Chapter Text
Hornet browsed the shelves of Big Stop supermarket looking for the flour. There was sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, icing sugar, cane sugar, palm sugar, something called invert sugar.
"Oooh! Get that one!" Ghost said, pointing to said container of invert sugar.
"No." Hornet said, continuing to look.
"Aw, why not?"
"Because if I don't know what it is I'm not getting it. Aha! There you are."
Hornet reached for the dark blue bag of Sir Sliterton's Family Safe Flour and sat it next to Ghost. She continued down the aisle, keeping an eye out in case there was something else they might need. Reaching the end and seeing there was nothing else that caught her eye she pulled out the list and pen from her pocket and checked over it. Reading over the paper she marked off flour from it and looked down at her sibling. Sitting in the cart seat, violently chewing on a cube toy they had brought from home. The noise wasn't all that bothersome but the way they were chewing raised some concerns.
"Why are you chewing it like that?" Hornet asked, concerned clear in her tone.
Ghost paused. "I like how it feels." And went right back to chewing.
"Okay, just try not to chew so hard. Don't wanna hurt your jaw."
Ghost mumbled an okay between their bites. They went along the next few aisle and the cart began to fill up. The list of things to retrieve grew shorter and shorter and Ghost continues to get grayish drool on their cube with their obsessive biting.
"Okay, only a few more things left. Wanna stretch your legs?" Hornet asked.
Ghost simply nodded, clearly not paying attention to what was being asked of them.
"Ghost." Hornet said, more firmly.
That caught their attention as they stopped chewing.
"If I place you in the ground, can I trust you to behave yourself?" She asked, staring the small bug down.
She was serious, she did not want a repeat of last week's market incident. Ghost thought long and hard about this, even taking the cube out of their mouth. A few seconds passed before they answered.
"Okay."
"You promise? I don't wanna have to explain why there's a row of shelves knocked over or why half of them are burned."
"Yep, I promise."
"Okay."
Hornet took Ghost by the under arms, lifting them from the seat and placing them on the tiles below. Ghost grabbed a handful of Hornet's dress and walked alongside her, still chewing the cube.
"Okay, just 5 more things and then we can check out. We need milk, eggs, bread, clothing detergent and Mx. Bermuda Butterfly's Jumbo Jamberine Juice."
Hornet stared at it. She didn't write this, no matter how neat the handwriting was she wouldn't use a crayon.
"Gee, I wonder how that got there." She said sarcastically.
"It's a mystery." Ghost said, threw their chewing.
Hornet sighed, giving a quick look at the sign above them and read the word "Juice" along with a bunch of other words before continuing down the aisle. "Well lucky us it's in this aisle and even luckier it's the last one left."
Ghost rushed past their sister and yanked the large bottle from the shelf. The orange liquid shook and swam around in its container from the force and bubbled and Ghost walked it back to the cart, doing their best not to fall over. Before handing it off to their older sister the young bug stuffed the top of it in their mouth. When they pulled it out the top had light gray droplets of spit on it and Hornet just gave another sigh. She knew why Ghost did this, they didn't like others touching any of their things that was Mx. Bermuda Butterfly related. Hornet simply wiped the spit off on her dress, the top now stained with spots, and sat it in the seat area of the cart.
“Thank you Ghost, you're very behaved for a baby."
"I'm not a baby!"
Hornet kept walking and scanning the aisle. "Oh yeah, why do you sound like one?"
"I am not a baby!" Ghost flung their arms around and in that movement lost their grip on their cube.
It went flying backwards, bouncing off the floor and tumbling past doorway. Ghost wasted no time in following it which earned them getting their name called by Hornet.
"I'll be back, I'm getting my toy."
Hornet simply sighed and continued onwards. They've wandered off before hopefully it didn't end in disaster this time. Ghost found their toy resting on the ground, picking it up and wiping it off to make sure there wasn't any loose floor garbage on it. Before they put it back in their mouth they caught a glimpse of their surroundings, turning their head and everything came into full view. This place was large, as large as the rest of the store but it didn't have shelves lined with items, they had boxes on top of boxes. Big bugs walking around carrying heavy looking things and mobile machines with metal sticking out of them. Ghost looked back towards the entrance and back at the scene before them.
