Neon and Kid were welcomed with opened arms when the agents saw them again.
Kid was passed from one person to the next for a hug, and by Goldie she was even tossed in the air, being caught by Kimberly.
Neon felt awkward being all touchy feely with the agents, it was even more awkward because they seemed perfectly fine with it.
It had been the first time the agents had seen Neon and Kid over the last few days, some even had doubts they'd ever see them again. But everybody was happy to know that the two of them were safe. While Cameron and Jesse weren't as eager for the crowded hugs, when they got their turn they didn't hesitate to show their relief.
Kid was happy to see them, so much that she cried. Charms was holding her as Kid cried into her shoulder. "Aww Kid," She smirked twirling with her, "we're glad you're back too."
Charms eventually put Kid down and did the exact same thing to Neon, making him yelp in surprise and shock from how easily she was able to pick up his weight.
Kid wiped her eyes as she laughed with everybody else. Looking up to all of them, a single thought dampened her mood. Did the Travellers all know they weren't doing anything to find Dominick?
Did they even know they were looking in the first place?
Did they care?
Jesse kneeled down to Kid from behind and pulled her against him so she was sitting on his knee. He quickly picked her up completely and sat down on the couch, letting her sit down next to him. "You okay, Kid?" he asked.
Kid looked to him and shrugged before nodding.
He smirked as he took off his hat, "Wanna see a magic trick?" he asked.
Kid smiled brightly as she nodded, sitting on her knees as she looked at him.
He smiled at her eagerness as he twirled his hand above his hat for a lingering time.
He eventually reached in and pulled out a classic white bunny. Kid squealed her giggles as Jesse put the rabbit back in the hat. He let off a comical sneeze and a large butterfly shot out of his hand. Kid watched it flutter around the room.
Jesse smiled as he pulled something from under his coat. Kid's eyes locked on it, it was a small container of bubbles. Kid's cheeks were beginning to hurt from how hard she was smiling as he revealed the wand of the bubbles. He took in a deep breath and softly blew against the shield of the bubble and several bubbles, big and small alike, shot into the air.
Kid watched as they shined softly in the room light, and gradually started popping. But instead of disappearing into nothing, small butterflies, fireflies and tiny flowers floated about.
Kid stood up and tried to grab them, tried to hold them but it was too far away for her to reach.
Everybody looked over and watched as Kid managed to catch a falling flower. Jesse caught a much bigger one and dropped it on Kid's head, one of the petals falling in front of one of Kid's eyes. Everybody laughed as they all sat down on the general couch area, all at once, everything seemed too literally pop and all the magic bubble disappeared almost immediately.
Charms was sitting on Cameron's lap, practically cutting him off from people's sight. "What was Delco City like? Has it changed much?" Charms asked.
Neon pushed Kid to the side and sat down next to her, "Haven't you been the Delco City?" Neon asked.
Charms shook her head, "Of course I have. We all have. I haven't been there for a while, is it still uneventfully dull?" she asked. Cameron rested his chin on her shoulder so everybody could see him.
Neon shrugged, "It wasn't too eventful," he fibbed, "it was raining most of the time so- wait! How did you guys know we were in Delco City?" Neon asked confused.
"Jason told us," Goldie explained sitting on the ground. "You guys came back two days ago. We got curious, so of course he told us what happened."
Kimberly punched Neon in the shoulder, "Silly Neon. You used the Globe." She teased him by pinching his cheek and tapped his nose before just standing there for a few moment.
"You really gave us the scare though," Charms informed leaning back into Cameron and fiddling with his fingers.
"When we couldn't find you, we feared the worst," Goldie exclaimed like they were currently lost. He picked Kid up and put her on his lap and simply clamped her into a tight hug. She giggled at his protection.
Jason, Harold and Mary stood at the doorway and simply watched for a few moments. Eventually Jason nudged Mary forwards with his elbow.
She stumbled forwards and turned to him for an explanation.
