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(Y/N)'s P.O.V
Wind whistles and makes the leaves in the trees rustle as Jim and I make our way deeper into the woods.
Jim slides down a large tree root on his feet and turns back to me, waiting for me to do the same.
I was a little less graceful, sliding only halfway before stumbling and falling forward.
"Woah!" Jim exclaims, catching me in a warm embrace.
I smile and look up at him, kissing his chin, "thank you, my Knight."
A dorky, love-sick grin spreads on his face as he blushes, laughing a bit sheepishly.
"Knight Knight, my Knight!" Morph chatters as I pull away from Jim.
I can't help but snort with amusement at his imitation of me, my hand reaching out as my fingers lightly pet the blob. Morph coos before floating closer, nudging into my cheek as I giggle and we continue on.
Jim looks around in awe, and I rub my neck, processing everything that had happened. My eyes dart to Jim, and I notice he was frowning deeply, staring at the ground as he lightly kicks at a few rocks. After a moment of silence, I speak.
"Hey... Are you okay?" I quietly ask, making him look back down at me.
He doesn't reply for a moment and I panic momentarily. I open my mouth to say something, but Jim smiles sadly and walks over, bringing me into a tight hug.
"That doesn't matter to me right now," he hugs me closer, "what matters to me is keeping you safe."
"But I know that Silver... I mean, you two..." I trail off, shaking my head. "We were all... close. It's okay to be upset."
"Yeah..." Jim clears his throat, pulling away and sighing.
"Hey... Jim?" I softly call, making him look over to me. "You know... I'm still here."
His frown curls up into a loving smile, his eyes shining in adoration.
"Yeah... You are... You always have been," Jim lightly chuckles.
He walks over to me and kisses me, making me smile softly into the kiss.
He slowly pulls away and rubs his neck, blushing a bit. "We should... Uh, keep moving. We need a safer spot for Delbert to look after Amelia."
I nod and we continue onward.
"Do you think Delbert likes Amelia?" I question, making him look back at me as he continues walking.
"I haven't really thought about it. Been too focused on you and wondering how the heck I was gonna confess," Jim grins as I blush.
"You should've told me sooner, dummy," I tease, making him roll his eyes with a grin.
"I tried! Believe me, everyone just always interrupted or got in the way!" Jim defends with wide eyes as I snort. "It was seriously so. Annoying!"
I fall into a laughing fit as he grumbles with embarrassment, pouting lightly. I laugh for a bit longer, but I stop laughing when I suddenly hear a mechanical whirring sound, and bushes rustling near us.
Morph lets out a soft whine and Jim stops, hearing the bushes. Jim shushes Morph comfortingly and slowly grabs his pistol, powering it on as he slowly approaches the brush.
"Jim... Be careful," I whisper and he nods while throwing me a reassuring smile, slowly creeping towards the bush as I follow next to him closely.
Jim peeks inside the bush, when suddenly--
"Aah!" Someone suddenly pops out in front of me.
"Aah!" I shriek back, tackled by the person.
"(Y/N)!" Jim shouts, spinning around in alarm.
"Oh, this is fantastic!!" I look up and see a copper rusted-looking robot hovering over me. He grabs my cheeks and looks at my face with bright green eyes, beaming widely. "A carbon-based life form come to rescue me at last!"
"Huh?!" I exclaim in surprise and shock, blinking rapidly.
"Hey! Get off her!" Jim shouts, grabbing the waist of the robot with both his hands.
He tries to pull him off and the robot moves slightly, allowing me to sit up.
"I just wanna hug you and squeeze you!" The robot shouts, getting out of Jim's grip and squeezing me in a bone crushing hug. "And hold you close to me!"
"Okay, squeezing the life out of me!" I wheeze out, giving Jim a pleading look to help.
Jim quickly rushes over, his hands grabbing the robot as he grunts while trying to pull him off me.
"All right! Okay, would you just let go of her? You're crushing her!" Jim firmly says, tugging at the robot.
He nearly manages to pull the robot off, only to have him latch onto me again in a second as I wheeze once more from the force. The robot quickly lets go and backs away a few paces, looking between us with wide eyes.
"Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry!" The robot sheepishly apologizes, holding his hands up.
"It's okay," I wheeze a laugh, dusting myself off.
"No, it isn't," Jim growls with a frown, crossing his arms.
The robot wraps an arm around me and one around Jim.
"It's just I've been marooned for so long." Morph floats around as the robot speaks, and Jim raises a brow. "I mean, solitude's fine. Don't get me wrong!" The robot speaks, gesturing to Morph, who chitters happily. "But for Heaven's sakes, after a hundred years, you go a little nuts!" The robot laughs crazily, making Jim and I look at each other with concerned faces.
