Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I remember the first day I got into this chaotic journey.
The day that changed my life forever.

Well...okay. I don't even remember how I woke up here in Miitopia one day. I don't think I ever really will remember.

Though I did at least remember who I am. That's good, right? I don't know.

The whole start of the journey was so confusing. It felt like a calling, as I went over to that daintly village of Greenhorne. I knew I had to go there.
But why? I don't know. You're asking me too many questions, so try to let me tell this story.

As I was making my way to Greenhorne, I noticed something bad. Really bad. A huge deity, up to no good.

Of course, I made my way over there...even though I had a really bad feeling to keep away.
I should've listened.

What I saw was something I'd never forget. The deity was stealing faces off of the citizens, leaving most faceless and the ones who'd been spared to dwell on the horrors of seeing their friends' and neighbors' faces torn right off, put on...monsters, of all things. As if the whole situation wasn't horrible enough.

The deity called herself "Dark Lord Sakura." What a name.

And even after she left, a sense of dread was over everyone. I felt terrible that I couldn't do anything to help.
At least, I thought I couldn't.

A worried mother by the name of Ginger asked me for a big favor: to rescue the face of her daughter, Izzy. The poor child just seemed so scared. I couldn't imagine how it felt to be unable to talk, to see. To not even know what was happening around her...

I was terrified, too. How in the world was I going to save this kid's face?

The answer was...kind of unexpected. But it was the start of something big.
And as scary as it was...I wouldn't change a thing that happened.

Dark Lord Sakura had placed the kid's face on a slime. A horrible, disgusting slime.
And...a very strong slime. One that I couldn't fight alone.

But what saved me was a gift the child's mother had given me: an antique good-luck charm.

A charm that had a guardian spirit, as it claimed. I wonder how the mother didn't know that?
But no matter.

The spirit had given me advice. They told me what I already knew: I couldn't fight the monster as a simple traveller, with no skills or weapons to protect myself.

So they gave me options. Seven options, to be specific.
They called them jobs. No matter what I picked, I would have much more luck and a better chance at getting the kid's face back.

There were a lot of options that I liked. But the Mage called to me. It sounded interesting. The idea of magic, that I could do easily when I mastered it...

Safe to say, I was easily able to defeat the Slime with my newfound power. The sight I saw of the child's face floating back to Greenhorne, where it's rightful owner would be happy to receive it again, was all that mattered.

I didn't even hesitate when the guardian spirit asked me for one thing, and one thing only.

Defeat the vile Sakura, and save the world.

I knew what I mightve had to face if I said yes. The monsters, the fights, and worst of all, Dark Lord Sakura herself.

But ultimately, when I promised the guardian spirit that "I will get those faces back and stop the Dark Lord, no matter what it takes.."

I meant it. Every single word.

Chapter Text

Getting back the face of that kid had been easy after I'd been gifted a job. Plus...being a mage was really fun!
It took me a while, but I learned the spell for Fire.

Fighting monsters was actually getting easier! It was scary at first, but it didn't take too long to get used to it. I guess the encounter with that slime had given me a scare, but it wasn't terrible after I'd grown used to battles.

Then I encountered a pretty big issue.

Two rock moths.
Just...moths. They shouldn't have been a problem, right? They were just rock moths. Nothing major or scary, and usually I can take them down easily...when they're just alone.

But I didn't realize just how strong they were when together. It just didn't make sense.
They were quick to overwhelm me, as they moved so fast that I couldn't even get a hit onto them! Even worse, because my fire spell usually worked best on monsters who walked on the ground like goblins, that just didn't help much.

I was pretty much trapped, as those stupid moths just kept diving in to attack me while I could hardly get a hit on them!

But just as I thought it could be over and I'd have to take this...very humiliating loss, an unexpected saving grace appeared.

"Hey! I'll help ya!"

Before I could even react, I saw someone, a somewhat shorter figure, jump in from...who knows? The rock moths, stunned by their sudden appearance, stopped momentarily. Long enough for the kid to get a hit onto one of the moths.

Wait...the kid.

That's a kid!

"No! No no no, I've got it! You stay back!" I quickly told the now very confused kid, running up in front of them to get the moths away.
At least the one that the kid had hit was rid of a poor soul's face. But this was dangerous!

I heard the child whine something in defiance, but I hardly paid attention as I swatted away the final rock moth.

Once the battle was over, I had to sit down on the ground for a moment, still overwhelmed and totally confused on what just happened.

Then it hit me.

There is a child here. An unsupervised child with seemingly no guardians nearby to keep an eye on...him?

"What are you doing here, out by yourself? It's dangerous!" I quickly told him, trying to shift my usually soft voice into a stern tone. A feeble attempt on my end to echo to him just how serious this was.

The kid just smiled a toothy smile at me in reply. Well, no. He was missing one of his teeth. But still.

"I'm going on an adventure, obviously!" He replied, looking at me as if I was the one who just said something bizarre. "Just like you, right? Aren't you an adventurer, too?"

