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Naomi was standing at a crossroads, both of the narrow alleys equally unfamiliar. She passed the crate of little green fruits from one hand to another and huffed. Great. She got lost. How come that even after living here for so many years, she still managed to do that? Hopefully, Gabe comes late too, or else she's going to delay the party for all of them.
"It's not a party." She could almost hear Elena's words, as she entered the path to her right. Since neither of them looked more familiar, she chose at random, to just not stand in one place. "It's just an intimate get together."
Naomi snorted and telepathically answered her imaginary Elena. Sure, as long as Mateo doesn't dance. It's a full-blown party from then on.
Anyway, it will be neither a party nor a get together, if she doesn't get to the pal-
"Help!" A completely real yell came from behind her. And completely familiar.
Naomi turned around, alarmed and waited if the voice would call again.
"Help! It's the evil malvago Fiero and I am being turned to stone!" A definitely Gabe's voice caught her ears again.
She immediately raced towards him, leaving the crate on the ground. Just as fast as she was running, her thoughts were racing one another in her head. How could Fiero come back? Who could free him again? Is Gabe alone? Should she get Elena and Mateo?
She ran out of the street onto a small plaza, created by the back walls of five houses. She frantically looked around, looking for Gabe and… froze.
Gabe was crouching in the middle of the square. His hands were extended into the air, his eyes closed and his tongue sticking out of his mouth, generally looking like a dead opossum. And very much not-turned-to-stone.
"What the-" Naomi stopped herself at the last second noticing a group of kids surrounding Gabe- "HECK is happening here!?"
Gabe's eyes shot open. He looked at her, frozen, his tongue still sticking from his mouth. He blinked. Naomi blinked too. Silence fell onto the square as they both tried to comprehend what's before them.
Gabe suddenly jumped up, straightened himself and of course closed his mouth. Even despite his dark skin and slowly disappearing afternoon sun, Naomi could swear he was blushing. He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck before finally speaking up.
"Haha, Naomi what- uh, what are you doing here?"
"Well, I was going to the palace." Naomi crossed her arms. "But then I heard a scream, so I came to help you. Though it seems like you don't need help after all."
"Hah, yeah sorry about that." Gabe averted his eyes from her. "We were playing a game and I suppose I got a little carried away."
"We were playing Los Cuatro Amigos!" One of the children finally chimed in.
Naomi was piercing Gabe with an angry glare for startling her and causing a fake alarm, but the child's comment was so unexpected, it pulled her attention instead.
"Huh, and what's this game about?" She squatted to be on eye level with the boy who spoke up.
“We play that we’re you, Gabe, Mateo and princess Elena, and we're defeating bad guys!"
"Princess Elena is actually a queen now, you know that Alberto." Gabe scolded the child, but without much emotion, so Naomi suspected it wasn't the first time he had to do that.
"Well, in your stories she was princess!" Alberto crossed his arms.
"Wait a second, what stories?" Naomi asked, looking at Gabe.
"I may have told them a little about our… escapades." Gabe's check flushed pink again. "And I may have coloured them up a little."
A sly grin came upon Naomi's face.
"I see." She nodded and turned back towards Alberto. "And you wanted to finally play with a member of the real Cuatro Amigos, huh? With the real general Gabe."
Behind her back, Gabe frowned.
"You'd think so but…" He gestured towards the boy.
"I'M playing Gabe." Alberto proudly puffed his chest and put his fists on his hips, a pose Naomi hadn't seen Gabe take in such a long time, she couldn't help but snort.
"Susanita is Naomi, that is you." He continued, pointing at the other children.
A little girl dressed in a blue skirt and holding a shoelace with a loop tied on its end, smiled sheepishly when Naomi looked at her. She raised her shoelace above her head and tried to spin it like one would with a proper lasso - an effort not very successful but more than enough to make Naomi's heart melt into a puddle.
"And I'm Fiero!" Naomi turned to see a seemingly older girl pointing at herself with a proud grin. She was holding a stick with a big, round leaf tied to one end - a makeshift tamborita, Naomi guessed - and even had a beard and mustache drawn with soot.
"Alicia's always the villain." Alberto complained.
“Because I’m the tallest.” Alicia answered simply, shrugging her shoulders.
Naomi looked back at the boy, expecting him to argue, but Alberto just folded his arms and continued with his explanation of their game. Apparently, height was in their opinion the biggest argument as to why one would be a villain.
“Anyway, Pedro was princess Elena,” Naomi could hear Gabe sigh behind her. “But he already went home, so you can take his place!”
Alberto jumped up a little, excited by his idea, which the girls quickly backed up with a chorus of gasps and “yes”s. Naomi gasped herself, surprised at the suggestion.
