Early in the morning, Claus was reluctantly heading his way to Fuel’s house. Originally, he was going to go swing off of trees, but Lucas made him go visit Fuel instead.

And alone no less!

Lucas had told him that Fuel wanted to show them both something he thought was cool, but Lucas also wanted to help their mother with knitting and cleaning, so he sent him instead.

“Wanting to clean? Seriously? Geeze…” Claus grumbled and continued to kick a medium sized pebble to keep him company on the walk. He had the choice to decline his twin’s request, but not only did he feel he needed to get on Lucas’s good side, he wanted to be nice. Even though he was totally oblivious to Fuel considering him a friend and Lucas loving him as much as he always did. 

“Not that I’m curious or anything…” Claus tried to convince himself once he was close to Fuel’s home.

Fuel didn’t give his spunky friend the chance to knock on the door, he shouted up from his window, “Hey, Claus! I’ll be down right away!”

As much as Claus wanted to snort and say ‘whatever’, he tried to his best ability to seem as casual and unbiased as possible. Once Fuel opened the door, he flashed a toothy grin, something he was known for amongst all of Tazmilly. He greeted, “Hey, Fuel,” easily by default. When he relaxed a bit, he realized meeting up with him wasn’t so bad already.

“So where’s Lucas?” Fuel asked. He hoped that Claus would not get upset at the question.

“He wanted to help mom clean,” Claus answered and shrugged as to say, ‘I don’t get it either.’

Fuel frowned and replied, “Well…okay. He probably wouldn’t have found it as cool as we would’ve, though.”

Whatever Fuel had to show piqued Claus interest.

“…Is it like a really huge mud slide?”

“Good one, but nope!”

“…Hmm…” Claus hummed as he thought of the many things Lucas disliked. But he also had to put into consideration on the possibility of ‘kind-of’ like as well. But during his brain cranking Fuel called him out of his thoughts.

“Don’t spend time thinking about it! Let me show ya!” He exclaimed and ran on ahead, indirectly initiating a race with the ever competitive Claus.

Once Fuel had reached where he wanted to be, he slowed to a halt and waited for Claus to stop by shortly after.

“Here we are,” he said and rustled the bush.

“What? Is there something in it?”

“Nope,” Fuel responded and snapped off two branches from it. He turned to Claus and presented the tube like stems and said, “This thing is like a pre-set up and loaded blow gun bush thing!”

“Oooh really?” Claus asked as he took one of the tube stems and examined it. He then walked over to the bush and peeled back a leafy branch absolutely covered in berries.

“Wow..! You’re right, Fuel! And the berries are kinda big so it’d make a perfect splatter!”

“Yes! Exactly!” Fuel agreed and started to mass pluck the berries into a waist pouch of his. “Any ideas on what we should splat?”

“More like who we should splatter, Fuel…” Claus snickered and mass picked berries into his own pouch he  thankful he brought along.
—————

Back at the cozy homes of Hinawa and Flint’s, Lucas was on top of Hinawa’s shoulders as he helped dust off the top of tall shelves of the home. He smiled when he heard his mother giggle a ‘thank you’ to him. He was always happy to make his Mother’s life easier since she always does so much for him. Whenever Hinawa wobbled he worried if he was putting too much weight on his fragile mother. He asked, “I’m not too heavy am I, mama?”

“Of course not, sweetie. Just when you’re dusting the dust our balance sync changes a bit.”

“Oooh, okay. Thank goodness I’m done then!” Lucas playfully said and climbed down from his mother as carefully as he could. He gave her a grin and Hinawa gave him a grin.

“It’s amazing how much dust can accumulate in such a short time! Luckily we do a scrub down of the whole house every month, huh, Lucas?”

“Yes. I hope to maintain a really clean house like yours,” Lucas replied and squeezed his mother’s hand with approval.

“I’m sure you will, Lucas,” Hinawa said and patted her neat son's head with her free hand.

Lucas, eager to help out more, asked, “Is there anything else we can do?”

“You wanted to practice knitting with me, didn’t you?”

“Oh! That’s right, I did…” Lucas murmured while he bit his thumb.

“But before that, Lucas…” Hinawa started her unfinished sentence to get Lucas’ attention. Once he looked up at her, she continued with a question, “What about Claus? Aren’t you going to catch up to him?”

Lucas shook his head and answered, “Nope! I wanted him to play with Fuel alone, because I think he felt left out when Fuel and I talked too much about stuff he wouldn’t want to talk about. Then probably thought Fuel liked me more or I liked Fuel more. At least, that’s what I think,” Lucas explained to his mother.

