Chapter 1: Father Laurent.
"Welcome." one out of a pair of monks said in a deep, warm voice, he was a large man with a rugged face "I am Father Laurent, the head of the monastery."
"And I am Brother Michael." said the other one, he was around the same age as Jack, his face smooth and rosy.
"We're Jack and Annie." Jack said hoarsely, his voice still wasn't quite back to normal.
"Thanks for helping us." said Annie, specifically phrasing it as 'help' instead of 'save'.
"We were happy to do so." said Father Laurent "you must come and sit by the fire in the parlor to warm yourselves and dry your clothes, Brother Michael will take you there while I ask our cook to warm some soup for you."
"Uh," Jack started, "cook soup, or warm soup?"
Father Laurent looked slightly taken aback.
"Warm soup..." he stated.
"Oh, so it's pre-made soup?" Jack asked disappointedly, "we've gone to places all over the world and had people cook us fresh soup the instant we arrived, I guess the famous monk hospitality isn't all it's cracked up to be..."
"W-well it's only pre-made so you won't have to wait as long." Father Laurent explains.
"Oh, well that's a convenient excuse." Jack snarks.
A frown appeared momentarily on Father Laurent's face, before he hastily replaced it with a forced smile, he nodded at Jack respectfully before turning away and heading down the hall towards the kitchen.
As Father Laurent walked away, Jack realized how much he wanted to lie down, he was still feeling cold and hungry, but he felt more tired than either.
"Come with me." said Brother Michael "are you able to walk on your own?"
"Uh, no, I don't, I don't think so, I think you should just carry me on your back." Jack suggested.
"Uh, yeah, I think that would be best." Annie agreed, giving Jack a curious glance.
"*sigh* very well..." Brother Michael said, turning around and arching his back.
Jack eagerly skipped forward and jumped onto his back, Brother Michael letting out a grunt, Jack wrapped his arms around his chest for support like a koala.
Brother Michael called for another monk to come join them, after quickly explaining the ridiculous situation the other monk agreed to allow Annie to climb onto his back, and so the two monks limped their way through the dimly lit halls until they came to the dimly lit parlor, complete with it's huge fireplace.
"Ugh...!" Brother Michael grunts as he drops Jack off onto the soft carpet, the other monk doing the same with Annie.
"Please, sit by the fire." offered Brother Michael.
"Sit?" groaned Jack, "not lie down?"
"W-we don't have anything for you to lie down on." said Brother Michael, rubbing his back "all we have are these wooden chairs." he gestures towards the chairs, sitting idlely against the wall of the room.
"Wooden?" Jack groans again in disbelief, "but that'll hurt my poor ass..."
"I-I'm sorry..." Brother Michael apologizes, "but that's all we have."
Jack sighs disappointedly.
"...hey! but if one of you were to sit on the chair, and let me sit on your lap, then that would be acceptable!" Jack pointed out.
Brother Michael looked VERY taken aback and begins to stutteringly open his mouth to respond.
"Yeah, that would even be more efficient in warming us up and drying us off." Annie agreed.
Brother Michael looks at a loss for words, just shaking his head speechlessly, until eventually he takes an accepting gulp, "v-very well..." he agrees.
"Al-right!" Jack cheers, before Brother Michael even knew it Jack was pushing him into the wooden chair and plopping down onto his lap, his weight combined with Jack's made the chair five times more uncomfortable for him, with the added discomfort of just the fact that Jack was sitting on him, AND the added discomfort of Jack's wet clothes soaking their water away into his robes.
Beside them Annie and the other monk were seated as well, Annie giving her monk a much easier time than Jack was giving Brother Michael, with none of the pushing or anything like that, she also sat partially across her monk's legs, leaving him plenty of room to breathe comfortably, while Jack sat directly in line with Brother Michael, with his back pressed up against Brother Michael's chest, and the back of his head right up in Brother Michael's face, making Brother Michael have to tilt his head back and look upwards to avoid Jack's hair, hurting his neck and making it hard to breathe.
