"It's Sparkle Princess! Right there, with the fish hat," someone whispered in the crowd.
Saturn looked over his shoulder to see a group of guys pointing at Jenny.
"Dude, that means everyone here is gonna die," another guy in the group said.
He looked back at Jenny to find her bothered by the comment.
"Assholes," he said, ignoring them.
Jenny looked up at him.
"I always just—"
She didn't get to finish before a piece of ice cream smacked her in the face, leaving her speechless and dazed. The object had hit her with considerable force, like being punched in the face. Saturn looked at her in shock, then turned his head in the direction where the projectile came from. One of the guys from the group had run up to them to get a good shot and was now running back. The others were laughing, some sounded sorry, but most sounded like they endorsed it.
He looked back at Jenny, whose hands were shaking. She was blankly staring into the distance with a streak of ice cream on her cheek and on her clothes. Her whale hat was hanging off the side of her head from the force of the impact, about to fall off.
"What did I do?" she said while tearing up.
Saturn clenched his fist and turned around to approach the group.
"No," Jenny whispered and tried to catch his hand, but missed. "Don't fight because of me!" she whisper-yelled behind him with a cracking voice.
"It's not because of you!" Saturn yelled back in anger. "Hey!" he yelled at the guy who threw the ice cream.
The guy, who hadn't looked away at all since he threw it, responded.
"What's up?"
When Saturn got close enough with clear hostile intent, the guy smiled, bit his lip and launched a punch. Before it could make contact with Saturn's face, the environment around him instantly changed to somewhere else, followed by blue sparkles.
Saturn had to catch his balance following the minor drop to the ground, and he frantically looked around to see where he was. It was outside the fair grounds, not far from where they were a second ago. He looked behind him, then down to find Jenny lying face down on the ground with her hands around his leg. For a moment, the two stayed silent and unmoving. Saturn stared at the back of Jenny's head, who had her face buried in the grass.
Then, she timidly tilted her face up and looked him in the eyes, then to the side.
"I'm sorry," the two said at the same time.
Saturn couldn't find it in him to be amused and rolled his eyes.
"It's not your fault that other people bully you."
Jenny didn't say a word and continued looking away, lying on the ground with her hands still wrapped around Saturn's leg.
"I'm sorry I got violent," Saturn continued.
"He would've knocked you out," Jenny replied.
Again, he couldn't be amused at that comment and rolled his eyes, but he knew that Jenny was speaking the truth.
Saturn hunched down and offered Jenny his hand. She looked up to observe the gesture, then let go of his leg and took his hand. When she stood back up, he was still on one knee, looking around like he'd lost something.
"Where's your hat?" he asked.
Jenny intertwined her fingers behind her back and slid one foot backwards until the tip of her shoe rubbed the ground.
"It fell."
Saturn looked at her in disappointment.
"Oh…."
"I don't really wanna go back there," Jenny responded.
"I get it," Saturn replied.
"It's probably got ice cream on it," Jenny added.
Saturn chuckled and got to his feet.
"You've got ice cream on you," he said as he wiped some of it off Jenny's shoulder.
Then, he licked it off his finger but pulled a wry face and flicked the remaining bit off his hand.
"Fucking mint."
Jenny looked at him with curious eyes.
"Does mint taste bad?"
"Uh," Saturn said while wiping his finger on his clothes. "It's not bad, it's just like toothpaste."
Jenny looked confused.
"Toothpaste and mints are things you take to cleanse your mouth," he tried to explain. "They taste cold and… clean."
Jenny tilted her head to the side in continued confusion.
"Then why is it an ice cream flavor?"
Saturn put his hands in his pockets and started walking.
"Some people like it."
Jenny followed him, joining him side by side. She'd teleported them to a park that sat at the edge of the fair, and they strolled through it as the sun went down.
"Now what do we do?" Jenny asked.
"I don't know," Saturn answered, "if you don't wanna go back…"
Jenny shook her head and the two walked on, not running into another soul.
"I got an idea," Saturn walked over to a signpost featuring another one of those campaign ads that slandered Jenny.
He hunched down on one knee and took the same black marker out of his pocket that he'd handed to Jenny before. Jenny skeptically joined him while nervously fidgeting with her index fingers, knowing what he was about to do.
"It's been too long," he told Jenny with a naughty smile and tapped the marker against the poster.