"Hornet wouldn't mind if I was gone for a little bit, she could handle the shopping." Ghost thought to themselves and pressed further into the new strange area.
°°°°°°
Hornet peacefully walked through the household items aisles, picking up things they needed and stuff she wanted. Next up on her list was clothing detergent, something that was always annoying when it came to what she should get. She looked through the different bottles, the skinny one's never lasted long, the cheap ones were mostly water. She would know Bubbles wouldn't stop lecturing her about it. Big ones last but they're also expensive. Hornet stood there for a moment, pondering her predicament. She could always just get a bunch of cheap ones and make that work, but Ghost was an active, and filthy, child and they never got the stains out from their adventures. The big ones got the stains out and made the nice smell last longer. Something moved in her peripheral and in one swift moment Hornet spun around, crossing her arms and grabbing the back of the seating area on the cart. She caught them, the bug trying to steal from her and, if she could, they'd have one less arm right now. The bug, her captured prey, looked shocked, agitated and confused all at once. A few moments passed before they spoke.
"Oh! Hello again." They said their voice soft and high pitched. "My name is Cheryl, your new neighbor. We met this morning."
Ah yes, Hornet thought back to this morning. She had passed moving carts while running some early errands with Ghost, returning things borrowed from friends and having chats, the latter much to Hornet's dismay. On the way back they saw them, 2 bugs and a child, the shorter adult bug, this Cheryl, took one look at Ghost and Hornet and ushered the other 2 back inside. Hornet found that odd but didn't want to make assumptions before. Being in this situation now was cementing her earlier suspicions.
"Oh, hi."
The silence between them was almost deafening. Neither of them moved nor looked away from the other. It reminded the arachnid of when she would hunt for food and lock eyes with her prey and they'd do their best not to look away lest they be killed. The prey never won.
"I meant to speak earlier but we just moved in last week and the last bit of our stuff had arrived today so, you know, busy busy."
"Uh huh."
Again, silence fell around them. Whatever Cheryl had her hands on in Hornet's cart she wasn't letting go and Hornet wasn't going to let her escape until she conceded.
"I saw the little bug with you, was that your son?"
"Sibling."
"Oh, that's nice. They looked like they're around the same age as my little Carmel. Maybe they could be friends-"
"Is there something I can help you with?"
Hornet got straight to the point, she had no desire to make pleasantries with a thief. Her bluntness caught Cheryl off guard, she started stammering over her words before finally speaking.
"Look, you seem smart. You know I have a kid and that I just got here, won't you be a dear and let me have that silly juice for my baby."
Hornet scoffed. "You know I also have a child so why should I let you have it?"
Cheryl forced a smile. "Well I figured you weren't heartless. Do you really wanna be the reason a child cries?"
Hornet looked over Cheryl's shoulder to see her son sitting in the cart seat and holding a box of Captain Salty's Peanut Butter flavored cereal. He wasn't paying attention to them, he looked more interested in the ingredients on the back of the cereal box than anything his mom was doing.
"I think he'll be fine."
"And if he isn't?" Cheryl was losing her smile.
"Tell him I said cope."
Cheryl's smile dropped completely and she got dangerously close to the arachnid and Hornet had to fight the instincts to make her back away.
"Listen, you live in the biggest house in Dirtmouth. I'm sure it's a cozy home, a peaceful life, if you want it to stay that way you'll give me the damn juice."
Hornet gave a little laugh. "Cheryl, if you do attempt to do such a thing I guarantee you'll be able to live with the consequences."
The cheery tone in her voice was an attempt hide the murderous rage boiling inside of her. The thief not only tried to steal from her and invade her space but she threatened to interrupt her family's life and she will not stand for that. Cheryl was shocked.
"Are you threatening me?"
"You'll know when I'm threatening you." Hornet took a step back. "Now, kindly get your filthy claws out of my cart." With one yank towards her Cheryl's hand finally let go of the juice in her cart.
The motion almost made the butterfly fall over but lucky for her she caught herself. Rubbing her wrist Cheryl gave Hornet one last nasty look before hmphing and walking away. Hornet waited until she had turned the corner before she let her guard down a little and hoped that would be the last she'd see of her in the store.
