Work Text:
“HELLOOOOOOOOO CASTLE TOWN! It’s wonderful to see you ~lovely~ folks!”
Tenna shoved his nerves away as he focused on doing what he did best: entertaining. The Darkners in the audience cheered as the TV Time jingle played and the spotlight illuminated him on stage. He grinned, feeling at ease in his environment. The nerves faded away.
He shouldn’t be worrying about it anyways. It was just a silly Internet popularity contest! He knew he was popular, and he barely understood the Internet anyways so what did he even care? That was really Spamton’s domain, anyways, not Tenna’s.
“We’ve got a great show for you tonight, so I hope you’re… um…” He fell awkwardly silent as one of his antennae pinged for attention. It was Battat. Battat didn’t interrupt a broadcast unless it was an emergency. Tenna felt a spark of alarm. Was Spamton alright? He couldn’t make it to tonight’s broadcast, he said he’d had some work to do, but what if—?
“Battat, I am onstage, this had better be good!” he hissed into his antennae. The audience murmured curiously. Tenna’s shows were almost never interrupted.
“I… are you serious?... Ok! Uh, well folks, we have an unexpected special guest joining us onstage!” Tenna quickly recovered, beaming a wide smile at the audience. A good showman knew how to improvise.
The audience’s curious murmuring grew to a low roar as Castle Town’s prince timidly walked onstage, blinking owlishly in the bright lights. Ralsei’s confidence had grown slowly as he adventured with his Lightner companions, but he still remained shy and somewhat awkward when he had to face a crowd. He shot the audience a nervous grin as he walked up to Tenna.
“Let’s give a big TV Time welcome to the one and only Prince of the Darkness, folks! Welcome, Prince Ralsei!”
Ralsei blushed as the audience cheered. “H-hello everyone.” Tenna made a “project” gesture, encouraging him to get a little closer to the microphone. Ralsei nodded. “Can you all hear me?” The audience shouted affirmative and Tenna smiled. “Wonderful. Um… I’m terribly sorry to be interrupting your show, but we have a special announcement, and… something we would like to present to you, Mr. Tenna!”
To me? Wait. “We?” he blurted out, confused. What was going on?
“WE,” came the voice that never failed to make his circuits woozy. The audience’s surprised murmur escalated to hoots and cheers as Spamton NEO strode onstage. Tenna couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped him at the sight of his husband, resplendent in a black tuxedo instead of his usual magenta armor. God, he was dazzling. He shook himself, realizing he was gaping like a hooked fish. Get it together, Ant, you’re at work!
“Well, this is certainly an unexpected surprise!” was all he could say. “Er… to what do I owe the honor?” He focused on Ralsei so he wouldn’t drool at the sight of his husband in front of everyone.
Ralsei produced a small golden envelope from behind his back and cleared his throat. “Hello everyone! Mr. Spamton has graciously agreed to come out with me to present the winner of the popularity contest! I’m sure you’ve been hearing a lot about that, thanks to Queen.”
The audience nodded and murmured, some applause breaking through as the spotlight focused on her, sitting in the front row. She gave a little finger wiggle, sipping smugly from her ever-present glass of battery acid. Tenna was starting to think this whole thing was spiraling out of his control. But for some reason, he couldn’t find it in him to be agitated about it.
“So without further ado…” Ralsei slit the envelope, looking considerably more confident. When he had a script, the kid always seemed more comfortable. “The winner is… Mr. Ant Tenna!”
Tenna was frozen as the audience surged to its feet, cheering wildly. He… won? He stared out into the applauding crowd blankly, unable to comprehend it. Distantly he felt Ralsei hand him the envelope, shouting “Congratulations Mr. Tenna!” over the din. A rose in front of his face caught his attention and the world began spinning again as he looked from it to his husband’s face. Spamton was grinning at him, looking so proud Tenna wanted to cry.
“CONGRATULATIONS, TENS. NEVER [[Doubting Thomas]] YOU FOR A M-MINUTE.”
Tenna choked out a laugh, taking the flower to the sound of catcalls from the audience. Whoops, there were the tears. Well, that was fine, right? People cried when they won awards all the time. Sure, in the past most of the awards he’d won had been, erm, somewhat rigged in his favor. This was the first time he’d been in a competition he hadn’t expected to enter. Let alone win. He’d won. It was amazing.
“I—I don’t know what to say,” he managed, the words thick with unshed tears. He cleared his throat several times. “Thank you so much… I guess you all really love TV, huh?” he laughed, feeling a rainbow bar blush fill his screen. Oh well.
“YES!” shouted the audience.
“LOL I Also Made You Go Viral,” added Queen as the cheers faded, her voice carrying easily above the others. “You’re So Welcome. Though Mostly It Was: Spambot’s Idea.”
“IT’S SPAM-TON,” growled his husband. Tenna felt a huge grin cross his face. His wonderful husband. He knew a flower was blooming from his nose but ignored it, unable to hold in his feelings anymore. Before Spamton could go off on a tirade at Queen, he seized the robot, dipped him dramatically, and kissed him. The audience rose to a fever pitch, shrieking with excitement as Spamton NEO wrapped his arms around him and kissed him back passionately.
Tonight, Tenna was the luckiest man in Castle Town.