Jason gestured for her to join them. "It's obvious you missed them too, Mary," Jason informed.
Mary looked back to Kid and Neon. She sighed, he was right. She had missed them. "Are coming also?" Mary asked looking to the two of them.
Harold seemed to find it amusing, "I don't think she likes us very much." He rolled his shoulders, "I doubt she will until we show results of our own."
Jason opened his pocket watch compass, "I estimate a few days. Maybe a week at the most."
Mary rolled her eyes.
But while she could she walked over to the ground and sat down on the back of the couch before sliding down to be sitting next to Neon. The conversation barely changed while she was there, Kid even squirmed out of Goldie's grip and crawled across Neon to Mary.
Jason and Harold didn't join the happy little gathering as they talked about Delco City, when Mary turned to the Ringleaders, they had both already left the room.
*
Kid sat on the counter in the shiny kitchen playing with gooey slime while Goldie frantically raced around the kitchen trying to keep whatever he was making from exploding.
Kid was smirking as she watched him run from one side to the other. Goldie was a complete idiot, a completely loveable idiot that knew how to cook if the kitchen didn't detonate first.
Goldie had promised to make lunch for everyone, and he was slowly beginning to regret his choice of food; various sandwiches. But the sandwich part wasn't the hard part, the actual things that go within the sandwich was what caused all the drama for him.
He had decided ham, cheese, beef, various hand-made spreads ranging from fish to chicken, and several other sandwich opportunities. Kid didn't know exactly how she ended up sitting on the counter watching Goldie frantically run from the oven to the microwave and back again. "Don't worry, Kid," he announced as he wiped the sweat from his brow, he walked over to the oven. "I have everything under con- Ahh!" He yelped in surprise as the oven seemed to erupt in flames, spitting at him and gnawing at the outside of itself. He yelled and screamed in fright, batting the flames down with his hands and oven mitts before ultimately slamming the lid closed and having a moment of calmness. "I think I'll leave that for a bit."
Kid giggled as the fire died down in the glass oven.
Goldie grabbed Kid and placed her on the ground. "You are in charge of actually putting sandwiches together," he informed, "Wash your hands, get rid of the goo and let's make sandwiches to cheer up hungry agents!" he exclaimed like a war hero.
Kid copied his pose of achievement before putting the goo on the counter, washing her hands and making sandwiches while Goldie frantically ran around the kitchen. He had to send away three hall-bots who thought the kitchen was on fire.
One managed to sneak in and hosed down the hot chips.
Goldie almost smashed the thing into car parts before sending it away and crying for a moment at his hot chips being all soggy.
Kid had made a lot of sandwiches by the time Goldie was brave enough to open the oven and get the beef out. It was hot, he almost dropped it.
Kid had to sit next to him and hold some ice to his burnt thumb, he was making such a huge fuss about it that he was almost crying.
She wondered how such a strong man could cry so easily.
When he had aided his hand long enough he continued to scramble around as quickly as his legs would let him, while Kid calmly continued to put sandwiches together while listening to his words. "I love cooking, in another life I'm probably a chef," he informed as he started mixing something, "but you see, I'm also extremely clumsy." While he spoke he was flicking the spoon he was using around, causing the mixture to fly about and splat on the walls or the ground. One almost hit a pile of sandwiches. The funny part was he didn't seem to notice.
"Kitchen knives, ovens and naked flames aren't a good match to someone with a main trait of clumsiness," he informed smiling.
He started running, but tripped on his apron and fell to the ground, sliding quickly along the ground. Kid leaned over the counter and managed to snatch the bowl from Goldie as he zipped by her. He crashed against the wall and awkwardly laid there until his daze disappeared and he stood up.
"I don't mind cooking, I enjoy it," Goldie informed casually walking past Kid, taking the bowl from her as he continued talking. "In fact I think that's one of the main reasons Jason and Harold keep me around."
