Wohoo! double digits~. Do you know what that means? It's time for another Fluffy chapter. The last one put some motion in the ocean and this one is going to keep it rolling, lol. let's gooo!
Song Suggestion: Over My Head (Cable Car) by A day to Remember
Disclaimer: I own nothing~
Time continued on even after the less than pleasant air that Heisenberg created by storming off. Charlotte did as the Luthier requested and handed over the key for his house to the gardener, who put up a sign notifying everyone that the house was abandoned and locked up for now. The doctor had taken to the village well enough, not questioning their new life in the slightest. On one hand, it was a blessing to have them around. They were able to more accurately diagnose illnesses and make suggestions when villagers were sick. On the other, Charlotte had a hard time even looking at them knowing that it was her fault they were stuck here.
She frowned a bit as she walked up one of the steep slopes by the mines. "Are you doing okay Salvatore?" Charlotte calls back and the fish-like man nods.
"Y-Yeah, I'm okay" he replies through a cough.
Charlotte frowned slightly. It was harder for him to get his swimming time in so his cough was getting worse. Hopefully, spring would come quickly... "This should be far enough," she says as she waits for him to catch up.
"Okay... Now what?" he asks curiously as she hands him one of the metal baking sheets.
"You sit on this and slide down the hill," Charlotte explains with a smile.
"Is that safe?" Moreau asks concerned.
"probably?" Charlotte says hesitantly in response. "So long as you don't fall off."
"Oh..." he replies a bit nervous. "Maybe you can go first?"
Hearing the suggestion caused her to laugh. "Sure. I'll show you how it's done," she agrees before kneeling down to use her baking sheet to pat down some of the snow and make it slick. the first go was usually the slowest anyway so it's for the better that she makes the path. It takes a moment for her to get going but once she does she starts really moving. "WOHOOO!" She calls as she sleds down the hill on her oversize baking sheet.
It takes Moreau a moment but he eventually sits on his baking sheet and slides down the hill with a terrified expression at first but as he relaxes it changes to a smile as he laughs. Charlotte steps out of the way as he sleds past her sightly. it takes him a second but he gets up picks up the sheet and starts heading back up the slope. seeing that causes her to chuckle as she follows behind him.
Heisenberg scowled as he stood at his desk drumming his fingers against the wooden top while he held the rotary phone to his ear with the other hand. no answer. He put the phone down with a bit more force than intended. The stupid phone was really inconvenient if the other person wasn't around to answer it. The dumb fish really was going to make him go outside in this weather, wasn't he? He gave a quiet huff as he takes out a cigar and puts on his coat before grabbing his hammer and moving to leave the factory. The metal lord took his time as he walked and enjoyed his smoke rather than rush around to look for the two. It wasn't worth the effort it would take. Moreau was probably at his 'secret lab'. Heisenberg rolled his eyes at that thought. yeah, it's a really big secret when you have a sign pointing out which direction to go to find it. Stupid blob. Just because you put 'secret' on the sign doesn't mean it is one.
He exhales a breath of smokes as he walks down the path to the reservoir only to hear a strange sound. Kinda like a backed-up garbage disposal with a fork stuck in it. He looked around to find an even odder sight of Moreau sliding down a hillside on a sheet of metal. "What in the actual fuck." Heisenberg mutters as he tries to process what he was seeing.
"Wooo" Charlotte happily called with a laugh as she took her turn to go down the hill.
He could feel his lips curl into a smirk as an idea entered his mind. He walked over to be in the path of the metal sled as he bit down slightly on his cigar to free up his hand and he made a slight gripping motion with the now empty hand.
Upon seeing him Charlotte's smile switched to an expression of confusion. What was Heisenberg doing h- the thought cut short as her sled suddenly stopped moving while She kept moving thanks to the lovely laws of physics, causing her to fly forward and tumble down the hill part of the way.
Heisenberg winced for half a second. that wasn't exactly his intention but he'd more than happily accept credit for it. He chuckled as he continued to hold his cigar with his teeth and his smirk returned. "Have a nice flight?" he asks as he walks over to where she landed.
