This was prompted by Pom, who just sent me "Balloon, Drabble, any pairing." It turned into a bit more than a drabble, but here. It was fun to write and a good practice exercise. Enjoy.

He would have preferred not to be there. He was not one for sticky sweets whose sugary content made the corner of his eyes hurt, nor did he enjoy the massive throng of Atmosians that kept stepping on his toes. The whole Terra seemed to have packed themselves into the town's square to ogle to traveling circus performers and gorge themselves on "delicacies" normally found on Terra Neon. Children were playing games and winning large plush Sky Sharks; hopefully, Junko wouldn't react to the plush counterpart of his allergy. He knew he and the rest of the Squadron didn't want to deal with that.

So, Stork stayed on the bench he had parked himself on, arms folded, spending every moment wishing he was back on the ship. Or at least that he had brought his book with him. Staying on the Condor was his plan, but for some reason, Finn had insisted he come along. And when Finn got an idea like that into his head, he proved difficult to be swayed.

When Stork finally ceded to going to the carnival, he didn't really understand why he had said yes, or why his agreement had made Finn smile as brightly as it did. The Merb didn't see how he being at this smelly, annoying festival made any difference, because Finn had lost himself in a group of winking Atmosian girls and a cart selling Flame Corn at half the usual price. In fact, Stork hadn't seen Finn since they landed, and that had to have been ticks ago.

Finn's antics shouldn't have bothered him that much because that's always what Finn did, but Stork couldn't stop the frustration festering in the pit of his stomach. Why did Finn practically beg him to come along only to leave him alone?

You know what, no. Stork didn't have to deal with this. Stork stood suddenly, flicking his bangs out of his eyes. He wasn't going to sit around when he was obviously uncomfortable; he had no reason to stay in this muggy crowd. He was going to his ship and he was going to have a good time without Finn, since that's obviously what Finn had decided to do to him.

The Merb slinked through the people quickly; he felt a headache starting to form. Great. That's all he needed. He twitched when he thought he heard his name being shouted over the crowd. Now he was hearing things. Had he perhaps contracted some new strain of disease? It made sense. The number of people around him combined with the pathogens they were all exhaling constantly—

"Stork!"

He screamed, startled out of his mental symptom check. He whipped around to Finn, who was sweating a little below the hairline and grinning like the idiot he was.

"Dude, where've you been? I've been looking for you all day!"

Before Stork could retort with a sassy comment on Finn choosing half price Flame Corn over him, the blond grabbed his wrist and started forward.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter." The sharpshooter quickened his pace, forcing Stork to run to keep up. "We gotta hurry! We can probably catch the end of the Fencing Ferris show!"

"The what?" Stork managed to shout above the roar of the carnival patrons.

"Fencing Ferris!" Finn started babbling about the show, where apparently this Atmos famous fencer cut through twelve Sky-Quats with one parry, but Stork didn't pay that much attention. What preoccupied him were Finn's fingers tight around his wrist and the blond's sudden interest in parading him around when Finn would be having such a better time without—

"Oof!" Stork crashed to the ground with a thump. Finn didn't notice, apparently, because he didn't turn around from his spot in line in front of a small cart selling carnival wares. Stork pushed himself off the ground, only to have his fingers stomped on by a small boy that ran past. The Merb wheezed away the pain as he shakily stood.

"Okay." Stork blew his hair out of his face. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

Finn turned around, "Huh? Oh, one sec, dude." And he turned his back to him again.

"No!" Stork grabbed him by the shoulder and whirled him around. "Now, tell me why you ditched me when we landed and why you're now dragging me around this death trap of a carnival—"

"Dude, I thought you were following me, and then I turned around and you were gone, and I had to find you—"

"Excuse me," Finn and Stork broke from their argument to glance at the attendant at the booth. The salesman held out a bright blue balloon that hovered happily on its string. Finn brightened, tossing a coin to the balloon man.

"Thanks, man," He took the floaty ball and spun on his heels back to Stork.

"Okay, look, I know I accidentally ditched you earlier," Finn held up his hands defensively, as if to emphasize the 'accidentally' part, "But, I was trying to find you! Cause there's no way I'm letting you just sit around and read or whatever. You're gonna have fun today if it kills me."

"I am?" Stork gave him a skeptical look. For one, Stork thought sitting around and reading would be fun. Secondly, why did Finn care if he had fun or not? Finn cared about his own fun… not the fun of the squadron's neurotic helmsman. Why was he so adamant?

The sharpshooter knelt down and tied the string of the balloon around Stork's wrist before he could twitch away from the touch. Finn smiled up at the Merb, his blue eyes sparkling.

"There. Now, you won't get lost, cause you'll have a balloon!"

Stork rolled his eyes; Finn's logic never ceased to baffle him.

"I feel so much more secure now." Stork's sarcasm made Finn deflate.

"Okay, come on, I know I'm really bad at this whole 'date' thing, but hey, I'm trying my best!"

Wait a minute. Had Stork heard that right? That must have been due to a Mind Worm infestation, because there was no plausible way to explain why Finn would want to be on a date with him.

"I'm sorry, did you say… Date?!" Stork wished his voice hadn't cracked when he spoke.

For an instant, Stork swore he could see a flash of panic across Finn's face, but then the blond sharpshooter laughed awkwardly.

"Psh, nah! Now, come on, let's just see if we can catch the Fencing Ferris show," Finn started walking towards a tent, Stork stepping close enough behind him to notice the red twinges across the tips of the sharpshooter's ears.

The show had ended by the time they got there, but Finn seemed unphased. He just led Stork on to the next big thing, and then to the next, and by the end of the day, Stork realized that he didn't hate the carnival as much as he had thought he did. The throngs of people were still uncomfortable, but when he wasn't traversing through it alone, he didn't feel clastrophobic. Even those sugary treats didn't completely disgust him when he could enjoy them with a grinning goofball like Finn. He and Finn had even won the largest plush Sky Shark at the game tent, thanks to Finn's sharpshooting skill.

Once all the festivities had ended and they were all back on the Condor and the Storm Hawks were flying into the night sky, Stork surreptitiously tied the silly balloon that Finn had bought him to the steering column so he could remember that Finn had actually succeeded. He had had fun. Even if it wasn't supposed to be a "date."

I need to work on endings, but I hope you enjoyed.