Chapter Text
Noon approached and the sun was high up in the sky. Noki heavily panted out of exhaustion, debating on just falling in the river as well and resting. “You know you can stop now? We have more than enough.” Goldie called out.
“No...I didn’t get enough...have to..get…”
“Alright, alright come here.” Goldie picked up once more and this time he didn’t protest as he sort of just collapsed in her arms. “You got more than enough no worries. You just have to learn when to stop.”
Noki carried the fishing rod back while Goldie carried the bucket. “I have to admit,” Noki started. Goldie looked at him, “That was pretty fun. I would’ve never imagined myself enjoying something I wasn’t good at. Thanks.” he gave a small smile to her.
Goldie playfully rolled her eyes, “Oh, stop. But you’re welcome, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was beginning to think you were such a serious person.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You were always frowning, either that or you had a straight face all the time.” she noted.
That surprised Noki, he was always a happy person. Had he really been that upset about what happened yesterday? But even if it was just for a little while, all of his troubles melted away when he was with Goldie in the river this morning.
“Huh...sorry to give you that impression,” he said.
“No worries,” she smiled. Once they had reached the cabin Goldie turned to him, “I just need to drop this off at the Golden Goose market, would you mind cooking lunch?” she asked him.
‘Golden Goose?’ he thought. So they weren’t that far from the palace after all. Noki nodded, “Alright.”
With that, Goldie made a quick trip to the town. She had memorized the path that turned into shortcuts, shortcuts that she had walked for months. Goldie loved the town, the people there always greeted her without knowing she was a princess, she greeted the kids who seemed to know her as the fish lady and she would sometimes play with them as well. As much as she loved her royal status and all of it’s perks, she loved this life as well.
“Thirty-five fresh from the river!” she placed the bucket down on the table. The middle-aged man smiled,
“That’s more than usual! Well done, Goldie!” he grinned.
“Oh shucks it’s nothing. I had a friend help me today.” she said.
“That’s good, here.” he handed her a couple of coins, “I’ll see you in a few weeks.” Goldie waved him good-bye and was about to return back before he stopped her again, “Oh, Goldie! Sorry, one more thing.” the man took a paper out of his pocket, “Have you seen this dwarf?”
Goldie looked surprised. It was Noki. “Why are they looking for him?” she asked carefully, “Did he do anything wrong?”
The man shook his head, “No, he just went missing from the White Palace yesterday. The Prince and Princess are looking for him.” Just as he had said that another voice was heard,
“Noki!”
A shorter woman with brown hair called out his name. To her right was a tall prince dressed in blue, who she recognized to be Merlin of the Fearless Seven. Goldie was concerned and confused, but nonetheless she shook her head. “No, sorry I haven’t seen him. Gotta go.” and she quickly left the town.
On her way home, she thought about asking him about it, but if he knew they were looking for them would he want to go home? If she were being honest with herself she didn’t want him to leave. As free as she was in her cabin, it also got pretty lonely. But if that prince and princess were looking for him…
“Wait...why would a prince and princess be looking for a dwarf?” she asked herself out loud. That thought was cut short as she heard a scream coming from her cabin. Alerted, she sprinted to it and saw a bear approaching a much much smaller prey, which happened to be Noki who smelled of dead fish.
He didn’t have his crossbow with him, and admittedly he wasn’t that strong physically. Noki fell down and scooted back to the cabin door. It was locked as Goldie had accidentally taken the key with her. “Times like this I wish I had listened to Arthur’s training…” he mumbled to himself.
The bear snarled at him violently but it wasn’t long before a large thud was heard. Noki opened his eyes to see a sharp metal in front of him. Goldie had brought an axe in between them.
“Oh my god, you could have killed me!” he yelled.
“Please I could cut you an apple slice with this axe,” she grunted lifting it up. The bear had stood up on its hind legs, ready to fight the girl.
“Goldie, I don’t know much about bears but I think you’re supposed to leave it alone.” he said worriedly, backing up to the door. Goldie threw the key at him.
“Alright, I know about messing with bears more than anyone. So you don’t mess with me.” Goldie stared the beast down.
“Stop talking to the bear!” Noki yelled at her hysterically.
At this, the bear had suddenly shrunk down, and a little girl in a pink dress was shown.
“Oh..” Noki and Goldie looked at her, much much smaller than the both of them.
