Chapter Text
Mother went out of the car, helping Mayumi get out. She reluctantly grabbed her duffel bag and slammed the door. It was clear that she was pretty mad, but Mother was pretty much expecting it. She walked into the airport, following Mother. There was a man… someone that looked like her adoptive dad. She knew it wasn’t him because of the beard. Her “dad” didn’t have one. Still, she had the urge to flip him off when Mother wasn’t looking. And… of course she did.
“Screw you and your stupid religion! Hope you and mom burn in hell!” she yelled at him, while still showing him the middle finger.
The man looked confused, but looked back at his luggages and stacked them on the luggage carts.
Mother gave her a surprised look, but if he was honest? He would’ve done the fucking same with his own dad. “Mayumi, why would you-“
“Thought he was my stupid dad.”
“I thought your parents passed?” he asked, walking to the security part of the airport.
She shook her head. “Sorry, what I meant was my adoptive dad.”
“Ah. Makes sense.”
“Yup. Anywho, no need to go into specifics, right?” she said, walking into the Full-Body Scanner.
Mother followed. He knew how it felt being how she was. Sure, she had more family trauma than him, but she reminded him of Clementine when they were the Ivy duo, or whatever the hell the agents at MI6 called them. It was always a lingering thought in his head, but sometimes he wondered what life would be like if Clementine didn’t leave him to rot in that burning warehouse.
An hour later, they were still waiting for the flight to Scotland. Mayumi was drinking hot chocolate from Starbucks, and Mother was keeping watch for any… potential problems for the flight.
“What’s up with you, Poppins? You look concerned. Very concerned.” she asked, looking at her watch.
He chuckled. “Nothing of your concern. Just… deep thinking, that’s all.”
“Oh, fuck it!” she exclaimed, rummaging through her bag.
Mother rolled his eyes. This girl really had a cussing problem. “Language. What did you lose, huh?”
“Forget it. You don’t need to worry about my shit. You already have enough weight on your shoulders, sir,” she said, avoiding his gaze.
His expression turned confused. “Sir?”
She groaned. “It’s something us Filipinos use. Sign of respect, or some shit like that.”
Mother took a bite of his sandwich. “Ah. Filipino ka?”
“Opo. Wait, how the hell do you know Tagalog?”
“Eh. I had multiple missions there. Some of my friends are Filipino, actually,” he explained, his British accent noticeable. “So, I just adapted to their customs and such.”
After that short explanation, they sat in awkward silence. It was weird, but Mayumi thought she could get used to this weirdo of a man. She put her headphones on and played Harness Your Hopes by Pavement. She knew that she was a weirdo. She knew that she wouldn’t fit in that stupid spy group. She knew that Mother wasn’t doing this for her “potential”. Mayumi knew she never had any potential in the first place. What the hell was he thinking about, telling her she has potential? She looked back at her bag. The only things she packed were necessities. She forgot about her mother’s necklace. The only thing she remembered of her parents.
She had a devastated look on her face, but she quickly masked it when Mother looked at her. She knew she shouldn’t bother him about she stupid things. But, a part of her wanted to. She really wanted to.
“We gotta go,” Mother said, helping her up.
She stood up. “No shit.”
Then, they went onto the plane. Mayumi was pretty surprised at how fancy the plane was. She was still bugged about the thing with her mom’s necklace, but she tried to ignore it. Other people don’t care, so why should she?
Wait, was there a bomb on the plane?
“Be right back, Poppins,” she said, rushing to the bathroom.
“Wha-What the hell happened?” he asked, giving her a concerned look.
She groaned. “You’re really stupid for a spy. There’s a bomb on the plane. I’m going to defuse it.”
“Classified information, Mayumi,” he said. “But, I suppose this’ll show me if you’re really serious about this… role.”
“Whatever.” she said, rushing to the bathroom.
“OPEN UP, IDIOT!” she said, knocking the door aggressively.
She groaned. “Do I have to do all this myself? Screw this!”
Mayumi barged open the door. She never knew she had the guts to, yet she did anyway. Even if she tried to state the obvious by knocking over a door, she tried to not cause a scene, so she tried to make the breaking door scene quiet.
“Okay… so how the hell would you defuse a bomb?” she asked herself quietly.
“If you think about it, all you gotta do is cut a wire. The correct one, at least,” she thought.
Mayumi didn’t know shit about how to do this, so she just chose her favorite color. She picked the blue one, it being close to black, and all.
For some reason… it worked? She threw the bomb in the trash can, poured water on her face, and put back her favorite playlist.
When she came back from the restroom, everyone gave her weird looks. It wasn’t the first time this happened, after her being bullied one too many times.
“Fuck off,” she said, walking to her and Mother’s seat.
Mother was stunned. “So… did you-“
“I did. Where’s the award or whatever?” she asked, annoyed.
“We don’t have any awards? The point is, spies do their things in secret. Not the whole, “fuck off” thing you did,” he said, nodding his head to the angry people in front of him.
“Well, too bad. If you want me to join the bandwagon, I’m doing it my style,” she said, pulling out her sketchbook.
She looked at Mother for a solid five minutes. She promised herself that she wouldn’t try it again. Then, she grabbed a dull pencil from her bag. Nothing much, but there was a razor right next to it. She shoved it deep in the bag, then sealed it.
“Can you look at me for a second, Poppins?” she asked.
He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t mean to sound like an idiot, but why?”
“I’m going to draw you because I’m bored,” she said, flipping to an empty page.
He nodded. “Okay then.”
A few hours later, the plane speaker said something about them landing in thirty minutes. Mayumi ripped the piece of paper from her notebook and gave it to him. It had the words, “If I fit in, make sure you weren’t asleep dreaming about it,” written on the page with handwriting that was eligible, but was a bit messy. Mother knew exactly how she felt. As an outcast. A weirdo. That’s exactly one of the reasons why he wanted to recruit her. For her to not turn into him.
“Tell me when to wake up, Poppins. I’m done with this flight,” she said, shutting her eyes.
“I’ll tell you when.” he said.
Forty-five minutes later, they were in Scotland. Well, Mother was driving both of them to the castle. Mayumi was scrolling on her phone, trying to occupy herself with thoughts of her trying to… kill herself? The world didn’t need her, so why would she need the world?
She looked outside at the castle. It was pretty gothic, and she didn’t mind that. Mayumi wondered if this place was meant for weirdos like her, which it might’ve not. She knew that Mother was just trying to help her, but it wasn’t really… helping.
When she went outside the car, she took a closer look. It wasn’t as bad as her old house, but it certainly wasn’t as nice of a deal, considering she had to go to a fancy school. She hated those kinds of things. Always so proper and elegant. It wasn’t really suited for her.
“Well, Scotland surely looks crappy.”