Fluff Chapter Fifty-Two - Complicated Conversations

Chapter Fifty-Two - Complicated Conversations

“What’s the job?” Emily asked. She regretted asking the question, even before it left her lips. But she didn’t see any loss in actually asking.

Handshake’s voice had a hint of laughter in it when he replied. “Nothing too complicated. I’m eting with soone. Na starts with C. You took out one of his buddies?”

Cent, he was talking about Cent. Emily hugged her phone closer to the side of her head. “Okay? And you want to... what?”

“I’m going to be eting him alone. Which, let’s say I’m not all that confident about. I bet you can imagine why. I’ve still got a bit of a limp you know?”

“I’m not equipped for dealing with that kind of thing,” Emily said. “Nor are my sisters.”

“Sisters, plural?” Handshake asked.

Emily felt her lips thinning into a line. “I misspoke.”

Handshake snorted. “Sure. Would you be interested in coming?”

Emily shook her head, even if he couldn’t see the gesture. “No. It’s way too dangerous, and you haven’t offered much.”

“What if I tell you the eting is about a subject you’re near and dear to?”

Emily’s heart froze up, and for a mont she found it hard to breathe. Did Cent copy the drive? Did soone retrieve it in that river and bring it to him? “What?” she asked.

Handshake cleared his throat. “The Cabal.”

Emily blinked. “What about-- you an Cent wants to know about them too?”

“It’s more than just that. He knows so things that I don’t, and I know so he doesn’t. It’s a trade. And an excuse to get back on the sa page, or at least to set aside so of our... mutual antagonism.”

Emily paced back and forth before the window, considering. Would this be any more dangerous than her last excursion? The obvious and imdiate answer was a resounding yes. Going out with heroes was a risk, but if they discovered her, she would be arrested or worse.

Going out to confront a villain. An actual, scary villain? That was a whole lot worse.

“I don’t like it,” Emily said.

“I can up the ante a little,” Handshake said. “I want to know what you know about them too. And I can offer you other things. Money, information. Not too much, mind you. What you know might not be worth that much to .”

Emily swallowed. ‘I’ll think about it.”

“My eting is tomorrow evening. Think about it until then. It’s one grand per powered head that cos to help. And I’ll tell you what I know about the Cabal. A na you shouldn’t be repeating if you can avoid it. It’s unique enough to stand out in a normal conversation. ”

“I know,” Emily said. “We’ve been calling them the Clowns.”

“Hah! That’s brilliant. Anyway, I’ll text you the address for the eting place. Be there, or don’t.” The line went dead with a happy little chi.

Emily contemplated throwing her phone, but she held back. Shows of violence like that were just not her.

“Need help?”

Jumping, Emily looked up and found herself staring, wide-eyed, at Sam. “H-hey,” she said. “Uh, no?”

Sam tilted her head to the side. “You sure? You don’t look great.”

“I’m okay,” Emily said. “Just a, uh, hard phone call.”

“Anything to do with the people in your room?”

For the second ti in far too short a while, Emily’s blood went cold. “What?”

Sam rolled her eyes and gestured over her shoulder with a thumb. “I’m not deaf. Or blind. You’ve got two kids staying with you.”

Emily licked her dry lips. “They’re my sisters,” she said.

The girl nodded. “Yeah, alright. You having trouble because of them? I did so babysitting before, it’s a real nightmare sotis.”

“N-no, nothing like that. My sisters are... actually, they’re pretty nice. A bit, uh, well sotis they act up, but they’re mostly nice.”

“Alright, cool. So if that’s not it, what is it?” Sam crossed her arms. She didn’t look like soone ready to move away.

“It’s... ah. Is there a place you can bring soone? Soplace that’s discreet?”

“Soone like who?”

“A boy?”

Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “No shit. You know they don’t really mind if you have a boy--- oh, your sisters. Yeah, you wouldn’t want to be banging your boyfriend with the kids in the room.”

“What?” Emily asked. Her brain caught up, her face caught fire. “No, no, it’s nothing like that. We’re not, no.”

“Hey, it’s alright. Where do you think half the weird noises in this place co from?” Sam let her arms drop and moved a little closer. “There’s a couple of places, you know, for folks feeling a little adventurous. I heard that the roof’s pretty popular for that kind of thing.”

