Chapter Text
Everyone knows it, you’ve got
ulterior motives, tell me the truth
“Wow, I thought they’d never wake you up.”
A tired groan leaves you as you slowly wake up. Strings gently tug at your wrists and neck to get you up and moving.
Can Aha be patient for one moment?
“Mm, what?”
Sampo slowly appears in your vision. In the background, you see Sparxie at her computer playing a video game. This leads you to realizing you’re currently in her room.
Sampo glances back before his eyes meet yours once more. “We put you in her room since you weren’t waking up for quite some time. If anybody’s not gonna leave their room for a while, it’s her.”
Sitting up tiredly, you rub your head at the feeling of a headache coming on.
“How long was I out?”
He glances at the clock on the wall outside of your vision. “It’s almost 11AM now.”
“Do I have anything assigned to me for today?” you sigh.
“Nope!” Sampo replies with a grin. “And guess what? I finished any business I had today. So, I’m making it up to you earlier than I thought~”
A soft chuckle leaves you. “Ah, how great for me.”
Sampo carefully helps you up, keeping a secure arm around your waist as you leave the busied Sparxie’s room.
Physical contact never bothered the two of you. It’s more like a comfort now with how often it happens-
“There’s two of my favorite people!” An overly affectionate voice sings from the lips of Sparkle down the hall. She places gusto on the words she’s plainly lying about. She might like you, but there’s been plenty of times that she has hated Sampo.
“I thought I had no jobs to do today.” you mutter under your breath to Sampo.
“Well it’s her. She doesn’t care if your day is supposed to be free.”
“What are we whispering about?” she giggles, suddenly appearing right beside you.
“You.” you reply, not even trying to lie to her of all people.
Another giggle escapes her. “Oh, of course. Now, I need you two love birds to come with me to center stage~ Chop chop!”
Just like that, she’s sprinting down the hallway like a maniac.
“Since when did she think love birds was a good title?” you question, almost to yourself.
Sampo simply shrugs before the two of you decide to just go to the stage without a fight.
Sitting on the edge of the stage while Sampo rests his back against it, Sparkle explains her plans.
“Now, we must put on a show soon to keep the public liking us. Maybe we’ll even be able to recruit some people! I was thinking, who should do the show? R/I came to mind first, knowing she’s our perfect ballerina, but the thought of her having a dance partner then crossed my mind!”
She paces slowly back and forth in front of you both. “Who to pick, who to pick? I was really searching for the name until…Ah! Sampo~ Who else would be the exemplary option of a dance partner for our dearest R/I? I mean, the chemistry! It will be outstanding on the stage~”
She raises her arms up dramatically, catching her breath like it was the ending of her act.
You and Sampo stare at her, expressionless. She stands there for a moment before her face drops into a frown.
“Okay, you gonna say something?”
You glance at each other.
“Can we check the labor laws of Fools?” you request jokingly, yet not in a playful tone at all.
She sighs, resting her forehead in her palm. “You two are such a pain in my ass…” she mutters quietly to herself, before standing up straight with a smirk.
“Sampo, any questions?”
He blinks. “Uh…I guess. What’s the act gonna be?”
“Love birds, people! Have you not been listening? I said love birds earlier, I said chemistry! Aw come on! Everybody already thinks you’re dating, might as well give them something they want.”
Everybody does in fact believe the two of you are dating. It gets annoying having to correct them all the time. You thought most people would be like Aventurine, realizing you’re a puppet and thinking Sampo is gay.
Why can’t they just ship him with that guard from Jarilo-VI? That would get them off the two of you.
You once again look at each other, expressionless. He raises an eyebrow, to which you simply shrug.
“Yeah, I guess we’ll do it.”
“Alright! Love birds on dirty dancing-”
“Woah! We didn’t agree to that.” you stop her with a worried look.
She snorts, “Calm down, it was just a joke~ Anyways, no time to fool around! We have dances to practice."
—
Every move shows it
Don’t you realize that you’re telling lies?
Remember when I said that the two of you were used to physical contact? Well, I guess you should scrap that!
For some reason, during your little Sparkle’s Dance Studio practices, Sampo kept messing up every time he had to touch you.
He’s almost dropped you five times, for pete’s sake!
It was a mix of ballet, ballroom dancing and salsa. That sounds insane, I know, but try taking the chemistry of salsa, the elegance of ballet, and the touching while dancing in unison of ballroom dancing. Wrap it up with a ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet bow calling it a love birds dance.
Why is Sparkle so stuck on it? Does she really think ‘this is what the people want’? Is she trying to make you two closer? Or is this just what she said, a performance to reassure the people that the Masked Fools are ‘just fine, toooootally not insane with malicious intentions’ while recruiting new members?
