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The music was pumping through the car, and Em was almost bouncing in her seat, tapping the steering wheel, glancing over at Pierce, who was clearly having the time of his life, belting out the lyrics to the solo with so much passion.
It was 'Bounce like my Checks.' The recent loss of Aisha still clung to her mind like a bad dream, and when the song had originally come on she'd attempted to change the station, only for Pierce to flip it back, so he could sing along. Though his voice at this time wasn't the best, Em couldn't deny he had potential. But it was his energy that stopped her from yelling at him for butchering the song. He was really putting his heart into it and it was infectious.
She still missed Eesh, but it was moment like this that made the pain more bearable, in an odd way.
They burst into giggles as his voice cracked in such a way when he attempted to reach a particular note, leaving him unable to finish the song.
"What even was that sound?" Em wheezed between laughter, as Pierce just lost it in the passenger seat.
Eventually they pulled up to a building. Tall, mostly glass and the windows were decorated with yellow and black dragon decals on the first floor. Outside, guarding it were two Ronin, glancing nervously at their purple car. They sat there for a moment, waiting for their giggles to subside, before grabbing their weapons. Two Urbans, a Kobra, a Krukov and two Samurai Swords courtesy of her fight with Jyunichi.
Em turned to Pierce who already had his hand the door, mirth written all over his face.
"You ready?"
Shaundi was practically vibrating with excitement as she tore open the gift wrapped in shitty red and white paper.
The strangled gasp and smile that lit up her face indicated she loved it.
"You didn't! Oh my god you did!" She jolted forward, wrapping Em in the tightest hug she'd had in a long time. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
It was her first Christmas with the Saints. At first Em had no desire to celebrate, all but banning things like tinsel, string lights and that fucking Mariah Carey cd from any building she decided to inhabit, including the main HQ. A lot of people protested, but the words fell of deaf ears, pretty much literally as she removed her hearing aids as their whining got too much for her to deal with.
But long after she put them back in, on Christmas Eve of all things, she overheard Shaundi talking to Johnny, about how disappointed she was, since she was so sure this was going to be the best Christmas since her parents divorce only for it to not happen at all.
So she pulled an all nighter. Bought as many tacky decorations she could find and strung them up everywhere. Bought the strangest of things, from microwaves, to shoes, to ammo clips, and as much shiny, bright and annoying wrapping paper as she could and spent all night wrapping them, slapping on the names of every Saint she could think of.
So she was kind of relieved that Shaundi actually liked her present.
It was a Beauty and the Beast rose lamp. Something Shaundi had, apparently, been coveting since childhood but never received due to budgeting issues. Em had never personally made the connection. She just thought it was pretty, and that Shaundi was pretty, so she should get pretty things.
The rest of the day went smoothly. Everyone was in good spirits from her unexpected turn around, though she was crabbily telling everyone not to expect the same thing next year, knowing damn well she was probably going to do the same because she loved her crew, and loved seeing them so happy.
Pierce had been glued to his brand new karaoke machine since he first unwrapped it and everyone got a good laugh out of Johnny's present, a book titled 'How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You' with the 'C' hastily altered into a 'G' with sharpie.
As Shaundi pulled away, she was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet with a grin on her face.
"You're the fucking best!"
Johnny laughed loudly as the bullets rained, tinkling merrily as they hit the floor in front of him. A cop tried to sneak up behind him, but that was of no consequence as Em swiftly put him down, with a particularly vicious gleam in her eye. Oh did she just love the thrill of a good fire fight.
Johnny shot over her head and she heard the familiar dull thud of a body hitting the floor behind her. He smirked as he warned her to watch her back, but she merely stuck her tongue out at him in return.
"I don't need to watch my back when you're watching it for me."
Her gun discharged once more, end the life of another foolish cop attempting to surprise them. Johnny chuckled.
"Glad it goes both ways." He said, before shoving her away, winking, as a bullet flew in between the two.
And thus was their deadly tango. Snark and sass mixed with bloody death, hailing bullets and rough grabs and shoves. A dance for modern warriors such as themselves.
As ammo dwindled and they found themselves outnumbered, Em grabbed his arm, pulling him into a nearby alleyway. Ducking behind one of those large double-lidded garbage bins and sandwiching them between another, they watched as hapless cops ran through the entire alleyway looking for them. They got away, or at least, they would have, had they not started laughing at the ridiculousness of it.
Zinnia was bitching about her husband again, calmly sipping her iced tea as she did so, but in the background, there was nothing but chaos. Her oldest two, a pair of six year-old twins named Talon and Sephora, were screaming about something or other, her middle daughter, three year old Nevaeh, was screaming at the twins, the new baby Gunner was screaming at the noise, her chihuahua, Peanut Butter, hadn't stopped barking since Em arrived and her poor step-daughter Ashley was trying to keep the peace, but the girl looked like her was at her wits end and was about to lose it, and Em's own babies were starting to get fussy.