So Jack and Annie just sat there on the monks and stared at the crackling fire for a couple moments, after which Father Laurent came into the room with two bowls of steaming soup, he looked surprised when he saw them sitting on his monks' laps, but didn't dare say anything.
"H-here is your soup..." he presented it to them, handing them the bowls.
"Tsk, took you long enough..." Annie muttered.
"Yeah! What's up with that!? I thought you were just 'warming' it!" Jack complained.
Father Laurent just stares gaping at them in disbelief.
"Ah, whatever, let's just eat it anyway..." Annie decides.
"Okay, sure." Jack nodded, while Annie started on her's silently.
Sluuurp, tch, tch, tch. Jack tasted his.
"A little salt, maybe?" Jack said as he turned back to Father Laurent.
Father Laurent looked taken aback again, but then quickly turned to another monk and requested him to go fetch them salt, the monk bowed and obeyed, running out of the parlor on his errand.
While the errand monk was gone, the room fell into an unhappy silence, as Jack just sat there on Brother Michael's lap, holding his soup idlely in his hand, his expression impatient and unimpressed, while beside him, Annie continued to consume her bowl of soup, she also thought it could use salt, but it didn't bother her enough to wait, and she figured she'd just take some of Jack's salt should she still have any left by the time the monk got back with it.
Jack was becoming more annoyed by the second, flashing bothered looks at Father Laurent, he was not happy to have to sit there and hold his soup bowl up, his arm was becoming tired and he knew his soup was slowly going cold, despite the fact that many wisps of steam still rose from it, and it's prolonged heat was now starting to sting his fingers, all these facts irritated him tremendously.
"Somebody want to take my bowl from me before it burns my hand?" he snarks out at the room, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, one of you guys should." Annie agrees, pausing her meal to look around at the monks "don't forget the fact that he just nearly died, so his arm's probably pretty weak right now, one of you should grab it from him before he drops it all over the floor and ruins the carpet, or all over his lap, and by extension, Michael's lap."
"Uhh...!" Brother Michael gasps as he instantly raised his arm, his hand spread out for Jack to use as a cupholder, Jack just grumpily puts his bowl down in it, not bothering to thank Brother Michael, and his expression not lightening up in the least, his face still a solid, bitter frown.
A couple minutes later the monk comes back with a small bowl of salt, Jack took it from him and poured most of it into his soup.
"Hey, you wanna pass it over here?" Annie requests just as Jack was about to give the bowl back to the monk.
"Hm? oh-uh, yeah, sure." Jack nods "here you go." he says as he holds it out to her, his arm reaching as far as it would go without him having to shift and give Brother Michael any relief or anything like that, as a result his arm doesn't reach very far so Annie has to lean forward a ways, but her hand reaches his and she takes the salt, adding some of it to her small pool of remaining soup.
The room went quiet again as Jack and Annie ate their soup, Annie finished her's rather quickly of course, and by the time Jack was finished they were feeling all better, the hot soup had warmed them up, and the fire, and the monks they were sitting on, their clothes were also nearly dry.
Jack placed his empty bowl in his spare hand and offered to take Annie's for her in his main, Annie leaned forward, reached out and passed her's to him, he then turned the other way to face Father Laurent.
"That was some seriously gross broth you gave us." Jack said as he handed the empty bowls back over to the head monk "what are you trying to do, kill me?"
All the monks in the room instantly become very unhappy, though most continue with their fake smiles, Father Laurent especially was impacted by this, being the one that Jack was talking to, and how most of his time around Jack has been spent solely on seeing Jack push and push about the soup, only to continue to push it even after it was done and over with, and the fact that Jack's done nothing but complain without ever showing any thanks to anyone, especially Father Laurent, despite the head man's constant and relentless generosity, and to make matters worse, now every other monk in the room had their eyes on him, watching to see how he'd react, it made him very uncomfortable, enough that he decided to just skip the issue all-together and try to change the subject.
