Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a cold Sunday Morning. A cold breeze swept through the streets of Sweet Jazz City, heralding the coming of autumn. The capital hummed with harmonious, ambient activity, the buzz regarding the Sweet Jazz City Museum’s recent break-in finally dying down.

And behind the checkout counter of The Blyndeff Toy Emporium’s warmly-lit storefront sat an exhausted Molly Blyndeff.

“Why am I even here?” Molly sighed in resignation, trying not to fall asleep. “Who buys toys at 2 o’clock in the morning?”

It wasn’t even like she didn’t ask her family to take over her shift. But no, Lorelai wouldn’t answer her door again, and her dad went out hours ago to do…something. So here she was again, running the graveyard shift. On one of her work days, no less.

She hadn’t even gotten to make up for the sleep she’d missed since the museum incident yet.

But before she could lament further, the tiny bell above the store’s entrance jingled. Sitting upright, Molly blinked repeatedly as she hurriedly tried to wake herself up.

“Welcome to The Blyndeff Toy Emporium, how can I…” she sniffled, wiping the drowsiness from her eyes. When she finally looked up and saw who it was that entered, a smile started to spread across her face.

“Told ya we’d meet again, Bear Trap!”

“Boss!” Molly practically leaped out of her seat to embrace the teen.

“Woah! Slow down there, Bear Trap! Didya really miss me that much?” Giovanni chuckled.

Molly giggled at the remark, letting go of Giovanni. She couldn’t believe it was really him. Though he was wearing a tawny brown coat with a white fur trimming instead of his Banzai uniform, for some reason. Maybe it was in the laundry or something. She wished she had time to do her laundry.

“S’pose I can’t blame you,” the pink-haired criminal continued, “I can’t imagine what my boys would do without my brilliant guidance either! How are you, my number one minion?”

“I’m good, Boss!” Molly lied. Well, sort-of lied. She was good now that Giovanni was here. “What are you doing here, though?”

“Uh, w-well!” Giovanni stammered, as if caught off-guard. He scratched his head embarrassedly. “Remember the uh…Arsenic Amulet or whatever it was called?”

“The Arsene Amulet? The one you stole from the museum this Tuesday?” Molly tilted her head.

“Yeah! Uhh, about that…”

“Wow,” was all Molly could manage once Giovanni finished relaying to her the events that transpired at Redwood Run. In his own, over-the-top way, of course.

“I know, can you beLIEVE IT?!” The teen complained, blowing a raspberry. “Whatever! If that’s how the Banzai Blasters really think, WHO NEEDS ‘EM?! We’ll start our own criminal organisation! We’ll have a secret lair and everything!!”

Giovanni gestured wildly with his hands as he spoke, like he was already mapping the layout of said lair in his head.

“I-Is that why you’re here? Do you…need a place to hide from the police?” Molly asked nervously. “I don’t know if I have anywhere for you to stay, um…m-maybe you could use my room?”

“Oh, no, don’t you worry about that,” Giovanni reassured, patting his minion’s unkempt hair. “I’m staying over at Crusher’s treehouse. But uh…do you have another one of those number cards that you gave Sylvie back at the museum?”

Perplexed, Molly reached over to a small stand at the end of the checkout counter and fished a business card from it. “You mean like…this business card??”

“Uh, yeah! That!” Giovanni grinned a toothy, mischievous smile as he gently snatched up the card. He pulled out his flip phone and typed something into it.

“Since I’m on the run now, I wanted to get your number in case anything happens. After all, what’s a supervillain without his minions to help him out?”

“Oh! Okay! I-I’ll do my best!” Molly said as cheerfully as she could, only realising it fell a bit flat as the words left her mouth.

“Thank you, Bear Trap! Uh…”

Giovanni reached into his coat pocket, scrounging around for a bit before he triumphantly retrieved a small paper slip, handing it to Molly. On the paper was a phone number, scrawled barely-legibly in pink highlighter.

“Here’s my number too! So you can call me if you need anything!”

“Oh, uh, thanks!” Molly very hesitantly took the slip. “Are you sure it wouldn’t be a bother? You are on the run from the cops, and I wouldn’t want to cause any more trouble for you-”

“Come on, Bear Trap!” Giovanni tsked. “We’re a team now, remember? We take care of each other! How can I be expected to lead my boys if I can’t even help them out when they need it?”

Shoving the card and his phone back into his pocket, Giovanni scurried back out the front door like a possum, like he was afraid of getting caught if he stayed for too long.

“Welp, gotta go now. See ya, Bear Trap, and remember! You’re just as important as everybody else is! If you’re ever in any sort of trouble, don’t hesitate to call me!” Giovanni commanded, his body already halfway out the door. “And get some sleep! You look like you’re about to pass out.”

Molly watched as Giovanni’s silhouette faded into the darkness and disappeared, letting out a yawn as soon as he was out of sight, the exhaustion returning to her.

“Maybe he’s right,” she mumbled to herself weakly, toddling back to her seat behind the counter. “I haven’t managed to get much sleep these past few days. It wouldn’t hurt to take…a little nap…”

“Molly Blyndeff!”

Molly jolted up from her table, her star-filled hair in a mess. The whole class was staring at her, including the maths teacher at the front of the classroom, looking at her almost disappointedly.

Oh great, she thought, shrinking in her seat. I fell asleep in class. Again.

“Miss Blyndeff…” the teacher began to lecture, trying to sound polite yet clearly quite tired. “…I hope you understand I can’t keep pausing class to wake you up every time you decide to take a nap. If you fall asleep in class again, I’m afraid you’re going to wake up with a detention slip on your table.”

Uh oh. Molly couldn’t afford to get detention today. When she got home, she still had to make dinner for Dad and Lorelai, wash the dishes, attend her weekly speech classes, do the laundry, and catch up on all the homework she’d missed since…the museum incident.

“Okay,” she mumbled, wiping the sleepiness off of her face. “I’m sorry, Miss Null.”

Taking off her glasses, the maths teacher sighed sympathetically. “I’m sorry too, Molly. But this isn’t the first time in the past seven days, or even this month, that you’ve fallen asleep in my class. There’s only forty more minutes till the end of class. You can rest all you want at home, okay?”

Molly bit her tongue, resisting the urge to point out that actually, no she couldn’t . “…okay.”

“If you’re still feeling drowsy, you can take the hall pass and go wash your face in the restroom, alright?”

“…okay.”

Soon, the school bell rang. Miss Null hurriedly dismissed the class as students shoved their belongings into their bags, eager to rush home and relax. Molly wasn’t as enthusiastic.

As she finished packing her books into her reflector-tape backpack, two other kids started making their way towards her table. Molly’s two best, oldest, and—until recently—only friends, Trixie Roughhouse and Phoenica Fleecity.

The Neo Trio, as they were often colloquially termed, were usually the first in their class to finish packing up after school. Phoenica had a knack for clearing her ever-organised desk with robotic efficiency, Trixie was always done packing up quickly after haphazardly shoving her belongings into her bag, and Molly never seemed to have much to clean up from her table.

This perk of theirs, of course, was what allowed Molly to hang out with her friends despite her neverending assembly line of chores and work shifts. And today, it was what allowed Trixie and Feenie to confront Molly about her recent…predicament.

“You doing okay, Mol’? You look pretty tired,” Trixie prompted, leaning forward onto Molly’s desk as the latter slinged her backpack over her shoulder. “Well, more tired than usual, actually, which is…worse.”

“I’m fine, Trixie,” Molly lied, letting out a tired yawn. It must’ve sounded bad, because Trixie cringed at the noise.

“Don’t sound fine to me.”

“It sounds like you haven’t been getting enough sleep, Molly dear,” Phoenica chimed in, bouncing up beside the other two, the ornamental bells in her hair jingling in sympathy. “I’ve told you many times, lack of sleep can weaken your immune system, impair your executive function, and even damage your mental health; and that’s only some of the potential problems!”

The blond girl then put her hands on her hips, looking at Molly like a disappointed mother. “Now tell me: did you stay up all night again last night?”

“Y-yes,” Molly confessed, feeling like she was being seen right through. “B-but it’s not like I’m working the night shift every night! Besides, I can handle a few nights without enough sleep. I’ve been handling this for two years now, so it’s really all fine.”

“Are you really sure it’s all fine?” Trixie pursued, their expression a mix of worry and doubt.

Molly scrunched up her face. The strawberry-haired enby always had a keen eye for when she was feeling less-than-stellar. It was nice of Trixie to be so concerned for her, of course…but it wasn’t like she could just dump all her problems onto them like that.

“Yeah,” she mumbled. “It’s all fine.”

The Neo Trio made their way to the exit doors of the school building. The schoolyard was usually crowded with rambunctious running students and children waiting for their parents to fetch them. Today, however, the usually-clear blue skies of Sweet Jazz City were overcast with grey clouds, and a light rain began to fall.

Phoenica opened a pastel pink-and-blue parasol and lended its cover to Trixie as they reached the school gates. Molly herself donned a brown raincoat with bear ears and a cute little bear face on the hood.

Soon, a sleek limousine, doused in a bright pink the same shade as Feenie’s clothes, pulled up beside the Neo Trio. Trixie went in as Feenie held her umbrella over the back door, looking at Molly expectantly.

“Are you sure you want to wait for your dad in this weather, Molly dear?” She tried to persuade her friend. “It’s really no trouble for us to stop at your house on the way back home.”

“My house is a ten-minute drive from school and a fifteen-minute drive from your house, Feenie, it’s fine.” Molly shook her head. “Besides, it’s raining, and I’ve already troubled you last Thursday, so…”

“But what if your father forgets to come like last Thursday?” Feenie pleaded, puppy-dog eyes and all.

“ When he forgets to come,” Trixie helpfully corrected from the backseat of the limo.

“He doesn’t always forget,” Molly mumbled. “And if he does end up coming to school, I’d feel bad for leaving him here.”

“Why, though?” Trixie shook her head disapprovingly.

“It’s really fine, guys,” Molly sighed exasperatedly. “If he forgets again, I’ll just…text him or something.”

Feenie looked like she wanted to argue, but she knew there was no persuading Molly. With a concerned look for her friend, she hopped into the back of the limo with Trixie and the vehicle pulled away.

Molly looked around for her dad. He… had promised her he would make an effort to remember more after the museum incident. He didn’t show up on Thursday, but maybe today…?

But much to Molly’s disappointment, the bright-coloured minivan of Martin Blyndeff was still nowhere to be found, even after five minutes of waiting.

“Daaad…” Molly groaned wearily. She took out her phone and opened her contacts, texting her dad.

Hopefully he’d at least check her messages this time.

Another eight minutes passed. No response, despite the number of times she’d texted him. She tried calling him.

Another minute passed. Still nothing. The rain was starting to get heavier.

“C-come on, Dad,” she grumbled, dismissing the recorded message and pressing the ‘Call’ button again. “Of all the days to forget about me, couldn’t you pick a less rainy one?”

After a full thirteen minutes of unread messages and missed calls, Molly pocketed her phone with a weary sigh, her eyes darkening.

“Knew it,” she muttered bitterly, stretching out an arm to feel the intensity of the rain. If she didn’t start walking home immediately, she was going to catch a cold for sure.

Given how far away her house was, she was probably going to catch a cold anyway.

Thunder boomed in the distance. Molly quickened her pace, stopping under a bus stop to catch her breath.

Sweet Jazz City hadn’t seen a storm like this one in a long time. She really didn’t want to have to walk home in this weather. The fear of getting seriously sick or being struck by lightning was starting to outweigh the fear of having to postpone her chores.

But it wasn’t like she had any other choice…

Suddenly, Molly’s eyes lit up, struck by an epiphany. She reached into her hoodie pocket and took out the slip of paper Giovanni had given her, now slightly crumpled but otherwise still in legible condition.

He did say to call him if she ever needed his help…right?

She whipped out her phone, dialling up the number. After sucking in an anxious breath, she pressed the ‘Call’ button and awaited a response.

It barely took her five seconds to get one.

