Requested: Mistletoe Trick for Sonamyloverme1

It was well known to Chick and Bantam that Rolly liked Billy. Most of the time she forgot something or other, it was because she was too busy making goo-goo eyes at the blond to hear whatever was being asked for her to remember. It was kind of useless to get a word into her brain once her gaze locked onto the Hatcher boy. Her eyes would light up and get all sparkly, her cheeks would go pink and bright, and Chick could tell her a giant alligator was stomping through the city and reading her diary out loud in a girlish British voice and the girl would just bob her head in agreement while she followed Billy around like a lovesick puppy.

It was also well known to Chick and Bantam that Billy liked Rolly. He was an awesome soccer player -he was captain for a reason-, good at baseball, had a run at gymnastics that he eventually gave up after he learned enough to make his soccer skills even better, and was thought of as 'sporty' by the kids in school, not 'jock'. Billy was too kind to be a jock. He was great on his feet... until Rolly showed up and he noticed. Then he was clumsy as hell. Billy would trip over everything, from chair legs to thin air. Sprawled on the floor with his face in the carpet; not impressive to the girls.

And it was also well known to Chick and Bantam that both Billy and Rolly were idiots.

Rolly never even tried to confess to Billy that she liked him, flushing pink and stammering and looking heavenward as she scurried off for an escape. She doodled hearts into the margins of her notebooks, scribbling out her first name and Billy's last name idly, then hurriedly erasing it when she heard him showing up nearby.

Billy couldn't even think of trying to talk to Rolly about his own feelings without getting tongue-tied and cross-eyed, stammering and babbling about sports-related things as he side-stepped away to dodge the issue. Hero of Morning Land, and he'd dive to hide in a closet rather than admit out loud that he was crushing hardcore on Rolly Roll.

It made hanging around the two of them half funny as hell, and half annoying as hell. Bantam didn't approve of Chick using the word 'hell' all the time; Chick didn't give a damn.

Bantam didn't approve of that either.

But it was decided one day that Bantam and Chick were going to do something about their Billy and Rolly problem and save themselves -and possibly the population of Forest Village- a whole lotta headaches for the forseeable future.

While the two lovebirds-in-denial were busy running around Forest Village, completing some minor missions to earn Menie-Funie's favor in the form of Emblems of Chicken Courage or something, Chick and Bantam went into the forest to look for some specific shaped leaves and berries. They were going to invoke a classic tradition that the chickens apparently had no clue about so they couldn't spoil the surprise if either Billy or Rolly asked about them. Hell, for all they knew, the two boys were looking for the makings of some kind of poisonous salad. They searched around, checking bushes and vines in hopes of finding leaves that would do the trick.

"These are about the right color and length, but they don't have the same shape." Bantam commented on the handful of leaves he'd plucked from an odd tree. Chick grabbed them to study closely, then shrugged and started ripping half-circles out along the edges.

"Ehh, close enough! We don't need 'em to actually look at the things, just think they're seein' what we want 'em to see!" the shorter boy declared, tossing bits of leaf over his shoulder as he went on tearing and styling.

Then came the search for berries to fit the description. Those were harder to get because every time they found any kind of berry, Bantam would forget what they were doing and start eating them, murmuring about the kinds of desserts he could make with them.

"Oh, c'mon!" Chick yelled in exasperation, "We're lookin' for red berries; how come you keep findin' every other damn color in the rainbow but that?!" And when they finally found the right color berries, those kept disappearing, too. "Oh come ON!"

"You spend and hour and a half every day in Home Ec class and then get taken to a place where you can't cook decently and see if you don't eat the first thing you come across that isn't corn-based." Bantam grumbled, but finally controlled himself enough to hand over a decent number of red berries for their project.

Chick and Bantam spent the rest of the day pasting the berries and leaves together to make little decorative bunches. The plants were a bit lopsided and some of the berries listed enough to not hold much confidence, but the boys didn't care. It just had to hold together long enough to do the job they needed them to do.