This jerk. Charlotte thought unamused before an idea came to mind. She grips a handful of snow and quickly tosses what she could grab at Heisenberg.
Pap! the snow hit his shoulder with a small explosion of powder.
"Five" He started counting as he puts his hammer down with a resounding thud which caused Charlotte's smile to drop.
Oh shi- She quickly got up to start booking it down the hill.
"Four" He reached down to grab his own large hand full of snow and starts compacting it.
Oh no-no-no-no
"Three," He practically sang before he spat out the remainder of his Cigar.
Charlotte started to nervously laugh as she noticed Moreau slowly hobbling over. "Run run run!" she repeats through laughter.
"TWO," He calls earning a yelp in response. She barely made any progress! "ONE," He says arching his arm back and threw to snowball.
Charlotte braced for impact only to hear a thud instead and feel nothing. Confusion crossed her face as she turned to find a laughing Moreau and a quickly constructed wall that blocked the snowball.
"Alright Salvatore!" Charlotte cheered with a laugh before kneeling down to make a few more snowballs and tossed one over to him "you got this," she says and continues to quickly make haphazard ammo.
Heisenberg sneered a bit before summoning the baking sheet over to float around him as a shield. The gauntlet had been thrown.
Charlotte smiles a bit as she takes out the compass from her coat to watch it. "To your right" Charlotte says and Morea peaks out the right side to throw a snowball that thumps against the shield. "Keep it up" she encourages as she tosses another one over to Moreau and focuses on making enough for the two of them to use, slowing down now to increase the quality.
"Damn it," Heisenberg grumbles as he pulled the second sheet over to use as additional protection as he kneels down to make a few snowballs as well and pockets them to try and find a better angle.
thump, flumph, smack. Moreau continued to launch the snowballs that Charlotte would make.
"He's going around to the left," Charlotte says As she hands off another snowball to Moreau.
To Heisenberg's frustration, they seemed to know his movement even with the giant blind spot that their shelter created. He eventually made his way behind a tree to kneel and make a few more snowballs. From his new vantage point, he was able to see the problem more clearly. Laying on the snow in front of charlotte was his compass which Charlotte was keeping an eye on as she made more ammo for the freak. "Clever bitch." he says as he finds himself smiling. Suppose there was a good reason he had her helping him with his army but when you put that much power on one pillar of a team. it made it that much easier to take it down.
He quickly switched his plan as he put down the baking sheets and started piling them up with snow from the safety of the hiding place of his tree barrier. Come on, get cocky.
Why did he stop moving... Charlotte thought as she cautiously looked over to find that sure enough, Heisenberg was still behind the same tree. What was he up to...
"I'm gonna go over this ways," Moreau says with a laugh.
"Careful he's up to something," She warns while keeping an eye on him. It might have been almost 100 years ago but he was in a war before so a snowball fight would be child's play... well. I mean yeah it technically was so. She rolled her eyes at that.
"There we go," Heisenberg says as he starts putting his plan into motion, moving the oversize baking trays in different directions as he slowly moved around the tree to keep Moreau moving further away from the wall he built to try and get a better angle. the fish brain didn't even think of just turning around. he gave a short laugh. too easy. with a snap, both trays flipped over and dropped the snow. the first one dropped the snow pile on top of Moreau distracting him as the other landed on top of the compass, burying it.
"Crap," charlotte says as her eyes widened as she realized he figured out her strategy. she quickly dug through the snow to try and find the compass again. as she got it in her grasp, she felt pressure around her waist hoist her up into the air as she was put over Heisenberg's shoulder.
"Mercy, Mercy," She says through laughter as she's carried off.
"Like hell," Heisenberg replies shaking his head. "Shoulda used that brain of yours before you picked a fight."
Charlotte looked around while quickly thinking. how to get out of this... The last time he put her over his shoulder he tossed her a few seconds after. She was willing to bet the same thing would happen this time too. As he was busy looking for a snowbank to throw her in he didn't feel her grip onto the back of his coat. If she was going down she was taking him with her.