“Give me your fish! I was supposed to fish there this morning and you took all the good ones!” she stomped her foot down.
“Just go and catch more,” Noki offered, still a little confused.
“I don’t want to, I'm tired.” she stated flatly and stomped her foot on the ground, “Give me yours. I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it!”
Noki sighed, this is why he never wanted a sister. “Well if that’s what she wants, it couldn’t hurt to give her a few-”
“Hey! No one cares what you want, you brat!” Goldie yelled at her furiously. This surprised Noki greatly. He thought she would give it to her with no fight, apparently not. “You snooze, you lose, that's the deal. And you don’t go attacking someone like that you could hurt them. Now get off my property!” she scolded.
The little girl, now looking like she was about to cry, instead screeched out a scream that made Noki cover his ears.
Goldie rolled her eyes and walked up to her, “Ohh, the little girl thinks that if she screams she can get away with everything?” she said mockingly, “I can scream too, watch. AHH!” she yelled at her face.
“AHHH!”
“AHH!!”
“AHH!”
“Okay, I think you made your point, Goldie!” Noki said, covering his ears.
“Now, march!” Goldie sternly pointed at the woods. The little girl glared at her as she ran off. Goldie sighed as she walked back to the cabin. “You cooked anything yet?” she asked.
Noki merely shook his head, still surprised at her sudden change in personality.
“It’s fine. I’ll do it.” she breathed out.
---
“I swear you looked crazy.” Noki laughed at her. They spent the rest of the day inside the cabin, night was starting to come over but they decided to have an early dinner. They sat together by the fireplace, tons of pillows surrounding them as they made themselves comfortable.
“What? That brat deserved it, she’s the crazy one.” Goldie rolled her eyes. “I hate it. She reminds me of me when I was her age.”
“You were like that?” Noki asked.
Goldie nodded, “I don’t want to talk about it. Makes me cringe.” ‘And she’s not the only one who reminds me of me…’ she thought to herself. “I’m gonna get some milk,” she said standing up. As soon as she walked away however, a piece of paper fell from her pocket.
“What’s this?” Noki asked, picking it up. Goldie turned around and almost immediately ran back,
“No, wait!”
Noki widened his eyes, it was a missing poster for him. “Where did you get this…?” he asked, shocked.
Goldie sighed and sat back down next to him. “Golden Goose. Some prince and princess were looking for you. I didn’t tell you cause..” ‘I wanted you to stay..’ she said in her mind, but kept that to herself, “Can I ask what that’s about?” she asked worriedly.
Noki averted his gaze, not answering.
“Is that why you were in the woods yesterday? You ran away from home?” she asked. Albeit slowly, Noki nodded his head. Goldie understood, “Alright. I’m not gonna turn you in.” she said.
“Really?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she nodded, “I of all people should be able to understand not wanting to be home.”
“You trust me that easily?”
“Of course. I know you’re a good person.”
Goldie looked at him with the most sincere eyes he had seen; the fire reflecting in her eyes made a familiar warmth in his chest as he looked back at her.
“I...I’m not proud of it,” he told her, “I had a fight with brothers. We never fought, but for some reason, this thing I was working on just kept on breaking and breaking, and I just couldn’t get it right. I blew up and took it out on them. I said all these hurtful things to their faces, and it wasn’t even relevant at the moment”
“If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly was it about?” she asked.
“I’m a middle child. My father trusted his workshop to my older brother, meanwhile, he gave most of his attention to my younger brother and I was just there. I always felt like I had to prove myself just to get attention, not just from my father but from others as well.” he said, “I’m always lumped in with my brothers, not that that’s a bad thing but sometimes, I just want to be seen for Noki. Me as an individual.”
He let out a long sigh and gave a very weak smile as he looked at the carpeted floor, “What would they think of me now..”
He then felt a weight shift on his left side. Goldie had put an arm around him and looked at him with saddened eyes, “I’ve never met your brothers but…
I think you’re pretty great, Noki.”
He felt tears sting at the corner of his eyes. He wanted this moment to last forever. The feeling of being acknowledged for being himself.
“Mm...thanks, Goldie. It means a lot.” he coughed out.
“It’s nothing. I was just stating the truth.” she smiled. “So why’d you get mad anyway?”
Noki flushed slightly, “I’m...a bit of a perfectionist.” he admitted.
