“Hotel is too expensive, Shadow Mind, I told you this,” Shadow Queen hisses, looking up at the red walkway that they have to walk across to get to their rooms. “A-And you want me to walk across that? Did you know that we could like… fall? Or something.”

“Are you scared?” Shadow Mind raises an eyebrow and chuckles quietly.

“And you bought four different rooms. I told you, we didn’t need this for-“ Shadow Queen starts, but Shadow Mind pulls her close and shushes her, kissing her forehead.

“I promise you’ll love it,” he says.

She pouts, “This is royal bullshit.”

.•.•.•.•.•.•.•

“This building?” Kallian pushes back her hair shyly. The airport was no fun, too many people. Cannibal steers the rental car slowly, as if it might suddenly have a mind of it’s own.

“I mean- well yeah, I guess.” Cannibal sighs and pulls the key from the ignition, slowly turning to face FluffyFrog and Kallian who sit in the back. “Who paid for this anyways?”

“I heard it was a surprise,” FluffyFrog wiggles her eyebrows and laughs, turning to the window. “Room eight-oh-five,” she whispers.

“Should we get the bags now? Or-“ Kallian motions to her single bag, laying snug against FluffyFrog’s billions of colorful bags. Cannibal’s black duffel sits in the passenger seat, he wouldn’t let anyone touch it for loading.

“I say get them now. I just HAVE to know who bought us those rooms! I’m sure they wait at the top! Let’s go! Hurry, hurry,” FluffyFrog squeals, latching onto Cannibal’s arm.

“Alright, alright,” Cannibal peels her off, they all get out and start up the small staircase into the lobby.

“Excuse me? Can you point us in the direction of rooms eight-oh-five, nine and ten?” Kallian asks a small woman behind the counter.

.•.•.•.•.•.•.•

“Not even telling me what we’re here for,” Shadow Queen props her feet up noisily, her thick black boots thumping against the white marble table. “Why can’t you tell me?”

Shadow Mind glances up from his phone, “Babe, would you just calm down?” He looks back at the phone, scrolling slowly, “I’ll tell you in a minute.”

“You know what?” Queen says angrily, grabbing a granola bar from the counter and examining it. Shadow Mind looks up again as she slowly opens it and smells it, her train of thought lost suddenly. Her short attention span giving out. He laughs, shaking his head.

“What the fuck. The hell is this? Made out of carrots? Where’s the oats?” Shadow Queen says.

Shadow Mind stands up, walks over and snatches the bar from Queen.

“Gimmieeeee,” Queen growls, smiling.

Shadow Mind shakes his head as Queen starts to jump for it. He jerks away, pulling her on top of him as he falls back on the bed, then pops half the bar into his mouth, the other half sticking out.

Queen shrieks playfully, pulling it out of his mouth and throwing it across the room as he chews one half and grins. Shadow Mind smacks his lips, expressing how the bar tastes. Queen grabs the sides of his face and tugs on his cheeks playfully as he swallows the bar and pulls Queen down, kissing her.

“Tasty?” He asks, grinning harder.

“Yummy,” Queens grins back. “Not that bad.”

He kisses her again as girl voices start to drift towards their room.

“That must be them,” Shadow Mind stands, pushing Queen off.

“Wait,” she grabs him by the collar pulling him back down to the bed. “Who? ‘Cus those sound like girls. And if you paid for a girl’s room-“

He kisses her again and she melts, letting go of him. “Hey, hey, wait!” Queen calls as he bolts from her grasp, out of the room and to the next door in the hallway.

.•.•.•.•.•.•.•

“Food can go here, clothes here, and- WAIT! Should we go shopping?” FluffyFrog examines the room. Kallian blinks as Cannibal hugs his duffel, sinking to a small chair.

“I think we should go back home,” Cannibal mumbles as someone knocks on the door. They all jump- except for Cannibal, who narrows his cloudy eyes. “I told you.”

FluffyFrog walks to the door, slowly opening it. She sees Shadow Mind and squeals, throwing her arms around him and asking him how he’s been.

Like a dark shadow, Queen appears behind Shadow Mind, the whole room is suddenly sullen upon her entrance. FluffyFrog drops her arms and laughs nervously, trying to lighten the mood.

“Hey, guys,” Shadow Mind ignores the shift of mood in the room, since he’s use to how people respond to his insane girlfriend who doesn’t know how to act around people.

Shadow Queen smiles, something she doesn’t do often, causing her to look like she’s planning to slide out from under your bed with her twin knives drawn. Shadow Mind pulls her close into his hoodie and gives her a noogie.

“I bought the rooms. I know that you all are very… festive when it comes to Christmas. So I booked a place that best mimicked it. I hoped maybe we could go shopping or…” he shrugs, pushing his hair out of his face.

Shadow Queen watches the girls in the room like a hawk after prey, her smile still there. She doesn’t blink, her mismatched eyes visible in the bright room. Cannibal looks grossed out by people in general and keeps licking his lips. Kallian picks at her nails gently, ignoring everyone while FluffyFrog looks like she might want to bolt.

“Queen,” Shadow Mind smiles sweetly, “could you go and grab my phone? I left it on the bed.”

Shadow Queen exits. Shadow Mind watches her go, feeling the weight lift and the people within finally breathe.

Hurriedly, he turns to them all, “I want to propose. I don’t know what I’m doing. I need your help. Christmas is hard for her, I want to start something, give her something to look forward to in the coming years… will you help me? Please?”