Den of Ghouls | Ghost Band One Shots

🩵 Hidden treasures [Cowbell x Pebble]

CW/TW:
• exclusion from the group
• bullying

Always remember: Communication is key and only consent is sexy. Stay safe🫶🏻

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Boy oh boy, I nearly cried while writing this chapter. I'm so sorry for Cowbell, being forced to be alone is the worst.

Anyway, enjoy and lmk what you think🫶🏻
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Cowbell PoV
'Look at him, why's he here with us?'
'I bet he's dumb, that's why he doesn't talk."
'No, he just thinks he's better than us.'
'Haha, I still don't get why he's in the band...'

The hushed conversations of Cowbell's bandmates followed him wherever he went. Thanks to their advanced hearing he knew everything that was said about him even if the others just whispered and hushed each other as he walked by.
Usually it didn't bother him, but today it did.
He felt restless. Lonely.
In this moments he often thought about leaving again, his role in the band wasn't that important anyway.
Playing a cowbell on stage... he could only speculate what Terzo had thought as he summoned another ghoul to the ministry. Maybe he did it just for shits and giggles.

The rumbling in his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten today, so he went to the kitchen, carefully peeking inside if anyone else was there. As he deemed the coast clear he entered and started to make some food. Noodles were his favorite. He didn't care about the sides as long as it was noodles.
But potatoes... he hated potatoes. In the beginning he was sometimes invited to eat with the other ghouls, but every time they had a dish including potatoes, so he respectfully declined.
Or at least he thought he had been respectful. Apparently the other ghouls thought that he was arrogant or dumb and didn't want to talk to them.

Maybe, he thought, it was also the fact that none of them had ever seen him without the mask. He just liked to wear it, it concealed his emotions in his weak moments, so he just didn't take it off around the other ghouls.
On the other hand none of them had ever put in the effort to ask him why he was constantly wearing it.
As he sat down and stared to roll up his Spaghetti he heard soft steps in the hallway. Judging by how light the person was walking, it had to be one of the smaller ghouls. Delta maybe, Mist or Pebble.
The moment Pebble entered the room, he ticked a box in his head for guessing kind of correctly.

At the sight of him sitting and eating Pebble stopped and cocked his head. "Hey Cowbell."
Cowbell froze with the fork halfway to his mouth, was there another Cowbell here or did he really talk to him? He chose to answer with a "hey" but it only came out as a raw whisper.
The small earth ghoul came closer. "Why haven't you eaten with us earlier? We had Pasta today."
Cowbell put down his fork that still hung aimlessly in the air, the noodles on it already cold. "No one told me, so I figured you don't want me to."
His response let Pebble raise one of his eyebrows. "Huh? What do you mean no one told you? Delta said he called everyone for lunch..."
Cowbell just shook his head. "It's whatever."

But the earth ghoul was not having it. He crossed his arms and walked over to his table, pulling one of the chairs to sit on. "No it's not 'whatever', here, I'm gonna sit with you."
The mask on his face concealed the wary expression but something in his body language must've given him away, because Pebble kept talking. "We can talk. Or not, if you prefer silence while eating."
Cowbell finally took a bite of his lunch to buy himself some time to answer.
The only thing he came up with was an awkward "Uhmmmm Pebble, thank you..."
Which resulted in the earth ghoul laughing. "There's no need to thank me for sitting with you, silly."
"But you're the first one to do it, sooo..." He quickly took another bite of his spaghetti, but apparently he had stunned Pebble into complete silence.

It lasted until Cowbell ate all his spaghetti and stood up to put his plate away. "Hey, you want to come out to the garden with me? We could do... hm, I don't know yet, but I'll think of something." The wary feeling still hadn't fully faded, but what should go wrong, so he nodded, making the earth ghoul jump up from his seat and pulling him towards the back door.
"Now?"
"Of course now, or do you have other urgent matters to attend?" As Cowbell shook his head, a wide grin spread over Pebble's face. "Great! Then let's go."

Outside they sat down at the porch swing beneath the trees. Pebble started to chat but seemingly never expected a reaction from Cowbell. He showed the earth ghoul that he was listening though, because that was what he was good at. Listening; talking not so much.
And Pebble catched up to the fact pretty quickly.
"You're just not good with words, are you?"
Cowbell shook his head and stared down at his feet. Suddenly he felt a slight touch on his arm. Pebble had petted it, softly smiling up at him. "Don't worry, I can talk for the both of us."

[Three months later]

Pebble and him sat beside each other on Pebble's bed, each reading a book in silence.
Many things had changed for the better in the last months. Pebble, for example, had started to scold the other ghouls when he overheard them talking about Cowbell.
For Cowbell Pebble had started to become a very close friend. More than that actually.
He liked it when the bubbly earth ghoul was around, because he didn't feel pressured into talking. Pebble could chatter away for quite some time or they sat in comfortable silence, like now.

Suddenly he let his book sink into his lap, looking over to Cowbell.
"I've never seen you without your mask."
Cowbell didn't actually know what to do with this sentence. If it was a question he didn't know what to answer, so he just waited.
"Would you mind if I take a look?"
He didn't mind since it was Pebble, but a shrug was all he could muster. Revealing his face suddenly made him jittery.
The earth ghoul nearly sat in his lap as he laid his hands on his mask, slowly pulling it away from his face, revealing his grey skin and black eyes with the golden specks. A soft gasp came from his best friend.
"Wow! I can't believe you hid this from me for all this time."
Being praised like that made Cowbell blush.

He had thought a lot about the perfect moment to reveal his feelings for Pebble. But since words were not his strong side he decided to just kiss him. It was risky, he knew that, if the earth ghoul wouldn't feel the same it will be his fault if their friendship fell apart.
"Cowbell? What's wrong?"
Pebble still held his face in his hands as Cowbell took a deep breath and leaned in, pressing his lips to his friend's.
He tasted like fresh peppermint, his lips warm and soft, exactly how Cowbell had imagined.
And he didn't push him away, so he dared to relax a bit.

As they broke the kiss Cowbell stared at Pebble in shock. He wanted to apologize for kissing him without his consent, but just couldn't find the right words.
Suddenly Pebble started to giggle. "Woah there big guy, that took you all of your courage, didn't it? I've been hoping you would do it for a while now, to be honest.
Don't look at me like that, you don't have to say anything, I like you too."
A relieved smile tugged at Cowbells lips. Pebble wasn't angry at him, he felt the same. But now the earth ghoul looked completely stunned. "What?" Cowbell asked shyly.
"Do it again! The smiling, do it again."

Cowbell did as he was asked and smiled at the smaller earth ghoul, who lifted his hand again and traced his face with his fingers.
"You look beautiful when you do that. It's like a hidden treasure only I get to see... I think I need to kiss you again."
Cowbell suddenly couldn't stop smiling anymore. Seeing the awestruck expression on Pebble's face felt good. Never had anyone looked at him this way, or touched his face that way.
"Please..."
He didn't need to say more. Pebble cradled his face in his hands and kissed him again, making Cowbell wish he would never let go of him.