Chapter 33 Hide the China

Maybe it was the dullness of Stonebrim, forcing her to reel back into her own head and force herself to entertain herself with her thoughts. Maybe it was the fact that Roy couldn't stop reminding her. Or perhaps it was just her mind finally waking up from a proverbial slumber. Either way, as she and Roy made their way through the colorless streets, something dawned on Celia. Something overwhelming, something heart pumping.

She was going to see her grandparents.

Logically, she should have realized that before. After all, they were Singe's parents; the parents of her father. However, when she had been in the lab with Iggy and Roy, that little fact hadn't really occurred to her. She was too absorbed in the moment, as well as the story Iggy told about Singe, to care.

But now, it was front and center in her mind. And it terrified her.

She was going to see her grandparents, people whom she had never met before. If she was a betting girl, she would place money on the possibility of them not even knowing she existed. She and Roy were essentially going to intrude on these two strangers' lives. Because that was what Mavery and Saliday were; strangers. Just like her dad. Did she want to do this? Did she really want to do this?

"Hey, are you alright?"

Celia snapped out of her trance. For the first time, she noticed that her breathing had sped up. She looked at Roy, who looked back at her in concern. She swept some dust off the front of her hoodie and sighed.

"I'm fine."

Roy paused. The state of his shades-covered eyes, staring into her own, made her heart pump even more. Before she knew it, she was talking again.

"I just….I'm scared about meeting my grandparents. There, I said it." She turned her head toward the ground. "Are you happy?"

Roy blinked. "You're scared about meeting your grandparents?" He burst into laughter. "Oh, come on! You're joking, right?" When Celia shook her head, Roy stopped laughing and stared at her in curiosity and awe. "Oh. Why….why would you be scared of something like that?"

Celia stammered, tripping over her words like they were high jump hurdles. "I….I just….I've never met them before." Her face darkened as she lowered her head. "I have no idea what they're like."

Roy shrugged. "So? That just means you have an opportunity to get to know them." He grinned. "Think of it as an adventure."

Celia hyperventilated again. She couldn't think of it as an adventure when her mind was stuck in the land of What Ifs. What if her grandparents were jerks? After all, they were the parents of her father, who had abandoned her. What if they were nasty to her? What if they hated her?

"I….I…"

"Hey," Roy said gently. "It'll be alright." He beamed and took hold of her hand again. "You don't have to go on this adventure alone."

Celia's heart leapt into her mouth. He was holding her hand again. Oh. Dear. Word.

"Th...thanks."

Roy smiled. "Anytime." He let go. "Now come on. We're almost there."

….

Sitting in a living room, in a leather recliner that was stretched out to it's full length and reading a newspaper in a way that concealed his wrinkly face from the rest of the world, was Saliday Marksmite. The wrinkled, scaly bags of bones that he claimed to be his hands gripped the newspaper and turned the page. He hummed in a contemplative way as he stared at the headline.

"'People trying to decide whether they should fire news anchor for saying she like cats over dogs.'" He shook his head of balding baby blue hair. "I swear, this world gets more and more insane with each passing second."

He turned the page again. While the news made him question his overall sanity, he still got...some form of pleasure out of reading it. A sick pleasure, sure, but a pleasure nonetheless.

"You know Sally, I think we should do something this weekend."

Saliday looked up. He saw his wife, Mavery, sitting on the couch. Odd; she wasn't there when he started reading, and he didn't hear her come into the room. As sneaky as a sleuth, that one was. He lowered the paper and stared into her ruby red eyes.

"What kind of thing do you suggest?"

Mavery scratched her scalp, allowing her fingers to scrounge through her baby pink hair. "I don't know. I was thinking of something like a vacation."

Saliday raised an eyebrow. "A vacation? To where?"

"Anywhere. World 4, Glitzville, Mushroom City….."

Saliday snickered. "We've been to each of those places at least twenty times."

Mavery threw up her hands. "I know that! Look, all I'm doing at this point is just spitballing ideas! I don't actually have a destination in mind; I just want to get up and go somewhere!" She sighed and leaned back, allowing her head to rest on the couch cushions. "Retirement is just so boring otherwise."

Saliday smirked and looked back down st the newspaper. "Well, that's an opinion that exists."

Mavery shot him a glare. "Oh. Right. I forgot I was talking to the laziest koopa in the world."

Now it was Saliday's turn to glare. "Lazy?" He set the newspaper down on the side table and pushed back the foot of the recliner. "Lazy, you say? What proof do you have to back up such a claim?"