°°°°°°
Ghost surveyed the area around them. Large shelves lined with products they've seen out in the regular store and some they haven't put out yet. They even spotted a box of Mx. Bermuda Butterfly brand cereal and made a mental note to ask Hornet for it later. The whole area was bustling with bugs moving back and forth, carrying boxes and stacks of wood, ladders and other equipment. Ghost had to be careful not to get trampled by them.
"Kid look out!" Someone yelled.
Ghost looked to their right and saw a machine fast approaching and reflexively shade dashed right through it. They heard a few gasps and a few worried voices before being face to face with a worker.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" The man asked.
"I'm fine." Ghost said. "I've been hit by worse things." They lifted their hand to their mouth and bit down only for their fangs to clamp down on their fingers. It didn't hurt, they weren't going to bite that hard but they were expecting plastic.
"Okay, good." The worker bug looked at the newly formed crowd. "Alright, enough standing around. Back to work, nothing to see here." The crowd slowly broke apart and most went back to their assigned jobs while a few went to the large previously moving machine that now had a black drippy stain on it, smoke coming from it as though it was hot. The man made sure everyone was preoccupied with something else before turning his attention back on Ghost. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for my toy." Ghost continued patting down their cloak and felt nothing. They searched the ground and surrounding area for it but all they saw was the busyness of the worker bugs in the area, if Ghost toy had fallen on the floor it would've been kicked around and land who knows where by now.
"My toy." Ghost deflated. Kicking at imaginary pebbles on the ground, they really liked that cube.
The man looked at Ghost and sighed. "Look, I'll help you find your toy, okay?"
Ghost spun around "Really?"
"Yeah, as long as you promise to leave and never tell anyone what happened here."
"Deal! My name's Ghost."
"Braxton. So what does this toy look like?"
"It's a cube."
A beat of silence.
"Like, it has moving parts or it opens up?"
"Nope. Just a cube. It's pink with red flowers on it and it fits in my mouth."
"Oh boy."
°°°°°°
Hornet kept walking up and down aisles, she wasn't really looking for anything, just wasting time as she waited for Ghost to come back from wherever they were. She stopped in front of an empty shelf in an empty aisle. Leaning against the handle she pulled out the thin slab of metal from her pocket. A handheld communicator is what Bubbles called it and called handie for short. It still amazes Hornet that Bubbles was able to find such small things on their outings on the surface let alone get them up and running. Unlocking it she scrolled through the news, nothing about it was particularly interesting. Potato scam in the city, scammers still yet to be caught, scheduled rain in a few days, a beast not native to Hollownest was found in the Crossroads, mysterious figures bearing a watchers symbol on their clothing are still being spotted near the watchers tower. Boring, boring, blah, blah, blah. The handie vibrated in her hand, a message from Holly. They're asking for Hornet to pick up some frozen sweet berries for them. She sighs and sends back a sure before heading back to the frozen aisle. She walked around the front of her cart, grabbed the frozen sweet berries and dropped them with the rest of her items. She went back to her handie, scrolling through the news still. It was gonna get cold soon so she'd need to get Ghost a new coat after they so graciously tore up their previous one to declare the cold seasons over. There was also supposed to be a pageant held in the city next month, something about children competing to prove that they're well behaved or something. Hornet grasped the front of her cart and got 2 steps forward before stopping again. Something didn't feel right, she gave the cart a little shake. It was lighter than before. She did a run over of her items. Milk, cereal, clothing detergent, frozen berries, food for the month, cleaning supplies, Ghost juice- the juice. The juice is gone. She moved the cart side to side, it wasn't on the floor and it wasn't in the bigger area of the cart. Did she take it out and sit it somewhere? No, she wouldn't because she's aware that's how one loses things in the first place. Did Ghost take it? Impossible, they had yet to come back from retrieving their toy and even if they did they were far too short to reach the seating area without making any noise. This is bad, really bad. If she didn't find that juice Ghost would scream all the way home and it was getting too late in the evening for them to be doing that. Not to mention the looks they'd most certainly get. Hornet took a deep breath and steadied herself. She'd just have to retrace her steps and hope to the gods that the store had more in the back. Then she caught it. A glimpse of pink out of the corner of her eye. A wing. She followed it, her footsteps light and silent as she approached the aisle it turned down. She looked around the corner and saw Cheryl, happily shopping, not paying attention to her son who was doing his best to stay conscious. And right next to him was the juice, its top still stained with gray splotches. She took it, took it while Hornet's back was turned and reading an article about some stupid child competition. Her claws gripped the shelves edges and left an imprint of them in their wood base. She had to be calm, she had to be smart about this. Hornet would get it back no doubt about it but not now. Cheryl was too close to it and there was telling if the son would alert his mother to her presence or not. So she'd have to wait. Wait for Cheryl to abandon her post, wait for the child to fall asleep, wait for the perfect moment to strike. Hornet returned to her cart, pushing it as she went about her way. Passing the aisle with the thief in it. She caught that smug look on her face, the way she looked satisfied with herself. Keep smiling, Hornet will wipe it off soon enough. This was the game the mother wanted to play and Hornet was more than happy to oblige. So let the hunt begin.