“Bear Trap! Boy, am I glad to hear from you! Whaddya need?” Giovanni’s voice cackled through the speaker. Molly let out a relieved sigh just hearing his voice. Never change, Boss.

“Um, hi, Boss!” Molly tried saying as cheerfully as possible, but…eh, her Customer Service Voice™ wasn’t really pulling through these couple of days. Maybe she was just tired, or maybe it was her subconscious guilt of attempting to lie to someone she was so close to, but she dismissed it for the time being and moved on. “Could I…ask a favour from you?”

“Of course! Anything for my number one minion!” Giovanni replied. Molly could almost see him grinning stupidly and pointing finger guns at the other end of the line.

“Thanks! C-could I get a ride home?”

The silence was deafening, even if it only lasted for a second.

“What?” Giovanni said blankly, all the puffed-up panache in his voice gone and replaced with pure confusion.

“Uhhh,” Molly stammered for a second, suddenly second-guessing everything she’d ever done in her life. “M-my dad…forgot to pick me up from school today. And it’s raining really hard. I’m at a bus stop right now, and I have to get home in time for my speech classes, so-”

“He did WHAT?!”

Molly flinched at the sudden and drastic change in Giovanni’s tone, from blank confusion to boiling anger. Well, Giovanni’s over-the-top brand of anger, but anger nonetheless.

“Stay right where you are, Bear Trap! I’ll be there as fast as I can!”

Before Molly could respond, there was a click, and Giovanni hanged up. Molly put her phone back into her raincoat pocket.

At least, by the sound of it, she wouldn’t have to walk home.

Only around five minutes had passed before Molly heard the screeching of tires in the distance. She stood up to see the source of the noise, which appeared to be a battered grey car carelessly rounding the bend and accelerating down the road in her direction.

The car slowed down as it reached the bus stop, and the back door popped open. Much to Molly’s gratitude, the person stepping out of the car wasn’t a kidnapper. Much to her concern, Giovanni Potage was now standing in the middle of the rain, with seemingly no regard for his own health in doing so.

“Bear Trap! How long have you been waiting there?! You look soaked!!”

Molly looked down at herself: he wasn’t wrong. Her raincoat wasn’t nearly big enough to cover the ends of her hoodie sleeves or her miniskirt. Her messy hair probably got the worst of it, though. She almost shivered at the thought of having to pull the soggy marshmallow stars out. Or maybe that was the cold getting to her.

“Uh, I think it’s been around twenty minutes?”

“Twenty minutes?!” Giovanni yelped, starting to look like a soggy pink possum himself. “Get in the car, Bear Trap, you’re gonna catch a cold!!”

Molly rushed over as Giovanni hastily slipped back into the car, climbing onto the backseat after him. As soon as she closed the door, the car started up again, slower this time, towards its new destination: The Blyndeff Toy Emporium.

“Holy moly, did your dad just forget about you or something?!” Giovanni growled, shaking the water out of his hair. He took off his still-soaking coat and draped it over Molly like a blanket as she took off her own raincoat, before focusing his hands together and conjuring a flask of soup in his palm, which he then handed to her carefully. His ‘Ancient Potion’, she recalled him saying.

“Yeah, twenty minutes is a pretty long time to be out in this weather,” a relaxed voice spoke from the front of the car. Turning around from the front seat to face Molly was another teen, with long indigo hair that was partially tied back to form a bun: Dark Star. “Did you try calling him at all?”

“I tried, but he’s probably… busy .” Molly grimaced internally at how bitter that last word sounded. Thankfully, Dark Star seemed to understand, turning back to the front without another word.

“Bullshit,” Giovanni grumbled. “You’re the one running a literal store. What’s his excuse?!”

Molly shrugged apathetically and sipped at her flask of soup, unable to find an answer.

Still looking frustrated (on top of being pretty soaked), Giovanni dusted his hands together, causing clouds of pink steam to billow from his palms and spread across the back of the car, heating the both of them up instantly.

Molly found herself impressed by how much utility her boss was able to get out of his epithet. With only Soup and his coat at his disposal, he’d turned a cold storm into a cosy afternoon hangout. She felt kind of guilty that she was enjoying herself so much given all the trouble he’d gone through just to pick her up.

“Th-thanks for coming to take me home, Boss,” she mumbled. “…even though you didn’t have to.”

“What?! Of course I had to!” Giovanni snorted incredulously. “We’re a teeeeam, rememberrrr?”

He playfully ruffled Molly’s unkempt hair, empathetically stretching out his words as if to drill them into her brain.

“And if helping out my minion means running a few red lights, then a few red lights we shall run!”

“Not anymore, though,” a lower, gravelly voice spoke from the driver’s seat. Crusher. True to his word, the car was currently stopped at an intersection.

“Besides, it wasn’t any trouble,” Giovanni continued. “I’ve been staying in Crusher’s treehouse the past week. When I got your call for help, all we had to do was ‘borrow’ Crusher’s family car for a bit! No problem, right?”

“Tell that to my dad,” Molly muttered, immediately regretting it. She sipped at her soup and tightened her lips, trying to ignore Giovanni’s expression rapidly contorting into concern.

“You doing okay, Bear Trap?”

Molly turned her gaze away in shame. The storm was still going strong outside.

“Things haven’t gotten better for you since the whole museum thing, huh?”

Hesitantly, she shook her head.

“You wanna talk about it, or…?”

She’d be lying if she said no, but…

“Oh, I don’t know. You’ve already gone through so much trouble just to pick me up, and with everything that happened to you since the museum…”

“Oh come on, Bear Trap,” Giovanni scolded. “I complain about what happened last Wednesday all the time! Do you have a problem with that?”

“U-uh! No, not at all!” Molly quickly backpedalled.

“Exactly! So why would I have a problem listening to your problems? Look, everything that happened at Redwood Run is all soup under the bridge. I’m fine now! It’s clear you’re not, though. Everyone needs to vent about their problems sometimes! Even great villains like me. You certainly deserve to as well.”

“Do I?” Molly replied in a rather depressed tone. Giovanni’s face became even more concerned before starting to look angry.

“This is because of your stupid family again, isn’t it,” The teen quietly grumbled. He cleared his throat and continued in his most assertive voice.

“Listen, Bear Trap. If I really didn’t want to hear what you were going through, I wouldn’t be asking to. I promise you, whatever bullcrap you’re dealing with, no matter how unimportant you think it is, is worth telling to…whoever will listen. Got it?!”

Molly finally looked back up at Giovanni. His expression was as serious as it’d ever been. As serious as he was back in the museum when he was first telling her to stand up for herself.

“…okay.”

For the rest of the car ride, Molly told Giovanni about pretty much everything. About school, about work, about her friends and family.

And in seemingly no time at all, they arrived at a halt at the Blyndeff Toy Emporium.

“So, uh…” Giovanni spoke up again once Molly had donned her raincoat once more and prepared to open the car door. “You feeling a little better now?”

“I think so,” Molly offered her boss a small smile. “Thanks, boss. For listening.”

“Heh heh, no problem!” Giovanni grinned smugly, satisfied by a job well done. “Remember, if you ever need to talk about what you’re dealing with again, you can always count on me and your friends. And if your dumb dad forgets to pick you up from school again, you know who to call, got it?”

“Got it!” Molly responded cheerfully. This time, she didn’t have to force it at all.

As Crusher’s battered grey car drove away from the toy store, Molly walked inside. As expected, Lorelai was missing from the checkout counter.

Molly sighed, throwing her backpack on the ground beside the door. She’d have a lot to do today.

First and foremost, turning on the alarm for when it was time for her speech classes.

But when Molly turned on her phone, she was greeted not with her home screen, but instead a pop-up message.

Call ended.

Save number into contacts?

Ah, right. The call.

Smiling, Molly tapped ‘Yes’, happily adding ‘Boss’ into her list of contacts.

Maybe the rest of this year will be okay after all.

Chapter Text

“Here you go! Just as promised!” Phoenica grinned satisfactorily, handing Molly a pastel-pink notebook.

“Thanks, Feenie,” Molly sighed in relief. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“No problemo! That’s what friends are for, aren’t they?”

Shrugging off a vague feeling of discomfort at that statement, Molly plopped Feenie’s science notes onto the table and started copying them into her own school-assigned notebook, which by now was worn with age and filled with additional foolscap paper.

She never had the time or money to get new books, let alone personalise them like Feenie did.

Across the table from her, Trixie gnawed at their lunch meat, scrutinising Molly up and down like some kind of detective. Molly could tell what she was thinking.

“Oookay, Mol’,” Trixie sighed, rubbing their temples. “I hate to be the one hogging a dead horse here…”

“The correct term is ‘flogging’, my dearest Trixie,” Phoenica helpfully corrected.

“Whatever. Look, Mol’, you’ve been looking more and more tired…every time I see you. So… ”

Trixie paused to pull out a big ol’ lemonade bottle, seemingly out of hammerspace, filled with some reddish-brown concoction that was most definitely not lemonade, and slid it over to Molly’s side of the table expectantly.

“I’ve been testing out a new Stay-Awake Potion recently. It’s got Cheetos, coffee grounds, some of my brother’s weird-ass tea, and cayenne powder . I also tried adding in popping rocks, but that resulted in an incident , so I had to make do with vitamin gummies. If you’re not going to tell us what’s been going on with you, you could at least see if this helps with your sleep problems.”

Molly gave Trixie a patient if not exhausted smile, as she pushed the bottle back to her strawberry-haired friend. “Thanks, Trixie, but…it’s fine.”

She paused, hesitating for a moment as the enby’s face turned to disappointment. Boss…told her that her problems were worth telling her friends about, right?

“I…I actually…got home a little late yesterday…” Molly started to mumble. Trixie’s eyes widened as she realised her friend was actually sharing something for once. “M-my dad forgot to pick me up again, and he didn’t answer my texts…or my calls…”

“Called it,” Trixie commented flatly, stretching their hand out towards Feenie. The blond girl rolled her eyes as she handed them a twenty-dollar bill.

“B-but it was fine! I called Giovanni-er, Boss, and he gave me a ride home, so at least I didn’t catch a cold! Or get struck by lightning. I even got to tell him about everything that’s been going wrong in my life! Which is everything!” Molly continued, her demeanour cheerful even though her words were not.

“Huh!” Trixie nodded in satisfaction as they grinned a wide fanged grin. “That actually sounds pretty great, Mol’!…apart from the last sentence.”

“It does indeed!” Phoenica nodded in enthusiastic agreement. “I’m just glad everything worked out for you in the end!”

“But you knowww, you can always talk to us about your problems too,” Trixie casually prompted, stressing the ‘us’ as if to remind Molly about how much she’s been neglecting to share her troubles with the two of them. Oops.

Molly laughed in embarrassment. It was genuine, but…also completely mirthless; same as it always was. Trixie’s smile faltered somewhat as their face scrunched up into concern again.

“Come on, Molly. We both know it isn’t just your dad forgetting to pick you up from school for the gazillionth time that’s been making you so…”

“…bothersome?” Molly continued, only half-sarcastic. She was still busily scribbling down Feenie’s notes.

“…off,” Trixie corrected. “You mind…telling us what’s on your mind?”

“ Well, ” Molly sighed abruptly and more loudly than usual. “Like I said, I still got home late yesterday, so I still had to spend all night catching up on chores, so I still didn’t get enough sleep last night. Just like the night before. And the night before that. I couldn’t even finish my homework in the end…looks like I’ll have to work on it today.”

She put down her pencil, finally finished with her notes. Looking at her and Feenie’s books side by side, the comparison between Phoenica’s sparkly-clean, colour-coded notes and Molly’s hastily scrawled forgery was jarring, to say the least. “Sorry for…this, Feenie.”

“No need to apologise for anything, Molly,” Feenie scoffed lightheartedly, retrieving her notes. “What you should be concerned about is getting more sleep. Didn’t your boss say that as well? I’ve told you before, if you would just accept a tiiiny bit of financial aid from your little ol’ friend here-”

“And I’ve told you before, Feenie, I don’t want to just take your money like that,” Molly cut off her fluffy-haired friend as politely as possible. She packed up her things and started out of the cafeteria as her friends gave each other a look. Molly was unmovable.