"I swear if he ever even looks in her fucking direction again I'm gonna-"
"Hold that thought Zin." Em interrupted, standing up abruptly. The noise barely ceased at the movement. She grabbed a piece of chicken from their bucket and threw it. Peanut Butter went bolting after it. Then she turned to the twins.
"Alright you two, what are you fighting about?"
They both spoke at once, over each other, ignoring each other, attempting to make the other look bad. Something about something being stolen and that one was being a liar. As they placed the blame on each other, Em signaled to Ashley to take Nevaeh and Gunner away to attempt to calm them down. The twelve year old seemed to appreciate it, as she grabbed Nevaeh by the hand and grabbed Gunner's car seat and walked them both toward the park a few feet away.
As Em attempted to talk them down, she saw a flash of pink in Talon's pocket. She swiped it before he could notice and held it aloft. It was a pink hair clip, but when Sephora noticed, she screeched angrily, punching her brother with her tiny fists.
If she hadn't been too busy trying to tear them apart, she'd would've laughed. Both of them ended up on time out, having both of them sit opposite sides of the bench until they calmed down.
By this point, Scout and Stevie were really starting to kick up a fuss, but Em swooped in just in time, pulling out some formula for Scout, and began pulling Stevie out of the stroller, because judging from the smell, she'd soiled herself.
Em briefly looked up at her sister's shocked face. "Anyway, as you were saying?"
"Tea Party, tea party!" Two little voices chanted excitedly at Em. It would've been adorable had she not been in the middle of a cabinet meeting, that they just burst in on. It was no strange sight to see SeoHyun and SeoJoon Gat, more commonly known as Stevie and Scout, in a meeting with their mother who, for all her faults, doted on them like she'd never see them again. and believe her, people have tried to make that reality.
But this one particular meeting had been declared on such a short notice, and Em, who had been under a extreme pressure as of late, couldn't handle that particular level of mental strain, so she'd pawned her kids off to fun Uncle Pierce to keep them busy.
Clearly that failed spectacularly.
Because now they were zooming all over the room, messing up people's paperwork, drawing on walls with crayon that "-had no business being your pocket Stevie, give those here!", and loudly asking any question that popped into her then incessantly asking her why, once she'd answered.
She turned to the nearest Senator or whoever the fuck he was because she'd never bothered to learn the titles of the rich, boring kiss-ups the job happened to be infested with, and told him to postpone the meeting. He gave her a scornful look, clearly one telling her to control her kids better, before getting everyone to pack up, snatching a particular document out of Scouts hands before he could rip it, and got everyone to file out the room.
Once it was just the three of them, she sighed deeply, sinking to the floor with the support of the wall. A tiny body slammed into her, and there was Stevie grinning at her, her cutesy pig-tails had come loose, only in place by will power alone, and there was a smudge of something brown on her cheek, it's texture vaguely reminiscent of chocolate frosting. Em groaned, having realised where their burst of energy had come from and reach for her phone.
Pierce sounded nervous when he picked up.
He was back.
He was fucking back.
Him. He. Her fucking Badger Boy.
Johnny. Johnathan. Jonald. JiHoon.
He wasn't there yet, in front of her, but he left a trail. Follow the bodies, the corpses, the chaos and destruction he, and only he, could bring, cause and carry out.
She was running, bare feet slapping against rough metal, feeling lighter than she had in years, feeling younger, as if every step shed a year off her life until she looked the same as she did the day they met and so did he except he didn't. Because there he was, haloed by hanging florescence.
He looked just like he did five years ago though.
He was naked, just as the rest of them had been when they exited their pods and covered in that pink goop. His hair had been flattened to his scalp, though she caught him just as he was pushing it back, her sudden appearance freezing him in place. He was blinking rapidly, his glasses no where to be found except in her hands because of all the things to find on a stolen ship it was those. Pure coincidence. Pure luck. Pure fate. His chest heaved under sculpted muscle with exertion, and rifle expertly placed hid his goods from view, gripped with a bloody grasp.
The corpses of those who crossed him lay at his feet like roses heralding the return of a champion.
Em only halted to take him in for a moment, launching herself at him with more life and love she'd known he could possess.
She hit him with a sticky 'thwap', the goop getting into her hair and onto her suit, but she didn't care. The force of it made him stumbled backwards slightly. His muscles tensed, unsure if it was friend or foe, until she placed his glasses over the eyes she loved to stare into for hours, the eyes their children had, and he saw her.
He was home.
And so was she.