————<•>————

'It's just nice to know my birthday gift to you didnt go to waste'
————<•>————

I lean against Jim's kitchen counter with a raised eyebrow and my arms crossed, watching as Merlin seems to be closing and opening the fridge door over and over.

I look over to Jim who's cooking us food, both of us sharing amused looks as we watch the man play with the fridge like every kid did at five years old.

"Mm, fascinating" Merlin mumbles as he continues to open and close the door. "But how do you know the light goes out when you close the door?"

"If you peak it open the tiniest bit, you can see the light is off" I tell the man as his eyes widen, immediately peeking the door open a smidge.

"Interesting" Merlin mumbles in wonder.

"I never expected Merlin to be in my house" Barbara says in amazement as she stares at the man.

"You've had trolls, goblins and changelings here" Claire reminds as her and Toby start setting up the table. "Why not a wizard?"

I smile as I grab the plates from Barbara and hold them out for Jim as he starts to place the crepes on them. I then look to his apron and let a fond smile appear on my face as I start to stare at Jim with a giddy look.

Jim continues to place the crepes on the plates before he looks up to me, a confused look on his face as he notices my stare.

"What's that look for?" Jim mumbles to me as I start to hand Barbara the plates with crepes on them.

"Look? What look?" I mumble with the same giddy smile still on my face.

"That happy look" Jim mumbles as he pokes my cheek making me chuckle lightly.

"It's just nice to know my birthday gift to you didnt go to waste" I say with a shrug.

Jim pauses as he looks down to his apron, a flush appearing on his face.

"I actually wear it all the time" Jim shrugs sheepishly as he quickly looks away and back to the crepes.

"Kiss the chef" I read on the apron before shrugging. "Well, I have to do what it says, don't I?"

I grab Jim's chin and turn his face to me, placing a soft kiss on his lips before pulling away with a cheeky smile, giggling at Jim's bewildered face.

I smirk at the boy as I start to grab the plates for Claire and Toby, while Jim grabs the plates of food for the two of us. The two of us make our way out of the kitchen, smiles on both our faces as we make our way towards the couches where Claire and Toby are sitting.

"So Gunmar stole your staff" We hear Barbara tell Merlin as she places his food infront of him. "Is that all he needs to make the, um, the...the—?"

"The Eternal night, mum" Jim tells her as the two of us walk past Barbara and Merlin and sit down on the couches with Claire and Toby.

I hand them both their plates before smiling in thanks as Jim hands me my own.

"Yes, the Eternal night" Barbara nods, a worried look on her face.

"Fear not, Mother of Jim" Merlin says as he continues to shovel food in his mouth. "When I designed my staff, I put in a safeguard"

"See? We're in good hands" Jim nods to his mum as he eats his crepe.

"Then again, no safeguard is a guarantee" Merlin shrugs as I pause eating to look at him. "It's been centuries since I've eaten. Metal face here was lucky I didn't eat him back in the cave"

The four of us immediately freeze, Toby even dropping his fork to the ground as we slowly turn to look at the old man. I nervously smile at Merlin as I shuffle closer to Toby, just for precaution.

"He's joking, right?" Toby asks nervously as he looks to the three of us.

"Mm, not really" Merlin shrugs as he dabs his face with a napkin. "Time is of the essence. Take me to the nearest blacksmith at once"

We all quickly lead Merlin down to Jim's garage. Jim has a torch in his hand as he opens the door, moving it around everywhere as he leads the group inside.

"We have a couple of tools and some old Christmas decorations" Jim explains as Merlin looks around. "Will that work? Or...what are you making exactly?"

"It's none of your concern now" Merlin shrugs as he grabs out a wrench. "No forge? No grindstone? Not even a bellows?"

"No, but Jimbo has a garage door. Check it out!" Toby exclaims as he presses the garage door.

We all watch as his garage door opens, revealing the daylight and green trees. Toby them closes it again before reopening it, continuing this until I get annoyed.

I slap Toby's hand away from the button, the boy just pouting at me as Merlin sighs tiredly.

"Oh, this will have to do" Merlin mumbles as he starts to look around.

"Well, when you said you added a safeguard, how long do safeguards typically guard...safely" Claire words with a confused face.

"Yeah, are we talking weeks? Years?" Toby asks before we all jump as Merlin starts to kick Jim's vesper.

Jim yells out as he pushes the man away, Merlin not paying any mind to Jim as he continues to walk around.

"Depends on Gunmars cleverness" Merlin says as I watch Jim fuss over his vesper amused. "Maybe a few hours"

A few hours? And here I thought we'd at least have a few days.

"But you can stop him, right?" I ask nervously as I watch Merlin toss a hammer randomly behind him.

The hammer goes flying towards Jim's vesper but I quickly catch it with my magic, lowering it to the ground as Jim gives me a thankful look.

"I have lost most of my magic, dear" Merlin says as he continues to scavenge through a box. "But this old bucket knows a few spells. I need you all to acquire a few items first"

"What sort of items?" Jim asks as Merlin turns to look at the four of us.

"I'm sure nothing too difficult to gather" Merlin shrugs. "Lend me your quill. I shall write you a list"

The four of us share a look before Jim clears his throat.

