𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔/𝒊𝒔𝒌𝒂𝒍𝒍 + 𝒓𝒆𝒏/𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 & 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒐/𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔

𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕: 𝟗𝟖𝟒

After the reopening of Sahara and a bit of tweaking, it was finally opened (Grian swore not to touch any of the redstone or Mumbo would've exploded). In that case, Stress wanted to see if it actually works.

With curiousity, she heads over to the store. Her expections weren't that as high as Ren but she was not expecting the store to actually function. In fact, as the ice queen this one of the few stores she enjoyed going into. After more exploring, she finds herself buying a stack of golden carrots and packed ice before heading back. As she was about to firerocket her elytra back, there was a slight bump.

That bump happened to trip the ice queen over, falling off the ground. She scuffled, that hermit must been in a rush. Stress looks up, only to find a person she was fond over.

He was still in his stupidly over the top green suit that was made out of the cheapest material. His left eye sparked into blue, and then he pulls out a cute smile. It was Iskall, in the server in the middle of the morning?

"Stress!" He exclaimed, tugging Stress back to hug her. "Oh my goodness, you're here!"

You can be cute, sometimes. Stress thought to herself, before stretching her hands to hug Iskall back, "Iskall, congrats on opening Sahara!"

Iskall scratched his head out of the feeling of overwhelmingness. "Yeah, the project has been going on for a month and it finally happened," He passed around the store, making sure that some of the hermits currently waiting for their order were satisfied with the service.

False and Cleo happened to be there, happily chatting while holding hands. The hermits weren't surprised however and they were happy for them. Stress was even the reason why Cleo confessed to False and how their relationship turned into a romantic one. Everyone in the server knows that Stress was the cupid girl.

But, it remains obvious that she had fallen for Iskall lately, even if it's just a tiny crush. When Grian asked Stress about Iskall for example, she would instead change the topic to discuss to him about the love fiasco on Ren (After Sahara's opening, Ren started to get closer with Grian, thus starting a relationship).

This was Stress' mind thought, stressing about to be clear. She knew that Iskall had his mind on more things other than love, which was perfectly fine for Stress. But she doesn't know, if she does leave her feelings to be and let go, the whole building up for this and countless times she's been teased by Grian would be wasted. Something was going through Iskall's mind, maybe there was a true spark between them.

Eventually, Stress wanted to finally talk to Iskall about all of this. After pulling back from the hug, she sighed. "Iskall, we need to talk about something."

Iskall raised his eyebrow, suspicious as Stress wasn't usually like this. "Want to go for a walk, Stressy?"

Stress was immediately caught off guard by Iskall's nickname for her.

Just calm down, it doesn't matter. It's dumb. She thought to herself in order to make sure she doesn't mess it up.

So the two walked from store to store, talking about more topics that didn't matter to Stress. But since Iskall was a talker, she wanted things to be normal as possible. After a few miles of walking, Iskall noticed Stress' quietness. She was usually quieter than some of the hermits like Grian or Cleo but not as quiet as someone reserved as Etho or Xisuma.

"Are you okay, Stress?" Iskall placed his hand on his shoulder, his face full of concern.

Stress holds back Iskall's hand, refusing Iskall to touch her. It shocked Iskall but he did what every gentlemen would do. "Listen, as the Ice Queen I've been thinking about our deal, I being the first partner of your own company alongside Idiot #1 and Smart Man #2."

Iskall muttered, "I mean, it wasn't even by accident that I wanted you to be our first partnership."

"Of course it wasn't, I mean if you looked closely, you would've figured out something quite obvious..." Stress trailed off, her face going slightly redder. Rare as Stress was typically in colder regions and yet she never actually blushes.

"What do you mean, Stress?" Iskall replied in a dumb tone, but then he stopped. He looked at Stress, he does know something was up, but was it?

"Stress... does that mean?"

As the sun begins to set, Stress removed her crown and smiled. "Iskall, it's just that..."

She gave a huge sigh, slightly turning away from Iskall.

"I have a crush on you."

Stress' voice almost cracked from saying that, her heart sounded crushed that she was going to ruin it for Iskall.

Almost a split moment, Iskall's heart had stopped beating. He saw it coming, but it came true.

"So what Grian said was also true..." Iskall said quietly, walking around in a slow pase to recollect what Stress that said. "It means..."

"We're..."

"In love?"

Stress always told herself that this was going to happen. That Iskall will be remotely shocked that someone loved him romantically (He's lying, he knew that Stress would fall in love with him). But what Stress didn't expect was Iskall to pull her back, her crown dropped on the floor.

Iskall picked it up, before he takes another step backwards.

"Why does this crown even value beauty," Iskall then proceeded to throw the crown into the lake. Stress was speechless, she didn't care for the crown but the fact that Iskall didn't have the nerve to keep it.

"When you're already the most beautiful queen here."

Without any hesitation anymore, Iskall takes the hand of his princess.

"So Stress, will you take my hand and crown me as the Ice King of your own kingdom?"