TLG SPOILERS

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Comic Relief

He wasn't a main player on the field, no matter how much he said so. He was useful, but he wasn't in the emotional aspect of any of their adventures. All he was meant to do was plaster a smile on his oversized mouth and crack a stupid joke to make her laugh. Then she would go off with Fowl, not realizing the broken heart she left behind.

Jesters weren't meant to be touchy-feely. The humor wasn't supposed to be bittersweet.

And they especially weren't supposed to fall in love.

But he had. And he had to hide it behind the false smile. Every day, every night.

One night, they had slept at the PI office. Just zonked clean out on the floor. And in the morning, he'd had his arms wrapped against her and her head had been on his chest. The whole next week, she teased him about it, never once catching the truth in her words. And out came his feigned grin again.

Even now, watching her animatedly talk with the newly resurrected and re-memorized Fowl, he could see the connection between the two.

And felt the one-sided love that radiated toward her from his own heart.

Mulch turned away, his smile, for once, absent.