The robot glances at Jim, who glares down at the robot intimidatingly, and the robot sheepishly moves his arm off of me and Jim.
He backs away a few paces again, "I'm sorry. Am I..." He pauses, holding out a hand to both of us, "I am, uh..." He scrambles to find words. "My name is, uh..." He grips his head.
Morph lands on my shoulder as I stand next to Jim, turning into a smaller version of the robot and making a cuckoo bird spring out of his head, while the tune 'cuckoo! Cuckoo!' Plays.
Jim snickers and wraps an arm around my shoulder to meet Morph's head, shutting it as Morph turns back to normal with a grin.
"B.E.N! Of course! I'm Ben!" Ben suddenly shouts, making me flinch. "BioElectronic Navigator," Ben clicks his compass on his and it nearly falls out, making him slam it back into place. "Oops!"
Ben nervously laughs and turns to us.
"And you are?"
Jim bends down with his hand outstretched to pick up his dropped pistol.
"Jim," he grumbles.
Ben grabs his hand before he can grab it, shaking him wildly while I laugh.
"Oh, what a please to meet you, Jimmy!" Ben exclaims.
"It's Jim," Jim corrects as Ben lets go of him and turns to me.
"And the lovely lady is...?" Ben drags on the word 'is'.
"(Y/N)," I greet, holding out my hand.
Ben doesn't grab it, however, and hugs me tightly again while jumping around.
"(Y/N)! Wonderful to meet you both!"
I sway a bit dizzily as he sets me down, Jim setting a hand on my shoulder to steady me as he watches Ben with annoyance.
"Anyways!" Ben leans on Jim's back, making Jim push him off.
Jim sighs in irritation and grab my hand, tugging me along as he starts leading us away from Ben.
"Look, we're kind of in a hurry, okay?"
We start walking away as Jim calls over his shoulder to Ben.
"We got to find a place to hide, and there are pirates chasing us."
Ben races and leaps in our path with great speed, making Jim hold me closer.
"Oh, pirates! Don't get me started on pirates!" Jim huffs in irritation, dragging me by my waist past Ben. "I don't like them. I remember Captain Flint."
Jim and I look at each other with wide eyes before spinning around.
"This guy had such a temper!"
"Wait, wait!" I interrupt, making Ben look at me. "You knew Captain Flint?!"
"I think he suffered from mood swings, personally," Ben sits on a rock, leaning against a tree with his hands behind his head. "I'm not a therapist, and anyway, but I--" He suddenly pauses and continues, "you let me know when I'm rambling."
"But that means... Wait," Jim looks at me and grins before turning to Ben. "But then... You gotta know about the treasure?"
"Treasure?" Ben repeats and I nod.
"Yes. Flint's Trove?" I question eagerly.
"You know, the loot of a thousand worlds," Jim adds as Morph turns into a chest, opening and revealing gold.
"It's... Well-- it's..." Ben stood up, tapping his head. "It's all... A little... Little--little-- fuzzy."
"Ben?" I call as he starts glitching and malfunctioning.
"Wait! I--I r--remember!" Ben stammers, his eyes showing static before going to normal. "I do. I-- treasure!" He yells, his eyes changing and showing treasure chests. "Lots of treasure! Buried in the centroid--"
His voice becomes deeper as his eyes turn red. "Centroid--centroid!" Jim and I glance to each other, freaked out. "Of the mechanism."
Ben's eyes change back to green and become a odd triangle, opening and closing.
"And there was this big door... Opening and closing," his compass starts to nearly burst out of him. "Opening and closing! Opening and closing..." Ben shakes his head, and his eyes show Captain Flint's signature symbol before flashing to normal.
"And Captain Flint wanted to make sure nobody could ever get to his treasure... So I helped him--" Ben starts sputtering as the wires hanging out of his head start sparking. "Aah! Data inaccessible! Reboot!" Ben shrieks.
"Ben?" Jim tries to get his attention, "Ben? Ben!" Jim slaps Ben, making his head spin.
The sparks calm down, "reboot! Aah!" Ben yells, shaking his head and looking between us.
"And you are?" he suddenly questions.
I blink in confusion, "huh?"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Jim waves his arms, "what about the treasure?!"
"I want to say Larry... And this lovely lady must be... (Random name)!" Ben casually replies.
Jim shakes his head in disbelief, his eye twitching.
I stammer with confusion, "You were-- you were just talking about the--the centroid of the mechanism, or--"
Ben cuts me off, "I'm sorry. My memory isn't what it used to be."