Packed and prepared, Chick and Bantam both approached Billy and Rolly and told them that they needed to go to Blizzard Castle and get some more Emblems from the bundled up chickens living there. Luckily for them, the idea of hunting down Emblems and working kept Billy and Rolly's heads on straight so they didn't fall into gibbering, lovey-dovey-eyed messes at the sight of each other. The excitement of being in Morning Land used to do that for them, but now that they'd gotten used to it, the novelty couldn't compete with puppy love and hormones.

It took King Cipher and Queen Rabbish to carry all four of them to Blizzard Castle. Once they arrived, Rolly and Billy immediately hurried to talk to Ponee, the Chicken Elder of Blizzard Castle, to see if she had any knowledge of how to find more Emblems. Chick and Bantam ran off to find a bunch of doorways.

"Hey, wanna help us get Billy and Rolly together?" Chick whispered to a bunch of chicks and their parents. The flock glanced at one another, then nodded their heads rapidly. Chick grinned and held out a basket of the makeshift decorations, "Great! Take one bunch of these and nail them over every doorway you see."

"If you've got any missions to pass out," Bantam plotted with Queen Rabbish and some of the more distinguised chickens of the region, "make sure to tell Billy and Rolly that they have to be together to complete it. That'll guarantee they pass through a door together!"

"And you say these little plant things will somehow get them on the road to romance?" Queen Rabbish questioned, raising an eyebrow at the basket of decorations with a dubious gaze.

"They won't be able to avoid the traditional kiss if they see they're standing under one!" Bantam declared confidently.

So the plot was hatched, to use a pun, and the chickens worked as quickly as they could to nail the bunches of leaves and berries everywhere they could think of as an entrance or exit. Ponee directed the two main heroes to other residents that could use their help and then sat back to watch the madness unfold.

Now the thing Chick and Bantam had conveniently forgotten was that when Rolly and Billy were in 'working mode', they didn't look anywhere but forward. So neither of them realized they were being set up for anything simply because they didn't think to look up. Chick slapped a hand over his face and growled as Bantam and several chicks sighed in exasperation, watching from over a wall as they saw their hours of work go completely unnoticed.

One by one, the missions were cleared and the Emblems were collected, with Rolly and Billy still completely unaware of the plan going on and still stammering at each other when they weren't on a mission. Chick banged his head against a wall while Bantam tried to think up something else to get things back on track. How could they get those two lovebirds to notice the decoration when they didn't look anywhere else while on a mission?

Huh. What if looking up was the mission?

Excited by that prospect, Bantam grabbed Chick away from the wall before he knocked all the ice blocks out of place and raced on to meet with Ponee before either Billy or Rolly decided they'd had enough of the cold. The Elder listened to the proposal carefully, grinned and shooed the two of them away before calling in for the other two Heroes.

"One more mission, Elder Ponee?" Rolly asked in confusion, blinking cutely as Billy stood by her and looked torn between melting into a puddle of goo at how adorable she was or keeping a straight face for the Elder. Ponee struggled to keep her own amusement off her face as she nodded.

"Yes, there is a rumor that in one of the doorways to Blizzard Castle, a hidden Emblem of Courage can be discovered. Your mission is to go to every entrance you can find, standing in the doorway and look up to see if the secret Emblem will be revealed." she told them.

"You can count on us!" Billy declared and the two of them turned to start running off. Ponee waved a wing at them, cooing for their attention one last time. He paused, holding Rolly up as well, and looked back. "Something else, Elder?" he asked, puzzled. Ponee pointed up at the doorway they had stopped in.

"Why not check there first? It's an entrance." she remarked idly. Chick and Bantam peeked into the room from outside, smiling widely as their friends blinked in unison and looked up at the doorway.

A few seconds passed in silence before both Billy and Rolly lowered their gazes to stare at Ponee with red faces and wide eyes. The Elder just stood there patiently, looking unfazed by their expressions.

"Problem?" she asked.

"Is that... mistletoe?" Billy asked in a squeaking voice, pointing up at the arch in the doorway.

"I'm sorry. I'm not familiar with that. Those decorations were recently added but I didn't think anything of it." Ponee returned, ignoring the snickering on the other side of the wall behind her, "Is something the matter with it?"

