Note: This is a continuation of the Cleril chapter.
Turtle was satisfied.
He had successfully gotten Peril, his best friend, and Clay, her crush, to go on a date together. The look on her face after their date made Turtle extremely proud of himself for helping them have such a great time with each other. When Peril found him in his cave, she immediately thanked him a million times, but Turtle simply said he was just helping out a friend.
After thanking him a million more times, a sly smile suddenly appeared on Peril's face as she looked over at him.
"Hey Turtle... now that you got me and Clay together... how about I return the favour?" Peril asked.
"Huh?" Turtle looked back at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Peril laughed. "What do you think, silly? I mean you and Kinkajou!"
Turtle's face immediately turned red as he tried to splutter out a response.
"W-w-what do you mean, me and Kinkajou? Uh, we're just friends, I like her, she likes me, IN A FRIEND WAY OF COURSE! We don't like each other like THAT..."
Turtle rambled on for a bit before he that realized Peril was staring at him with an amused look on her face.
"Really, then?" She started, "Cause I heard that Kinkajou has a SUPER GIGANTIC crush on you, and she really wants to ask you out!"
Turtle blushed again, his face even redder than before. "Wait really? Kinkajou likes me?" Turtle said excitedly.
"Yeah, she does, but, first, I'm curious. What do you like about her?" Peril questioned.
Turtle smiled. "What's not to like about her? She's beautiful, smart, funny, sweet, kind, and she just makes me happy! She has this way of just lighting up any cave she walks into. She makes everyone laugh, and she's just an amazing dragon overall!"
Peril was smirking. "Wow, you're starting to talk just like the characters in the stories you write."
Turtle glared at her. "You read them? They were supposed to be private!"
"Well, you shouldn't have left them on your bed faceup where I could read them!" She shot back.
"Whatever. Anyways, why did you ask me that anyways? Seems like a weird thing to ask."
A sly smirk was on Peril's face. "Gotcha." She whispered. Turtle's face twisted into confusion as he looked at her.
"Wait what? What do you mean, gotcha?"
"I meant, that I got you to admit that you liked Kinkajou! So HAH! That's what you get for lying to me about Clay even though that was a good thing!" Peril yelled out.
Turtle expected to be angry, but instead felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he remembered what she said before. "Wait, so does that mean Kinkajou doesn't like me?" He said nervously.
A guilty look was on Peril's face as she quickly tried to fix what she had said. "No! No no no! Of course she likes you! I mean, as a friend of course. I am 95% sure she likes you as more than a friend. I mean, I'll have to ask her, but I'm sure she'll say that she likes you!"
That didn't help Turtle very much. She made him feel a bit better, but he still wasn't convinced that Kinkajou liked him the way he like her. Whenever she spotted him, her eyes always lit up, and whenever he was saying anything remotely funny, she always laughed. But she acted that way around all her friends, didn't she? He was never good at figuring out how people felt, because he usually kept to himself all the time.
Peril spotted the sad look on his face and tried to cheer him up. "Hey, Turtle. When I said that I was 95% sure she liked you, I really meant it. Have you seen the way she looks at you? No matter how bad her day is, seeing you always makes her eyes light up, and she justs seems a lot happier in general around you. She talks about you so much too! Everytime she comes back from hanging out with you, she tells the others about how much fun she had with you. She always finds a way to tell us how amazing you are!"
Turtle was beaming now. "Really? She really does all that?"
A familiar voice suddenly rang throughout the sleeping cave. "Of course I do, you adorable idiot!"
Turtle jumped up, shocked, as Kinkajou walked into the room with a smile as big as his was.
"Wait w-what? What are you doing here? W-WERE YOU OUTSIDE THE WHOLE TIME?" Turtle stammered.
"Yeah, I'm sorry Turtle, Peril told me to wait outside of your cave. She said she had a surprise for me!" Kinkajou responded.
"Well, it was a surprise, wasn't it?" Peril asked.
Kinkajou smiled, then turned to Turtle. "Yeah, it was. Turtle, do you really feel that way?" She asked.
Turtle blushed redder than he ever had before. "Uh... I plead the fifth!" He blurted out.
"Aw, come on Turtle, don't be like that! Tell me, do you really like me?" She questioned.
Turtle covered his head with his wings. "Y-yeah, I do, I really really like you Kinkajou."
Now it was Kinkajou's turn to blush, "Well that makes two of us." She said happily. "Because I've had a huge crush on you as well!"
Turtle slowly unfolded his wings. "Really?" He asked excitedly.
Kinkajou playfully smacked him with her tail. "Of course I do idiot! Could you not tell that I liked you?"
Ahem. Peril suddenly interrupted the moment, getting both Turtle and Kinkajou's attention. "Well, I hate to interrupt, but I'm gonna go find Clay now, so I'm gonna leave you two lovebirds alone now. Have fun!" She winked at both of them before leaving.
Turtle and Kinkajou looked back at each other, still blushing from the feelings that were just revealed to each other.
"Um, well," Kinkajou started. "Now that we both know that we like other... how about a date?" She asked hopefully.
Turtle grinned. "Yeah, of course I'll go on a date with you!"
"Great!" Kinkajou bounded over to him and gave him a tight hug, before heading out the cave entrance.
"I'll be waiting by the forest near the lake tomorrow at noon! See you there!" And with that, she left the cave.
Turtle smiled, before quietly whispering to himself.
"See you there."
