Chapter Text
Deacon had gone to his parents house for the day because aunt Beth wanted to keep him in check. Chase promised him that he wouldn't go to a hard book so he chose one of the options Deacon has given him.
"A horse riding book,nope."
"A pirate book,nope,I get seasick."
The last option was a book that took place on an all girls summer camp. Chase had nothing better to do so he picked it up.
"Ready Silver?"
"Yes Chase, let's do it" the little girl exclaimed and then she turned into her key form.
Before he left,he took 3 chocolate bars and shoved them in his pocket,Chase has been bribing Buddy with them when he's without Deacon so he would treat him nicer. Who would have thought that the mall goth is obsessed with chocolate? Chase himself learned about it on accident when he had gone to Hansel and Gretel. Buddy had gone feral over the candies and was barely able to continue with the story.
"Pfft" even remembering it makes him laugh. He put the key in the book and went in.
Everything seemed to go smoothly according to Chase's notes (that Deacon had provided him with). Apparently the character Buddy plays has been rivals with Chases character for a long time. So imagine their shock when they learned that they had to share a cabin together. Well,the girls were shocked. Chase already knew it because of his cousins notes but even if he didn't,that was the cheesiest plot he could imagine so of course that would happen.
"This is the part where they play truth or dare so how about we make it more interesting?" Buddy offered
"Like what?" Chase asked. The question had intrigued him
"We'll play Truth or Dare like the story wants us to but we'll make our own questions" he suggested
"I thought you didn't like deviating from the story" Chase knew something was off
"To the characters we'll say what they expect us to say" Buddy continued "Don't you want to know where Silvers other siblings are?"
It was true,Chase could learn a lot about the Ex Libris playing Buddy's game. But Buddy could learn a lot about Chase too.
Then a thought hit Chase. He can just always choose dare. This way Buddy won't be able to find out who or where he is.
"Fine,I accept" the blond boy got closer to Buddy and offered to shake hands
"We should set some ground rules first" Buddy interrupted Chase "You can't only choose Dare"
Crap. He saw right through him
"Instead,if you say Dare 2 times in a row then the third time you're required to say Truth and vise versa. That also applies to me of course."
That moment Chase remembered that he still had all 3 of his chocolates. He could bribe Buddy to letting him off the hook 3 times. He knows he will accept,he loves these chocolates.
"How do I know you'll be telling the truth?" Chase knew Buddy had something up his sleeve
"You'll have to trust me. Believe it or not, I'm a man of my word" and he extended his hand in front of Chase
"Ugh,fine. But one more rule" he held his index finger up to the other boys face
Buddy looked amused "okay,what is it?"
"You can't ask the same question twice or a different variation of it" Buddy thought about for a moment and then nodded
"I'll start first" he shook his hand and they both sat down in the middle of the room. This scene was supposed to bring the 2 characters closer but to Buddy and Chase, it was interrogation time.
"Where are you hiding?" Chase asked
"Truth or Dare" Buddy said
"What?" Chase questioned
"Did you already forget what game we are playing?" Buddy was clearly enjoying this
"Ugh,fine. Truth or Dare?" Chase was already starting to get pissed
"Truth" that was fast. Is he really planning on giving him information that easily?
"Where are you hiding?" Chase asked again
"The Ex Libris headquarters are in a place concealed with magic,I don't know it's location. I use a summoning spell and it takes me there" he didn't even hesitate. Was it really the truth?
"My turn"
"Truth or Dare?"
Chase needs to be smart about his choice. God knows what Buddy will make him do if he chooses dare. "Truth"
Buddy looked a bit unhappy he chose truth but then he grinned.
"What's your name?"
Crap. Chase is a bad liar. He knows he is and Buddy has been able to tell when he's lying the past couple of stories
"Chase" he sighed. It's okay. Chase isn't even his actual name. It's Charlie,so this is okay. He can't find him with this information alone
"Your full name" Buddy glared at him.
"You didn't specify,and I already answered so you can't ask it again" Chase smirked at the dark haired boy across from him,he didn't look happy.
"My turn!" Chase said enthusiastically. "Truth or Dare?"
"Dare" Buddy said
"I want you to give me Violet" Chase said without hesitation. Buddy grinned. Oh god,why is he grinning?
Buddy leaned in very close to Chase,so close he could clearly see every eyelash on his eyes "For me to give you Violet you'll have to meet me in the real world. Do you really want that?" He's right,if they met irl that would mean Buddy would be able to follow him back home or have backup with him. Damn it.
All the dares that came into Chases mind would require them to actually meet for the safety of the keys. He can't just mail them or hide them somewhere until Chase got to them, that's too dangerous.
"Ugh fine,do a back flip or whatever" Chase could at least enjoy his nemesis doing embarrassing things while he's at it. And it didn't disappoint,Buddy fell on his back and Chase was laughing for at least 5 minutes while Buddy looked dead on the floor
"Are you done?" the goth boy looked... flustered? Was he happy that he made Chase laugh?
"Okay, Chase~"Buddy calling him by his name was weird but not unpleasant "Truth or dare?"