He stopped stirring and looked oddly at the bowl, "What's in here again?" He dipped his finger in and tasted whatever it was and raised an eye brow, "when did I make cookie mix?"
Kid jumped at the idea of cookies.
"Cookies it is then," Goldie said as he poured it in a tray and pushed it in the oven. "Quickly, be my living dishwasher!" he exclaimed childishly as he pushed the bowl towards Kid. He, himself, licked the spoon.
"I always loved cooking, but my favourite parts were cleaning up the baking stuff," he informed licking the spoon clean before dropping it in the sink. "I'm gonna go shred some of the beef, you keep making the sandwiches and eat a couple, or else I'll be forced to eat most of them myself."
Kid smirked as she took a bite out of another sandwich while making another. Goldie continued with the beef, shredding it into bits and adding it to the table for Kid to put it in a sandwich. "Now when it comes to some sandwiches, some things match better than others. For instance." Goldie grabbed some chicken and a bottle of mayo and put them together, "this is a basic yes sandwich." He grabbed some tuna and some soy sauce, "this is a basic no sandwich." He was sure to separate this dramatically by putting them on opposite sides of the counter.
Kid grabbed the tuna and some lettuce before putting it together.
Goldie nodded his approval, "You'll have your own apron in no time."
The two of them continued to make sandwiches for the next several minutes, ten minutes soon turning into a half hour. And soon they were finished.
"Great! Now," he seemed to use a carrot as a make-shift horn, "we shall march forwards with the pride of our work and gain several meaningless compliments from our friends!" He mimicked the sound of a horn, which mainly came out as a dry raspberry, while Kid mimicked an actual horn by pressed her hand over her mouth.
But as they were about to bring the cart of sandwiches out, Goldie jumped in his skin like he just remembered something.
"Chocolate fudge knuckle bandicoots..." he mumbled as he walked past Kid and over to the stove to a kettle.
Kid didn't really know what he was doing, she was just trying to get over whatever his little curse may or may not have been.
But her observation gave her knowledge that Goldie had burnt the water in the kettle because he left it on the heat too long. The lid wasn't far enough off the kettle to allow steam to erupt and screech out the warning of boiling water. He looked at the kettle and winced at the smell of burnt water.
"Umm..." He quickly grabbed a tray, several tea cups and placed the kettle delicately on the tray before walking back over to Kid, masked with a nervous smile. "Maybe they won't notice." He nudged for Kid to walk out with him, he carried the tea and tray, while Kid somehow managed to push the cart full of sandwiches that was taller than her.
Goldie opened the doors to the Dining Area where everybody was waiting, simply chatting to pass the time.
But when Goldie came in they didn't hear a single word come out of him, not an announcement or a statement, just silence.
As his partner, Mary guessed he had done something. "What did you do?" she asked as he put the sandwiches on the table.
"Nothing..." he grumbled. "I'm offended you don't have more faith in me."
Mary raised an eye brow, "And I'm offended you'd think I wouldn't notice. What did you do?" she asked eyeing the sandwiches suspiciously.
Charms seemed to notice his less then perky self, but he was all smiles and no words. He had definitely done something, the whole table knew it. They just didn't know what yet.
When they were done Kid quickly walked over to the empty seat next to Neon.
He leaned over to her, "what happened?" he whispered.
She made a mime gesture of someone drinking tea and a following gesture telling him not to drink it. Jesse seemed to see this.
Goldie still remained standing, his smile slowly becoming awkwardly bright until he realised how suspicious he probably looked, and quickly sat down. Nobody made a move to grab anything until they figured out what it was Goldie had done exactly.
Kid made the first move, reaching forwards and snatching a sandwich.
Slowly, everybody else started grabbing their own sandwiches, even Nicky who quickly gobbled it and reached for another.
Jesse, however, was the first to reach for the kettle.
Goldie almost yelled out a warning, but stopped himself from saying anything that would incriminate himself, so it came out as more of a yelp of fright, making everybody freeze.