She said there’d be different acts besides the two of you. An opening one, some magic here, comedy there. Your performance together is going to be the ‘sweet, touching’ ending.
It’s all normal. All cool. She absolutely, positively, does not have ulterior motives.
Speaking of, the other Fools have been whispering and gossiping about you and Sampo the more this dance practice continues.
“Did you see how nervous he was?” “The way he holds her; That can’t be just friends~” “Ulterior motives? Coming from Sparkle? Oh no, if anyone has those it’s Sampo for sure. Have you noticed the way he looks at her?”
Oh it’s just like damn high school! Everyone talks, everyone has theories and everyone gossips. It seems nobody grows up, huh?
“And 1 and 2, and 3 and 4. Come on, catch up to my beat!” Is Sparkle doing any of this right? Who knows.
And can’t we blame Aha if you make any mistakes while dancing? Well I’d sure like to think so.
Sampo dips you so low your head almost hits the floor, before he quickly brings you back up into a spin. You lean back then get pulled back against his chest, continuing the ball room like dancing. He twirls you once more, his hand gently on your waist to steady you. You return to dancing closely, spinning together, dipping and here it comes-
He gracefully tosses you in the air before catching you again. He twirls you in his hold, his strong hands holding tightly onto your waist, before your feet return onto the ground.
Continuing the routine, the ending comes where he dips you down lowly for one last time. Paused there, your eyes closed as you catch your breath.
“Well done! Theatrics, romance, I love it!”
“This isn’t romantic.” you huff, sending a glare her way while your face is still upside down from her point of view.
“Mm, whatever you say~”
You return to standing normally, though Sampo’s eyes avoid you. And now you could've sworn you heard some Fools giggling in the hallway.
Sparkle catches the sound too. “Hey, they’re spoiling the dance for themselves! Oh when I catch them-”
She runs off out of the room, leaving you and Sampo alone.
“You did good.” he compliments as he walks off to hydrate. You follow after him, tilting your head slightly.
“Thanks. You did most of the work though, you know?”
He chuckles softly. “Yeah, thank you.”
You fold one of your hands over the other in front of you, standing almost…awkwardly?
"People's words aren’t getting to you, are they?” you can’t help asking.
Your eyes get quickly distracted though by the curve of his back..
“What do you mean? Like…the shipping..?”
“Hm? O-Oh, yeah. That’s what I meant.”
“Mm, no. Why?”
Question after question. You hate this part of talking to people. Something always gets misunderstood, or awkward, or they decide communication isn’t a thing! It might sound dumb, naive, even ridiculous, but you thought you and Sampo would be different.
Perhaps you thought that since you never confronted any problems or tension between the two of you. It was easier to go by everyday like the last, just friends who had each other's backs no matter the situation.
Taking in a deep breath, you decide to just confront things. “Well, I don’t know…things feel a bit off. Like, our talking hasn’t been as easy as it was a week ago when this all started.”
He looks at you for a moment. The silence is almost deafening, and it feels like it lasts longer than the amount of time it actually takes.
“Do you…get what I mean?” you quietly ask.
He breathes in, closes his eyes and shakes his head. Why’d that feel like he just put in effort to keep his feelings to himself? He’s like every other man in this universe!
“No, I think it’s been fine.”
No he doesn’t. He does not think whatever is happening is fine. He has noticed the tension, the lessening ease of communication between the two of you. He knows he’s been avoiding touching, talking, and eye contact more and more.
Something in you just bursts. He’s like every other man. Every man keeps their feelings to themselves. Every man avoids communication. Every man decides that even if he’s deeply in love with you, he’ll still shrug you off like a tic on his shoulder and act too cool to talk to you because they never want to confront you and have the potential of getting rejected.
Aha is feeling this too, I guess. Oh, they must be fuming! What’s funny about men and their stupid, idiotic tendencies!?
You bite your lip as you feel tears burning in your eyes. The water brimming to escape makes your vision blurry, but he doesn’t see it, because he’s currently avoiding this.
You turn away and run out of the room, escaping to your own solitude in your abode.
You don’t turn back to see Sampo run after you to the door. You don’t turn back to see the furrow of his brows, the frown on his lips. You don’t turn around to see him stopping at the door, figuring he should leave you be.
You slam your door shut behind you. You didn’t mean to, but who cares?
Sobbing into your pillow, your mind is so full you can’t even think. You don’t think about how this is the strongest emotion you’ve felt since becoming a marionette, you don’t think about how stupid this whole situation is.
Is it stupid to cry over this?
Well, as a professional cry baby, no, it’s not. Some emotions need to be felt.