“Aw, I see…” Hinawa answered and brushed her hand through Lucas’ hair. “So that’s what he was upset about?”

Lucas tilted his head in thought and replied, “At least that’s what I think it is…”

“Don’t worry, dear. You know how quickly Claus moves in general. I’m sure he’s fine already.”

Lucas smile and said, “You’re right,” and then gently pulled her hand to where the knitting set was and said, “Let’s get to that practicing!”
—————

Already Claus has splatted his first victim, Ritchie. He used the biggest berries he had in his pouch. It splattered all over her hair which rose a shriek of disgust from her and a roll of laughters from Claus. To his luck, Claus was the fastest child runner in Tazmilly and effortlessly got away from Ritchie’s balled fists. He got punched by her before, and he remembered how much it hurt, and enough to make his nose drip a little blood.

Fuel wasn’t so lucky. 

“Good gracious, her punches hurt!” he whined and rubbed his now badly bruised arm.

“At least it wasn’t your face,” Claus snorted and readied to aim for his next hit.

Fuel whispered to Claus, “Are you going for Brenda?”

“Yeah, totally. Her face is huge!” He chuckled and fired away.

“Oh my word! What is this vile slime on my face?!”

Fuel and Claus tried to conceal their laughters as they snuck away behind signs and other objects. To their luck, Brenda was too disgusted and enraged to notice them, and other people minding their own business was alarmed by her loudness. Once the rascals got comfortable else where, they waited for another female to stroll by. They only pelted the females with berries because they knew that they would give desired reactions and that they were the enemy.;well, partially on Fuel’s case. When he saw Angie walking by as elegantly as always, he bit on the tube stem in shock and nervousness.

Claus on the other hand gotten a sly cat-like grin when he saw the little-lady of Tazmilly reaching blasting range. He took a deep breather and was ready to shoot until Fuel plugged the other end of the straw. Claus was surprised and wound up swallowing the two berries by accident. When his throat cleared he practically yelled, “What was that for?!”

“No! Not Angie! She’s…too—too pretty!”

“That’s the gold of it! Now she’s gone!”

“Not Angie!”

“Why?!”

“Just ’cause!”

“Damn it, Fuel!”

“You’re not supposed to swear!” Fuel was strongly against swearing, even if his old man done so on every other occasion. He was getting ready to chew out Claus more until he noticed his tongue hurting and stuck it out. He noticed it was starting to change color. “…Ow what is this? My tongue hurts!”

Fuel wasn’t the only one aching, it wasn’t his tongue, but more so his stomach. Claus groaned, “Your tongue..? That’s nothin’…my stomach feels like it’s gonna explode…”

Fuel was beginning to freak at the change of color of his tongue. He hoped it wouldn’t get big enough to choke him. He wound up wailing in the open about his sore and swelling tongue in panic while Claus rolled over and wrapped his arms around his bloating and aching stomach.
—————

While Hinawa and Lucas were happily knitting little practice cloth squares, Flint came in with a bit of a ruckus. The two of them looked to see Flint holding a groaning and crying Claus in his arms. He was holding his stomach and squirming in his father’s hold. “He got poisoned, Hinawa,” he informed and hurriedly bought him over to her.

She hurriedly made it to her boy as well and patted his forehead for a temperature. She shrieked, “He’s burning up!”

Lucas dropped his knitted square and ran over to the commotion and worriedly examined his crying brother who rarely ever cries.

“What did you eat, Claus?” Flint practically demanded out of the boy.

Claus panted as he tried to answer. It took a few moments for him to get out, “I accidentally swallowed some of these thick berries from this bush Fuel found…” he whined and wailed when he felt his stomach bloat even more.

“Flint, go find Fuel and Lighter and then try to identify the bush!” Hinawa ordered and held Claus into her arms. She held onto the back of his head when he howled in pain from being moved so suddenly.

Flint nodded and rushed out of the door.

“W-what…What should I do??” Lucas asked. He couldn’t stand seeing Claus in so much pain and wanted to do whatever he could.

“Soak a rag with cold water!” she informed and carried Claus as carefully to the upper rooms as she could since she realized that abrupt movements caused him more pain.

Lucas got the rag and folded it as perfectly as he could before he placed it on his brother's steaming hot forehead. He was so heart-broken to see his brother barely open his eyes; Claus’s eyes were tightly shut as he panted in pain. Lucas had bought an extra cloth to dab all the sweat droplets away, even if they seemed to be endless. He wanted to try and make Claus as cool and comfortable as he could. He was surprised when Claus tightly squeezed on his free hand, but couldn’t speak.

Lucas tightly squeezed it back.