"So uh," Father Laurent starts "how are you fee-"
"KUHhuhKUGHhuhKughHUhHUH!" Jack breaks into a fit of fake coughs, "ugh, I feel awful, I think we're gonna have to spend the night."
"Oh, uh, well..." Father Laurent trails off.
"Well, if it's any consolation to you I feel noticeably better." Annie states, "besides, I did manage to choke down that gross soup you gave me."
"B-broth." Jack corrects her, holding up his finger correctively.
"Uh, o-of course you two can stay the night..." Father Laurent said nervously, "and I'm sure you'll be eager to continue your journey tomorrow morning after you are all nicely rested and recovered."
"Oh, well, I don't know how well rested we'll be, that kinda depends on the quality of your beds, that I honestly find, *smack* pretty questionable." Jack states, "and I really don't know if we'd be fully recovered by then, let alone well enough to travel, even if we do rest up good."
"Yeah, it is a really hard thing to judge." Annie agrees, nodding thoughtfully "if you ask me, I'd say that I honestly think your best bet is to probably just give us the best beds you've got, leave us to sleep best we can, and basically just, you know, hope, that's it's enough, in the end, hopefully."
"*sigh*, of course..." Father Laurent said tiredly "I will be sure to see to it that you are accommodated as you request."
"Thank you, I'm sure it's our best chance, you're doing the right thing." Annie says encouragingly.
Sucker. she thinks.
"Could you see to it NOW, please? Before you... forget?" Jack snarks irritably.
"U-uh, yes, right away..." he turns away to go talk with some of the monks briefly, once he's finished he comes back.
"You done?" Jack asks, impatiently.
"Y-yes, yes I am." Father Laurent states nervously, he was once again feeling very uncomfortable, so he decides to do what he did before and change the subject, "you must be very brave to try to travel the pass during the night."
"Uh, yeah, we could, or maybe we could be really foolish, what, did you not think of that?" Annie questions right back at him.
"Well, uh, it actually did cross my mind in fact, but I wished not to offend you." Father Laurent responds.
"Tsk! You mean you thought we were very foolish but wanted to be two-faced towards us about it, didn't you!?" Jack says, "I am insulted! nobody has ever been so dishonest towards us in our travels, other than Teddy and Kathleen, not even the pirates!"
"Pirates?" Brother Michael repeated confused.
"Uh, no, I'm sorry, I meant only that it had crossed my mind, I did not think of you two as fools." Father Laurent hastily apologizes, "I thought you must've been crossing the pass for some very important reason of your own, making you not foolish, but brave."
"Oh, really?" Annie starts, "well then I guess you were wrong, we must be the biggest fools you've ever seen: we were searching the pass for flowers."
"My goodness! flowers!?" Brother Michael repeats in shock, his surprise making him slightly nudge Jack from behind.
"Ugh!" Jack grunts as he nudges Brother Michael much harder in response "stay still, stupid!" he orders botheredly.
"Yep, flowers of all things." Annie continues to Father Laurent "do you know where we can find any?"
Father Laurent then laughed a fine, hearty laugh, he laughed for a good long moment before stopping.
"You are very amusing..." he starts joyfully to Annie, looking happy as ever once again "but now please tell me, what is the real reason you've come to the pass?"
"Uh, to gather flowers." Annie says flatly.
"Now that really is a very fine joke, but seriously now, why have you come?" Father Laurent repeats.
"Uh, listen, Bub, I don't know whose face your looking at, but mine clearly says that I'm not kidding around here." Annie responds, gesturing to her serious expression "look at me, do I look like I'm joking? huh? do I look like I'm fucking joking?"
"Now, now! there's no need for that...!" Father Laurent raises his hands peacefully "if you really do not wish to tell me, then I won't ask you to any longer."
"Well, Mr. Nosey, if you really want to know so bad, then fine." Jack butts in "the truth is: we're on an important mission."
