#paucas

Not long after Lucas had settled in one of the many rooms of Poo’s Palace, Ness and Paula decided to meet up at the entrance of the Palace. They were wearing casual clothes, but both were in their best casual clothes. Casual, but fashionable all the same.

“Watches ready?” Asked Paula, Ness smiled and showed her three different watches on his right wrist. “A little overkill, but good”

Ness saluted and started to approach the main door to the palace, she did the same. “See you here in an hour and a half.” Said the raven boy with the overconfidence of the captain of one of the best baseball teams in the country.

“Just make sure to not get late.” She said with cordiality, the same one she used before importing justice into criminals. They were on the street and suddenly started to run in opposite directions. It was left unsaid, but they both left thinking ‘Just don’t cry when I come back with the best present!’

Ness turned around a corner and as soon as he was sure he was outside of Paula’s detection range he teleported to a hill full of wildflowers. He smiled and took a nice transparent paper from his pouch. Nothing better than natural flowers to show how much you love someone!

Paula ran with determination, she had planned the best route in advance.  All her preparations allowed her to arrive at her favourite flower shop in record time. She greeted the employee and took her book with the meaning of flowers. She was going to select every flower herself and show her love with a bouquet full of meaning! There was no better way to show love than this!  The employee approached and as soon as he saw the book he knew the deal, time to show why he worked at the best flower shop!

An hour and a half later they arrived in perfect synchronisation to the main entrance of the Palace. Ness’s clothes had a bit of dust, but Paula knew that only to the charm of a bouquet made with beautiful wildflowers. Ness looked at the obviously expensive bouquet, he couldn’t say anything tho, he knew that every single flower there had a very deep meaning and that Paula had probably spent all night planning her gift.

“Tch.” They said. Both gifts were wonderful in their own way.

They entered the palace and casually showed each other their box of chocolates, it was the same brand and the same flavour. They let their head fall, of course they would buy the same, both like the same type and brand.

They arrived at the main stairs and stopped for about 1.56 seconds. There was no warning before they sprinted their way up. Both gifts were great, the only thing left was to give them to Lucas first!

They reached the top of the stairs and went in opposite directions, the couple of friends were pridefully thinking the same thing. ‘Ha! I know the fastest route!’ They eventually halted in front of Lucas’s dorm at the same time, and in silence took time to recompose themselves. ‘How did they get here at the same time as me?’ They asked themselves at the same time. Once they recovered their breath and checked on their bouquets (that had somehow survived their crazy run) they knocked at the door simultaneously. They stood up straight and put on their best smile. When the door finally opened Poo looked at them utterly confused.

“Ah… What are you doing here?” Asked Ness, his voice carried no respect for the king. Who could blame him? He was here for Lucas, not work. Poo crossed his arms and gave him a date glare but said nothing and neither let them in.

Paula sighed. “Hiding from work again… your highness?” She made a dramatic pause, letting their friend and king know that yes, they respect him, but she was here for Lucas and she wanted to give him her gift.

Poo nodded and let them in, with sour expressions they entered the room, ready to get Lucas's whereabout from their king even if it meant getting in trouble. In the couch, looking at them was Lucas, the blond blushed a little at seeing them enter with flowers and their expression changed immediately. Eagerly the pair forgot everything about their king and walked towards the cute blond lawyer that swiped their feet.

“Lucas! I got you flowers! I went to pick them up myself!” Ness gently presented his bouquet.

“Lucas! This bouquet has a deep meaning. I know you wanted to learn more about our world!” Paula gently presented her bouquet.

Their smiles grew when they saw the blond faint grow exponentially to tomato red.

“I got you chocolates too!” They presented their chocolate box. Their eager smiles lived very shortly, as a worried expression took over Lucas’s face. The blonde looked to the side and then took a deep breath. He looked at them, blushing but clearly deeply troubled.

“I’m flattered that you got me flowers and chocolate, but… but I can’t accept them! I’m not sure… I’m not sure about my feelings yet.”

They left their gifts in the free space on the couch and smiled. Lucas was so cute and silly.

“That’s alright Lucas, we are courting you, so you fall in love with us after all.” Said Paula calmy.

“Yeah, we can keep doing this until you fall for us, no biggie.” Said Ness in a relaxed way.

Their reassurance didn’t seem to work, as Lucas seemed as troubled as before.