Mavery smirked. "How much time do you have?" She counted off the evidence on her fingers. "You never sweep, dust, mop, do the dishes, when you worked, you needed me to personally drag you out of bed every morning, you never keep our room clean…"

Saliday shook his head. However, he kept a smile on his face as he did so. "And to think that you loved my lazy butt enough to marry it."

Mavery snorted. "I love you despite that flaw. Not because of it."

Saliday laughed. The two of them had been married for forty nine years. That was forty nine years of blissful sarcasm, loving snark, and pleasant glares. He wouldn't trade it for the world. Even the bad times and the mistakes Mavery made weren't enough to make Saliday stop loving her. Nothing could get him to stop loving her.

"Well, okay." He raised an eyebrow, wearing a mischievous smirk. "I suppose we can go on vacation, if you love me that much."

Mavery's face lit up. "Great! Just what the doctor ordered!"

Saliday nodded just as he heard a sound he had not expected; knocking on the door. He slowly turned his head to the entrance, staring at it like it was going to devour him whole.

Knock knock knock.

He turned to Mavery. "Are we expecting anyone?"

Mavery shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Huh." He looked at the door, then at Mavery again. "Aren't you gonna get it?"

Mavery sharply exhaled as another knock occurred. "Why do I have to get it? You're closer to the door than I am."

Saliday groaned. "Ugh. Fine." He raised his creaky old body out of the comfy paradise that was his favorite chair. "And she accuses me of being lazy," he grumbled as he made his way over.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, dear, nothing."

When he got to the door, Saliday cracked it open a tiny bit. He saw a big, burly Dragon Koopa with a pink head and magenta sunglasses on the other side. He had someone behind him, but they were hidden pretty well behind the brute's monstrous shell. Saliday couldn't make out any of their appearance.

He closed the door. "Honey?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where the gun is? I think we have a gang member on our doorstep."

Mavery's eyes grew wide. "WHAT!" She jumped up and ran toward the kitchen. "They must be after our wedding China! We need to protect it!"

Saliday sighed and followed his wife. He saw her stuffing their wedding China into a trash bag, which in all honesty would probably do more damage to it than the thief ever could. Regardless, Mavery still dug the China out of the display case and lugged it over her shoulder.

"Come on, Sally! Help me carry this to the secret bunker!"

Saliday rolled his eyes. "Mavery…"

"No! We knew this day would come sooner or later! First the Yoshi, then the food, and now the china! Well, I'm not gonna let that happen; no siree!"

Knock knock knock.

"Eek!" Mavery shrieked. "They're still there!" She tried to carry the China away, but her bones were so fragile and her muscles so weak that she could barely move an inch.

Saliday shook his head. "Mavery, calm down. We don't need to hide the china; we just need the gun." He went over to the storage closet. "Gun, gun, gun...ah, there it is!" He pulled the black, shiny weapon out of the case and turned the safety off. "This is just a precaution, Mavie. It's possible that they won't rob us of anything."

Mavery, despite her shaking, nodded her head. "If...if you say so."

Saliday smiled. "I know so." With that, he went back to the door, keeping a firm grip on the gun handle. "Who's there?"

"Are you Saliday Marksmite?" A male voice asked from the other side; obviously the brute. Saliday cast a look towards Mavery, who stepped forward with a cautious air.

"How...how do you know his name?" she asked, looking like she was minutes away from throwing up.

"I looked it up. With the help of Iggy, of course."

Mavery gasped. "You looked us up!" She looked straight at Saliday. "Shoot him."

Saliday, despite feeling just as if not more concerned than Mavery, hesitated. Why would someone want to look them up? Of all people? That was more than a little peculiar. Sure, they had some fantastic wedding china, but that...that wasn't something somebody could find out about on the internet specifically.

Either way, Saliday wasn't ready to shoot this person dead. He wanted more information before he did that.

"Hold on, Mavie, not yet," he told his bloodthirsty spouse. He stepped a little closer. "Why did you look us up?"

The brute chuckled. "Well, it's a long story. But the main reason why is because Celia wanted to meet you."

Saliday blinked. "Celia? Who's Celia?"

Saliday heard shuffling come from the other side, indicating that the person who had been behind the brute was moving in front. A different voice this time, a female one, called out from behind the door. And what she said….what she said made Saliday's heart stop.

"I'm Celia," the female said timidly. "Your granddaughter."