Chapter Text
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going now?”
“nah. call it a trust exercise.”
You glance over at the skeleton kicked back in the passenger’s seat of your car, his sneakers propped up on the dashboard of your car. With Axe’s arms behind his head, the seat leaned way back, and his eyesockets closed, you didn’t actually expect him to answer you; you thought him to be asleep.
“I dunnnooo. I’ve been driving for like... two hours now.”
“mmmhm.”
“And I still don’t know where this date spot is.”
He smirks. “your point?”
“You’re enjoying this,” you observe with a laugh, “but I need to know how much further we’re going. You know, so I can get gas if I need to.” Your tank isn’t even halfway empty, but it’s still a valid concern.
Axe finally opens his eyes and tries to catch a glance of your gas gauge, which you immediately cover with your hand. “Uh-uh, you gotta tell me!”
“and ruin the surprise? pfft.” He waves a hand, calling your bluff, but ultimately concedes. “we’re close. go three more exits down and take a right. i’ll direct ya from there.”
You nod and he sits up, yet still looks more relaxed than you’ve seen him in a while. The talk on New Years Day really helped set things straight between the two of you, and true to your word, you took him up on his date offer afterward. You suspect his ease has to do with the fact that you’re driving so far away from the lodge — and the potential meddling from the others. At this point, the skeletons don’t think Axe is going to snap and kill you. They were a bit concerned on New Years, but after you stood your ground and came out unscathed, they realized that you can handle yourself.
Or, more likely, they realized it was a waste of breath to try to control who you spend your time with.
You choose to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe it’s the former.
Axe refused to give you details about the date, so you’re dressed casually, in comfortable clothes that you like. As usual, Axe is wearing the galaxy-print hoodie and slouch beanie you gave him, though the shirt beneath the hoodie is new and unstained.
He gives you directions at the last second, and you almost miss your turn several times, which only makes him grin. It would be annoying if he didn’t seem so relaxed. You’re relieved that there isn’t any lingering tension between the two of you, especially since you haven’t been alone with him since the argument.
“annnnd right there.” Axe points out a restaurant at your next turn. “that’s it. we’re here.”
“I was expecting an all-you-can eat buffet, honestly.”
“glad to meet those expectations, kiddo.”
Axe grins from across the table as you survey the date spot. You were half-joking about the buffet; you never know what to expect from Axe. He could have directed you to the most expensive restaurant of your life and you wouldn’t have been entirely surprised.
This, however... was never on your radar.
“I mean it is all-you-can-eat, but the food comes to you. That does seem more your style,” you tease.
You’re at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where a belt snakes through the restaurant, coming directly beside your table. Numerous dishes are on the belt, making their way throughout the establishment, each with different colored plates. Normally, the plates denote different costs, but in this particular restaurant, they seem to correspond with the different types of magic with which they’re infused.
It reminds you of the restaurant you went to with Stretch and Red, The Magic Touch— as well as that time that the three of you started glowing in the cinema at the end of your movie. You never did figure out what happened to the family in the haunted house, now that you thought about it...
“the less effort, the better. but i also knew ya liked magic food and sushi.”
You press a hand against your chest. “You know me so well. And that I wanna try everything!”
A waitress comes over to take your drink order, and you go with a simple Sea Tea, while Axe orders Ghost Fruit sake. After being so hungover and upset a week ago, you had decided against alcohol for a while... but you’re so curious.
“Okay, what in the world is Ghost Fruit?”
Axe catches your torn, longing look and chuckles. “a monster thing. kinda... nostalgic. wanna try a sip?”
“Just a sip.” You reach for the cup, but Axe holds it out toward your face. You’re on a date, so you shrug and decide to indulge him by leaning forward and letting him tilt the cup toward your lips. You take a sip and then scrunch your face up. You were expecting it to be sweet, but it’s dry, with a bitter undertone that doesn’t go well with the flavor.
A sudden wave of regret washes over you, so intense that you feel your eyes begin to water.
“shit,” Axe mutters, examining the sake. He quickly takes a sip, but his expression isn't phased. “yep, s’what i thought. we got one with regrets.”
“Why would anyone want to drink that?” you demand, blinking back moisture and trying to shake yourself out of it. The regret is foreign and forced; it’s definitely not yours. You wash away the bitter taste with your Sea Tea, and thankfully, the feeling abates. Did you just drink ghost memories? Or fruit grown by a ghost? Fruit that’s become a ghost? Can a ghost fruit have regrets? You have so many questions! “What even was that?”