"Crime!?" Jenny anxiously blurted out.
Saturn pointed his thumb at the poster and spoke with a sly smile. "These babies are made for this, Jen."
He moved over to Jenny and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, then shoved the marker in her hand.
"What were your first thoughts when you saw this poster?" he asked while stretching his fingers and moving his hand across her field of view as if to trigger her imagination.
"Bully…" an almost hypnotized Jenny spoke.
"Good. Go for it."
Jenny looked at the side at Saturn's face, which was almost touching hers.
"You want me to..." she muttered.
Saturn nodded before she could finish her question.
"What's even the point?" she asked. "It's not gonna change anything."
"It's…" Saturn muttered, trying to make up his mind. "The point is that you're putting your feelings out there. These public billboards are for all of us, Jen. And if they can do it, so can you."
Jenny turned her head back to look at the poster, then removed the cap from the black marker.
"My feelings…" she muttered and nervously stepped towards the poster.
Before Jenny put the marker on the poster, she hesitated, looking like she was second guessing what she wanted to write. She looked cute with her eyes all laser-focused on such a menial thing, with her tongue poking out of her mouth.
Eventually, Jenny shook her head and began writing. Saturn watched her deface the poster with utmost enjoyment, just like he enjoyed watching her deface barf drinker's car. She kept it simple, sticking with the word "Bully" in large letters that covered most of the canvas. Jenny put the cap back on the marker and looked back at Saturn like her heart was racing.
"What do you think?"
Saturn gave her an OK gesture with his hand.
"Perfect."
A pleased Jenny stepped towards him and happily hopped in place.
♦
After that, the two moved on until they stumbled upon a swing set elsewhere in the park. The sun was setting, and the sky was growing darker by the minute.
"Next time, we'll do something else," Saturn said while looking down and fidgeting with his nails. "Something with no crowds."
Saturn sat idly on his swing while Jenny slowly swung back and forth. After sensing Saturn's troubled tone of voice, she stopped kicking and slowly came to a stop.
"You don't have to feel bad. We had fun."
Saturn moved his eyes up to meet hers and gave her a bittersweet smile.
"Should we go find the others?" Jenny asked as she hopped off her swing. "We've been completely split up."
"Oh no, best not to interrupt them," Saturn replied dismissively.
Jenny walked over until she stood in front of him, then gave him a suspicious look and leaned forward with her hands on her hips.
"I knew you and Plu were up to something. What's going on?"
"I really shouldn't say… don't wanna draw any premature conclusions," Saturn replied mysteriously.
"O-Okay…" Jenny said, accepting the answer.
"You'll see," Saturn said, waving the topic away.
"So, if that's the case," Jenny straightened her posture, "what do you wanna do now?"
Saturn shrugged.
"What do you normally do when people bully you?"
Jenny perked up in surprise, seeming excited.
"I- I-" Jenny stuttered nervously. "I go to my secret hideout!"
Saturn frowned.
"What, that room in your house with the locks on it?"
Jenny violently shook her head.
"There's a place near the woods… not far from here… that you can only get to by flying," she explained. "No-one else can get there but me, so… sometimes I go there…"
She was nervously fidgeting with her index fingers again.
"I could… show you…"
Saturn leapt off his swing and landed on the ground with his arms stretched out, seeming in a better mood already.
"Please do!"
♦
Jenny flew with a big, uncontainable smile on her face, carrying Saturn with her arms around him like man would normally carry a woman. The trees of the dark woods passed by underneath them as they approached Jenny's secret spot, flying at a leisurely pace to keep her passenger comfortable.
But the tension in Saturn's body told her he wasn't comfortable at all, clinging onto her like every single muscle in his body was highly strung.
While Jenny enjoyed the sensation of his arms around her back, and while he hadn't verbally voiced any complaints yet, she hadn't forgotten what happened after they first landed on the tower in Tatters' hometown in the north, and that he almost threw up over the edge due to airsickness.
Feeling guilty, Jenny teleported the rest of the way to their destination, ending up a few meters above the ground, followed by a smooth touchdown.
A gasp sounded from Saturn, who darted his head around, appropriately disoriented yet relieved to be back on the surface. Jenny didn't know whether or not to be offended by the fact that he hurried to free himself from her embrace and touch the ground with his own two feet. She watched curiously as he stumbled around all groggy-like, looking as if he'd drop onto the ground any second to give it a rub in gratitude.