“I dunno, Boss,” Spike remarked off-handedly, leaning back against the frame of Crusher’s family car. “Maybe she doesn’t even need picking up today.”

Giovanni only responded with a winded grunt, his legs dangling off the side of the schoolyard walls as he tried to keep his upper body on top of it.

“Well, if she isn’t, then we can always leave, alright? Or are you counting on her lousy father to show up instead?”

“I’m just wondering how incompetent her dad actually is, Boss,” Spike argued as she watched Giovanni finally scuffle his way into a sitting position on top of the wall.

“Well, how incompetent do you think he is, Spike? We told you what Bear Trap said on Tuesday! The guy probably couldn’t remember to make himself dinner if he was starving to death!”

With a shrug, Spike seemed to agree, turning back around to watch for any busybodies that might call the police on them. Giovanni continued to search the schoolyard for a certain 12-year old as the dismissal bell rang, and children flooded out of the school building.

As time passed and Bear Trap was still nowhere to be seen, though, Giovanni grew a little anxious. Was she even at school today? Was she sick because of the rain on Tuesday? The thought of her catching a cold all because her dad couldn’t bother to pick her up made his muscles tense up.

It was a weird feeling for him, alright. Feeling so much anxiety for someone. Of course, he cared for each and every one of his minions, but this felt…different. Bear Trap was just a kid. She was going through a lot . He didn’t just have to help her, he had to take care of her. And the idea that her dad’s negligence might have caused her to fall sick made something start to rise in his stomach.

But before his thoughts could spiral further, Giovanni’s eyes widened. He hopped off the wall onto the sidewalk, an anticipatory grin on his face; Molly Blyndeff had just left the premises.

“Five bucks says he’s not here today, either,” Trixie said, nudging Phoenica as they followed Molly to the school gates.

“Now, now, Trixie, he is our dear friend Molly’s father, we mustn’t talk bad about him behind his back,” Feenie chastised, the bells in her hair jingling each time she angled her head in accentuation.

“…even if he can’t be bothered enough to remember her existence most of the time.” She continued sarcastically as they reached the sidewalk, where there was once more a notable absence of any Martin Blyndeff. She plucked a five-dollar bill from her purse and slipped it to Trixie.

Molly sighed defeatedly and mumbled something under her breath, too soft for the other two to hear. She started walking down the street back home before she looked up, and saw Giovanni Potage waving her over a few yards ahead.

Trixie and Phoenica noticed him almost immediately after she did, and boy did they notice the way her face lit up as she started running over to the teen. They followed, of course, easily catching up to her.

“B…boss! You…what are you doing here?” Molly exclaimed, fumbling with her words in her excitement.

“Good question, my loyal minion! I figured your dad might not remember to pick you up from school today, so I did what any good boss would do and decided to take you back home myself!”

“Oh! Well, thanks for–wait, aren’t you on the run from the police?”

“Uhh, yeah, well, there isn’t any police around here, is there?” Giovanni retorted defensively.

Looking around frantically, Molly quickly summoned a Silence Bubble before any bypassers—or police—could overhear Giovanni quite loudly talking about crime. The buzz of the city muffled into nothing as the green glow spread around the group.

“Wait, on the run?” Feenie stage-whispered from behind Molly. “Sir, are you a…criminal?!”

“Wh- Feenie , what part of Molly telling us about him last week did you miss,” Trixie shook her head in disbelief, “when she told us he was a Banzai Captain , and also that he stole the Arsene Amulet , but also that he is Giovanni Potage my COUSIN ???”

“Wait wait wait, you told these two about me, Bear Trap?” Giovanni squinted at his minion, then at her friend, the blond girl, who looked seconds away from calling the cops on him. He tensed up his ankles, readying a Teleports Behind You for the second she pulled out her phone.

“U-uh, yeah? But it’s okay! These two are my friends! They won’t call the police or anything, r-right, Feenie?”

Phoenica inhaled a deep breath. “As an upright citizen of Taiga, it…is my duty to report any criminal activity…but Molly is my friend, and any friend of hers is a friend of mine! In the name of friendship, your secret is safe with me, sir!”

Molly and Giovanni sighed in relief at once, giving each other a knowing smile.

Trixie exhaled. “Okay, that was a lot of ‘friend’ in one sentence. Anyway…hey, cuz! Heard you quit the Banzai Blasters and got busted by the cops. Looks like you’re finally getting some bite to your bark!”

The Roughhouse girl shot a coy smile at her cousin, who shot back with a challenging glare.

“Uh-hum, implying I never had bite in the first place?” Giovanni scoffed. “I’ll have you know my Proficiency has increased to a whopping two stars since we last met! Mhm!”

“Wowww, that’s one star closer to being as high as Molly’s Proficiency!”

The sass coming from Trixie was overwhelming. Molly couldn’t help but snicker. The family resemblance was clear as day.

But as much as she wanted to see where this conversation went, she had homework to do at home. She released the Silence Bubble and gently elbowed Giovanni in the waist, which was as high as her elbow could reach anyway. It got his attention for certain.

“Alright, alright, whatever. I’m here to drive Bear Trap home, not to bicker with you,” the teen dismissed with a wave, patting Molly’s hair. “Let’s get you home! I bet you have a lot on your schedule today anyway, and as much as I would love to kidnap you for crime purposes, my boys’ plans are plans.”

Molly turned to her friends with an apologetic smile as Giovanni led her to the car, where Spike was already waiting. “Sorry, guys. See you two next time?”

“Aww, next time won’t be till next week,” Trixie mumbled. Feenie hummed.

“…well, why wait until then?” she suggested, promptly bounding into the car’s backseat after Molly and Giovanni before they could close the door.

“Wh-Feenie??” Molly squeaked.

“Well, you said you needed to catch up on homework, and we’re just starting to get to know your new boss. I say, why don’t we all go to your house for a nice little homework session together?”

“Huh,” Trixie contemplated. “Alright, sounds like a plan! Don’t have a lot else to do anyway.”

“Trixie dear, you have twelve missing assignments to catch up on,” Feenie reminded them.

“Twelve’s not a lot.”

“W-wait, is this really okay?” Molly hesitated, looking to Giovanni for guidance. He hummed thoughtfully.

“Well, I normally wouldn’t be up for homework ,” Giovanni decreed. “But if it’s for Bear Trap’s sake, I don’t suppose it would hurt to tag along. And a vetting session with my two new minion recruits wouldn’t be so bad either! Great idea, uh…”

Feenie stretched out her hand for Giovanni to shake as Trixie crawled into the vehicle and closed the car door. “My name is Phoenica Fleecity XV of the Fleecity lineage! Perhaps you’ve heard of us?”

“Ooh, isn’t that the super-rich family Dark Star told me about a while back? Hey, Molly, you’re friends with a rich kid, why are you so broke?”

Molly laughed agonisingly. Giovanni didn’t even know you could do that, laughing in agony. Everyone in the car winced out of second-hand pain.

“Oookay, that sounds like a topic for later!” he nervously decided, whipping his hand forth. “Crusher, to the Blyndeff Toy Emporium!!”

And like that, the car took off once more.

“…and that is why I’m starting up my own villainous organisation!” Giovanni announced dramatically. “And you’re both invited!!!”

“Is it possible to decline this offer??” Phoenica whispered to Molly, distressed. The brunette simply shrugged and gave her an apologetic smile.

“Do I get a cool minion nickname like Molly?” asked Trixie.

“Ohoh, so now you think they’re cool?” Giovanni sassed, thinking back to all the times his younger cousin dissed his boys’ awesome minion names.

“Yeah, I just never wanted to admit it because you were always kind of a…dork.”

“Wh-th-AM NOT!”

Spike stifled a laugh from the front seat at Giovanni’s outrage. Trixie pointed finger guns at the older minion.

“They get it. Aaand Molly thinks they’re cool too, so now I think they’re cool by proxy,” she continued, high-fiving Bear Trap.

“Alright, alright. I guess you two can have cool minion names like Bear Trap,” Giovanni chuckled. He first turned his focus towards Phoenica, who suddenly looked like she was staring at her guillotine.

“Alright, let’s start with you! Let’s see…you’re rich, you have bells in your hair…”

“She’s always helping out with homework,” Molly suggested helpfully. “…or with money…”

“She met a weird sheep kid at the museum last week and became instantly infatuated with him,” Trixie teased.

“What about Bellhop?” Crusher voiced from the driver’s seat, which made Feenie’s eyes light up. “Y’know, because she has…bells…and bounces around a lot…”

“Bellhop, huh?” Giovanni grinned in satisfaction. “Oh, I kinda like it!”

“How inspired indeed!” Phoenica cheered. That was a quick turn-around. “I must say I’m quite impressed by your vocabulary and creativity, mister!”

“My mom made me take some classes,” the teen admitted bashfully. “And…you can call me Crusher.”

“Okay, well, I wanna choose my own name,” Trixie chimed in, raising a violet sweater flipper in the air like she was answering a question in Taiga History class.

“Bold move, kid,” Spike finger-snapped in approval. “I chose my own name too. Whaddya got?”

“Devil’s Urchin…uh, that’s it.”

“Devil’s Urchin,” Giovanni repeated breathily for dramatic effect. “I like it!! Welcome to the team, boys!!!”

Molly and the three ex-Banzai Blasters all cheered the new recruits in unison. Giovanni raised his arms evilly as he did, releasing a sheet of pink steam from his fingertips like they were handfuls of confetti.

“Yeah-huh, in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been practising some cool moves for dramatic flair,” Giovanni boasted, arcing his hand above his face as another cloud of steam trailed behind it. “Whaddya think?”

“Looks great, Boss!” Molly encouraged him.

“Looks like a waste of your already-terrible Stamina,” Trixie tittered.

“I HAVE AVERAGE STAMINA, OKAY?!?!” Giovanni screeched, sending Spike into a burst of hyena-esque laughter. Feenie hummed in thought.

“E-excuse me, sir,” she interrupted, glancing up at the rapidly-dispelling steam in the air. “Do you have some kind of epithet?”

“It’s lava!!!” lied Giovanni.

“Or acid!” lied Molly.

“Lavacid!!” they lied in unison.

In no time, they reached their destination. They all stepped out of the vehicle, Giovanni, Spike, and Crusher following Trixie and Phoenica, in turn following Molly as she walked up to the toy store’s entrance. She reached out to open the door, but paused for a moment.

“Something wrong?” Giovanni asked, concerned. Molly turned around with an anxious look on her face.

“Uh, no, no. It’s just…my sister is running the store today. She usually gets… difficult when I bring people over, so…I’ll do the talking, okay?”

Giovanni and his two minions shared a nervous look, and they all nodded. Molly turned the knob, and they entered the Blyndeff Toy Emporium.

Giovanni had been inside the store before, but it still bugged him how messy it was. Toys spilled from the shelves onto the floor, there was an inflatable pool in the middle of the storefront for some odd reason, and behind the checkout counter was a pile of assorted crap he couldn’t even make out. And sitting at the counter was the supposed perpetrator of this mess, Bear Trap’s sister. Lorelai Blyndeff.

“Hi, Lorelai,” Molly mumbled, just loud enough for the teenage girl to hear. “I brought a few friends over to study.”

Lorelai looked up from her cellphone. The teens felt an anxious sensation as she scanned them. Her irises were bright green, glowing like they could burn a hole in their skulls. Then, her eyes widened when she made eye contact with Giovanni.

“Uhh…” she paused, transfixed on Giovanni. “…s-sure, go ahead. What’re their names?”

Molly and Trixie looked at Lorelai, then at Giovanni, then back at Lorelai.

“Oh no,” they groaned in unison. Crusher shivered uneasily.

“Uh, hi? I’m Giovanni Potage,” Giovanni awkwardly raised his arm for a handshake, not very aware of what was supposed to be happening. “You’re Lorelai…right?”

“Oh…uh, yeah,” Lorelai giggled nervously. “M-Molly…told you about me?”