“I don’t know...” She tapped her lips with her finger in thought. “I haven’t really played like this in a very long time.”
“See, guys?" Gabe started before she even finished talking. "You shouldn’t pull Naomi into your game if she doesn’t want to-”
“Nooo, you’ve been turned to stone, Gabe!" Alberto protested, though more against the fact that Gabe spoke up, rather than what he was exactly saying. "I mean, Mateo, and stones don’t talk!”
“Exactly, Mateo ." Naomi couldn't stop a grin coming up on her face. Gabe in the answer just groaned and hid his face in his hands, but other than that kept quiet. Naomi let out a chuckle seeing his defeat and turned back towards the kids.
"And well, I might not have played in a long time, but it sounds fun. So what am I supposed to do?”
"Yay!" Alicia bounced a little and shook her hands up.
“First of all you need a scepter, princess Elena always had her scepter on your adventures." She quickly straightened herself and put her hands on her hips, her professional (as much as it can be for a ten-year-old) attitude coming back.
Naomi raised her brows at the confidence in Alicia's voice. For a second she considered reminding her that yes, she knows that, she also was on these adventures after all, but eventually decided to just let the kid have her fun. So she looked around for something at least remotely scepter-like.
"Okay, umm… Would this work?" She asked picking up a long stick with a forked end.
"I think so, but it still lacks something…" Alicia rubbed her chin in thought, smearing her sooty mustache over her hands and face.
"Maybe we could put this on the top, to act as the jewel?" Gabe picked off a giant pinecone from a nearby tree and held it up for the girls to see.
"Yes!" Alicia exclaimed and extended her hand to the other girl. "Susanita give me your shoelace."
But Susanita protectively turned away.
"It's not a shoelace, it's a lasso!" She yelled, holding her "lasso" behind her back. Alicia had already opened her mouth to say something, which Naomi could guess wouldn't be very nice when Gabe stepped in.
"Exactly, and that's why we need it." He said putting his hand on her shoulder. "You know there isn't anything as durable as Naomi's lasso so it's the only thing that would be strong enough to become part of the princess's scepter. And you know that Naomi always helps her friends."
Naomi couldn't help but look at Gabe as he was talking. He was speaking in a serious tone, the same he used when he explained to them the strategy for a battle, but at the same time, his voice was much softer than she had ever heard him before. A delicate smile curled the corners of his mouth just a little, but in his eyes it erupted into hundreds of sparkles, making them shine even more brightly than Elena's scepter.
He took a serious tone, as if he was explaining the strategy for a battle, and not settling an argument between children. And yet, his voice was much softer than she had ever heard it. A smile curled the ends of his lips slightly, but sparkled fully in his eyes, making them shine brighter than Elena's scepter when casting blaze. They've been friends for over four years now, but she felt like she saw this side of him for the first time just now.
"But what will I use to fight now?"
Susanita's voice snapped her back to reality.
"How about this little thing?" She asked nonchalantly, unbuckling her lasso and extending it towards the girl.
Susanita looked at the gift and her mouth hung wide open, and she just stared in awe at Naomi.
"Wooow!"
Exclaimed Alberto, first breaking the silence.
"You got THE lasso! The real thing!"
"You're so cool Naomi!"
He and Alicia outshouted one another, their voices high with excitement.
"Don't you think you should say something, Susanita?"
Gabe nudged the girl lightly, but he also stared at Naomi with wide eyes and an even wider smile.
"Thank you, Naomi! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Susanita finally snapped out and ran to Naomi almost knocking her over with the impact of her hug. "You're my favourite Amigo now!"
Naomi after the initial surprise returned the hug and hearing her last words, sent Gabe a quick glance. Gabe was frowning slightly apparently disgruntled at how this title was taken away from him. Seeing Avalor's proud general affected by the words of a six-year-old was finally too much for Naomi and she break out in laughter.
"Tada!" Alicia exclaimed getting their attention. She offered the stick with a pinecone tied on top towards Naomi. "Your scepter is finished and ready to fight bad guys."
"Okay, so are we all ready now?" Gabe straightened himself, the tone of joyful seriousness coming back to his voice. "I think we have a malvago to defeat."
"Oh yes!" Alicia jumped up a little in excitement. Then she remembered that she's supposed to play one of the worst malvagos in history and quickly got back to her act.
"I mean, you might try, but you won't ever defeat me, I've already turned your wizard into a statue! Muahahaha!"
She extended her arms to the air in what Naomi assumed was supposed to be an evil pose. Gabe hearing her words also took his (also less embarrassing than before) pose of a statue.