There we go, Heisenberg thought with a smirk as he noticed a decently deep snowbank and trudged over to it. 3.2.1. Flump. As he tossed her into the snow he felt a sharp pull of force against his back causing him to fall forward none too gracefully. Though he did manage to catch himself enough not to headbutt Charlotte as they landed in the snow.
"you little shit," He says with a laugh. He reaches over to pulls some snow onto her to bury her.
Charlotte laughs as she lets go of him and grabs some snow to gently smacks against the side of his face in playful retaliation before noticing his glasses had fallen off. She looks around a bit for them while laying in the snow, still chuckling and upon finding them she picks them up to put them back on his face.
The action causes him to pause as he can see better now that his glasses were returned. He noticed how close they were and his brain seemed to shut down. There was not a single thought between his eyes. The two stared at each other in silence which was only disturbed as the sound of an impact could be heard as Heisenberg was hit by another snowball.
"I'm the best!" Moreau cheers as he finally managed to hit the metal lord before hurrying off to find a hiding place, knowing well enough repercussions were likely to follow.
The action causes Charlotte to look away to see Moreau run off and laugh. Heisenberg rolls off to the side to get up before picking Charlotte up by the collar of her coat to put her back on her feet. He frowns slightly, how did he get distracted like this?
"We have work to do," He says as he walks off to go and get his hammer. "Tell the freak to do better about answering his fuckin phone, I'm not gonna come get you each time like this."
Charlotte rolls her eyes a bit at that. "Right, let me go get my things," she says and walks off to go find Moreau only to get hit in the side with another snowball. she looked over to find a laughing water lord. "You got me. the betrayal," she says as she dramatically places a hand over her heart before shaking her head. "Sorry to cut the game short, I have some work to do. just wanted to let you know before I head out," she says.
"Oh..." he says with a slight frown. "Okay."
"We'll have to go sledding again another time." She offers before waving and turning to leave "See you later."
"Yeah. see you later," He says with a nod.
Charlotte heads back to her half of the room and gathers up supplies for helping Heisenberg and teaching him. he was making a decent amount of progress over the last month. Their meetings had changed from every other week to every week after they got back from their latest trip so this would be her. Oh. 8th visit now? He learned a few key phrases and a few odd and end words in English. He managed to look up English curse words on his own thanks to having access to the internet. He learned those very quickly.
She shook her head at that thought and gave a short chuckle before looking at the extra phone in her bag and ultimately deciding to pocket it. she didn't have the time to grab for last week's meet-up. Hopefully, this would help to have a private line of communication so she can find out directly from him when he wanted her to stop by. They can go over plans without having to meet all the time too. With everything she'd need packed up, she heads back out of the mines to find Heisenberg waiting for her.
"Oh, you're still here." She says surprised.
"Barely, pretty sure my hair turned gray waiting," He says as he shifts to get up.
"It's always been gray," Charlotte replies with mild amusement as she walks with him. The more of the walk was done in silence, knowing well enough that talking freely was not always the best idea. the walls and trees had ears so to speak.
Before long they made it back to Heisenberg's factory and into the one-room he'd allow her to visit. "So, What did you need this time?"
What did he need this time... He didn't really need her to look over his notes, the army was starting to take shape. "The army is making good progress. we should be ready to fight back in a year or so. which means you need to hurry up with cramming 100 years of knowledge in my head." He replies as he puts down his hammer and goes to take his usual seat. "So get to it."
"Fair enough," She says with a shrug. That was honestly pretty amazing news. It was sooner than she thought. Things were kinda looking up. the army would be ready and she had a person on the outside who knew the situation to help transport people out before everything goes down. well. as many people as will leave. She was having a hard time figuring out a safe way to figure out who to talk to. With how much the villagers gossiped one wrong move would land her plan in Mother Miranda's lap.
"I think this might be a decent lesson then," She says as she digs the spare phone out of her pocket and offers it to him. "You're going to need to know how to work one of these," Charlotte says with a slight smile. "And if you can figure it out, you can contact me directly instead of having to call Salvatore's landline."
He raised an eyebrow at it and cautiously accepts it. "You know this thing is the one reason you're useful right?" He points out with a neutral expression. "If you teach me how to use this, you're giving up a key bartering point for why I bother keeping our alliance."
