Depollute Me, Pretty Baby

The first time Joey declared his feelings for Katherine, she uncomfortably laughed it off. She thought it was harmless, just a little crush that he was sure to get over soon. He only liked her because he thought she was a pirate. As soon as he figured out that she was, in fact, not a pirate, he was sure to leave her alone again. Though she had already told him that she wasn’t a pirate. Multiple times.

But he just wouldn’t get it.

It seemed like every time she insisted that she wasn’t a pirate, he only seemed to believe his own delusion more! It was harmless, at first. When he gave her odd compliments, Katherine just accepted them with a forced smile. But then he started stealing from all the other empires to give her gifts, and she couldn’t have that. The tension in Glimmer Grove were high enough with the curse infecting and killing the land. Tension between Glimmer Grove and other empires as well was the last thing she needed.

So, Katherine found herself sitting in her room, staring blankly out of the window and wondering how she was supposed to get rid of the pesky pirate. The soft sound of a knock on her door brought her out of her thoughts, bringing her attention back to her surroundings. Outside, it was pouring rain. Katherine frowned. Before getting lost in her own head, the sun had been shining brightly. How long had she been thinking? Twisting her face into a full scowl, she acknowledged that she had spent that whole time thinking about Joey. What a waste. Her kingdom was suffering from a curse that sucked the life out of anything it touched, and there she was, spending void knows how long thinking about a dumb pirate when she could have been thinking about how to deal with the curse. Katherine had asked Shelby to come over before she sat down, hoping to discuss the curse. She’d meant to spend the time before the witch got there going over reports of how much the curse had spread since Shelby had been there last.

“Katherine? Are you in there?”

Right. There had been a knock on the door. Of course it was Shelby, nobody else would have made the trek to her kingdom in the pouring rain. Katherine brushed the wrinkles off her dress as she stood, then took a deep breath before plastering a smile onto her face.

Opening the door, Katherine was greeted with the sight of the witch absolutely drenched in rainwater, dripping small puddles onto the floor. Katherine’s tight smile dropped to be immediately replaced with a look of deep worry.

“Shelby! Oh, void you must be freezing! Come in, I’ll start a fire.”

Shelby gave Katherine a grateful smile as she walked in, arms wrapped tightly around herself to conserve the small amount of heat left in her body.

“Thanks,” Shelby breathed through chattering teeth as Katherine guided her over to the fireplace, pulling up a chair, “I w-would off-ffer to cast a f-fire spell but I-I'm a bit too cold-d.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Katherine hastily threw some logs into the fireplace, not bothering to stack them before striking her flint and steel. “I can start a fire on my own just fine, I’m very capable.” Shit. She had said that with more venom than she’d meant to. Joey had still been quite present in her thoughts, insisting on doing everything for her despite the fact that she was at least twice as muscular as the scrawny pirate. Of course, Shelby didn’t know that venom was directed at Joey and her face flushed a deep shade of crimson as she looked down at her hands in her lap.

“O-of course! I mean, you run your kingdom and rule your subjects with such efficiency every day, while I can barely operate the Evermoore and it’s just me! A-And you’re really strong! You’re really good at monster slaying too, I remember the wither fights! And you’re really muscular, I mean, you carry that giant axe around all the time! And you look really cool in your monster slaying outfit. I mean you always look cool, y-you do right now! And you look really pretty too! Is it getting warmer in here? I think it’s getting warmer in here. Oh dear void I’ve said too much I should really stop-”

“Shelby.”

Shelby’s eyes snapped up to meet Katherine’s, her face turning an even darker shade of red.

“Y-yes?”

“You talk really fast.” A wide smile broke across Katherine’s face and she giggled as the witch struggled to find words. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so... snappy. I was thinking about some stuff before you got here, I guess it hasn’t left my brain yet. And yes, it is getting warmer in here. I got the fire started.” Katherine gestured towards the now-lit fire that was steadily growing in the fireplace behind her.

“Right.” Shelby smiled brightly at Katherine. Smiling back, Katherine realized the bright blush across Shelby’s face made it look like she was glowing. They simply stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, and Katherine realized how pretty Shelby’s eyes were. She’d noticed the witch’s golden eyes the first time they spoke, but she didn’t realize how bright they were. Shelby’s eyes were practically sparkling. The witch had an aura of magic all around her, but it almost seemed concentrated on her eyes. Katherine felt like she could stare into them for eternity, observing the shifting and sparkling energy. It was Shelby who broke their eye contact, shifting to stare blankly at the fire. “Thank you. For the fire, I mean.”

“Of course.”

Katherine stood from where she was crouched by the fire, realizing her own face was slightly flushed. Well, it was probably her own fault for staying so close to the fire. That must have been why her face was so warm. After quickly brushing the wrinkles out of her dress, she strode over to her dresser to grab some dry clothes for Shelby. She was a bit taller than the witch, so while she figured the dress she grabbed was probably too big for Shelby, it would be better than leaving her in her sopping wet clothes. Katherine walked back to Shelby, holding the dress out towards her.

“Here... your wet clothes probably aren’t helping you warm up at all. I’ll step out so you can get changed, you can just hang your clothes by the fire.”

“Oh!” Shelby grabbed the dress from Katherine’s extended hand, a soft smile on her face as she curiously inspected the fabric. “Thank you. Again.”

“No problem.” Katherine nodded before making her way out of the room. Before closing the door, she made eye contact with the witch, who was watching her leave a little nervously. She smiled at the witch encouragingly, understanding how stressful it felt to borrow clothes. “Let me know if you need help with anything!”