“ghost fruit is monster fruit that’s become a ghost, essentially.”
“Did we just drink a ghost, then, or..?”
“you’re not gonna ghost me if i say yeah, are ya?”
You level him with a flat look, and he chuckles. “don’t worry, kiddo, it’s nothing like that. it’s the same as eating normal fruit, only you get an experience with the flavor.” He shrugs. “you never know what you’re gonna get. these don’t really bother me though. i don’t mind the bitter taste.”
Somehow, you wonder if his own regrets outweigh the ones you felt from that sip. Is that why it doesn’t bother him? Because he’s used to feeling that way?
That thought makes you feel worse, and drinking Sea Tea doesn’t wash it away. So, you reach for the first yellow plate that comes by your table and snag it from the conveyor belt. It’s a simple tamago, and the way the magic fizzles on your tongue gives the fluffy egg a neat texture. Axe quirks a bone brow as you help yourself, and he grabs a light blue plate with what appears to be grilled eel.
“you’re not concerned about the magic effects?”
You shake your head. “Nah, yellow is pretty much luck, right?”
“well, it enhances luck based on what you normally have.”
You point a chopstick toward his plate. “And you went for something with a delayed effect.”
“as long as it’s not mixed with any other magic, it shouldn’t really do anything, other than make you relax a little. it’s a boring magic.”
“But I’ve heard patience is a virtue.”
“heh, i’ve met plenty of monsters without any virtue then.” He eats the sushi in one bite, then plucks another light blue plate from the belt. “but i like to think i’ve been pretty patient about certain things.”
He’s talking about waiting for this date to happen, you realize. Of all the skeletons, he was the first to make his feelings known — as well as the first monster you ever kissed. It had been something you thought about for months after. Although he’d been trying to make a point and lay a claim in front of your lodgemates, there had been passion when he dipped you back.
You’d never had that kind of passion before; your ex had never literally swept you off your feet.
Even so, it was because of your ex that you had been so hesitant to go on a date with Axe. And the fact that he didn’t live with you put him at a disadvantage; he missed out on the little moments of watching movies together and playing video games, unless he came to visit at the lodge or you went for dinner at his house. And even then, there was limited alone time.
You should have given his feelings more consideration. You know you’re not responsible for anyone else’s feelings, but you also shouldn’t have left him hanging after he was so open about them.
“I’m sorry we didn’t do this sooner,” you say, while Axe plucks another eel plate from the belt and pushes it toward you.
“eat this and relax. i ain’t tryin’ to guilt you, kiddo. you’ve got plenty of patience, too, dealing with some many different personalities all the time.”
You don’t think that’s anything particularly special; if anything, all of those personalities have only helped you grow. “I know you’re not trying to guilt me.” As you eat the eel, you feel more serene. It compliments the relaxing effect of the Sea Tea incredibly well.
“Oh man, this is perfect,” you blurt, changing the subject. “We’ve gotta try everything here. How about this one?” You take a purple plate with a crab stick on it, but Axe shakes his head and grabs a mackerel on a dark blue plate instead.
“purple isn’t really my kinda magic.”
You can vaguely recall the effects of the perseverance magic. It was... encouraging, wasn’t it? Shrugging a little, you pop the crab stick into your mouth and enjoy the tingle of magic across your tongue. It feels so nice and really makes the flavor feel vibrant.
Speaking of vibrant, you notice the colors around you suddenly becoming brighter. Your vision feels focused, and just like before, words of encouragement seem to line the tablecloth and walls.
You can do it! Everything is okay! You’ve got this!”
When you glance up, MERCY flashes above Axe’s head, but when you blink, it’s gone.
“But it feels like purple would suit you,” you can’t help but muse aloud, to which Axe quirks a bony brow. “You persevered in a timeline that’s even more bleak than Red’s or Blackberry’s.”
Axe’s fingers drum against the table, and you swear that you can barely make out the word SPARE beside his skull before it quickly disappears. The magic’s effect seems to be wearing off already.
“i didn’t have a choice,” he mutters, before quickly stuffing seaweed salad from a green plate into his mouth. Green, you remember, is healing magic. You know from Red that Axe’s wounds have long-since healed, so it won’t do much more than relieve minor pains, but you take the hint and snag one to try for yourself.