°°°°°°
Ghost explored their new surroundings. Touching anything they could get their grubby little hands on before they were told to not do that. Everything was so much bigger than what was in the store. The shelves, the boxes, the bugs, even the products seem to look over them but in a good way. Makes them feel larger than life, like they could stick their head inside of them and not get stuck.
"Hey, don't touch that." Braxton picked Ghost up by the scruff of the cloak and sat them down 5ft away from the shelves. "I can't have my boss seeing you in here otherwise he'll have my head. So stay near me, get it?"
"Keep up then."
Ghost kept moving forward and Braxton did his best to keep up with them.
"What's this?"
"That's a forklift."
"How big are the forks here?"
Braxton laughed. "It's not for lifting forks, it helps us carry and relocate heavy inventory."
"Can I drive it?"
"No."
Ghost was once again carried off by the collar of their cloak.
"Keep your eyes open for your toy."
Ghost looked at all the places they passed by, no site of their cube. There were bugs stranding around talking in a darkened corner. The group glanced in Ghost direction before continuing on with their conversation. There were bugs walking around, carrying things, a pair seemed to be having a hushed heated argument about something. However their demeanor seemed to change when they looked behind them and immediately went in different directions. Braxton quickly made their way over to the shelves they just moved Ghost from, mumbling under their breaths words Ghost was not allowed to say. The little vessel was placed on the bottom shelf and smushed between a bunch of stuffed toys.
"Stay here, don't move, don't make a sound and I'll let you keep one for free."
Ghost stilled their movements immediately. Free toys for doing nothing sounded great to them. Braxton picked up a conveniently placed pen and clipboard from off the floor and looked as though they were writing something down.
"Braxton." A voice called from the left.
"Oh, h-hey boss man." Braxton tried to hide the quiver in his voice but he wasn't doing a good job at it.
"What are you doing?"
"Just doing an inventory check."
A beat of silence.
"In the callback section?"
"Yep, gotta send everything back. Don't want any more problems on our claws."
Footsteps approached them and a pair of legs were brought into view.
"With the new food products yes but you checking the toys area."
"Well yeah, gotta get rid of all the weird looking toys that need to be sent back. Can't have one slipping through and then next thing you know we're knee deep in letters from angry parents about how the toy scarred their children for life."
Braxton gave a little laughed and the pair of legs turned to Ghost direction before bending and Ghost saw the face of a beetle looking at them.
"Honestly I don't know why they were put out in the first place. They're all so weird looking, especially that one." The mystery bug pointed at Ghost. "Why does its face look like that? Why are its eyes like that?"
Ghost stared long and hard at this no named bug. What felt like minutes was only a few seconds before the better shivered, stood up and called Ghost creepy.
"Hurry up, we have an issue with one of the machines and we need all hands on deck."
"Uh, yes sir."
The legs left the same way they came and when Braxton took a breath is when Ghost took one of the smaller stuffed toys and threw it at his face.
"What was that for?"
"I'm not weird or creepy, I'm adorable."
"Whatever you say kid."
Ghost moved to get up but Braxton stopped them and lowered their voice to a whisper. "You can't come out, my boss is on the floor. He'll definitely spot you and I'll definitely get fired."
"So how am I supposed to find Claudeena?"
"Who?"
"My cube, I've decided she should have a name. It's the right thing to do."
