Novelette {Oneshots}

Reperception [1] ✧ 𝙶𝚎𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚎

⚠️MAJOR TLS SPOILERS - you must've finished the ENTIRE SERIES (Perception, Deception and Inception) in order to read this.⚠️

Reperception: The act of perceiving again.
Yes, that's actually a word apparently, and yes, it's a Perception joke lmao.

𝚃𝚆𝚜: General TLS warnings (you've read the series, you'll be fine lmao).

𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚌: 6 months Post-TLS catch-up, ✨Dreamnotfound Edition✨

TLDR for my board announcement: in celebration of Perception hitting 1 million reads recently, I've written some catch-up's following on from the end of Inception with the main characters.
- more of these to come soon :)
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I toss the dagger over in my hands once more, fumble with the handle and swing at the base of the stem. It takes a few more swings and a lot more effort than I'm willing to admit, but eventually the flower crashes to the floor, partially snapping another stem it hit on the way down. One more swing at that stem then they're both on the floor, and I'm adding two more flowers to the growing collection slung over my shoulder.

There's not a steady path like there was six months prior, all evidence of the damage created by a grieving lover cleared and overgrown with sunflowers impossibly more beautiful than the last. They thrive in the summer, grow tall enough that they tower over me in an attempt to capture the last drops of the evening sun.

I cut away at a few more stems, collect a few more flowers to add to my bundle while taking care not to damage those already there. It's more delicate work now, when you have to worry about the condition of the flowers since you're not the only one keeping them anymore. The petals can't be crumpled and I know Karl would argue the same, greet me with that bitter look of disapproval he did the last time flowers turned up to the marketplace crumpled beyond use for bouquets.

Although I can't help smirking at the image, at the sight of a boy who couldn't quite hide his happiness when he had an excuse to thread the few damaged carnations through his displeased soulmate's hair still stuck in my head, and the thought keeps a small smirk on my lips on the way back through the sunflower field. Only until I spot a group of flowers so colourful they stand out even in my vision, and I quickly snag a handful from the root to keep their stems long, stowing them in my bag along with a few random flowers.

The rest of the walk back to the treehouse is a blissfully quiet one, occasionally punctuated with an odd few notes of a tune Tubbo was humming earlier that I haven't managed to get out of my head since. Though it's soon interrupted completely, and while the sunflowers mostly obscure the owner of that voice from view, I couldn't not recognise it by now.

"I hope you picked them further apart from each other this time," Clay teases, one hand lazily braced against the base of our tree with the other resting on the hilt of his sword. "I can still see that patch you made a few weeks ago from upstairs."

"Oh don't worry, I made sure to keep at least six feet between them like you suggested last time, Sir," I tease back, earning an exaggerated eye roll as Clay takes the sunflowers from me. "Be careful with those, Karl will kill me if they turn up damaged."

"I wouldn't let him," Clay quips back confidently, planting a kiss on my forehead that leaves my cheeks burning. He's right and I know it, have seen enough to know that nobody would dare hurt me anymore.

Not when the supposed 'greatest assassin to ever set foot in Central City' now co-runs the Elite Assassins with the supposed 'second greatest'.

It was a hard thing to accept at first.