"Dare"
"Do a back flip" Buddy gave him an evil smile. To his surprise tho,Chase nailed it. Those dance lessons finally paid off! The goth boy was dumbfounded.
A few rounds later Chase still haven't given any vital information but he hadn't gotten something useful either.It's like even Buddy doesn't know much about the Ex Libris.Chase only had 2 chocolate bars left because Buddy asked his irl location. Then it was Buddy's turn again.
"Truth or Dare?" He asked.
Chase had said dare the past 2 turns so he was required to pick truth this time. (He doesn't want to talk about the embarrassing things Buddy made him do)
"What's your relationship with that freckled idiot?" Buddy had gone all serious at that moment.
Chase took out a chocolate bar and slid it at Buddy's direction "I'm not answering,here"
Buddy took the chocolate and threw it back at Chase "I don't want it. I want an answer" Buddy looked at Chase with glaring bright blue eyes.
"I-I ugh" Chase didn't know what to say. He never rejected chocolate.
"Is he your brother?" Buddy asked leaning once again closer to Chase
"N-no" he was too close!
"Your friend?"
"No" Why hasn't the truth or dare part finished yet? A girl should come yelling because she can't find her roommate.
"Your boyfriend?" with every question, Buddy was leaning in closer taking Chase with him. Chase liked seeing the other boy jealous but now he was on the spot and he couldn't escape.
"cousin" Chase murmured,almost silently.
"What?" Buddy asked
"He's my cousin" Chase said louder. Buddy got off of him.
"See? It isn't that hard to answer a question" He took the chocolate that was thrown earlier and started eating it. He wasn't gonna let it go to waste.
When the goth boy looked back at his nemesis he saw a bright red blonde boy and that made him blush too.
They played a few more rounds and another chocolate was given to Buddy when Chase had had enough and bribed him to give him any useful information. It was worth it. He now knew that the Ex Libris only had 4 out of the 12 keys so that meant that there were 6 more keys out there.
"It's almost time for us to search for the missing girl so we can only play one more round" Buddy said. "And If I remember correctly you chose truth the last 2 times" his smile was devious. He was definitely planning something.
"Fine, let's get this over with and tell me what you want me to do" Chase said quickly
"Kiss me"
Chase froze,did he hear that correctly?
"W-What?" Chase stuttered. He must have misheard him somehow
"I want you to kiss me" Buddy for the third time that night was inches away from Chases face.
Blue met honey eyes. Buddy placed his palm on Chase's face and started to lean in. Chase's heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. He's never kissed a boy before, If he said that he found Buddy unattractive he would be lying. But is this really going to be his first kiss? Just a dare?
And there he is now moments away before kissing a boy he short of liked? He always thought his first kiss would be different,he thought there would be a confession first and maybe date for a while before kissing.
He pulled away out of instinct just in time when the girl started screaming about her roommate missing.
"Oh look! It's time for us to search for the missing girl!We should go!" Chase stood up and run through the door in seconds leaving Buddy behind.
* * *
After the girl was found the story was coming to the final scene where the girls would hug, leaving their rivalry behind.
Chase was across of Buddy,just like that night. The only difference is that it was daytime and they were in the open instead of their cabin.
"Well,guess we have to hug now" Chase said while looking around awkwardly
"Look,Chase" Buddy started talking. The blond boy was still not used to him calling him by his name.
Buddy continued. "I know that taking advantage of the situation wasn't a good thing on my part. Hell,I even know how much you hate those princes coming on to you without consent and I'm no better than them. It was just a moment of weakness and I promise it won't happen again. But I really did want to kiss you, that wasn't part of the game or any of my schemes" at this point, the goth boy was red.
Chase's face flushed. Buddy liked him. He actually liked him!
"You ARE better than them." Chase started talking "The fact that you even realised what you did and apologised just proves it." He got closer to the taller boy and held his hand "I wanted to kiss you too,I was just scared that you were just playing another one of your games"
The shorter boy got on his toes and kissed the taller ones cheek.
"Let's settle with this for now,okay?"
"I have to go now. We'll see each other soon in another story" with a flash of light,the blond boy was gone.
Buddy hadn't move an inch since Chase kissed his cheek,he was still in shock. A few moments later he touched the place where the other boys lips touched his skin. He smiled. Not a grin or a smirk,an actual smile.
* * *
"Chase, I'm back" Deacon slammed open Chase's bedroom door only to find his cousin on the floor facing the ground with the keys next to him.
"Is he dead?" the freckled boy asked.
"I don't know, he's been like that since he came back from the book and my sister won't tell me what happened because she's saying it's 'a private matter' that Chase wouldn't want us know" Bronze answered.
That's when Deacon noticed Silver petting his cousin's cheek while she was smiling. It doesn't look like something bad happened,and then a thought came to Deacon's mind.
"Does it have something to do with Buddy?" at that moment Chase jolted and started squealing while Silver was comforting him.
"Can you boys give me and Chase some space please?" Silver has a way of making everyone do anything she asks,is it the way she talks? The fact that she's so cute? Neither Deacon nor Bronze know,they just listened to her and left the room with Bronze on Deacons hand and closed the door.
"I feel like I made a mistake" the boy said as he started going with his key to his bedroom.