Lorelai side-eyed Bear Trap in suspicion, which instantly made alarm bells go off in Giovanni’s head.

Yeah, she’d told him about Lorelai. She told him how she was always shirking her shifts to hide in her Dream Bubbles, about how she was always delegating the chores to her younger sister, about how angry she always got, often driving customers away and inadvertently summoning dream monsters in her tantrum that would threaten to flip the whole store upside down were it not for Bear Trap’s Hushabye. But he couldn’t tell her that .

“Uhhhh, yeah! Sure!” Giovanni said a little louder than necessary, glancing at Molly for aid as his minions sneaked behind Trixie and Feenie, Crusher glaring at Lorelai as he did.

“U-um, sorry! W-we have homework to do!” Molly interrupted in a panic, dragging him to the back of the store with the rest of the gang. Giovanni swore he saw Lorelai’s expression shift as she glared angrily at Bear Trap, before rolling her eyes and going back to scrolling on her phone.

He felt his blood tick up a few degrees.

Molly shut the door to her bedroom, and everyone sighed a breath of relief. Giovanni looked over his minion’s room. He’d been to the Blyndeff Emporium before, but he’d never had a chance to see it before.

He was shocked to see it was in such horrible condition.

The bedsheets were creased and crumpled, and half of the blanket lay on the floor. Dust and cobwebs covered the shelves along with the toys and knick-knacks sitting atop them, which looked like they hadn't been touched in a long time. Scattered all over the desk was a myriad of school books, tax papers, and mail, some of which was even on the floor: Completely uncharacteristic of a kid as meek and mild-mannered as Bear Trap was.

Giovanni and his minions looked around awkwardly at the heaping mess that was apparently Molly’s bedroom. It wasn’t like his room was anywhere near tidy, but at least he took some time to clean up his belongings every now and then.

He started to wonder if Bear Trap had any time at all to take care of herself.

Molly and her friends barely batted an eye at the mess, putting their bags down next to Molly’s table and getting out their notebooks and stationary. Spike casually sat on the bed, while Crusher loomed over the Neo Trio, watching Feenie as she solved maths equations and helped the other two with impressive speed.

“You know, Boss,” Molly said. “It was pretty dangerous for you to be outside the school gates for so long. What if someone saw you?”

“Aw, don’t worry, Bear Trap! Spike and Crusher were keeping guard for any busybodies. Besides, your leader is a master of stealth!” Giovanni reassured, ruffling her hair. “I did manage to sneak into the museum undetected, after all!”

“That’s because Indus and Lady Mera were the only guards that night, and she was busy looking for the amulet,” Molly rebutled, not looking up from her homework. “It’s a good thing my sister doesn’t read the news much. Or…care if I go missing. At least she’s running the store today.”

Giovanni’s boastful grin faltered as he continued to look at his minion. Molly’s expression was…so tired. Not distressed or sad or anything, just impossibly weary.

Just then, the door to Molly’s bedroom swung open, and everyone turned to look who the sudden visitor was. A chubby man in a tacky green button-up shirt waltzed into the room, whistling a jaunty tune. Trixie and Feenie’s faces fell, and Giovanni quickly put two and two together to realise who he was looking at.

Martin.

“Oh, hey, Molly!” The man looked at his daughter with a surprised expression, though his grin never faltered. “Didn’t realise you came home already! Whoop, almost forgot I left this here!”

Molly’s dad reached over to the side of the unkempt work table and picked up a cellphone. Giovanni’s face contorted into concerned confusion. Wasn’t he supposed to pick her up from school?

“Yeah, dad,” Molly sighed exhaustedly. “You forgot to pick me up again, today. You said you would try to do better after the museum incident.”

“D’oh, sorry Molly! It’s just…I had this great idea for a new toy! I spent all morning working on it!”

“Is that why your phone is in my room? Because you spent all day in the basement and not playing video games in my bedroom?”

“Uh…yeah?”

Molly blinked, not believing it for a second. “ Okay , dad. Can you ask Lorelai to cook dinner tonight? I brought some friends over to study today.”

“Oh come on, Molly, your sister is busy running the store today! Can’t you cut her some slack and help out a bit?”

“You make me cook dinner when I’m supposed to be running the store anyway,” Molly pointed out, not expecting much of a response.

“Thanks a bunch, Molly!” Martin ignored her, already walking out as he tapped away at his phone. “See ya later!”

The door clicked shut, and the bedroom was silent for a few seconds. Spike clenched her fists so hard they were turning white. Trixie and Feenie shrunk in their seats. Molly just shook her head.

“Well…I guess that means our study session is going to be cut short.”

The gall.

The AUDACITY.

“What the hell is your family’s PROBLEM ?!?!” Giovanni practically screamed, a burst of piping hot steam erupting from his body. The rest of the group flinched. Molly instinctively squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears, the green glow of her Silence Bubble rushing out of her to enclose the group.

“Holy MOLY, I already knew they made you do all the work around here, but on top of that, they don’t even TREAT you like family!!! Have they been treating you like GARBAGE this whole time?!” Giovanni continued to rant, his skin turning red from how much his blood was boiling—possibly literally—underneath.

Molly tightened her lips, looking away shyly. Giovanni took a deep breath. He needed to calm down before the steam started cooking him alive. Or before he popped a vein. He turned, unable to properly look at Molly’s guilt-ridden face.

“I mean, come ON, Bear Trap! You tell me, how is ANY of this fair?! You know it isn’t, I KNOW you do! Why do you even put up with any of their crap in the first place?!”

“It’s…not like they aren’t working too,” Molly squeaked, not sounding very confident about her argument at all. “Dad makes a lot of the toys we sell, and he’s the one that chooses what toys to buy. Lorelai works the cash register on even days and sometimes helps Dad with the toy-making. If I don’t help out too, isn’t that…kinda…selfish?”

“Well, yeah,” Trixie argued. “But like, there’s helping , and then there’s…”

“Massively overcompensating for the incompetence of your family members to the point of physical, emotional, and mental self-destruction while rejecting any form of external help,” Feenie continued rapid-fire.

“…ssssure. Yeah. Mol’, you never actually seem to want our help, whether it’s Feenie offering to give you some of her money, which you know she can afford, or even my Stay-Awake potion!” Trixie briefly whipped out the potion from earlier, confusing the ex-blasters. “You…know it’s not a problem for us, right? What’s the matter?”

Molly shrunk even further in her seat as her Silence Bubble flickered out of existence, looking like she wanted to disappear. “Yeah, I know it’s no problem for you guys, but…do I… deserve it? I never really help you guys with anything–”

“Oh, Molly, silly ,” Feenie scoffed. “Of course you do, remember? You’re always there to help Trixie do her homework or get vengeance on a bully for us!”

“And you’re always getting Feenie out of giving her allowance to a fake friend or…a literal mugger,” Trixie added. “Seems enough to earn at least a little of that money to me.”

“Yeah, Bear Trap!” Giovanni pat Molly on the head. “Besides, even if you didn’t save me from Dr. Beefton back in the museum, even IF you didn’t break us out of jail and help defeat Mera; you’re going through a tough situation! And refusing people’s help just because ‘you don’t think you deserve it’ isn’t doing anything but hurting you! No one—except maybe your stupid family—will bat an eyelid at you getting the help you need.”

“That’s RIGHT!!!” Crusher agreed, maybe a bit too enthusiastically. Spike nodded in agreement.

Molly sighed, seemingly defeated. “I mean…the store’s been…slowing down recently. I guess a little bit of extra cash wouldn’t…be so bad…??”

“Molly, thank heavens that you finally see reason,” Feenie exhausted triumphantly.

“It’s a start, alright.” Trixie smiled, hopping out of her chair. “Now, let’s solve your dinner conundrum first, huh? I bet Giovanni could talk Lorelai into cooking for you tonight.”

“What makes you think that?” Giovanni gave Trixie a confused, lopsided grin. Molly couldn’t help but stifle a giggle at his stupid expression.

“…thanks, guys,” she mumbled. Feenie hugged her tightly and returned to their homework as Trixie and Giovanni walked out the room.

“You know, cuz,” Trixie said as they closed the bedroom door. “That’s probably the first time Molly’s willingly accepted our help.”

“Huh. Man, Bear Trap’s got some issues, huh?” Giovanni muttered in a concerned tone. The Roughhouse tilted her head, examining his demeanour.

“Now that I think about it, it’s also the first time I’ve seen you that angry,” they brought up. “Like, legitimately angry, not the overdramatic teenager kind of angry you usually get. And also the first time I’ve seen you this worried for someone else. I’m honestly pretty surprised you care about her so much.”

Giovanni chuckled, scratching his hair in embarrassment. “Well, she’s not just any snot-nosed kid, that’s for sure. She helped me and the rest of my boys a ton back in the museum, and I intend to repay her in full! After all, what’s an evil boss without his minions?”

“Not that much, looking at you,” Trixie teased. “But seriously, whatever you’ve been doing, it’s workin’. She even opened up to us about her problems at lunch today!”

“Really?” Giovanni smiled, remembering his conversation with Bear Trap on Tuesday. Guess he had more of an impact on her than he thought. “That’s good to hear.”

Trixie nodded silently. She turned back to the bedroom door. “Come back in when you’re done ordering dinner from Molly’s sister. Feenie’s probably waiting to lecture me about math back there. Oh, and uh, cuz?”

“ Please , Devil’s Urchin, call me ‘Boss’.” Giovanni smirked at Trixie, who rolled her eyes.

“Alright, Boss ,” they snorted. “Thanks for taking care of Molly for us.”

Giovanni’s shit-eating grin gave way at that sincere remark. Imagine that. Wanted criminal and up-and-coming supervillain Giovanni Potage, getting thanked for taking care of someone. Sincerely .

“S’no problem,” he shrugged as he turned to head downstairs, still smiling warmly.

He could imagine it. It was Bear Trap, after all.

And taking care of her felt great.

Chapter Text

Giovanni popped out from the alley, whipping his head left and right. Seeing that the coast was clear, he scurried across the street and continued on his route.

He was almost there.

The Blyndeff Toy Emporium was no more than a couple of yards away, and Giovanni got more excited the closer he got to it. He had finally finished his awesome new supervillain costume, and the only one of his boys that hadn't had the chance to see it yet (aside from the two fresh recruits and the one that was currently in the hospital) was Bear Trap.

And it was just a little past 12 right now. If his guesses were correct, she was probably working the night shift right this moment.

(Though if he was being honest with himself, he kind of hoped she wasn’t. Girl really needed to get more sleep. At least it was a Sunday morning instead of a school day.)

But lo and behold, when Giovanni peered into the toy store’s glass display window, there she was, sleepily writing away on a scattered array of papers that he could only assume was important. His stomach flipped a little, seeing his minion still in such a troubling situation.

Especially in a toy store, of all places.

Toy stores were supposed to be the wonders of civilization! Places of childlike nostalgia and warmth! He knew that was what he felt when his parents used to bring him to one of those large toy store chains that every shopping mall seemed to have at least one of. In fact, he and his boys went and loitered in one just a while back, and what a blast to the past it was!

But the Blyndeff Toy Emporium didn’t feel like one of those stores. The patterned carpet and bright ceiling lights that would’ve warmed the atmosphere of any other toy store just put into contrast how depressing Molly’s situation was here. He shuddered at the idea of coming here as a kid and just walking out, blissfully ignorant. Walking away from Bear Trap. Leaving her alone.

But now was not the time to lose himself in a spiral of depressing thoughts. It was time to show Bear Trap the new Giovanni Potage.

“Grrrrreetings, innocent customers of the Blyndeff Toy Emporium!” Giovanni yelled dramatically as he kicked open the entrance (not too hard, though. Doors are expensive. Probably. He didn’t actually know what a door costed, but he sure as hell wasn’t gonna make Bear Trap deal with having to replace it).

“There’s a brand-new, super awesome supervillain in town! And his name is VINCENT MURDER!!! Tremble before my power!!”

