let the fire burn

they keyword being most.

zelda was different. he treated her the same way he treated most others, like some sort of protector, a guy who liked to have fun with those around him, and that was already strange enough. according to his mother, she was the enemy. she referred to the lings as the skellingtons’ pets, and that they were guilty by association. yet no matter how he treated rex, he could never find himself being mean to zelda. he couldn’t even imagine it.

no, that was a lie. he could imagine it. he just didn’t like what he saw. zelda didn’t have as tough a shell as many of the other halloweentown kids did. she was always smiling, always happy, and he didn’t want to take that away from her. at first, he told himself that it was because she was weak and that it wasn’t worth it, but that didn’t account for how he actively spoke to her, how he made sure he was nice to her rather than ignoring her like he usually would. then he told himself that she was friends with most of his friends, too, so it made sense for him to treat her as a friend.

that was eventually what he settled on. he refused to think of her in any other way, not when she looked at him with those adorable eyes, not when she laughed at something he said, not when the wind would flip her hair in front of her face and he definitely did not want to move it away for her.

he was able to suppress everything, and once he was in auradon, he was able to forget about his not-crush for a while. he would deny it until his dying breath.

then she came to attend school with the rest of them. he’d been so focused on everything else going on at the time that he didn’t think of how he used to feel. it was just fun spending time with a friend.

or so he’d thought.

fast forward to when his girlfriend left him without saying goodbye, taking everything that was hers ( and probably some stuff that was his ), and he couldn’t help but retreat to his old ways for a bit. part of his anger was because it was the end of a relationship, but the other part was because just leaving without saying goodbye was a thing his mother would do. his mother’s example was part of the reason he’d been hesitant to start a relationship in the first place and she’d known that.

then zelda found him tearing things apart like he used to, and her presence alone was enough to calm him down. not entirely, because he was still too heated to get over it in a matter of seconds, but it was something. it felt the same as when they were growing up, when just one look from her could make him freeze completely.

yet he once again forced himself to tuck those feelings away. he convinced himself that he was just emotional and lonely, that he was only asking her to the dance as friends.

a few months later, his newest wound now healed, he found his thoughts drifting over to zelda more often. he wasn’t even trying. he would be in the middle of class and his mind would start daydreaming on its own. it was worse when he went to the prep school and actually saw her rather than just talking to her via text or phone calls.

she could be doing the most mundane thing and he would think to himself, ‘fuck, she’s beautiful.’

it was embarrassing and he refused to acknowledge it because no, he didn’t have a crush. that was absurd. zelda deserved better, anyway, and she probably didn’t even like him in that way.

most of the time, he was back by dinner ( because he was the one who usually had to make it ) and didn’t leave afterwards, but tonight he had. the dump was a favourite place of his, not only because it was solitary, but because he could find useful bits and pieces that people had otherwise deemed useless. that was where he’d been tonight, and it was also the reason he’d come home with a stuffed teddy bear. it was a little worn and its right arm was about to come off, but it was something. it wasn’t for him, anyway, so he wasn’t about to fuss over it.

sneaking upstairs, he confirmed that his mother was, indeed, out once again. not that she would wake up if she was home. she usually passed out, drunk as anything, and didn’t wake up until at least midday. he just preferred it when she wasn’t there. the house’s atmosphere seemed just that little bit lighter that way, though it was most likely his imagination. the place was as dark a dump as any other home around halloweentown.

he stopped by the door to milly’s room, pausing for a moment before opening it cautiously. he didn’t want to wake her up. he tip-toed over to where she slept and pulled her blanket to cover her properly before setting the stuffed bear down beside her, right near her head.

he assumed she was past the days of them keeping each other company when they didn’t have anyone else. she was too nice for him, and he probably deserved to be sitting in his room alone at night anyway, but hopefully the bear would be some sort of small comfort.