friend and I love him a lots!” She loved him so much that Babycorn always wanted to hang out with him and hold his hand and laugh with him and eat snacks with him and talk with him about anything.

And maybe ride another ferris wheel with him again...

Sphene looked at Babycorn and then at the pile of Butter plushies that was building up next to Babycorn from all of the inventory Cherrypit was throwing out of the crate. “You say you organized this entire thing just for your good friend Butter?” 

Babycorn nodded, very enthusiastically. 

“I feel like you might like him more than a friend…?” 

“Silly billy! That’s why I called him a bestest friend!” 

“Do you have any other bestest friends?”

“Sure I do! I have uh…” Babycorn thought really hard about this. Well Lunya was her BFFFF (which stood for best friend for forever with an extra F), so that was different. Everyone else she tended to just call either a friend or a best friend. “Huh…” Did she really not call anyone but Butter a bestest friend? That didn’t sound right. 

“I guess I don’t…?” 

Sphene raised a good point and for the first time in a long time the gears in Babycorn’s corner of her head focused on love began to turn, but not enough. “I guess it’s cause I just think Butter is really neat! He’s really brave and cool too!” Wait till Sphene heard all about how he saved her one time! Like a knight in shining armor…

For now that was all Sphene needed to hear. 

“Your feelings towards Butter, is this why you wanted all of these?” 

Babycorn crossed her arms and huffed. “Those Arcadion jerks were gonna sell them all tomorrow at their big merch sale tomorrow.” More specifically before and after the exhibition match with the Howling Blade. “So I decided to get super ahead of the line and buy all of them myself!” 

“But they’re not for sale yet!” Gulool Ja reminded her. “I don’t want you to get in trouble…” Both Gulool Ja and Cherrypit shared similar worries. Except while one was worried about Babycorn being arrested the other was worried about getting no dessert for dinner.

To everyone’s surprise, Babycorn scoffed at such a notion. “No need to worry bout’ that!” She confidently declared. Then she pulled out a giant bag that was almost as big as her. As she shook it up and down the distinct sound of gil rattling around could be heard. 

“I saved up all my allowance from Lunya so I could buy all of these myself!” With a great big smile on her face she picked up her sack of gil and tossed it up into the now empty crate. 

“Wow. Nice throw.” Lunya said, clapping her hands together. 

“Thank you!” Babycorn happily smiled, dropping the Butter plushies she had been holding in her hands into the much bigger pile of them. There must have been more than five hundred of these little guys now and they were all her’s!

Then she froze. “Wait a second.” 

The sound of an unfamiliar voice in their group caused everyone to jump, then turn around to see who it could possibly have been that spoke.

That was how they were all caught face to face with Lunya Lanya. There was a smile on her face that was having the opposite effect on them than it usually did. 

Other than Babycorn, who jumped into the pile of Butter plushies in a vain attempt to hide, Sphene was the first to react. “Lunya?!” How in the world had she gotten in here with them?! She didn’t recall Babycorn mentioning anything about Lunya and judging from her behavior Babycorn was just as shocked as they were. 

…Could all of them have just walked in instead of going through all this trouble? 

Gulool Ja took it upon himself to go ahead and ask what everyone else in the room was wondering. “What are you doing here Lunya?” 

Lunya walked closer, picking up a Butter plushie from the ground and placing it onto the huge pile of them. “Coco ran to ask me to carry your cute little crate in here.” She had seen Gulool Ja, Cherrypit and Babycorn working on a big art project a few days ago. “It came out great by the way!” 

“Oh thank you!! Thank you!” Gulool Ja smiled. He and Cherrypit worked really hard on it and even harder on making sure Babycorn didn’t eat any of their glue. It was a lot of work. 

“UGH! That tattletale!!” Babycorn went ahead and yelled from her hiding place. 

“No, don't worry he wasn’t telling on you.” Lunya assured her, “He honestly couldn’t figure out how to move it when he couldn’t lift it up himself. So he came to me for help.” Coco tried to hide why he wanted Lunya to help him move a very suspicious looking crate but she got as far as saying “W-” before the guilt overcame him and he confessed everything. 

“I still think he’s a tattle-tale…” 

Then Gulool Ja went and asked the second question that everyone else was wondering. “Are we in trouble?” He guiltily looked away, tip tapping his fingers together. 

Gulool Ja looked so worried that Cherrypit took it upon himself to crawl on top of his friends head, either to protect or support him, only Cherrypit knew.  

“No, no.” Lunya gave both boys a supportive pat on their heads. “You’re not in trouble and neither are you Sphene.” She had to make that very clear. On the other hand…

“Chelinka Babycorn Meriala Corn Starsinger. What do you think you’re doing?” 