“You still did,” you point out softly, before scooping up some of the marinated seaweed with your chopsticks. It’s delicious and mild, and you can immediately feel the aches from your legs (driving for a couple of hours made you sore) melt away. “Why didn’t they have this during New Years? This would’ve been great for a hangover. Hell, why doesn’t anyone have this on standby at the lodge?”
“guess it’s not as common in stores. i haven’t seen any locally. humans probably wouldn’t trust it as something more than a novelty, anyway.”
He has a point... but still. You’re going to have to look into ordering some green-magic infused food to keep around from now on.
At this point, the only color dish you haven’t tried is orange and dark blue. You already know dark blue is gravity magic, and as much as you enjoy floating, you decide not to do it in public this time. Orange, however, you haven’t tried, but... it’s a color you remember well from the hot springs.
Orange represents bravery, but the hot springs had an effect that forced you to be truthful. If you ate something on the orange plate, would it force you to start speaking your mind here?
While things aren’t tense between you and Axe right now, they still feel a little tenuous after everything with Edge, and you don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize that. You just want to have a good time on the date, and you can tell that Axe really thought about what you would enjoy. This place is definitely his style, and he knows that the magical side of monsters has always fascinated you.
Axe, however, picks an orange plate with baby octopus on it, and plops it directly into his mouth. “ah... i always liked the pop of the head. like a cherry tomato. you humans are pretty demented for making that food, ya’know?” He grins, and you can’t help but shudder.
“Uggghh, do not give me that mental image.”
“aw, c’mon. you don’t wanna try it?”
“I’m, uh... staying away from orange magic for a while, thanks.”
Axe seems confused at first, but then his expression shifts, that grin tightening. “ah. yeah, i remember now. don’t blame ya there, kiddo. i wouldn’t wanna take a dip in the truth spring, either.”
Even so, he takes another orange plate, this one with squid on it, and devours it immediately.
“Well?” you prompt, gesturing toward the plate. “What does it do? Is it truth serum?”
“oh, absolutely. ya gonna grill me for my most intimate secrets now?”
“Maybe,” you drawl, drawing out the word. There’s plenty you want to know about Axe — from his timeline, to his feelings — but not while he’s being forced to tell you. So, you make something up. “What’s your favorite kind of music?”
Axe starts laughing. “oh yeah, now you’re really peerin’ into my SOUL. anything with the trombone, ‘course.” His grin relaxes into one that’s more shit-eating.
“I thought you were supposed to be honest,” you accuse, and he chuckles again.
“who says ‘m not? it’ll really eat at me if ya don’t believe me.”
“Mmhmm.” Didn’t Sans say he could play the trombone? So maybe it’s not a lie.
“classical is more of an actual answer. piano music, something chill and lowkey.”
“What about LoFi? That’s usually pretty chill.”
“no clue what that is.”
“I’ll send a youtube playlist your way later or something.” The conversation veers into music and some of your favorite artists — none of whom he’s ever heard of, unsurprisingly. He does put their names in his phone so he can look them up later, however.
Once you’re finished eating, you glance at your phone. It’s in the later part of the afternoon, and you still have to drive at least two hours back to the lodge, but it seems like a shame to only come all this way for the magical sushi... unless he was deliberately trying to avoid having the others snoop on the date.
“Is there anywhere else you wanted to go before we head back?”
“actually, yeah. i had one other spot planned out.”
As you head to the exit, you notice Axe snag one more piece of sushi from an orange plate and nonchalantly pop it into his mouth.
“Holy crap, those koi fish are huge!”
“doesn’t it make ya feel guilty after having sushi?”
“A little, but I mean... I didn’t eat koi.”
Axe watches as you flash him a bright smile, your gaze lit up at the sight of the fish swimming through the pseudo-river that cut throughout the park. Just as he’d hoped, the chill from the cold coming off the water was enough to deter people from congregating here, making it a relatively-secluded date spot.
“i think you’re being koi with me.”
“Ha,” you reply, waving a hand as you turn to inspect a metal machine on a pole. “Oh! It’s fish food! We can feed the fish, and then maybe they’ll forgive us for the sushi.” With a light laugh, you dig through your coat pockets for a coin, and then slip it into the dispenser. With the turn of a handle, little brown pellets fall into your cupped palm.
You hold your hand out toward him. “Wanna feed them with me, Sans?”
Stars, how he loves it when you call him by his actual name. Axe, Horrorshow bro, crack head — they’re fitting monikers, sure, but... whenever you say his name, he feels as if he is Sans, and not just some screwed up version of him from a failed timeline.