“Well that’s easy!” she beamed, “Just learn to let loose and all your problems will disappear! Hakuna Matata!”
“What?”
“Nevermind. My point is, you have to learn to accept that there are things that you just aren’t good at. That and you need to learn that not everything can always go your way. Trust me.”
Noki, a little annoyed at how easy she claims it to be, rolled his eyes at her, “How would you know?”
Goldie, a bit offended at the gesture crossed her arms, “Cause I was a perfectionist too.” Noki looked surprised, “You remember my sisters right? They were on about me cause I was a brat, acting like that little girl we met earlier. I got mad at them for telling the truth so I ran off and found a little house that belonged to three bears. Long story short I messed their house up because nothing was to my standards and they got mad at me. That’s when I realized, just cause I’m working on something for myself, doesn’t mean it’s not affecting others too.”
Noki's mind flashback to when Gretel kept on asking about his well being. “Oh…”
“Eventually I learned my lesson. I didn’t feel like talking to my sisters though, so I moved out here as a way to learn some responsibility. I haven’t talked to them since, but I know they still have my back. They’re family, just like your brothers will always have your back.” she concluded. “My point is, no one expects you to change overnight. I can help you get through it.” she offered a smile at him.
Noki looked ashamed; ashamed but thankful she didn’t get mad at him. “Sorry I did that...thank you. I’d really like it if you were by my side…” he slowly realized that last bit of the sentence and widened his eyes, “Uh..what I mean by that is-!”
Goldie gasped, “It’s raining!” she looked out the window.
“Huh?” Noki turned around to see Goldie already running out the door. Noki followed her to see her dancing and playing around the rain.
As he stood by the doorframe, it was then and there he realized that Goldie was everything he was not. She was happy being herself, not caught up about whether she would get sick from the rain, or whether she might slip or get her clothes dirty. She was just happy having fun by herself.
That warm feeling came to his chest again.
Although he loved her personality, there were bound to be times where it could go too far. Goldie had indeed ran too fast as she slipped on the mud.
“Hey! Watch out!” Noki ran towards her, tripping slightly from the mud as well but stood his ground as he held her.
“Are you stupid?!” Noki yelled. “It’s raining, you shouldn’t be running out like that, you could get hurt!” Goldie was supposed to respond to him, and she would’ve, she just expected to respond to a smaller green dwarf, not a 5′9 blonde human.
Noki had seemed to notice her unusual silence, and for a moment he thought he had went too far with her, his face scrunched in regret,
“I’m sorry, Goldie, I didn’t mean to-”
“Human..” she muttered.
“What?” he looked at her eyes and saw them looking up and down, ‘What did she..’ his eyes widened in realization. “I’m human?” It occurred to him that when he ran across the mud, though very brief, he must have slipped and fallen a little too close to her face before he grabbed her.
“Oh my god, but the only way to break the curse is to-”
He looked at Goldie, who looked equally starstruck as well. He didn’t realize but apparently, they had feelings for each other. Red finally made its way to Noki’s face as he helped her up. “I’m so sorry- are you okay-?” and she kissed him again. Her arms were around him as she pulled apart,
“You were human this whole time?!” she yelled as she pulled away.
“Y-Yeah,” he managed to get out, still surprised at their second kiss.
“I mean don’t get me wrong, I liked you for yourself but I didn’t think you’d be human!” she said. She suddenly started laughing as the rain hit her face. “It all makes sense now! You’re Noki from the F7, no wonder Prince Merlin was looking for you!”
“That was Merlin?” he asked, “Wait no, that’s not the point. Hold on, there are too many things happening now...” he hadn’t noticed, but unconsciously his hands were comfortable around her as they held each other in the rain.
All went well after that. Goldie had encouraged Noki to go back to the White Palace, but he only agreed if she would come with him, and that’s what they did. They passed through the back entrance which was their workshop. The surprised look on Pino and Kio’s faces when Noki had returned was indescribable. They didn’t care if he was already human, they were just so relieved and happy he was back. Noki had apologized to them, but they already understood. At that moment Noki was more than grateful just to be with them. The commotion had caused the rest of the group to come down to see Noki as a human, and a blonde woman beside him.
After apologizing for all the stress he gave the group, they apparently couldn’t care less and instead surrounded Goldie, asking a million questions to which she happily responded as she felt at home.