Yeah... there was that to consider. he didn't exactly need her for funds. she already caught him up on history. English was really just an additional study to make traveling easier if he wanted to... "Consider it an act of good faith. I said I'd get you caught up. This is part of it." She replies cautiously.
Did she trust him? He was surprised but kept a neutral expression to try and play it off. "your funeral," He replies as he looked over the device.
"Are you seriously going to throw me to the wolves," She asks with hurt annoyance.
He pressed his lips together. right... she didn't actually trust him. "You really think so low of me?" He asks as keeps his head in place to seem like he's looking at the device but allows his eye to glance over at her. "Might as well stick a screwdriver through me, while you're at it." Certainly felt like she already did.
"You're the one that keeps going on about how I'm deadweight and expendable. 'Everything out here will kill you even me', Why should I think otherwise?" She points out as she scrunched her nose in a sneer. A thank you would have been fine if he wasn't actually going to ditch her. what was the point of this?
"Oh, so you actually do pay attention," He says as he puts the small magic everything box into his pocket and gets up to walk over to her and stare her down before answering. "Cause we made a deal. And believe it or not, I'm a man of my word."
She wasn't completely sure if this was a bluff or not. but. If she was offering an olive branch, she needed to stick to her guns. it's not like she didn't have contingency plans to get back at him if he did screw her over. "... Okay... Good," She eventually replies with a nod before giving a short chuckle as a smile started to cross her lips. "probably a smart move since your phone's default language is set to English."
"Fucking God damn bitch" Of course it wasn't that easy. "WHY?" He asks annoyed as he pulled out the device. Sure enough, he couldn't read a thing it was saying and it had numbers on it.
"I told you already, it's good practice. I also set up a few apps ahead of time for you to use in your free time," Charlotte says amused as she walks away to go to the table and check any new notes from his projects. It didn't seem like there was much to review this time.
"What the hell is an app?" He asks with a frown as he looks from the phone to her and back to the phone. "How do I get to the fuckin' buttons," he asks as he looked at the numbers and poked at them and it would occasionally vibrate.
"It has a password. Don't poke at it too much. If you put in the wrong answer too many times it will shut down and won't let you in," Charlotte says still smiling to herself.
He paused as he stared at the back of her head. "That was your plan for if I killed you after get the stupid thing? You locked it and set the text to display in a different language?"
She shrugs. "What can I say. I pay attention." Charlotte says with a laugh.
Clever. he found himself smiling at her response. wait why was he smiling, that should be pissing him off. He shook his head as he went back to a neutral expression and walked over to the table and put the phone down on top of the stack of papers she was looking at.
"Password," he says as more of a demand.
"Fine but know if you piss me off I can change it remotely," she warns. that was an absolute bluff but it was security.
"Fine" he grumbles. She really didn't trust him. Did she not consider if it was just about the phone he could have just offed her and took hers? Someone had to manage the village in order to get those trips into town and if she wasn't doing that he'd have to do it and that meant less time to work on the army.
"8819" She says stating the date that she got stuck here as she goes back to looking over the documents.
he put in the numbers and sure enough. the screen unlocked and gave him access to the phone. he looked over the different buttons. one with a colorful owl. another with a multi-color G. A square with a triangle in it. His expression shifted to curiosity as he noticed a white box with the profile of a horse. "What is that one?"
"What is that?" Charlotte replies in English and Heisenberg rolls his eyes.
"What is that?" he says parroting the English back to her.
"Chess," she says once in English before speaking the word again in Romanian.
"Why?" He asks confused.
Charlotte shakes her head and pokes the app to get it to open. there was a game in progress. "Your move," she says and goes back to the papers. okay so he added a battery like she suggested but it seemed like he was worried about the battery placement making it easy to shut down the robots. he already had a solution for it too with moving the location, not much she could add to that. maybe reduce the size of the battery? that would make it a harder target to hit.
Heisenberg humored her and moved one of the chess pieces by sliding his finger across the screen while she read the documents he left out. the screen darkened slightly as white words showed up over the screen in English. again.