Giovanni deflated as he finished his grand speech, seeing that Molly did not so much as look up from her paperwork to admire it. He had even made a little foggy cloud of steam near his feet for extra effect. Now that he was looking at her more clearly, he could actually see earphones plugged into both her ears. Whoops.

Giovanni gently reached over and plucked the earphones away. Bear Trap reacted like a confused cartoon character for a second before she looked up, and was appropriately taken aback by his… bold new outfit.

“Wh-Giovanni?? Boss???”

“Gio-who-now? MY name is Vincent Murder!! The baddest bad guy there ever was!!!”

“Ohhh, of course! How could I not have known???” Molly feigned surprise, as adorable in her overly-dramatic acting as ever. “Please, Vincent Murder, won’t you spare me! I haven’t even paid off all my taxes yet, surely once you’re done the IRS will come and kill me a second time!!”

“That’s my minion,” Giovanni chuckled, taking off his smoke-black helmet and affectionately ruffling the melodramatic minion’s hair. He directed his attention to the earphones in his hand. “What’re you listening to? Lo-fi? Podcasts?”

He put in the earphones, startled to hear blaring rock music rumbling in his ears. He took off the earphones blankly and handed them back to an embarrassed Molly.

“…My Chemical Romance? Thought you were more of a quiet gal,” he remarked. At least that explained why she didn’t hear his evil monologue at all.

“I am! Well…usually, at least…”

Giovanni tilted his head, examining his minion not unlike how Trixie would. For someone so withdrawn and asocial, Molly was very expressive once you got to know her like he did. You could tell when she was anxious or surprised by the way her hair would inexplicably get frizzled up. When she was thinking hard about something, she’d tilt her head and her button-pupils glittered with an inquisitive shine he couldn’t explain, but was just there .

And if she was particularly sad or tired that day, you could see it clear in her eyes, the way they lost all their emerald lustre, the way her eyebags suddenly looked so much worse, how her face darkened like her hair was suddenly blocking out the ceiling lights, like all the energy had been drained right out of her.

“Guessing it was a rough day, huh, Bear Trap?”

Judging by his minion’s surprise, he guessed he was right.

“How did you…”

“Look, I might not be as smart as you,” Giovanni admitted. “But as a Certified Angsty Teenager™, I know the signs of being mad at your family when I see them. What happened?”

Molly grimly fiddled with the knob on the cash register. “…I told Lorelai I wanted to get more sleep, but the store hasn’t been doing that well recently, and…that was my fault, somehow. She locked herself in her room again, and my dad went out to do…something. So here I am.”

“Aren’t you friends with the Fleecity’s? How is money still an issue for you?”

Molly’s eyebrow twitched a little, her expression showing a hint of frustration. “Yeah, I know, and I know you told me that it’s okay for my friends to help me, but I don’t wanna rely just on Feenie’s money, indefinitely. Too many risk factors and potential issues. We don’t even know what her family would think about it, or what other people would say about it, or–”

“Jeez, Bear Trap, you’re too young to be worrying about so much stuff.” Giovanni shook his head, already getting dizzy. “I mean, you’re literally pulling double duty doing paperwork right now, while doing the night shift!”

“Who else will?” Molly responded flatly, though the contempt in her voice was still clear. Giovanni started to frown. He was so tired of seeing his boy this way. Seeing her so angry, so tired. He wanted to see her happy for once.

“You know what? Just for tonight, someone else will have to,” he declared. “Because I have decided to KIDNAP you!!!”

“What?”

“Temporarily and with your consent, of course.”

“I–well, I mean, of course, but…why?”

Giovanni started to fix his mask back on. “Like I said, I can tell the signs of being mad at your family when I see ‘em. All this working and dealing with your family’s bullshit is getting you pent-up! What you need is a healthy outlet for all that frustration. Like CRIME!!! Or shopping!”

“Shopping…like, for fun?”

“The fact you need me to clarify that is depressing as hell, Bear Trap.”

“I don’t have any extra money, though. All our income this month is already going towards stuff we need. Look.” Molly held up one of the papers on the counter for Giovanni to see. He didn’t even bother trying to grapple with what all the numbers on the sheet meant before setting her hand back down.

“Well, I still have thirteen dollars worth of allowance money from before I went into hiding. If you think you need more, though, I’m sure your stupid family wouldn’t care enough to notice if twenty-odd bucks suddenly disappeared from the cash register for a day or two before you meet up with Bellhop again.”

He slapped the side of the cash register with a goofy grin, eyes remaining on Molly. “…I was kinda hoping that would get it to open. I don’t know how these things work.”

Molly sighed, rolling her eyes at Giovanni’s shenanigans and smiling lightheartedly. “Well, I don’t know what I’d buy, but…I guess it wouldn’t hurt to release some steam.”

She hopped off the checkout counter’s swivel chair, snagged a handful of dollar bills from the register, and slung her backpack over her shoulder as she made her way beside Giovanni. Then, the duo left the building and walked off into the night.

“So, whaddya think of my new outfit?” Giovanni nudged Bear Trap, gesturing to his costume. “Does it not accentuate my roguish handsomeness?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know, I’m ace,” Molly laughed apologetically. “I am a little concerned about stealth, buuut I guess it’s better than the Banzai Blaster uniforms.”

“Hmm, alright, very practical-minded. Good thinking, Bear Trap! More smoky black shades in the next version!”

They reached and entered the Sweet Jazz City shopping mall shortly.

“At least now, the cops can’t recognise me as the guy who stole the Arsene Amulet anymore! Although breathing in this mask is a pain in the butt.” Giovanni fixed his mask, making a mental note to add better ventilation later on.

“Actually, Boss…I’ve been meaning to ask,” Molly scratched her head. “You seemed fine shouting out your name to everyone back in the museum. Why are you so worried about the fact that Detective Percy heard it?”

“Tchh, well I wasn’t , until I actually saw her in combat!” Giovanni shivered, as if reliving the experience right there. “She was fighting those jerkface Banzai Vice Principals and their minions back in Redwood Run, and she smacked one of them so hard they went flying across the room!! With a sword! In one hand! WITHOUT a critical hit!!! And that’s not even mentioning her weird as hell epithet, I ain’t messing around with THAT lady, that’s for sure!”

“Wow,” Molly responded, wide-eyed.

“Yeah, ‘wow’ is right. Anyway, we’re here now. Anything you wanna buy?” Giovanni nudged Molly encouragingly. She tilted her head and hummed hesitantly.

“I…don’t know. I haven’t bought anything for myself in a while.”

“A while being…?”

“…two…years?? B-but it’s fine! Everything still fits since I…haven’t grown that much since then. Feenie says it’s because of how little sleep I get. A-and all the stress.”

She offered Giovanni a small smile immediately upon seeing just how worried he looked, but it was one of those meek, almost apologetic half-smiles that she always did, the kind she used when she was trying to please or comfort other people. The kind she put on when she didn’t feel like smiling for real, when she didn’t feel happy for real. And he wasn’t having it.

“Bear Trap,” he commanded, so sternly he reminded himself of his mom. “As your boss, I am ordering you to choose somewhere that you want to go to!”

“…you sure?” Molly still hesitated.

“Sure! You think this shopping trip was for me? I wanted to bring you somewhere nice for once, buy you something nice for a change! You totally deserve it, especially after all the crap you’ve had to put up with.”

Molly looked like tears were about to start welling up in her eyes. She wiped them with her hoodie sleeve and smiled a tiny smile.

“Thanks, Boss,” she mumbled, to which Giovanni responded with a reassuring head pat.

She looked around the large, empty mall for a moment, thinking about her decision. “Hmm, well…some new clothes would be nice. I’ve been wearing these ones almost every day. All my other ones are either torn or in the laundry, which I…haven’t had time to do.” She tugged the striped shirt under her hoodie, looking at it deprecatingly.

“Alright then! To the SOUP STORE!!!” Giovanni declared, so dramatically and ridiculously that Molly couldn’t help but snicker.

“Wh…why would you buy clothes at the soup store??”

“For FUN!!!”

The two walked to the clothes store joking and laughing like idiots, ignoring the puzzled looks of the few shoppers they passed on the way.

“Found anything you like?” Giovanni called from his cylindrical leather chair.

“Um, not yet,” Molly replied, taking another dress and furrowing her brows at the price tag, before putting it back on the rack. “These are all pretty expensive.”

“Forget the price, Bear Trap. You know I’ll just steal it if we can’t afford it,” Giovanni said, a bit too loudly for Molly’s liking. “All you should be thinking about is how it looks on you.”

Molly held a crystal-blue dress up to her torso and examined herself in the mirror disheartenedly. “Still not great. Maybe if I was Cinderella, but I don’t think I have legal permission to plant a tree in the cemetery. Much less the time to take care of it.”

Shaking his head, Giovanni looked around the large store. It was rightfully pretty empty, save for the odd customer and a young, bored-looking cashier.

“You know, you could always ask that employee over there for help,” he suggested, pointing towards the cashier. Molly seemed to hesitate.

“I did tell you to be more assertive, remember? If you need something, don’t be afraid to ask! I’ll go with you if that’ll make you feel more comfortable.”

Shyly, but with a newfound confidence, Molly nodded. They both walked up to the checkout counter. The cashier, a young blond woman who couldn’t be much older than Giovanni, straightened up at their approach and put on a well-practised customer service smile, not unlike Molly’s.

“Hello! How can I help you?” she said in a cheery retail voice. Molly’s eyes widened a little in recognition.

“Um, I couldn’t…” she mumbled, before recalling Giovanni’s advice and continuing a little more loudly. “I couldn’t find any clothes that match my hoodie. If it’s not too much trouble…do you have any suggestions?”

The cashier tilted her head and examined Molly’s bear hoodie. “Ohh, it’s got little bear ears on the hood!” She pointed out with a more sincere smile.

“Yeah! It’s a bear hoodie! My mom made it for me.” Molly pulled up the hood, excitedly bouncing on the balls of her feet. Giovanni couldn’t help but grin.

“It looks absolutely adorable,” the cashier said, and Giovanni couldn’t agree more. “I think I once saw a dress somewhere at the back that’ll fit it perfectly.”

“So, whaddya think?” Giovanni looked at the dress picked out by the cashier. It was an apple green overall dress with short collared sleeves. The overall part was brown and led into a miniskirt, and it had a cartoon bear face sewn into it. The cashier was right: it fit Molly pretty much perfectly.

“I love it!!” Molly squealed, looking absolutely ecstatic. Maybe she was just happy to finally own more than one pair of clean clothes, but that didn’t matter in the slightest at this moment.

“Alright, then! What’s your size, young lady?” The cashier asked, putting the dress back on the clothing rack with others of different sizes.

“Uh…” Molly shrank suddenly. “I don’t know…I haven’t gone shopping in a while.”

“That’s okay. There are a couple of different sizes here, you can go and change into some of these and see which one fits best, alright?” The cashier offered, pointing to the changing rooms.

“Oh, okay!”

Molly took a few different sizes of the dress and headed straight for the changing rooms. Once she was out of sight, the cashier turned to Giovanni, looking him up and down. It was starting to occur to Giovanni how odd he must’ve looked to the average person in his costume.

Eh, it’s their loss if they can’t appreciate awesomeness.

“So…are you her babysitter, then?” the cashier asked.

“Uh?” Giovanni blanked. Shoot. He forgot to come up with an alibi earlier. Though he supposed ‘babysitter’ worked as well as anything. “Sure! Yeah. O-of course!”

“A little past her bedtime, isn’t it?” she chuckled.

“Haha, guess so.” Giovanni’s hand twitched a little as he remembered the reason she couldn’t sleep in the first place. “She…doesn't have a lot of chances to get out and do stuff she likes. Thought I’d take her shopping, buy something nice for her!”

“Aw, that’s pretty sweet. At least you’re doing it on a weekend instead of-”

“HEY!” A loud, gruff voice yelled from the front of the store, catching Giovanni way off-guard. “Can I get a cashier here? Hello?!”

