Chapter Text
A teal haired man leaned against the entrance of the fairy fort and smirked at the inside. He glanced side to side but didn't see anyone. He could wait. He wasn’t in the state to test the rumor that the fairy fort's entrance was rigged.
“Who's there!” a gruff voice called out. The guard pulled out his sword and pointed it at the intruder's figure. It was still quite early and Ren's sunglasses didn’t make it easy to make out specific people.
“Oh hello Ren, I wanted to speak with the queen” Scott pushed off the tree to look at Ren. Royal night was kind of a downgrade from what Scott remembered him as but not by much. Scott would never complain seeing Ren all defensive like this. Ren is beautiful from top to bottom and him being uptight only amplified that in Scott's eyes, but it also kinda made him want to punch the guy. It was hard to shake off feelings like that. Him and Ren were enemies and then now all that tension is just gone since Ren doesn’t remember but the hurt he caused doesn’t just vanish like memories can.
“Smajor. I can ask the queen to grace thee with her presence" Ren walked over with long, powerful strides. The grip on his axe was strong. Ren had a look in his eyes that deterred any ideas Scott had of being mischievous. He looked tired and pissed off and not like a force to be reckoned with. The full moon did not allow a restful night for someone like Ren.
“You haven’t changed a bit” Scott smirked and glanced into the fort. In his opinion it was the prettiest base but also the most flammable. Trees like to burn, especially here. He might not be the one to burn it but he had a feeling his teammate might.
Within a handful of tics the queen emerged from a tunnel in the fairy fort and walked up to the gate, her loyal knight trailing behind but not paying much attention. “Scott? What's up with you? What do I owe this pleasure?”
“I got a visit from one of your fairies. It said to come to see you, but I also heard some things from the grapevine that i wanted to chit chat about” Scott idling twirled a chunk of his cyan hair through his freshly painted yellow fingernails
Lizzie tilted her head, since when did the fairies talk to anyone else? Most of the other players scared them off by being carelessly loud but if anyone else would attract the fairies it would be Scott. “What did they say to you? And I have no clue what the grapevine would have told you about me. I am the most open and honest queen you’ll ever meet.” Lizzie put on a mock offended look and scoffed while turning her head slightly up and to the right. Looking at one of her many beautiful dark oak trees. She was being just a tab dramatic but Scott was one who she remembered appreciated that sort of flair.
“Mhm, like when you guilted Cleo out of diamonds just for us to learn you had nearly a full set of armor?” He raised an eyebrow with a smirk. Scott wasn’t one to hold grudges over things he deemed so trivial. Diamonds could be remined if he needed more but at this point in the game he didn’t really want to. Him and Cleo had enough so unless they needed them for repairs he would not be returning to the depths of the map.
“Yes, exactly like that” Lizzy smugly grinned, if Scott was upset about that he would be upfront about that. If he was joking about the matter it was simply water under the bridge.
“Well the grapevine told me about someone harboring a bad boy in their base.” Scott twirled one of the longer strands of his hair as he leaned forward towards the queen. His tone came off as accusatory yet still light hearted enough to not alert Ren. He seemed to know the moment Lizzy was in any sort of danger and came to her call.
Lizzy looked him up and down a couple times in an attempt to size him up. “That was one night, but yes I did. He needed a place to stay the night and I needed a temporary knight”
“Oh my, tell me more would you queen Lizzy” A temporary knight sounded like an interesting need. Lizzy had two perfectly capable knights who never seemed to leave her side. Her being alone now Scott had found it odd but didn’t want to say anything. Something must have happened to the knights. Lizzy was making enemies wasn’t she.
“Why, are you looking to get closer to one of the other boys or simply wishing to behold such secret knowledge” Lizzy chuckled, Scott always had an aura to him that simply brightened everyone around him. He was like a twinkling star in the night sky.
“As much as I pride myself on having knowledge I shouldn’t, I just want to learn about the bad boys. Besides Joel coming for my head illegally already, I know little”
“For what purpose? They’re insane. That’s pretty much it” Scott was a charismatic fella but Lizzy would not let herself be drawn in by the charm. Maybe she could pry riches from Scott for information and she certainly would try.
“Insane or stupid either way I don’t enjoy them being a mystery” Scott tone turned paranoid. When insane people went red they were unpredictable. That’s more dangerous in his mind than someone who's smart and cautious.
Lizzy raised an eyebrow and popped a smirk "Knowledge comes at a price”
“Name your price”
“What do you have on you?” Lizzy twirled a piece of her hair and watched a fairy fly around. They didn’t seem as scared around Scott as most people. If the fairies trusted him, so did she. When the small creature landed on Scott's head she held her breath for a moment. They wouldn’t even do that to her.
