Chaotically Neutral

Chapter 9

Juniper was sitting next to Winston, embarrassed. She had actually tried to formulate words with her mouth in order to offer condolences for the blonde's fragile ego being shattered to pieces by someone much younger than himself and had rather ended up choking on her own words and being shocked at the way her own voice sounded.

Winston had found it hilarious, and had spent several minutes on the floor, rolling around while clutching his stomach, He apologized afterwards for being such a horrible trash person and then offered to show her what a little bit of his magical abilities were able to do.

The girl nodded, still too embarrassed to try to break her silence streak again.

Winston stuck his hand out and helped her up onto her feet, and then walked the both of them to the room that Winston hadn't mentioned in before, but made comment about it now.

"That other me gets crazier and crazier every year with crippling loneliness, even though he knows the reason he's by himself is because he chose to be my own personal nightmare instead of making friends with the people that come his way."

The walls were painted with a sloppy hand, the floor was covered in several mismatching rugs (include one that showed the words "Welcome to Hell" in bright pink, frilly letters) and on those rugs was a little table with a tea set on it surrounded by little chairs accommodated by little stuffed animals.

"Yeesh, it's even worse than I thought it would be," Winston said, picking up a stuffed ladybug and examining it. "Man, it'd be a real shame if this were to, I don't know, come to life."

On his words, the stuffed toy began to wiggles and scratch and crawl. The fabric that was surrounding it tore open and out crawled a large ladybug fighting its way out of the stuffing. Winston held it close to his face and smiled, petting it before taking it to a window and allowing it to fly out into the night. He took the deflated fabric and remaining fluffy and lightly blew on them, causing them to burst into flames.

Juniper's eyes were wide with wonder as she walked closer to Winston, picking up the ashes of fluff and pinching them through her fingers. They were ashes alright, and they left a little white stain on her skin.

Winston let out a laugh. "And the other one thinks he's all that. He can't even simulate a life form, let alone make one."

Similar to how he had approached the ladybug, he lightly tapped the walls and caused all the dry paint to fall to the floor, being replaced instead by a fine coating of the waterproof coating and the other paint that they had used in the main part of the building. He then shook his hand and stared at Juniper.

"I know what you're thinking, you know."

Juniper froze up as he said this, panic threatening to overtake her entirely. She could feel her heartbeat beginning to quicken, her breathing becoming uneven, her head was spinning as transpiration began dripping down the sides of her face. What she had been thinking was something she wasn't even sure on anymore, but it definitely had to do with how cool she thought Winston was. This was no longer just a single time crush, this was going to be a full on trying-to-get-the-guy-to-ask-you-on-a-date thing.

Juniper's face began to heat up in her cheeks as her thoughts became rushed. They would get together, watch a scary movie, he would say something scary, next thing they knew they owned a shop and hold the phone.

She had been so caught up in her own head that she didn't hear was Winston had said.

He was across the room, looking a little taken aback. His back was against the wall and his eyes were questioningly looking her up and down before he cleared his throat loud and forcefully with violent fake coughs in between. A long moment of silence followed and he allowed himself to get off the wall and stretch out his arms.