I frowned. This kid seemed too young to grasp onto how serious this was. Or too naive to understand. Or maybe both.
"Yes, I am, but...listen, child. I'm an adult. You most certainly are not." I explained. "Where are your parents? Or...anyone to watch you? You can't be out here alone!"

The kid just blinked at me, staring for a second before he just shook his head. "I dunno."

Great. Just great. I'm here with this random child, who doesn't know where his parents are, who thinks he can totally survive on his own...

"Okay. Alright, that's...that's fine. But...we have to find them! You can't just be out here alone, it's dangerous. I won't allow it." I told him, my gaze softening. This was going to be tough, but it wasn't this kid's fault that he was in this situation. That's not what I believed, anyways.

He's just a kid, he wasn't gonna understand completely how dangerous this could've been.

"Let's start with this. What's your name?" I asked him, deciding I at least needed to know that before I did anything else. The kid smiled.
"I'm Alloy!" He cheerfully replied. He seemed really happy to say this. Odd, but I wouldn't question it.

"Okay, cool. That's a very nice name." I replied. "I'm Maleficent, but you can call me Mal. My actual name might be tough to say, so I get it if you do."

Alloy nodded. "Okay, Mal! What now?"

What now...Okay, right. What now?
"We find your parents, Alloy. You cannot be out here alone. You stick with me for now until we find them, okay?"

Alloy nodded, accepting my explanation. "Okay!"

I thought it would be quick. Just a half-hour search at the slowest.
But a half hour turned into an hour, then two hours, then three.
Then the sun began to set, and Alloy was shivering slightly.
"Mal, I'm cold..." he told me.

I frowned. We'd been looking for ages, and still no sign of anything. But what if there were his parents out there, desperately trying to find this kid?
But then again...it was dark. What was I supposed to do?
I sighed, pausing for a moment as I sat back down on the ground again.

Then Alloy told me something that surprised me.
"Mal...I don't think we'll find them."

I looked up at him, surprised but also confused.
"Oh, Alloy, of course we will. Why do you think we wont?"

Alloy shook his head.
"I've looked for them before, a lotta times! I've tried finding them for a bajillion days and I can't. I don't think we'll find them..."

He seemed very upset when he told me this. And as for me...I was absolutely appalled.
What did this mean? Were his parents out there? Maybe looking for him still, even though it'd been who knows how long? Had he gotten lost and they never bothered to find him?
Were his parents even out there at all?

My thoughts were interrupted by a sniffle from him. Oh goodness, he was crying.
"Hey, hey, it's okay! Don't cry, please! It's okay!" I quickly blurted out, semi-panicking but also trying to reassure him.

Surprisingly enough, he came over to me and tightly hugged me. Though he was still crying.
"I know, kiddo. It's okay. You don't have to be sad, it's okay."

I wasn't exactly even sure for the reason he was crying. Had this search just made him sad, since he couldn't find who he was looking for? I didn't dare ask.

"Listen, Alloy. Look at me." I told him. He was still crying, but he still listened.

"We can always look tomorrow, and the next day. But I know you're tired and I can tell you're sad. I'm not gonna ask why, but you can tell me when you want to." I told him.
I looked around and noticed another inn in the distance.

"See that over there? That's an inn," and a very conveniently placed one at that, "and it's warm and safe. So you're not gonna be cold and we won't have to be out here any longer. We'll stay there for the night, and in the morning we can start looking again, does that sound okay?"

Alloy said nothing, but he just nodded, hugging me tighter. Something just wasn't right, I'd never seen a kid this upset.

"If we find them, great! If we don't...we'll, I'll still figure something out. But I don't want you to be scared, okay? You're safe here."

Alloy finally spoke up. "...You promise?" He asked, his voice trembling since he was still crying, albeit not as much as he was before.

"I promise."
And I wasn't the type to break promises.
Ever.

Chapter Text

It's been a few weeks...maybe a month?...since I met Alloy. And so far? It's been a rollercoaster, to say the least.

We tried finding his parents. Many times. Each time was a failure, with no sign of them.
We even tried asking the people of Greenhorne if they'd maybe seen him, but nothing.
Poor Ginger, she did her best to help. "I know I was terrified with what happened to Izzy...this poor child much be just as scared." She'd told us. She had tried to help us search for them, but no luck.

And Alloy...oh, Alloy. The kid cried a lot. Almost every night he cried, when it was another day with nothing. He was hurting, it wasn't hard to tell.

Though as the days past, it felt like he cried less. He started to accept that maybe his parents weren't out there, even though I kept trying to convince him to keep him hopes up.

Yesterday, he came up to me. He was nervous, but I could tell he wanted to say what he was gonna say.
"Hi, Alloy. What's wrong?" I asked, putting down the book that I was reading to see what he wanted to say.

"Uhm..." He seemed to hesitate before he finally said it.
"Mal...I don't wanna keep looking. They're not out there."