"What is it," Heisenberg asks in English which gets Charlotte's attention.
She tried not to smile as he had a notable accent while speaking the new language. "It says 'Waiting for opponent's move" she replied and on cue, Charlotte's phone showed a new message. she opened her phone menu looked at the screen before tapping a few times and turning it off. A few seconds after his screen showed a new notification.
[Chess] - It's your turn
he still couldn't really read it but he was starting to catch on. It would be a match against her... interesting. He gave a short huff of a laugh as he picked up the device and went back to his usual chair to sit back and relax.
"Hey, Heisenberg?" She asks without turning to face him to see if he was paying attention still or engrossed in exploring the device.
"Karl" he replies shortly. That got her attention. She turned to look at him as he was staring at the small screen. He could feel her staring at him. "I'm not repeating myself," He says and makes his next move for the game.
Such a child. but in a way. When she considered he had stopped calling her names after their spat a few weeks ago. It felt like a returned olive branch. One she wasn't really expecting in the slightest. "Karl."
"Hm?" he replies with a short-lived twitch of a smile.
"What do you think about doing this as well?" She says and starts introducing a few options. If she survived the next few days she'd give him the charging cable.
'*'*'*'*'
A few weeks had passed since then as the third Saturday of the month arrived. Charlotte frowns as she walks down the path away from the village towards the Reservoir. She wasn't really sure what to do. she didn't hear back from the Luthier at all. Maybe he didn't make it past the Lycans... the thought caused her to pause. It was certainly possible.
A rustling of branches from the forest caused her to jolt as usual. Freaking Lycans. she thought with a sigh. luckily they didn't leave the woods She thought only to Yelp as she was pulled behind a tree. Initially, she fought back until she recognized who it was.
"Alex?" she says surprised only to be hushed.
"Quiet, someone might hear you," He whispers in return.
"You're okay," She says quietly before it dawns on her. "Oh my gosh, Why are you here?"
"Someone has to lead people out, right?" He says with a short amused chuckle. "I'm pretty sure you don't have another map."
"That's." He wasn't wrong but she thought he'd just wait and see if anyone made it through. "You're insane you shouldn't have come back."
"It's nice to see you again too," He replies with a slight frown.
She gives a short sigh. "It's not that I'm not happy to see you it's just. You're putting yourself in danger for no reason. You shouldn't be this close to the village. What if someone sees you?" She asks and subconsciously notes that her phone went off.
"So are you by staying here," He rebuttals. "If anyone mentions seeing me just suggest that my ghost haunts the woods," he says as an answer.
... Actually, people would probably believe that... If she started that rumor herself she could use that as a way to adjust it over time to find villagers that want to leave... that would take quite a while though. She nods quietly. "I wasn't able to find anyone this time."
"Keep looking, they're there." He says in return.
"I'll do what I can." She says and her phone goes off once more which she ignores. "Come on, I'll help you get back to the exit."
"Right," he replies and Cautiously peaks from behind their hiding place. "Coast is clear," he confirms and the two start quickly heading for the exit. her phone goes off again.
"How have you been? are you doing okay out there? you have food and a place to stay?" She asks as they continue to make their way down the path while staying alert for any stray Lycans.
"Yes yes, I'm doing fine," he affirms with a short chuckle. "The world away from the village is. blinding. Disorienting almost." he admits "It's a lot to take in. but, I'm learning what I can. I was able to find a job. It's not much but it affords a roof and bread. having a bit more time isn't a bad thing I'll admit. It will make it easier for me to get set up better to give others a better chance to land on their feet."
A gentle smile starts to form on her face as she listens to him talk. "I'm sorry, I wasn't able to do much to prepare you for that..."
"It's fine, you gave me a chance for a new life that's more than anyone can ask for." He says. As he hears a twig snap he quickly pulls them off to another hiding spot and motions for her to stay quiet.
Her phone goes off twice more as they quietly wait. What on earth was going on... She couldn't check now though. It might give them away.
Once he was sure that whatever it was should have passed the Luthier spoke. "I'll go the rest of my way on my own..." he says and Charlotte nods.