"Hm!?" he instantly captures all of the monks' interest.
"Important mission you say?" Father Laurent repeats "a mission to do what?"
"Well, it's pretty classified, top secret stuff, but I, guess, we could just tell you." Jack responds uncertainly "after all, you did save our lives, and I'm feeling pretty grateful."
It made Father Laurent even happier to see Jack showing gratitude, "Please, go on." he requests.
"Okay, so, our important mission is..." Jack looks around secretively before going on quietly "...to find and collect samples of the unique flora that inhabit the upper Alps."
Silence.
"Or, in other words, 'get flowers'." he adds.
"That's right." Annie agrees with a nod "it's very important."
Some of the monks breathe a disappointed huff.
"So, you are serious then?" Father Laurent asks tiredly "you came here for flowers?"
"Yep." Annie nods "me and Jack are the world's very best flower-finders, gathering a grand collection of the most rare and exotic flora across the globe, it's a very hard job, and so far the Alps have been one of the more dangerous expeditions, but we'll totally pull through in the end."
"Mm-hm." Jack absent-mindedly hums agreement.
"But how can this be? you are just children." asked Father Laurent.
"Uh, excuse me, I believe the phrase is, 'Young Adults'." Jack corrects him offendedly.
"Yeah." Annie nods her agreement "that's what we are, I admit that it's still not terribly impressive at first glance, but for your information, we've been doing this since I was like, four, so even though we may still be pretty young, we've had plenty of experience and have gotten to be pretty good at it, we take our job very seriously thanks, heck, it was just a couple months ago that we were gathering green roses in India, we did such a good job there that we finished early and had a bunch of spare time on our hands, that we then used to ride on elephants and go see the beauty of the Taj Mahal, tell me, have any of you ever done so good at your job that you had time to ride elephants and see the Taj Mahal?"
Every monk shook their head, many looking down at their feet embarrassedly, but not Brother Michael, who doesn't dare move.
"That's what I thought." Annie finishes contently.
The room was silent for a moment, with only the sounds of the crackling fire and the whistle of the wind outside disrupting everyone's quiet thoughts.
"...well!" Father Laurent eventually spoke "I suppose you two would now like to go to bed for the night, there's been quite enough talk, and of course you need your rest."
"Y-yeah, I, uh, suppose." Jack responds tiredly, Annie nodding agreement, "b-but I'm afraid I'm simply feeling too weak to make it there myself, and besides, I don't know the way, so I guess you and Brother Michael here will just have to carry me, that is, if you don't mind, which of course you don't, right?", Annie keeps nodding agreement.
"Actually, I'm afraid I must prepare to leave." said Father Laurent, the tiniest hint of bitterness in his voice "since you requested our best beds, I am going to allow you to share mine, it may be only one but it is the best we have, so you will be occupying my room tonight, it's not much bother, I was going to leave early tomorrow morning to help the French soldiers go conquer our sworn enemies, the Italians, anyways, but now that my bed has been taken I suppose I will simply leave tonight and join them earlier than we planned, but as I said, it is no bother." he lies, it totally bothers him "my only, regret, is that I will not be here to further help you come tomorrow morning."
"Oh-no!" Annie cries "that's a shame, I was looking forward to seeing you tomorrow."
"Yeah! that sucks!" Jack agrees "can't you just, like, not go? couldn't you just blow it off and stay here with us instead?"
"I'm sure the French could do just fine without you." Annie adds.
Father Laurent shook his head, "No, I am afraid they would most likely see it as an act of betrayal if I were to do that, then they would simply become our new Italians."
"But...!" Annie starts whinily.
"Huhhh! fine, whatever! just go." Jack rolls his eyes frustratedly, crossing his arms and looking away from Father Laurent.
Father Laurent stared at him in uncomfortable silence once again, not sure of what to say, he just, bowed respectfully, before slowly walking away, leaving to go prepare for his departure, gone.