"Mateo! Nooo! You are an extremely evil person Fiero!" Susanita yelled, putting her whole heart into her performance.
Though Naomi couldn't help a slight smile as she remembered that those weren't exactly the words she'd call Fiero.
"Quick Naomi, I have a plan!" Alberto took charge as "Gabe." "You have to take the unstoning potion from the palace!"
"Dumb captain! This is a more powerful spell than ever, it can't be broken by a potion." "Fiero" pointed her tamborita at him, ready to cast another akatok.
Naomi still stood on the side of the plaza, not sure if and how she should get involved. But before she could even think of a way to react, the illusion broke as "Gabe" exclaimed:
"Hey, no fair! You can't just make yourself more powerful, Fiero always loses, he's the bad guy!"
"Yeah, you have to tell us how to defeat you then." Susanita agreed.
"Okay, okay, geeze don't make such a fuss." Alicia rolled her eyes.
"The spell can be broken by…" She pondered for a second, looking around for inspiration before a sly grin came upon her face. For some reason, Naomi really didn't like that smile. "A true love's kiss."
"That's stupid." Alberto scoffed. "How are we supposed to do that?"
"Oooh, I know!" Susanita exclaimed, catching into Alicia's plan faster than her friend. She was smiling too and Naomi was hundred percent sure she knew exactly what their idea was about.
"Everyone knows that princess Elena is in love with Mateo, soo…" Naomi let out a short laugh at this sentence. Apparently, really everyone knew, except for the two interested. At the same time, it struck her and she started to wonder just how much does Gabe tell these kids. "Naomi should kiss Gabe!"
“What?” Alberto tilted his head.
“Not you, stupid," Alicia rolled her eyes at the boy. "The actual Gabe.”
The actual Gabe froze. His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and his cheeks turned the colour of the maroon accents on his uniform. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, trying to hide his awkwardness.
“Hey come on, guys, you can’t ask for something like that in a game," he started explaining himself, tripping over his words and repeating. "You know we are just playing, kissing is-”
He got silenced by Naomi placing a quick kiss on his lips. The plaza fell into silence… before the girls erupted into cheers. Naomi covered her red face with her bangs and Gabe stared blankly ahead, trying to process what just happened.
Finally, Naomi coughed to direct the attention to herself and spoke up.
"Now that you’re not stone anymore," involuntarily, she blushed even more. "I think we should go to the palace. Join the real Cuatro Amigos,” she added, winking at the kids.
Gabe finally shook off his surprise.
“O- oh, of course, yes, we definitely should. And I think that you should go home.”
He said the last sentence while sending the children a scornful glare. Still giggling and whispering between themselves, they complied and after gathering their toys and saying goodbye - and in Susanita's case, giving Naomi her lasso back, accompanied by a strong hug - happily ran off to their homes.
Naomi and Gabe were left alone on the quiet and dark plaza. At first, neither of them dared to look towards the other, but slowly, Gabe started to chuckle, first quietly, but his laughter grew louder and louder, and when Naomi joined him, they laughed loud and long. Finally, their laughter died off, leaving only warm smiles on their faces.
"Let's get going," Gabe said, gesturing with his head in the direction of the palace. "But how did you even get here in the first place?"
Naomi laughed awkwardly.
"Turns out the road’s really not a wire," she muttered.
Gabe tilted his head, looking at her confused.
"Nothing, it sounds better in Lachian." She flicked her hand. "I was trying a shortcut before I heard you screaming for help-" she shot him a half scornful half joking glare - "so I dropped the…"
Naomi facepalmed and ran off into one of the side alleys, followed by Gabe's confused gaze. She came back after a few minutes, carrying a crate full of fruit.
"So I dropped the gooseberries I'm taking to the party," she sighed.
"It's not a-" Gabe started but Naomi cut him off.
"I know. But either way, we really should go now."
Gabe chuckled but nodded and seeing that Naomi was hesitantly looking around, led to the palace. For the next few minutes, they walked in silence, hand in hand, not looking at each other and letting the evening breeze cool off their red cheeks.
"I think we should tell them," Naomi spoke up when they walked onto the bridge.
Gabe furrowed his brows and looked at her, tilting his head.
"Elena and Mateo," she explained. "About this game, you're playing with your little friends."
A sly smile curled up her lips and Gabe chuckled.
"We probably should."
"But are we going to tell them…" he started again, after a moment of silence. "About everything?"
Naomi felt a blush creep on her cheeks again and hoped the twilight was dark enough to hide it.
"I think… I think we can keep a few details to ourselves." She said, fighting a smile and looking away from Gabe.
But their hands found each other and interlocked together, once again turning them both red. But neither of them let go.