Jim's eye twitches as he lets out an aggravated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose as I blink slowly with disbelief.
"I've lost my mind! Ha! Ha! I've lost my mind." Ben flails his arms around, "you haven't seen it, have you?"
Ben yanked Jim away from me and starts patting him down, "uh, my missing piece?"
Ben finishes patting Jim down and he turns to me, making Jim grab Ben and spin him around.
"Don't even think about it," Jim warns, and Ben simply shrugs and points to his wires.
"My Primary memory circuit?"
"Look, Ben," I interrupt, making both boys look at me while Morph rests on my shoulder. "We really, really need to find a place to hide, okay? I'm sorry, but we don't have time for this."
Jim walks over to me and wraps an arm around my waist, "so we're just gonna be... You know, moving on."
I look back as Ben starts to glance sadly at the ground.
"Oh. Uh... So... Well, then... I guess... I guess this is good-bye, huh?" Ben sighs sadly and kicks the ground.
I pause and glance over my shoulder to the robot, making Jim pause with a pointed look to me.
"No, (Y/N)."
"I'm sorry I'm so dysfunctional," Ben apologizes pitifully, slumping to the ground in despair.
I frown and look up at Jim, tilting my head innocently.
"Nope," Jim shakes his head, making me pout.
"But, oh! Look at him!" I whisper back, crossing my arms. Morph whines with me, looking at Jim. "He looks so sad! Come on, Jim!"
"No."
"Please?!"
Jim sighs heavily and looks back at Ben, and back to me with furrowed brows.
"No."
I sigh and grab Jim's shirt, pulling him down to my height and placing a soft kiss on his cheek. Jim's gaze looks back down at me as I look up at him with pleading, puppy-dog eyes.
"Please?" I urge once more, Morph cooing with big eyes as well.
"No." Jim says, a little weaker this time though as his face begins to soften.
I smile and place another kiss on his cheek.
"Please?" I insist once more.
Jim sighs and stands back up to his full height, grumbling to himself.
He looks back down at me and leans down, catching my lips on his own. My heart flutters as the kiss lasts a few moments, Jim slowly pulling away with a look of defeat as he sighs heavily.
"I can't talk you out of this, can I?" Jim questions, though he didn't seem upset as he smirks with an arched brow.
"Nope," I grin, and he rolls his eyes with a smile.
Jim smiles down at me and places another kiss on my lips before turning to Ben, his smile fading.
"Look," Jim calls, making Ben look back at us. "If you're gonna come along you're gonna have to stop talking."
Ben leaps up in ecstasy, racing over to us while laughing and cheering.
"You actually convinced him!" Ben laughs in glee, hugging me and bouncing around.
"Wait, how did you hear all that?" I ask, my words jumping.
"Robotically enhanced super hearing!" Ben nonchalantly replies.
He lets go of me and leaps into Jim's arms, Jim fumbling to catch him bridal style as I let out an amused snort.
"Oh! Me and my three best buddies are lookin' for a..." Ben exclaims loudly before he trails off as Jim narrows his eyes at him.
"Being quiet," Ben whispers, pretending to lock his mouth and toss away the key before caressing Jim's face as I let out a bark of surprised laughter.
Jim scowls as he flushes with embarrassment, huffing, "And you have to stop touching us!"
"Touching and talking. That's my two big no-nos," Ben jumps from Jim's arms before turning and walking a few steps away.
Jim walks over to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder with one arm and pointing in a direction, "okay, now, I think we should--"
My arm was yanked by Ben, interrupting Jim, who glares at Ben in annoyance.
Ben quickly lets go of me, "say, listen, before we go out on our big search... Um," Ben looks at me and leans over to Jim, whispering loudly. "Do you think we can make a quick pit stop at my place? Kind of urgent!"
Ben bounces over towards some bushes and pushes them out of the way, revealing a large oval-looking house on top of a small hill.
"Ben... I think you just solved our problem," I laugh, looking over at Jim.
Jim smiles back at me, "we should go get the Captain and Delbert."
"Oh! I'll come, too! Oh this is gonna be such a lovely, fun little adventure!" Ben rambles as he runs ahead.
Jim lets out a heavy sigh, watching Ben's retreating form.
I walk over to him and grab his hand, intertwining our fingers together.
He smiles down at me and lifts up our intertwined hands, kissing the back of mine.
I smile and giggle, and we make our way back to Amelia and Delbert.
...
Another chapter! Woo!
I hope I can get another one up today, but if I can't then tomorrow for sure.
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