a͟m͟b͟i͟v͟a͟l͟e͟n͟c͟e͟ - espresseleine au

espresso being the therapist caught in 4k

I bent over, shaking Madeleine. "C'mon, you have to get up. We're going somewhere."

He begrudgingly sat up, complaining about it. "Do I haaaaaave to?"

"Yes," I said with a straight face, dragging him along. He pulled his arm out of my grip and fell into step beside me.

"So, where are we heading?" he asked, brushing a branch out of his face. "Ah, the perils of being tall."

"I'll tell you when we get there, it's sort of secret." Madeleine nodded.

"So why is this 'secret place' hidden deep in the woods?" He asked, before pausing. "I'm pretty sure I just answered my question." That sparked a laugh out of me. Dux jumped up, barking, and followed us.

After around half an hour of clambering through the forest sprinkled with chatting, we arrived at the tree.

Madeleine blinked at it. "Ah yes, example A of a magical secret hideout."

I laughed. "You're not supposed to. Aaaaaaaanyway, do you want an explanation?" He nodded. "So, remember our history lessons? Back in school?" More nodding. "Remember the chapter on the Ancient Wars, and the prophesied hero Gingerbrave?" Even more nodding. "So, turns out the Ancients are real, and they live in this tree," I said, adding jazz hands for good measure.

 Madeleine nodded slowly, not fully processing. "Okaaaaaaay... Now that I'm fully 'prepared,'" he said, adding air quotes, "Can we go inside?"

I turned and knocked on the tree, whispering to Madeleine, "I'm not really sure how this thing works." Looking back at the tree, I asked, "Hello? This is Espresso, Ricotta's assistant. You met me earlier. She told me to come here, can I please be let in?"

The door creaked open, and I grabbed Madeleine and dashed inside, pulling him off balance. He jerked his arm out of mine and we raced down the wooden stairs.

When we reached the bottom, Ricotta was there waiting for us. "Espresso! Madeleine! You're safe, thank Black Pearl." I looked at him quizzically, but his exclamation was a subject for another day.

He didn't notice, however, as he was already turning to call for Pure Vanilla. He came racing down the hallway, White Lily in tow. He turned to Ricotta and they started having a conversation, but my eavesdropping was interrupted by Madeleine grunting in pain.

Ricotta and Pure Vanilla glanced over at him, concerned. He was holding his arm, and somehow I hadn't noticed. He nearly collapsed on the floor, and we all blinked at him.

"Espresso, can you take him to his room? Here, here's a map." A parchment appeared in one of my hands, and I picked Madeleine up with the other one. As I walked away with Madeleine, they immediately started fawning over Dux, and I heard talk of giving him his own room

After getting lost four times, we arrived at his room and I heaved him onto his bed. I let him laugh himself out until he finally stilled. "Madeleine?" I asked.

"Yeah?" he responded, pushing himself into a sitting position.

"What just happened?" 

"Right. That. I'm fine - it's not even a cut. In fact, the reason I got that was I was distracted thinking about my mom anyway."

"You wouldn't have died, Madeleine! You're too good of a warrior for that." I reassured him, laying a hand on his.

He bit his lip as if weighing whether he could trust me with some hidden information information. "It's not that. My mother was... not the best."

I cocked my head. "What kind of 'not the best?'"

"I had to be perfect. No 'tendencies unfit of the Republic,' I had to be regal and well-groomed all of the time, perfect mental health, and 'praying the gay away,' even though I'm not gay. I'm bi. Not that she cares about the difference." he muttered. I put a hand on his arm, concerned.

He laughed dryly. "As you can expect, I was none of those things. She also had this weird fascination with Pure Vanilla, insisting that I would be the one to bring him back and bring glory to our family. My dad is also completely under her thumb, so I didn't get any help from him."

I wasn't sure how to help him cope with this, so I leaned over and hugged him, burying my face in his neck. "I'm... sorry."

I couldn't see his face from my current position, but he hugged me back and said, "Sorry for burdening you with my mommy issues."

"I don't mind." I sat up and smiled at him, and he returned the smile. "However," I said, checking my watch, "It got late while you were telling me your life story - not a slight against you, of course," I added quickly. "-  so we should probably go to bed. My room is also marked on the map, so I'll duplicate it and leave one with you." He nodded, hugging me again.

I held up the map and muttered an arcane word. The duplicate appeared in Madeleine's lap and I kissed him goodbye before walking out.

Who knew my boyfriend had so much trauma?

so so so so so so so sorry for the long wait (again), I had so much homework! thank you all for loving this story so much.

oh, and this story has officially surpassed my old Gravity Falls story in chapters! hooray! this is too many exclamation points!

edit: I overhauled the trauma dump scene bc it was a bit too much, sorry for any returning readers.