The two Heroes glanced at each other, blushed harder and looked away from one another. "Um, uh, n-not really." Rolly stammered, "Just that, um, there's a tradition. Back home. About mistletoe."

"Is that so? Pray tell. How is this tradition observed?" Ponee asked with interest.

Rolly and Billy gulped as they looked back up at the mistletoe, then slowly gazed down at one another, fiddling with their fingers as they forced smiles at each other.

"Do we... have to?" Billy asked through his teeth, glancing over at Ponee hopefully.

"I thought tradition meant you always do them?" Ponee returned and the boy groaned softly before turning back to Rolly, who looked at him like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"Um..." he trailed off, blushing again as Rolly's own face heated up and she fiddled with her fingers.

"It's... tradition?" she said lamely, giggling a little nervously. They both went silent for a bit, eyes looking around at everything but one another, each waiting for the other to get things over with.

"So... should I...?" Billy's voice tapered off in that tone that sounded like it was trying not to be eager and not be mortified and ended up sounding like it was caught between the two.

"Would it be better if I...?" Rolly asked in the same space of time, her words colliding with the blond's as their blushes grew brighter and more widespread over their faces.

"At this rate, Dark Raven can just wait for us all to die of old age, waitin' for those two to lock lips." Chick grumbled under his breath while Bantam turned and started knocking his own forehead against a wall.

The two under the mistletoe fidgeted and shifted nervously before trying again. Ponee's exasperated expression was also kind of a motivator for that. Rolly shut her eyes tight and turned her head so her cheek faced Billy, while Billy shut his own eyes, puckered up and clumsily leaned forward to try kissing her on the cheek chastely.

He missed completely and kissed her helmet instead.

"Okay, we did it! Bye, Ponee! We'll find the Emblem!" Billy exclaimed in a squeaky tone as he quickly hurried Rolly out (who looked a bit disappointed) and ran them both to the next doorway.

"Well, that was a bit of a letdown." Ponee sighed as the boys behind her groaned and went chasing after their friends in hopes of seeing a proper kiss take place. The Elder hurried after them as well; what good was hearing about this tradition if she didn't get a chance to really see it in action?


Billy and Rolly ran for another doorway, stood under it, and looked up to see if the Emblem was hidden there. Instead, they spotted yet another bunch of 'mistletoe' and simply gaped at it in shock. They couldn't believe it; this couldn't be some kind of coincidence, right?!

"Maybe we can... skip the tradition?" Billy suggested lamely, sounding very much like he both wanted to and didn't want to, a faint grimace making his nervous smile look far too tense for his good. Rolly looked around and spotted a couple of hens watching them intently. They would look up at the mistletoe, then back down at them, almost like they had a clue what was supposed to happen and were there to make sure it happened.

"Um, I think those chickens want us to go through with it." she whispered to Billy, nodding her head in their direction so he could see for himself. He gave a little groan of discomfort, cheeks blazing red as he glanced her way.

"Try for the cheek again?" he asked weakly. Rolly smiled nervously again, fiddling with her fingers.

"Um... if it's okay... could I try it this time, Billy?" she asked in a tiny voice. Billy froze in place, looking much like a rabbit in the headlights, but he finally offered a little smile.

"Uh, well... I guess that's okay?" he replied, sounding a bit uncertain. Was she really offering to give him a kiss? He shut his eyes and leaned forward, turning his head so she could peck him on the cheek. Rolly covered her face with her hands, blushing furiously, before quickly lifting herself up on her toes and pressing her lips to his cheek for a split-second kiss. The hens trilled happily, bouncing up and down, and both Billy and Rolly wiggled in place in suppressed glee.

"Okay, well, next one!" he exclaimed in a too-bright voice as he hurried off in search of the next doorway, Rolly running right alongside him.

Following shortly after them were Chick, Bantam, and Ponee, huffing and puffing from the effort of racing after the two much speedier Heroes. "Did they come by this way?" Bantam wheezed out at the hens. They nodded and pointed in the direction they'd run off. The three plot masterminds just groaned softly and resumed their chase, hoping to catch up to Billy and Rolly in time to see another mistletoe kiss attempt.


