Mischievous Function

End of a Life

"Yeah?"

"What makes you happy?"

Fanny raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I know you hate a lot of stuff," Pencil explained, "and, like...I get it. Your life sucks. Sure. But, like...what do you love?" Fanny hesitated before opening her mouth, but Pencil cut her off with a smirk and said, "And before you ask, no, I'm not planning to use this against you or anything."

Fanny nodded and shut her eyes in thought for a few moments. Pencil watched as Fanny's mouth slowly tightened before her entire expression started to become visibly distressed. Fanny eventually opened her eyes with a somewhat bewildered look and stared at the ground. "Nothing, huh?" Pencil guessed.

"I...I guess," she conceded as she sat back down. "I don't...I don't really know. I've never thought about happiness like that before."

"Why not?"

"Uh...well, you can't really miss what you never had, I guess. I...don't really know what makes me happy." Before Pencil could show her sympathy, however, Fanny grinned and nodded toward the folded outfit on the bed. "Then again, what do you think I'm here to find out? I think it's about time I put an end to this miserable, only-surviving life of mine and start a new thriving one, don't you think?"

Pencil paused, but soon smiled back and nodded. "Of course! That...that's great, Fanny. Really. I'm really happy for you—"

Knock-knock-knock.

They both turned to look at the room door and stared at it for a second. Pencil glanced over at Fanny before getting up from the bed and walking to the door. When she opened it, she was greeted by Dot and Clock. "Hey, Pencil," Clock said.

"Hey, guys," she replied. "Uh...you need anything?"

"Yeah, kinda," Dot answered, peeking over Pencil's shoulder and spotting Fanny. "We need to talk to Fanny, and, um...it's kinda personal. Do you mind, uh..."

"Oh—yeah, sure, no problem." Pencil turned back to Fanny and gave her a thumbs-up. Fanny was leaning forward in her chair attentively and nodded, though her expression carried a hint of confusion.

As Pencil gathered her stuff and left the room, Dot and Clock walked over to the bed next to Fanny and sat down. Clock periodically glanced at Dot nervously, while she gave him reassuring smiles and nods in return. Once Pencil had walked out the door and closed it, Fanny spoke up. "So, what's up?"

Clock glanced at Dot one more time before taking a deep breath. "Uh...well, I've...been thinking," he started slowly. "And, uh...we've been...talking, Dot and I, over some...important things."

"Uh-huh. I'm guessing it's something to do with me since you kicked Pencil out?"

"I..." Clock paused and looked away for a bit as he gathered his thoughts. "...Yeah."

He stared awkwardly down at the ground for several seconds as both girls waited patiently for him to continue. Dot eventually scooted closer to him and laid an affectionate hand on his shoulder, and Clock reciprocated with a grateful smile of his own. That helped give him enough courage to take one more deep breath, look Fanny in the eyes, and—

"You wanna break up, don't you?"

—nearly collapse in shock as his eyes widened and he froze. Even Dot turned to stare at her in surprise.

After a few more seconds of tense silence, Fanny finally nodded in resignation. "Thought so," she sighed, hanging her head and staring at the floor. "I might be socially stunted, but I'm not stupid. I mean...I get it. I wouldn't date me, either."

"Fanny, please..." Clock pleaded, leaning forward and reaching for Fanny's hand. "I...it's not you. Just let me explain—"

"I reminded you of your sister," she guessed, to Clock and Dot's further surprise. "Isn't that right? Did you already forget how long I lived with you? Your parents are always away and your sister doesn't live in Yoyle City anymore, leaving you alone and with no one else to fall back on. You needed that anchor, someone you could rely on to carry you through your toughest and darkest times. But your sister wasn't there to do that like she'd always done. So you saw me—you saw how resolute and determined I was. And...I guess you appreciated that about me, and you thought you could rely on me for support."

Clock and Dot were completely speechless. Fanny nodded and shrugged as she leaned back in her chair and stared out the window. "You're not the only one who's been thinking," she muttered.

Another period of tense silence hung over the room as neither of the three dared speak. Fanny's expression was flat and dull. Clock was still in disbelief and was trying to deal with the whiplash of hearing Fanny pretty much nail what he was feeling on the head without even telling her a word about it. Dot looked conflicted internally and frowned as she attempted to figure out what to do.

"I...I'm sorry," Clock finally whispered as he let go of Fanny's hand and scooted backward on the bed. "I know...I...I know what I said, on the rooftop, and on the couch—"

"I know what you said, too," Fanny muttered back. "I was there."

Clock paused and looked at her again before sighing and hanging his head with an ashamed frown. "I...I wasn't trying to...to take, like, advantage of you or anything. I just..."

"Clock, you're 17," Fanny said in a firm voice as she finally turned to look at him in the eyes. "You're a teenager. Your hormones are all out of whack—especially now, during this period in your life, more than most other teens. You're gonna make stupid decisions—that's just part of life. I'm...older. I've seen more of life than you have. And...I get it. I...I thought that it would be rude of me to refuse your feelings after you, you know, saved my freaking life. Even my emotions weren't all intact and stable that day, and I just...made a judgment call."

She leaned forward and gripped the side of Clock's shoulder firmly as he tilted his gaze toward her. "We're all gonna do some things that we regret," she said softly. "That's just how life is. What's important is that we recognize our mistakes and fix them. And—well, I know we decided not to actually start dating yet, on account of the law and all that, but just because...this happened doesn't mean we can't still be friends."

"...Really?"

"Of course. It doesn't matter whether we're in a relationship or not—you're still a great guy, Clock."

Clock finally smiled at Fanny as the latter smiled back with a reassuring nod. Dot let out a sigh of relief and subtly wiped some imaginary sweat from her forehead with a dodged-a-bullet look in her eyes.

"You know, you...you're actually taking this a lot easier than I thought you would," Clock noted with a grin. "I mean, no offense."

"None taken," Fanny replied. "Like I said, I get it."

"Yeah. And...yeah, honestly, I thought you, like, wouldn't want to talk to me anymore or something."

"Oh, my—I hate when people do that!" Fanny ranted as she leaned back in her chair with a scoff and flung her hand in the air with a grin while Clock and Dot both let out a soft laugh. "Look, I don't buy all of that bullcrap about how best friends who started dating and then broke up just can't talk to each other anymore. Like, it's not that you can't, it's that you choose not to. I'm just like, damn, both of you, get the hell over yourselves. The past is..."

She stopped for a second and blinked a couple of times. Clock and Dot glanced at each other and were about to ask her to continue when she tilted her gaze down slightly, shaking her head with a light grin.

"...The past is the past," she chuckled softly. "And...what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Y'know?"