“I-I’m so sorry, sir. Can I help you?” The cashier immediately went running to the man at the checkout counter, leaving Giovanni to watch from afar. The noise was from a grouchy-looking 40-something year-old wearing designer clothes, who had ‘asshole’ written all over his body language (and also verbal language).

“What is the cashier doing all the way back there?! Hurry up and do your job! You’d think people like you would be a little more efficient!” he demanded even as the cashier scanned his items. Giovanni curled his hands into fists reflexively. Who did this asshat think he was?

It was at that moment, unfortunately, that Molly decided to walk out of the changing room back to Giovanni.

“Found a size that fits me–oh, shoot, difficult customer alert.” She quickly redirected her attention to the man waiting (if it could even be considered that) for his clothes to be packed up.

“Tell me about it. Don’t you think she’s being too nice to him?” Giovanni grumbled.

“Well, we kinda have to be nice,” Molly explained to him, a bit too nonchalantly for comfort. “If we’re rude to a customer, they might not come back, and we lose business. For a lot of people, it means getting fired.”

“Jesus. No wonder you have problems standing up for yourself.”

Molly shrugged, dolefully handing him the dress that fit her as they approached the checkout counter.

“Sorry about that guy,” Molly told the cashier sympathetically. Giovanni side-eyed the guy in question, who angrily placed his purchases on one of the store seats and stormed into the restroom without acknowledging any of them.

“It’s not your fault,” she sighed, packing Molly’s dress into a paper bag. “Thanks for being concerned, but it’s okay. My coworker and I get customers like that all the time.”

“But it’s not okay,” Giovanni fumed as he paid, his blood boiling. He didn’t think he’d be able to restrain himself if someone was that rude to Molly. They would’ve gotten a face full of Soul Slugger Doombat on sight.

Molly comfortingly patted him on the waist, which was about as high as she could pat anyway. She reached into her hoodie pocket and pulled out a ten-dollar bill, handing it to the cashier. “Thanks for helping me find a dress earlier. Have a nice night.”

“Ohh, thank you!” She sighed heartwarmingly, giving Molly a tired but genuine smile. “Have a great night, and thanks for being more patient than that guy over there. You have a great babysitter, young lady.”

Molly looked at the cashier, then at Giovanni as she figured out what she meant. She smiled a little once she did. “Yeah. I really do.”

Giovanni grinned back at Molly. And I have an awesome minion, he thought.

But when Molly took his hand and turned to lead him out of the store, he didn’t budge.

“Come on, Bear Trap,” he chuckled. “Just earlier this week I was teaching you about supporting small businesses and low-wage workers. You didn’t think I’d leave this place without teaching that pretentious bozo a lesson, did you?”

Giovanni ignored the cashier’s puzzled expression and approached the paper bag, rubbing his hands. It had a bunch of different clothes inside, along with two pairs of socks for some reason. Molly followed behind him nervously, already aware of what he was planning.

“Boss…? Please don’t tell me you’re going to do what I think you’re going to do.” she pleaded half-heartedly, either because she secretly wanted him to do it or because she didn’t think she could stop him. Maybe it was both.

“Oh come on, Bear Trap! Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to get back at a customer who was rude to you.”

“Oh, no, I always do. I’m just worried about getting in trouble.”

Giovanni looked back at the cashier. She put her hands up and shook her head avoidantly, but didn’t otherwise seem that concerned. “Uhhh. I…don’t know what you’re doing. I am not an accomplice to whatever you’re doing. I didn’t see anything that happened here.”

“Well, I do have you, right?” Giovanni turned back to Molly as the cashier looked away. “There’s no way we could get caught with someone as smart as you on our side.”

Molly tilted her head, thinking; the inquisitive shine in her eyes sparkled for a moment…before a smile, small but radiating with mischief, crept up her face. She put her hood up as far as it would go as they heard footsteps start to approach from the restroom.

“Welp! Thanks for the help!” Giovanni quickly told the cashier as he elegantly snatched the paper bag by its handles, before making a 180° swerve for the exit, dragging Molly’s hand along with him. All in front of the newly-emerged customer.

“Wh-pbth-h-HEY! STOP! THIEVES!!!” the man sputtered and shrieked, tripping over his shoelaces trying to catch them.

“Oh NOO!! ThiEveS???” Giovanni heard the cashier exclaim dramatically from afar. Molly must’ve heard it too, because she started snickering.

Unfortunately, she was having a hard time catching up to Giovanni, her shorter stride starting to fall behind, but he wasn’t focusing on that right now. Because for once, Molly’s face had no signs of exhaustion, no hint of any kind of weariness or depression. In that moment, all the darkness seemed to be lifted from her, her smile glowing like a star.

Well, he was about to put this star up in the sky. The duo neared a set of escalators, a security guard lazing idly at his desk nearby.

“Alright, Bear Trap! Hop on and hang on tight!!” he commanded. Still holding his hand, she used it as leverage as she scuffled onto his back. Just like back in the museum, she weighed practically nothing.

The security guard barely had time to react to their rapid approach or the customer’s shouting from behind as Giovanni leaped and landed with a squat right in front of the guardrail between him and the escalator. As he crouched down, the clothes store customer and now a security guard right behind them, he felt his blood rush straight to his feet as he jumped once more, a burst of steam rocketing him into the air right over the guardrail!

“WHEEE!!!” Molly shrieked in delight as they flew across the gap and landed perfectly onto the escalator going up, leaving two completely dumbfounded pursuers scrambling to catch up to them.

“ Teleports Behind You! ” Giovanni didn’t forget to boast as Molly hopped off his back and they continued to sprint up the escalator steps.

They were on the third floor now. Giovanni stopped next to the guardrail in front of the chasm that led to the floor area. He looked back at the customer and the security guard, who were still pretty far away from them and clearly starting to tire out.

“Hey, Bear Trap!” He brandished his Soul Slugger Doombat of Maximum Destruction, the adrenaline still pumping through his veins. “Wanna see something cool?!”

With a shit-eating grin on his face, he turned back towards the customer, arms outstretched in a dramatic proclamation. “Witness me, jackass! THIS is what happens when you mess with Vincent MURDER!!!”

With a toss, he carefully aimed his swing at the airborne paper bag. Time seemed to dilate as his bat collided with it, then…

WHACK!

The bag went flying across the chasm like a turd in the wind! A loose sock flew out as it curved downwards.

And just to go the extra mile, why the hell not . Giovanni hurriedly pocketed his bat and rubbed his palms together in a circle, creating a swirling sphere of soup that filled the air with the scent of bitter gourd. Slinging it like a spintop, he chucked the Lava Grenade over the guardrail, and all four of them watched as it flew…and fell…and BURST against the bag! Tearing it into an explosion of paper shreds, soggy new clothes, and soup droplets.

“HOLY CRAP THAT ACTUALLY WORKED!!” Giovanni screamed. Molly practically collapsed in wheezing laughter. The customer just stopped stiff and stared at the mess as it splattered onto the ground floor. The security guard quickly recollected himself as he continued to run after Giovanni and Molly, snapping them out of their excitement.

“Quick! Into the toy store!” Molly exclaimed, now dragging Giovanni as she pointed to an Entertainment Central store to the left ahead of them. Giovanni took a slow, lanky stride, building up the steam in his foot, and another burst of soupy air blasted him forward as he scooped up his minion, hurtling them both into one of the shop’s aisles.

As the confused shouts of two men echoed from outside, Molly took a deep breath, exhaling a glow of green light that expanded to cover the both of them as they crouched down and attempted to hide behind a stray shopping cart. The moment the sounds outside were shut out, Giovanni wrenched off his mask and gasped in relief.

“WOW, this mask has terrible ventilation,” he coughed. “I think that’s the last of my Stamina. But man, was that awesome or what?!”

“That was awesome,” Molly agreed, smiling brightly. “Did you see that guy’s face when you souped up his clothes?”

“Aw, I didn’t, I was busy celebrating.” Giovanni pointed outside the store from behind the cart, where the pursuers were still figuring out what to do. The security guard looked like he had given up finding them already. “I think I can get a pretty good idea, though. Good thinking with this hiding spot, Bear Trap! Told you we’d be okay with you on our side!”

Molly snickered lightheartedly as Giovanni patted her on the back. She looked more awake than he had ever seen her, her eyes sparkling in the light of the fluorescent lamps overhead. He peered over the shopping cart; their pursuers were nowhere to be seen.

“Alright, the coast looks clear now,” he told Bear Trap, who dispelled the Silence Bubble with a breath of relief. “Anything else you wanna buy? We’re in a toy store. You could get some toys.”

“Uh, I don’t need toys.”

“What? Why? Has the cruel reality of the world destroyed your sense of childlike innocence that you no longer see any value in childish things??”

“Giovanni. I run a toy store.”

Giovanni’s frozen, meme-worthy expression that could only be described as “buffering” left Molly laughing her sides out on the floor for a good minute.

In the end, they did end up buying something else for Molly. She licked her ice-cream cone contently as Giovanni walked her back to the Blyndeff Toy Emporium.

“So…is it good?”

She nodded. “It’s pretty good, actually. No wonder Feenie kept telling us to try it out.”

“I never really bothered. Always figured pistachio ice-cream was one of those old people things, like raisins or watching the news.”

“Sounds like something Sylvie would do. Wait, Sylvie!” Molly exclaimed. “I haven’t visited him yet! I promised I’d bring him some get-well toys, but I…got caught up with work. I wonder if he’s still in the hospital.”

“You were planning on visiting that guy?” Giovanni scoffed, raising a judgemental eyebrow.

“He did try to save me from Mera back in the museum. He almost got his epithet taken away because of it. And he seems like he really needs a friend, especially right now.”

“Well, we can visit him tomorrow if you want. I’ll even take you there myself, so you don’t have to try and reason with your dad.”

Molly smiled. “I’d like that. Thanks, Boss.”

“No problem, Bear Trap! Whatever makes you happy.”

The duo halted in their tracks as they reached the toy store. At the front door stood Martin, who looked mildly miffed pressing his face up against the glass door and looking into the store. He made eye contact with them as they stopped.

“Oh! Hey, Molly! Have you seen my keys? I can’t seem to open the front door without ‘em.”

“Yeah, dad,” Molly whipped out the store keys, looking more unsurprised than disappointed. “I locked up the store, since no one else was there to run it.”

“Aw, Molly,” he whined. “I was locked out here for a full five minutes!”

As she finished unlocking the front door, Molly turned back to Giovanni and waved goodbye with a soft smile. He returned the gesture.

As her dad was going in after her, though, Giovanni grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him aside.

“Listen here, buster,” he snarled right at Martin’s confused face, conjuring hissing steam from his fingers for extra effect. “I’m a nice enough guy to respect Bear Trap’s wishes and not beat you up with my Soul Slugger bat, but I swear, if I hear one more complaint from your daughter about not getting enough sleep, I’m afraid I’ll have to…”

He paused, and inhaled sharply for dramatic effect.

“…confiscate your phone for a day.”

Martin’s demeanour snapped from concern to panic in an instant. “What?!”

“You heard me, Bear Trap’s dad!” he cackled in a menacing, lower-than-usual voice. “Heed my words, for if that girl doesn't get at least EIGHT hours of sleep tonight and I come back tomorrow, your phone is MINE for roughly SIX HOURS!!! Or until I remember I still have it and get the motivation to come back and return it to you!!!”

“You…you can’t do that!” Martin pleaded, looking genuinely distressed. “I know! You must be a bad guy!”

“Ohoh, only the BADDEST of the bad: VINCENT MURDER!!!” Giovanni nodded affirmatively.

“O-o-okay, whatever you say Mr. Burger!” Martin chuckled nervously before scrambling into the store.

“Wait, that’s not–”

Clink!

Ah well. Giovanni strolled along the way back to his hideout, whistling the tune of his theme song: Sexy O2. He had done what he came to do. Which was to show Bear Trap his new villain costume and maybe do some crimes with her.

But more importantly, he had managed to make her happy.

Chapter Text

Dr. Sylvester Ashling groaned, staring straight up at the ceiling.

None of this was supposed to happen.