But instead, he turned back around to face Jenny, exhaling and waving his arms around as if to dissipate his adrenaline.
"Is this it? Your spot?"
A clearing, surrounded by trees on all sides so that nobody could see inside.
Jenny nodded.
"Cosy," Saturn continued, "it's got a pool and everything."
At the center of the clearing was a large pond, in which the stars reflected. It looked so perfectly oval, one would think it was manmade.
"It's on a hill," Jenny explained. "So steep, nobody can climb up here. You'd have to fly, so..."
Jenny awkwardly fidgeted with her fingers, still feeling guilty about making Saturn experience airsickness.
"It's okay, I'm fine," Saturn laughed and took a step closer. "This wasn't so bad, compared to the hang glider."
A soothed Jenny smiled at him and excitedly walked past him to the edge of the pond, turned her head his way and gestured for him to come over, then sat down. Saturn followed her suggestion and sat down by her side, then started taking his shoes and socks off. Intrigued, Jenny watched in anticipation to see what he was doing.
"What?" Saturn asked while dipping his bare feet into the water.
"N-Nothing," Jenny said as she copied him and started taking her shoes off too.
The next few moments were spent in silence, with the two sitting next to each other at the edge of the pond, dipping their bare feet into the water. Sometimes they'd move their feet around, creating ripples.
"So," Saturn started making small talk, "growing old together, huh?"
"Yeah," Jenny replied, creating more ripples with her feet.
"You don't uh… age, right?" Saturn asked.
Jenny shook her head.
"So," he inquired further, "when the rest of us are eighty years old, wearing diapers, you'll still look and talk like you do now?"
Jenny giggled.
"Probably."
Saturn smiled and slowly shook his head.
"You can have new friends by then. I'll allow it."
Jenny pouted at him.
"Maybe something will kill me before that happens."
Saturn raised his eyebrows and nodded.
"We'll still get to tell everyone at the retirement home that we used to go on adventures with you, and…" Saturn raised his finger to make a point, "they'll believe us, because we're already famous."
Jenny stuck out her tongue at him, and he did the same to her.
After that, they spent some more time in silence, looking at the moons.
"So, do you spend a lot of time here?" Saturn eventually made more small talk.
"Uhh," Jenny started. "I go here when I wanna run away from everything, so I can be alone with the trees and the birds."
Saturn chuckled, and Jenny gave him a questioning look.
"Should I even really be here, then?"
Jenny gave him an outraged look and wiggled her feet to splash the water.
"I don't mean run away from you," she said.
"I know, I just—"
"I feel safe with you."
Jenny's words gave Saturn a surprised yet pleased look on his face, and the two stared at each other in silence. Jenny broke the silence by splashing the water some more with her feet.
"'Cause you're easy to be with, and you're not judgmental, and…"
Jenny paused after that.
"And?" Saturn asked with a teasing look on his face.
"And…" a nervous Jenny stuttered, splashing the water with her feet, "and you're just so handsome," she closed her eyes and looked the other way.
No response.
When Jenny opened one eye to peek at his reaction, she found him looking at his lap with a huge smile on his face, as if someone just told him he'd won the lottery. Clearly caught off guard by her words, which pleased her.
"It's true," she playfully said, giving him a verbal nudge.
Saturn turned his eyes towards her and gave her a grin as if he'd already recovered his cool.
"You feel safe with me because I'm handsome?"
Jenny's eyes widened in embarrassment, and she turned them away, then splashed the water some more with her feet.
"I dunno…"
"Sorry… I'm kind of an ass," Saturn chuckled and turned his gaze back to the water around his feet. "You're pretty handsome yourself."
"You think?" Jenny excitedly raised her head and reestablished eye contact.
Saturn raised his head and looked at the moons above them, then at the trees, then back at the water. He bit his lips as he stared at the ripples, like he was deeply considering something.
"What is it?" Jenny asked.
"Uh," Saturn muttered.
He had a difficult look on his face.
"Fuck's sake, Plu…" he exhaled.
Jenny gave him a curious look, feeling like somehow, something exciting was about to happen. Eventually, Saturn met Jenny's eyes, looking more nervous than she'd ever seen him.
"You wanna, uh, go for a swim?" he asked with red cheeks.
"Oh," Jenny replied calmly, like she was expecting something more serious. "Sure."
