All too soon, he would feel his phone buzzing—to a message from his younger sister, Addy.

“You know… Addy and Maria would totally get along. I can already see it, you think you can get in touch with your younger sister and ask her how she’s been or anything?” he continued, diverting as he had to check what the message was about.

He felt his insides clench a little, considering that it was now time for them to head to his family home, as the dinner had already been set up and they were almost ready.

“B-before we head back, though, I…”

“What?”

Silence came from his direction, as he was internally struggling; trying not to cry, or scream, or run away as fast and as far as possible because he could feel that he was going to regally fuck this one chance up again! Hell, he could already taste the bile in the back of his throat no thanks to the gastric acid flaring up inside him whenever he got fucking nervous.

“Love, what is it? Don’t leave me hanging!” the other man chided, looking up into his face—with the stare of truth.

Shit, he hated it when he was plied with that look! He had to bite the nerves down, he had to bite the nerves down…

He then decided to throw his reckless bravado to the wind, before quietly grabbing Memo’s hand.

“Memo. O froggy prince of mine.”

“Yes, what is it, bird princess?”

“Hey!”

“I was teasing, I was teasing! Lighten the mood an’ all. Sorry.”

“Alright, frog prince,” he began again; knowing that it was now or never for his chance to step up to the plate and be open about his feelings (as it was usually Memo who was open, not him).

“I’ve actually wanted to ask you something. For… for quite some time now.”

---

theme — stepping up
sleep score — 800 (313 wc)

He had to fight down the nervousness rising inside him, because holy fucking shit, he had to dig deep to find the courage to say what he really wanted to say—them running through Mistralton was like, him literally delaying the inevitable.

He could already feel the Beautifly settling in his stomach out of sheer nervousness… if his nerves didn’t kill him, maybe him throwing up out of fucking nerves would!

Looking over at his partner, who asked him what the matter was, he replied with this mysterious smile and shook his head.

But deep inside, though, he was pretty much batshit losing it because his nerves were starting to kill him!

“Alex? What’s the matter?” he heard Guillermo Marceliño ask him, and he had to white lie a little just to reassure him that everything was fine, everything was peachy, nothing was wrong.

(Hopefully his sweaty palms didn’t give him away!)

Sometimes, it was hard when you were head over heels in love especially when you were trying to fucking propose and get your nerves over with before the family dinner in a few hours!

“Are you sure you’re fine? You look pale,” he added quietly.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine, love, just… nervous.”

“Why’s that?”

“Honestly, after I left all those years ago, I’m pretty sure my parents disowned me. Or they forgot about me, and, and—” he rambled, before he saw his better half gesturing for him to crouch down.

“What is it?”

He then got an affectionate noogie from the other man!

“Wha—hey!” he yelped, before feeling his cheeks burn.

“That’s for worrying about nothing, you idiot. C’mon, I’m sure your parents aren’t going to chew you out,” he cackled.

---

theme — love
sleep score — 600 (283 wc)