He was a child prodigy who graduated from college and became a psychologist at the age of 15. A highly-trained epithet user who could knock out a whole gang of criminals with a wave of his hands but apparently couldn’t stop himself from nearly killing a child.

He was supposed to be working right now. He was supposed to have the Arsene Amulet in hand. He was supposed to be undefeated.

But instead, he was laying in a hospital bed waiting for his ribs to heal.

Sylvie inched up into a sitting position, wary of straining his bones. They’d taken a while longer to recover than expected; he supposed Mera’s Stamina Drain did more damage than he’d anticipated. Though, getting crushed underneath an air duct and thrown off a mountain of boxes probably worsened things.

The doctor insisted on keeping him for at least a few more days. To test for side effects, as she said. He supposed he understood; no one had ever gotten their epithet stolen in recent times. Coupled with the fact that his injuries were at least partially magic-related…

He didn’t want to think about any of it.

He could only imagine how many sessions he’d missed by now, how many emails he’d have to sort through once he got back to his apartment.

The only thing getting him through all the pain was hoping for Molly to come and visit him. His newest friend. His only friend.

But it had been almost two weeks since the incident at the museum…had she forgotten about him?

No, no, he reassured himself. Or, tried to, anyway. She was probably busy with school. Or work! She ran a toy store, and she was a responsible person! More mature than most kids he met. She was probably hard at work, making up for time lost from the museum incident!

Or…maybe she didn’t want to visit him. And he screwed up his one chance of finally having a friend.

Just then the ward door creaked open, snapping Sylvie out of his daze. A nervous-looking nurse peeked his head into the room.

“Uh…Doctor Sylvester Ashling?”

“Speaking.” he immediately straightened his posture, ignoring the soreness that the action brought on.

“You have visitors,” said the nurse. “Molly Blyndeff…and…Vincent Murder?”

“Vincent-”

“HEY! NERD!!” A loud, raspy voice echoed down the hall, shattering the early morning silence like a baseball bat through glass. A voice that Sylvie unfortunately recognised. The nurse cringed a little, turning back to him for guidance.

Sylvie gave a little sympathetic nod. “Let them in,” he sighed, and the nurse quickly returned down the hall.

At least she decided to come, he supposed, his breath relaxing.

But why was he here?

A moment later, Molly Blyndeff quietly appeared at the doorway, nervously fiddling with the bouquet of zinnias in her hands.

“Uh…hi, Sylvie.” She waved meekly, entering the room as he returned the gesture. “I’m sorry I haven’t visited you yet; I got caught up with work. But I brought flowers!”

“It’s quite alright, Molly,” Sylvie said, sighing with relief. He watched as the girl elegantly placed her flowers into the vase on the bedside table, which sat next to a flower pot with a single Black-eyed Susan flower inside. Molly turned her attention to the pot in question.

“Is that…”

“Detective King’s gift, yes.” Sylvie nodded. “She visited to question me about the museum incident last Wednesday. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her about your involvement with Giovanni.”

“I’m relieved,” Molly laughed, looking slightly more relaxed.

“Speaking of which, where is he? The nurse mentioned another visitor.”

“Oh, right!” Molly turned around to face the doorway. “Uh…Boss!”

Sylvie jumped as a cloud of pink smoke exploded at the doorway, filling the room with a faint smell of chicken soup. A crouching shadow appeared through the smokescreen, laughing menacingly.

“Did somebody call…for Vincent MURDER?!?!” The silhouette shouted as he dispersed the cloud with a cartoonish pose and swish of his cape, revealing his…costume. He wore what looked like a baseball catcher’s gear spray-painted ash grey as well as bladed gloves over a garish orange shirt, and also, a tattered-looking miniskirt.

‘Vincent Murder’ spun towards Molly like a tactless ballerina and slowly leaned down next to her. “How was that?”

“Perfect.” Molly grinned brightly, appreciating the spectacle with her hands clapped to her mouth. Sylvie squinted at Giovanni.

“What…what on earth are you wearing.”

“Hm? What’s wrong, nerd? Offended that you don’t have a super-cool supervillain outfit like mine?” Giovanni said, practically ripping the helmet off his head.

“My eyes are offended by those colours.” Sylvie shot back, grinning at his own comeback. “What are you even doing here, anyway? Finally got tired of loitering at the gas station?”

“First of all, I will have you know that I loiter exclusively at the gas station!!” Giovanni confessed rather proudly as Molly slid behind him, covertly closing the door before anyone overheard him.

“Second, I’ll also have you know that Bear Trap here is a very independent twelve year-old that needs supervision from an adult guardian to make hospital visits. What, were you hoping her dad would make an appearance instead?!”

Sylvie almost wanted to say yes just to spite him. He wasn’t…wrong, but he was still a criminal, and had no business being near Molly of all people. But seeing Molly’s saddened expression upon hearing that sentence, he kept his mouth shut, shifting in his bed uncomfortably.

“Fine. But what’s with the costume?”

“Ahah, well! To explain that, we’re gonna have to go back to last Wednesday!” Giovanni began to explain. “After I stole the Arsene Amulet, I wanted to have it appraised to see how much it was worth! So I called up this Ramsey Murdoch guy, who’s apparently the guy the Banzai Blasters call if we wanna have something appraised–”

“–a-and he told Boss to meet him at this town called Redwood Run,” Molly continued, attempting to shorten Giovanni’s retelling.

“Right! So I go there, and he tells me the necklace is worth MILLIONS!!! So I’m going to hand it to the big boss–”

“But these two Banzai Vice Principals–”

“–the rank above Captain–” Giovanni rolled his eyes.

“–stole it from him.”

“But I TOTALLY kicked their butts afterward, and! I QUIT the Banzai Blasters! Because they beat me up and were MEAN, and who needs those jerks anyway! But uh…the police lady from the museum was there too, and I may have accidentally told her my name…and she’s scary…hence, my objectively awesome new supervillain costume!!!”

“So what you’re saying,” Sylvie concluded, smirking. “Is that since the museum incident, all you've accomplished was losing the extremely powerful artefact you stole to your own higher-ups, quitting your criminal pyramid scheme organisation, and revealing your name to a police detective? Some ‘supervillain’ you are.”

“Ohoh, yeah?” Giovanni scoffed, shuffling backwards. “And what have you accomplished since the museum heist, hmmm ? Checking ‘break a bunch of ribs’ off your bucket list? HAH! Gottem!!!”

Sylvie turned bright red. “Wh-YOU–”

“Guuuys,” Molly complained. The two bickering children stopped to see the girl had silently seated herself criss-cross applesauce on one of the visitor’s chairs. She scrounged around in her yellow backpack for a moment, shortly pulling out a sheep plushie.

“I haven’t forgotten what I promised you, Sylvie,” she said, placing the plush in his arms. “I got you a plushie! It’s a sheep, since, uh, you seem to like sheep!”

“Oh,” Sylvie squeaked out, startled by the toy’s softness. “Thanks.”

He cautiously wrapped his arms around it, almost like it would bite him if he wasn’t careful; but it stayed put, warming him as he pressed it to his chest. It was impossibly soft. And he always had his Counting Sheep, but this was a real, completely tangible plush toy. A soft smile unconsciously crept up his face, and the two visitors smiled at each other with satisfaction.

“Hey, Boss,” Molly nudged Giovanni. “Don’t you have something for Sylvie as well?”

“Oh! Of course, I…uh…awwW DANG IT! I left it in the car! Be right back, Bear Trap!”

Swiftly fixing his mask back on, Giovanni scurried out of the room like a fox on sugar high. The door closed again, and it was just Sylvie and Molly left in the ward. The latter looked back at Sylvie, who was still semi-entranced by his gift.

“So…how are you feeling, Sylvie?” Molly prompted, waking him from his stupor. “Still any pain?”

“I’m still a little sore, but otherwise I’m fine,” Sylvie sighed, feeling his chest. “The doctor said I’d be out by next week, thank god for that.”

Molly hummed thoughtfully. To Sylvie's surprise, she then took his hands into her tiny palms and closed her eyes. A serene green glow purred as it emanated from her hands and spread throughout his body. For a second, all tactile sensation melted away, all the sound around him seemed to dull down.

And when his senses returned to normal, his chest felt twice as light, all the discomfort and heaviness plaguing him now distant and dull.

“That should make you feel better for a little while,” she said, giving him a warm, comforting smile.

“Oh! Th-thanks.” Sylvie slowed his breaths, taking in each one. That epithet of hers was sure something else. “Did you…heal me?”

“Oh, no. I just…dumbed down your pain for a bit, sorry,” Molly explained, blushing with embarrassment. “I can usually only reduce damage as it happens, but I learned to use it on Mera after the museum incident.”

“Mera? She tried to take your epithet away.” Sylvie furrowed his brows, trying not to linger on the memories of his own one getting stolen. He subconsciously gripped the plush sheep in his hands a bit tighter.

“I know, but she did have her reasons for wanting my epithet, as…selfish as they might’ve been. I understand why you’d still be mad at her, but she’s been in so much pain, all her life…the least I could do is try to take some of it away, even for a little bit. You study epithets, right? If anyone understood, it would be you.”

Sylvie sighed. As much as he hated the sentiment, she wasn’t wrong. He’d done extensive research on the effect of epithets on their user’s physical, emotional, and psychological states, and he couldn’t argue that Mera didn’t have the right to feel wronged with a curse like hers.

…but he still couldn’t put it past her.

“Maybe so, but…I wouldn't have so much faith in others. Especially a criminal.”

Molly shrugged, turning her gaze toward the door. “…you seem to have something against criminals. Giovanni’s a criminal, and he’s fine by me.”

Sylvie scrunched up his face a little, both surprised and embarrassed that he was so easily seen through. “I mean…in the museum, we were working together on the grounds of keeping the amulet safe from Mera, but he ran off with it after we defeated her! And now he’s back with us? Who knows what he’s up to now!”

“…I thought psychiatrists were supposed to be open-minded.”

Sylvie turned to Molly, taken aback by her response: So perfectly succinct, so casual and neutral in tone that he could hardly believe it was her saying it.

“Giovanni…he cared about me. He protected me, back in the museum,” she continued. “From Indus when he tried to take me to Mera, and then from Mera when she tried to take my epithet. And even from you and Dr. Beefton.”

She pointed at Sylvie as she mentioned him, not in an accusatory way, but it was enough to cause a wave of guilt to wash over him as he recalled that night’s battle.

“Even after the museum incident, he’s still been looking out for me. He told me to be more assertive and speak up when I want something. He got me to ask my friends for help when I needed it. He even had his minions drive me home from school when my dad forgot about me. He can’t even show his face in public without worrying about getting caught by the police, and still, all he cares about is helping me. I know he’s a criminal, Sylvie, but…he’s not a bad guy.”

Sylvie silently nodded, deep in thought. He felt somewhat…disheartened that Molly was choosing to defend Giovanni, but…she did have a point, and he had to agree that he never really thought about where Giovanni had gone after the museum incident. Thought about how much the teen actually cared for Molly, how much he was actually doing for Molly.

The moment had barely passed when the door burst open once more, and Giovanni scrambled back into the room with a series of ragged huffs and pants, holding something behind his back.

“Holy moly,” he wheezed, practically ripping off his mask. “Bear Trap, you gotta remind me to add some better ventilation to this thing.”

Gracefully kicking the door shut behind him, Giovanni pulled out a three-layer tiffin container and sat himself down on the floor. The smell of chicken soup started to fill the hospital ward.

“Is that…soup?” asked Sylvie.

“Way to go, genius,” Giovanni responded sarcastically as he carefully disassembled the stacked containers and placed them onto a medicine tray. “I made a bowl for each of us. It’s no Ancient Potion, but it’ll help speed along the recovery better than that bland ol’ hospital food.”

Sylvie raised an eyebrow, briefly wondering how he knew what hospital food tasted like. “Is outside food even allowed in here?”

“No,” scoffed the outlaw. “Why do you think it took me so long? I had to sneak this thing all the way up here without spilling anything. I should’ve brought you along, Bear Trap. It would’ve been way easier. Now hurry up and eat before it gets cold!”