"Alloy, but..." I sighed. "You never know. Maybe we've just had bad luck, kiddo. I'm sure they-"

Alloy interrupted me, something the otherwise very polite kid had never done ever.
"Mal, I'm tired of crying! I'm tired of getting my hopes up just to not find them. I'm tired of looking. I dont wanna look anymore, I'm tired..."

He looked like he was nearly about to cry again. I was...honestly, very hesitant. There was a part of me that just couldn't accept it, that we'd never find his parents. That he'd never get to go home.

But the more rational side of me understood.
Why should I keep subjecting him to this? To make him happy, just for him to cry at the end of every search? For him to face that over and over?
It wasn't fair.

I sighed. It was tough. But the next words I said were ones I only hoped were right.
"So what do you wanna do, Alloy?"

His answer surprised me.
"I wanna stay with you, Mal."

I didn't even know what to say. His answer literally made me speechless!
"Wh- Well, uh...Alloy, I dunno if...I can do that...maybe?" Could I?

Though unfortunately, that was the wrong way to answer...because now Alloy was crying.
"But I don't- *sniffle* I don't wanna leave! It's...I actually feel safe here, I don't..."

Yeah, that was all I needed to hear. I couldn't break this kid's heart again.

That day, he got an Inn room that catered to his own likes and comforts. He wouldn't have to live in fear of what could get at him outside ever again.

Today though...Today was a day.
For the first time, I got some goblin meat. Or...I did have some from recent expeditions, but I'd never tried it until now. I guessed Alloy could've maybe tried it, so I gave it to both of us.

I could tell something was up when even after I was done, he hadn't even touched his food. Honestly, I'm a slow eater. So this concerned me.
Especially since up to this point, he'd eaten pretty much whatever else we'd gotten.

"You okay, Alloy?" I asked him, looking over at him. He nodded, though he still didn't touch his plate.
"Yeah, I'm just..." His words trailed off as he spoke. Maybe he was just nervous.

"Okay. That's okay! Just make sure you eat some grub, alright?"
He nodded. One of the butterfly nectars were gone soon after.

And while this made me happy, it did confuse me a little.
He wouldn't eat goblin meat, but he would eat a butterfly nectar?
I wanted to ask him about it, but decided not to.

Throughout the day, there was nothing eventful. We still encountered goblins and rock moths.
We also encountered creatures called cumulus. They were pretty much what they sounded like: clouds! Annoying clouds. But still clouds!

I paid more attention to Alloy, since I was a little concerned. Between this morning and him crying yesterday, I was worried he might not be feeling his best.
Good thing I was paying attention, because I noticed something I hadn't noticed before.

Alloy was very much happy to fight any other monsters. Especially the rock moths. I think he's particular with the rock moths, since they were technically the first monster we fought together.

But for goblins...he seemed hesitant. On the chance they dropped goblin meat after their defeat, he looked repulsed before he'd point it out to me. Usually he was happy when creatures dropped food. But he seemed to have a problem with goblins, and goblin meat.

It was odd. I had to ask him about it.

At the end of the day, it had actually gone very well otherwise. Alloy was pretty tired, but he seemed happy.

Now we were back to grab some grub that we'd gotten. Though first...I had to ask Alloy something.
"Alloy!" I called out. "Could you come 'ere for a second? You're not in trouble, but I just wanna ask you about something."

Silence before I could hear the familiar quick stomps of Alloy running over. I'd have to teach him not to do that, but it wasn't a big deal.

"I've got a question, be honest with me on this, okay?" I asked him. He seemed nervous, but I tried to reassuringly smile so he knew nothing was wrong.

"How come you don't like meat? I noticed the whole day you didn't seem to like the thought of dealing with it, especially when we defeated goblins. Is it something you don't like?"

Alloy fell quiet after I asked that before he finally answered.
"I can't eat meat. It makes me feel really sick. Last time I tried before I met you, and it made my stomach hurt a lot..."

I frowned. It all made sense now. He seemed really ashamed of this, so I kneeled down to his level so I could actually talk to him without him feeling even more nervous.
"Oh, kiddo...I wish you would've told me." I sighed. "It's okay if you can't. You could be allergic or something, or maybe your body just doesn't let you. But we can figure something out. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

Alloy smiled slightly. "Okay. Thank you, Mal.."
I smiled too. "Don't thank me. What matters to me is that you feel heard, especially on things like this. I can't know unless you tell me, y'know?" I told him.
"But now I know, and we can figure something out. Actually, yknow what...we should try the cotton candy that the new monsters that we defeated dropped. How does that sound?"

That was enough to cheer up Alloy again. "Okay! I'm so excited, those looked so good! I can't wait to try it!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at his excitement as he ran off to go find the cotton candy.
Every day I learned something new about Alloy, but the fact that he now trusted me enough to tell me something very important like that made me very happy.

I wanted him to know he was safe here. He can trust me, no matter what.