Upon coming to another doorway and looking up at it, seeing another bunch of mistletoe instead of a secret Emblem, Billy started to wonder if this really was a coincidence, or if someone was trying to pull some kind of trick on them.

"Uh, Billy?" Rolly began in a questioning tone as she stared up at the leaves and berries, "I think every door is going to have one of these."

"Nobody told them about mistletoe, right?" Billy wondered aloud, utter confusion on his face, "It's not even Christmas!"

"Actually, I think it is." Rolly countered, one fingertip pressed to her mouth thoughtfully.

"Aaaah, we still gotta find that Emblem!" Billy exclaimed, jogging in place while a chick stood nearby and watched them intently, "But these chickens seem to be trying to make sure we do that traditional kiss!"

"You don't want to?" Rolly asked him, eyes wide and shining, her lower lip quivering just a tiny bit. The blond cringed, pressing his fingertips together.

"Um, uh... well...." he mumbled, "That's not what I... meant." He fidgeted a bit more, then blushed and quickly pressed a little kiss to Rolly's cheek, pulling his helmet down a bit further onto his head as he realized he didn't miss that time. Rolly gave a sudden happy squeal, wiggling in place gleefully again. "Okay, next one!" he exclaimed, grabbing her hand and hurrying to the next doorway while she cheered again.

Every doorway they ran to didn't reveal a hidden secret Emblem. Every doorway they ran to had a bunch of mistletoe instead.

"Someone's pulling a fast one on us." Billy commented idly, rubbing his nose affectionately against Rolly's cheek while she giggled and blushed. After six doors' worth of trading kisses on the cheek the nervousness seemed to have just faded away. After all, he liked Rolly and so many excuses to be close to her and give her chaste little kisses that made her blush and light up so cutely was too good to pass up. Best of all, it wasn't him that set this up, so he could just enjoy the easy mission with her.

He was also starting to figure that maybe... Rolly liked him too?

The next doorway had her throw her arms around his neck and giggle as she kissed him several times on the cheek.

Oh yeah, she liked him back. Best mission ever.


"How many doors did we put mistletoe over again?" Chick panted after he, Bantam and Ponee spent the past two hours chasing Billy and Rolly all over castle. Bantam slouched against a wall, miserable look on his face.

"Ugghhh. I didn't count, there were so many!" the larger boy groaned and turned his head to look up at Ponee, "Elder, can you see where they are now?" The Chicken Elder lifted her binoculars to her eyes, peering through and watching as Billy and Rolly rubbed noses happily, foreheads pressed together as they smiled at each other.

"I can see them. Ohh, they make such a cute couple! They look so happy now!" she exclaimed cheerfully, "Whatever this 'mistletoe tradition' is, it seems to be doing the trick just perfectly!"

"Whoo..." Chick cheered tiredly, lifting a fist into the air for all of two seconds before collapsing into the snow with a solid Fwumph!


"Are we even looking for that Emblem anymore?" Rolly asked quietly, snuggled up against Billy and resting her head on his shoulder. They walked from door to door, giving the archways a cursory glance to make sure a mistletoe bunch was there before devoting the rest of their attention to showering each other's cheeks and noses with little kisses, giggling and cuddling as they grew more comfortable with each other.

"We'll look for it later. Would you like some hot chocolate?" Billy replied with a little smile. Rolly hummed cheerfully, nodding in place and pleased as punch when the boy draped an arm over her shoulders, bringing her just a little bit closer to him.

"Think we'll ever find out how the chickens knew about mistletoe and the kissing tradition?" she went on. Billy gazed heavenward for a moment, then glanced over at two tell-tale rooster combs bobbing about behind a low wall of packed snow and ice.

"I think we'll find out sooner or later, but for now, let's enjoy the rest of the mission." the blond murmured, nuzzling his new girlfriend's temple. Rolly laughed softly and gave him a little wink.

"What mission? This is a date!" she corrected slyly, and Billy couldn't help but laugh along and agree.

Best date ever.