It grounds him.
“nah, it’s all yours, kiddo,” he replies, and he’s rewarded with another brilliant smile as you crouch down to sprinkle a few pelts onto the water. The koi eagerly swim to the surface, gulping down the food. Lightly laughing, you toss a few more bits in, trying to make sure all of the fish that are eagerly surfacing get their fill.
You’ve always been like that — at least as long as he’s known you. You’ve always tried to make sure everyone felt included. Axe may be missing an eyelight, but he isn’t blind; he knows you sometimes stretch yourself thin while you’re trying to accommodate everyone. That’s why you’re on this date now, instead of going on one with Edge first. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
He watched as you grew closer to the others, as they bragged about their dates, their kisses. He had been the first to think of you as someone special, as someone that came around once in a timeline. You weren’t scared of him; on the contrary, you probably trusted him more when you found out that he and Sans are the same person up to a point.
Axe could never be his vanilla self again; he knew that. He hated that version of himself, of what he once was. He was a coward for not stopping Paps’ treatment, for not saving everyone; he was too slow to crack the problem with the CORE, and he let something as inconsequential as a promise doom the entire Underground.
a promise? what was the promise again?
.... don’t forget?
no, that feels different.
don’t promise...?
“Okay! That’s all the food you get, fishies! I’m all outta spare change!” You turn back to Axe, and he forces his expression to relax, offering his hand.
“wanna take a walk?”
“I’d love to.”
Your fingers slip into his hand without flinching over the fact that you’re holding onto bone. He knows it has to feel different from when you held hands with your ex. His hand isn’t particularly warm, but yours is, and he squeezes it as his phalanges lace with your fingers.
Humans are always soft and warm. That’s one of the reasons why he took a few home. Well, that, and he wanted to piss off the others and make them freak out. Plus, he didn’t hide the fact that his name was Sans, so if it happened to make things more difficult for vanilla, that was the cherry on top.
Something as simple as holding hands with you while the two of you walked around the water felt completely different than anything he did with any of the other humans, however. The warmth seeped all the way into his bones and straight to his damaged SOUL. And when you entwined your arm with his, pushing your side into his jacket for warmth, he felt... so much lighter.
Being with you made things more bearable.
“I never did thank you properly.”
That snaps him from his introspection. “thank me for what?”
You glance over, locking eyes with him. You’ve never shied away from his engorged eyelight.
if you knew what it was, would that change?
“For... well, the Undyne situation. You could’ve freaked out and hurt her or blown everyone’s cover. I know you hate her, and that it took an incredible amount of restraint. But, you played along.”
There’s a question in that statement; even with the head injury, he can still pick up on that. You want to know more about what happened, but you never really press him for details.
“yeah, i wanted to skewer her. she wouldn’t have been expecting it, and she didn’t have her lackeys or armor, so i could’ve dusted her. and it would’ve felt great.”
The way you’re looking at him now means that you remember him insisting that that Undyne is the same as the one that he ends up hating, that she has the same capacity to lose her shit. The only difference is that the human decided to be kind this time.
what fickle bullshit.
“But you didn’t.”
Ah, there’s the question. Why didn’t he? Are you not asking him directly because of the orange magic? He was lying in the restaurant; that sushi hadn’t been laced with truth serum. No, all it did was bolster someone’s courage.
And he felt like he was going to need it to talk to you about his past.
“nah. the last thing i wanted to do was pretend to be the sans she knows. but eh.” He sucks in a breath, and you squeeze his hand. “you needed me to do it. you asked.”
He pauses, his gaze shifting to the koi swimming alongside the two of you.
“and i didn’t want to let you down.”
You bump your shoulder into his, drawing back his attention. “I’m glad you didn’t do it. Papyrus would’ve been devastated. I know... I know she hurts him in your timeline...”
There’s a question there again, but you don’t seem to know how to ask it. “you don’t gotta walk on eggshells with me. if you wanna know something, just ask.”
“What did she do? Why do you hate her so much?”
It’s not something Axe wants to talk about, but he already knows so much about your past after coming face-to-face with your ex. It’s unfair for it to be too one-sided, and he feels as if you’re asking because you want to understand him better, not to satiate your own morbid curiosity.
“undick abused paps whenever she was frustrated, and well... she tried to have me killed.”
Ever since then, his memories had been hazy; they ran together and overlapped. Memories from reset timelines wormed their way into the fractured memories of the present.