Saturn's eyes widened in surprise, then he sighed in relief.
"O-Okay," he said as he nervously got up and started taking off his t-shirt.
For a moment, Jenny watched him undress and slowly came to realize what she'd just agreed to. Only when he dropped his shirt to the ground and started unbuttoning his pants did he see the look in Jenny's eyes and pause.
"Ohh," he muttered in dread.
Timidly, he raised his hand and pointed at his shirt on the ground.
"'Cause we don't have swimwear, so—"
"T-That's okay!" a flustered Jenny replied.
"Fuck, sorry," Saturn continued, "I thought it was implied that—"
"We go naked?" Jenny interrupted.
Slowly, Saturn lowered his hand again.
"Yeah…"
"Okay!" Jenny exclaimed with her eyes as wide as they could get and her hands tightly clutching the dirt, "We go naked!"
For a moment, the two simply stared at each other in shock.
"Are you sure?" Saturn asked. "'Cause you're all shaky."
Jenny looked at her arm to find that it was indeed shaking.
"Just... healthy... nerves," she anxiously said while taking her legs out of the water and getting to her feet, all while shaking as if an earthquake was happening underneath her.
Saturn watched her skeptically, then raised his hand in warning.
"Look, if there's any part of you that doesn't wanna—"
"Y-You're d-doing the t-thing again!" Jenny said while bouncing and shaking in place, trying not to overload her circuits.
Saturn fell silent and looked down at the ground.
"Right," he mumbled under his breath.
Then, as if seeking confirmation one final time, he turned his eyes to Jenny before moving on.
"I wanna!" Jenny said while shaking like a washing machine.
Saturn smiled, then continued unbuttoning his pants. Jenny couldn't help but stare at him with wide eyes while she herself made no effort to undress.
When he was all done, Saturn turned around to face her and walked backwards towards the pond with his arms wide, occasionally looking behind him to see where he was going.
"There we go," he said with his usual confidence, then dropped into the water.
When his head came back up, he shook his hair around and rubbed his eyes.
"It's not too cold," he said.
Jenny blinked, then looked down to find her hand had already unbuttoned her waistcoat on its own.
"Heh?" she uttered in confusion.
"Hey!" Saturn yelled from the pond.
"Huh!?" Jenny raised her head and uttered in alarm.
"Your turn, miss!"
Jenny swallowed and looked down at her shaking hands which had a mind of their own. Her circuits were absolutely racing. A feeling she'd had many times before, but never quite this intense. Jenny felt scared, but also excited. And at this moment, there was nothing in the world she wanted more than to join him and make herself vulnerable.
"Okay," she said and took off her waistcoat.
After that, she took off her shirt and dropped the two pieces into the water to clean off the ice cream stains later. Then, she took off the rest, down to nothing, like him. Saturn was floating in the water, staring at her the whole time, enjoying the show. But she deserved it, because she did the same to him.
When she was done, she bashfully wrapped her arms around her body and used her foot to shove the remaining pile of clothes further away from the water, then turned to Saturn.
"T-There we… go," she said as she relaxed her arms by her side, resisting the urge to cover up.
♦
"Cute," Saturn commented.
The sides of Jenny's mouth slowly twitched upwards and formed into an inconcealable smile. She still seemed tense, and her cheeks were redder than they'd ever been. But at the same time, she was undeniably enjoying the act.
"Yeah?" Jenny asked as she twisted her hips to show him another angle.
Having overcome the biggest obstacle, Jenny was no longer shaking, and despite the way she looked on the surface, she wasn't being particularly shy.
"Yeah. I prefer you like this," Saturn replied.
In response, Jenny buried her face in her hands and giggled. Then, she parted her fingers to let her eyes peer through and mumbled something under her breath.
"What was that?" Saturn playfully asked.
Jenny's eyes went down to her own body, and she started tracing a panel gap on her thigh.
"So, you don't mind these?" she asked nervously.
Two on each arm and leg, surrounding her elbows and knees. Jenny always wore clothes that covered them up, and from Saturn's viewpoint, they were the only things on her body that betrayed the fact she wasn't human.
"Nu-uh, those are cool," Saturn said. "C'mon, get in."
Relieved and happy, Jenny playfully hopped over to the edge and dropped herself into the water.