"Well Claudeena's just gonna have to wait till my boss goes back to his office."
"How long will that take? Hornet might start looking for me soon."
"I'll try to get the machine fixed quickly before your mom starts looking."
"Sister."
"Whatever. Just don't move till I get back."
They stared at each other before Ghost huffed and crossed their arms. Braxton took this as confirmation that Ghost would stay put before getting up and leaving himself. Ghost listened as the footsteps faded away and then sat there. For 30 seconds, then a minute, then a minute and a half and soon they were bored and itching to get up and move around. Surely Braxton wouldn't mind if Ghost stretched their legs. They slid from the bottom shelf and stretched hearing a light pop in their back before turning around and rubbing their hands together.
"Now who's coming home with me?" Ghost looked between their options and saw it. A strange pink and round toy with spikes around it, weird flat hands on its sides, wide eyes and puffed cheeks. That's the one. They picked it up and held it to their face. "From now on, you are here by dubbed… uh… Professor Puffed Cheeks. You and I will do great things." They looked at the little stuffed toys. "Well, it'd be irresponsible of me to leave defenseless children all alone."
Ghost found a bag and started dropping one little toy after another into it until it couldn't hold anymore. By then all the small stuffed toys had been cleared off the bottom shelf, their mini mission was complete. Now they were bored again. Ghost didn't know what time it was but they'd definitely been back here too long and we're sure to get scolded for wandering off so late and for so long. They needed to find their toy and get out of here but they were told to stay until Braxton returned.
"What's that?" Ghost held Puff Chest to the side of their face and listened. "Uh huh…. Uh huh…. You're absolutely right. Braxton could take forever and then we'd get locked in the store and then Hornet's gonna have to break in to get us out. We'll find my cube ourselves." Ghost looked back to their back of tiny stuffed toys. "I'll be back, my children. Mama needs to handle some business. Be good, no fighting." And off they went. Deeper into the storage area and hopefully closer to finding their toy.
°°°°°°
Hornet inspected the large spoon in her hand. Turning it from side to side and letting the light glint off it. It was shiny, so shiny she saw her own reflection in it and when she turned it she could make out the distant shape of the crook behind her. Her and the child sitting next to what was rightfully hers. Well, Ghost but she's the one paying for it. Hornet thought about using the glint of the spoon to blind her but pushed it aside. There were still bugs in the store even if it was only a few and the lights above were not strong enough to do that. The spoon was good quality though, she needed this spoon and the ladle and the spatula. Why did she need one of everything on this rack? As she picked up a pair of tongs she saw a spit reflection of Cheryl heading her way and Hornet began to internally panic. Why was she approaching her? Had she caught on to what Hornet was doing? Was she going to make a fuss? That situation would be hard to turn around and she'd probably be asked to leave. She still doesn't have Ghost either so if she was forced to leave Ghost would be alone in the store and she can't have that. Hornet needed to think of something and fast. There was a hard tap on her shoulder and Hornet spun around a little harder and faster than she liked, the momentum shaking her cart and alerting the other shoppers to them. Cheryl opened her mouth to say something but Hornet blurted out the first thing that came out first.
"Are you following me?"
Cheryl was shocked, Hornet would be as well if she wasn't in the midst of lying.
"Is there a problem here?" A large beetle had approached and Hornet could tell from the poor quality of their badge that they were a security guard for the store. Shit.
"Yes! This-"
"She's been following me around the store." Hornet interjected before Cheryl had a chance to finish her sentence.
"What!?" Cheryl's voice shot up a few octaves. "I have done no such thing."
"Then why do I see you pop up in every aisle I'm in?"
"Because you're stalking me! Everywhere I go you're there!"
"Okay, lady's calm down. Do I need to escort you both out of the store?"
They stared at each for a good 30 seconds before Hornet spoke. "No, hopefully I can avoid her."
The guard nodded and Hornet felt their eyes as they both watched her walk around and turned left down another aisle. Hornet sighed, that could've gone better but at the very least it didn't go poorly. No matter, Ghost had yet to return and the store wasn't closing soon. She still had time, she would just need to keep a better eye out, for Cheryl and the guard now.