"We're fresh out of quills" Jim chuckles sheepishly.

"Can you text it?" Toby asks as he gestures to his phone.

"Eh" Merlin sighs in annoyance, and I'm assuming that means no.

————<•>————

The sound of the school bell ringing makes me grimace as the four of us walk into school.

"Alright, Blinky and Aaarrrgghh are collecting a bunch of these, which leaves three things for us" Jim explains as he looks down to the list Merlin wrote for us (using a pen, not a quill).

"Alright, what's first on the list then?" I ask as I lean around him to look down at the list. "An Antramonstrum shell"

"Strickler thinks he has one in his old office" Jim explains.

Why would a teacher have that in his school office? I have no idea.

"Ugh, I'm having flashbacks of Fart Cloud McDoomsday" Toby grimaces. "Let's make this quick"

We nod and start to walk into school for the first time in quite awhile (we're definitely all failing), but of course get stopped by none other then Mary.

"C-bomb? Y/n/n? Where have you two been?!" Mary's voice shrieks as she walks up to us. "The battle of the bands is right around the corner and you've missed, like, every rehearsal! And your the one who organised those rehearsals Y/n!"

"I-I know! Things have been coming up, I'm so sorry" I grimace as I gesture with my hand for Jim and Toby to go on.

"Things have been very crazy" Claire nods with a sheepish smile.

"Hmm. And what's this I hear about both your parents being in a play with Darci's dad?" Mary asks confused as my eyes widen in confusion, but I try to hide it. "I thought your mum was on a business trip again?"

"Uhh. It's a long story" I stumble out but luckily Claire saves it.

"A really crazy story. But here's what happened..." Claire says as she starts to lead Mary away with me following, confused on where this is going.

————<•>————

After making an amazing excuse to Mary about everything, Claire and I met up with Toby at the bike racks, all of us waiting for Jim who's apparently still distracting Senor Uhl.

When I spot Jim finally walking out of the door, a smile appears on my face as I walk forward.

"There you are! Glad you got away from Senor Uhl" I chuckle before I notice two students following behind Jim.

Ones a girl with platinum blonde hair (honestly it's almost white) and the others a tan boy with brown shoulder length hair, and both of them seem to be inspecting a bicycle.

"Uhhh, who are they?" I mumble as I watch them confused.

"Wait, are they on the list?" Toby asks as I facepalm.

"Meet Aja and Krel. I think they're foreign exchange students" Jim explains. "Principle Uhl says if I want to pass sophomore year I have to show them around this wonderful, ordinary world of Arcadia"

"You do know Arcadia is not a world, right?" The boy (Krel) says as he pops out of no where, making me jump on the spot and turn to him. "It is barely a municipality"

I then notice the girl seems to have tried to ride the bike they were looking at, but had crashed. I grimace and go to help but she was already up with a giddy expression on her face.

She quickly makes her way over to Toby with her phone in hand.

"Amazing! You have robot teeth. Can I touch them?" Aja says as she grabs Toby's mouth to pull it open, inspecting his braces and taking photos as Krel makes his way over to help keep the boys mouth open.

"Uh...who are these people Jimbo?" Toby attempts to say with his mouth still being held open.

"Better yet, where did they come from?" Claire asks as the two seem to have never seen many normal every day to day things.

"Cantaloupia" The two chorus with smiles.

"Oh...Cantaloupia...uh, where's that?" I ask, attempting to be nice and not rude.

"It is a very small island off the coast of Santo Puerco" Krel explains before standing extremely close to my face with his eyes narrowed. "What? You didn't learn that at school?"

"Uhh, no! No, I-I totally know where that is..." I stumble out as I try to lean my face away from the boy.

"Hmm. I'm sure" The boy says before finally leaning away from my face.

I sigh out in relief before I feel Jim's arm around my shoulder as I watch as Jim seems to be watching Krel with narrowed eyes. I could almost roll my eyes at the boy but decide to let it go.

"Guys, don't you remember we have some important errands to run? ASAP?" Claire says to Jim and I.

"Yeah, but I also remember I need to graduate sometime this century" Jim grumbles before a sarcastic smile appears on his face as his arm tightens around my shoulder. "So lets show them our totally normal town"

Jim and I then gasp as Aja pops out of no where, squeezing herself between Jim and I and laying her arms around our shoulders.

"Lively!" Aja says excited before she sees our confused faces. "You know, lively. Cool. Awesome. Outstanding...Lively!"

"Yeah! Lively!" I agree with a nervous laugh as she finally removes her arm from around our shoulders.

"Totally. Lively" Toby nods as he walks over to us.

We watch as Aja and Krel start to walk away, before we sigh and follow them.

"Very odd" Toby mumbles, all of us just nodding.

————<•>————

Authors note:

AJA AND KREL!

I just found out that Krel is played by Diego Luna and I am in love with that man so...

Also I'd like to mention a little thought that came to my head. Imagine the end of the Trollhunters movie where Jim went back in time and stuff and he sees Y/n but she doesn't remember him at all and he has to live with that...cause that kinda hurts me ngl

But don't worry! Bc if I ever do the Trollhunters movie, the ending will definitely be changed bc that shit was GARBAGE!

Anywho, Make sure to comment and vote! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!