"Meet me here next time?" Charlotte suggests. "I'll stop by at noon and wait here until you make it, I have a supply run coming up in a few weeks I'll see if I can pick up a few things for the next time you visit to make this easier."
"Alright," he agrees with a nod. "That could work. Let's give it a try," the Luthier says before checking if the coast is clear once more. "I'll be back in a month."
"Stay safe." She says before motioning he should go. "Now go, quick before the sun starts setting. It's late."
He paused a moment but ultimately leaves. Charlotte waited in place until he was out of sight before checking if the area around her was clear and left the hiding place as well to head back to the path and towards the village. Curiosity got the better of her and seeing as she was alone she felt comfortable enough to take out her phone.
[Chess] - It's your turn
[Karl] Hey
[Karl] Hey!
[Karl] Little shit
[Karl] Answer your damn phone
Oh boy... She frowns a bit at the plethora of messages. what happened? she didn't notice any missed calls but considering how freely he was sending messages he was probably at the factory so she pressed the dial button to call him. "Hey, is something wrong? I just got your messages," She asks once the call was answered.
The man remains silent for a bit but eventually speaks "... It's your turn."
"that's it?" She asks amused. "I was busy I can't just use my phone around the village so freely. and you should be careful too, if Miranda finds out you have it she might try and go through it. it's unapproved technology." Charlotte points out.
"Right." He says in return and hangs up.
Well, that was rude. Charlotte thoughts as she looked at the phone to confirm he had in fact cut the call. She'd have to go over the phone etiquette at some point. She jolted once more as she heard a tree fall in the distance. OKAY! time to go. she thought and quickly put her phone in her pocket and made her way back to the village.
'*'*'*'*'
Two weeks passed since then, She managed another trip into town with Heisenberg the week before and was doing her best to keep those extra supplies for Alex hidden in her hiking bag back at the reservoir. Other than that it was the same as always. work on repairs around the village, keep the spreadsheets up to date. Teach Dimitrescu typing, which she had gotten pretty good at actually, and stop by Heisenberg's factory when he'd text her to visit.
It was the last day of February and she was making good progress on her latest repair project. Her hands were still covered in new bandages but she was pretty happy with how the home for the latest 'sudden enlightened' villager was coming along. Needless to say, all these new additions were causing quite a stir and curiosity about the outside world. It wasn't something she planned for but she was more than happy to accept Miranda's short sight. Curiosity would lead to questions and she was one of 3 people now that they could ask. She even got that rumor of the Luthier's ghost started too so no one wanted to move into his home. things were coming together.
She smiled at the thought when she heard a knocking on the open doorway of the home she was painting. "Hm, Oh! Luiza. It's good to see you." Charlotte greets surprised before putting her paintbrush down and walking to the doorway. "Can I help you with something?"
"My this place really is looking quite put together now," Luiza compliments. "Oh it's nothing important," she says waving off any concern. "I was actually just talking with Maria about the newest addition to the village and it reminded me that you might not know about the holiday of sorts coming up."
"Oh, another holiday?" Charlotte asks surprised. suppose it had been a while since the last one back at the beginning of January.
Luiza nods "well, more so an old tradition." she says with a chuckle "it's called Babele, A year in a day." the woman says amused, it had been fun to explain the last holiday so she seemed content with having that opportunity again. "You pick a day between March 1st and 9th and the weather during the day will tell you how your year will go."
"Oh," Charlotte says surprised. That actually sounded kinda fun. "I take it that looking at an almanac is cheating?"
"that would not be in the spirit of the tradition to try and predict the weather before picking a day," Luiza confirms amused.
"Okay... hmm. I'll pick the 3rd" Charlotte announces her choice. "That way you can hold me to it so I don't change my answer."
"Alright, I'll choose." she pauses to think about it. "hmmm the 5th." Luiza replies. "you can hold me to my answer as well now. You should stop by that day if you can. I don't think I've had the chance to invite you over for dinner."
Aw. that was so sweet. Gosh, she would love a meal that wasn't from a plastic container or a wrapper. "I'd love that. It sounds like a plan," She agrees with a smile.
