Disclaimer: For this and all proceeding one-shots I own nothing. Is it cool if I only say it this one time? Is everyone clear? I don't own Tin Man or the characters. I just like to play with them a lot.
"Muglug"
According to Glitch in a deleted scene on the DVDs, muglug is a kind of soup. For this round, the word "muglug" must appear in the text of your story at least once.
The Blues
Her apologies followed him down the long, and apparently never ending, hallways of the Finaqua Palace. He stoutly ignored them refusing to break stride. He was not running, that would be an act of cowardice. He might admit that he was walking a bit briskly, but only a bit. Still this of all things was not going to break him, it was too utterly ridiculous.
"Cain! Honestly, I'm really sorry!" If she didn't lower her voice she was going to start waking people.
He turned a corner suppressing a sigh of relief when he saw the doors to his room and the only true DG free zone in the entire place. Once he was in there he would be safe. He found it ironic that he was seeking sanctuary from his charge. That certainly couldn't be a good sign. If only the supporters of the dead witch knew what they were up against they would be high tailing it in the other direction, away from his princess. Of course then he'd be out of the job.
He reached for the handle of the door turning it swiftly. He also wouldn't have blue-
"Come on, Tin Man, it was an accident! Please talk to me!"
He got one foot in the room before she pounced him. He grunted as her arms went around his neck and her body weight threw them both forward into his haven. He stumbled several feet managing, somehow to keep them both upright.
"What did I say about jumping on me from behind?" He growled. He had somehow lost the battle of getting attacked from the front. He wasn't sure how that had happened but at least he could see that coming. He counted that as a victory of sorts.
She made air quotes with her fingers in front of his eyes, arms still firmly around his neck as she clung to him. She imitated his accent as she repeated his warning and he felt his jaw twitching. "Do that again and I swear I'll make you wish the seamstress still had you." He let out a sigh of pure frustration as she kicked the door shut with one of her dangling feet. Speaking normally again she let him go and landed lightly on the ground. "At least you're talking to me again." She giggled good-naturedly.
She failed to mention he was now trapped with her. In reply he glared and pointed at her. "I swear that is the last time I teach you to do anything. Ever."
The Princess gave him a thoroughly miserable look. Shoulders slumping in obvious guilt her blue eyes went three sizes bigger and she tentatively reached a hand up. "No one else saw. I can fix it."
Her fingers sparked with white light and he caught her wrist. "No magic! With my luck you'd set my hair on fire! I'd rather it be blue than go bald or worse have third degree burns!"
She bit her lip and suddenly he felt bad. He shut his eyes wishing he knew how she had such an affect on him. One look was all it took to get him to do any idiotic or foolhardy thing she asked. He opened his eyes again to find her still staring up at him as if waiting for his permission to do something to help.
This really wasn't her fault. It was his. He should have known better than to agree to teach her to cook anything at one in the morning, especially muglug. He knew it stained, which was why he had made her put on old clothes. He simply hadn't foreseen her losing her balance and dumping a bowl on his head. He wasn't a viewer. Still, he should have known the escapade had accident written all over it when she had been skipping happily around the kitchen babbling about something called a diner.
"All I need is to wash it out with water and a certain soap." Then the horrible shade of navy blue would be gone from the top of his head. Not that he disliked the color. He just didn't want it on his head.
"Oh." She said softly. He let go of her wrist and turned toward his bathroom. He heard her shift before her voice broke haltingly across the whopping two feet of ground he had managed to cover. "Did you really mean that, Cain?"
He turned his head having no idea what she was talking about yet again. She was standing looking lost and forlorn in the middle of his room with a giant blue splatter over the front of her old oversized gray shirt. He frowned at her. This wasn't the normal cheery young woman he was used to dealing with. This wasn't the DG he had just seen making a mess in the kitchen as she expertly sliced vegetables, somehow managing to talk faster than a street vender, watch him, and avoid chopping off her own fingers by a mere hair.
Her whole demeanor was making him even edgier than when he had introduced her to what she had termed Outer Zone style coffee. That had been a mistake of epic proportions. "Did I mean what?"
"That you weren't going to teach me anything anymore." She said in a depressed voice.
He grunted again. It was his typical response around her. Mostly because it was neutral and could be interpreted in many ways. "Of course not."
She brightened immediately and stepping up to him went up on her toes and kissed him on his cheek. He froze in surprise as she bounced back with a huge grin on her face. He felt his neck get hot and glared at her. She simply grinned wider as she pranced to the door. "Good, because tomorrow I want to learn how to shoot."
He heard the door click shut and winced. That was a horrible idea. He'd best get his hair washed so he could get as much sleep as possible. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.