TW: Awkward!Rythian

The fact of the matter was, Rythian didn't know how to be romantic when it came to Zoey. Having lived alone for most of his life, he didn't have any sort of background to pull from for ideas on how to act. All he knew on the subject of courting girls was from books he had read and what he had heard from his brief brushes with society.

He would try to compliment her and end up fumbling with his words until it came out sounding more like a judgment then anything else. If he tried to open a door for her, she simply rushed in and never said a word of thanks.

He had often thought of asking Tee for help, but the mere thought embarrassed him more than he could bear, and so he chickened out every time.

After Zoey had come back from the Mushroom's rebel base, he had decided that it was time to tell her about his feelings. He had spent weeks planning how he would say it; every word, gesture, and event he had perfectly planned to a T. However, as was the case with most things involving Zoey, it didn't go at all as he had planned.

He had slipped out of their bedroom just as the sun had risen and quickly gone to the kitchen to make her breakfast. While in the middle of making her favorite, mushroom stew with a hint of apple, she had raced though the door, surprising him.

"Zoey!" he had exclaimed, startled "What are you doing up so early?"

She ignored him as she rushed at the coffee he had made. After taking a long drink, she plunked the mug down on the counter and said over her shoulder as she raced out of the kitchen "Sorry, can't talk. Nuke."

"Oh-er-um well today I was hoping we could go-er-flying?" he stuttered after her, but he got no reply.

He sighed and turned back to the stove to find that the mushroom stew had started to burn and he couldn't help but think it was a sad metaphor for how this day was going to be.

With his plans basically ruined, he decided to try and at least get something done during the day; however, even as he worked on the enchanting room, his thoughts kept drifting to her.

While he had pretty much accepted that this would happen often, today it was especially distracting. He'd had the day so perfectly planned out; breakfast in bed followed by a lovely stroll through the woods ending with them flying about in the dark and him telling her how he felt there amongst the stars.

It was silly and cliché, but he didn't care. Zoey always liked cute things and that was about as cute as he could get.

He bumbled around until the sun began to drop and with it, his hopes for the day. Zoey hadn't shown herself and, for all he knew, she wouldn't even be coming up to go to sleep.

He had all but decided to go to bed when he saw Zoey fly out from the hole at the bottom of the castle, holding something that was on fire.

"ZOEY!" He yelled, and burst out of the castle.

She had flown down to the water and was dipping the burning thing into it.

"Zoey!" He gasped, as he landed next to her. "What happened?! What is that?"

"Oh, hey Rythian! Nothing happened, just a minor electrical fire in my force field generator. It caught my cape on fire, and I didn't have any water, so I had to come put it out." She held out the now ruined cape with a smile that he thought really didn't fit the situation.

"Were you hurt at all?" He asked, glancing over her to make sure she was fine.

"Nope! Just my cape."

He breathed a sigh of relief but then a thought occurred to him.

"Hey...um-er Zoey, how about we take a small flight around the castle? You need some fresh air after being inside all day."

"Sure!" She exclaimed hopping up "We can go see Tee and the mushro-"

"Well... er-I was kinda hoping it could just be us." He stuttered, feeling his face turn slightly red.

"Oh, ok." Zoey said, looking bemused.

"Well, I- I mean we are wasting time so lets go."

They flew around for a while and he listened to her ramble on about her force field while he tried to work up the nerve to tell her how he felt.

"- and we could always install this cool thing that lets us change the color of it to like- green or something, not that's useful but I mean it could look cool, but we would have to go to the Neither and I don't really like that place since last time I was chased by a bunch of ghasts and stuff. Rythian, are you even listening?" She asked, as they flew over the lake.

"Er, what?" he asked, startled out of his thoughts

"Gosh, you have been really distracted for someone who wanted to go flying so bad." She said, folding her arms.

"We-well ac-actually Zoey, there has been um... something I wanted to tell you." He said, cursing his tongue-tiedness.

"What? Did you decide to finally start using science?!" She gasped and flew up to him. "Cause that would be so swish! I mean, I could become the master and teach you all about wiring and how to mass-produce things using science! It would be so fun!"

"No- er- no that's not what I was getting at." He said, and tried to ease away, the nearness making him even more nervous than he already was.

"Oh? Then what is it?" she tapped her finger on her chin, and her forehead crinkled in that adorable way he loved; her thinking face.

Suddenly, she snapped her fingers "I've got it! We're going to get a pet squid! Ohmygosh that's it isn't it?! We could call him Sq- Squidy! And we can keep him in a special cage right next to Ringo and they can become best friends and-"

"Zoey! That's not it either!" he snapped

"Well then what is it?!" she demanded, flying up so close to him that their faces were almost touching.

Rythian's mind went blank as he stared into his eyes and, before he knew it, he had pulled down his facemask and was kissing her.

He felt her stiffen with surprise and it brought him back to his senses. He shyly pulled away and looked down, embarrassed.

"Well, that was what was on my mind." He blushed

Zoey was quiet and he saw that her hand was over her mouth and she was staring at him with unreadable eyes.

"Look, Zoey, I'm sorry," he said, feeling a prick at his heart when he realized he was being rejected "We can just forget that happened and-"

He didn't get to finish before Zoey flew over to him and flung her arms around him, laughing.

"Zoey?!" he yelped, started.

"That's what's been on your mind?" she laughed, pulling back to look at him "Why didn't you just say something?"

"Well-er-it was embarrassing you know, and you do tend to talk an awful lot and stuff." He muttered

Zoey smiled before stretching up and kissing him softly on the lips. "Well, consider that my answer, Enderboy." She smiled before taking his hand and pulling him though the air. "But really, a pet squid could be kind of cool."

Rythian groaned and ran his hand though his hair, but he couldn't help grinning as the crazy girl he loved pulled him along.

Credit to lukadarkwater on Ao3