"I look forward to talking about how the holiday goes for both of us. I'll have it ready by 6:30 that day. Until then I'll leave you to your work," Luiza says in parting.
"Of course, See you then" Charlotte replies with a smile as she heads back to her painting. What a sweet lady.
Charlotte eagerly awaited the 3rd to see what the weather would be like. Sure she could check her phone but she purposefully deleted her weather app to avoid the temptation to check.
"Charlotte, the sun is up," Moreau says as he nudges her to wake up.
She yawns and nods "mkay, thank you Salvatore." she says having gotten used to her unconventional alarm clock. what time did he wake her up for today? She waits until he leaves and closes the divided before taking out her phone to check.
Tuesday, March 3rd, 6:52 AM
[Chess] - It's your move
Charlotte smiles at that and opens the app. She shook her head and Slide a piece across the screen. the screen showed an explosion of fireworks as 'checkmate' showed on the screen over a score count of 2 - 1. once the display stopped new text appeared. 'Rematch?' it asks as a timer counted down and an option for Yes and No showed under it. She clicked Yes before putting the phone down and focused on getting ready for the day.
Heisenberg yawned as he stretched and sat up to get out of bed. over the last month, he'd gotten into a habit of checking the small screen after waking up. As annoying as it was, Charlotte was right, having to use English to get the device to work was causing him to start to develop some word recognition for the language but he usually stuck to texting in Romanian since he figured out holding down a letter would grant access to accent letter. His eye twitched slightly as he read the message currently on his screen.
Tuesday, March 3rd, 7:16 AM
[Chess] - Check Mate. Better luck next time.
[Chess] - Charlotte has offered a Rematch.
"How in the actual fuck," he says as he opens the app to see what move she made to cause that. He grumbles a bit at the loss and accepts the new match, making the first move and sending a message.
[Karl] - That's some bullshit.
[Karl] - Get over here when you see this.
He grumbles to himself a bit more before moving on to get ready for the day.
Charlotte had just walked outside and smile. it was a clear and sunny day. that was a good sign, right? Well according to the tradition that is. She felt her pocket buzz once, twice, three times. This causes her shoulder to drop slightly. He only had the dumb thing for a month and he already developed the bad habit of multi-texting. Some people. She looked around to make sure no one was around before backing into the mines again to be safe and took out the phone to read the messages. She laughed a bit at the reaction to losing a second game. what a sour grape, he just won the game before that.
All the same, she put the phone back into her pocket and walks out of the mines once more. The snow was starting to melt at this point making it a bit more comfortable to take the shortcut over to the factory across the sluice gate. She yawns to herself a bit as she walks. She was not a morning person in the slightest but it was what it was. "I wonder what he wants," she says quietly to herself as she makes her way up the path. Huh, how long had the smoke stack been active?
"Hey, I'm here," she announces and the gate opens. With access granted she made it the rest of the way up the path where Heisenberg was waiting for her at the factory entrance. "Did you invite me over to congratulate me on another brilliant win? I'm flattered," Charlotte jokes.
"Ha," He says with a sneer. "No, we have work to do, come on," he says as he motions for her to follow him as he closes the doors behind him to walk around the outside of the factory.
That was new. She watched curiously but followed all the same. "Where are we going?"
"The roof," He says as he heads over to an outdoor set of metal stairs and started climbing up. "Got the factory running but it caused a few chain reactions because the wires are shit. could use an extra set of hands to run and get supplies as I need them."
"Oh." well it's not like she wasn't used to working on a rooftop after the last 6 she repaired and the seemingly 8 more she'd have to repair once the last of the snow melted. stupid Lycans needed to stay off the roofs when they were running around at night. "Yeah, I can do that."
and so she did. He really wasn't joking about the wires being a problem. they were on the roof for a good 5 hours and it felt like there were still dozens of rotten cables that needed to be replaced. Heisenberg did the more of the manual labor of replacing the wiring and making repairs while Charlotte would run around gathering what he asked for from inside the first floor of the factory and hurrying back. Occasionally he'd have her hold something in place for him while he worked on it.