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Emily shook her head. Her ears were burning still. “I swear, it’s not like that.”

Sam grinned. “Fine. What are you looking for?”

“Just a place a friend can stay the night.” Emily took a mont to examine her shoes.

“Uh-huh,” Sam replied, doubt tinged with humour. “Alright, a place to send a friend. There’s a motel a little ways away that might work. If your friend’s really cheap though, there’s the library. It’s got study rooms that are opened all night. Glass walls, so no space for funny business, but you can rent one out for a dozen dollars and if you fall asleep with a book open in front of you, the librarians won't bother you.”

That... was a better answer than what Emily expected. “Thank you.”

“Hey, no problem, love,” Sam said. She winked at Emily, then headed over to her own room. “You knock if you need anything. Though I charge a lot for anything babysitting related, okay?”

“Thank you,” Emily repeated.

Sam waved her off as she slid into her room, the door clicking shut behind her.

Emily took a deep breath and moved over to her own room. The door unlocked with a swipe and she stepped in to find Jacob pacing back and forth while Athena glared at his back. “I, ah, found a place for you to stay,” Emily said. “For the night, I an.”

“Yeah?” he asked. “Is it safe?”

“It’s... safe enough?”

He frowned. “I don’t know if that’s enough for , you know?”

She nodded. “I know. But you can’t sleep here.”

The young man scratched at the back of his head. “Alright, yeah. That’d be a bit... fine. Where?”

“The library. You can rent a room to study and they don’t mind if you fall asleep there. Just, pretend to study sothing. Or actually study sothing, I guess.”

“And what about our clown problem? What are you doing about that?”

“Big Sister Emily doesn’t need to do anything about it, punk. It’s not her problem, it’s yours.”

“Athena,” Emily said. She couldn’t fault the girl though, she was thinking sothing very similar. “I’m going to be... eting soone tomorrow. I might have more by then, maybe.”

“That’s not enough.”

Emily glared. “It’ll have to be,” she said, then she cleared her throat and reined in her anger. It wasn’t like her to let that out of its bottle. “Sorry. But I’d really not be comfortable with you staying here.”

“You heard sis,” Athena said. She gestured to the door. “Get out of here, punk.”

Jacob huffed, half exasperated and half amused, if Emily had to guess. “Fine, fine. I’ll go take a nap at the library. Maybe actually do so of my classwork. God knows I’m behind already. I’ll call you tomorrow, alright? Just as soon as I find a phone.”

“Sure,” Emily agreed. She escorted Jacob out the door, then, once it was shut and he was gone, she leaned her head against the wall and took a mont to breath. “That was... sothing,” she said.

“You were aweso,” Athena said without so much as an ounce of sarcasm. It helped, a little.

“We need to get ready... tomorrow.”

Athena sat up. “Ready for what?”

“Trouble. Ready for a whole lot of trouble.” Emily moved to her bed, then sat on the edge not to disturb Teddy too much. She didn’t look forward to moving Teddy onto the mattress. The werebear was heavy, especially as dead weight.

Athena grinned, toothy and vicious. Then she adjusted her glasses with both hands and lost any semblance of being threatening. “I’m always ready most of the ti. Are we going to go out in costu to kick butt?”

“Not quite,” Emily said. “And you don’t have a costu.”

“I have a cool jacket,” Athena said. “And I have so pants. We just need a mask.”

Emily pat Athena’s hair down. It was a nice, soothing gesture, for both of them, judging by the way Athena’s eyes fluttered shut. “Alright. More help wouldn’t be amiss. And... do you have any points to spend?”

“Not yet,” she said.

“That’s okay. I’ll spend what I have. Teddy can do the sa. We’ll be as ready as we can be. And maybe things will go alright.” She continued running her fingers through Athena’s hair until she’d convinced herself of that lie, then she got up. “Right, go get changed. It’s ti for bed.”

“Owls are nocturnal.”

“And little sisters are diurnal. Get your PJs. You can change while I drop this bear in bed.” Emily sighed. “We’ll need our sleep, I think.”

***