“Enough, now give a price” Scott squinted at Lizzy as his smirk widened as he began searching for items he had on him to bargain. Before he could find another worth offering up Lizzy interjected frantically but in a very hushed voice trying to not have either of the two to cause the small magical creature to fly away in fright. “Don’t move, there’s a fairy on your head!” Scott froze.
“Don’t disturb this fairy or I'm banning you from the fort and not telling you a word about the bad boys” Lizzy kept her hushed voice but snuck in as much authority as she could at the volume.
Just beyond her sight Ren's ears perked up. He was also interested in the bad boys for every reason the destiny duo didn’t. For Ren his dedication to his Queen ran deep, deeper than he could explain even when the motive was gone he continued to guard her every one, now closer than ever with all these strangers that posed as the people he used to know.
“First off they aren’t really bad, they seem just as disoriented as the rest of us, from you know but since they got the whole team they will be a worry once they build a bridge”
“A bridge? Why's that important?”
“They grow bread on it or something. Seems a little odd” Lizzy rolled her eyes, it sounded so silly. The bad boys bread bridge, it sounded so dumb that they could’ve made that just for the name.
“Probally something we couldn’t understand” Scott shrugged before pulling out two shiny diamonds to hand to the queen.
Lizzy’s eyes lit up and she quickly pocketed the jewels but not before Ren started walking over, this was now more than a small gossip session and was now a trade.“It is, they're full of things we can’t understand. I think it adds to the charm” a soft pink dusted the Queen's face as she saw nothing but cute quirks in that bad boy of hers.
~~~~~~
As the sun finally crossed over the horizon Joel was opening the door to the bakery the other boys were already on him asking question after question about his place of rest for the night
“Where were you!” Grian yelled so loud Joel felt the flimsy walls shake.
Jimmy rushed over so fast his sunglasses nearly fell off his face. He cusped Joel face in his hands only to be met with tougher hands pushing him away“We were so worried babe!” Jimmy's hands retreated but only to Joel's shoulders to straighten his jacket.
“Are you an idiot!" Grian continued to yell at him. He was gripping his empty timer, a timer only he had kept through the jump. Grian seemed less stressed about Joel. He just seemed mad.
“Don’t worry I got to safety, I told you I'd be home at sunrise” Joel sighed, reasoning probably wouldn’t work, both Jim and G had been pretty on edge since this weird game started, they were constantly worrying about all their lives. It made sense though because now they could only die twice before they would never respawn.
“Yeah but you didn’t say where you were Babe!” Jimmy spat out with an overprotective cry.
“I was camping out in the-” Joel paused. Normally he didn’t think before the words spilled out but this might be against the bad boy rules. Those were the only rules bad boys didn't break
“In the?” Jimmy gestured for Joel to keep talking.
“The fairy fort, it was empty, mostly” Joel felt like lying but he couldn't do that to the boys, his boys, they deserved better than being lied to. It was mostly empty,it just happened that the one person who was in there was the most beautiful fairy he had ever seen”
“Well who was there?” Grian asked with a raised eyebrow. He lowered his sunglasses to look Joel in the eyes. “one of the guards?”
“Lizzy, she let me heal up and made me stay the night in exchange. Ren and Martyn were out for the full moon or something”
“And you DIDN’T kill her?” Grian looked appalled and somewhat disappointed. He grabbed Joel's arm that he could reach while he spoke and shook him as hard as he could, trying to knock some sense into him. Before he would have slaughtered anyone who showed him such hospitality.
“I wanted to but she must have put some sort of spell on me!”
“Are you saying lizzy is a witch?” Jimmy's voice softened, like she could be in earshot. He seemed pretty believing but in this circumstance someone being a true witch wasn’t unbelievable
“She could be, we don’t know her but she knows us”
Scott then looked back at Lizzy who crushed the gift she had brought for the bad boys, a handful of building materials for their bridge, now lying half ruined on the ground. The crunch of sound alerted the boys and Lizzy darted off. Scott however stayed and said he dropped the materials and took a shot at flirting with the canary partly to distract from the sight of Lizzy so obviously running off and partly for his own gain.
“So Jim, you're looking quite bad today” Scott smiled and attempted a wink. It was more obvious than ever he still had the sanity of a widowed red name.
“Thanks? What do you want, fish boy? What was that sound?” Jimmy brushed Scott off almost immediately as he looked around for the source of the sound.
Scott looked puzzled, he and Jimmy had a fish, the pufferish of peace, but Scott was never a fish person by any means. “Fish? Whatever I have a poppy for you” From what seemed like nowhere Scott pulled out a perfectly beautiful poppy with full red petals that nearly glowed and a captivating rich brown center.
The blonde bad boy glanced at the flower but how could he not? He turned away just as fast though. He couldn’t be interested in such things lest he break rule 6 of being a bad boy, love nobody(except your mum) so with as much disinterest as Jimmy could muster he poured out “Why would I want a poppy? I'm a bad boy” then he turned away and walked back to the bakery.