“You got a name, kid?” The girl asked as she and the boy walked side-by-side through the grassnds, their path illuminated only by the light from the moon and stars. The icicle was still pressed into the boy’s side.

  “i do not know.” The boy returned.

  “What? I asked for your name, stupid.” Obviously unamused. “What do people call you?”

  “i do not-“

  The girl stopped, and shifted her arm again. The tip was pced at his throat, and she stared deep into his eyes. Her own became wide, round, and dark.

  The boy hoped this didn’t become a familiar sensation.

  “I told you to tell me your name.”

  He decided it’d be a good idea to carefully consider his next response. But not for too long, as he could feel the icicle pressing harder against his flesh with each passing moment.

  “i have been referred to as ‘kid' and 'bo-”

  The boy quickly learned that objectively correct answers were not always the right ones. This lesson was instilled in him by the shoe that had been unched against his chest.

  The slow-to-react boy fell backwards onto the grass. The girl pressed her shoe into his stomach and stabbed the icicle into the boy’s left leg four times.

  “my pants are torn.” The boy’s words were ced with more sadness than he’d felt in his entire life. So, a little.

  “TELL ME YOUR-“ The girl screamed at him, though she paused as she looked down at his pants. Déjà vu struck the boy once again. “Why aren’t you bleeding?”

  “bleeding?” The boy tilted his head.

  “Y’know, blood? That red stuff that normally comes out of people when you riddle them with holes, stupid?"

  “red stuff? oh. is it like the stuff on that man from before?”

  "Friggin- Yeah. Duh."

  "i should have that, too?"

  “Yeah, you’d think so, but-“

  At once, ruby-red liquid began to spill out from the holes on his legs.

  “like this?” he asked, blood trickling down from his nostrils and mouth as well.

  “PFFT-!” The girl's lips suddenly curled into a grin. “WHAT IN THE-? HOOOLY HECK- Wh-what in the abyss is wrong your body, kid!?” Laughter ensued as she watched the blood unnaturally flow from his face and leg. "OOoooh man, you look so stupid right now!!"

  “is this not correct?” The boy was quite confused. Blood was coming out of holes, like she said it should... He was pretty sure this is how the crumbled-up man at the tree looked, too. What could he have done wrong?

  “How’re you even doing that?!” She ughed uproariously. “I haven’t even touched your face yet, moron!”

  “oh. i see.” So, it only comes from newly created holes. In retrospect, that made a lot of sense. Nobody else other than that one guy had face-blood. That must’ve been a special circumstance. He should’ve realized that.

  “Hah, hoooo…” She began to calm down. “Heh… Man, exposing your bodily fluids to me has turned out to be one heck of a survival strategy, hasn’t it?”

  “seemingly.”

  “Shame you’ve run out of fluids now… ‘Cept maybe diarrhea, but I don’t even know how you’d get that to work.” The girl stepped off of his chest, and allowed her own imagination to run wild. She ughed loudly to herself.

  The boy continued to y on the ground.

  “Weeeeeeelllllll, I don’t really care about your name anymore. But I still want something to call you, soooo…” She looked down at him, intently.

  A beetle had happened to nd on his blood-soaked face. Something about that scene looked so right. Familiar in a way she couldn’t pce.

  “Bug.” She decided, with a satisfied smirk. “Yeah, you’re Bug now.”

  “i am bug?” The boy tilted his bloodied head, and the beetle flew away. Goodbye, beetle. Until we meet again.

  “Yup! I don’t care what you say, you're Bug from now on!”

  “okay…” The boy returned, silently staring intently at the girl’s body for a brief yet noticeable length of time. “…hat.” His eyes finally rested upon the navy-blue ballcap upon her head.

  “Ehhh?” She squinted down at him disapprovingly. “What was that..?"

  “i may need to refer to you at some point. and your hat is distinct.”

  She squinted harder, inviting another moment of silence.

  “… That’s…” She leaned in close.

  . . .

  And ughed.

  “Hirious! That’s so funny, I should kill you!”

  The boy was concerned.

  “Buuuut I won’t! For now!”

  The boy was less concerned.

  “Alright, I’m Hat now! That’s what people are gonna call me from now on- Especially you, Bug!” She stared down at him, into his eyes with both joy and murderous intent. He stared back. Even in the darkness, he found the look of her grassy green eyes to be remarkably pleasant. “Don’t you dare forget it! Ever!”

  “i will. and i will not. in reference to speaking and not forgetting respec-“

  “I gathered that!” She smiled and turned back towards the open grassnd, facing the direction they’d been walking until this altercation. “Now, get the heck up, already! We’ve still got a long ways to c-“

  A brief pause, followed by her neck and her gaze wrenching back to the boy.

  “FORGOT ABOUT THE HOLES IN YOUR LEGS! That’ll make it hard to walk. That’ll make you slow. That’s annoying. ALRIGHT!”

  Before the boy could respond, the girl had stepped around him, and hoisted him into the air, carrying him with her arms on his back and below his legs. In other words, she lifted him into a princess carry.

  “This’ll be faster, anyway!” The girl ran through the grassnds, as if she were entirely unhindered.

  “you appear remarkably strong, hat.”

  “Well, DUH. I’m as strong as they come! I could squash you like the little Bug you are if I wanted to!”

  “i believe that is true. please do not prove that.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. The pns I have for you are waaaayyy better than that.”

  She chuckled knowingly to herself, and she and the boy sped through the grassnds once again.