°°°°°°
Ghost had managed to walk deeper into the storage area for what they assumed was 20 minutes and had not found a single working bug. It was unsettling, without the hustle and bustle of activity it was just a large room with big shelves that held objects Ghost didn't recognize. They held Puffed Cheeks closer to them and pushed on.
"Stay strong Professor Puffed Cheeks, we can get through this."
Almost as soon as Ghost said that they heard voices up ahead. Quietly approaching the voices they found a group of workers crowded around. Hiding behind nearby boxes Ghost could overhear the conversation.
"Sir, I don't know what I'm doing."
"Too bad, try something. Since no one can tell me what's wrong with the machine, everyone gets a chance at fixing it."
Someone sighed.
"Mr. Maryway like I told you, the problem is that one of the pipes that ventilates the machine is-"
"Ah ah ah, no making up excuses for these sorry bunch. Someone broke it and someone's gonna fix it."
Another sigh. Ghost climbed on top of the boxes to be able to get a better view of who was saying what and they were able to look down and see the same face that called them creepy and another bug with glasses as well as Braxton.
"You!" The boss called pointing at Braxton. "Get over here and fix it."
Braxton walked over to the machine and stared at it. A hole had been open and he moved his hands in uncertain motions, reaching for something before pulling back and repeating the motion.
"Sir I-"
"Move, let someone else give it a go."
Braxton moved back into the crowd and more bugs were told to step up and fix the machine before being told to move out of the way for the other one.
"Sir, it's a ventilation system. One of the pipes is blocked and if we don't figure out which one they all could burst." The bug with the glasses said.
"Why didn't you say that in the first place?"
"If you'd clean the wax from your ear holes you'd know I did."
The comment was ignored and the boss turned to the crowd and told them to find the pipe that is being blocked and quickly before we lose the machine. With that said the crowd broke apart on this mission to find the clogged pipe and Ghost shook their head.
"He'll try to make it quick, bunch a baloney. Come on Puffed Cheeks, we can do this without him." Ghost servaid what they could, they had a pretty good view of a lot of the area around them. "Let's go higher and get a better view."
Ghost climbed the boxes doing their best to hang on to their stuffed toy at the same time. Eventually making it up on top of the last box Ghost could see essentially the entirety of the storage room. It was larger than Ghost originally thought and they could see some working bugs checking pipes on the walls, probably for the clog. Yet, they didn't see their toy. They moved their head from one side to another before they spotted it. A piece of pink sticking out of a funnel shaped object on top of a pipe. That had to be it.
"Stay here Puffed Cheeks." Ghost sat the toy on top of the boxes and made their way over to the pipe.
Nearing the edge they grabbed the top of the funnel with one hand and used the other to grab their cube and pull. It wasn't moving, they pulled harder this time. It moved but very little. Carefully, Ghost stood on the little nobs poking out of the side and grabbed the cube with both hands and pulled again. It was moving, they just needed to keep tugging. After a few seconds it came loose and a rush of black smoke and hot air made Ghost shoot back onto the box and near Puffed Cheeks.
"Holy smokes, I could've fallen. Huh?.... You're right, that would've been pretty cool. But we got what we came for now, let's bounce."
Ghost shoved the cube in their mouth, ignoring the soot that had collected on one half of it, picked up Puffed Cheeks, headed down, ran past the crowd of working bugs, grabbed their back of smaller stuffed toys and left to find Hornet. Hopefully she wouldn't be too upset that they were gone for so long.
°°°°°°
Hornet checked the packaging of seeds in her hand. Pansies, snowdrops and daffodil seeds. Holly had texted her and asked if she could pick them up and some dirt but she was too agitated to pay attention to the brand. Not because Holly had asked her but because the juice was right there. Cheryl had entered the gardening area not too long after Hornet and had left her child and the juice unattended. She could easily take it but the thief had turned the corner and Hornet had no way of telling if she was far away enough to snatch. Not to mention she didn't know if the guard was near or not. If Hornet were to grab it and the guard rounded the corner she'd certainly be removed from the store and Ghost would be left wandering alone. She didn't want to admit this or even accept it but this hunt might be a failure and she's gonna have to deal with a screaming Ghost because of it. Something soft hit her legs and when she looked down she saw a toy and heard a familiar giggle not too far away. It was weird looking, it appeared to be a spider but it looked nothing like the spiders she had seen in and out of Deepnest.