“I know, but… it doesn’t feel right to receive such thoughtful gifts when I can’t even begin to choose between you. I can’t do that, I can’t accept your love, if I will have to choose one of you and hurt the other!”

The lawyer ended up shouting, he closed his eyes and the cute blush on his face disappeared.

“Choose what now?” Said Ness, expressing the confusion for them both.

Lucas opened his eyes reluctantly, still deeply troubled. “Choose. Don’t make me say it out loud! It’s embarrassing.”

Paula cleared her throat and as gently as possible said. “Lucas, you may need to say it loud because neither of us are getting why you need to choose.”

They looked at each other, and shrugged, then they looked back at Poo. The king was drinking tea and shrugged, also unsure of what the problem was.

This finally made Lucas’s expression change, the blond now looked at them as if a second head had grown on each of them. They weren’t sure if this was good or bad.

“Maybe it’s a cultural difference.” Said Poo casually, used to deal with stuff like this in diplomatic meetings.

“You may be right!” Said Ness. He went around the couch, moved his gift and sat beside Lucas.

“Lucas, can you tell us how relationships are in your world?” Asked Paula as she sat at Lucas’s other side.

The blond looked at them a bit unsure, and after a moment of silence explained how people dated where he was from. The basics of it was that for century relationship were between women and men only (a couple of eyebrows were raised there, but they let continue), and for a couple of decades same sex relationship were finally (Lucas put emphasis in finally) accepted as something normal, so two men or two women together were accepted by society in general. Lucas explained them with patience and answered their questions, but what picked up their attention the most was that Lucas always spoke about relationships as something between only two people.

“Is there a reason why you only speak of romantic relationships as something for pairs?” Finally Paula decided to ask.

Lucas looked at her confused again. “What do you mean?”

And it clicked for everyone in the room what the problem was.

“We can date with more than one person here; you don’t have to choose.” Said Ness with the happiness of the man that states the most obvious and most simple answer to all problems.

“Indeed, we do mean it when we say we want you to fall for us both. We want you to love both of us.” Paula took Lucas’s hand in hers, hoping that the blond would accept their way of living.

Lucas blushed. “Like a harem?” Multiple images of sultans with various women crossed his mind, but in his head, there were two sultans, and he was the “woman” of the harem.

“What’s a harem?” Asked Ness.

Paula nodded. “You sure have names for everything in your dimension.”

Lucas, still blushing, explained what a harem was. By the end of the explanation Ness laughed. “I think Paula and I would think of you as this ‘sultan’ and us the harem.”

“Yes, we want to shower you with affection. I think you as the sultan it's more accurate.”

And with a R18 image crossing by his head Lucas decided to hide his blushing face.

“I don’t think you understand what you say, but I get it that here monogamy is not necessarily a thing. Just… just…” He put his hands down and decided to look them to the face. “Can you give me some time to think about this?”

They looked at each other and smiled, relieved to see that the crisis was averted, and that Lucas did not ask them to stop their advances.

“But of course!” Ness happily said.

“What Ness said.” Paula Nodded.

They spent the rest of the evening together, eventually Poo left to continue his work and he took the two knights with him. Mostly to give Lucas some room to think, but also, because the king was not the only one slacking today.

When they left the room the couple of best friends decided to talk about what they had learn today about Lucas’s culture and came to the same conclusion. They had to eliminate Monogamy to speed up their courting process and find this sultan to ask for relationship advice.

Later that night Lucas entered his room with two pots and gently placed his bouquets beside each other. Ness and Paula made his heart race. As he looked at the beautiful flowers, he took one of the boxes of chocolates and opened it. He was glad he had met the pair of knights, his stay here would be too painful otherwise. His mind inevitably went back to thinking about his brother, Claus, he hoped that Giygas’s threat had been in vain, and that his dear brother and Lil Marsh were alright. His mind was full of worries, but the flowers in front of him gave something beyond comfort, it gave him hope. He believed in Ness’s and Paula’s promise that they were going to find a way for him to go back home.

The End

Happy Luness! 🥳 The collective celebrates this monday with the OT3 of this Au, we left him a lit on the side but today we bring it back to celebrate! ~ヾ(＾∇＾) The collective hopes you enjoyed to see some subtle difference between Ness and Paula when it came to flirting ( ु•⌄• )✧♡