Sylvie obliged, taking a sip from his bowl. To his surprise, it really was good; better than anything he’d eaten in a long time, which was…not a high bar to pass, to be fair, given his diet mainly consisted of ramen, coffee, and lately hospital food. Still, he had to give it to Giovanni: he was a decent chef.

“Huh. Giovanni?” he asked, a realisation springing into his mind. “Is your epithet Soup?”

“WHAT–NO!!!” Giovanni roared. “It’s LAVACID!”

Sylvie looked at Molly, who shrank behind her soup bowl. “Yeah, Lavacid,” she squeaked unconvincingly.

“Your epithet was Soup the whole time,” Sylvie laughed, revelling in the glory of the moment. “So much for your high-and-mighty persona!”

“Ohoho, like you’re one to judge people’s epithets, Little Bo Peep!”

“Wh-SERIOUSLY?!”

“Guys…”

“Can’t believe she fell asleep so quickly.”

Sylvie watched as Giovanni gently spread the bedsheets over Molly’s sleeping body. She was already yawning after a mere ten minutes of talking, so Giovanni helped her onto Sylvie’s hospital bed as he inched back to make space for her. They didn’t even realise when she had dozed off, curling up with Sylvie’s sheep plushie wrapped in her arms.

“I can believe it,” Giovanni grunted, lazily falling backwards onto the visitor’s chair and placing his now-empty bowl on the medicine tray. “Her useless dad and sister made her pull the night shift again last night. So I did what any responsible boss would do and brought her shopping instead!”

“A ‘responsible boss’ would’ve put her to bed instead of keeping her up,” responded Sylvie, glaring at the teen disapprovingly.

“Well, a responsible boss would’ve figured Molly’s deadbeat dad would’ve woken her up again the moment he saw she wasn’t working, and decided the best thing to do for her was to cheer her up instead!”

“Have you even met Molly’s dad?” Sylvie tried to object.

“Uh, yeah?? Are you trying to say something?!”

“I’m just wondering whether you actually know what responsibility even entails.”

Sylvie and Giovanni stared at each other for a while, the tension close to choking the room, until the latter finally rolled his eyes and slumped back in his seat.

Sylvie quietly groaned to himself. He was trying to sympathise with Giovanni, he really was. He just…couldn’t connect the version of Giovanni he knew with the one Molly told him about, no matter what.

Giovanni was a criminal. A troublemaker. A thief. Simple as that.

He broke into the Sweet Jazz City Museum to steal things. He escaped from the museum stealing the Arsene Amulet. The one they were supposed to work together to protect.

He lied. He coerced, he broke the rules. He got on people’s nerves. Called people names, teased, bullied.

That’s what criminals did. It’s what Mera did, and it’s what Giovanni did. Why would someone like him care so much about Molly? Why would he even come back for her?

What did she even see in him ?

“Okay, kid,” Giovanni exhaled, breaking the silence and startling Sylvie out of his stupor. His tone was lower and less over-the-top than usual. “Level with me here. What’s your problem with me?”

Sylvie was too stunned to even correct Giovanni calling him a kid. “What is my problem with you ?”

“Yeah. The whole time I’ve been here, you’ve been questioning what I’m doing here, what I’m doing with Bear Trap; if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to get rid of me!”

Sylvie flinched, feeling attacked. Was that really how he sounded?

“I…d-don’t try to antagonise me! Maybe if you weren’t so annoying I’d be a bit nicer to you. Besides, you’re a criminal! Anyone would be avoidant of you, and I certainly don’t have any reason to trust you with Molly!”

“Well, I don’t have any reason to trust YOU with her either, mister Nightmare Fuel!!!”

Sylvie blinked, unprepared for the curveball that was Giovanni bringing up the museum fight. “I…that was under false pretences. And I wasn’t actually trying to hurt Molly, I just needed to keep you from escaping!”

“Yeah, that totally justifies traumatising her, sure. From how you described it, you knew the move would summon her worst fears, right?! But yeah, sure, just use it on a TWELVE YEAR-OLD!”

“Look, I didn’t KNOW! I didn’t, I…I’m sorry.”

Curiously, Giovanni raised an eyebrow. “You are?”

“I’m not a monster. I used Nightmare Fuel on Molly thinking…since she was a kid, her worst fear couldn’t be that bad. I didn’t know…I didn’t think things through. I still feel terrible about everything Beefton and I tried to do to her. I feel terrible that she would just…forgive me after all that. I feel terrible that she still offered to be my friend afterwards, even if it was just for the sake of defeating Mera. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Giovanni leaned forward, curling his knees up to his chest. “And what about calling her ‘criminal scum' afterward?”

Sylvie winced, recalling her heartbroken expression upon hearing that insult. “I wish I could make everything up to her.”

Sighing, Giovanni stood up and moved himself onto the floor beside Sylvie. “Well, if it makes you feel better, you have made it up to Bear Trap. Sure, you got your ass beat and your epithet stolen, but if you hadn’t distracted Mera for those extra couple of seconds, I’m pretty sure Bear Trap would’ve had her epithet taken away for good.

“Mera could’ve dumbed down my sneak attack, or poofed my brain cells into oblivion before I could hit her. Or maybe she’d see me coming anyway without all that nightmare fire she created and without Bear Trap’s epithet to deafen her. Besides, you did your best to hold her off, and that’s all Bear Trap seems to care about. And now that you’ve finally apologised for what you did, it’s all I care about too.”

“Doesn’t excuse it, though, does it?” Sylvie mumbled guiltily.

“Well, I’m sure you had some reason for doing what you did, stupid as it might’ve been.” Giovanni shrugged. “Like you said, you weren’t thinking things through. Mera told you she’d give you the necklace if you beat up a couple of people for her, you wanted to show off your cool powers; I can relate. Might not excuse it, but I can kinda see what was going on in that dumb head of yours.

“Listen, I tied Bear Trap to a chair the first time we met. Maybe we both made some mistakes back in the museum. Maybe we both did some destruction of property, maybe we both tried to hurt the wrong people and left with some bad first impressions, but now all either of us want to do is take care of Bear Trap the best we can. Can’t it just be that simple?”

“I guess I never really thought of it that way,” Sylvie confessed. “I guess I just couldn’t comprehend why…someone like you would care so much about Bear Tr–uh, Molly.”

Giovanni grinned proudly, causing Sylvie’s face to flare up in embarrassment.

“Well,” Giovanni shrugged again. “You were eavesdropping on us when she told me about her life situation, right? Anyone would want to step in and help. I know you have something against criminals, but I’m not a monster either, unlike a certain father of someone.”

Sylvie nodded, further embarrassed that Giovanni of all people saw through him that easily. Although, that was Giovanni, wasn’t it? The guy who immediately stepped in to try and solve Molly’s crisis. Who figured out instantly that she needed to be more assertive, who stuck by her side long after he would gain any benefit from doing so.

He could never see it, all because he’d been dismissing him as a ‘criminal’, attacking him for basically every decision he made. He supposed it made sense why he was always acting so…annoying to him, all the time.

But now, all the walls were down, and he could finally see how gentle and caring Giovanni could be when he treated him with sincerity. And he finally understood what Molly saw in him, too.

“But to be fair, I guess I could try to be a little nicer to you; now that you’ve apologised for what you said to Bear Trap, of course,” Giovanni admitted.

Sylvie raised an eyebrow. “So that’s why you were acting so annoying?”

“Excuse me, the correct term is ‘rebellious’, but yeah, that’s part of it. The other part is because you’re so annoy-able, nerd.”

“That isn’t even a real word! And neither is ‘lavacid’, for that matter!” Sylvie complained. “But…on that note, I suppose I should be treating you with more respect as well. I’m sorry for dismissing you as just another criminal. And…I’m sorry for making fun of your epithet.”

“Uh? Oh, that.” Giovanni waved it off. “It’s nothin’. Everyone makes fun of it. It’s part of why I never tell anyone anymore.”

“Well, I guess that checks out, but your abilities are nothing to scoff at,” Sylvie assured Giovanni, thinking back to all the moves he had pulled during their fight. “Your epithet provides a frankly absurd amount of utility for what essentially boils down to making water.”

“Excuse me?! Soup is way cooler than boring ol’ water!!! But I guess you’re right. I always wanted to have cool powers, so I spent a long time learning to make soup balls that I could throw at people. Then I learned to make soup bottles, and then steam! I still have a ton of ideas for new moves!!…egh, shame I don’t have the proficiency to pull ‘em off yet.”

“You know…I could help you with that, if you want.”

Giovanni lifted his head to look at Sylvie directly. “You could??”

“My specialty is epithets, after all. It’s my job to know how they work with the human psyche. Why do you think I’m so highly-trained?”

“I always just assumed you walk around the city at night beating up thieves.”

“Uh, well…that too.”

“Aww, you two can actually be civil with each other if you want.”

The two boys turned to look at Molly, who was still laying under the bedsheets, smiling mischievously at the both of them. How she managed to be so stealthy, Sylvie had no clue.

“Bear Trap?? How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough. You two aren’t exactly silent,” she giggled, jumping out of the hospital bed and looking at the clock on the wall as she stretched her arms. “I think we should probably get going. I need to get back to work, and you need to return Dad’s phone.”

Molly pointed to Giovanni, who rolled his eyes. “Arrrgh, do we really have to, Bear Trap? You just woke up. Can’t you take a day off or something?”

“Not unless I want us to starve,” Molly laughed joylessly. “But it’s fine. I have every even day off while my sister runs the register. I-If she’s available, that is. I’m sorry I can’t stay longer, Sylvie.”

“It’s alright, Molly,” Sylvie responded. “Thanks for visiting me in the first place.”

He turned to Giovanni. “And…thanks for bringing her here. And for caring for her so much in the first place.”

“Ahh, no problem! She is my minion, after all,” Giovanni boasted, pointing finger guns at her. “Alright, see you later, four-eyes! I’ve got a heist to plan!”

“My name is Dr. Sylvester Ashling, as you may recall,” Sylvie protested. “And please don’t take Molly on a heist! I may appreciate you standing in for her absentee family, but that doesn’t mean I want her involved in criminal activity!”

“Too late! Already stole someone’s shopping bag with her yesterday!”

“Molly?!”

Molly laughed at Sylvie’s betrayed expression. “They were being mean to the cashier, Sylvie!”

“But still!!”

Giovanni ruffled Molly’s hair, grinning proudly. “Alright, alright, I was joking about the heist, doc. Hey, that reminds me, you still need a proper minion name!”

“I am not your minion! And I thought you already quit the Banzai Blasters!”

“Guess again, nerd!” Giovanni fixed his mask back on. “Because I’m starting up my own criminal organisation, and you’re going to be part of it!!!”

“Is there an option to decline?”

“Nope!”

“What happened to making up with each other, you guys?” Molly complained lightheartedly.

Sylvie shook his head, exasperated. “Whatever. Just…take care of Molly, alright?”

Giovanni’s boisterous expression faded at that sentence, turning warmer and gentler, and Sylvie knew that he would. “Yeah, yeah, I got it, Sylvester.”

“Thank you.”

Once the two packed up their things, Molly ran up to the bed one last time and embraced Sylvie in a hug. Startled by the sudden contact, he slowed his breathing and carefully returned the hug, wrapping his arms around Molly. He felt her heartbeat pulsating and rippling through his body as her epithet activated again, engulfing him in feelings of warmth and softness, so much so that he could feel his thoughts becoming cloudy, bumping around in his head like sheep.

“Tell us when you get discharged from the hospital, okay?” Molly asked, slowly letting go of Sylvie. “We’ll take you back to your apartment. Uh, if you want, that is.”

Sylvie looked up at Molly, then at Giovanni. “Uh, yeah. I’d like that a lot,” he mumbled, smiling sheepishly.

With one final goodbye, the duo left the hospital ward, and then it was just the young doctor left in the hospital ward. He curled up with his sheep plushie and looked to the side table, where a vase full of zinnias sat next to a potted Black-eyed Susan.

He never thought having friends could feel so good.