"Oh look, a new addition to my pin needle pillow collection." Hornet picked it up just as the pitter patter of little feat approached her.
"No it's mine, give it!"
Ghost jumped with their little legs but to no avail. Hornet had the height advantage and they could not jump with a bag around their shoulder and weird looking stuffed toy under their arm. With each jump she lifted it up a little to keep them from getting close, mostly trying to distract them from looking into their cart and finding their juice missing. Maybe she could bribe them. Actually, Ghost is just who she needed. She gave back the non-spider spider and lifted Ghost up, sitting them in the side of their cart and leaving her back facing Cheryl's son and her cart.
"You see the kid behind me?"
Ghost sat still but their head moved slightly down before moving back to look at her.
"Is that my juice." It sounded more like a statement than a question, like Ghost was waiting for an explanation as to why their juice wasn't where it was supposed to be.
"Yeah, his mom took it while I wasn't looking and I was trying to get it before you came back. However it has proven to be a difficult rescue mission so I need you to work your magic" She booped their shell "and get it back."
"Hold Puffed Cheeks."
Hornet held the toy and watched as Ghost hopped down from the cart and walked over to Cheryl's son. Ghost lowered their voice to a whisper which meant Hornet couldn't hear what they were saying but she saw the son drop the juice down to Ghost and Ghost reached into their bag and pulled out 5 equally as weird looking toys and tossed them to the son before waving and heading back over.
"That was fast."
"I'm very pensasive."
"You mean persuasive?"
"That's what I said."
They paid for their items and left the store. The moment the doors behind them shut 2 figures appeared from the darkness and Ghost immediately ran to them.
"Bloom, Blossom!"
Blossom scooped Ghost up and twirled with them in their arms.
"Hey little bud-what is that thing?"
"You like it, I called them Professor Puffed Cheeks."
"Welp, it's an accurate name. Hey sis."
"Hey, thanks for loaning us your cart."
"No problem, we needed an excuse to see our favorite shorties."
Hornet groaned and began loading up the cart, picking up Ghost juve before it was snatched from her hand.
"Whoa there, did you seriously buy this?" Bloom asked.
"No, an angelic being came from the sky and gifted it to me."
"Ha. Ha. Seriously, you're not supposed to have this."
"It's not her's, it's mine." Ghost tried reaching for it but was stopped.
"It isn't supposed to be selling, there's a recall on it. This stuff's been giving bugs diarrhea all week." Blossom explained.
"So I can't have it?"
"No, sorry Ghost."
"Awe man."
Hornet took it from Bloom and gave it a good look before hearing a ding from the doors and seeing Cheryl walking out with her son in tow. He looked sad but Cheryl looked furious and Hornet felt like this was the perfect opportunity.
"Excuse me, Cheryl."
Hornet approached her cautiously, doing her best not to agitate the thief.
"What do you want?" Cheryl spat those words with venom.
"I would just like to give this back and apologize." Hornet handed the juice back to Cheryl watching as she took it with hesitation, like Hornet would try something last minute. Bloom began to interject but Hornet spoke up before they could. "You were right, you're new to Hollownest and I should've been more understanding of that. Especially since you have a son, I hope we can move past this and be able to coexist as neighbors."
Cheryl stared at Hornet for a moment before a smug smile appeared on her face. "Well, I'm glad you've come to your senses. I can forgive you this time but let's try not to let it happen again okay sweetie?"
And with that Cherly and her son left and Hornet went back to her siblings. Bloom and Blossom were giving her that look she used to give them when they would hide her nail from her.
"You wanna explain to us why you did that?" Bloom asked.
"Karma." Was all Hornet said before she finished unloading the groceries into the cart.
"Is karma worth a week in reeducation?" Blossom asked.
"You won't put me in there, momma will get worried if you do."
They both sighed and just walked alongside her. Hornet half listened to their scolding and how she shouldn't have done that and Ghost needs someone to set a better example for them. Another stuffed toy was tossed past her head and she picked it up.
"Oh, another one for my collection."
She heard Ghost scream no behind her and felt the little punches from their small hands in her lower back.
"Give it back!"