Saturn took a step back and watched the spot where Jenny went under, waiting for her to pop back up. But instead, her underwater silhouette started glowing blue and moving around without coming back up. Saturn followed her with his eyes, turning his body along until his back was facing her pile of clothes and Jenny had reached the center of the large pond, making the whole thing glow bright blue.
Jenny swam more gracefully than any sea creature ever could, like she was flying through the water as easily as she did the air. And she was fast, too, having already finished a lap around the pond in the mere seconds she'd been under.
"Whoa," Saturn exclaimed in excitement.
Then, Jenny made her way back and started swimming circles around Saturn instead, like a shark. Even underwater, she was still making that flying saucer-like sound. At this speed and distance, Saturn couldn't rotate his body fast enough to keep up and had to turn his head left and right to follow her around.
He wondered if Jenny was showing off her powers on purpose, trying to impress him. If she was, it worked. Moments like this reminded him that Jenny wasn't quite normal. She was far better than normal. No apex predator on land or water used its incredible powers for the purpose of goofing off quite like this.
When the blue blur had enough, she stopped and remained stationary for a second until Saturn caught up and faced her. Then, she accelerated towards him like a shark going in for a bite. Saturn never felt threatened by anything Jenny did, but he couldn't help but raise his arms and brace himself for impact.
Moments before contact, Jenny killed her momentum and popped out of the water, baring her fangs and raising her hands like she was trying to scare a toddler.
"Whah!"
Saturn slowly exhaled and relaxed his arms, looking at her like she just told a joke he didn't understand. Jenny's eyes changed, too, giving an embarrassed look back.
"S-Sorry, didn't mean to scare you…"
Saturn chuckled, then stepped forward and grabbed Jenny's hands by interlocking his fingers with hers, then pulled her closer.
"You can scare me a little if you want."
Jenny giggled and wrapped her fingers back around Saturn's hands. With the moonlight reflecting in her eyes and the water on her skin, Jenny looked like she was glowing.
"I don't know why I expected you to swim boring like me," Saturn said.
"I can swim boring, too."
"Please don't. You're the only you I know."
Jenny looked like she couldn't stop smiling if she tried, like she was trying not to constantly giggle. Slowly, Saturn tried pushing her with all the strength he had, and Jenny pushed back, matching him exactly. Jenny's eyes looked like all of her attention was focused on him, and nothing else existed in the little world they'd created here.
Saturn laughed as he reached the limit of his strength and stopped pushing. Jenny matched him and relaxed as to not push him over, but he dropped himself into the water anyway.
Jenny scratched the side of her head and nervously looked at the rest of the pond, where the water got deeper.
"What is it?" Saturn asked as he lay floating with the water up to his neck.
"I could… take you for a ride," Jenny said timidly.
"Really?" he excitedly responded.
Jenny nodded and excitedly hopped up and down, splashing the water around her.
"If you don't get water-sick."
Saturn excitedly swam towards her. "Okay. How do we do this?"
Jenny put her finger to her chin and made a thinking face, then started looking a little embarrassed and turned around, walking closer to the edge of the pond where the water was shallower. Finally, when her hips came above the water, she twisted her torso and looked back at him with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"You can hold onto me this time."
"A-Alright," Saturn stuttered as swam her way, wondering where would be best to grab. "Hold… onto… you…"
"'Cause," Jenny continued. "You can't breathe underwater."
"Very thoughtful."
Now that he was behind her, he was lost for where to put his hands.
"Where do you want me to, uh…" he mumbled.
Jenny looked back and lightly slapped her hands twice on her hips.
Saturn smiled and stood with his knees on the pond floor to get to the right height. Then he hesitantly raised his hands and brought them towards Jenny's hips.
Jenny observed his struggle in anticipation and relieved him from his suffering by grabbing his forearms, guiding his hands across her waist and pulling him against her back. Saturn became speechless as he felt his fingers gliding across the skin of Jenny's belly, which felt identical to the skin of any other girl he'd ever touched.
With his hands now on Jenny's hips on opposite sides, he locked his arms tightly so that he wouldn't fly off in a minute, hopefully.
Jenny turned her hair blue again and gave him one last smile.
"You can hold on tighter than that. It doesn't hurt."
Saturn complied and held her as tightly as he could.
"And let go whenever you want," Jenny added and gave him a wink.
He winked back and took a deep breath, then closed his eyes when Jenny went under.