Jesse smirked as he lifted the kettle and prepared a basic cup of tea. Goldie was quick to sweat, his whole body remained stiff and he looked to Jesse almost frightfully at how slow he was being when it came to making this tea.
Jesse was doing this deliberately, trying to see how long it would be before he cracked.
He had managed to make it through the whole making part o the tea, but just when Jesse went to drink it, Goldie spoke up. Dramatically slamming his hands against the table and standing, he spoke, "I have a confession."
They all waited.
"I burnt the tea," he confessed.
Everybody stared at him with the oddest expression.
"You burnt the tea?" Charms asked.
"I burnt the tea."
"How do you manage to burn tea?"
"Easy. You make it, leave it, forget it, burn it," Goldie explained.
Kimberly, who sat next to him, head locked him and called him a doofus with a laugh as Jesse put the cup down with a smirk.
Everybody seemed to start chatting again now that that was out of the way. But Mary put the sandwiches on her plate and put her hands together to mumble a small prayer.
When someone did this, generally people stopped for a moment out of general manners. The other agents looked to her and sort of stopped working until she was finished. It was nice to see that Mary was back to her quirky meal prayers again, Kid continued to copy them again, earning her a roll of the eyes from Neon.
Do you even know what you're meant to be doing? Neon mused to her.
...Sort of.
Kid looked around the table and people began to eat again. The Ringleaders weren't here, either of them. And it was a bit odd that they would miss eating at the dining table with the other agents, as that was normally when they kept tabs on them and could see and speak to them all at once.
But yet, they remained unseen, unheard, and Kid was rather grateful for it, otherwise she knew she'd be in a bitter mood.
It was towards the end of their little feasting that the Ringleaders did come into the dining area, sleek and quiet like always, yet somehow managed to subtly announce their presence to everyone when they entered.
While others greeted them, Kid slithered down further into her seat and started to pout at their presence, and was about to get up and leave until Jason kneeled down next to her. "Kid, we have something we wish to speak with you about," he informed.
She almost glared at him.
He merely smiled, "I do believe you'll be happy to hear it," he explained, he looked to Neon, "if you want Neon can come with you."
Kid wasn't convinced at how happy she would be, but didn't ignore him as she stood up and stomped past Harold, who almost laughed at her little tantrum walk, and followed behind her. Jason smirked as he gestured for Neon to go with them before he dismissed himself from the other agents, but on the way past touched Mary's shoulder, indicating he wished for her to follow.
She stood up, said her see you later and left with the Ringleaders, Neon and Kid.
*
Kid sat in the same room she had her little tantrum in before, by herself for the moment. Neon stood in the observation room with the Professor and Mary.
"What's going on?" Neon asked.
Mary shrugged and waited patiently while they looked to Kid, who looked rather uncomfortable where she was sitting by herself.
And she was a bit uncomfortable sitting there by herself in the dark room, especially since she had no idea as to why she was just sitting there.
Kid's eyes shot to the door however when it was pushed open and Jason and Harold walked in. Kid didn't look to them as she slouched in her chair in an attempt to disappear. Jason sat down while Harold stood behind her and quickly picked her up by the arms and tickling her sides. She rang out in laughter that soon turned into aggression as she punched Harold's hands. "Young girls don't slouch," Harold teased tapping her nose before leaning against the wall behind Jason.
Jason seemed to have several papers in his hands. "Kid. I understand that you are upset, and I understand that you are a little bit grumpy," Jason stated calmly, "but that's not reason to be a brat towards Harold, the Professor and I simply because we don't have the results you're looking for." Kid picked at her fingernails, somewhat guilty but still rather angry at them. "But I understand exceptionally, for I admit we haven't been using all of our resources to find your friend Dominick, and that was unfair of us. But you should know that we have been trying to locate him," he dropped the papers on the table, "and we finally have."
A/N
The great and powerful Dominick has been found !!!
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