A growl came from the stack of Butter plushies. Babycorn would have never told Lunya her full name if she knew it was going to be weaponized against her like this. “I’m not doing nothin’!”

Lunya remained silent, waiting for Babycorn to continue. 

And continue she did. “I’m just shopping for things!” Babycorn finally jumped out of her pile, hugging a Butter plushie close to her, like she was protecting it from the cold harsh world of the outside. “I didn’t want anyone else to have one…!” She pouted, looking away. 

“Any particular reason whyyyyyy you didn’t want anyone else to have these Butter plushies?” 

Babycorn shrugged. “I dunno.” 

As stubborn as ever. “Babycorn? Do you remember what we talked about?” Lunya asked, “About how you might like Butter more than most people do?” Of course she had already tried the direct approach of telling Babycorn to her face that she was in love with Butter, but apparently Babycorn just decided to completely forget about it. 

Lunya was exasperated at first, but lately it was kind of fun seeing Babycorn slowly figure things out for herself. Even if it was taking a while. 

Babycorn glanced at Lunya and then went back to pulling on Butter plushie’s soft spiky hair. “Maybe…” Most of Babycorn’s frustration at herself came from not being able to process what she was really feeling. “I just like Butts a lot…” She whispered. “Sniffle…”  

Sphene decided to speak up. “I’m sure Butter likes you a lot too!” At the time Sphene hadn’t paid much attention to how Butter looked and acted near Babycorn but one thing she did remember was how worried he was after Calyx’s attempt on Babycorn’s life.  

He must care for her a lot, that much was apparent. 

“You don’t know the half of it…” Lunya smiled.  

From Lunya’s smile and attitude Sphene could tell there was probably a rather telling history between the two. Maybe she would have to ask more about it later? Who knows? That being said, “Why don’t you tell Butter how much you like him?” Sphene asked. 

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Babycorn screamed, “I can't do that! I can't ever do that!” there was no way in all of the seven hells (or however many there were!) that Babycorn could ever ever tell Butter something like that! 

Which was odd for the girl who never had any trouble speaking her mind.

Sphene stared at Babycorn, who was now lying on the ground and clutching a Butter plushie against her chest. “Is Babycorn going to be okay?” Hopefully she hadn’t actually said something to upset her friend. Sphene would feel terrible if that was the case.

Somehow Lunya was able to ease her fears despite not knowing what Sphene was thinking. “Don’t worry. I think she’s still figuring it out.” Lunya knelt down next to Babycorn and pet her fluffy head. There was definitely no envy in her heart for Babycorn having to deal with her feelings hitting her like an armored freight train. 

Surely it would be any day now. Hopefully sooner than later. 

“...Can I still keep them?” Obviously Babycorn was referring to her collection of exclusive Butter Moontide plushies. 

Lunya sighed, “Well…You did pay for them.” 

“Yippee! Awesome!” Babycorn’s entire mood seemed to flip on its head. As she hopped up into the air and did a happy little dance with her Butter plushie 

Doubtless that if Lunya made Babycorn put them back she would figure out a way to take them the day of the sale. Which would probably cause much more chaos than this stunt did. “I really didn’t think she had it in her…” Let alone have the idea to invite Sphene and Gulool Ja on her heist. Go figure. 

Sphene’s eyes widened. “Wait if you knew Babycorn was going to do this-? Then why didn’t you stop her?” 

Lunya’s eyes darted to the left, then to the right. “I kind of just wanted to see how far you would get.” Babycorn thought Lunya’s face looked a little funny. That was because to everyone that wasn’t Babycorn it was incredibly obvious that Lunya was trying her very hardest not to smile, or even laugh. 

“While what Babycorn did was very bad-I can understand where she’s coming from.”

Cherrypit popped his little head in the middle of the conversation, still practically glued on top of Gulool Ja’s head. There was a wide smile on his face. “For Mimi Gwaha?” He asked. Which meant something along the lines of, ‘You would do the same thing if they were going to sell Mister G’raha plushies?’ 

Lunya cleared her throat with a cough. “Anyway.” 

Unfortunately, to give the children around her and Babycorn an example of what happens when you steal something without permission, some consequence needed to be given. 

“Also, you are grounded young lady.” Lunya said very sternly and matter-of-a-factly. Making sure to raise her voice loud enough so that Cherrypit and Gulool Ja could hear her. The building they were in just added to that effect, making Lunya’s voice echo as if she were larger than life. 

“You can’t ground me! I’m like twenty-nine!??”

Lunya remained silent. Simply just staring at Babycorn with her usual no nonsense look reserved for Babycorn and a select other people. 

“...Fine.”