“Why did she want to have you killed?”
His smile faded slightly. Why did she? She had wanted something.
SANS!! People are DYING and WHAT are you DOING ABOUT IT?!
He had been trying to complete something... blueprints... then something that could save them...
“she was impatient. i was trying to help, but my calculations were taking longer than expected. i was almost done, but...” He shrugs, running his hand along the top of his beanie, where his skull is cracked open.
He was once a scientist of sorts; he could run complicated equations through his head and work with symbols that no one else (almost no one else? wasn’t there someone that taught me...?) knew how to decipher. It felt as if he had been on the verge of something big. He had missed meetings with Undyne, pulling all-nighters as he frantically ran the numbers, scribbling all over blueprints plastered to the walls of his basement.
After his injury, however, all of that knowledge was scrambled; the calculations meant nothing to him. He promptly ripped all of that down, destroying months of hard work in an instant. What little hope there had been turned to apathy.
“i can’t remember any of that shit now. so she doomed all of us. but ya’know, an eye for an eye and all that.” He grins, his fingers sliding down from his head to curl inside his unlit socket. He’d injured Undyne in the struggle, too, and then...
Well, the memories get hazy again. Something about Alphys, but everytime he started to remember, it just overlapped with memories of them in the Lab, years before any of that happened.
“Sans.”
You’ve stopped walking, and you tug his hand, forcing him to stop and turn toward you. Your free hand touches his cheek, cradling it in that same way that you did when he first met you.
You hadn’t been afraid to touch him; no, there had been such sympathy in your gaze then that your eyes had been glassy. They look the same now, but you’re not pitying him. He knows you’re not.
Sans... What happened to you? you had asked years ago.
None of the others had asked what he — what all of the monsters Underground — had been forced to endure.
“I’m so sorry you went through that. I know you trusted her, and so did Papyrus. And then you had to smile and pretend when you saw her here...”
His cheek is tinged a light blue again as he tilts it toward your palm, unconsciously seeking more of your warmth. The effect was better than any orange magic. “i’d do it again, for you. and for paps and vanilla’s papyrus, too. after everything happened, i didn’t give a shit about tryin’ to find a solution anymore. i couldn’t remember how to help. i didn’t stop paps from doing his puzzles — i encouraged them, and his special spaghetti. i couldn’t help grillbz, either. i was just waiting for the end, i guess. or to see how things could possibly get shittier.”
Axe finally tilts his head away from your hand, beginning to walk again. It’s easier to talk about the past while his body’s moving; it makes him focus on it a little less. You follow along, still holding firmly to his hand, providing a sounding board for his thoughts.
“and then we came here. and i was bitter about this happy timeline. bitter that they wanted us to go back. fuck that, i didn’t want to be told by some other version of me what i should do, how i should hide. they treated us like we were insane, and... eh. compared to the vanillas, we are.”
wanna have a head dog?!
HUMAN! YOU’RE LOOKING AWFULLY THIN! IF YOU MAKE IT THROUGH THIS PUZZLE, YOU CAN BECOME MY SPECIAL SPAGHETTI! I — I MEANT HAVE! HAVE MY SPECIAL SPAGHETTI! NYEH HEH!
The man-made river goes through a tunnel, lit up by color-changing lights. The sun is beginning to set, bringing forth an even chillier wind through the tunnel, and you hold tighter to his arm to brace against the cold. All he can focus on is how warm your skin was, and how the wind has caught one of your wayward hairs to tickle his cheek.
“and then i met you. and you didn’t look at me — at us — like that. you tried to understand things from our perspective and didn’t judge us for it. you’ve been patient, and kind, and paps loves the devil outta you.”
and he’s not the only one.
Axe finally stops just after the tunnel, where the water pours into a large fountain that’s spurting high into the air, lit by the same lights that are in the tunnel. As he turns back to you, he can see the dancing water reflected in your gaze, the lights highlighting your features.
you look so beautiful. it’s hard to believe someone like you exists.
“i said i wanna be your everything, and i meant it. but i get why that can’t happen yet. i’m not gonna pressure you into changing anything. i just want you to know you’re important to me, and i don’t plan on goin’ anywhere.”
Your expression changes, and your lips part ever so slightly, as if you’re going to say something. He’s been dominating the conversation, so he remains silent, waiting for you to find your words. Disappointingly, you let go of his hand — he’s holding on so tight that you have to straighten your fingers all the way to get him to realize he needs to let go — and he suddenly thinks he said something wrong. Automatically, he begins combing through his declaration, trying to figure out how he mixed up his words or how he might have offended or hurt you.