Turning around, Katherine shut the door and looked down the hallway at the small wet footprints the must have been left by Shelby on her way to Katherine’s room. She smiled fondly at the tiny puddles, thinking of the witch trudging through the rain to meet up with her. While it was a bit extreme sometimes, she appreciated how Shelby would go out of her way to help other people. She was probably the kindest person Katherine knew, genuinely wanting to help people. Even if she didn’t know what she was doing ninety percent of the time, she always tried her best, and Katherine admired that. Shelby worked hard to earn everyone’s respect, and she had more than earned Katherine’s when she promised to help with the curse on Glimmer Grove.

Not everyone respected her, though. In fact, Joey hated her. Katherine’s face twisted into a scowl thinking of how the pirate would slander Shelby every chance he got. Why did he hate her so much? Shelby was probably the kindest emperor in the whole server. Although, it did seem as if the dislike was mutual. Katherine had caught a few glimpses of Shelby making faces at the annoying pirate, and stifled a giggle as she remembered a particularly goofy face the witch had pulled behind the pirate’s back. Well, at least Katherine wasn’t alone with her dislike of Joey. Maybe she could even complain about him to Shelby! After all, Shelby wasn’t a snitch, and she especially wouldn’t snitch to Joey.

Katherine sighed to herself and shook her head. She shouldn’t be rude about someone behind their back. It was unbecoming of someone of her social status. She had much more important things to focus on than complaining about a dumb pirate. She shouldn’t even be thinking about him! He was just a nuisance. A distraction from the important things she needed to be focusing on. Like the curse on her kingdom. Shelby had been kind enough to come all the way to Glimmer Grove in the pouring rain, the least Katherine could do to help was focus.

Thinking of Shelby again, Katherine realized the witch had been alone for a while. She turned around and hesitantly knocked on the door, gripping the handle softly.

“Shelby? You good in there?”

Behind the door, there was the sound of something smacking into something else, and a quiet ouch, muffled by the wooden barrier. It was silent for a moment, and Katherine debated just opening the door and making sure Shelby was okay, when she heard the witch’s voice from inside the room.

“I’m good! I just – oh come on – I um, I don’t wear dresses very often?”

Katherine could hear Shelby shuffling around for a few moments before the witch sighed, barely noticeable through the thick door.

“Could you maybe help me with the zipper, please?”

“Oh! Yeah, of course!”

Katherine opened the door to see Shelby’s back facing her, the witch’s hair tangled in the half-up zipper. Her hat was sitting on the mantle over the fireplace, and Katherine realized this was only the second time she had seen the witch without it, the first time being when Shelby had originally commissioned the hat from Katherine.

The sliver of Shelby’s face that wasn’t hidden from Katherine’s view was bright red. Katherine gave the witch an encouraging smile as she approached, forgetting that Shelby wasn’t looking at her. As she got closer, Katherine inhaled sharply as she saw that the witch’s hair was much more stuck than it had looked from a distance. At the sound of Katherine’s inhale, Shelby shrunk in on herself even more, looking down in embarrassment.

“It’s not that bad,” Katherine tried to comfort Shelby, remembering her own embarrassment as a child when she caught her hair in something. Considering how long Shelby’s hair was, it wasn’t much of a surprise that it got stuck. “It’s just a bit tangled, is all.”

Cautiously, Katherine reached out to Shelby’s damp hair and began detangling it from the zipper. With her fingers now running through the witch’s hair, she realized that it was a bit tangled. Not only was Shelby’s hair snagged in the metal of the zipper, but there were quite a few knots in the hair around there as well. After a few moments of silently picking Shelby’s hair out of the zipper, Katherine tilted her face to the side so she could see the witch’s face better from where Katherine was standing behind her.

“Can I brush your hair?”

“Huh?” Shelby’s eyes snapped to the side, locking with Katherine’s for a split second before she looked down again. Placing her hands on her cheeks as if to hide the blush that had been there since she first stepped in the room, Shelby quietly cleared her throat, “Is it really that bad?”

Tilting her head up straight again, Katherine glanced over Shelby’s long hair. Other than the clump tangled in the zipper of the dress, there were a few loose knots that were stuck together from the dampness of the witch’s hair. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse.

“It’s not bad,” Katherine contemplated quietly, subconsciously twirling the ends of Shelby’s hair with her fingers. “Just a bit tangled, is all.”

Shelby risked a glance back at Katherine, who had moved her eyes back to the witch’s face. For a moment, Katherine let herself get lost in Shelby’s golden eyes again, until the witch’s quiet voice drew her back down to reality.

“Okay.”

Slightly startled by how easily distracted she was, Katherine stood still for a moment, blinking, until she remembered that she had to move to get the hairbrush. She could feel the witch’s big eyes on her as she walked over to grab her comb from where she had left it on her desk. Under Shelby’s watchful gaze, it was Katherine’s turn to feel heat rush to her face as a light dusting of pink settled on her cheeks. Shelby must have noticed how she had frozen a moment before. The witch was surely about to ask her about it when Katherine turned back around and locked eyes with Shelby for what felt like the millionth time that day.

The witch’s gaze was locked onto Katherine’s eyes shining with curiosity and... concern? It was then that Katherine realized her breath was stuck in her throat. She quickly looked away, anxiety bubbling up in her chest. Her brain felt like it had short-circuited when she fully saw Shelby in her old dress. She had been right, the dress was too big for Shelby, but the extra fabric allowed it to flow over her frame, making the witch look almost ethereal. The usual overalls Shelby wore made her look somewhat like a gnome with her short stature, but in Katherine’s dress, she looked like a fairy.

Katherine looked up, meeting the witch’s eyes again. She tried her best to conceal the panic she felt as she felt more bubbling in her chest.

Whatever this new feeling was... she had never felt it before.

And that was terrifying.