She hardly noticed that the sky was growing darker until a drop of water landed on her nose. plink plank plunk. more and more droplets started to fall against the tin roof. crap. "Maybe we should wrap this up it looks like a storm is coming in," Charlotte says as Heisenberg looks up and finally notices the storm as well.
a smile started to form on his face. "Come on" he motions for her to follow him but he walks in the opposite direction of the stairs. the rain was starting to get heavier with each passing second causing charlotte to look between the stairs and the retreating figure before ultimately deciding to catch up. maybe he knew a faster way off the roof... as the rain and wind picked up he held on to his hat and laughed motioning for her to follow quicker. "Hurry or I'm leaving you behind. I'm not missing this."
"I'm not running on a wet roof," Charlotte counters as she did her best to catch up all the same "Karl, where are we going?" she asks over the wind as they made their way up another set of stairs. Why were they climbing UP they should be going down.
"Trust me," he says and continues leading the way up the wooden stairs to a lookout tower that was roughly half as tall as the factory's smokestack. The roof overhead was comforting in its own right but exposed and open 'walls' if they could even be called that, mixed with the wind gave them little protection from the rain. A crack of lightning crossed the sky followed by a thunderous boom. While the tower did little to protect them from the rain, it was arguably one of the best locations to watch the storm roll through the mountains. "Now this is a fucking treat," he says with a laugh as he watches another crack of lightning cross the sky.
He liked watching storms roll through? Charlotte thought with some amusement. it wasn't something she completely expected but at the same time, it kinda fit. It seemed a bit mundane for hi- That thought was interrupted as she noticed him reach out a hand and fling a scrap of metal from the yard blow into the air to catch a bolt of lightning before exploding. She stumbled back a few steps from surprise.
That. Yeah, that made more sense.
Hearing the shuffled footsteps caused him to pause and look over. to see her standing firmly in the middle of the tower and away from the edge.
"Get over here," He says rolling his eyes. "You're not going to get zapped. the railing is wood,"
She cautiously walked over to join him as he flings another piece of scrap into the air which attracts another stray bolt of lightning. It was his own weird, storm-based firework show. She flinched for the first few explosions but eventually relaxed once she knew what to expect.
This went on for some time and he eventually grew bored of the exercise, quicker than the storm was willing to move through though, and the two were stuck in the lookout tower. "Guess now we just wait," he says as he moves towards the middle of the open tower and sits to lay down and rest. Charlotte was not completely impressed with that answer. storms could last for hours... all the same, she followed his lead and sat next to him. How to pass the time... she shifted to unbutton her coat and placed it to rest the neck of the coat over her head and make a slight tent-like area so she could take out her phone.
Heisenberg felt a slight buzz from his pocket which got him to open his eyes once more. he looked over to see Charlotte with her coat partially over her head He sits up and digs out his phone.
[Chess] - It's your move
A small smirk forms on his face as he shakes his head and follows her lead removing his trenchcoat and shifting a bit to get closer to her to place it over them as an addition to the makeshift tent that was illuminated by the two small devices. "You're not going to win this time."
"So you say," She replies with a laugh before waiting out the storm with him.
Man that random convenient tree falling in the woods. it's wild. I wonder what could have caused that lmao. I do love me some fluffy cuteness X'D hope everyone enjoyed their double-digit treat.
Review Responses:
nadillaandlaprasthefireandice - LOL His final form is a Decepticon and I will not be convinced otherwise now XD
Dark Moons Daughter - I am so glad that you enjoyed so much of the chapter it was so much fun to write amg x'D and ye He's learning all sorts of new things from charlotte hahaha new words and technology and emotions and such. I ended the last chapter on a sad so I had to make up for it by ending it in a cute X'DD and please don't feel like it's a requirement to comment. They're 1,000% appreciated but I don't want anyone to feel like they have to. it's been awesome to get to chat with you in notes too :)
DamnationOfTheDead - ufufu he do be a jealous bean~ I'm so glad you liked the movie choice. once the idea popped up in my noggin it was basically set in stone that it had to happen at some point haha. Thanks so much for the support and for following the story it means a lot to hear that you're enjoying ^v^ hopefully the latest addition was worth the wait.