And then you loop both of your arms around his neck. Your gaze is as unflinchingly locked with his as ever, but for someone that used to pride himself on being an excellent judge, he can’t read your expression. His teeth part a little, a query building in the back of his throat, but you cut him off.
You cut him off by leaning in, your arms tightening around him to draw him closer —
closer —
— until your lips are pressed against his teeth.
All of the concern he had drains from him in that instant. You’ve kissed him. You’re kissing him. For the first time since he dipped you back years ago to make his intent crystal clear to everyone in the room — including you — he can feel the warmth of your lips pressed to his mouth.
He doesn’t close his eyes; you’re so close, that he can only make out the colors of the fountain flitting across your skin. He does melt into your touch, however, his own arms slowly coming up to wrap around your body, pulling you flush against his chest. The kiss is chaste at first, as simple as the one that he planted on you when he first wanted to make you his. However, it’s been so long now that his feelings have only solidified since then. What was once a fascination, a sense of respect, and a crush, is now full-blown love.
And he wants more.
His tongue slides past your lips, tangling with yours in a way that surely makes your mouth tingle with magic. Axe can feel your heart thundering against his chest, and he angles his head to make the kiss more firm, to feel as much of your skin as possible. You taste of Sea Tea, sweet and relaxing, and he can’t get enough. Kissing a skeleton doesn’t put you off, but he tries not to dwell on the fact that you’re experienced with skeleton kisses. He’s not going to sour the moment; no, he’s going to live in it, to sear this memory into his mind so well that it’ll never become jumbled with the rest.
Your fingers grip onto his galaxy print jacket, while one hand dips beneath the edge of his beanie, grazing the base of his skull. His SOUL is thrumming through his body, making all of his senses feel heightened. He’s acutely aware of your heart rapidly beating against his chest, of the way your flesh is so soft and squishy compared to his bones. The fountain spraying high into the air behind you should be loud, but it seems more like white noise. The mist from it feels colder than usual on the wind, compared to how heated his body’s become.
He doesn’t want to forget a single detail.
Your fingernails rake across the back of his neck, sending shivers down his spine that grants a new intensity to the kiss. One of his arms drops lower, pushing aside your jacket to settle on the curve of your hip where your shirt meets your pants.
A few moments more, and you finally pull back for air. Your face is flushed, even in the darkness, and your smile seems almost shy.
“You’re important to me, too, Sans,” you murmur, your voice sounding thick, nearly caught in your throat. You clear it, while reaching up to gingerly cup his cheek again. “I want you to know that. I’m sorry I don’t always show it, but—”
He cuts you off, pulling back to cradle your face in both of his hands. “hey, no apologies. you don’t have anything to be sorry about. you do show it, i’m just a greedy bastard sometimes.”
Your smile twists, becoming wry. “You’re not. It’s—”
“shhh. leave it at that, kiddo.”
You nod, your expression relaxing. “I know we should be heading home soon, but you wanna sit down first?”
“oh? did that kiss make your knees weak?” Axe grins, and you nudge his ribs with your elbow as he leads you to sit down beneath the fountain.
“Yes, as a matter of fact. It was a really good one.”
“good enough to make you misty-eyed?” he quips, tilting his skull toward the mist rolling toward you from the fountain. It’s cold, but you both don’t mind the opportunity to cool down right now.
“Ha.”
“that deserved more than that dry laugh.”
“Should it have been a wet one?” You quirk a brow, and he chooses not to say the inappropriate pun that comes to mind, his smile becoming more shit-eating than usual.
“ha.”
“Pity laughs suck.”
He chuckles in earnest like that, and you can’t help but laugh. Axe is in such a good mood right now that all of his tension has dissolved; he didn’t even mind talking about the past since it was you that was listening.
if this ain’t love, i don’t know what is.
Without reservation, he reaches over and entwines his fingers with yours, earning him another bright smile. Your face is still a little flushed, but he still can’t help but decide to press his luck.
“so... while we’re resting before heading back... wanna kiss again?”
“Hmmm...” Momentarily, you glance back at the fountain, pretending to think it over. When you turn back to him, you lean in close, still smiling.
Your lips just barely graze his as you whisper, “Water you waiting for?”
As he closes the gap for another kiss, Axe can’t help but thank the stars that he met someone like you.